What’s your best tip for budget travel?
If you are really serious about saving money on a holiday, the best tip I can give you is to make sure you are self catering somewhere with a well equipped kitchen. By doing that you can make your own meals and packed lunches and, at a stroke, save a large amount of money that would otherwise go into the coffers of over priced restaurants or cafes. As soon as we get anywhere we go to a local shop and buy food to cover breakfast and lunch for the duration of our stay and at least a couple of dinners. This allows us to focus our spending on sightseeing and enjoying ourselves. I have mentioned previously how much we prefer home cooking to eating in a restaurant, but even if you are a fan of restaurants it makes no sense to spend the bulk of your holiday money on food.
What about if you are in a hotel with no kitchen facilities? Well, we stayed in a hotel in Salzburg and for breakfast we went to the local budget supermarket to buy pastries and yoghurt for the morning. We also bought food that we could take with us for lunch wherever possible. When that wasn’t possible we went to food stalls which were far cheaper than restaurants. The pretzels we got from the Christmas Market were better than anything you could get from a restaurant, that’s for sure.
So, if you are one of those people who has previously eaten every meal at a hotel, cafe or restaurant, try my ideas. Cook for yourself, buy from the supermarket to cut costs and use food stalls for your snacks or meals. You will have so much more money to really enjoy yourself.
Do you enjoy my Christmas Posts? If you do, I have some news for you. I have decided to put all of my Christmas writing in one place, and that place is the all new Simply Christmas. Nearly 100 posts covering books, music, cooking, traditions and reflections for you to delve into. I hope you’ll take a look and perhaps pass the word around anyone who might be interested. Every new Christmas themed post on here will be added to Simply Christmas, but this site will continue with new content every day. Happy reading!
Here’s the link 👇
https://davidgpearce2058.wordpress.com
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Cartoons are often the first things that obsess us as children in terms of TV or film. They are bright, funny, from another world yet so familiar to our own. Join me as I take a tour through the characters that I have loved over the years.
The classic Disney cartoons of the 60s and 70s loomed large in my imagination as a 5 or 6 year old. My two favourite characters from that time were Baloo the bear from Jungle Book and Thomas O’Malley the alley cat from The Aristocats. Anyone who knows their Disney history will know that they were voiced by the same actor, the amazing Phil Harris.
On TV in the 1970s the Cat and Mouse pair, Tom and Jerry were mainstays of holidays and weekends. I loved their battles and always wanted Tom to win (which he did once if I remember rightly) as Jerry was too sure of himself. However, it wasn’t the characters that drew me in as much as the music. They introduced me to classical music and jazz music and taught me that there was a whole world outside the pop charts. Cat Concerto, Mice Follies and The Night Before Christmas all stand out for the quality of the music and the stunning animation. By the way, that only applies to a Tom and Jerry produced by Fred Quimby as anything after that was rubbish!
On TV at the same time was another cartoon that was great for two series but rubbish afterwards. I refer to Scooby Doo. The original run with the fantastic theme tune was a joy. I was a huge fan of the stories because they told me that there was a logical explanation for anything that looked supernatural. My favourite character was Velma because she was the brains of the quintet. Fred and Daphne were always going to succeed because they were good looking and they knew it. Shaggy and Scooby were the idiotic pair who always managed to get away with it through luck not judgement. I think this gives an interesting insight into my life journey!
I now want to move forward to the late 90s with a cartoon I loved watching with my children and which has completely disappeared. Dexter’s Laboratory is a sublime cartoon with great characters and a fantastic visual sense. Dexter is a really good character but Dee Dee is my favourite because she runs rings around her brother by understanding people not science. His frustration with her is often very funny but underneath the frustration there is clear love and affection. I really hope it reappears somewhere because I would love to revisit this excellent cartoon.
My final choice from all the cartoons I have watched is Phineas and Ferb. It is clever, funny, heartfelt and pretty much perfect. The titular characters invent and build insane constructions. Their sister, Candace, is constantly trying to bust them as she is the only one who knows what is happening. The mix of science, comedy, family and friendship together with the most amazing songs. My favourite character in this one is Perry the Platypus who is actually a secret agent!
Cartoon characters are the centre of our lives from our earliest days and they carry our memory of happy times and huge amounts of fun.
How does your mindset affect your financial success?
This question has echoes of the ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ book which equated, as far as I could ascertain, having lots of money with being a successful father. I may have misread the intention, though I doubt it, but I certainly didn’t agree with it. The definition of financial success is very much down to the person defining it and the mindset comes from a mix of factors.
Society at large now seems to equate financial success as having huge amounts of money, big houses with ostentatious fittings and five or six five star holidays a year. By that measure, all but the Top 1 percent will encounter financial failure. I think that failure lies at the root of the increasingly unpleasant societies we live in around the world. Poor people or those who feel themselves poor want to blame someone for their lack of success and end up being told by incredibly rich people to blame immigrants and disabled people. So, what should financial success mean?
Financial success should mean keeping a roof over your head, whether rented or bought, enough food in the house to make sure your family is well fed, treats for birthdays and Christmas and occasional trips or a short holiday. By that definition we have been financially successful thanks to the financial acumen of my wife. I have also been able to retire from full time work which has been great and which is based on a very clear financial plan not unlike the one at the start of this paragraph. So, your mindset determines what you feel and how you approach life and thereby how likely you are to achieve your definition of financial success.
If your pet could talk, what would be the first thing it says?
Albus doesn’t need to talk like a human being for us to understand him. (In any case, why would any self respecting animal want to use the language of the animal that controls and destroys their environment? That, though, is a question for another blog.) We fully understand what he needs and when he needs it. He will stare at me until I get up and follow him. If that doesn’t work he will scratch at the settee or the carpet because he knows that always works! He will then lead me to the front door, the kitchen door or his treat bowl depending on what he wants. If his water bowl is empty or very low he will meow at me and I will go and check it. During the summer he would often come in after finding some shade under the bush at the end of the garden and meow at us. He does this in reaction to any extreme of weather, too hot, too cold or too wet. My daughter thinks it’s because he knows we control the conditions inside the house and can’t understand why we don’t do the same outside. Finally, we know beyond doubt that he loves us because of his slow blinks, loud purrs and his insistence on being close to us as often as he can.
We don’t need Albus to speak the language of humans, although he understands a lot of what we say I am sure. He speaks with his eyes, his body language and his cat language and we understand him very well indeed.
