A couple of weeks ago I took a plunge. Not of the watery kind I hasten to add, but thanks to an invitation from Ian Jackson, host of the Belfast PIN meeting, I spoke at a property meeting for the first time.

Much of this blog is about challenges, and yes, speaking in front of people is, for me, one of them. I have spoken in public and run training courses before so have a bit of experience at standing in front of the room, but (and there are two buts): (1) I haven’t done it for many years so was very, very rusty; and (2) this was my first with a property audience. That, if you don’t mind me saying so, was the truly scary bit.

I’d like to extend my thanks therefore to the Belfast PIN audience, and to Ian and his team especially, for the very warm welcome, and for bearing with me while I haltingly made my way through all the mistakes (if you’ll pardon the pun – the subject was Learning from Property Mistakes). Perhaps not the most inspirational of topics, but if it helps others to avoid some expensive mistakes and save money, then that’s a good thing.

A Family Business

As property in our household is a family business, the family came along on this occasion for moral support. And as we were in Belfast, we took the opportunity for a day off to go up to the Giant’s Causeway, something that had been on my bucket list for a long time. A special thank you to the people at the meeting who insisted that we follow the coastal drive. Simply stunning! So much so, the outing merits a blog post of its own.