REVIEW OF 2006

2006 has been dominated for us by the purchase of a new penthouse flat, off plan, in a block being built on the side of a hill in East Dulwich, DKH . The perfect location AND it has a South facing terrace. Before you dig out your address book to change our address, the purchase didn’t go through!

We had watched the block being built since October 2005 and wondered what the view would be like. Then in April we had a look (it meant climbing up ladders to the top of 6 floors in a building site).


The view from the top floor

The south facing terrace and the views from the 3-bedroom penthouse got us so excited that we made an offer of £400,000 for the flat together with a secure parking space. The developers (Bespoke Homes) accepted the offer and we gave them a £2000 cheque to register our interest. A month later the developer came back to us saying they had now decided that £400,000 wasn’t enough, they wanted £435,000. What to do?

Well, we went off to Antugnac to see Martin and Jane, relax and think about it.

We both really wanted to live in a modern flat with a south-facing terrace. The rooms are a bit small and we didn’t like the layout too much, but we decided that the views would make up for that. So we agreed to the new price.

However, needing to sell our Detwent Grove flat meant that we had to get it completely finished after the renovation started in 2005. The months of May, June and July were spent doing all the DIY jobs, removing all the clutter (to Greatstone) and repainting every room in bland colours ready for the potential buyers. By mid August we had sold it for £325,000 with a completion at the end of September.

Then at the end of August the estate agent phoned to say that as our solicitor still hadn’t exchanged contracts, they now wanted £490,000 for the penthouse and garage. This was a definite “NO”. Unfortunately we had already agreed a sale on our flat and we had to tell the buyers that we weren’t going ahead. We felt really sorry for them as they had already sold their home and were ready to move in.

After the initial reaction (and sharp words with our solicitors) had died down, we thought about it and realised that apart from the terrace and the view we didn’t really like the flat!
There was much less space than we have now; the sitting room is smaller than our current one and the bathroom in particular is tiny (and that is an important room for us to unwind in)


The bathroom at Derwent Grove where we soak at the end of the day making the transition from 'work day' to 'social evening'

So, in consideration it all ended rather well, we live in a flat that has all the DIY work done, that has a layout designed by us (that was the renovation in 2005) and we are really beginning to love living here.

We’ve even got some original artwork on the walls.


'Pacific' by CA Jasper. To see more from this artist go to NakedArtStudio.com


Holidays this year have been many but short in duration. Lucy has had a major project at work, putting in place a complete change in purchasing stategy and this meant that she didn’t want to be away for more than a week at a time.

In consequence we’ve been to our apartment in Lanzarote three times! February, July and November.


Lucy enjoys lunch at our apartment in Puerto del Carmen

Dull and boring to keep going to the same place? No, it’s so nice to go somewhere that has such a large choice of restaurants and bars where the waiters greet us like old friends. If you are interested in renting it (friends get a special rate) have a look at the details. Our apartment in Lanzarote


The Easter holiday was spent driving around the Lake District with the TLC – Topless London Club.




Not what you think, actually a car club, run by one of our friends, Nick, for people with convertible cars. And yes, our Peugeot 206CC does comply.




We spent most of the time finding the best places to have lunch and the weather gods smiled on us such that we had no rain the entire weekend.


Nick, Jane, Lucy, Malcolm, and Tony at the Drunken Duck Inn Ambleside, Lake District. What a great spot for lunch.


During May we had another ‘long weekend’ break with our friends Jane and Martin in Antugnac, southern France. It’s always such an escape to a world of relaxed living, walking and good food.


Lucy and Jane help themselves to free water from a spa



One Sunday in August we got up at 3 am and drove to Bristol so that we could be there at sunrise for the launch of the balloons at the Balloon Festival.
Unfortunately the weather was too windy. So no action except for one tethered ballon that they inflated to make sure that we knew who the sponsors were!

So we had breakfast and drove home, stopping at Bath for a coffee on the way. The furthest we've ever traveled just for breakfast (and the most expensive breakfast we've had).Here's the official web site Bristol Balloon Festival


Then in early December we decided that London wasn’t cold enough and went to Edinburgh to visit Rachel and Steve. Yet another relaxing weekend with no pressures to do anything and I (Malcolm) finally got to see the Falkirk Wheel.

The Falkirk wheel which links two levels of a canal.

When a boat wants to get from one to the other of the levels, it motors into the gondola, the structure rotates carrying the boat and all of the water in the gondola. When it stops the boat comes out at the other level.
Very simple and very efficient.
Each gondola always weighs the same amount and balances the wheel (there's a physics exercise for you) and the process only uses 16Kw of energy.



Another experience away from home was to stay in newly renovated flats on Eaton Square. As you know (or may not know!) Lucy works for the Duke of Westminster’s company Grosvernor Estate and heads up the division that does the property management. When something goes wrong, her team has to fix it.
Things always go wrong after a refurbishment, so why not ‘test’ flats before they go to the paying customers?
So, from the beginning of this year the process was put in place. ‘Guinea pigs’ stay in the flat for 3 or 4 days, make sure that everything works and complete a check-list to make sure everything is as it should be.
“Very glamorous” you might think, staying at the best location in London in a flat that we could never hope to be able to afford. It might be, but one of the flats that we stayed in had no running water and another was so hot that we had to have all of the windows open all of the time (in March). But, of course, this is exactly what it’s about. Find out what’s wrong before the customers move in.



