A VERY LOCAL SHED COMPETITION

Last year one of my Troy Stalwart's, "Debs", entered her shed in the Shed Of The Year 2009 competition and was a catagory winner! I'd forgotten all about the competition until on her blog today I saw a reference to the Shed Of The Year 2010 competition. These sheds, including Deb's very own shed, are rather splendid edifices - glories to behold. Now Troy is rather proud of his own shed although is realistic enough to realise that his shed would never win a prize. Not in a national competition, not in a County competition. In fact, I'd probably struggle to win in a village competition. So instead I thought I'd enter it into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition.

When I blogged about our garden makeover, way back in 2008, I actually ignored my shed although it does feature in the very corner of one of the photos. That's a shame bacause as I said above, I'm rather proud of the Troy Family Shed. We built it ourselves (well I suppose strictly speaking that should be "erected" rather than "built"). We levelled the ground and then the shed's components were delivered:-


Then Mrs Troy and I set about erecting it. Here we are part way through. I'll just leave this photo on here for a few days as I don't generally include photos of ourselves on the blog. However I'll give regular readers a sight of the delightful Mrs Troy as well as myself until the end of the week. Notice the dexterity with which I'm handling the specialist equipment. It's a bit like Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver although the actual technical term for it is "hammer".
[SORRY PHOTO SINCE DELETED]

When it was finished it looked like this - just a pretty ordinary shed you are thinking. Well that's what I thought. It looked very wooden (not surprisingly!) and didn't particularly blend into its surroundings.


I contrasted the white render and exposed lower bricks of the garage and hatched a plan to help the shed blend into its location. Two pots of paint later (large pots and several coats to be exact) it was transformed to this...


See how the garage roof corners, the white render and exposed brickwork are mirrored in the colour scheme of the shed? Mrs Troy also got some film to go over the windows to obscure the contents of the shed. Click on the photo above for a better view of Mrs Troy's contribution.


So this is my entry into the "Best Self Erected Shed In Troy's Back Garden" competition. Entries are now closed. I'm confident of winning because I'm also the judge of the competition. It's also the only entry which should help it somewhat. However do feel free to leave any complimentary comments you wish as the judge is happy to be helped in reaching his verdict.

ENGLAND GETS THE BLUES (OR DOESN'T)

I only did one blog posting about the election. And now, two days later, the election should all be in the past and the winning party should be getting on with governing the country. But it hasn't worked out like that, has it?

England voted for a fresh start. 82% of the nation, in 532 constituencies, via the ballot box sent the collective message "Bye bye Gordon". A government of England would have 297 Conservative MPs, 191 Labour MPs, 43 LibDem MPs and 1 Green. Enough to carry forward the Conservative manifesto and dig the country out the enormous hole it finds itself in (well, actually the enormous hole that Gordon Brown put us in). The bottom half of England - taking a line from the Severn to the Wash - voted even more overwhelmingly for the Conservatives (C 191, L 48, LD 30 I 1). So why can't we have what we want? Its simple, it can be summed up in one word. SCOTLAND.

Scotland, a nation which has its own parliament which has many devolved powers.

Scotland, a nation which has benefited from high levels of public spending due to the generosity of the English taxpayer.

Scotland, a nation whose banks were bailed out by English taxpayers.

So now we have Scottish socialist MPs (Labour and SNP) swarming down over the border, heading south to London to prevent the democratic will of the English, despite the Scots having their own parliament. Scottish MPs voting on many matters that affect the English only since so many policy areas have been devolved to the Scottish parliament. Scottish MPs voting on matters that don't affect their own constituents!

Wake up good people of England! This is a constitutional crisis.

We need to regain control of our democracy. If the Scottish people want a system of big government, central control, high taxation and high public spending then they should be allowed their choice as an independent nation. It might resemble Albania, Cuba or North Korea but it would be their choice. And the English likewise should be free to live under a system they have chosen. Where we find ourselves (both English and Scots) after this election is INTOLERABLE. So e-mail your local MP [I already have, but then he and I are on first name terms :-)] and tell him/her to put pressure on his/her party leader to break the Union and let both proud nations go their own way with the governments of their choice. David Cameron, in particular, needs to ditch his out of date attachment to the Union.

Here's a link to a great article about this in the Sunday Times.

Another interesting article in The Independent that concludes with the sentence "Although not many English yet realise it, their independence movement started last Thursday."

