Ziatitina

So...now that autumn is now truly upon us, I have given up the last bit of summer hope. I don't really know how things are in your end of the world, but London has seen it in full blast... torrential rain, 7 C mornings ( yes, I unpacked the scarf..the gloves had to stay home though..September is just way too early for that!!!), wind wind wind, and...how could it not be...the days are getting shorter again. The joys of the seasons....

But, let's get onto the good news. It is with enourmous pride and joy that I can announce that on Sunday 23rd September baby Adriano was welcomed to the world in Rome. Guys, I am SO happy for you and trust me the " London Aunty" will swing by very soon for a necessary visit. :) Thanks to e-mails and a very proud uncle I received some adorable pictures. I think I'm in love already :)

On another note, I had to put my flat plans on hold for a few month due to unforseeable circumstances at work. Nothing too dramatic, but hey....we like to embrace new challenges and even though I can't really yet divulge any further information the initial panic has now disappeared and I am looking forward to some serious changes ( or not??) that...we'll have to see. While I'm gutted and wish I already had my own 4 walls, things normally tend to happen for a reason and I'll definitely keep you informed on any developments.

For the moment I will be looking forward to my Milan trip on Tuesday. A well-deserved holiday was truly necessary and even if for once it's not some exotic destination or a boat it will certainly be a blast. All will kick off with Ade's birthday dinner on Tuesday...can' wait!!!!

Take care and.... catch you in 2 weeks!

Tine

OMG, it's all turning real.... After thinking about stepping on the property ladder for about a year now and having lived in rented accomodation in London for the last 6 years...I guess it's time to do something about it. Not only did I not have a clue about mortgages, repayments, deposits, stamp duty and any of the other proceudres involved in this, it also feels like the scariest thing I have ever done before...

But let's take one step at a time. I will tell you a little about my progress so far and keep you in the loop about what will happen over the next 6 month. Call it "Tine's guide to property...aka...she doesn't have a clue" :) So,where to start? Firstly I had to find out how much money I could actually budget for and what amount of mortgage I would be able to get from the bank with an affordable repayment. Easier said than done... trust me, the mortgage calculators on the various websites all around are only a rough indication and will never give you the full insight. For example do they not tell you about te bank arrangement fee, the interest increase after the fixed period etc. Watch it, because there are some deals out there that appear to be really good, but you find yourslef with a 4K arrangement fee. Not a good idea.

 So, after a lot of contemplation, I went to see an independent financial advisor recommended by a client of mine who is a real estate solicitor. I am glad to confirm that half of the grey area ( mortgage & finances) has been tackled and I know that I have a pretty good budget to work with...and I can afford it! I could not believe my eyes, but here you have it. Remember that you pay these guys a flat arrangement fee that can vary, up to you if you want to do that or speak to the bank directly instead. Given lucky circumstances it is better than I thought, but I am keeping an eye on the interest rates hoping that they will fall before I attempt the BIG step. Mmmmmmm. While I still need to tackle another thousand questions, it is not holding me back from starting to have a look around... there are quite a few websites out there, especially for the UK. Find A Property, Right Move and Property Finder are just a few, but there are a good starting point to get some ideas about areas and prices. The choice is that wide it appears to make it just more difficult and I have spent quite a few hours on there.

If I could afford it, I would stay in Bayswater where I am currently living. Not only is this Zone 1, it also has Hyde Park next door, Paddington and its brilliant connections on the doorstep and Queensway with all its shops and restaurants...not to forget the Notting Hill Carnival :) Should I ever win the lottery then I will definitely think about it, but in the meantime ... not a chance!!! So....having roughly sorted the budget I am know having a look around and see which areas I could be interested in. London is just so big it's really hard to know where to start. At the moment I am very much tending towards West London with Ealing, Acton, Hanwell etc. It has good connections into town and while Ealing itself is still quite pricey, we are slowly starting to get more reasonable. And... it's near Heathrow!!! Some of these areas I have already seen, others I have driven through and / or talked about with Paolo and his mum. They have both lived in Ealing and surroundings for quite some time and do know the areas a lot better than me. Now I just need to go there by myself and check out those areas that are a little further outside - Zone 4 or 5. yes I know, that is quite a hike, but in order to get myself sorted with something decent I better do the sacrifice. It will be hard to have double the time to get to work, but I am sure it's worth it. Call me a dreamer, but I am hoping in a little more green around me :)

Let's summarize:

STEP 1 - figure out how much you can spend ( mortgage + deposit - expenses = approx budget) through a bank or independent fiancial advisor

STEP 2 - decide how much you want to spend ( refurbishment, mortgage repayments, furniture, additional expenses you may get etc.)

