Here is our Narnia lampost. Not that it's always winter and never Christmas. We are very snug and warm in our holiday chalet. The swimming pool is frozen and covered in snow.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Canterbury - 31st December, 2005
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We all hope you have had a great Christmas and are now having a Happy New Year.
I have posted some photos of the snow we have had recently in Canterbury. Sadly, it has all melted today.
Very soon in the New Year we will have a property or two available and we then sincerely hope to see some visitors to this beautiful part of the world.
Lots of love
Julie, Richard, Julian and Sammy
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We all hope you have had a great Christmas and are now having a Happy New Year.
I have posted some photos of the snow we have had recently in Canterbury. Sadly, it has all melted today.
Very soon in the New Year we will have a property or two available and we then sincerely hope to see some visitors to this beautiful part of the world.
Lots of love
Julie, Richard, Julian and Sammy
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Now I know you have been waiting with baited breath to hear the next episode, so here it is:
The Kentish Gazette - 22nd December, 2005
Around the Villages: Barham
From our correspondent Amanda Willis about the local WI.
The Kentish Gazette - 22nd December, 2005
Around the Villages: Barham
From our correspondent Amanda Willis about the local WI.
The Barham and Kingston Women's Institute Christmas lunch was enjoyed by everyone with entertainment from Mrs. Butterfield and Mrs. Greenstreet. Mrs. Helbling won the pomander competition.Just thought you ought to know the result of the competition. I will keep you posted as to who wins the decorated footprint.
Penny Marsh from the Brockman Family Centre chatted to members and collected the gifts donated for the centre's children.
A Father Christmas sack contained a small gift for every member of the institute.
The next WI meeting takes place in Barham Village Hall at 2:30pm on Thursday, January 12th, when Angela Barnes will talk about reflexology. The competition will be for a decorated footprint on A4 paper.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
The Kentish Gazette - 8th December, 2005
Around the Villages: Barham
From our correspondent Amanda Willis about the local WI.
P.S. Sorry about the layout changing about but I am making an effort to learn HTML (web programming language). Life is just not complete until you can create and post your own webistes. I have so many that I want to make including: www.myhometel.co.uk, www.canterburyhostfamilies.co.uk and www.canterburyservicedapartments.co.uk (bit long that one) and also www.canterburyhomemakeovers.co.uk. They are all in the pipeline somewhere except it is a very long pipe.
Around the Villages: Barham
From our correspondent Amanda Willis about the local WI.
During the annual meeting Dora R. was presented with a box of heathers to thank her for her work and support during her years as a committe member. Three new memebers joined the existing committee, Mrs. C., Mrs. S and Mrs. W. Mrs. B agreed to remain president for another year.It's so beautiful it nearly made Julie cry. We have so much to look forward too.
During the year the Wednesday Walkers achieved their 90 miles of extra walking and are now compiling a scrapbook which will be entered in the Federation competition. Another achievement was Barham with Kingston receiving third place in the 90th birthday cake competition.
Mrs. B. thanked her committee for their support, especially Mrs. R. who supervises the teapot. The finances are sound and reports were received on the Etchinghill birthday party, the group meeting and the Federation Day.
After the business, entertainment was provided by Mrs. S reading Pam Ayre's poem about the common cold and Mrs. F. reading one of her own stories, Ladies Only.
The next meeting is the Christmas lunch today. As is tradition, members are asked to decorate themselves with a piece of tinsel and take a gift up to the value of £1.50 for the bran tub and an unwrapped gift for the Brockman Family Centre. The competition today is for a pomander.
P.S. Sorry about the layout changing about but I am making an effort to learn HTML (web programming language). Life is just not complete until you can create and post your own webistes. I have so many that I want to make including: www.myhometel.co.uk, www.canterburyhostfamilies.co.uk and www.canterburyservicedapartments.co.uk (bit long that one) and also www.canterburyhomemakeovers.co.uk. They are all in the pipeline somewhere except it is a very long pipe.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Canterbury - 9th December 2005
Poor Julie, she has just completed a marathon 13 day stint of back breaking work. 3 days at the hamper factory, 4 days at a show in Earls Court, immediately followed by 5 days at the hamper factory. Much back massage needed here. All this has been accompanied by car problems which on one occasion required me to rescue her from the side of the road at 8:30pm at night.
That's all behind us now. The sun is shining, the car is fixed (for the grand total price of £31.00 for a 2nd hand set of brushes for the alternator) and it's Saturday morning. The boys are performing this afternoon in the parent's festival. They will be singing in French and German, playing the recorder and doing Eurythmy demonstrations (if you are not sure what that is see: Eurythmy). They are very excited about this. Julian is also very excited because he has been asked to perform his juggling at the end of term show. I always knew it would come in useful. Teach your children to juggle. Nothing beats it.
Poor Julie, she has just completed a marathon 13 day stint of back breaking work. 3 days at the hamper factory, 4 days at a show in Earls Court, immediately followed by 5 days at the hamper factory. Much back massage needed here. All this has been accompanied by car problems which on one occasion required me to rescue her from the side of the road at 8:30pm at night.
That's all behind us now. The sun is shining, the car is fixed (for the grand total price of £31.00 for a 2nd hand set of brushes for the alternator) and it's Saturday morning. The boys are performing this afternoon in the parent's festival. They will be singing in French and German, playing the recorder and doing Eurythmy demonstrations (if you are not sure what that is see: Eurythmy). They are very excited about this. Julian is also very excited because he has been asked to perform his juggling at the end of term show. I always knew it would come in useful. Teach your children to juggle. Nothing beats it.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Canterbury - 30th November, 2005
Julie is well into her 2nd week of "hamper factory". She is working very hard (physically). It's a man's job really (ok calm down you lot!) but she is pretty tough. She is on her feet all day, sometimes packing as many as 150 to 200 small (8-12 items) hampers. It's pretty certain that her output is at least as good as the regulars there. They have many temporary staff there but most of them (of 12 who started 3 weeks ago only 1 survives) just can't hack it.
She comes home at night with a very stiff back and fingers and hands that are dry and chaffed. She has to endure 8 hours of non-stop Virgin Radio. That alone must be torture. She has conversations that leave her speechless (a girl who was talking about "O" level said; "Well if I had any "O" levels I wouldn't be working here would I?" and "who do you think is going to be the next person to leave Celebrity Get Me Out of Here").
It's quite interesting for me to have her see what I did for 10 years. Now she knows. Someone (mentioning no names CHARLOTTE B!!) had the audacity to remark, that now that I am a house husband, I am at least doing the cooking (for a change) or is it that I am doing the defrosting? Can you imagine? All I can say is that I wish I had been doing what I am doing now for the last 10 years! At least you can do it in a building that is more than a single degree above ambient.
The "I earn it - she spends it" lifestyle we enjoyed so much previously is a little harder to stomach when the shoe is on the other foot. N'est pas? My last expedition to the Stelling Minnis Country Store (our local store 2 and half miles away) cost £27.00 which she dutifully told me she had worked most of a day to earn and why was it that we needed a "bake your own bagette", sweets for the boys, a video, some beer and some batteries (for the computer mouse). I couldn't really answer that.
Normal service will be resumed. I keep reminding the boys of this as I serve them burnt sausages for the 3rd time in a row. Why don't we both stick to what we are good at? The thing is that women (of the age we are) are far more "employable" than men. Mature women are a far better bet for getting on with the job than grumpy old men. As an employer myself (or previously anyway) I can only confirm that in my experience this is the case. This is why I am at home and Julie is in the hamper factory (as we call it in-house).
For some reason (and I blame the Ag family) we are now Archers fans. I guess it has something to do with the fact that the boys have no access to TV. They do latch on to any other media if they can, for instance both of them are a request for radio 4 news in the morning. This seems like a good thing but what with the Archers and the daily news, we spend an awful lot of time explaining things like; gays rights, DNA testing to determine paternity, homosexual bishops, sexual assault, teacher sex with pupils, naked dancing marines and other interesting subjects. Perhaps we should just switch on CBBC.