Ami continues to enjoy the ‘Cambridge Experience’and even does some work from time to time.
She got a ‘first’ in her first year-end exams and was therefore inducted into the society of yeomen of the college. This meant attending a 5 hour formal dinner, swearing an oath to the college (Sidney Sussex) and drinking wine (which she hates) from a giant silver chalice. (She also got an award of £200 which is probably very welcome)



Lucy still works far too hard, leaving home at 7am and rarely getting home before 7pm but she really gets satisfaction out of doing her job well.
She took the role of GSC Director three years ago and estimated that it would take 5 years to get the new property management division working really efficiently and effectively and she is still working towards that goal.
She is still sticking to her original time scale so it will be interesting to see what happens in 2008 when it's the best property management team in Britain and she has nothing more to do!

I still continue with my Young Enterprise charity work, trying to help young people learn about business. Paid work has become less important and I have only completed 3 programming projects this year. This means that I now have time to keep healthy, Tai Chi for flexibility and running for cardio-vascular seems to work for me. Then there's the various properties to manage and we are now thinking of buying another somewhere in Spain.

2006 ends, for us, with the Kylie Minogue special New Year's Eve concert at Wembley - so the New Year is going to be spectacular.

The photos in this blog (and lots more) come from my flickr site http://flickr.com/photos/malcolm-smith/sets/

REVIEW OF 2005

January 2005
We started the year in high spirits, the decision had finally been made to get the flat at Derwent Grove renovated. We had found a builder and we knew what we wanted and how much it would cost (about £15,000) and how long it would take (about 6 weeks). So, in January it was all arranged.
During the beginning of February we moved into Lucy's flat and handed over the kitchen and sitting room to the builders. As it was only going to be 6 weeks, Malc left his office at Derwent Grove and went there every day to work. Big mistake. Have you ever thought about having major renovation work done whilst trying to live a normal life in the property? Well don't, because everything and everyone gets covered in dust which takes months to get rid of!




Four months later we had spent twice the estimate and we had run out of money, so the builders moved out without the job being finished. What an interesting experience. The next time we have building work done we'll take a different approach.
Now we are slowly finishing the work off ourselves and at the current rate the flat should be ready to entertain people by next summer!

Ami went away in January with a 'Gap Year' organisation called Frontier Conservation who were going to provide her with ten weeks environmental research in Madagascar. After only three weeks, the camp that they were staying in was completely flooded and they lost contact with the 'outside world'. The group escaped to a hillside where they spent two nights in the open until some villagers took them to their homes. They were finally rescued by boat two days later and flew home having had a very scary experience (and they didn't get their money back). If anyone you know is thinking about a trip with Frontier.ac.uk tell them to get in touch with Ami!

April
After Ami came back from the Madagascar trip she and Malc decided to have a short break in Barcelona during April. The flat that we rented was a good find, being quite cheap and very central, just off Las Ramblas. We both had a really good 5 days exploring the city and the Modernista architecture.




June/July
June is repainting and repair time for our apartment in Lanzarote. There is always something needing to be done in order to keep it in tip-top condition. Most of our bookings are over the British winter and so the summer is the best time to do it. So Malc has to drag himself off to the sun and beach and get on with it :-)



Meanwhile Ami had organised some trips herself and she went off to Thailand and Asia for a month, followed by another three weeks in Costa Rica later in the summer. She had a fantastic time, including the idyllic days that she spent with her friend Maiya riding horses along deserted beaches where they could stop to swim whenever they found somewhere particularly special.


July/August was not such a good month for Lucy, she continued to have severe pain in her stomach from time to time. It was finally diagnosed as gall stones which were causing pancreatitus.
Finally after being admitted to hospital twice she had her gall bladder removed by key-hole surgery. The great big plasters hide four tiny holes that now are almost invisible. Quite amazing when 10 years ago you would have had a scar the length of your abdomen.



Immediately after the operation we went to France to visit Jane and Martin for a few days at their home near Carcassone. What a wonderful relaxing time with siestas in the afternoon and good food in the evenings. The holiday (and the afternon nap) really helped Lucy to recover quickly.




September
After Lucy's experience of NHS care the first week that she went into hospital, compared with the private medicine experience(courtesy of Grosvenor) during the second week we decided that Malc needed to become a registered 'spouse' and be covered by the healthcare plan. So, on the 12th September (Lucy's birthday) we sneaked off to Wandsworth registry office and got married.




October's big event was Ami starting at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. So far she is really enjoying the 'university' experience but the amount of work is getting in the way of her social life!

November was the month for our winter break to Lanzarote but this year, instead of a week of sunshine we had a hurricane! Ah well, we had a plague of Locusts last year

so we know that we always have an interesting time in Puerto del Carmen.


That's pretty much it for the year. Lucy's team at Grosvenor continues to grow as does her role (and unfortunately the pressure on her) but she still enjoys the challenge of developing a team of people who understand what the customer wants and can deliver it.

Malcolm, well, I press on with my Young Enterprise charity work and the odd bit of small business consultancy. Oh yes, and I'm still trying to become a good photographer but I haven't had much time for that over the last few months. You can see my photos at Malcs Photos

There have been so many varied and interesting experiences this year. Of course the memorable ones are the ones that are the most dramatic or stressful but you know our philosophy, experiences are simply that, it's how you react to them that matters. So, overall the impression of the year is that it's been a very good one with lots of things to remember. Let's hope 2006 will be as exciting.