Member Info for torquay

Delighted - over and out - unless you can tell me what my colleen needs three ovens for.

I've been retired for the last eight years and have chosen to settle up here because my daughter has lived here for the last twenty years, we have two grandchildren who are just a delight to my Colleen ("Nanna") and myself. Having done business here in the 70's, I was anxious to experience the process of democratisation as the demographics change.

I'm not a great fan of the accent here, nor are we that excited by the weather, but we have bought our house now and are determined to it give a fair go. We do miss the warmth of the south coast of Devon but not what became of Torquay.

The first job is to create the garden, once we have cleared the ground so that we can lay the new turf that we are bringing from Derry then I can plant my 20 kilo's of mixed daffodils ready for the spring. We'll look at a few fruit trees and shrubs before Christmas and then we can relax because the new kitchen is going in now, followed by the Tilers and finally the carpet fitters.

You carry on counting pal, don't worry about me.

That's what my cousin did - pre retirement he cleared one million a year - his whole life was spent "at the table" now retired he is trying to create a new life that he can enjoy. So far it is not going so well almost estranged from his sons, who have only had money lavished on them.

Salaries to medico's feel like a virility symbol to me - someone once said to me that "The Irish were the Lost Tribe of Israel" - judged by your comments it was not too wide of the mark.

Good luck all

should have read dissatisfaction...

Don't know what the forthcoming Presidential Election has got to do with sectarian heritage - what I do know however is, that it is important that the person elected is up to the job and has enough support from the electorate to enable him/her to slow or stop the nonsense around all this LGBT excitement.

Ireland has allowed itself to be distracted from the job in hand - TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY which can provide a home for all its people and a refuge for others who do not mind getting wet in the winter.

Education and health are of far greater importance than some of the modern day froth that inhabits the press these days. The medical profession and the politicians who "manage" the health budget preside over a system which seems as though it has been designed to fail when it allows consultants and surgeons to make whatever contribution is convenient to them - so long as it does not impact on their private activities.

The current state of the health service and the health of the many people who depend on it is a disgrace when it is noted that Ireland's medical professionals are the best paid in Europe. What is any of Irelands public representatives doing to address this - can anybody name one and I'll vote for him.

The Irish people deserve better and should make sure that they find ways of demonstrating their satisfaction at the next election.

Good luck all

Having read the most recent postings from Wexford and Bronxville, I have to say that I was in NI almost forty years ago when your heart a lot of the time was located just under your larynx. Those days are gone but they are not forgotten on either side of the divide - what has changed is the atmosphere here over most of the province - they still fly their flags and around the 12th I am sure that it gets a bit hot around Sandy Row.

The demographics are changed and continue to change - so much so, in two years time the majority of voting age will be from a Nationalist background. That is not to say that they would all vote for a "United Ireland" or that it would be an immediate success if they did - old attitudes are hard to change, when they have been instilled with their mothers milk BUT over time they can be worn down.

Their are still areas where Orange Men are concentrated, Ballymena, Lisburn, Bangor, Comber and Portadown among them, where the flags are thickest because of their siege mentality and of course their belligerent history.

They are however a practical people who well understand how to play their game - the number of public contracts that have been completed here, particularly in Lisburn demonstrate very clearly how it is possible to profit from the two party system of government.

As I have already said, I do not see a United Ireland for quite some time, it would not be welcomed in the south by most people and the Unionists would have a very hard time selling it to their supporters. However as the Gravy Train from the UK which sustains them weakens, they will very quickly look around for a new teat to suck on. The cross border trade that has developed over the last twenty years and the many links that have been forged will be maintained.

In my view we are looking at a federal system being put on the table after the next next election if Brexit becomes a reality.

Then you will see just how "loyal" they really are..

Good luck all.

On this evenings late news it was stated by the new Brexit minister Dominic that where difficulties arise the Queens loyal subjects up here, should apply to the Irish government for guidance and support.
They won't have heard this of course, because of the noise that the "Blood and Thunder" is still making in parts of the province, but when the marching season is over, maybe it will start up again - which will be very annoying.
It is however just possible that a more constructive and realistic response could be in the works, because there was a gathering at Queens today with just about everybody except Bill Clinton and John Hume in conclave, they were joined by George Mitchell. No doubt in the absence of a Stormont assembly some policy responses were being developed in the event that Brexit becomes a reality.

Anyone see a United Ireland coming - or should the Colleen and I prepare for a return to the West Country before the drums start again.
Good luck all...

