Me and my daughter Ava at the finish line

Well, I managed to complete the BUPA Great North Sunderland 10K on July 18th

I joined a few thousand runners in perfect running weather at the start line. Once we’d enjoyed the obligatory warm up, we were off!

I was in the second group to start (believe me, the first group looked far too ‘professional’).

Once I got into the swing of things, the first 5K whizzed by – 22 minutes on the clock so I knew it was looking good to break the 50 minute target.

As I expected, I slowed down for 2-3 Ks but managed to pick up a bit of pace in the home run.

I eventually managed to finish in 47 minutes, so I was really happy to say the least!

I’d like to thank everyone who sponsored me. I managed to raise £285 for Cancer Research UK (plus Gift Aid)!

Changing subject, my original plan this summer was to spend more time working on the business, rather than in it.

Easier said than done…

A few dental clients have recently sold their practices, so I’ve spent a lot of time working on their retirement strategies, as well as analysing where they should be investing their sale proceeds.

This really is where, I believe, we help clients with making key decisions that are potentially crucial for the rest of their lives. After all, if they make mistakes now it’s more than likely they will not have time on their side to recover any monetary losses.

And what I’m seeing is that many clients want to ‘de-risk’ their investments, usually because they simply don’t need to take much risk with their money in order maintain their standard of living long term (to age 90) and achieve everything that’s important to them.

Maybe food for thought with regard to your own plans?

The next time I write summer will no doubt be a distant memory and we’ll all be back working hard.

Not too hard I hope though

Q. I am about to start contributing to a personal pension fund and have been through a process to assess both how much risk I need to take with my investment as well as how much risk I will be able to tolerate on an ongoing basis.

Whilst I am comfortable investing 70-80% of the equity component of the investment in developed world economies (UK, USA, etc), I am attracted by the idea of investing in the emerging economies of the world as this is where I believe the real future growth lies.

I have come across ‘Emerging Market’ funds as well as ‘Pacific Rim’ funds and am slightly confused about which to invest in.  

A. For many years, some investment commentators have written very positively about investing overseas in the developing world. As you say, growing economies could potentially bring you greater returns that investing in Western economies.

The first thing to say is that investing in emerging economies will be riskier than, for example, investing in the UK. Many emerging economy investment funds are quite volatile so you’d have to be comfortable with the valuation of your investment fluctuating widely.

Assuming you are happy to proceed, you then need to decide whether to invest in an Emerging Markets fund or a Pacific Rim one (or both). The key is to look at which countries they invest in as this factor alone will tell you how ‘emerging market’ the fund actually is.

To illustrate this, I have analysed 2 funds. One is an Emerging Markets fund and the other is Pacific Rim.

For each fund, the underlying countries they invest in are:

Emerging Markets     

• Brazil, 19.1%
• India, 17.8%
• China, 12%
• Taiwan, 11.7%

Pacific Rim

• Australia, 45.7%
• South Korea, 24.9%
• Hong Kong, 19.3%
• Singapore, 9.7%

So, as you can see there is quite a marked difference between the two. If you want an exposure to the emerging economies, then obviously the Emerging Markets fund will be the one to invest in.

As all funds vary in their construction, ask to see the fund factsheet of the one(s) you are considering to find out which countries the fund(s) invests in.    

Specialist accountants Dodd & Co in Cumbria, who serve dentists & medics throughout the UK, have recently released their 2009 profit figures for both NHS and private practice dentists.

They covered the findings in their recent newsletter (which I highly recommend you subscribe to, see email link at the end of the article) and have kindly allowed us to reprint it in full.

Over to Dodds…

Each year we compile a profits report summarising the results of our dental clients. We look at both Principals and Associates trading as corporate and non-corporate and analyse the income and expenditure.

This provides us with an effective tool that we can use to benchmark our clients’ figures and compare their performance.

This year’s report includes the earnings of the third full year of the new National Health Service contract, showing the effect that the contract has had on dentists’ net income.

The key results were as follows:

The average net profits generated per Principal practitioner in a typical private dental practice fell in 2009, to £113,576. This was a decrease of £4,415 (3.7%) on the £117,991 average net profit achieved in 2008.

In comparison, the average net profits generated per Principal practitioner in a typical NHS dental practice show a substantial increase to £120,521 from £105,457 in 2008. This is an increase of 14.3%.

If we look at the turnover of the practices, private fee income has exceeded NHS income for another year but the gap between the two has narrowed, with the ratio now being 56.3% private to 43.7% NHS (2008, 62.9% private and 37.1% NHS).

