I’d join the UK landlords group on Facebook and ask the same question on there or just search some of the older posts.  There’s some really smart helpful people there, some sales people and some absolute cretins but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which is which.

Philips Sonicare user and occasional Oral B user. I would recommend Booheads on the Sonicare. They seem better than the Philips OEM heads which are way better than cheap eBay ones. My dentist told me to go and buy the oral B toothbrush with the pressure indicator but she didn’t notice any difference and I prefer the Sonicare. I’ll probably try Suri when the Sonicare battery dies as I’m sucked in by the marketing and decent battery life sounds good. I had a more expensive Sonicare before the cheap one and battery life is the only noticeable difference for me. I’d pay more for one that could be plugged into a USB rather needing to set it on a base plugged into a USB

USA was great back around 2007 when it was almost $2 for £1. Combined with good early season snow and more flexibility on accommodation you could put together a 10 day Christmas and new year stay for not much more than a high altitude Euro trip. Nowadays it’s swung the other way with east coast Americans looking at Europe.

hopefully this season has some more consistent snow across Europe or at least low enough temperatures to allow what does fall to last.

It’s pretty much a bunch of rocks without a guide.  When I go back I will definitely get a guide and it will more than likely just be one of the locals looking for a job.  Herculaneum was better imo and a guide less important.

It would be nice if our local council would empty the bins frequently enough. They’re often overflowing. Surely that’s got to be worth sorting out rather than paying to clean it up later on.

The Guinea Grill is a decent alternative to The Devonshire.

Regent’s Canal and Camden area is painful enough to walk never mind take a bike.

Putney and along the river then heading up to Richmond Park is fairly pleasant.  Follow that with a lap of the outer gravel path in the park and finish up at the Roebuck before sunset.

Thinking a bit further, the Thames path really does depend which section you’re on.  The Chiswick side near Kew is a no go and the Kew Gardens loop from the bridge to Richmond can be too narrow for a bike to pass a person especially when sharing the space isn’t thought of much.

Thanks all for the advice.  Offer has now been accepted.  I’ll never really know but I am using the agents recommended mortage broker and maybe that’s what has swung it in our favour in the end.  The extra that I put into our BAFO comes to £20 a month so not an amount that I would want to lose a good place for.

It has a garage and a shed! :-)

The opposition, at least some of them, are likely to be first time buyers without chains so likely as good a bet as we are.

My opinion on that part of the market in London is that there is always demand when something decent, affordable and non-leasehold / crazy service charges becomes available.

As for pricing, to buy something else the same and extend to a much lower standard would cost a lot more. I think the agents have got the pricing right, nobody is going to go much above for the type of property and location but somebody is going to be lucky.

We’re not overstretching ourselves which is maybe a mistake in some respects. We could spend more but would rather keep it comfortable.

When I say the house is nothing special, I mean in that it’s going to have an upper price limit but this is probably the best example you could find  of the type of house that it is but wouldn’t expect it to be worth much more. Hopefully that makes sense.

I’m sure it’s genuine. The house in itself is nothing special / has an upper limit on what it’s worth but the standard of work on everything is absolutely top notch. There’s lots of evidence of multiple viewings.

It varies by country and location.  Goldcar in Pisa were wasting everyones time trying to sell insurance and nobody was able to get their car checked on return.  I’ve found them to be good in Portugal and Mallorca.

The worst experience was Firefly in Barcelona who wouldn’t hand the keys over as I was refusing all extras.  I asked if I could have a second driver to which they replied no problem and then added an additional unquoted cost which couldn’t be refunded.  At the time, I did think of booking a lot of cars for the future with free cancellation and cancelling them last minute.

• Train to reading then Elizabeth line.
• consider staying overnight at any point suitable.
• Late start, overnight, early finish and advance train

you need to work out a way to make this fun and enjoy your monthly London trip and accept a few quid extra is worth it. The alternative is shit.

I was in Stanstead very early morning, connecting for another flight,  got to the gate early just to chill out and read, nobody else there, and just after i sat down I saw that someone had done a shit on the carpet. So I vote Stanstead.

This is one of the least surprising things I’ve read on STW.