I just love all this smoke and mirrors accounting - my guiding principle has always been that "one hand washes the other" - this was instilled in me years ago by a man who was Jewish. All this high powered gobble-de-gook is what got us into trouble in the first place. Sean Connery once said after he had been persuaded to put a lot of money at risk and lost it "he had trusted the wrong person" - bit like Gay Byrne years ago - if you don't understand what is being offered to you, DO NOT INVEST WITHOUT SECURITY.........

The Irish economy is doing well, the bank has increased its loan book against the security offered by properties which are well, perhaps too well recovered in Dublin and its catchment area.

Now is the time to "gently" oil the wheels, because the banks do not do anything for nothing - as the economic activity increases against a stable background the banks are making money at an increasing rate. The greedy ones of course always want more, because they see profit as a virility symbol, bragging rights are very much part of our new economy.

As sentiment and profits improve, interest rates can be raised to a more realistic level without - we hope - damaging the activity within the economy. The banks must learn that the route to consistent profits, is the one where they are socially useful and that it is not always possible to continuously raise their profits.

They have a long way to go I'm afraid, before they are once again respected and seen as pillars of the community.

Good luck all - Radar do not bring up the subject of Kelly again - the Colleen sometimes reads my posts.

No - no but we have had so many posters over all these lost years.

Amen..

we go again - up and down like a nuns knic**rs.

If you have a look at Newcastle properties FOR SALE you will not find very many - when you try to buy one the "Fun" starts - I have concluded that for some of them here it is better than watching television. The asking price is a joke, barely a guide price, when we offered the asking price as "Cash Buyers" it only seemed to wet the appetite of both party's - Vendor and Agent.

Our last three houses exceeded the asking price by at least 30K, which was what we calculated we would need to spend on one of them, in order to have it in a condition where we could receive visitors. In the last six months as houses have sold, the asking price for the few property's placed on the market has risen by about 80% pushed up we are told by people from England who are coming over with "CASH." One of our new neighbours, "a Jackeen" has returned from Harrow where he was a bus driver and can't believe how well off he feels, particularly when I told him that we had paid 30K more than he did for a similar property.

We also have a good number here from the South who have bought property and are commuting to the Northside from here along with a good few people from here who work in the south because the money is so good. We have many Europeans here apart from the 57,000 Poles who have made their homes in the North - so much so that the Polish Embassy has set up a legation in Belfast to look after them. What a contrast with the UK where they are all leaving - Torquay had 6,000 Poles alone working in the hotels. One of my pals wrote to me the other day by EMail
to tell me that there are now less than 600 working in the hotels and restaurants and that because of the exodus and the difficulty that is experienced when recruiting and retaining replacement British staff and their attitude to work he has placed his hotels with over 1,000 beds on the market. I did business with him and his parents for over thirty years and feel lucky to have escaped with enough to retire and buy a property.

Buy To Let is another area that has run out of control aided by the banks, who saw loans into this area of the market as being much more attractive since letting in a lot of cases is underwritten by the government in the form of benefits. The only problem being that they are often occupied by people who have no respect for other peoples property, do not keep up to date with rental payments and usually ruin the property value by vacating it eventually in a squalid condition. enough enough already - I'm ranting again.

Good luck all.

Our search is over - we decided to purchase a three bed house on a new development almost three weeks ago - it is going ahead at a good pace with a good depth of beautiful top soil being laid for the lawn which will then be turfed for us. I will only need to plant it ready for the spring when we move in on the 12th of October which can't come soon enough for my Colleen.
It is not what we were looking for ideally - a four bedroom bungalow - but after wasting a lot of time dealing with agents who couldn't care less whether we bought a house or not, because there is a queue to buy them here at almost any price.
Considering the condition of some of the properties and what we needed to spend on them landscaping, improving and making good, we finally took the plunge and visited a development of property's under construction. We visited the show house and that sealed it for us - the spec is excellent - heavily insulated and gas combi heated from large gas containers on the site which will be replaced by a supply from the pipeline that is currently being laid by a bunch of cheerful lads from Westmeath etc. We have one good size bathroom and an en suite with a cloakroom downstairs - so we won't have to run about too much.
Now we must get busy with carpets, tiles and curtains whilst arranging for wardrobes to be built by our superb kitchen maker. Visiting their showroom made me want to buy a lottery ticket, so that we could have a house built that would be big enough to accommodate one of their amazing "Super Kitchens" which are as far from B & Q as you can get.
We haven't got a garage but there is plenty of space to build one - "when I sell my shares for 12 Euro's" - we are not getting involved with the planning process here, because it doesn't work any better than Torquay - even for Lidl's who want to build a new store here.
The builders here are excellent so far - have made about six site visits so far and enjoyed a very positive response each time. So much better than our last experience in Torquay where we had to fight the planners AND THE BUILDERS ALL THE WAY before we chucked them off our site after ten months - we finished the remainder of the work with our own tradesmen, because we had become so sick of them.
The Colleen is having her posh real granite topped kitchen with Siemen made accessories "all integrated" - I am having a shed and a "Freeview" satellite. The golf course is almost within walking distance - what's not to like.
Good luck all

Patience my son - Rome was not built in a day - Ireland did not get to where it is in the last five years.