It appears that NHS practices have suffered increases in their direct costs and despite the increase in average fee income this has resulted in a decrease in the net profit percentage (the net profit as a percentage of the total income of the practice) from 56.06% in 2008 to 48.5% in 2009.

Interestingly, the private practices seem to have a much higher turnover than the NHS practices but are only generating a net profit percentage of 35.5% (36.9% in 2008). Possible explanations for the lower net profit percentage in private practices seem to be due to much higher payments made to associates and hygienists.

We must also not forget that NHS practices receive reimbursements for certain premises expenses which inevitably will reduce costs.

Possible reasons for the variances above are:

1. The polarisation of NHS services has resulted in larger NHS practices, where associates and therapists are delivering an increasing amount of the contract value and thus we are seeing fewer clawbacks being deducted from the monthly income schedules.  This has resulted in the net profits per Principal increasing.

2. The recession is influencing patients’ choices in regard to the treatments they choose. Patients tend to be opting for the cheaper alternative treatment rather than the “full works”, and thus we are seeing the reduction in net profits in private practices.

3. Some NHS practices have been successful in negotiating new, or extensions to, contracts at higher UDA values than they were previously given.

Whether the NHS practices will see a further continued rise in their profits will depend on the number and value of the UDAs in their contracts, and whether they can achieve any more cost savings.

We have seen UDA values as low as £16.20 and as high as £37.84 this year, with the average being £24.38.

If you would like a full copy of our 2009 statistics (including profit reports for associates and limited company benchmarking) please contact Katie Wicker on 01768 864466 or email.  Please also indicate if you would like to receive our newsletters.

It felt like a good idea at the time, but as I write we’re just a few days from the BUPA Sunderland 10k run on Sunday July 18th.

The training has been going ok I think and I’m going for a time of 50-55 minutes.

I have decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK, so if you can spare a few pounds and sponsor me it would be greatly appreciated!

All the details are here.

On other matters, I was reminded of The Fisherman’s Parable a few days ago by a friend.

You may not have heard of it, so I’ve reprinted it in full below. Enjoy it, and I hope the message resonates with you in some way

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna.

The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery.

You would control the product, processing and distribution.

You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

Q. I am looking to invest a lump sum, as well as a regular amount each month. I can’t decide whether to choose an equities based Individual Savings Account (ISA) or a Personal Pension.

Which do you think is best?

A. It’s fair to say we’ve been asked this question a few times over the years!

As ever, without knowing your full circumstances it’s impossible to give you an accurate answer, however, hopefully we can give you some pointers in the right direction.

On paper, the pension appears to be the better option due to the tax relief that you receive upfront on your investment.

A £10,000 lump sum invested in an ISA would be worth £33,863 after 25 years, assuming a return of 5% pa after charges.

For a higher rate taxpayer (40%), the £10,000 would be grossed up to £16,667 when investing into the pension. Using the same return as the ISA, this would be worth £56,440 after 25 years – a 167% increase over the ISA.

The figures are even more attractive for 50% taxpayers and for those who earn more than £100,000 and less than £112,950. For the latter, it’s possible to earn an effective rate of income tax relief of 60% as earnings within these amounts suffer a gradual loss of the personal allowance, which is currently £6,475 (so if you earn £112,950 pa you will have £0 personal allowance).

Using alternative example figures, were you to invest £4,000 into an ISA over 25 years, and assuming 5% pa after charges, you’d get back £13,545.

If you invested the £10,000 gross into a pension (and assuming you received 60% tax relief, see above), the fund would be worth £33,863 – a 250%increase over the ISA.

Now, what you have to consider is the access to your monies after the 25 years.

With the ISA, you can access it all at any time and there is no further tax to pay.

With the pension, whilst the end fund is bigger you can only access it from age 55. 25% of the fund can be taken as tax free cash (known as ‘pension commencement lump sum’), with the remainder providing you with an income, usually in the form of an annuity.

This income is then taxable in the same way that you pay tax on your earnings at the moment.

Where the pension may have an advantage is if you are a higher rate taxpayer now and foresee being a basic rate taxpayer in retirement. That way you’ll have received 40% tax relief up front and then only be liable for 20% tax on the way out. 

My advice is to look to make any decisions taking into account ALL your financial affairs.

Good luck!

Investing company money that has built up within a business bank account poses a challenge to many company directors.