[And just to let you know how things went locally. The candidate I was helping got more than 50% of the votes cast in our constituency. I was invited to the count which declared at 2.40am. I stayed awake until 5am watching the other results on the TV. The neighbouring constituency, the town of Ipswich, turned blue and turfed out a Labour minister. In fact now, every square inch of Suffolk is Conservative!]

SEVERAL MARATHON WALKS

I've never really considered doing a marathon. 26+ miles at one go seems impossible. Actually the idea of me running more than several hundred yards at one go seems inadvisable. Yet over the last few weeks I suspect I've actually walked several marathons. I've been helping our local Conservative candidate with canvassing and leaflet delivery. One very small cog in one very large wheel, but with time to spare I felt I had to do my bit. Like Spike Milligan's account of the war "Adolf Hitler, my part in his downfall" I'd hope a better title for this blog would be "Gordon Brown, my part in his downfall". However we'll have to wait another week to find out whether my efforts have all been worthwhile. I've had an enormous grin on my face these last couple of days however since Gordon's brilliant executed own goal in Rochdale.

Back to my marathons. I volunteered to deliver a couple of leaflets in our village and two neighbouring villages - about 1,500 houses. Mrs Troy and Troy Junior have helped out although Troy Junior seems to always get an urgent toilet break ("No.... I need a pooh!") when we are furthest away from home. It is amazing how quiet the villages are during the day with very few people at home, or out and about. One day, our candidate came to help out but the heavens opened and we got soaked. He came back to our home and we had a good chat whilst he dried out. Mrs Troy said afterwards that if our candidate could talk to everyone in their living room for 30 minutes then he would win by a landslide. He's such a nice guy! I suspect though that he'd have to start now to get round everywhere before the next election.

I've also helped out by assisting in the canvassing. I've marshalled up to five people as they've gone door to door whilst I've manned the clipboard recording their feedback of the voter's intention. We talk in code like "She's a C" which I've recorded as a positive result. I suspect Gordon Brown often says much the same thing about members of the public he meets, even when they are not Conservative.

It's not easy trying to control and record five canvassers. Their pace varies so much as some find no one home, so quickly deliver a "sorry we missed you card" before moving swiftly on. Others find themselves in conversation for several minutes. Meanwhile I'm scurrying along ahead to ensure canvassers don't knock on doors that have only moments earlier have been knocked by someone else. Then the waylaid canvasser catches up "they are Against at number 74" by which time I'm on a different canvas sheet on the next road. In villages where the houses have names rather than numbers it is actually much more tricky. The electoral rolls rarely seem to list the house names in the same order they appear on the road. I suspect I've done a good job though as they now always offer me the clipboard. I prefer this explanation to the alternative - that they don't want me to meet people!

Some people walking in the street actually seek us out with "can I have a poster for my window" or "good luck, you've got my vote". Always nicely spoken, nicely dressed people. Others, often passing in tatty old cars, put up their middle finger or yell out an obscenity. They don't seem to mind us paying our taxes to support them though.

I suspect most of the public and perhaps many of my readers are already getting election fatigue. Have you been watching the TV debates? Are you sick of seeing "how these polls would result in the number of seats in Parliament" graphics on every news programme?

That's why I've only done one blog posting on the election. I couldn't ignore it but one's enough.

I'll leave you though with a very sobering thought. The task facing the next Government is truly horrendous. The Conservatives always, at some stage, have to come in to pick up the pieces of failed Labour regimes. Some of the economic vandalism this time though is completely unreversable - the Nation's gold reserves sold off at rock-bottom prices, the destruction of the private sector pensions, our EU rebate thrown away. It will take at least a generation to repair the deficit and control the enormous debt burden. In reality, the position may possibly be already irretrivable - like Greece. The Governor of the Bank of England is reported as saying in the US that whoever comes in will have to make such difficult and unpleasant economic decisions that they will make themselves so unpopular that they'll be unelectable for a generation. That doesn't sound a great prize to win come next Thursday. There would be some irony if Gordon, perhaps with his new friend "I agree with Nick", had to stay and clear up his mess. But that wouldn't actually happen, it would be the IMF and our international creditors calling all the shots.

[I realise that some readers may wholeheartedly disagree with some of the sentiments expressed here. Let's not fall out but rather be thankful we live in a democracy where we can all freely express our views. Not just the sound ones expressed above but also others!!!!]

