Fire & Ice: the cost of family holidays

Last weekend, the Lady and I were sitting at home enjoying a quiet Saturday morning after the busy Christmas and New Year holidays.  It’s one of the favourite times for me, when there’s a bit of peace and quiet and no need to rush off somewhere.

I hear the postman drop off the mail and in the bundle of bills and letters was a lovely glossy brochure for family ski holidays for 2020.  And like a fool I opened it and proceeded to have a look with the Lady.  We can’t ski this year with the Little Lady being so young, but we can always go in 2020 and before that we can dream…

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Calm

 

After a cold, wet, windy and frustrating business trip to London last week, I got to come back home to my loving family.  And who doesn’t want to give a stinking, stressed and near psychotic Gentleman a great big hug?

The best thing about Business Travel?

I’m sitting here in Edinburgh airport waiting for my delayed flight to London City.  Due to depart at 06:35, it’s been postponed and will now has an “Est. departure 09:35” – so much for my 09:30 meeting in the City.

Putting things in Perspective

This week I was down in London for work, my first business trip since a the start of September.  It was an action packed two days and it really put me in a position to reflect on what life is about, what I’m doing and how important a good night sleep can be when you have a 6 week old at home who cries all night.

I also met Alvar from Financial Independence Europe which was a hoot!

AirBnB part 3

Just a quick update on our AirBnB antics – but first let me set the scene:

The Lady and Master (wife and kid) are upstairs and I’m using the toilet when suddenly the doorbell rings – DING DONG

Family (activity) Planning

Here is a picture of the Gentleman’s Family straight from the family album – the boys are the ones with a scrotum for chins.    You should take family planning seriously! 

House Hacking: AirBnB (part2)

Just a very quick update:

So far AirBnB is going well.  We’ve had a number of requests and had to decline people who wanted to stay.  A family wanted to stay for a week!  Which is a bit much.  We have a pair of French students staying here and another student coming next week as well. The AirBnB website is not perfect but it’s easy to get your money out and easy to use once you are used to it.

We are not taking the piss with our prices and we are listed at around £30 a night at the moment.  I don’t intend to run a hotel, so I think that we can up prices a bit to reduce demand but keep the net profit high.  It seems like easy money. 🙂

It’s a funny feeling to have paying guests.  My wife and I have both hosted/surfed with couchsurfing but this is a different relationship and more of a commercial relationship.

So far so good.

GFF

 

Scandinamiable: my Nordic lifestyle love affair!

What do you know about Scandinavia?  Vikings, high taxes, ABBA?  Well, there’s a lot more than that.

Edinburgh Fringe: Kids go crazy – Adults go lazy

One of the Fringe benefits of living where we do is being 1 hour from the City of Edinburgh.

The world’s top 10 most livable cities

So, the results from The Economist Intelligence Unit have shown that Vienna is again the most livable city in the world.  This is ahead of friendly rival Melbourne who were top for the last 7 years.