STEP 3 - coose an area you want to live in ( if you are not familiar with it, do research and visit it extensively)

STEP 4 - contact estate agent(s) in the area and get busy looking ( try to have a rough idea of what you acctually want...)

I haven't even reached step 4 yet, but the plan is to get there by mid October. Firstly I will be going back to Italy for 10 days with a few days in Civitanova Marche and hopefully another 2 in Bolzano with my little brother and his girlfriend. Once I have talked it through properly with mum & dad then I guess I will be ready to move onto step 4. What a great investment opportunity, even if one day I decide to move back home I would still have a London crib :) ( And in case you're wondering...it's realitively easy to change the mortgage from first buyer to buy-to-let)...so....there really isn't much holding me back right now, unless obviously there is a further interest rise. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Happy Saturday everyone, are you watching the Rugby World Cup as well??? :)

Tine

Some news from New Zealand, courtesy of Helen's dad.

The NZ beer brand Speight's ( she tells me it's really really really good, but they don't sell it over here so I can't really tell ) is sending a ship all the way from Dunedin to London with a pub on it. I guess the best thing about this uniquely created pub is the fact that they made it out of 2 containers and...it's operational at sea!!!!!! Do I need to say more? :) The "Speight's Great Beer Delivery" will reach London in 21 days and moore on the Themse, and all of this to bring some decent kiwi beer to their mate Tim. Well, I guess there are a few others that are in desperate need of some "home brew" so I am sure it will be a really fun event. To read more and check the latest videos ( they are in New York at the moment) click here What a great idea.....

Tine

...and the days are slowly getting shorter again. Against all expectations we had 2 weeks of gorgeous sunshine, but still...that is not making up for the summer we didn't have. One pretty harsh thing about this month is the fact that there are not more bank holidays until 25th December. Absolutely shocking...and it also reminds everyone that christmas is almost on our door step once again. Thinking about christmas...not only did I already have various e-mails about christmas parties, the venue we went to on Friday evening had a white, decorated christmas tree parked right near the staircase. Lucy and myself could not believe our eyes. It's September, summer is slowly finishing and we are due to get some truly beautiful autumn days. Who wants to think about christmas???

I had a bit of spare time this weekend, and just randomly had a look around what September means historically... Did you know that on 1st September 1951 Britain's first supermarket opened in Earl's Court, London? It wasn' that long ago, wasn't it? And now, we have a Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose or M&S at every single corner. Between 2nd - 6th September 1666 the Great fire of London destroyed a big party of the city, which caused the re-building of the houses to be out of stone rather than wood. The most curious thing I found though is 11 days that are completely missing of the calendar. Britain changed to the Gregorian Calendar on 3rd September 1752 and by doing so the date jumped immediately to the 14th. Oh well, I leave it at that...

We went to celebrate Katy's Leaving due on Friday evening. The lucky lady is off to far away shores with her boyfriend next week and if I am say I am really jealous it's a total understatement. :) It's been a busy week anyways, with Wolfi visiting from Curacao we managed to meet up a few times and even went to see a musical - Wicked. It's a really good laugh, go and see it if you have a chance.

Back to friday though...destination on this occasion was The Loop bar near Oxford Street and it turned out to be a real good laugh.

 Katy, Chris & I - she obviously could not not have this lovely Australia hat. I got told though that it's purely a touristy-thing and nobody over there actually wears it. Proof was a short minute after this picture was taken she got approached by an Aussie girl who questioned rather arrogantly why she was wearing it as if she didn't have the right to. Whatever is wrong with people I really don't get it, get a life please! :)

Cousins Lu & Katy...can't you tell?

Me, Stu & Jo - I couldn't help but trying the "Aussie Feeling" myself :)

Perry & John

Lu & Me - please note the lady in the pink top behind us. I could not believe my eyes when I downloaded the pictures today. Whatever...

