round of introductions

Come for a relaxed chat about anything at all and meet your fellow rental owners.
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Sue Dyer
Posts: 2562
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:26 pm
Location: Belford, Northumberland

round of introductions

Post by Sue Dyer »

Hi, I'm Sue, I live in the North East of England and have a cottage in the beautiful Northumbrian countryside. (sounds like an intro from an AA meeting!!!) :lol:

I spend way too much time on the internet, creating websites, graphics, emailing friends and surfing around. I work for a charity called Sustrans, been married for 23 years to a fanatical Newcastle United supporter. - I love pub quizzes, the TV show E.R, The Simpsons, Frasier and like going to the movies. Saw The Terminal last night (Tom Hanks) that was hmmm, okay..

I'm also helping my friend Bob Collum (see web address below) launch into fame and fortune with his brilliant self penned songs and helping promote his new CD.

So, that's me - how about you?
meseta
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Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 1:55 pm
Location: Inland,Costa del Sol.
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intros

Post by meseta »

Hola, I'm Brian, I live just outside Malaga. Absolutely love living in this part of the world. I even enjoy the driving -(challenging !) . Originally from Perthshire, educated in Edinburgh, and spent my working life flying various assorted aircraft, based in many different parts of Africa and the Middle East. After 34 years of that, I started my own estate agency here, and love the job and variety it offers.

I, too , saw "The Terminal the other day", yawn !

Refer ER, last year in holiday, my wife and I visited the Warner Brothers studio in Los Angeles. We were on the set that does most of the external shots, fantastic ! We have pictures of the area where they all stand around in the snow playing basketball, where the ambulances arrive.....
They were just shooting the crashed helicopter scenes ..... What an experience for devotees of the show.


We occasionally go to the theatre, and have a good selection of movies, in English , ( shame on us ! ) , and a great selection of local restaurants offering good value meat and fish.

We have a great Chinese restaurant in our local town , offering a banquet for one, for 6 euros. I think thats a pretty good deal !

I spend too much time on the 'net' as well, doing , well , not sure ! I'm looking after my website, too, but there's just so much interesting info there, endless quantities of links that absorb lots of time !

My wife and I rent out a studio which we had built during 2002. Its on the roof of our villa, has fantastic views, and had been very much in demand this year. Each of our couples have been super people and have promised to come back.
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Sue Dyer
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Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:26 pm
Location: Belford, Northumberland

Post by Sue Dyer »

hey - a reply!! I thought I was Billy No Mates!!!
RE E.R set - I was there a few years ago too at Warners - sadly the series was on "summer hiatus" so none of my favourites like Noah Wylie around... I really liked Warners - a great working studio unlike Universal which is just really a theme park now.

Nice hearing from you!
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John Borg
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Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Malta
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Post by John Borg »

Ooops, sorry Soodyer, I didn't realise it was obligatory for me to bore everyone with my history, though seeing that I don't want to offend anyone, here goes!
I live on the small meditteranean Island of Malta, which has the advantage of living in a warm, mild climate, though living on an island has it's drawbacks too.
Luckily, I travel quite often due to work associated with football, so one of the drawbacks of "isolation" is taken care of I suppose. Having a villa which I live in 24x7 is nice, but maintainance etc was becoming an ever-growing burden on the pocket, so we decided to let the huge apartment we have beside the pool and garden. It has been a huge success and I have made many new friends from all over the world, made some money that nearly all goes back into the investment, so I can't complain. This site is great for learning "new tricks" from people who have seen it, been there and done it all.
Malta – always in the sunshine!
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paolo
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Location: Provence, France
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Post by paolo »

John,

Because I know everyone is now wondering, what is your football-related activity? Are you a Roman Abramovic, or a Wayne Rooney? (You don't have to answer the question!)

