2008 - 2014
Holidays
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2009 - Low Cloud Formation on the island of Madeira |
This is another difficult chapter to write because it is so easy to become a boring list of places. I have tried to pick out some highlights but have not found that easy.
Beryl & Ian NIVEN
We were back in Tenerife in April/May of 2008 and it was a significant holiday in that we met Beryl and Ian NIVEN at Beverly Hills Heights where we were staying. This friendship resulted in number of joint holidays and, although we haven’t met up for a while, Maria keeps in touch by telephone. We met up with them again in Tenerife in 2009 and 2011 and we shared their apartment in Madeira in both 2009 and 2011. On the first visit to Madeira we jointly hired a taxi to take us around one half of the island and a good trip it was. The lead photograph to this chapter might give some idea of the low cloud formations that exist over the island. This cloud system provides all the water for the island and the collection and distribution of the water is a fascinating process. Although we enjoyed our second visit, my left knee was giving me a good deal of trouble, making walking a painful experience.
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2009 - Mull of Galloway Beryl NIVEN John & Maria TURNER |
After our 89th Entry reunion in 2009, we drove from Southport to Stranraer to stay for a few days at their home.
We had some delightful days out in good weather, with a private visit to the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse and visits to Portpatrick and Port Logan, which some may remember as the setting for the BBC series ‘2000 Acres of Sky.’
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2009 - Portpatrick |
In 2010 we went to Gran Canaria for a week sharing an apartment, which was very cramped, old and tatty. It did, however, have the benefit of being at ground level with a little garden. We decided that we would not try to get moved as the options were by no means certain to be any better. The restaurant food was very good and well priced and there were pleasant walks in each direction from the apartment either to the port of Puerto Rico or the beach at Amadores. There was also a boat trip to Mogan, a delightful little town which the girls enjoyed because there were shops to wander round.
In the June of 2011, Beryl and Ian flew down to Newquay to spend a holiday with us. Once again we were blessed with good weather and explored much of the Cornish coast, including St. Ives and Padstow.
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2011 - Ian & Beryl NIVEN |
Italy
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2009 - Assisi Maria, John & Amy TURNER |


In August 2010 we went back and this time, because Amy and Andrew had a wedding to photograph on the Amalfi Coast, we travelled with them and stayed in Maiori so that we could help to look after Chenin.
This turned out to be quite difficult because Chenin was used to being breast-fed and, late in the evening, she would not be satisfied with anything else. Goodness knows what the other hotel residents thought that we were doing to the baby. Eventually, by playing, over and over again, the one piece of music that we had on Maria’s phone, and singing along, we got her more or less settled until Mum appeared to finally resolve the problem.
In October 2011 we spent another week visiting and spent a very pleasant day out in Perugia. We missed 2012 but were back again in May 2013 when we included a visit to Lake Como where Amy was photographing a wedding.
The temperature at Como in May should be in the 20˚s but this year it was about 13˚ so, although we had a good time, it was very chilly to sail across the lake to visit various little towns. As it happened, the day that we left the temperature rose to about 23˚.
Our latest visit was in March of 2014, when Lois was about 6 weeks old and the adjacent photograph was taken.
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2010 - Maiori John & Chenin TURNER |
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2013 - Lake Como John & Chenin TURNER |
The temperature at Como in May should be in the 20˚s but this year it was about 13˚ so, although we had a good time, it was very chilly to sail across the lake to visit various little towns. As it happened, the day that we left the temperature rose to about 23˚.
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2014 - Umbria
Chenin, John, Lois & Maria TURNER
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Wales
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Buckshorn Cottage, Ponthir, Wales
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2012 & 2013 - Devon.
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2012 - Woodland Bridge Country Club
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2012 - Woodland Bridge Country Club |
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April 2013 - Llamas |
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April 2013 - Alta Lyn Barns
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April 2013
Ilfracombe - Maria TURNER
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April 2013 - Dunster Main Street & Castle
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2013 - Scruton, North Yorkshire
Jim ROSE & Anita HIRD
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2011 - Cold & Windy
Richmond, North Yorkshire
Maria TURNER & Anita HIRD
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2012 - Fountain’s Abbey,North Yorkshire
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Tenerife
In addition to the holiday with Beryl and Ian in 2011, we have been back to Tenerife on a further three occasions. In September 2012 we went for two weeks and stayed in the Hollywood Mirage. For the second of those two weeks Dot and John joined us after an eventful 12 hour delay in flying out. We hired a car for three days and did some touring although, as we have been before Dot and John spent one complete day going around the island by themselves.
In September 2013 we spent two weeks at the Beverley Hills Heights and it was during this holiday we met Anita and David PRICE and became quite friendly. Anita is German and has quite a heavy accent which we found very difficult at first, however as the holiday progressed she became easier to understand. The only time we spent time with them was at the pool so it was quite a casual friendship.
The photo was taken on the day that they left and Anita was not terribly happy about it.
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September 2013
Beverly Hills Heights
Anita & David PRICE
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After we returned home, Maria and Anita were in fairly constant touch via email and Anita wanted us to go out to Tenerife during 2014. In the end, we decided to go in September and have just recently returned. Mostly we just met them around the pool but we did go out for a meal on two occasions and did visit one another’s apartments for drinks. Maria and I did spend a fair amount of time in Los Cristianos just walking and drinking coffee. As will be explained in the next paragraph, this will probably have been our last visit to Tenerife so we took the opportunity to look around some of the places by the sea that we love.
To end this chapter, I will say a few words about our timeshare and the benefits and problems we have had over the years. We originally bought two weeks holiday in the Beverly Hills Club; we had a very nice one-bedroomed apartment that slept six and thoroughly enjoyed it but decided that it wasn’t exactly what we wanted to do every year and decided to try and sell the weeks. This proved to be virtually impossible and so we carried on, even buying an extra week because we were assured that doing that would get us onto the priority sales list. What a joke! Eventually we tried not paying the maintenance fees for the extra week; this brought us a solicitor’s letter threatening us with being pursued in court for the outstanding fees. Eventually I relented for my piece of mind and paid. In 2013 we found out that ‘something’ was happening with the Beverly Hills Club but were not sure what, or how it was going to impact on us and other owners. In January 2014 we were contacted by Silverpoint, who owned the complex and were offered three choices; the first option was to exchange, like for like, our apartment with one in the Beverly Hills Heights or the Hollywood Mirage; secondly we could upgrade our apartments with something better in the Heights or Mirage; there was an additional cost involved with this option. Thirdly, we could relinquish all claim to future use of the apartment but with no payment to us. In the first and second cases we would have to carry on paying maintenance fees, currently about £1000 per annum and continue with our holidays. In the third case, we would no longer have to pay any fees but, of course, would have no right to use any of Silverpoint’s holidays. We decided to get out and make our own decisions on where we went on future holidays. However, we had paid our maintenance fees for 2014 and so we had the right to have two weeks’ holiday. That is how we came to choose our two weeks in the Hollywood Mirage and which has now brought to an end our association with Timeshare. Overall, ownership has been responsible for many happy holidays in really good accommodation but the downside has been the constant hassle from sales reps to upgrade our apartment or increase our number of weeks. We shall definitely not miss that.
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