We have bought our first property. You will see it here: Our First Canterbury Property. It's a property divided into 2 flats with 2 bedrooms each. We have given up on the B&B idea. The only financing you can get for an existing B&B is commercial. This means mortgage rates of 8% (variable) and they must be repayment mortgages. I just don't want to have to go to bed at night wondering what the Monetary Policy Committee is going to do to my life. Fixed rates are more up my street.
Our idea now is to buy a number of properties and set up an accommodation business with these. We hope to be able to do some serviced appartments or at least self-catering units with this first property and then buy some students let houses and (hopefully!) a property where we can live and have some students or a few B&B's.
Julie is well into her 2nd week of "hamper factory". She is working very hard (physically). It's a man's job really (ok calm down you lot!) but she is pretty tough. She is on her feet all day, sometimes packing as many as 150 to 200 small (8-12 items) hampers. It's pretty certain that her output is at least as good as the regulars there. They have many temporary staff there but most of them (of 12 who started 3 weeks ago only 1 survives) just can't hack it.
She comes home at night with a very stiff back and fingers and hands that are dry and chaffed. She has to endure 8 hours of non-stop Virgin Radio. That alone must be torture. She has conversations that leave her speechless (a girl who was talking about "O" level said; "Well if I had any "O" levels I wouldn't be working here would I?" and "who do you think is going to be the next person to leave Celebrity Get Me Out of Here").
It's quite interesting for me to have her see what I did for 10 years. Now she knows. Someone (mentioning no names CHARLOTTE B!!) had the audacity to remark, that now that I am a house husband, I am at least doing the cooking (for a change) or is it that I am doing the defrosting? Can you imagine? All I can say is that I wish I had been doing what I am doing now for the last 10 years! At least you can do it in a building that is more than a single degree above ambient.
The "I earn it - she spends it" lifestyle we enjoyed so much previously is a little harder to stomach when the shoe is on the other foot. N'est pas? My last expedition to the Stelling Minnis Country Store (our local store 2 and half miles away) cost £27.00 which she dutifully told me she had worked most of a day to earn and why was it that we needed a "bake your own bagette", sweets for the boys, a video, some beer and some batteries (for the computer mouse). I couldn't really answer that.
Normal service will be resumed. I keep reminding the boys of this as I serve them burnt sausages for the 3rd time in a row. Why don't we both stick to what we are good at? The thing is that women (of the age we are) are far more "employable" than men. Mature women are a far better bet for getting on with the job than grumpy old men. As an employer myself (or previously anyway) I can only confirm that in my experience this is the case. This is why I am at home and Julie is in the hamper factory (as we call it in-house).
For some reason (and I blame the Ag family) we are now Archers fans. I guess it has something to do with the fact that the boys have no access to TV. They do latch on to any other media if they can, for instance both of them are a request for radio 4 news in the morning. This seems like a good thing but what with the Archers and the daily news, we spend an awful lot of time explaining things like; gays rights, DNA testing to determine paternity, homosexual bishops, sexual assault, teacher sex with pupils, naked dancing marines and other interesting subjects. Perhaps we should just switch on CBBC.
We have bought our first property. You will see it here: Our First Canterbury Property. It's a property divided into 2 flats with 2 bedrooms each. We have given up on the B&B idea. The only financing you can get for an existing B&B is commercial. This means mortgage rates of 8% (variable) and they must be repayment mortgages. I just don't want to have to go to bed at night wondering what the Monetary Policy Committee is going to do to my life. Fixed rates are more up my street.
Our idea now is to buy a number of properties and set up an accommodation business with these. We hope to be able to do some serviced appartments or at least self-catering units with this first property and then buy some students let houses and (hopefully!) a property where we can live and have some students or a few B&B's.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Monday, November 21, 2005
Canterbury - 21st November, 2005
We had a great weekend with our surprise guests coming back to see us on Sunday morning. We all went to a country pub for lunch. It was marvellous - a pub with proper home cooking, a real fire, real ale and real dogs running around.
Julie started work today. I drove down to Folkestone with her so she could find the way back at night. She is working in a hamper factory (see: Hamper Factory) putting things into hampers for Christmas deliveries. The company does the hampers for Harrods and Harvey Nichols so they are all pretty top notch. I became house husband doing the laundry, cooking the supper, cleaning the pad and collecting the boys from school. Julie is working from 12 noon to 8:00pm which is a bit tough for morning girl.
We had a great weekend with our surprise guests coming back to see us on Sunday morning. We all went to a country pub for lunch. It was marvellous - a pub with proper home cooking, a real fire, real ale and real dogs running around.
Julie started work today. I drove down to Folkestone with her so she could find the way back at night. She is working in a hamper factory (see: Hamper Factory) putting things into hampers for Christmas deliveries. The company does the hampers for Harrods and Harvey Nichols so they are all pretty top notch. I became house husband doing the laundry, cooking the supper, cleaning the pad and collecting the boys from school. Julie is working from 12 noon to 8:00pm which is a bit tough for morning girl.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Canterbury - 19th November, 2005 - The Advent Fair at Canterbury Steiner School
A lovely brilliant blue sky met us this morning with a frosty temperature of minus 1 deg C.
After weeks of preparation and mornings and evenings working on crafts to sell, the canterbury Steiner School Advent Fair was upon us.
The Rudolf Steiner schools, which are not funded by the state, are fee paying but try to keep their fees as low as possible. Typically they are about half the price of other private schools. So here you get 2 boys in school for the price of 1.
One way they keep the costs down is to hold fund raising events, of which today's Advent Fair is the biggest. The school opens it's doors and brings in as many parents, friends and family as possible. Our school has about 250 pupils but there were many hundreds of people there today.
Every room in the school is filled with craft items, homemade cakes, jams, sweets and a variety enchanting grottos and caves. There is candle dipping, circus performances (we had a circus arts teacher this year), bands playing, cafes and bbqs. It has a festival atmosphere and it's a great fun day.
I have some photos which are posted here: Advent Fair Photos. You don't need to sign in. Click on "View photos without signing in" in the bottom right of the frame when it opens. This is the sort of stuff the boys will be getting up to. Beats maths!
Then half way through the fair we saw a friend of ours from Ealing. She had come all the way with her son (a friend of Sammy's) and husband. They spent several hours with us and ended up leaving their son with us for a sleep over. What a perfect end to a wonderful day.
A lovely brilliant blue sky met us this morning with a frosty temperature of minus 1 deg C.
After weeks of preparation and mornings and evenings working on crafts to sell, the canterbury Steiner School Advent Fair was upon us.
The Rudolf Steiner schools, which are not funded by the state, are fee paying but try to keep their fees as low as possible. Typically they are about half the price of other private schools. So here you get 2 boys in school for the price of 1.
One way they keep the costs down is to hold fund raising events, of which today's Advent Fair is the biggest. The school opens it's doors and brings in as many parents, friends and family as possible. Our school has about 250 pupils but there were many hundreds of people there today.
Every room in the school is filled with craft items, homemade cakes, jams, sweets and a variety enchanting grottos and caves. There is candle dipping, circus performances (we had a circus arts teacher this year), bands playing, cafes and bbqs. It has a festival atmosphere and it's a great fun day.
I have some photos which are posted here: Advent Fair Photos. You don't need to sign in. Click on "View photos without signing in" in the bottom right of the frame when it opens. This is the sort of stuff the boys will be getting up to. Beats maths!
Then half way through the fair we saw a friend of ours from Ealing. She had come all the way with her son (a friend of Sammy's) and husband. They spent several hours with us and ended up leaving their son with us for a sleep over. What a perfect end to a wonderful day.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Canterbury - 17th November, 2005
We woke this morning with the cars covered in a very thick layer of frost. Every window required a good scraping. The skies are blue but this means sharp frosts. We are also very exposed being right on top of the downs. Everyone says we can expect a severe winter this year. One of the ladies at school (who drives a 4 x 4 - actually alot of them do and for proper reasons too) says that the school was closed last year for 2 weeks because of the snow. There are no refunds of fees if this happens.
The school is right at the bottom of the downs. To get there you have to negotiate some fairly steep roads. Rear wheel drives (Volvo) are just not good enough. Only a front wheel drive (Saab) or 4 x 4 will manage the task.
