skadi

Article on the beeb about sleeper trains making a comeback,.https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64950747  Never been on one, but love travelling by train so must give it a go,. 

Dickie Davies and his grey bit of hair have gone https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-64700358  For the non-British, he was a tv sports presenter. 

I guess it depends partly on where the property is. I have a flat in London which I rent out, the tenants renewed and the rent was increased by what I thought was a lot (total madness imho). Advice from the agent was that in London rents are going up quite substantially currently, but it is likely the increases will reduce later in the year.    I also know somebody who rents a house (not in London) and they also had a decent rent hike with new tenants. Although the house had been renovated in between, this did not account for all the increase.    If I were you, I'd talk to another agency and see what they say. 

Koalas    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-64246872

@emkay, according to the agent I use for my rental flat, rents are rising quite substantially a the moment, I got a approx 200 more per month. Then again, I guess this depends on where the property is.

I'm quite happy to admit that I read a lot of what people might describe as trash (excluding romantic shite like Jackie Collins etc,)  and love krimis and sci-fi. Occasionally, I feel the need to go a bit more highbrow, so now have a Charles Dickens and Kazuo Ishiguru in the pile waiting to be read. Recently re-read Donna Tartt's The Secret History, equally as good second time round. 

Why is it a bit sick? It's fiction.    Currently reading a book by Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, quite gripping. I was expecting to keep hear his voice in my head, but luckily that's not happened. 

 And me too, though I did find it a bit annoying when watching Wimbledon, the plane would go over the house and then you'd hear it again on the tv.    My mum briefly lived in Hounslow West, holy plane batman.