For someone who didn’t really enjoy social media, lately I’ve tried really hard and persevered to let people know about our self catering places and seem to be finally be getting something going and some traction.

I have also went a bit ballistic, on our blog.

I have always wanted to write a blog.

Then I heard it might be good for our company website and we need all the help we can get right now.

Even before the lockdown came our places were struggling if I’m honest, especially in Aberdeen.

So I decided to provide a little insight into our lives and how I went from working on the shipyards in South Shields, to being an engineer in Aberdeen then to running self catering homes in both locations for the last 5 years and trying to have as much fun with and without my kids as possible in-between!

But as always with me I did not do it in a half arsed fashion so started at the start and have went though my life and am currently up to 2014, just before where I really fell into self catering, with a few present-ish days posts thrown in about why I started writing the blog, how we’ve looked after guests who needed to cancel during lockdown, reasons for my post lockdown optimism, and how an unexpected call lead to us renovating and setting up our 9th and latest self catering home mid lockdown!

I wrote about my humble beginnings, how I landed in Aberdeen, setting up the family home 20 years ago which I still live in now and where my kids live half of the time as well!

They were mainly nice happy stories.

Even My Letter to my Dad, despite the sadness of losing him it was happy memories.

But the end of a relationship is never going to be a happy story.

I wrote about finding my feet again.

Then our first great campervan trip with just the 3 of us, my wee 40th adventure and even our ace trip to Legoland!!

Hey it can’t all be doom and gloom man! Haha.

Back in early June, the 6th to be precise.

Sonny and Lola are now spending half of their time with me.

And its bloody great.

And the previous time they were with me Lola had shown a strong desire to see the beach (we live only a few miles from it in Aberdeen).

So I got her bike from her mams, made it roadworthy and ready for a cycle to the beach.

But in typical flakey teenager fashion, when they came to me again she didn’t want to cycle so we walked!

She thought that she was being rebellious by agreeing to walk!

She’s a fantastic kid, Sonny is too! I’m so proud of the young adults they’re tuning into.

Anyway, we walked!

An we walked, and walked!

For 9 miles!

Through the tree lined west end, past all of the churches, parks, and 100s of years old buildings to the beach and the harbour! Then all the way back.

It was the best day I’ve had in ages, especially after being confined to closer to home prior to that stage of the lockdown in Scotland.

The sun was out, the sky was clear blue and the granite was sparkling

Aberdeen was looking amazing.

I took 100s and 100s of photo and started positing them on our Aberdeen Facebook and Insta pages so feel free to check them out and give us a like, follow, share with your friends or whatever if you like.

As I had taken some good key worker bookings for South Shields during lockdown I neglected those pages a little to concentrate on Aberdeen (where all of our places were empty) but recently have started to post more regularly on our South Shields Facebook and Insta pages. So hope that you have enjoyed this posts so far.

And I’ve just started writing about how I turned my first South Shields place, our townhouse maisonette from Victorian hovel to the stunning holiday home it is now! Watch this space (or follow our blog and those pages in the link above) for that one!

Finally, I wanted to personally say a MASSIVE thanks for all of the recent good wishes to us via feedback on our blogs and flurry of social media posts lately.

We have recently taken 2 great bookings, both of which will run over several months; a family returning back to Aberdeen from the States and a group of contractors working in the South Shields area.

It feels like all of the good karma we have shown our great guests with the reduced rates for the doctors and nurses, etc during lockdown, and all of the full refunds we have given to everyone affected by COVID are starting to come back to us.

AND the both of these bookers heard of us via our social media so all of your help really works!

So if you know anyone who might need a great place to stay in Aberdeen or South Shields which has self check in, own kitchen, dining area, etc, spotlessly clean with great customer service please feel free to recommend them to ourselves as we still have great availability at our places.

I haven’t taken one ounce of government help, I’ve dipped into my slush fund, and worked really hard to tread water during these hard times.

This is how I, like many of you I am guessing, have been brought up.

Work hard and you get your rewards.

But like many things, you cant do it alone and need help of your friends.

Well I know that I don’t know all of you personally.

But any help you you can give us by showing our posts and page some love and letting others know of our page makes a massive difference to a small local family business like ourselves!

So I’m sitting here in Keswick on the sofa of the holiday home we’ve been at for a short mid week break, having my last cuppa before we drive back across to the east coast and to my old home town of South Shields for the next leg of our 2 week summer holiday.

9/6/20: Yesterdays walk around Derwentwater, near Keswick, Lake District with Sonny & Lola (off camera!)

And now that the lockdown period has ended in both England and Scotland where we operate I wonder what this post lockdown period will bring given that we are now allowed to host leisure guests.

Whatever happens I hope that everyone of you is safe, well and happy.

Thank you again everyone!

Keep the faith ???

Cheers.

Colin & family!

PS – If you’d like to sign up for our Newsletter (which this is the 2nd one of so your right at the start of our journey), or share with any friends, family or colleagues the link is: https://tinyurl.com/y9jnlu8z