CHOICES, CHOICES, CHOICES

I can't believe I've gone a whole month without blogging. Mind you, I can't believe how quickly the last four weeks have flown by. I've been very very busy, goodness knows how I ever previously found the time to earn a living! And I've been faced with so many choices, choices, choices.

I last reported about the new apartment I was buying in the centre of town. Having signed the paperwork on the 6th March, I exchanged contracts on 23rd March and completed on 30th March. The legal process was short but intense. In the meantime, two letting agents were actively seeking my business and getting the keys from the sales office to show potential tenants around. Both agents found me suitable tenants so I had to make a choice between agents. The agent with the lower upfront charges found me a divorced lady of a similar age to myself. This was someone who I felt would take care of my new apartment, so I went with that choice.

Having completed the legal process on 30th March and assessed what additional things were needed for this already "full-furnished" apartment - things like a cutlery tray for the kitchen drawer, towel rails for the bathrooms, loo roll holders, doormat etc. etc. - I had to hurriedly buy these (choices, choices, choices) and place them in the apartment. Then having liaised with the builder over the "snagging list", the tenant moved in two days later, on April 1st.

Whilst all this was in progress I also spent a lot of time in March coordinating the recruitment of a new Headteacher at Troy Junior's school. I haven't mentioned much in this blog about being a school governor as the details have to remain confidential. But having taken over as Chair in January, one of my first tasks was this recruitment. Meetings to decide the wording for the advert, draw up the information pack for applicants, review application forms to create a shortlist for interview, decide on the interview process - choice of questions and projects. Then a day and a half for the interview process itself. This all clashed with the apartment purchase requiring a lot of time juggling. I did however find the entire recruitment process (choices, choices, choices) to be a most rewarding and enjoyable experience and I believe we've now recruited an outstanding new HT.

Good Friday was my father's 80th birthday so early that morning we drove down to Bournemouth to be in good time to take him out for a special lunch. My sister and her husband together with my dad's best friend since his schooldays also joined us. Here's my dad, looking a tad silly, but also throughly enjoying his special birthday.


I mentioned before about wanting to buy a property to renovate then sell on (or rent out). No sooner had I bought the new apartment than our local property auctioneer posted their new auction catalogue which had several properties being sold by a housing association. Previously this association used a central London auction house and I was loathed to spend a whole day travelling up to London just to be outbid by others with deeper pockets. But now there were some great local properties being auctioned locally by a small family auction firm that we already knew. We viewed four properties shortly after Easter. At the guide prices they would all make great purchases (choices, choices, choices). Having got the apartment sorted - bought and tenanted - I was looking forward to this next challenge.

Then I got a call from the builder who sold me the apartment. The few remaining apartments in their final phase, the tower block, were being sold off at special low prices. In fact the prices quoted for this final phase were 20% less than I was quoted in March (remember I thought them then a little overpriced). In fact they are actually now going for less than half the price the builders had initially envisaged when the whole development started a few years ago. Troy has an eye for a bargain, so we went back to have another look. These prices seemed just too good to miss - but then I couldn't buy another apartment AND a property at auction. Choices, choices! After a lot of deliberation I decided to buy another new apartment! They won't be finished until the end of May at the earliest but here's a photo of the tower block as it is now:-


My apartment is half way up, so above the neighbouring roofline, with a westerly outlook. With so much glazing it is very light and airy. The balconies have still to go on and landscaping completed, and then they should look like this:

The letting agent went for a look then e-mailed me "I think it is fabulous and a great buy".

So, a hectic four weeks have flown by. No blogging done, but days full of choices, choices, choices. I've spent all my "ready cash" so will now need to carefully watch the pennies over the next few months. Its a shame I couldn't also buy one of the auction properties to renovate - I would really have enjoyed that challenge. I will hardly dare look to see what they sell for in the auction next Wednesday. But no doubt I will.

CHANGE OF PLAN - PROPERTY WISE

I've spent the last couple of years reading auction catalogues for property sales and then viewing potential purchases. We've seen some truly awful properties being sold by housing associations. Well, not awful in themselves, but trashed by the previous tenants. Appallingly amateur interior paint jobs, children's grafitti on the walls, broken or missing kitchen doors, soiled carpets, filthy toilets and baths. All being sold with low guide prices but ultimately too depressing for me to buy. I've viewed repossessed terrace houses with small back yards full of countless dog turds. How do people live like that? We've also looked at some new build developments but so often the rooms are so small that it takes a lot of ingenuity by the designers to furnish the show apartments [US = model homes] to create any illusion of space.

