Friday 27 November 2015

The Joy of Holiday Ownership


Joy or Hassle? While there are a lot of things you have to be prepared to provide for a holiday home, especially if you are sub-letting it out in holiday season, it has to be joy.

We are happy owners of a 2-bedroomed static caravan on a park 5 miles from Newquay, in Cornwall. We have owned it for a year, had 4 holidays down there, and have ended up making a small profit. We didn't buy the 'van to actually make money. We would have been just as happy if the ground rent had been covered for next season, which it has.
Yes, there are charges for various things:- electric, gas, minor repairs or call outs, cleaning, etc. But all these are taken into account at the end of the year when it is balanced with the income from the sub-lets. So basicaally we have had 4 holidays for nothing and ended up with money our pockets. Result!

The park we are on, Travella Park, is a nice quiet site. There is a heated outdoor swimming pool , a games and TV room, cafe, small pet area (with resident European Eagle Owl) and launderette. But no big club room, or amusement arcade so it really is a lot quieter than the bigger camps. It also has two large well-stocked fishing lakes available for the anglers who visit.
The staff are really friendly and very helpful. The management is superb and you are kept abreast of everything that needs to be done. There are even “Owner events” which are, surprisingly, just for hoiday home owners. The holiday season is from March to October, but owners can still use their homes up to the end of December. January and February it is closed to all but staff, for maintenance.

Cornwall is a fantastic county to visit. Wherever you stay you are only half-hour from a beach. There is so much history that attractions are everywhere. Weather is a bit more temperate than the rest of the UK, but if the wind blows you know about it!

It really is an ideal place to have a holiday home, be it lodge, cottage or caravan. You can be certain of it being let out for several weeks each season, because it is so popular with holiday makers.
If anyone was thinking of buying a holiday home, I'd thoroughly recommend it. We had a lot of doubts. Hw much would the ground rent be? Would we get enough to cover it? What about the upkeep? The sales staff, for us, were excellent. Told us everything, answered all our questions and we have had no surprises sprung on us throughout the year.

Go on, go for it! You will be glad you did!

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Unfair Treatment

“In these days of changing ways, so called liberated days”..... so goes the song voiced by Rod Stewart back in 1976.

Well, I guess the 'gay-bashing' has changed a lot, which was the whole idea of the song, but why can't this relate to the whole world? If we are so “liberated” why can't we learn to live and let live? I know most of us will feel this way. It always seems to be just a zealous few that spoil it for everyone else, claiming unfair treatment, or 'wrong beliefs'  or some other obscure reason.

Surely we have enough specialised teams ( British SAS, American Navy SEALS, and I am sure other countries have similar) that we can take care of the ring leaders of these antagonsitic groups, rather than risk the hundreds of everyday troops? 
This would also save millions of pounds that could be better spent on re-homing our veterans that have returned from these war zones with so many problems, resulting in an unacceptable amount struggling to cope with “normal” daily life and ending up on the streets.

I do have sympathy for all those refugees seeking to escape their embattled homelands, but I still believe that “Charity begins at home” and that we should take care of our own before assisting others.

Being ex-Forces myself I have so much respect and admiration for our men and women that serve in such hostile areas and I don't believe they get the full support they deserve on their return.


So many of my friends, ex-Forces and Nurses, agree with my sentiments. How come the Government won't listen? Instead they seem to ignore our brave troops and throw money at housing and social needs of those immigrants, be they refugees or asylum seekers. 

If it were not for our Armed Forces there would not be a 'Free Britain' for these immigrants to escape to.  Come on, Parliament. Do the right thing by the people YOU send to war to fight for OUR freedom. It's about time! 

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Moving Home.

Not just moving house, but moving home, has always been a stressful time.

This is made more so when you find the ideal home you want to move to, manage to sell your own, only to have the buyers pull out….twice!
It makes you feel like you are messing the vendors, of the house YOU want, about.  Of course, it is a situation out of your control, but if you are like me you still don't like the situation.

That's the dilemma myself and family are facing at the moment.  We made the decision a while ago that we wanted to move from our South Lincolnshire to settle in Cornwall.  This was made easier by situations arising at work that meant I had to leave my current project. We already know Cornwall well due to the fact that we have a static caravan there that we use for holidays, plus one of our daughters lives there, and son has previously lived there too.

So our house went on sale, we had out first buyer within 2 weeks. I spent 2 days in Cornwall looking at 5 properties and finding an ideal one for us. It was a main bungalow, with a 1-bed annexe for my son to have his own freedom. He lives with us at present due to a disability caused by a motorcycle accident 8 years ago. He had to have a leg amputated, but can still manage the majority of what's needed to survive.

We had agreed a price on this new place, only to have our buyers pull out 3 days later.  Then we sold again, only to have these new buyers pull out after 4 days. It's so frustrating.

The situation now is that we have a "prospective" buyer on the hook.  She initially offered us £15,000 below the asking price. This, as far as we are concerned, was a derisory offer as we have already reduced the price to be able to sell quickly. At the moment she is "sorting her finances out" to come back with an improved offer. No idea what is going to happen, so it still remains on sale at present.

