round of introductions

[Alan Knighting]

Aaron,

Going back to the subject of the little “monument� on the green at Bamburgh, I have been trying to do some research. I tried the county record office and got the following as a response.

Northumberland Record Office, Melton Park, North Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 5QX.
Telephone: (0191) 236 2680 - Fax Number: (0191) 217 0905
E-mail: archives@northumberland.gov.uk
Senior Archivist - Mrs S Wood

Libraries, Arts & Archives, The Willows, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 1TA.
Telephone: (01670) 53 3000 - Fax Number: (01670) 534 521
Divisional Director Libraries, Arts & Archives - D E Bonser
Principal Library & Archives Officer - C R Baker

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Ref : J1/04
Your Ref :
Contact : Mrs C Scott
Phone No. : (0191) 236 2680
12 November 2004


Dear Mr Knighting,

Thank you for your email of 4th November, which has been passed to me for reply.

I have examined our index cards under both subject and also place, for information on the pant at Bamburgh, or pants in general, without success. In addition I checked the published pamphlets we have on the Bamburgh area, again these shed no light on the subject. It is possible that there may be something in collections that relate to Bamburgh in some way but these are various in nature and there is no guarantee there would be anything in them. However if you are interested in pursuing the matter, you can.

We will gladly do a search for records relating to the pant at Bamburgh, but it will have to be done through our research service at a cost of £16 per hour. You can download a copy of our postal research request form by visiting the GENUKI website and following the link 'postal research service'. The URL is: http://www.swinhope.myby.co.uk/NRO/.

If you would like to go ahead with the research, please complete the application form giving as much relevant information as possible and return it together with £16 as payment for the initial hour of research. Please make your cheque payable, in pound sterling, to Northumberland County Council.

I hope this information is of use to you.

I do try to be sympathetic towards the people we the taxpayers employ but it’s a bit like swimming in treacle, isn’t it?

All I can tell you, and that’s a lot more than the archivists have to offer, is that the “monument� is locally called a “pant� and a “pant� is a public water supply. Some publicly-minded private benefactor built it years ago but I can’t find out who he/she was.

Alan

[Darren]

Hi everyone, my name is Darren Cronian, I live in a town called Pudsey, near Leeds in England. In 2001 my parents bought an apartment in Torrevieja, Spain which got me interested in internet marketing and search engine optimisation.
I spent alot of time researching holiday rental companies, had a stint of advertising on various websites, didn't get any enquiries or even any communication from the different websites, so I put all of my research, designed a website (my first attempt I must ad!) and launched Worldwide Holiday Homes.

Compared to the likes of Holiday Rentals Ltd, Owners Direct and Holidaybank we are relatively new, still learning the industry, but very hungry for success

Prior to 2002 the business was run in my spare time, but in 2003 I resigned from my full time job as a software trainer to concentrate my efforts on the business.

I love the job - I love working in the travel industry, but most importantly I want the business to be a success and provide owners with enquiries that they quite rightly deserve

I'm not here to advertise my business - just to learn from owners because you are what make holiday rental companies successful.

Darren

[tansy]

Darren

I think your site looks good - the colours are easy on the eye
- my problem is that there doesn't seem to be a catagorey I would fit into - I'm not a cosy cottage in France, nor an apartment or a villa...I'm a house on the beach in France... have I missed a catagorey - or is it as I suspect new lunettes needed?

[Maggiem]

Now I'm completely confused! I clicked on the link to Darren's site, and found that Holiday-Rentals came up on the top bit, but a different site(I think) to the one I've looked at previously. I'm sure there is a simple explanation, but I make no claims to be particularly computer literate, nor do I want to be! I just want to be able to carry out the basic tasks necessary.
Does Holiday-Rentals have 2 sites? The one I found today certainly looked more attractive than the other one I looked at. Can I choose which one I go on, or is it yet another 'add-on' fee? I'm sorry about all the questions but, every time I think I've got something 'sussed', more confusion seems to arise!

[Tom]

Hmmm looks like it's been inspired by a couple of better known sites? And how come the site is called worldwide holidayhomes but the address is a slight variation of holiday-rentals? Sorry if i am bein suspicious but we get invited to join so many of these sites.
Tom

[Darren]

Hi Tom,

Your not being invited to join - I'm here to pick up ideas, and learn from owners. The website was inspired by many rental websites, like Holiday Rentals, but the site looks completely different and we offer services that H-R.com do not offer, and visa versa.

If your going to build up a new business then you have to look at the competition and see area's you can improve upon, that's just pure business sense.

The domain name is simply that a domain. I used this domain because it helps the ranking in the search engines, for specific keywords like 'Holiday Rentals' - that is the industry I work within so these are obvious keywords along with many other keyword terms.

They are many companies using holiday-rentals or holidayrentals as their domain name.

Funny enough though, we are moving to a dedicated server in the new year and all ready optimising our new domain name and we'll be a limited company.

I hope this clarifys the situation a little

Darren

[Darren]

Firstly, can I just re-iterate I am not here to promote my company or website. It's not fair for me to come on to someone elses forum and advertise.

I am here simply to learn.

No hidden agenda. Worldwide Holiday Homes is not up to the same standard as H-R.com but these guys are the type of company that we aspire to, and yes the domain is similar, that will cause confusion, but I don't know Ross and his team just like I don't know any of you.

Darren

[Alan Knighting]

Aaron

The following is all the information I can find.

The monument in the photo is the pant, pump and trough on Bamburgh village green.
It is dated to the early 19th century by the SMR record (whatever that is) and is grade II listed.

It may or may not lie on the site of the spring that served St Aidan's but is well known to have been present in the village during the medieval period.