We woke this morning with the cars covered in a very thick layer of frost. Every window required a good scraping. The skies are blue but this means sharp frosts. We are also very exposed being right on top of the downs. Everyone says we can expect a severe winter this year. One of the ladies at school (who drives a 4 x 4 - actually alot of them do and for proper reasons too) says that the school was closed last year for 2 weeks because of the snow. There are no refunds of fees if this happens.
The school is right at the bottom of the downs. To get there you have to negotiate some fairly steep roads. Rear wheel drives (Volvo) are just not good enough. Only a front wheel drive (Saab) or 4 x 4 will manage the task.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Canterbury - 16th November, 2005
Julie is on the Lemonade detox again. We both did it before when we were in Canada (see: www.londonboards2.blogspot.com) and it was a cleansing and revitalising experience. This time she is suffering on her own. She is on day 5 at the moment. She has not eaten a thing since she started only the lemonade and herbal laxatives.
Our next door neighbour (not in the caravan park but down the road) up here on the downs, is a very interesting person. The reason I know this is that I have seen such interesting things going on in his field and his garden. Yesterday they tried to deliver a 2nd world war tank from a long low loader. Previously I have seen the man (who I am led to believe is a pilot) take off from his field in a huge helicopter (I mean huge not a 2 man one but a sort of army type mean green beast) perform some impressive acrobatics over the caravan park and then shoot off into the valley. I am often in the park when delivery drivers and couriers arrive with packets and parcels of every shape and description. Today a man arrived in the park (they all seem to miss his driveway and end up here) thinking he was going to fix a tank. Perhaps our neighbour is a modern day Guy preparing a final assault. It makes the days more interesting.
We (actually I) ran out of petrol yesterday on the way to a job agency for an interview. We were about a mile from home. Julie had advised me to fill up the day before. Can you imagine the punishment I got (and deserved). I walked back to the caravan site leaving her in the car and picked up the other car to complete our journey, getting to the agency at 11:30am, the time for our interviews. We then discovered that the agancy were expecting us at 10:00am. Where did we go wrong on that one? So she couldn't fit us in at that time and we re-booked for Friday. It was off to Starbucks for a latte and cinnamon roll. Well at least for me. Julie could only dribble.
We found a great property over the weekend with 8 bedrooms for an advertised £375K. Problem is that it has no parking. Can we live without this? It's a Georgian Grade II listed building (see link here: great property) which used to be run as the "London Boarding House" but is currently being sold as a home. Funny that: London Boards . . . . . London Boarding House. It has either a sink or a shower in every room. King Edwards Gardens used to be a boarding house in the '60s and still had a sink in one of the bedrooms. Funny that.
Julie is on the Lemonade detox again. We both did it before when we were in Canada (see: www.londonboards2.blogspot.com) and it was a cleansing and revitalising experience. This time she is suffering on her own. She is on day 5 at the moment. She has not eaten a thing since she started only the lemonade and herbal laxatives.
Our next door neighbour (not in the caravan park but down the road) up here on the downs, is a very interesting person. The reason I know this is that I have seen such interesting things going on in his field and his garden. Yesterday they tried to deliver a 2nd world war tank from a long low loader. Previously I have seen the man (who I am led to believe is a pilot) take off from his field in a huge helicopter (I mean huge not a 2 man one but a sort of army type mean green beast) perform some impressive acrobatics over the caravan park and then shoot off into the valley. I am often in the park when delivery drivers and couriers arrive with packets and parcels of every shape and description. Today a man arrived in the park (they all seem to miss his driveway and end up here) thinking he was going to fix a tank. Perhaps our neighbour is a modern day Guy preparing a final assault. It makes the days more interesting.
We (actually I) ran out of petrol yesterday on the way to a job agency for an interview. We were about a mile from home. Julie had advised me to fill up the day before. Can you imagine the punishment I got (and deserved). I walked back to the caravan site leaving her in the car and picked up the other car to complete our journey, getting to the agency at 11:30am, the time for our interviews. We then discovered that the agancy were expecting us at 10:00am. Where did we go wrong on that one? So she couldn't fit us in at that time and we re-booked for Friday. It was off to Starbucks for a latte and cinnamon roll. Well at least for me. Julie could only dribble.
We found a great property over the weekend with 8 bedrooms for an advertised £375K. Problem is that it has no parking. Can we live without this? It's a Georgian Grade II listed building (see link here: great property) which used to be run as the "London Boarding House" but is currently being sold as a home. Funny that: London Boards . . . . . London Boarding House. It has either a sink or a shower in every room. King Edwards Gardens used to be a boarding house in the '60s and still had a sink in one of the bedrooms. Funny that.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Canterbury - 9th November, 2005
Julie and I are both on a weeks conference with St. Mary's Bredin (www.smb.org.uk) called Face Down. It is great to be able to spend time with God whilst we are looking at the possibilities for our future. The speakers we have here for this week include Bruce Collins and Guy Chevreau, who happens to come from Oakville in Canada, where we spent 3 months last year.
We have got to the stage where we are waiting on a couple a things to fall into place before we make the property purchasing decision. So we have decided, in the interim, that we have both should get Christmas jobs.
Julie tried with M & S after she saw an advert in the store but the on-line application system rejected her. We are thinking of sueing them for discrimination! Don't they know who they are dealing with? The questionaire asks you to select what you are most like, except the list they give you from which you have to choose, includes nothing that relates to you at all. I guess if it did then you would be acceptable. They must have some weird people working for them if they answered the questions correctly. Perhaps they didn't.
I am applying for van driving jobs and Julie is looking at hamper packing. We shall see what happens.
It was very strange and quite amusing to be walking through Canterbury going into Strutt and Parker and looking at £550,000 properties and then to go round the corner and applying for £5.05 per hour jobs. They ask you for your CV too and we try to tell them that it would be of no benefit for them to see what we have done previously. It most probably would put them off. Can I do multi-drop white van driving? Of course. Being the MD of a £2M t/o company is excellent training to be a bad driver who always parks on double yellows. It's the only way you can make it work.
The boys are getting on with it and it keeps us sane knowing that this part of moving to Canterbury is working. It is after all the only reason we came. Neither of us had been here before 6 weeks ago.
We have rented out the flat at Helena Court for 6 months but we may get to the point where, what we want to do down here, would dictate selling a London property. We have to get our heads around that first. You can't have you cake . . . . . . etc.
They have some great investment properties down here if you are thinking of putting a little something aside for your old age or you need some additional income. A property priced at around £195,000 could be bought for a £40K deposit. The mortgage will cost about £700 per month and the already rented cash flow produces £1,600 per month. This gives you a surplus of nearly £900 per month for a downpayment of £40K. Put half of that away for repairs and so on and it still leaves you with £5K per year. Quite a nice little earner. There are investors down here with 10 to 15 of these investments and I suspect that they are doing quite nicely. The properties do not tend to grow in capital value (as they do in London) but then income yields of over 8% are unheard of in the capital.
Julie and I are both on a weeks conference with St. Mary's Bredin (www.smb.org.uk) called Face Down. It is great to be able to spend time with God whilst we are looking at the possibilities for our future. The speakers we have here for this week include Bruce Collins and Guy Chevreau, who happens to come from Oakville in Canada, where we spent 3 months last year.
We have got to the stage where we are waiting on a couple a things to fall into place before we make the property purchasing decision. So we have decided, in the interim, that we have both should get Christmas jobs.
Julie tried with M & S after she saw an advert in the store but the on-line application system rejected her. We are thinking of sueing them for discrimination! Don't they know who they are dealing with? The questionaire asks you to select what you are most like, except the list they give you from which you have to choose, includes nothing that relates to you at all. I guess if it did then you would be acceptable. They must have some weird people working for them if they answered the questions correctly. Perhaps they didn't.
I am applying for van driving jobs and Julie is looking at hamper packing. We shall see what happens.