Anyway, a bit niche but best airport rental car return is Munich. Usually under 2 minutes from stopping the car to being inside the terminal.

Aside from rental car, LHR T5 & T2 are pretty decent especially when you consider that T5 is bigger than all of Stansted. T3 & T4 need to be flattened though.  In general, South African airports are of a decent standard.  Amsterdam is good for a big airport.  Any airport that has a train actually in the terminal is good.  Luton really should have tunelled the line below the terminal.

Worst lounge award goes to Shanghai – everything stinks of cigs and the sandwiches look like what a petrol station might be throwing away but got kept for a few days longer before being put out in the lounge.

Supernova

For pretty much every house in the UK that somebody would like to buy there’s someone who would like to rent it for various reasons other than simple affordability.  If you legislate to control the price / availability of houses to buy you will hurt those who want to rent.  I don’t know if you had noticed but the rental sector is in a bit of a post-covid crisis with lack of availability pushing prices well beyond what is reasonably affordable.

The basic problem is a lack of decent houses where people want or need to live.

If you run it as a buy to let with your son as a tenant then check your potential lender is going to be ok with that. I’m pretty sure that letting to family is not seen as a good thing. E.g. would you really evict your son or his close friend for non-payment of rent etc

Also, being 18 at uni is a time in your life when circumstances change fairly fast. I’d value flexibility and suck up the cost while thinking more about what happens when he finishes.

My Spanish girlfriend asked me if it was the normal arrangement in UK to leave all the mess after doing a job. Not saying it was right or wrong but just trying to get an understanding that tidying up definitely wasn’t included.

I told her we’re usually ok with cleaning on the basis they’ve turned up and done an acceptable job.

Koyasan, stay in a temple.  Of the 2 weeks I spent there this is one of the best memories. Another good one was eating okonomoyaki in Hiroshima as per the Lonely Planet recommendation.

I think it’s wholly unreasonable to place restrictions on anyone being made redundant.  Even more so that they want to make it 2 years.

Certain parts of the travel industry have made redundancies in the last few months and I think you can expect more after 2022 possibly being a peak.

I’d get together and colectively tell them to have another look at that one.

If the tubes aren’t running then buses tend to be rammed, roads jammed and hire bikes scarce.

Elizabeth line and a bit of walking is probably your best bet. Have a look at where you want to go and see if you can make that work.

There’s not much daylight in Scotland in the first week in January. Add in queues to park, queues to buy a ticket and more queues to get on a lift that will inevitably break down and you’ll get about 2 runs in which is all you’ll want to do as the wind will have cut right through you. Then it’ll be dark.

If you really want to try it wait a few months. I expect if everything comes together you could have a really good day in April otherwise leave it to the locals who can decide on the day.

Dell paid for with an American Express.  £100 cashback on a spend over £750 if you have the card or know somebody who does.  I’ve had my Dell Vostro for 3 years and it’s been faultless as have all the other Dell’s I’ve had from work over the years.  HP on the other hand is a different story.  If I couldn’t get a Dell I’d go with Lenovo as the gf had a good experience with her work issued ones.

I wouldn’t be worrying about it from a fraud point of view as it’s booking.com and I assume you’re paying them and not the accomodation provider but surely there is something else with more flexibility out there?

I own an E46 coupe and have had it for coming up on 20 years. It’s a really nice, mile munching motorway / decent A road cruiser. It’s absolutely awful over anything bumpy. As it’s 20 years old it’s lacking things like smartphone integration and my 2002 version has a cassette player as standard. It’s fast but not in an exciting way but plenty quick enough to upset people here. It’s very well built. It’s not so cool that some 20 something is going to think you’re anything other than enjoying a rather lame mid life crisis. I would absolutely have another one as it’s at least equal to current cars that I’ve rented and seems to have enough of a following that they might start to creep up in value rather than fall.

Go to Trastavere and eat there.  There’s still plenty of tourists but it’s more balanced with locals, seems a wee bit cheaper and is a welcome break from the main tourist sites (which are all really good and shouldn’t be missed).

Il Gelato di San Crispino near Trevi fountain is worth finding and just generally doing a bit of gelato research before you go is worth the effort.