I've viewed many of these whilst Mrs Troy was at work during the morning. Keeping myself busy trying to invest spare cash now the banks pay such trivial rates of interest. The ones with potential, I've gone back for a second viewing with Mrs Troy, and often with Troy Junior in tow. He's becoming quite a property expert, making quite savvy comments. However until very recently I haven't found my ideal purchase. That was a shame because I think a series of blog postings about renovating an old wreck or trashed house would have made interesting reading.

When we first moved to the Ipswich area a new building development had just been started centrally by the river. As well as several low-rise blocks, it also included an eleven storey high-rise block of apartments although for a very long time, through the credit crunch, it was just a concrete shell - looking more like a multi-storey car park than housing. Driving past, on the other side of the river, I often said to Mrs Troy that I'd love to see the view from the top. Then earlier this year they started to fit out the concrete shell and the builder put adverts for these flats in the local newspaper. We viewed them, including the duplex penthouses, wearing our hard hats. I was interested but thought them still a little overpriced so took it no further. Then I got a text message saying the prices had been lowered. So we returned to have another look. We were then told that the sale of an apartment in one of the "Sold Out" blocks had fallen through and that "Head Office want it sold this weekend". It was fully furnished (to show standard) and was a very generously proportioned apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two balconies overlooking the river. As soon as I went in, it felt really comfortable and spacious and somewhere I could happily live.

That's always been my problem with property - using my heart rather than head - thinking "could I live here myself?" rather than the hard-headed approach of a seasoned property developer. That's why we've certainly missed a number of opportunities in the past and I've pushed Mrs Troy's patience to the limit (although I'm sure she really enjoys having a nosey around anyway).

I made an offer to the builder as a "cash buyer". They grimaced and said that Head Office would have to approve it but they would push to get it through. They would want a very quick exchange and completion. Well I'm pleased to say the purchase is now going through with completion stretched out a little until the end of March. Already, two letting agencies have given it the thumbs up and are actively looking for suitable tenants.

Here are a few photos - I know you've been patiently waiting for them through all the verbiage above.

This is a view of the apartment block with the footbridge over the tidal river and with the other, previously mentioned, high-rise block to the right.


Here's the view from the balcony looking across the river. It is only a couple of minutes walk to the Ipswich Borough Council headquarters and to its left, the Suffolk County Council headquarters. To the right are the County Court and the white floodlights, centre of picture, are Ipswich Town Football Club. It's a level 6 minute walk (I timed it) to the railway station and trains to London in just over an hour. The main shopping area is within a ten minute walk, as is the marina.


But you really want to see inside don't you? (Its okay you're not nosey, just curious). Here's the spacious main bedroom which has an ensuite bathroom and full length glass patio doors onto a balcony.


It will need some personal touches to make it look less like a hotel room and more like a home.

Here's the kitchen. Everything was included in the sale price, not only fridge/freezer, washing machine and microwave but even down to a set of kitchen knives, kettle and toaster.


The living area and kitchen are open plan which isn't really to my taste. I would have preferred at least a partition and archway but apparently the younger generation like to be open-plan. Here's the living area with dining just to the right. There's a another full length wall to ceiling glass wall/patio doors onto a balcony. Everything, bar the child, was included in the purchase price.


If I was 25 to 30 years younger (and childless) I'd happily live there and commute into London. Hopefully I'll find a young couple who'll think the same and rent it off me. With everything brand new inside (and it has been fully carpeted by the builder since the photos were taken) I'll be envious of them!

Although the property market is still weak and will most likely dip again before recovering I'm glad to have moved some money from cash to property. I'm concerned that higher inflation is waiting round the corner. Even if not, I still hope I've got myself a bargain. A spacious new 2-bed, 2-bathroom apartment, centrally located overlooking a river in one of England's county towns for a price only just into six figures. There are not many places you can do that here in England are there?

LEAD BALLOON/2 WEEKS IN BASEL

Well judging from the lack of comments, that last posting "2 weeks in Basel" (now deleted - but now reinstated, see comments for background) obviously went down like a lead balloon. It was a departure from my norm and obviously not to my readers' tastes.

