london
I guess its time has come, the area round battersea power station had been a desert for a long time, till now.
the us embassy will be built near there, and i think that is the catalyst for a lot of development.
A new tube line will be built into that area too.
and the £ is so low now , foreigners are having a field day buying up bits of london.
(today, 6.7.12 the £=E1.26, highest rate since 2008. .79p=1Euro £1=$1.55 £=49.1baht=MR4.91.£=S$1.97) even so the £ has dropped a lot over all the currencies reflecting how weak the £ is now and likely to remain so for a long time. though living in london, i wont notice it too much. it is only when u travel abroad that u will be affected.
Abramovich, the chelsea fc owner wanted to buy it to build a new stadium, but the new malaysian owners intend to keep to the existing planning consent which includes 3,700 homes, 1.6 million sq ft of offices and 500,000 sq ft of shops and restaurants.
By keeping to the existing planning consent, they would avoid the long delays in getting new planning consent.
they are the highest bidders at £400million.
Rising up across the river from me, on the south bank is the highest residential block in london, when it is finished. it is a single tower circular block of flats costing about £1.2million for the lower flats, £1.6 million for the upper ones. 2 and 3bedrooms , £50million for the triplex penthouse.
see pics of it here
These may be luxury flats, but i still prefer to be in my first floor flat. for convenience, security and not feel so isolated, first floor is the ideal floor to be on.
John tells me in an email that he had bought his ticket to bangkok. a direct flight, costing £720 rtn. for early jan- end feb2013. It's a reflection of the price rises in airfares. half of it is from taxes. A direct flight has its advantages. only three airlines fly direct from heathrow, thai airways, and BA, and qantas.
I searched for other flights just out of curiosity, and found oman air do a £525 rtn , stopover in muscat.2.5hrs. i would go for that, if ever i am in the unavoidable position (which i dont envisage) where i have to visit bangkok.
the savings is worth the stopover, and i would look on that stopover as a break from a long flight and take it as part of the holiday. but then, i am me, who prefer to save £200 and dont mind how i go. haha.
But of course, if it were me, the journey would not arise at all, as i wont bother to go at all. haha. and save even more...!!! which is what i am doing now. haha.
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Saturday, 23 June 2012
london
I think the beauty of living in the centre of london, amongst a lot of other beauties, is that many of the travails of commuting passes me by.
for eg, it was only when i saw this online article in the evening standard this morning that i realise there was a bus strike yesterday, thursday.
or this article about flooding somewhere up north that i got to know it had happened.
here in london where i live, it was not raining that much to cause floods , or if it did, no flooding happened.
This weather is ideal for me. too bad for those up north who have flooding, but with this mixture of sunshine and rain, it stops the buildup of pollen, which is such a blessing for me who suffers from hay fever.
Perhaps also i dont work, and that is a beauty of not having to work. it is such bliss not to have to work, that i sometimes wonder why people want to continue working and insisting on working after retirement.
u might say because if they dont work they dont have money to live on... but u dont really need a lot of money to live on... but that is only for those who have no mortgage and can live rent free.
Added.27.6.12 this article today shows what u can afford with 35% of your income in london.
from the interactive site, i found out that on my present income, i could not have afforded to live where i am. Or even anywhere in london. haha.
Added. 6.7.12 read this article in the new york post about rent stabilised apartments in ny and how difficult to get them. 2 young guys were ecstatic at getting a 2bedroom for $2.800 a month. i think it is expensive but it seems in the private sector it is £4000 a month for a 1bdroom.
dont new yorkers rent bedsits or rooms? i wonder how much the rent is for a room. here in london it is about £700 a month some with , others without, bills.
glad that i bought my flat long ago (22yrs ago) when it was so cheap. And because i have no mortgage on it, i dont have to pay a monthly amount on it. just the service charges (about £1000 a year)and repair/maintainance bills which is not a lot as it has no lifts.
(though u have to save for the 8-yearly(though it was done on the 10th yr) maintainance of the block, came to £7000 recently. consider that cost broken down to about £700 a year; i have the money of course, because i save up for it over the 10yrs.
it goes to show that saving is good. a lot of people dont save. i never did understand why they dont. it is the first thing i learnt.)
i think it is important when u buy a flat to make sure u buy flats that don't cost a lot in maintainance. from my own experience, i would say buy where there are no lifts, that means blocks of 4storeys high. and the flats are likely to be pre 1900. or if there are lifts, maybe if u have a flat on the first floor, u wont have to contribute to the lifts or have reduced contributions.
if u can have your rent paid for , it means your living is very cheap, because food is very cheap relatively. i mean food you buy to cook not food u buy in restaurants or cafe, or to take away, or readycooked foods in the supermarket.
I think there are quite a lot of us around,(people like me who dont have a mortgage, even though we dont earn a lot), but no one hears from us, because we dont make a noise about it.
i have long ago realised that people will live what they believe. if they believe that they must have a certain sum of money to live, so they will engineer their life to confirm that belief.
If only people will keep an open mind, they will realise they have been brainwashed to believe a lot of things.
I have found out that i can live on about £150 a month or less. this includes everything. i chose to live like this, with low outgoings and never feel deprived.
but i am not here to preach. haha. those of us who know better will know it and understand what i mean, those who disagree will dismiss me as foolish and will not know it, and continue on with their beliefs.
Perhaps some of them might read this and become aware that there is another way of life that does not involve lots of money and still have an enjoyable life. who knows...
nevermind. it is not important. if they want to hang on to their beliefs i shall let them, and not persuade them to alter their mindset and remove the suffering that way. After all, knowing human beings who can enjoy suffering and strife, and consider it living if they have things to bother about, they might well be enjoying their lives in their own way.
i dont intend to change the world.
i only change my world to suit me and that i can do because it is entirely within my control. it takes a bit of time, and taking small steps, with some steps that are v crucial though u wont notice it till years later.
