First time buyer market may ease July 14, 2011 WITH the Bank of England keeping interest rates at the record low of 0.5 per cent, the outlook should be good for those looking to buy a home. But with renting in London costing 50 per cent more than the rest of the country and banks requiring higher and higher deposits, the picture for those [...]
RENTING July 14, 2011 MANAGING PARTNER OF BLACK BRICK PROPERTY Q. I own a flat and I’m just about to move out of London and rent it. What are your thoughts on renting furnished or unfurnished? A.Renting unfurnished tends to encourage tenants to stay longer in properties as they have the hassle of moving their furniture in and out. [...]
FOCUS ON: EAST GRINSTEAD, SUSSEX July 14, 2011 ACORN HOUSE, MILL FIELD Price: £499,000 This four-bedroomed family home with a garden has a living, dining and utility room downstairs. The upstairs houses the bedrooms and a family bathroom. The master bedroom has its own en-suite facilities. Contact: Hamptons on 020 7236 8398 or go to www.hamptons.co.uk POETS PLACE, HOLTYE ROAD Price: £575,000 This [...]
An absolutely wizard send off July 14, 2011 Film HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART II Cert:12A THE closing episode in the decade-long Harry Potter saga is pretty much as epic, as entertaining and as impressive as you’d hope it could be. After the flabby slowness of Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part One, this rips us along on a tumultuous tide [...]
Five brilliant ways to keep kids thrilled this summer July 14, 2011 1 THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA Judith Kerr’s perennially loved children’s book is about a tiger with a giant appetite who turns up at a little girl’s house for tea one day. Adapted for the stage at the Vaudeville theatre, it follows similar hits there such as the Gruffalo and We’re Going on a [...]
Reach for the skies: Breitling’s airborn daredevils pushing jets to the limit July 14, 2011 THE engineer strapping me to the ejector seat can tell I’m nervous. His advice is to keep my eyes outside the cockpit at all times. Watch the leader and our wingmen. This will help occupy the brain and should avoid any sensations of airsickness. I’m going up with the Breitling Jet Team, the aerobatic display [...]
Break out the vinyl with these audiophile decks July 13, 2011 ARBITERS of cool, quality and culture tend to be rather retro-obsessed at the moment – whatever is vintage and old-fashioned seems naturally imbued with classy excellence, whereas things that are shiny and new seem tacky and superficial. Which means that the old vinyl collection you haven’t dusted off for years should be stacked on your [...]
FOOTBALL’S NEW GAMING GENERATION July 13, 2011 REMEMBER when a schoolboy’s hopes of football stardom were fuelled by dreams of scoring the winner in a Wembley cup final, or perhaps the pride of donning their country’s colours at a World Cup? Well wise up, granddad, because we all know that tomorrow’s stars are just as likely to be chasing the trappings of [...]
Joining the technological revolution July 13, 2011 NEW IT inventions are always described as “revolutionary”. Why? Because they’re often bloody. Infuriating, that is. Back in 1789, radicals would post their manifestos in public places. Today’s equivalent platform for enlightening the masses would be an interactive billboard wherever the workers gather. All you would need is a tablet, be it an iPad, Android [...]
(Relatively) cheap and cheerful July 12, 2011 There was a time when the main reason for buying a Kia Picanto would have been its bargain price tag and jaw-dropping seven-year warranty – it certainly wasn’t great to drive or particularly good looking either. In fact it looked about as cheap as it’s price tag suggested. But this latest incarnation of the Picanto [...]