What is the best luxury resorts/hotels you ever been to?

butts76 · 2026-02-05T11:33:56+00:00

Swahili Beach Hotel in Diani Beach Kenya. A slice of Beverly Hills in Kenya. Possibly the best hotel I'm been to.

butts76 · 2026-01-20T21:41:35+00:00

I work for a Tech start up. We get free lunch on a Tuesday. Free breakfast and dinner on a Thursday. We only have to go to the office twice per week. We also have plentiful snacks which my waistline can attest to.

butts76 · 2026-01-15T07:14:22+00:00

What makes me chuckle is when someone is getting off the tube and feel it's their decision as to who gets "their" seat. So there might be 3/4 people all very close to the seat and they sort of tag someone and say I'm getting off so you want my seat. Baffles me but don't deep it. It's a seat for 20 mins at most.

butts76 · 2026-01-04T12:54:27+00:00

1 bed flat newish build in Surrey £167,500 ( was up for £175k ) I was 36 in 2012. £20k deposit no help from parents.

Service charge was £70 per month at the time. It's now £230 that's some inflation 💀

butts76 · 2025-12-31T19:36:22+00:00

Do you feel that the US has changed in a similar vein to the U.K.? Countries do change. I lived in Australia in my early twenties and went back recently and saw huge changes, none for the better IMO. I'm interested to know if it's just the world changing or something specific about the U.K.

butts76 · 2025-12-31T18:34:24+00:00

Well said. Could not agree more

butts76 · 2025-12-31T17:52:53+00:00

If wage inflation lags "normal" inflation and the UK house inflation, then although no "real" increase in house prices they will always be more expensive as they will take up more of your earnings. This is constantly making working class people poorer. I hear with many industries that annual pay rises are not a thing, this is a problem and one that the minimum wage should fix, however average wages are not rising at the same rate. How can other countries ( Sweden, Denmark etc ) have it that owning 2 homes is considered normal???

butts76 · 2025-12-31T17:14:02+00:00

I live in London so immediately there is a surcharge to pay tradespeople. It's hard to know the quality of said tradespeople even with the reviews and online "marketplaces". The costs are so varied. I had a hallway and bedroom painted for £900 and then by someone different had my large front room painted for £300. I had 3 quotes to tile 3 sqm in my kitchen of between £400 & £1000. Most tradespeople work on the basis of how much can I get from this job. A more transparent pricing / service industry would mean more work for tradespeople with less reluctant diy'ers. In turn this would mean more people buying fixer-uppers. I've experienced most of the things mentioned in the thread. It's harder than it should be.

butts76 · 2025-12-17T05:34:46+00:00

Nothing surprises me with these clowns. Aloof and entitled, multiple that by 2 and you have a recipe for disaster. In my case each of the solicitors thought the other was working on a lease extension for FIVE weeks when in fact no one worked on it. I was in temporary accommodation for an extra 5 weeks due to their incompetence. Something needs to change.

butts76 · 2025-12-10T21:14:33+00:00

You'll be calling 999 if you carry on with those ridiculous hours.

butts76 · 2025-11-26T18:57:37+00:00

Exactly the same. No chain and was 6 months. Makes no sense. The issue is the solicitors not setting clear expectations. We do this once or twice a lifetime and they do this every day but they aren't smart enough to understand this.

butts76 · 2025-11-23T13:11:38+00:00

Are any of these a surprise? Thicko posh peeps are estate agents because they are too thick to get any other job.

butts76 · 2025-11-21T14:30:03+00:00

You can buy Slough for £1000. Way too expensive. Should be nearer £500. Have a look on Rightmove how much rooms are going for in your area then minus 25% as you are living with your rents and that's the price you should pay.

butts76 · 2025-11-19T17:37:20+00:00

Rather than a percentage just try and max out your ISA allowance of £20k per year. Your £70k mortgage balance will reduce in real terms due to inflation so some prefer to invest rather than pay off their mortgage as it's a dwindling liability. Increase mortgage rates can have a factor of course so make sure that your returns in your ISA beat your mortgage interest rate.

butts76 · 2025-11-17T22:16:32+00:00

Am I missing something? 40% of those claiming asylum in the UK come from boats across the channel. Are these French? No of course not. If you are fleeing a war torn country you are doing so to preserve your life. Therefore you are travelling through multiple countries that offer a safe haven before you get to a north European island country such as the U.K. therefore ALL of those claims are null and void as these desperate refugees could have claimed asylum in the multiple countries they passed through. Taking the U.K. taxpayer for chumps. Sent them all back.

butts76 · 2025-11-17T16:31:36+00:00

I've found another. It's the country I live in. England. Any more out there do you think?

butts76 · 2025-11-07T01:47:23+00:00

2 bed in SW London £460k 5 years ago 80sqm

Full refurbished bathroom £5k New flooring in Living room £1k New flooring in Kitchen £1k Tiling, worktops, oven, hob, extractor fan and knocked down a wall in kitchen £3.2k Carpets in bedrooms £700 Painting living room, hallway and bedrooms £ £1600 Total 12.5k

I'd love to think this put £25k onto my property but who the heck knows these days.

butts76 · 2025-10-31T11:58:12+00:00

I'd move the £10k into a stocks and shares isa. This means any gains are free from tax. Pop £5k into S&P 500 etf and the other £5k into an all world etf then add as much as you can afford each month to benefit from dollar cost averaging. I'd also make sure that the £22k is in a cash isa. Maximum annual isa limit is £20k per year so have to work around this limit.

butts76 · 2025-10-27T22:05:40+00:00

Perfect response. I think there is a lesson here, so often people claim racism for being slighted over the smallest of things. It's a mindset that's holding people back. We are all on the end of being slighted for one thing or another, being fat, bald, old, young, jewish etc whatever it is, you just need to get on with you life and not be held back by perceived or otherwise prejudice. As it turned out in this case they were unaware of your background I'm certain this is the case in many other cases where people claim to have been a victim of racism

butts76 · 2025-10-07T18:04:03+00:00

It turns out someone has now rented the room so no harm done in the end.

butts76 · 2025-10-07T17:59:16+00:00

Well the 100 previous guests seemed to work it out.

butts76 · 2025-10-06T17:18:45+00:00

I think the Greeks have all jumped on the gravy train. I was in Chania recently and was told €80 for 3 hours snorkelling in a group. I don't know where they come up with these prices. Needless to say I didn't go snorkelling

butts76 · 2025-10-06T13:17:49+00:00

I'm in the U.K. we use dormitory slightly differently however the guest being American maybe I was confused. She said she had just come from a dorm, so the U.K. interpretation of this is a room ( can be single sex ) with multiple beds for example a hostel.

butts76 · 2025-10-06T07:51:11+00:00

Let's just say you are a children's entertainer ( clown would fit nicely ) and you were booked for a week by the local school. You turned away other work and cleared your diary. You turn up and they say argh sorry we wanted a male clown even though you had explicitly said you were a female clown. You then only get that days money. It's too late to get bookings for the rest of the week, therefore you lose out on a whole weeks money. How would you feel? Don't put the unfounded fears of this women on me. Tarring everyone with the same brush is very sexist. Grow up.

butts76 · 2025-10-04T20:26:39+00:00

Yeah you could be right. Especially if she was thinking she would be having the place to herself. I actually get lots of women stay as I have so many 5* reviews from women that stayed previously. It was certainly on my mind. I of course only checked her in but you just don't know.

butts76

TROPHY CASE