Sue, I will get round to introducing myself soon I promise. When I get over that feeling I had at ante-natal class when we had to stand up and "State your name and explain it" to the group. :oops: :wink:
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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John Borg
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Post by John Borg »

Paolo,
I wish I was an Abramovic or Wayne Rooney, financially at least, but no, I'm just Johhny!
Actually, I represent my club (and country) in the ECF (European Club Forum) board at Uefa. Recently, I was elected to represent the clubs coming from "smaller leagues" within Europe. It's something I do on a volontary basis, but it's very rewarding work.
Malta – always in the sunshine!
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Once upon a time I moved to France where I worked as a gardener for some reason. I bought a little house in a village called Menerbes, in Provence, which was actually the notary's office.

I renovated the house and lived there happily ever after. But then, only a year or so into the ever after, a young lady came a-courting and said “Provincial village life is very nice and that, the bread is much better than at home, but I am not seeing many career opportunities round here so I’m off. Are you coming?�

So I moved back to England and rented my house out on a long-term let for peanuts. One day my mother-in-law (my reward for getting married) said a friend of hers was getting loads of weekly bookings over the internet. I said I didn’t want different people in my bed every week, trashing my precious house and scribbling graffiti on the walls. Then I looked at the sort of income I could be making, and I decided that was in fact just what I wanted.

Elsewhere, friends were doing the same thing, enjoying the incredible power of the internet to get your property seen by thousands, and for very little investment. We thought it would be nice if there was somewhere on the internet for our new hobby – a place for rental enthusiasts to swap ideas, stories, solve problems, etc. Hence Lay My Hat.

Now, when our two little boys are safely tucked up in bed, I put my Lay My Hat hat on and see what’s in the email bag. Sometimes I even find time to post on the forum.
Paolo
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Linda Freese
Posts: 175
Joined: Sat Oct 02, 2004 9:00 am
Location: Costa del Sol

Post by Linda Freese »

Hi, I'm Linda. I moved to Benalmadena Costa on the Costa del Sol just over a year ago. I am an Event Manager, organising conferences, golf events, weddings etc.... but also manage, with my husband, several properties on the costa. We have two of our own properties here and just sort of fell into managing other peoples properties! Sometimes, I wonder why we do it - it can be a lot of hassle, but the extra income is great and can be very satisfying when we get really nice letters from guests and of course repeat bookings!

I saw "The Terminal" too, and I thought it was quite funny - am I wierd??? I will recommend a brilliant Spanish film that has recently won awards at the Venice Film Festival "El Mar Adentro" (Roughly translated "The Sea Inside") which is based on a true story and deals with euthanasia. Not as dull as it sounds! Look out for it at the Oscars!!!

Nice to talk to you all! Linda :D
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tansy
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Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:29 am
Location: La Manche, Normandy, France

cafe

Post by tansy »

Hello - I'm Tansy , we lived in Sunningdale Berkshire before moving lock stock to France....my other half was at the top of his career & I had a thriving business....one day he said to me I've had enough how do you fancy Normandy - so here we are - we now have 3 houses - 2 for rental & 1 for us...the biggest shock for me was missing my girl friends - did not take that into the equation of moving...but now eventually I have great new French girl friends here in France - I am determined to get the language round my head!! Being positive and taking the blows on the chin....we've had loads of disappointments and complete blows to the the belly - but wouldn't swop any of the learning curve...we love it here and the way we have been welcomed is so special.
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Sue Dyer
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Location: Belford, Northumberland

Post by Sue Dyer »

Thanks for replying everyone!!! I'm off to London this weekend. My friend Bob who I run the website for is launching his latest CD so I'm looking forward to that. We'll be eating at a place in Camden called Belgo - it specialises in my favourite dish - mussels, (Moules!) It's a trippy kind of place, the waiters dress in robes like monks and they sell hundreds of those Belgian beers.... What's anyone else doing this weekend?

Thanks for the movie recommendation, I'll look out for that. There's not been much I've wanted to see lately. I'm sorry to say I was one of the sad ones who went to see the Lord of the Rings movies on the first day of release and not much has lived up to them this year for me. (I know, I'm a nerd and proud!)