Alan

[DivineMrsM]

Hi,
I'm Lynne and I live in Tooting, south London. My sister and brother in law upped sticks and moved to the Dordogne in Sept 2002. They bought (for a frighteningly small sum of money) a 7 bedroom former Auberge in a tiny hamlet that came complete with swimming pool and a semi-detached cottage to the main property.

It was lovely but tired. Bill (my b-i-l) is a builder/plumber/everything type person by trade so he set about the renovations. This included adding en-suite bathrooms to the bedrooms and creating a kitchen from scratch. It's now a lovely home where they live when it's not rented. When it is, they live in the cottage.

Where do I come in? I am ALWAYS on my computer (it's in the kitchen so it doesn't take me away from family life) and we have broadband so it makes sense for me to look after the bookings for them. I have a background in TV production organizing the prizes so I'm used to dealing with people. Also, my other half is the techie one so he built our website (it's having an overhaul at Christmas so if anyone has any suggestions...).

My interests - spending way too much time on the computer, mostly eBay. I buy and sell all sorts of stuff, more buying than selling a lot of the time . I have three children aged 2, 4 and 9. I'm very involved in their school as a Governor and chair of the PTA. Unsurprisingly, I don't have time to go to work...! Hence the eBay selling as a way to keep the coffers topped up.

We don't get to go to France as often as we'd like but it isn't half great to have a place like my sister's to stay when we do. We're having Christmas there this year so I'm really looking forward to that.

Phew - that's probably way more than any of you wanted to know . Sorry for rambling on.

Nice to meet you all!

[Sue Dyer]

Nice to meet you too Lynne!

I'm sure I'm addicted to ebay - I don't know what I used to do without it. My best money makers were Viz comics. That originated in Newcastle and I had every early copy. I sold about 20 Viz comics and made a couple of thousand!! I've sold all of my collectable stuff that I wasn't using but my spoilsport husband won't let me start on his stuff!!! - original board games from the 60's - Risk, Thunderbirds, Buccanner.... Don't particualrly need the cash I just hate the idea of them just lying in the loft.

I'm a computer addict too - laptop downstairs for the cold evenings, desktop upstairs where I do graphics etc. WAP phone which I can channel my email too.... What did we do before this communication revolution?

Your job organising prizes sounds pretty cool!!! Was it for gameshows? CAn you remember Sale of The Century - some pretty naff 70's stuff on there!!!

[DivineMrsM]

Early Viz - you lucky lady having those knocking around!

Amazing how much money is in our old stuff, huh? I sold some old Golly badges a while back. They had belonged to my late Grandmother and were pre-war. I nearly fell of my chair when they went for £200-£300 each .

I used to do the prizes for Price Is Right, Play Your Cards Right, Strike It Rich, Blankety Blank and Blockbusters. Real quality TV .

I also used to do some entertainment TV like Viva Cabaret and some Jack Dee and Lee Evans stuff.

I read that you are an old mate of Sean Hughes. I think my husband Miles used to work with him on occasion at GLR.

[vrooje]

Hi All,

Well, I'm a bit late, having found this forum a month after its last post and also months after joining the site and posting to various threads, but I'll introduce myself anyway.

I'm Brooke -- I came to the nickname Vrooje after mis-typing my name one day and liking its peculiarity. I'm a grad student on the way to a doctorate in Astronomy. My other love, ceramics, is something I don't get to do much anymore, simply due to time constraints. My Mom, her friend, and I discovered Semur-en-Auxois in the Cote d'Or for ourselves in 2001 and my parents later bought a home there with the aforementioned friend, who sold her half to them last year.

I'm a bit of an internet junkie, so I designed their rental website and I manage the bookings as well as provide (mediocre) french-speaking capability where necessary. I've gotten loads of good ideas from this website and it's fun to find a thread where people are introducing themselves!

It's been quite interesting being Americans living in the States but owning and renting property in France... but eventually we will get the hang of it. The bookings are going pretty well -- Mom just had to "reserve" her birthday week in May for the house to make sure it would be available. But there's still so much to learn!

Cheers!

[Sue Dyer]

Sorry Mrs M. Missed your reply at the time.

The prizes on Blockbusters used to be awesome, I was always thinking "I want that, lucky kids"!! Blankety Blank... well!!! Where did you get those cheque book and pens. Did you get to meet the dudes like Les Dawson, he was a funny guy.

Sean (Hughes) yes, I still see him now and again. He was actually in Sri Lanka on boxing day and was obviousl fairly traumatised by the whole thing. My friend sees him on a near daily basis and say's he's almost back to his usual self now though.

Viz - yeah, that was the Newcastle connection as it started up here. I'll never find anything else like that to sell although I do have my eyes on hubands James Bond gold Aston Martin with ejector seat(early 60's without box) and rocket firing batmobile (boxed, still with missiles same period) and his original Thunderbirds board game, Risk, Spy etc.... He refuses to part with the original 1963 (?) complete set of Mars Attack cards....

[Sue Dyer]

Hi vrooje and thanks for introducing yourself.

Your name - ah, the old typing with your fingers on the wrong keys scenario!!!! Sometimes if I've been drinking then try to send an email you'd need the Enigma machine to decode it!!!

Where are you from in the US?? I'm off to California in June, spending time with friends in L.A then off to Yosemite for a week to do some hiking, back down to my favourite place - Vegas and spend a couple of days at our friends cabin in Big Bear Lake.... I can't wait!!!

The guy whose website I do is an Okie but now lives here in Essex. It's his fault I overuse the words "dude" and "awesome"!!!

Anyway, welcome

[paolo]

Hi Brooke,

I wondered about the name 'vrooje' - I thought you might be Dutch. I am a Euro-mongrel and although I don't speak more than a couple of swear swords I am more Dutch than anything else. I was trying to work out what vrooje could mean in Dutch, but I will stop now!