So...another weekend is over. Wolfi will go back to Curacao tomorrow and I am counting the days to fly to Milan. 2 weeks to go and I'll hopefully have some really nice and realxing days. In the meantime I make sure I won't get bored and start looking into mortgages. Oh yes, Property Ladder here I come!!! Not sure how it will work out, but it's time to stop just thinking about it and start acting. The appointment with the financial advisor is done and I will know more on Wednesday, in the meantime I guess I need to pick an area where I can see myself living or at least owning a property. The thought is quite scary and exciting at the same time. But more about that once I start getting my facts together, have a good night.

Tine

I had the great honour and pleasure to attend a truly unique and special event this weekend - the Goodwood Revival. Now, I have to be entirely honest and admit that I did not have a clue this event existed or what it was until Tuesday evening last week. One of my clients,Nick, very kindly invited me to come along as they had a spare ticket. After getting some basic information about it I decided that this was definitely worth attending. Well, there's always something new to learn isn't there?? Let me tell you a little about it though. The estate itself is located in Sussex, near the coast of Brighton and Bognor Regis and it takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive down there from London. The scenery is amazing, massive green hills, small towns with very typical country-pubs, a countless number of roundabouts and a very high possibility of getting lost while trying to find it. :)

Between 1948 and 1966 the Goodwood Motor Circuit was as famous as Silverstone and hosted all sorts of races, inclusing Formula 1. The Revival is reminding about this glorious period and truthfully ambiented in the 50's and 60's. So, it isnt' only a historical race with the most amazing cars, it does as well reflect those years in every possible way. Click here to read more about it : Goodwood Revival So, having made my mind up almost immediately that this couldn't be missed I realised that I had to find an approriate outfit. Jeans are not really on, and to fit in with the historical background an appropriate dress is on order. Thanks to my "dress adviser" Helen and a trip down to our local Vintage Shop I was extremely lucky to find just the thing. Don't ask, I was pretty paranoid that it wouldn't work out. Mostly, because I just didn't have a clue and the 50's and 60's fit quite a variety of outfits.

Ooops, the fire brigade just turned up in front of my house, I just have to go and have a look what's going on.... not sure, but there are 2 cars and people running across the garden to another house. Well...it seems under control and there definitely isn't any fire...

Where was I ? Oh yes... the outfit was sorted and on Sunday morning I got up at the crack of dawn and reached East Croydon where Nick lives. A short while after we were on our way. About 20 minutes before you actually arrive at the location you start spotting the most amazing historical cars and just know that you are getting closer. The atmosphere is undescribably cool. Everyone really made an effort, and there were all sort of different dresses and styles walking about. The racing ground is not all, one can go and explore the pit ( if you have special access like we did), the paddock with all the different cars, there is a revival market with all sort of stands, a truly historical playground and of course the airfield with historical planes. What more can I say... pictures sometimes speak more than words, so here we go....

Et voila, that would be me at the paddock. I know, the camera doesn't really fit the rest of the outfit ( AND mobile phones are not really tolerated...), but..bring on the pettycoat I say! :)

We wandered around quite a lot, explored the pit and observed the first race from the top floor of that. What a view!! The cars are simply incredible, loud, colourful and one can easily follow what's happening. Even the race attendants follow the historical hint and dress appropriately. With a smile I noticed some journalists near the racetrack who did just the same. It was very hard to get the stupid grin of my face which had appeared a good hour earlier.

But let's get back to a few random impressions for a minute...

We even had lunch in one of the hospitality suites.. a glass of Veuve, another of wine...I really can't complain :) So, all in all I am still deeply impressed and can only recommend this truly unique experience to anyone. Now, the dress is hanging back in the wardrobe and I am back in the 20th century.

Not sure I'm liking this at all.... London is in full tube strike and it is really annoying being cramped in a bus for an hour and half rather than 30 mins and being surrounded by way too many sweaty people. I want my travel card money back, this is ridiculous! So, we'll have another 2 days of this joy and perhaps next week the whole thing will repeat itself. No need to comment  I guess. Apparently there was a proper row with fight in front of Liverpool Station this morning as some really angry commuters tried to get on a corwded bus. My source tells me the police showed up shortly after... do I need to say more? No, I thought so.

Good night everyone

Tine