It was very strange and quite amusing to be walking through Canterbury going into Strutt and Parker and looking at £550,000 properties and then to go round the corner and applying for £5.05 per hour jobs. They ask you for your CV too and we try to tell them that it would be of no benefit for them to see what we have done previously. It most probably would put them off. Can I do multi-drop white van driving? Of course. Being the MD of a £2M t/o company is excellent training to be a bad driver who always parks on double yellows. It's the only way you can make it work.
The boys are getting on with it and it keeps us sane knowing that this part of moving to Canterbury is working. It is after all the only reason we came. Neither of us had been here before 6 weeks ago.
We have rented out the flat at Helena Court for 6 months but we may get to the point where, what we want to do down here, would dictate selling a London property. We have to get our heads around that first. You can't have you cake . . . . . . etc.
They have some great investment properties down here if you are thinking of putting a little something aside for your old age or you need some additional income. A property priced at around £195,000 could be bought for a £40K deposit. The mortgage will cost about £700 per month and the already rented cash flow produces £1,600 per month. This gives you a surplus of nearly £900 per month for a downpayment of £40K. Put half of that away for repairs and so on and it still leaves you with £5K per year. Quite a nice little earner. There are investors down here with 10 to 15 of these investments and I suspect that they are doing quite nicely. The properties do not tend to grow in capital value (as they do in London) but then income yields of over 8% are unheard of in the capital.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Canterbury - 2nd November, 2005
A full 3 days before they promised it, Bulldog have activated my internet connection. It is now coming in over the campsite payphone line and going to a wireless router in the attic of the camp launderette. It beams across the car park and into appartment 4 with a signal strength which allows for 24 mbps. Good enough for me!
Please don't hesitate to e-mail me!
Also send you comments on the blog through the comment link. I do appologise for having to turn on the comment verification system. Seems that some clever clogs have devised a way of e-mailing me advertising comments from my blog so I was getting quite a bit of spam from it.
New postings coming soon .........
A full 3 days before they promised it, Bulldog have activated my internet connection. It is now coming in over the campsite payphone line and going to a wireless router in the attic of the camp launderette. It beams across the car park and into appartment 4 with a signal strength which allows for 24 mbps. Good enough for me!
Please don't hesitate to e-mail me!
Also send you comments on the blog through the comment link. I do appologise for having to turn on the comment verification system. Seems that some clever clogs have devised a way of e-mailing me advertising comments from my blog so I was getting quite a bit of spam from it.
New postings coming soon .........
Monday, October 31, 2005
Canterbury - 31st October, 2005
Travelling back to Canterbury with literally the very last of the few things that we own, slung in the cavernous boot of the Saab, it struck me that in our own way we had become refugees. There is much talk in the US and increasingly so here, of the phenomenon of white flight.
Why have we moved? Primarily because we choose to have the boys in a Waldorf Steiner school and Canterbury is one of the best of these. But in the depths of my soul there are other reasons or at least other reasons that have become more apparent to me as I have travelled back and forth; I like change and this is a changing time for us. I like the fact that Canterbury and Kent seems so much more English. Historical Britain is so much more part of life here whereas West London seems to lack a defining history or culture that you could readily identify. For many years a culture of Britishness has been suppressed for fear of being labled nationalistic or worse, racist.
But coming back to Canterbury feels like coming back to an England that is proud of it's history and it's roots. Why is that? It is also a reason that so many tourists visit here and although there are obviously pros and cons to having lots of tourists around, there is a certain pride that I feel the locals possess in sharing their British culture. It is after all world renown.
Travelling back to Canterbury with literally the very last of the few things that we own, slung in the cavernous boot of the Saab, it struck me that in our own way we had become refugees. There is much talk in the US and increasingly so here, of the phenomenon of white flight.
Why have we moved? Primarily because we choose to have the boys in a Waldorf Steiner school and Canterbury is one of the best of these. But in the depths of my soul there are other reasons or at least other reasons that have become more apparent to me as I have travelled back and forth; I like change and this is a changing time for us. I like the fact that Canterbury and Kent seems so much more English. Historical Britain is so much more part of life here whereas West London seems to lack a defining history or culture that you could readily identify. For many years a culture of Britishness has been suppressed for fear of being labled nationalistic or worse, racist.
But coming back to Canterbury feels like coming back to an England that is proud of it's history and it's roots. Why is that? It is also a reason that so many tourists visit here and although there are obviously pros and cons to having lots of tourists around, there is a certain pride that I feel the locals possess in sharing their British culture. It is after all world renown.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Canterbury - 30th October, 2005
I went up to London again on Thursday morning to take the Ag boys back and to do more work on the flats. I was again surprised by the convoys of Polish 18 wheelers I was behind for most of the M2/M20 journey. At least two thirds of the trucks on the road were Polish. I don't recall ever having purchased anything that comes from Poland. Perhaps the world of commerce has left me behind and we are now sourcing all our toilet rolls or packets of crisps from that country? The only thing I know for sure that they make there is Polish sausage. Perhaps there are enough Poles in West London to have generated a huge market for it? I wish I could look in the back of one of these truck.
The other theory I had was that it now makes economic sense for road haulage contractors to have all their vehicles registered and taxed in a cheaper EC country. I did read somewhere that they were starting to do this. Perhaps Poland has the cheapest road tax for these operators?
Anyway up to London it was for the 3rd time since we moved down 3 weeks ago. The journey is exactly 100 miles from Petham to Ealing and can take between 2 and half hours and 3 and half hours depending on the congestion around the M25 between Gatwick and Heathrow. This time we did it in around 3 hours. I dropped the Ag boys back at home and went over to Helena Court. Everything had to be removed from the flat. We have a tenant moving in on Monday and we had left behind about 1 car load of stuff.
I also went over to the other property we are working on and spent some time working over there. At 7:30 pm I went to meet the prospective tenant for Helena and took him to the flat and went over all the details of how the place works. He was an older gent who works as a production buyer for a TV company and has a 6 month contract in London for a new TV show. It's not a long let but given what we may be up to in Canterbury in the next little while I may want to re-mortgage or even sell the flat to raise funds for a few local projects. Six months may be just the job.
I stayed over night at the Ag's place. They seem to be doing a better job of setting up a bed and breakfast business than we are capable of doing at the moment. The next day I spent more time at the flats clearing up and cleaning. I visited all the agents (there are 4 at the moment) who are working for us and retrieved the keys for the now rented Helena Court and pushed for progress on Highfield. This seemed to do the trick as no sooner had I arrived back in Canterbury and the phone rang with an offer to rent Highfield.
I travelled back to Canterbury on Friday night. Not the best move but it was how it ended up. The traffic around the roadworks section of the M25 was crawling but at no time did we stop. I managed to get home just after 8:00pm and got to see the boys before they went to bed. They are starting their half term today just as everyone else goes back to school with their half terms over. Don't know why the Steiner schools opt to take alternative dates to the rest of the world but we are increasingly glad that they do take an alternative approach in other areas of education . The boys are really settling in well. Julian's teacher, who Julie met at the Class 5 parents evening, was very encouraging about his progress and how quickly he has settled down.
We are continuing to work over the prospects we have down here. The best bet still seems to be the Clare Ellen guesthouse (see previous blog for link to the guesthouse website). Here is an established business with a certified turnover. I think there is a possibility that we could get the place and keep the management that are currently running the business. This would be preferable from our point of view as the current layout of the owner's accommodation in the guesthouse is not really conducive to family life.
We have also found some really good flats just next to Canterbury West railway station and 5 minutes from the cathederal. Two flats in their own building are for sale. They both have 2 bedrooms and are perfect to develop into self catering units or serviced appartments. There are many possibilities here. We want to do them all!
Julie today (Sunday) is suffering from a bad throat and was poorly enough not to be able to go to church. I took the boys on my own. Afterwards I went with the boys to see another property. As I was going, Julie rang me and told me that the house we were going to visit was the house next door to the house where the Chief Executive of the Afghan Educational Trust used to live. We knew that he had moved to work in Warwick but we were delighted to learn from the person who house we visited that he and his wife still owned the house next door and in fact they were down from Warwick at this very moment. So after looking around this huge 6 bedroom house (which Julian fell in love with) we went next door and lo and behold they were there.