Blogging is an experimental art - we live and learn.

I'll be back sometime over the next few days with another posting.

Troy

HERE'S THE ORIGINAL POST (BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!).

I thought I'd share with you an interesting exchange of real e-mails that went between various people who organise fund raising/social events locally. For confidentiality reasons I won't identify the organisation or the real names of the people involved.

A recent event was themed as a ladies "pamper" evening just prior to Valentines Day. The chief organiser, let's call her "Brenda" is pregnant and wasn't well in the week leading up to the event so her husband took over her organising duties. Another helper, let's call him "George" enjoyed working with Brenda's husband and teased her with how much better it had been working with him instead of Brenda.

The event proved to be very successful - both as a community event and financially.

A couple of weeks have since passed and now the organising committee (Brenda, George, Susan, William and Troy) have just exchanged the following e-mails:-

Brenda : "I will have to give my parting goodbyes at this point as I am going to be as lazy as possible from now until the baby comes"

George : "does this mean your husband will be stepping in"

Brenda : "Hmmmmm unfortunately not. You seem to have taken a keen liking to him!"

George : "He's nicer than you!"

Brenda : "So you've said before. I'm sure he'll be afraid, very afraid when I pass on your unswerving compliments....or maybe not?"

George : "Maybe you don't know your husband as well as you think?"

Susan : "Hi everybody, when did we say we would meet again? Can't find my notes at the moment. George, I can arrange for some support if you are thinking of coming out of the closet so to speak."

William : "By my calculations we have four Tuesdays to choose before Easter. I can make the 16th or 30th March..."

Troy : "I can't make the 30th but I'm okay with the 16th after 7.15pm"

George : "I cannot do either as I am in Basel for 2 weeks"

Troy : "Having read the string of previous e-mails, I hope you and Basel have a happy two weeks together. PS - I don't think you needed to have been so graphic about it though!"

EARLY DAYS OF TROY

If you've arrived on this page hoping to learn about ancient Greek history then it is time to hit the backspace button. However, if you are regular readers of this blog then today I'm taking you on a trip back towards the middle of the twentieth century. Well mid 1960's to mid 1970's to be more precise.

Somewhile ago I scanned a number of my old Kodachrome slides into digital format. Then more recently I photographed a number of old photographs in my parent's album. I've just been looking at them again and I thought I'd use a few of them in a blog about the early days of Troy.

Here's me, with my sister when I'm about 10 and she's about 6. We are at Sewerby Park in Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast.


The next photo is taken towards the end of August 1966 when I'm eleven years old and about to start at the local Grammar School. I've always looked younger than my age and the short trousers in this picture don't help matters. Most of the boys in the first year at the Grammar School (now called Year 7) wore short trousers. It contrasts with Troy Junior, who has worn long trousers in winter and short trousers in summer to school since the age of seven or eight. Note too my school cap! It must be realised here that I'm proudly wearing the full uniform including the cap as the photo is taken just prior to me starting at the school. Later of course, I wouldn't be seen dead in a school cap although the prefects tried to enforce the uniform policy. Also, array of pens in blazer pocket (cringe!).


It's a photo of a photo and not very clear, but you get the general picture.

The next photo is taken about eight or nine years later. Away from the parental home I've grown my hair long in the style of Dave Davies from one of my favourite bands, The Kinks. Here, I'm running the shop in my university hall of residence. As we were fully catered with three meals a day, the shop just supplied the extras; chocolate bars, peanuts, biscuits, coffee, tea, sugar as well as things like washing powder. Looking at the photo, I'm also surprised to see cigarettes as I have absolutely no recollection from the time that we ever sold them.


Being elected "Shop Manager" by our Junior Common Room was, so far, my one and only election success in life. I won it by a landslide. My favourite memory of running this shop involved coffee speculation. In December there was an article in the newspaper regarding very poor coffee harvests. So at Christmas, instead of running down the stock and banking the money over the holiday, I instead used virtually all our funds to buy coffee from the cash-and-carry. In January we were short of most stock but the price of coffee had gone up about 80%. I was selling jars of coffee below supermarket prices but still making a substantial profit. When I was asked how we could undercut Sainsburys, my response was simply "bulk buying".

I have many happy memories of my time at the University of Nottingham. I'll leave you with a couple of photos taken on the campus, one in summer, one in winter.