Madrid?  It will be quite lively, there’s a good chance of the weather being decent, food is decent, pretty cheap really.

Alternatives would be Porto or Lisbon.

I’d just go with whichever of those 3 has suitably priced flights.

Couple of bits:

The trouble was really geographically isolated for the most part.  We all knew where to find it and where to stay away from so mostly people led a normal life.

Since no one’s mentioned, the 1916 Easter Rising was initially extremely unpopular amongst most Irish people but the unnecessarily brutal reaction by the British soon changed that.

I went to a mainly Protestant school and learnt our history roughly from Henry VIII onwards.  We were left in no doubt that the way the British did things in Ireland left them responsible for the mass death an migration brought about by the famine.  I feel they’d have done it to their own people just as readily though.

My dads cousin was killed in an IRA bomb so I’m pretty much against Sinn Fein but it would be nice to have an alternative to the unionist parties.

Brexit has brought a united Ireland closer by many years but given half of NI looks to London for it’s media that’s still a long way off.

Incorporate the Sant Salvador monastery into a trip over to the eastern side of the island.

The walking is going to be great at this time of the year. Lots of nice stuff around Fornalutx so you could do something circular there or go down to Puerto Soller and get a bus / taxi back. There will be similar great options near Pollenca as well but I don’t know them.

Get some really cheap accommodation in Palma and have a night out there. Old town / cathedral / Llotja / Santa Catalina areas.

BA are good about paying hotels, taxis, meals (3 per day). The hotel allowance is £200 unless you can prove there’s nothing else available for less which I’ve never tried to do. They have pushed back on alcohol and pointing out that had I been allowed to check in I’d have drink more in their lounge without paying didn’t get them to change their mind. They usually pay within 2 to 3 weeks of the expense claim along with the compensation if you’re entitled to it.

If it includes the site where the container sits it could be a bit of a bargain. A studio in that area is probably around £1500 PCM to rent.

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Liverpool Victoria do 6 months. While you’re at it check on breakdown cover. Most places won’t sell you euro cover for an older car but you can get around this by buying along with car insurance.</p>
I suspect a new policy might be cheaper than an upgrade or 1 month deal.

Highway to Hell

For iPhone, does anyone know what software version is required. Checking my mums and she’s on v 2.10.1.7653. I can’t check as she’s just  knocked the sensor out and hasn’t got a spare so hoping when she puts a new one in it works for her.

You wouldn’t dare try paying a VAT bill 3 months late.

Depends what time you’d be arriving into London.  After 3PM there is some good on street parking close to West Ealing Elizabeth line.  I’d expect the underground station car parks to be fairly full if there are strikes on trains.

Put him on the Brexit bus, tour all the stocks in the country and stop outside every hospital so NHS staff can clap for him.

Get ready for a diet that is mainly steak!  Try and figure what causes your IBS before you go and avoid it when you’re there.

Car rental is relatively expensive and the coaches are good but you go to their times and not your own.  With a month to play with I don’t think that’s such a big deal.  If you do rent a car make sure you plan to refuel as petrol stations can be 150 miles apart.

September is the start of tourist season. Some flights are summer only so you might have to route via BA so I would go closer to Christmas rather than our summer. You can also expect to get your flights changed and very little help from airlines. For that reason I would book through an agent. My native Spanish speaking gf really struggled with airline ineptness.

Perito Moreno glacier is a great day trip from El Calafate but there isn’t much else there. El Chalten is good for hiking and worth going to.

Iguazu is a must visit and I would say go to the Brazilian side as well. It’s different enough to be worth doing both.

Learn about the currency black market and take dollars or euros with you. Pounds are useless.

I didn’t go to Salta but that is the one place I regret missing out on. For me the wine is better than Mendoza and there seems to be plenty to see.

In BA my favourite area was San Telmo which is pretty touristy but if you’ve not been then I think that’s ok. La Boca was also touristy in a Camden Market kind of way.

Fexofenadine, used to be prescription only but now over the counter (brand name Allevia) is the only pill that works for me and some eyedrops.  It’s been bad since March and still lingering a bit although grass doesn’t seem to bother me quite as much.

A decent manager will want you to be happy. You know you’ll pay them back when the opportunity arises.