Oh, talking of nerds. I got some new glasses today (I wear contacts so they are mainly for around the house or if my eyes are real tired) I got small black frames which I thought would look very cool - the Kristen Davies from Sex & the City look - however, I feel like I look more like Harry Hill the comedian!! Ah well.....
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altyfc
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Post by altyfc »

Hello everyone... (Sue, I stayed in a cottage in your neck of the woods only a couple of weeks ago - in Bamburgh - since I was up there for the Great North Run!).

I am Aaron the Aardvark (obviously not my real name but it goes with the branding of our sites ;)) and run a travel search engine.

Actually, we're a UK web design company (based in Cumbria) that specialises in travel-related websites, originally for third parties but increasingly nowadays we specialise in in-house projects.

We've been trading since 1993 and maintain several hundred websites nowadays. Many outsiders think it's a big co, but the reality is there's just three of us here. :)

Aaron
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Sue Dyer
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Location: Belford, Northumberland

Post by Sue Dyer »

Nice to meet you Aaron!!! Bamburgh is a lovely place - I don't think anyone can fail to be impressed by the castle there, even if it is a bit of a Victorian recreated cheat!!! My favourite castle by far is Dunstanburgh. For those of you who don't know - Northumberland has more castles than any other county - if castles are your thing!

I know what you mean by the big business impression. I'm very good friends with comedian/actor/writer Sean Hughes (Never Mind the Buzzcocks/Last Detective) When he had a cult hit on Channel 4 with Sean's Show he asked me to set up a fan club/newsletter thing. I did so and a website too. At one point the newsletter used to go out to around 1000 people 6 times a year. I researched, wrote it, photocopied it, stuffed envelopes, handled the database for subscriptions all myself with some help from my husband with the collating/stuffing envelopes. I used to get Christmas cards "To everyone at Sean's Hughes Info Service" It made me smile as they probably thought of me in some swish office yelling to my PA - "get my latte - NOW" whereas in face it was me and my tiny applemac in the spare bedroom!!!
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Sue,

My wife would like to be very good friends with Sean Hughes, and worse. She fancies the pants off him.

She asks does he remember her from a show he did a while ago...er... somewhere in London?
Paolo
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altyfc
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Post by altyfc »

soodyer wrote:Nice to meet you Aaron!!! Bamburgh is a lovely place - I don't think anyone can fail to be impressed by the castle there, even if it is a bit of a Victorian recreated cheat!!! My favourite castle by far is Dunstanburgh. For those of you who don't know - Northumberland has more castles than any other county - if castles are your thing!
We visited Dunstanburgh (well, we went for a walk near it) whilst we were there. I was ignorant of Grace Darling before the trip :oops: so it was nice to hear about her heroics and visit her memorial.

I amassed a few photos on the trip which I am using for a UK attraction site that I am working on. Could you please tell me the significance of this monument in the middle of Bamburgh:

[img/]http://www.paul-johnson.co.uk/photos/uk ... centre.jpg[/img] (image removed as it was asking for a password)

If you enter Bamburgh with the castle on the right, the road forks (before you reach the church). The above is at this point, at the point of the fork - do you know what it is?

Thanks

Aaron
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Sue Dyer
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Location: Belford, Northumberland

Post by Sue Dyer »

re monument - hmmm, not sure. I'll have a look next week and ask some of the locals. I'll take a look at your photo's shortly. We're so happy as we have a gap now until our next guests at the end of November - means we can escape from the city for the weekends and get some hiking in.

Grace Darling - I'm ashamed to say I've never been in the museum but I'm visiting before it closes for the season. For anyone who doesn't know she was the lighthouse keepers daughter. In 1838 she rowed outin a small coble to a sinking ship in horrific seas and rescued the crew from The SS Forfarshore. Sadly the museum had to recently sell her bravery medal for funding and now just have a replica.
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