As far as we know the house in Cornwall is still on sale and just waiting for us!

The reason we love Cornwall so much is that it is so laid back and a slower pace of life. Everybody is so friendly there. And wherever you are, you are no further than 30 minutes from the sea. Approaching more senior years we are looking to slow down and enjoy our lives. Spending more time with my wife is one of the key factors to the move. And it also provides such wonderful inspiration for me to do my freelance writing.
This is a picture of Carnack Bay, just 3 miles from our caravan.  This was an overcast and windy day, but it was so invigorating that it was still enjoyable.

This is Perranporth, another of the many high class beaches around the Cornish coast, and gives you some idea of what a fantastic area it is when the weather is good. Which is more often than not, compared to the rest of the country.

So, hopefully, you can understand my keenness to move to the county as soon as possible. Please don't get me wrong, I don't dislike where I live at the moment, it's just that Cornwall has so much more to offer. I already feel that Cornwall is my home, maybe I was a Celt in a former life.

As I said in my first post the biggest upheaval will be leaving our eldest daughter and 3 grandchildren up here. This has been a major source of headaches since we made the decision.  But at our time of life we believe we should think more of us (wife and I) than others, as we have been doing for over 33 years now! It's our time to be together for us.  Even if this means making some unpopular decisions. I am sure it will all work out in the end. 
As I said at the start, moving home is a stressful time!

Sunday 15 November 2015

Thoughts on Paris

Once again, hundreds of peoples' lives have been changed by a few radical madmen.  Doing hideous acts of violence in the name of religion defies sensibility.  How can they believe their God (whoever he/she be) would condone the slaying of innocent people in their name?

And why keep hitting Paris? It's not as if the French Armed Forces, while being involved,  are at the forefront of the activities in the East.  There just seems no logical reason, but then maybe that's the point. Perhaps these cowards attack people they know cannot fight back and therefore are guaranteed success in whatever they believe their mission to be.

There have been reports that one of the teams that hit Paris recently was an asylum seeker. Again this is a possibility. I am sure that nearly all the souls looking for help at the borders are genuine, but how do we know that there aren't "sleepers" among them, ready to radicalise the home populations or carry out similar atrocities? Answer: we don't. But this should not stop us assisting those who are escaping the same dangers in their own homelands. It is, without doubt, a complex situation.
On my trips to France I have found the majority (not all, I admit!) of French people to be very friendly, without animosity and, just like most right-thinking people, a peaceful nation.  But where does that leave the countries that ARE at the forefront? We sit here waitng for when (not if) they attack us on our home soil. Security is heightened everywhere, as it should be. Because no-one knows  how it will happen or who by.

But rather than causing nations to cower, these attacks just strengthen resolve to find and eradicate the  inhumane animals that are leading these mis-guided ideals.

This is NOT an anti-Muslim rant. I have friends who are Muslims and are as appalled as I am at the events in France this weekend. They ARE a peace loving religion. It is just some that use the Qoran for their own means and interpretation. I do worry that acts like this will rear an anti-Muslim faction in the countries that get attacked. This is not going to help anybody and certainly not get back at the people that are causing all the problems.

I am ex-RAF and proud of it. I have several colleagues that I keep in contact with around the same age as me, which is approaching retirement.  All of us are of the same opinion that, despite our advanced years, we would gladly, once again, take up arms in the fight against these people, hiding behind their misguided beliefs, and fight for Queen and country.

All we can do is hope and pray that one day a positive outcome can be found.

Friday 13 November 2015

First Blog

Welcome to my blog.

This is a new venture for me, which goes along with the rest go my life at the moment.

For the last few months I have been wondering where my life is going.  At present I am a Registered Nurse working with a MS project for a pharmaceutical company.
It's a work-from-home job that leaves me to control my own diary and make appointments etc.  Due to the fluctuation in the medication market there has been a downturn in the product I am involved with.  This has seen the company having to cut our team back considerably. Nearly half the team is being redeployed onto other projects within the company.

Because of this position I have found out how much I enjoy spending time at home with my wife and pets (3dogs, 2 cats). So I took the decision to embark on a Freelance writing course, with the intention of doing this full-time. I am glad to say it is working out well. I already have two articles about to be published, have passed all my assignments with good comments and am even more confident that this will be my career going forward.

At the same time we are moving home from South Lincolnshire to Cornwall, as much for work as inspiration for the writing. We have a static caravan close to Newquay and one of our daughters' lives near St. Ives. We love the laid back atmosphere of Cornwall as well as the friendliness of the locals. It's almost like going back in time when you visit.
                                                       
                                                       Crantock Bay, near Newquay.


                                   Who would not want to see this sort of scenery every day?

The biggest wrench with this is having to leave our eldest daughter, her husband and 3 grandkids in South Lincolnshire. It has been a real soul-searching time to have to make the decision, but I also feel that it is time for my wife, Dawn, and I to spend some "together time" having spent over 30 years making decisions with thoughts of others at the forefront. Now it's time for us.

Hence the title of this blog, "Change of Life", from career to location, all is changing and it's both exciting and challenging at the same time.

I hope you will join me on this journey.
Thanks for reading.