The latest example of Elf & Safety gone mad is the news that young children shouldn’t be allowed to keep hamsters as pets.
And it’s not just the humble hamster that’s been deemed a dangerous health hazard; also in the firing line are lizards, turtles and hedgehogs.
Fair play re: hedgehogs, given that they’re formed almost entirely [...]

It seems like Halloween may have come early given the ghostly goings-on at one Nottinghamshire mansion.
Now I doubt I’ll be saying this too often, but surely you’ve got to pity the poor millionaire who bought the 52-room pile (for a cool £3.6 million) in the belief he’d be breaking a sweat in the exclusive gym, [...]

Sacre bleu! There’s about to be another revolution in Paris, and what’s more, it’s taking place very close to the site of the original.
But the reason for the gathering unrest this time around has nothing to do with political or social inequality.Â
Rather, in a lamentable sign of our times, it’s all about Reality TV.Â
Residents of [...]

The cats I can live with. They sit on my windowsill, lick their chops, and give me the evil eye. When I’m not looking they slink across the living room, slide through the bedroom, and pour out the window into the back garden.
No problem.
But the slugs I can definitely do without.  And it looks like [...]

Some interesting responses to the No Money Down (NMD) blog I did a week or so ago, including one from Simon Zutshi, whose report on the state of buy-to-let kicked it all off.
I ended my musings by noting that there was, as yet, no sign of his new mortgage strategy. Well now there is, in [...]

I read with some interest that Brixton Estates’ Tim Wheeler is quoting Bob Dylan:
“The apocalyptic opening lines of Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower seem to capture the beleaguered mindset of the UK commercial real estate market.”
Tim Wheeler, that name rings a bell – wasn’t he the lead singer of Ash? Anyway, anything you can [...]

Fuel and food prices are on the up, house prices are on the slide and the papers are full of features telling us all how to atone for our ten-year credit binge and mega splurge down the shops.
Now, it seems, is the time to make do and mend, to grow [...]

Camp fans, rejoice, for I have news that will be music to your ears: the former Von Trapp family residence has been turned into a hotel.
Yes indeed, the one time Austrian home of Maria, The Captain and The Kids is about to throw open its doors so that you too can leap around a gazebo, [...]

Route 1 West in the real Anniesland-
not a pair of mouse ears in sight
Not content with sharing my name with an ingenious piece of eco design, I have just discovered, via a plug by Redrow for their Route 1 West  development, that there exists in Glasgow a district proudly bearing my moniker.
Anniesland – originally the [...]

Part of my job here at FAP Towers is to upload photos onto the FindaProperty.com area guide pages.
Most of the photos are as per the brief: they give you an idea of what it’s like to live in a particular area. So, house styles, local amenities, shops, pubs, green areas, transport links and waterfowl.
Wait, what? [...]