Good point Senator - your direction of travel would also be my preferred choice.

Profit taking again - which hopefully will prove to be temporary before we resume our upward trajectory - we hope.

Our house purchase is proceeding, which required us today to drive through Hillsborough, after we had finalised the details required by our kitchen manufacturers, in their magnificent showrooms in the countryside outside Hillsborough. It was really quite unnerving after so many disappointments when we were trying to buy a house in various parts of Newcastle before this one clicked.

The Colleen is having the kitchen - I am having a shed - which we started to investigate after we had enjoyed a nice lunch in the charming small town of Hillsborough.

I wanted to investigate three suppliers who have websites on the internet and addresses in Lisburn - we found two of them after a good drive around Lisburn. I don't know how they knew that I was coming today OR MAYBE it was Prince William they were expecting, all the flags were out in what is now a "City" of about 75,000 people. Torbay has population of 130,000 and it is only a borough with a Unitary Status council that is almost bankrupt.

The sheds were good enough, but the effort made to sell them was so complacent in both places that I found it hard myself to be bothered - no doubt having been influenced by the amount of money that has so obviously been spent in this DUP city. Our last port of call on our way home took us into an amazing garden centre and what can only be called a trading post, because of the concessions which were also present under the same roof - our shed maker was not amongst them however.

Lisburn is thriving or seems to be - the traffic was worse than Belfast - the amount of money that so obviously has been spent there must have made a good number of them rich and some of them very rich. One of them even believed "that it is going to be so much better after Brexit," because England is such a wealthy country and its reputation and prestige still carries such weight around the world that nations are already queuing up to do business. I allowed myself a smile and thought that he should carry on waving his flag and beating his drum because yje noise made him happy.
It will be quite a while before I visit Lisburn again - it was a big village when I did business in it nearly forty years ago.

Good luck all...

It is interesting to note that the Banks have waited so long before addressing this problem - in the UK it would all have been resolved by now. The ninety's were the worst example of "Bad Faith" actions by the banks over there, it was truly amazing what some of them got up to, so much so that I am still questioning the legality of their actions.

The number of homes and businesses that suffered foreclosure or just plain repossession was heart rending - many of my friends at the time were beaten into the ground by the banks with very serious even fatal consequences for some of them. A West Country paper carried a weekly supplement just to detail ALL the insolvency's and bankruptcy judgements where people were given seven days to vacate - if they were lucky.

I can only assume that in the south (The Republic) has been slower to act, because of the history of home ownership in Ireland on both sides of the border.

The politicians don't have the stomach for it and they are certainly not stupid enough to vote for it because it would never be forgotten. So far as the banks are concerned - they can't win either way - the loans that were made, were way beyond all reason in the first place. Presumably loans were only taken up by people who took a gamble - as it turned out - when they acted on the advice given by the person advancing the loan, because of the greed of that individual who was anxious to pick up the commissions associated with the transaction.

Wholesale actions like those in the UK would reflect very badly on the Irish banks - so they are selling off peoples loans and have done so, to vulture funds which are usually American. They hope that this will not reflect badly on the banks and building society's but really, who do they think they are fooling.

At the end of the day - we must all remember whose money they are using - why have our politicians behaved like see no evil..?

Good luck all...

Google car breakers up here - passed two today on my way to Downpatrick - they are just about extinct in the UK because everybody sells parts now on EBay. Wanted a door lever cable a couple of years ago for the Vor Sprung, it was a nightmare could only locate one business still going near Exeter, the rest were all gone.

The business went up in flames a couple of nights later, in what was reported as being the largest fire since the War.
Hope you can get fixed up because you will be making a good investment.

Good Luck all

What was I telling you before I set sail - house prices are jumping here - BUT ONLY HERE in Newcastle because it is nearer than Wexford for commuters to the Northside.

Ambitious or what

Still does not explain his absence - banned or suspended on Lloyds is one thing - deleted on here quite another. I do look in on Lloyds from time to time but have only posted once or twice - bit like peeing in the wind - it always wets your socks.

Good luck all..