Renting a house in Coventry - tips for Malaysians

Every year, a number of Malaysians contacting me every year enquiring about accommodation here in Coventry. Most of these were from people who were coming over to the UK to pursue a PhD at the University of Warwick. Despite it's name, the University is in Coventry. A lot of people are not even aware that there's a "Malaysian Coventry Society" here.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post of mine, "Newbie in the UK", most Malaysians prefer to live in either the Foleshill or Stoney Stanton area of Coventry. The rent there is unlikely to go down as the demand from families looking for affordable accommodation (read cheap) is quite high. Apart from a few exceptions, the condition of many of the houses are in a bad state of repair with leaking bathrooms, ancient looking decor and tatty and old carpets.

Most Malaysians who thought that they were moving into 3 bedroom houses are surprised to find that the third bedroom fits only a single bed with no room to move. Most end up moving to another house later. Also, if you were seriously thinking of converting one of the rooms into a office or study, you might have to reconsider.

If you are moving to the UK to pursue your PhD, you might want to consider moving into a partly furnished house. The reason is that you are going to be here for at least three years (four in most cases) and usually the furniture provided are of such low quality or old, that by the time you get ready to leave the UK, you would have replaced most of the furniture provided with your own. In the end you are paying for a fully furnished house but the furniture are all yours.

Some of the rental rates are quite high considering the condition of the houses and quality of the furnishings. Maybe it's time we moved away from these localities and looked elsewhere.

A few of my friends have been able to find houses done up to a good quality and nearer the University. They usually have to pay a higher rent but the difference is more than made up by the money saved on transport.

For those planning to come over this year, I think there might be some good news. I have been hearing rumours that rentals were falling in the city but brushed them off as I am aware that some new comers who moved into houses previously occupied by Malaysians had the rents increased. However, a look at Gum tree and accounts of some friends who have been able to secure cheaper rentals, might indicate that rentals are indeed falling. This might be due to the present economy whereby many house owners have entered the rental market instead of selling.

Yesterday evening, I went to take a look at a house for a friend who's moving here soon. It's just a short distance from my house and because the rental was quite low, didn't have high expectations. Imagine my shock when I found a really spacious house with good quality furnishings - for example, two comfy leather sofas, solid wood dining table, display cabinet, etc. Furthermore, every bedroom has a wardrobe fitted and even the smallest bedroom has a double bed with enough room to fit a table in. A lot of Malaysians were amazed when I told them about the house and I can guess, a lot of them are now currently house hunting on the net.

Long Marston car boot sale

Haven't been to a car boot sale in a while and last week we went along with some of our friends to the Long Marston car boot sale in Stratford upon Avon.

It took us about half an hour to get there from our house but it was worth it. We missed a turn and got shouted at by a guy for parking on the grass in front of his house. Entry to the car boot was only 30p.

I hadn't planned on buying anything much but like always ended up with a car boot full of stuff. This includes the strimmer I was talking about in my previous post "Clearing up the front of the house".



There's also a aeroplane museum "Jet Aviation Preservation Group" nearby. However, didn't get a chance to check it out.




Here's the address: Campden Road, Long Marston, Warwickshire, CV37 8LL

The landmark is an old airplane covered with graffiti visible from the road.

Will be going to CJ's car boot sale in Leamington Spa tomorrow. It is their last week at the Rugby Club.

Choosing a web host

If you are really serious about earning money from your blogs, it goes without saying that you should get your own unique domain name. After that, you would then have to decide which blog publishing platform to use. Most of my blogs (yes, I blog on more than one blog)are hosted with Blogger. Finally, you then choose a place to host your blog.

Choosing a good web hosting company can be one of the most important choices. With all the offers out there, it can get real confusing. I have found out from experience that the costliest is not necessarily the best. The choice depends on the system requirements of the platform you choose, whether you prefer to host on a Linux or Windows based server, your bandwidth and of course how much you are willing to spend.

You may want to take a look at the "Top 10 Web Hosting Providers - Best Web Hosts 2008" on the webhosting rating site. They have some really useful articles as well. For example, check out their "Tips For Choosing A Domain". A must read before you go ahead and buy a domain name. I definitely agree with them when they say "Choosing a domain may not be as simple as perceived.." Finding a name for a new site I was planning on proved to be quite frustrating when I found out that most of the names I had in mind were taken. After reading the article, I decided that the name was too long and finally found a short varient to the name I had in mind.

Gardening in a rented house

This post is kind of related to my previous post. I have had several guys ask me why I spend so much time, energy and of course money on my garden, when it's not even my real house. One of them happened to be a former neighbour of mine. He was renting the house next door (the house on the left in the pic below).




This pic was taken last June and you can see the mess in the neighbour's garden. It's worse now and looks like a jungle. He told me just before leaving, that one of the reasons he was moving out was because the landlord didn't want to clear the mess at the back. "The landlord should clean it up. It's his house", he told me.

A lot of of my friends who are also renting houses here in the UK seem to agree with that. Of course, there's always the excuse that they are too busy with their studies or work, that they don't have the equipment and so on but I guess the main reason is that gardening is not simply their thing. It's different in my case.

Some people play golf in their free time, I do gardening in mine. Plus the hobby does not cost as much.

Even though I know it's not my own house, it's where I live and I would like to live in a house with a well maintained garden. I don't want to feel like I am living in a dump. I am also thinking about my kids. At least they can go and play in the back rather than on the road in the front.

It's wonderful if you have a landlord who cuts the grass (or has someone do it for him) regularly but even if you don't, I think you should do it yourself. After all, you are living there and it's your home.

Clearing up the front of the house

The small patch in front of our house (can't call it a garden) have been neglected for a while and was slowly turning into a jungle. I had been planning to do something about it and today I finally got the chance. I bought a used strimmer today at the Long Marston car boot sale and like everything you buy at car boot, was not sure whether it worked. Well, it worked and the garden (I can call it that now) looks much better now.



My Green Thumb Sunday post for this week.


Join

Do visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Trip to La Rochelle 3

Here are some more pictures of our trip to La Rochelle. Most of them were taken using my 3 Skypephone and the quality is not that good.

On the Bus de mer again.
This time in the evening on the way to the old port.




Boats docked at Les Minimes

At the Aquarium.
They have an amazing collection but didn't really enjoy the visit there as there were too many people. The queues stretched nearly 100 metres from the entrance. Fortunately we had already bought the tickets from the tourist information centre. Saw some really strange fishes.




Jaws




My daughter




Sharks


Starfish sticking to the glass wall


A strange yellow fish


Horseshoe crab


???

|A fish with a horn

Plage des Minimes.
The beach just a short walk away.






You can see "the lighthouse at the end of the world" (Le Phare du bout du monde) in the distance.



Place de Verdun
The bus stand




Big merry-go-round



Natural History Museum
Photography not allowed in here.


La Rochelle airport


The small "Aeroport"


Our small family - finally a picture all together.

Romance in the rain

I was driving by the park today and noticed this young couple kissing under an umbrella in the rain surrounded by flowers and I smiled and thought "how romantic"

I then thought how a similar activity would be frowned upon in a few countries. Take Malaysia for example, they would probably be hauled up by the moral police and if they were Muslims, may be charged for Khalwat or close proximity. That is if they were not married. Even if they were married, something like that won't be looked at favourably. It is simply not right for a couple to show public affection like that in public.

It's interesting how the cultural mores and norms differ across countries. Is there a right and wrong?

It's amazing what comes into your mind when you are supposed to be doing something. Well, I am gong back to completing the second draft of my chapter and leave it up to you to decide.