Thursday September 1, 2022

  I confess to a fascination with the history of Heaton and the areas journey from small, outlying farms to the current vibrant urban landscape. During the centuries, Heaton must have endured crimes that would horrify today’s hipster café society. From the 13th to the 17th century the Border Reivers would have made life challenging […]

Monday June 13, 2022

After a hard day at the house face, I like to spend twenty minutes watching the evening news. Well, you can’t be happy all the time, can you? So, I need a TV license. Fair enough. The Solutions Architect and Change Management Lead at the BBC are not going to pay themselves. Having become thoroughly […]

Saturday May 7, 2022

There is good news in the post for leaseholders as legislation comes into force to remove some of the most outrageous abuses of this legacy arrangement. ‘The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill’ has received Royal Assent. So from June, new leases will no longer be allowed to charge Ground Rent. The old ‘peppercorn rent’ has […]

Monday March 8, 2021

In the mid nineties the Spice Girls ruled the charts and business was coming to terms with a new opportunity called the internet. There were stumbles on the road. Pen Island should have thought it through before they simply stuck dot com on the end of their name. In the mid-noughties social media changed the […]

Saturday January 30, 2021

The Middle Ages was a quiet time for my Italian ancestors, aside from famine, pestilence and war. The Roman Empire was a distant memory and it would be ages before Hollywood offered us parts as Mafia gangsters. So, Italians turned to creating great art. Here in England our ancestors turned to creating strange laws. Some […]