We had one of those strange meetings. I think we were both wondering how on earth this could have happened. But it is great to know that they still come down to Canterbury and that we will have a chance to meet with them in the future. Julie is preparing to make do more talks this coming week and next month and it will be encouraging for her to know that she will be able to meet with Mo more regularly. Praise be!
We also leant that I will become a great uncle for the first time. My niece Lauren, who is currently on mission in Africa, has announced she is pregnant. Julie and I may never live to see our own grandchildren but at least I may see my brother's.
I went up to London again on Thursday morning to take the Ag boys back and to do more work on the flats. I was again surprised by the convoys of Polish 18 wheelers I was behind for most of the M2/M20 journey. At least two thirds of the trucks on the road were Polish. I don't recall ever having purchased anything that comes from Poland. Perhaps the world of commerce has left me behind and we are now sourcing all our toilet rolls or packets of crisps from that country? The only thing I know for sure that they make there is Polish sausage. Perhaps there are enough Poles in West London to have generated a huge market for it? I wish I could look in the back of one of these truck.
The other theory I had was that it now makes economic sense for road haulage contractors to have all their vehicles registered and taxed in a cheaper EC country. I did read somewhere that they were starting to do this. Perhaps Poland has the cheapest road tax for these operators?
Anyway up to London it was for the 3rd time since we moved down 3 weeks ago. The journey is exactly 100 miles from Petham to Ealing and can take between 2 and half hours and 3 and half hours depending on the congestion around the M25 between Gatwick and Heathrow. This time we did it in around 3 hours. I dropped the Ag boys back at home and went over to Helena Court. Everything had to be removed from the flat. We have a tenant moving in on Monday and we had left behind about 1 car load of stuff.
I also went over to the other property we are working on and spent some time working over there. At 7:30 pm I went to meet the prospective tenant for Helena and took him to the flat and went over all the details of how the place works. He was an older gent who works as a production buyer for a TV company and has a 6 month contract in London for a new TV show. It's not a long let but given what we may be up to in Canterbury in the next little while I may want to re-mortgage or even sell the flat to raise funds for a few local projects. Six months may be just the job.
I stayed over night at the Ag's place. They seem to be doing a better job of setting up a bed and breakfast business than we are capable of doing at the moment. The next day I spent more time at the flats clearing up and cleaning. I visited all the agents (there are 4 at the moment) who are working for us and retrieved the keys for the now rented Helena Court and pushed for progress on Highfield. This seemed to do the trick as no sooner had I arrived back in Canterbury and the phone rang with an offer to rent Highfield.
I travelled back to Canterbury on Friday night. Not the best move but it was how it ended up. The traffic around the roadworks section of the M25 was crawling but at no time did we stop. I managed to get home just after 8:00pm and got to see the boys before they went to bed. They are starting their half term today just as everyone else goes back to school with their half terms over. Don't know why the Steiner schools opt to take alternative dates to the rest of the world but we are increasingly glad that they do take an alternative approach in other areas of education . The boys are really settling in well. Julian's teacher, who Julie met at the Class 5 parents evening, was very encouraging about his progress and how quickly he has settled down.
We are continuing to work over the prospects we have down here. The best bet still seems to be the Clare Ellen guesthouse (see previous blog for link to the guesthouse website). Here is an established business with a certified turnover. I think there is a possibility that we could get the place and keep the management that are currently running the business. This would be preferable from our point of view as the current layout of the owner's accommodation in the guesthouse is not really conducive to family life.
We have also found some really good flats just next to Canterbury West railway station and 5 minutes from the cathederal. Two flats in their own building are for sale. They both have 2 bedrooms and are perfect to develop into self catering units or serviced appartments. There are many possibilities here. We want to do them all!
Julie today (Sunday) is suffering from a bad throat and was poorly enough not to be able to go to church. I took the boys on my own. Afterwards I went with the boys to see another property. As I was going, Julie rang me and told me that the house we were going to visit was the house next door to the house where the Chief Executive of the Afghan Educational Trust used to live. We knew that he had moved to work in Warwick but we were delighted to learn from the person who house we visited that he and his wife still owned the house next door and in fact they were down from Warwick at this very moment. So after looking around this huge 6 bedroom house (which Julian fell in love with) we went next door and lo and behold they were there.
We had one of those strange meetings. I think we were both wondering how on earth this could have happened. But it is great to know that they still come down to Canterbury and that we will have a chance to meet with them in the future. Julie is preparing to make do more talks this coming week and next month and it will be encouraging for her to know that she will be able to meet with Mo more regularly. Praise be!
We also leant that I will become a great uncle for the first time. My niece Lauren, who is currently on mission in Africa, has announced she is pregnant. Julie and I may never live to see our own grandchildren but at least I may see my brother's.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Canterbury - Tuesday 25th October, 2005
Today I took James and Luke A to Chatham's Historical Dockyards. They are on half term and visiting with us for a few days. Unfortunately their half term dates do not co-incide with Julian and Sammy's but they are having some time together anyway.
We have had some incredibly stormy weather over the last few days and the trees have been taking a battering. Many of their leaves which had previously appeared to be holding on to their branches for dear life, gave us and rained down on us in great waves of brown and red. Today however, the skies cleared and the sun came back out.
Last week I spent 4 nights back in Ealing working on houses and collecting my nephew Daniel from his boarding school. I collected him on Friday afternoon for his Saturday night flight and through some amazing feat of self delusion, I completely messed up the time I was supposed to get him to the airport and onto his flight to India. Consequently, he had to stay another night in London and loose one day of his precious half term days staying in London. He was very disappointed, as you can imagine, but perked up the next day as he spent it playing with Luke and James. Needless to say I got him on the plane the following night. I had just been saying to Lynn how accomplished we had been getting the family around the world without a single self inflicted misshap. Don't you just hate that.
It looks like the flat in Ealing is rented from this weekend and I will again travel up on Thurday to meet the tenant and take him over the details of how the place works. This gives us a bit more breathing space, knowing the mortgage is going to be covered on this one.
Back in Canterbury we keep coming back to the Clare Ellen Guesthouse (www.clareellenguesthouse.co.uk) as I think it presents a good business opportunity with a proven cash flow. It would not be our choice or private accommodation but we are looking at the possibility of running the business as it is at the moment with a manager and a live-in helper. We would then not move into the place immediately but continue to live in rented accommodation near the school. The guesthouse itself is actually only 10 minutes from school by car and 10 minutes from Canterbury Cathederal by foot. It is a good location. We are praying for the safety of the current owner, who left the UK to spend 2 weeks in Cancun, Mexico, last Wednesday night. She has just strayed right into the path of hurricane Wilma.
The boys are getting on with their new school although this week seems to have been harder work than last. Julian had a very maudling day on Saturday which was not helped by me messing up the flight arrangements for Daniel and therefore having to delay bringing Luke and James down for the weekend. Julie has done a craft morning with some of the other parents of class 5 (Julian's class) preparing gifts to sell at the Advent Fair. It is a major fundraising event for the school and everyone contributes time to it.
We are still having fun with our communications. I spent most of last week in mobile phone shops trying to work out what I wanted (having never owned a contract phone before) and which deal to have. I settled on a really good deal with "3" who are promoting their network with deals that are twice as good as their competitors. I signed up with some ridiculous amount of minutes (I think it was 900) per month on a £25 per month plan with all sorts of cash back as well. They also gave me the latest Nokia 6680 phone.
I thought I was doing well until I got home and discovered that their signal in Petham was worse than Vodaphone's. Under the 14 day return deal they took the phone back the next day but I ended up with a 200 minute plan with Orange. I had to give the 6680 back and go with a 6630 instead (no self video function !). In any case who would ever spend more than 200 minutes on the phone with anyone over a month? Except that 5 days later I looked on the call log and we had made over 4 hours of outgoing calls (240 minutes) and down loaded 17 MB of data.
The following day we read in the paper how mobile phone users are paying £130 million (or was it billion?) a year by going over their plan minute limits. Well it's pretty obvious isn't it? We all assume we are only going to do a few calls and the next thing is that you are paying double the price for minutes that you use in excess of your plan. A really crafty way of doing business I would say. I need a "Fairtrade" phone that not only gives you a fair amount a minutes for your money but doesn't stitch you up with dodgy contract details. "Anytime, Anywhere Minutes" is a bit rich as they seem to have different length minutes for different types of calls. Have you ever heard of a minute that was actually 35 seconds?