Added 24.6.12
I wonder how many people get a -minus balance telephone bill. i got it for last month's telephone bill . it was -£1.82.
this was because i rang up the talk talk and ask them to give me the discount for my broadband package. And they did, not only halved it to £3.25 a month, but gave me a further discount of £1.75 for 6months. and since i did not incur any call costs last month, (because i only called local calls and weekends which i get for free), i got a balance of minus.
I have been with talk talk for ages and am very glad i did. I was with BT before, and even now i keep getting BT leaflets asking me to change back, but their tariff is high.
i originally changed to talktalk for their free broadband. in the past broadband was charged separately by everyone of the phone providers and it was expensive. but costs have gone down a lot. i think talk talk is one of the cheapest. And they now have a dedicated line for their long time subscribers like me so that we can get special discounts to reward our loyalty. at least that was what the guy told me and from this very generous discounts that i got from him without even asking , i can well believe it.
I think the beauty of living in the centre of london, amongst a lot of other beauties, is that many of the travails of commuting passes me by.
for eg, it was only when i saw this online article in the evening standard this morning that i realise there was a bus strike yesterday, thursday.
or this article about flooding somewhere up north that i got to know it had happened.
here in london where i live, it was not raining that much to cause floods , or if it did, no flooding happened.
This weather is ideal for me. too bad for those up north who have flooding, but with this mixture of sunshine and rain, it stops the buildup of pollen, which is such a blessing for me who suffers from hay fever.
Perhaps also i dont work, and that is a beauty of not having to work. it is such bliss not to have to work, that i sometimes wonder why people want to continue working and insisting on working after retirement.
u might say because if they dont work they dont have money to live on... but u dont really need a lot of money to live on... but that is only for those who have no mortgage and can live rent free.
Added.27.6.12 this article today shows what u can afford with 35% of your income in london.
from the interactive site, i found out that on my present income, i could not have afforded to live where i am. Or even anywhere in london. haha.
Added. 6.7.12 read this article in the new york post about rent stabilised apartments in ny and how difficult to get them. 2 young guys were ecstatic at getting a 2bedroom for $2.800 a month. i think it is expensive but it seems in the private sector it is £4000 a month for a 1bdroom.
dont new yorkers rent bedsits or rooms? i wonder how much the rent is for a room. here in london it is about £700 a month some with , others without, bills.
glad that i bought my flat long ago (22yrs ago) when it was so cheap. And because i have no mortgage on it, i dont have to pay a monthly amount on it. just the service charges (about £1000 a year)and repair/maintainance bills which is not a lot as it has no lifts.
(though u have to save for the 8-yearly(though it was done on the 10th yr) maintainance of the block, came to £7000 recently. consider that cost broken down to about £700 a year; i have the money of course, because i save up for it over the 10yrs.
it goes to show that saving is good. a lot of people dont save. i never did understand why they dont. it is the first thing i learnt.)
i think it is important when u buy a flat to make sure u buy flats that don't cost a lot in maintainance. from my own experience, i would say buy where there are no lifts, that means blocks of 4storeys high. and the flats are likely to be pre 1900. or if there are lifts, maybe if u have a flat on the first floor, u wont have to contribute to the lifts or have reduced contributions.
if u can have your rent paid for , it means your living is very cheap, because food is very cheap relatively. i mean food you buy to cook not food u buy in restaurants or cafe, or to take away, or readycooked foods in the supermarket.
I think there are quite a lot of us around,(people like me who dont have a mortgage, even though we dont earn a lot), but no one hears from us, because we dont make a noise about it.
i have long ago realised that people will live what they believe. if they believe that they must have a certain sum of money to live, so they will engineer their life to confirm that belief.
If only people will keep an open mind, they will realise they have been brainwashed to believe a lot of things.
I have found out that i can live on about £150 a month or less. this includes everything. i chose to live like this, with low outgoings and never feel deprived.
but i am not here to preach. haha. those of us who know better will know it and understand what i mean, those who disagree will dismiss me as foolish and will not know it, and continue on with their beliefs.
Perhaps some of them might read this and become aware that there is another way of life that does not involve lots of money and still have an enjoyable life. who knows...
nevermind. it is not important. if they want to hang on to their beliefs i shall let them, and not persuade them to alter their mindset and remove the suffering that way. After all, knowing human beings who can enjoy suffering and strife, and consider it living if they have things to bother about, they might well be enjoying their lives in their own way.
i dont intend to change the world.
i only change my world to suit me and that i can do because it is entirely within my control. it takes a bit of time, and taking small steps, with some steps that are v crucial though u wont notice it till years later.
Added 24.6.12
I wonder how many people get a -minus balance telephone bill. i got it for last month's telephone bill . it was -£1.82.
this was because i rang up the talk talk and ask them to give me the discount for my broadband package. And they did, not only halved it to £3.25 a month, but gave me a further discount of £1.75 for 6months. and since i did not incur any call costs last month, (because i only called local calls and weekends which i get for free), i got a balance of minus.
I have been with talk talk for ages and am very glad i did. I was with BT before, and even now i keep getting BT leaflets asking me to change back, but their tariff is high.
i originally changed to talktalk for their free broadband. in the past broadband was charged separately by everyone of the phone providers and it was expensive. but costs have gone down a lot. i think talk talk is one of the cheapest. And they now have a dedicated line for their long time subscribers like me so that we can get special discounts to reward our loyalty. at least that was what the guy told me and from this very generous discounts that i got from him without even asking , i can well believe it.
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