COVID Levels and Guidance for Aberdeen and South Shields – our interpretation and application
Background: We have had some, let’s just say ‘unusual’ booking enquiries recently. Or to use a good Aberdonian phrase folk who are ‘at it.’ A 2 week enquiry to have some ‘time out over the Christmas period’ which then turned into ‘take it for 1 month and if my work is longer will take it […]
Necessary Evil Versus the Power of Social Media
Until the last year or so I have been busy building our small family business up. Literally almost brick by brick. But not quite! We’ve went from 2-3 places to 8-9, 250 miles apart in the last 2 years or so. Make that 258! South Shields to Aberdeen, a trip I’ve made a hundreds of […]
Fish, Chips and Saveloy Dips!
How is everyone? I hope you are all well and managing to stay sane throughout the craziness. Wow! It’s been a whopping 11 weeks since our last update. We’re the world worst spammers! At the start of September (how long ago does that seem now?!) it was my birthday, it is every year! So I […]
22/9/20 Update
Well since the weekend when I wrote our last update we’ve received the first batch of photos from Adam and they are GREAT! We took more photos today, and a video walk though of all of the places so can wait to see and share them with you all. The vote to help us choose our […]
Aberdeen Birthday Adventures; North, South, East and West.
Hi everyone! Our last update post was way back on 27th July so I think we can officially say that I am the worlds worst spammer, haha! But I’ve been busy! After our little trip to Keswick, then South Shields, we explored our local patch to show how AMAZING Aberdeen and the Shire is and help our future guests […]
North East England Local Lockdown
There are new restrictions in place for South Tyneside as of today. South Shields earlier this summer on our family holidays This is what these restrictions mean for our self catering business and our great guests: – Residents and visitors to the area are only able to socialise with those from the same household or support […]
Sunday Afternoon Family Walk
This afternoon, well yesterday but you know what I mean, I managed to drag my teenage son and daughter out for a walk. I wanted to head into the highlands, or maybe along Deeside but the script from my daughter was to “walk into town.” So given that she accompanied me for a wee trip […]
Things to do in South Shields Part 1 – Sandhaven to Marsden Kinda Circularish Walk.
There are already loads of blogs out there on the best things to do in South Shields. And I will get round to writing a more complete one based on my extensive guide to the area which I send to all guests who book one of our South Shields self catering apartments. But most South Shields […]
Don’t let the bed bugs bite: A day in the life of a self catering operator.
7am: Just when planning planning next social media post, the guest who checked in last night texts to inform you that he has found and duly squished a bed bug! Photos of squished bug sent as evidence! The offending critter- Gaads man!! Apologise to guest by text then check if it’s a good time to […]
Fox and Matilda’s Home from Home
These 2 little bundles of energy are called Fox and Matilda! Do you want to hear their story? Fox and Matilda enjoying a wee picnic in our back garden after the intense heat of Houston it must feel such a releif to be exploring outdoors! Well the story starts when Sonny, Lola and myself were […]
Staycations
The reintroduction of the quarantine rule for Spain has reinforced that STAYCAYTIONS are the way forward for UK holiday makers for the foreseeable future. Who needs to go abroad when we are blessed to live on such an island so rich in natural beauty? We have so much to discover right here on our doorstep. […]
Sporting Tales and Highland Adventures
Following on from my last personal kinda blog, in early 2014 I went to see Sunderland at Wembley. The 5th time since my first visit for the 1985 Milk Cup Final when I was 11 years old and they broke my heart. This time Man City were the opponents in the league cup final. I got […]
Guess the UK’s top trending place to visit in 2020
Did you know which city was the only place from the UK to be listed Airbnb’s top 20 trending destinations to visit in 2020? ABERDEEN! Of course. The FAMOUS Aberdeen. Now as we all know we didn’t really get much time to start our 2020 travels when the big padlock landed right over all of our […]
A Victorian Townhouse Restoration
In early 2016 I bought a Victorian townhouse maisonette in my old hometown of South Shields. Black front door in a beautiful quiet residential street I landed in South Shields on the 9th February with my furniture and all my belongings from my Aberdeen house (I actually travelled down in the removal van!) and helped […]
Our 3rd (Mid July-ish) Update
I’ve modified this blog post from an update I have started writing for our VIP email subscribers And if you’d like to sign up or share with any friends, family or colleagues click into the above link and enter your name and email! Simple. Anyway! I’m sitting on our decking writing this on my laptop. The sun […]