The camp kommandant here has agreed that I am able to put in a broadband feed over his payphone line so I am now trying to get the best deal on this. BT only needs a 3 month contract but charge £20 per month and need between 14 and 21 days to instal. Tiscali want £15 per month and will install (or switch on?) in 3 days but I think they want a contract for a year. He was also telling me of another family who came to the camp and were going to our school. They ended up staying for a year! Several house purchases fell through for them. They were forced to move into one of the caravans here to keep the cost down in the summer and then move back into the lodge again. Hopefully we won't be suffering that kind of long term problem.
Today I took James and Luke A to Chatham's Historical Dockyards. They are on half term and visiting with us for a few days. Unfortunately their half term dates do not co-incide with Julian and Sammy's but they are having some time together anyway.
We have had some incredibly stormy weather over the last few days and the trees have been taking a battering. Many of their leaves which had previously appeared to be holding on to their branches for dear life, gave us and rained down on us in great waves of brown and red. Today however, the skies cleared and the sun came back out.
Last week I spent 4 nights back in Ealing working on houses and collecting my nephew Daniel from his boarding school. I collected him on Friday afternoon for his Saturday night flight and through some amazing feat of self delusion, I completely messed up the time I was supposed to get him to the airport and onto his flight to India. Consequently, he had to stay another night in London and loose one day of his precious half term days staying in London. He was very disappointed, as you can imagine, but perked up the next day as he spent it playing with Luke and James. Needless to say I got him on the plane the following night. I had just been saying to Lynn how accomplished we had been getting the family around the world without a single self inflicted misshap. Don't you just hate that.
It looks like the flat in Ealing is rented from this weekend and I will again travel up on Thurday to meet the tenant and take him over the details of how the place works. This gives us a bit more breathing space, knowing the mortgage is going to be covered on this one.
Back in Canterbury we keep coming back to the Clare Ellen Guesthouse (www.clareellenguesthouse.co.uk) as I think it presents a good business opportunity with a proven cash flow. It would not be our choice or private accommodation but we are looking at the possibility of running the business as it is at the moment with a manager and a live-in helper. We would then not move into the place immediately but continue to live in rented accommodation near the school. The guesthouse itself is actually only 10 minutes from school by car and 10 minutes from Canterbury Cathederal by foot. It is a good location. We are praying for the safety of the current owner, who left the UK to spend 2 weeks in Cancun, Mexico, last Wednesday night. She has just strayed right into the path of hurricane Wilma.
The boys are getting on with their new school although this week seems to have been harder work than last. Julian had a very maudling day on Saturday which was not helped by me messing up the flight arrangements for Daniel and therefore having to delay bringing Luke and James down for the weekend. Julie has done a craft morning with some of the other parents of class 5 (Julian's class) preparing gifts to sell at the Advent Fair. It is a major fundraising event for the school and everyone contributes time to it.
We are still having fun with our communications. I spent most of last week in mobile phone shops trying to work out what I wanted (having never owned a contract phone before) and which deal to have. I settled on a really good deal with "3" who are promoting their network with deals that are twice as good as their competitors. I signed up with some ridiculous amount of minutes (I think it was 900) per month on a £25 per month plan with all sorts of cash back as well. They also gave me the latest Nokia 6680 phone.
I thought I was doing well until I got home and discovered that their signal in Petham was worse than Vodaphone's. Under the 14 day return deal they took the phone back the next day but I ended up with a 200 minute plan with Orange. I had to give the 6680 back and go with a 6630 instead (no self video function !). In any case who would ever spend more than 200 minutes on the phone with anyone over a month? Except that 5 days later I looked on the call log and we had made over 4 hours of outgoing calls (240 minutes) and down loaded 17 MB of data.
The following day we read in the paper how mobile phone users are paying £130 million (or was it billion?) a year by going over their plan minute limits. Well it's pretty obvious isn't it? We all assume we are only going to do a few calls and the next thing is that you are paying double the price for minutes that you use in excess of your plan. A really crafty way of doing business I would say. I need a "Fairtrade" phone that not only gives you a fair amount a minutes for your money but doesn't stitch you up with dodgy contract details. "Anytime, Anywhere Minutes" is a bit rich as they seem to have different length minutes for different types of calls. Have you ever heard of a minute that was actually 35 seconds?
The camp kommandant here has agreed that I am able to put in a broadband feed over his payphone line so I am now trying to get the best deal on this. BT only needs a 3 month contract but charge £20 per month and need between 14 and 21 days to instal. Tiscali want £15 per month and will install (or switch on?) in 3 days but I think they want a contract for a year. He was also telling me of another family who came to the camp and were going to our school. They ended up staying for a year! Several house purchases fell through for them. They were forced to move into one of the caravans here to keep the cost down in the summer and then move back into the lodge again. Hopefully we won't be suffering that kind of long term problem.
Friday, October 21, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Canterbury - Sunday 16th October, 2005
We have completed the first week of a new life in Canterbury. It has been an eye opening and exciting beginning. The weather has been glorious which has been such a blessing in settling the boys into their new school. They have been able to play outside so much that they have had precious few moments to dwell on the downside of the move.
The drive to school has been amazing. On the busiest day we met 4 moving vehicles (even having to reverse up one lane - as they are all single track) during the course of our 2 mile journey to the establishment. Pheasants, sheep and cows are our journey mates with cars and people hardly ever to be seen.
The boys have got out of the car at school every day with no hestitation and in Sammy's case with great vigor, as he is keen to join the others on the basketball court before school starts. If you asked them they would say that the place stinks but in the odd moment that they think you are not watching, they start singing some of the school songs. They start every day by shaking their teachers hand and singing morning verses together. We really couldn't have dreamt of a better start. After the dreadful interview experiece we thought we were in for a tough long fight with them both. But thankfully, it is not to be so.
Julie and I spent the week taking the boys to school, going to Starbuck to get an hour on the computer (which is an extorionate £5.00 but the coffee is great), visiting every house for sale in Canterbury and on Thursday, driving Julie up to London to do some work up there. It has been a special time for us all, looking at what we would all like in a new property.
We started off with the idea that it needed to be "downtown" so that we could be part of the student accommodation thing here. Apparently,according to a cab driver that Julie spoke to, there are 40,000 inhabitants here AND 40,000 students and on any given day, thousands of other visitors. It's bustling place and very youth oriented downtown.
However, having lived in perhaps the most beautiful rural location we have ever experienced in the UK, we are getting quite used to the idea of living further out of town. Our conversation no longer revolves around which streets we would like to live in but which of the surrounding vallies do we prefer. The Valley of Elham is the current favourite with the villages of Bridge and Barham topping the list. Imagine living in the conversation of "which valley do you prefer dear?". It has quite taken us aback.
Our chalet on the Yew Tree Park caravan site (I still haven't found the Yew Tree) has been brilliant. The accommodation is first class having only been built in the last 5 years. We have a modern fully equipped kitchen and a great bathroom (sadly with no bath) and 2 bedrooms. The lounge/diner/kitchen also has a fold down double bed so we can even have a couple of guests. Any takers?
The main room overlooks the site's swimming pool which is closed for the season but still filled and the sun sparkles off the water and throws patterns of light over our ceilings. With the weather we have been having this week and with the patio doors flung wide open, it really does feel like we are on another holiday. Not such a bad thing since it's been a few weeks now since we had a proper holiday.
Big downer is lack of comms. There is only a patchy Vodaphone signal up here. We are even on the top of a hill but it makes little difference. We are often cut off in the middle of calls as the signal drops out. The only way around it is to switch to Orange which I am in the process of looking at. We also don't have any internet connection. The Lord gives and takes away and don't we miss it? Can't really get on with serious house hunting as the internet is such a useful thing for this kind of job. Just trying to find places on map is hard work! I am also in negotiation with the camp kommandant about him putting in a broadband line for us but he is somewhat hesitant at this point so I am also looking at getting a 3G data card for the computer but I still don't know if that's going to give me any sort of speed that will be useful for looking at pictures of houses say. All in good time.
Church is a real blessing. Chris Pemberton has been so welcoming. We did start a conversation with him before we arrived so we were expected and he was looking out for us. On our second visit (today) we were the first people in the church that he asked up to the front to pray for those who had just come forward for ministry. I was quite shocked as they were all women who had gone up, so I pushed Julie up and she prayed for people as if she was a full time regular member of the church. About 25 people went up for prayer at the 11:15 am service. The sermon was given by an extraordinary young blind girl, who came up to the lecturn with her dog and braille machine (which contained only the verses she was using not her whole talk). She had the whole church in tears of laughter and joy (her sermon was about joy) and we were uplifted and filled with the spirit.
We came back from church today with the kitchen filled with the welcoming smell of a cooked chicken. We had left the timer on and it had worked. Later in the afternoon we played cricket on the huge newly moved lush grass expanse of the vacant touring caravan lots. The sun was shining as if spring were about to arrive again at any moment with not a hint of the weather that must surely be right around the corner. We have been told that there is a micro climate here but we are not sure whether this means it will be better or worse. Apparently the winters are colder because of the North winds coming down the Channel but it may also be drier and have clearer skies. Several people here have commented that it is never as dull and dreary as it can be in London but I don't know if this is a fact or just fanciful boasting by proud locals.
Business opportunities here relate mainly to the proliferation of students, visitors and tourists. Setting up or buying a Bed and Breakfast business is one possibility and we have looked at a couple. However, although they show impressive business results, the properties themselves are not the most suitable for us as a family. I have recently been drawn to the possibility of providing self-catering accommodation. Having done the research to find a place for ourselves, I am sure there is a lack of quality affordable accommodation of this type in the area. There may also be a movement away from traditional B & B and towards self-catering for those who prefer the privacy and flxibility it offers. What I do know is that all of the self-catering in Canterbury is booked almost indefinately. Most of it being used by long term business visitors who are in the process of re-locating (rather like us I guess). Next week I am going to spend some time with the Town Planners and the Local Tourist Board to get their views. I believe there are grants available for developing this type of business. I fancy a few downtown flats (one and two bedrooms from £85K) and prehaps a rural house with a few acres and some self-catering chalets in the paddock. We can all dream!
We have completed the first week of a new life in Canterbury. It has been an eye opening and exciting beginning. The weather has been glorious which has been such a blessing in settling the boys into their new school. They have been able to play outside so much that they have had precious few moments to dwell on the downside of the move.
The drive to school has been amazing. On the busiest day we met 4 moving vehicles (even having to reverse up one lane - as they are all single track) during the course of our 2 mile journey to the establishment. Pheasants, sheep and cows are our journey mates with cars and people hardly ever to be seen.
The boys have got out of the car at school every day with no hestitation and in Sammy's case with great vigor, as he is keen to join the others on the basketball court before school starts. If you asked them they would say that the place stinks but in the odd moment that they think you are not watching, they start singing some of the school songs. They start every day by shaking their teachers hand and singing morning verses together. We really couldn't have dreamt of a better start. After the dreadful interview experiece we thought we were in for a tough long fight with them both. But thankfully, it is not to be so.
Julie and I spent the week taking the boys to school, going to Starbuck to get an hour on the computer (which is an extorionate £5.00 but the coffee is great), visiting every house for sale in Canterbury and on Thursday, driving Julie up to London to do some work up there. It has been a special time for us all, looking at what we would all like in a new property.
We started off with the idea that it needed to be "downtown" so that we could be part of the student accommodation thing here. Apparently,according to a cab driver that Julie spoke to, there are 40,000 inhabitants here AND 40,000 students and on any given day, thousands of other visitors. It's bustling place and very youth oriented downtown.
However, having lived in perhaps the most beautiful rural location we have ever experienced in the UK, we are getting quite used to the idea of living further out of town. Our conversation no longer revolves around which streets we would like to live in but which of the surrounding vallies do we prefer. The Valley of Elham is the current favourite with the villages of Bridge and Barham topping the list. Imagine living in the conversation of "which valley do you prefer dear?". It has quite taken us aback.
Our chalet on the Yew Tree Park caravan site (I still haven't found the Yew Tree) has been brilliant. The accommodation is first class having only been built in the last 5 years. We have a modern fully equipped kitchen and a great bathroom (sadly with no bath) and 2 bedrooms. The lounge/diner/kitchen also has a fold down double bed so we can even have a couple of guests. Any takers?
The main room overlooks the site's swimming pool which is closed for the season but still filled and the sun sparkles off the water and throws patterns of light over our ceilings. With the weather we have been having this week and with the patio doors flung wide open, it really does feel like we are on another holiday. Not such a bad thing since it's been a few weeks now since we had a proper holiday.
Big downer is lack of comms. There is only a patchy Vodaphone signal up here. We are even on the top of a hill but it makes little difference. We are often cut off in the middle of calls as the signal drops out. The only way around it is to switch to Orange which I am in the process of looking at. We also don't have any internet connection. The Lord gives and takes away and don't we miss it? Can't really get on with serious house hunting as the internet is such a useful thing for this kind of job. Just trying to find places on map is hard work! I am also in negotiation with the camp kommandant about him putting in a broadband line for us but he is somewhat hesitant at this point so I am also looking at getting a 3G data card for the computer but I still don't know if that's going to give me any sort of speed that will be useful for looking at pictures of houses say. All in good time.
Church is a real blessing. Chris Pemberton has been so welcoming. We did start a conversation with him before we arrived so we were expected and he was looking out for us. On our second visit (today) we were the first people in the church that he asked up to the front to pray for those who had just come forward for ministry. I was quite shocked as they were all women who had gone up, so I pushed Julie up and she prayed for people as if she was a full time regular member of the church. About 25 people went up for prayer at the 11:15 am service. The sermon was given by an extraordinary young blind girl, who came up to the lecturn with her dog and braille machine (which contained only the verses she was using not her whole talk). She had the whole church in tears of laughter and joy (her sermon was about joy) and we were uplifted and filled with the spirit.
We came back from church today with the kitchen filled with the welcoming smell of a cooked chicken. We had left the timer on and it had worked. Later in the afternoon we played cricket on the huge newly moved lush grass expanse of the vacant touring caravan lots. The sun was shining as if spring were about to arrive again at any moment with not a hint of the weather that must surely be right around the corner. We have been told that there is a micro climate here but we are not sure whether this means it will be better or worse. Apparently the winters are colder because of the North winds coming down the Channel but it may also be drier and have clearer skies. Several people here have commented that it is never as dull and dreary as it can be in London but I don't know if this is a fact or just fanciful boasting by proud locals.
Business opportunities here relate mainly to the proliferation of students, visitors and tourists. Setting up or buying a Bed and Breakfast business is one possibility and we have looked at a couple. However, although they show impressive business results, the properties themselves are not the most suitable for us as a family. I have recently been drawn to the possibility of providing self-catering accommodation. Having done the research to find a place for ourselves, I am sure there is a lack of quality affordable accommodation of this type in the area. There may also be a movement away from traditional B & B and towards self-catering for those who prefer the privacy and flxibility it offers. What I do know is that all of the self-catering in Canterbury is booked almost indefinately. Most of it being used by long term business visitors who are in the process of re-locating (rather like us I guess). Next week I am going to spend some time with the Town Planners and the Local Tourist Board to get their views. I believe there are grants available for developing this type of business. I fancy a few downtown flats (one and two bedrooms from £85K) and prehaps a rural house with a few acres and some self-catering chalets in the paddock. We can all dream!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Canterbury - 10th October, 2005
We took the boys to school this morning for their first day. We saw only one other moving car, a pheasant, some sheep and the most glorious Kent countryside.
They were a little nervous but nothing like we had imagined. It was actually almost a pleasant experience. A boy from Julian's class came to collect him and chatted him into the group. Perfect.
I am now in a Starbucks typing on the PC. We have discovered that where we live has almost no signal from the Vodaphone network we are using on the mobile phone. I either have to switch to Orange or O2 or stand in the middle of a field. I was hoping that I could use the mobile phone to get on-line. I have asked the camp manager if I could have broadband installed. We are working on it. More later.
We took the boys to school this morning for their first day. We saw only one other moving car, a pheasant, some sheep and the most glorious Kent countryside.
They were a little nervous but nothing like we had imagined. It was actually almost a pleasant experience. A boy from Julian's class came to collect him and chatted him into the group. Perfect.
I am now in a Starbucks typing on the PC. We have discovered that where we live has almost no signal from the Vodaphone network we are using on the mobile phone. I either have to switch to Orange or O2 or stand in the middle of a field. I was hoping that I could use the mobile phone to get on-line. I have asked the camp manager if I could have broadband installed. We are working on it. More later.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Ealing to Canterbury - 8th October, 2005
3 months to the day since we arrived back home, we are on the move again. Today we are moving to Canterbury. We have made the decision to put the boys into a Waldorf Steiner school and after much research and visits all around the country, we chose Canterbury. It has the possibility of also being a good place for us to earn a living with a small hotel or bed and breakfast type business.
We are staying in a caravan park. It has a couple of lodges (chalet) available for self catering and we have taken one for the length of time it takes to find a permanent home. You can see the place here: www.yewtreepark.com.
Yes it is a new venture and a new start. The boys are not at all keen as they are being taken away from all their friends again and will have to start a new school. Not a very exciting prospect. Julie and I are sad to be leaving the place that has been our spriritual and physical home for nearly 10 years. All of our friends are here. Everything we know and love is here but it is time to move on.
Samuel Johnson said: "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
I guess we are just not intellectual enough and perhaps just a little tired of the pace of life London gives us. Having returned from our travels, the frenetic pace slaps you in face and it's back to running just to stand still. Without a mega job (and salary) we can no longer afford to stay here. In our experience (and we have been to Japan), London is now the most expensive place in the world to live.
It just beats me how all the Polish and Lithuanians, who have descended en masse to Ealing and the environs since we have been away, can afford to live here. But have you noticed some of the cars they are driving? I saw a Lithuanian plate on a £60,000 BMW last week. I guess you can earn quite a bit as a plasterer these days. I just paid 2 guys £800 per 8 hours work. That's £50 per hour. When I still had a job I never got beyond £25 per hour!
Anyway we will be looking for a more realistic level of activity and earning in our new home and we are delighted to see 6 and 7 bedroom properties starting at £300K (which is nearly what our 2 bed flat would get in Ealing!).
We will be going to St. Mary's Chruch in Canterbury which is Chris Pemberton's church. Chris is now a New Wine leader and this year co-hosted with Mark Mellhuish. You can see more about the church here: http://www.smb.org.uk/. They have some great downloads on their site. You can download and listen to the Sunday sermon usually pretty soon after it has been delivered.
I will try to keep the blog posted as to our progress. I also have to finish off our travel entries (how many times have you heard that!). Hopefully a move relaxed pace of life will help.
Our contact details are very sketchy. The only real way of getting in touch is by mobile phone. I don't want to post it here as it will be picked up by some search engine or other. If you need to contact us, e-mail to the usual address (send a comment to this blog with your e-mail address if you need ours). I will also be sending out an e-mail with details in it in the next few days. Greetings to all.
3 months to the day since we arrived back home, we are on the move again. Today we are moving to Canterbury. We have made the decision to put the boys into a Waldorf Steiner school and after much research and visits all around the country, we chose Canterbury. It has the possibility of also being a good place for us to earn a living with a small hotel or bed and breakfast type business.
We are staying in a caravan park. It has a couple of lodges (chalet) available for self catering and we have taken one for the length of time it takes to find a permanent home. You can see the place here: www.yewtreepark.com.
Yes it is a new venture and a new start. The boys are not at all keen as they are being taken away from all their friends again and will have to start a new school. Not a very exciting prospect. Julie and I are sad to be leaving the place that has been our spriritual and physical home for nearly 10 years. All of our friends are here. Everything we know and love is here but it is time to move on.
Samuel Johnson said: "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
I guess we are just not intellectual enough and perhaps just a little tired of the pace of life London gives us. Having returned from our travels, the frenetic pace slaps you in face and it's back to running just to stand still. Without a mega job (and salary) we can no longer afford to stay here. In our experience (and we have been to Japan), London is now the most expensive place in the world to live.
It just beats me how all the Polish and Lithuanians, who have descended en masse to Ealing and the environs since we have been away, can afford to live here. But have you noticed some of the cars they are driving? I saw a Lithuanian plate on a £60,000 BMW last week. I guess you can earn quite a bit as a plasterer these days. I just paid 2 guys £800 per 8 hours work. That's £50 per hour. When I still had a job I never got beyond £25 per hour!
Anyway we will be looking for a more realistic level of activity and earning in our new home and we are delighted to see 6 and 7 bedroom properties starting at £300K (which is nearly what our 2 bed flat would get in Ealing!).
We will be going to St. Mary's Chruch in Canterbury which is Chris Pemberton's church. Chris is now a New Wine leader and this year co-hosted with Mark Mellhuish. You can see more about the church here: http://www.smb.org.uk/. They have some great downloads on their site. You can download and listen to the Sunday sermon usually pretty soon after it has been delivered.
I will try to keep the blog posted as to our progress. I also have to finish off our travel entries (how many times have you heard that!). Hopefully a move relaxed pace of life will help.
Our contact details are very sketchy. The only real way of getting in touch is by mobile phone. I don't want to post it here as it will be picked up by some search engine or other. If you need to contact us, e-mail to the usual address (send a comment to this blog with your e-mail address if you need ours). I will also be sending out an e-mail with details in it in the next few days. Greetings to all.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Ealing, London - 22nd July, 2005
We are preparing to go to the New Wine Conference. This is a church camping trip with 15,000 people over 2 weeks. We are going for the first week. There are many lectures, talks, services and opportunities to worship. We have been for the last 6 six years except the last. It is held on the Brisol and Bath Showgrounds in Sheppton Mallet, Somerset.
We have been back in the UK for 2 weeks nows and the boys have been enjoying meeting up with all their friends at school, some of them will be coming with our church to New Wine. We have been sorting out the flat, cleaning, visiting and talking alot about the future.
If you are still reading the blog and don't want to have to keep checking in to see if there are any updates, please enter your e-mail address in the "subscribe" box to the right and at the top. Then you will not need to check back in to see if there have been any updates but you will get an e-mail to tell you that there has been one.
We will be away for a week and will not be able to do any computer work. Effectively we will be off line for a week.
Greetings.
We are preparing to go to the New Wine Conference. This is a church camping trip with 15,000 people over 2 weeks. We are going for the first week. There are many lectures, talks, services and opportunities to worship. We have been for the last 6 six years except the last. It is held on the Brisol and Bath Showgrounds in Sheppton Mallet, Somerset.
We have been back in the UK for 2 weeks nows and the boys have been enjoying meeting up with all their friends at school, some of them will be coming with our church to New Wine. We have been sorting out the flat, cleaning, visiting and talking alot about the future.
If you are still reading the blog and don't want to have to keep checking in to see if there are any updates, please enter your e-mail address in the "subscribe" box to the right and at the top. Then you will not need to check back in to see if there have been any updates but you will get an e-mail to tell you that there has been one.
We will be away for a week and will not be able to do any computer work. Effectively we will be off line for a week.
Greetings.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The End (posting date 18th May 2021)
The journey is over. We have been away for 337 days.
It was one hell of a trip.
There were times when all us of wished we were back at home, but looking back now, I hope there is never a thought that we wish we had never done it.
It was a self indulgence on my part, and I freely admit to that. But I hope it was something from which we all built some life long memories, as life is our memories, good and bad.
It is with much love that I have edited this blog and inserted loads of photos. The original blog wasn't able to hold that many photos. And the updated blog is still live at londonboards.blogspot.com. I continued the blog after we got back and there is quite a bit in there that covers our move to Canterbury and the first few years of us being there and building our property business.
And to finish off, here are some calendars and ticket photos.
All my love
Dad
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