If you are a dentist that has decided to incorporate (or perhaps you’ve already done it), or a doctor with private earnings that has incorporated, one of the main differences you’ll have noticed is that there is now another party in your business life.

The Limited company. #

Beforehand, life appeared to be simple. You earned your net profits, your accountant prepared your accounts and then informed you how much tax you had to pay in January and July. The after tax net profits were yours to keep and you would usually save any excess in a savings account, offset mortgage or allocate it to investments such as ISAs and pensions.

How easy it all was!

Since you set up your Limited company (which you now work for as you’re an employee), on the advice of your accountant your salary has reduced to a little over £5,000 pa and, as you feel you might struggle to live on this, you are also receiving dividends each month, as well as periodic dividends as and when required.

But wait a minute, prior to setting up the Limited company your net profit was £150,000 pa and the turnover of the business has actually increased slightly since then.

Where has all the money gone?!

Of course, as you’ll know the answer is that it’s still there.

The difference is that it sits within the Limited company bank account. The company has its own tax rates (corporation tax) and your accountant is the best person to advise you with regards extracting profit from it.

But one question we’re being asked more is what to do with the cash that sits within the company?

Where can you put it to get a reasonable rate of return?

The starting point is to realise that the savings/investment choices of a Limited company are not too dissimilar from your own as an individual.

Whilst we can’t cover all the options today, let’s take a look at some of the main ones.

1. Deposit Savings Account

It’s likely that your business bank also offers a range of savings accounts in addition to the normal day to day business bank account.

Our view is that it definitely pays to shop around here. Like with accounts available to you on a personal basis the rates are not high at present, however it’s probable that you’ll be able to improve on what your bank is offering.

At the time of writing, one major business bank is offering 1% pa AER, whilst a deposit account elsewhere is available at 2.19% pa AER. With the latter you need to save over £50,000 and give three months notice to withdraw any money, so only go for this if you don’t need instant access to your cash.

The account’s operated by post or over the phone, and has a maximum allowed balance of £250,000. 

I recommend you do your own due diligence and compare what’s on offer in the market. It’s well worth the effort, as an additional 1% pa return on a balance of £100,000 equates to £1,000 pa.

This can be considered ‘easy money’, especially if you consider that it’s entirely possible that you will retain a reasonable sum of cash in the company on an ongoing basis (obviously, these rates are gross and tax will be due on the interest).

A word on protection.

As you’ll be aware (I think we all are after the banking crisis!), when saving money on a personal basis the first £50,000 of your savings are protected per banking licence.

If your company turnover is less than £1m pa, the company has the same amount of protection for money saved in UK registered banks. So, if you’re saving more than £50,000, you may want to spread it between different accounts (although the number to choose from is not as extensive as on a personal basis).

If the turnover is more than £1m, there is no protection at all. One way in which you can at least mitigate some of the risk is to spread your money between as many accounts as possible to at least diminish the chances of losing your money.

2. Investment Bonds

With an investment bond you invest a lump sum over a minimum period of 5 years (recommended, but not compulsory).

The bond is simply the ‘tax wrapper’ – the money will actually be invested in assets such as equities (shares), government bonds or cash. You decide where the money goes.

Just make sure you understand the risks before you write the cheque. In addition, as the recommended minimum investment period is 5 years, make sure you don’t need access to these funds in the meantime.

It’s worth noting when you’d pay tax on the investment, as the rules changed recently (effective from the company’s first accounting period on or after 1 April 2008).

If your Limited company operates on a ‘fair value’ accounting basis, corporation tax will be due on any increase in the value of the bond from one year to the next.

Companies that apply the ‘historic cost’ accounting basis will continue to benefit from tax deferral in respect of the bond. This is due to the fact that only the original value of the investment is normally shown on the balance sheet each year until the bond is encashed or otherwise comes to an end and a profit has arisen.

If your Limited company does operate the historic cost basis, you will have tax planning advantages as you will be able to control the point at which tax is paid. You’ll also be able to control cashflow by taking profits from the bond in a year in which overall profits are lower.*

3. Pension Schemes

As an employee, you are entitled to make pension contributions and receive tax relief at your highest marginal rate. You are entitled to contribute up to 100% of your income providing the income does not exceed £130,000 pa. If it does, restrictions currently apply to limit contributions to £20,000 – £30,000 pa (these anti-forestalling rules are quite complex, which we don’t have time to cover).

However, if your salary is now very low due to your new remuneration structure, you will only be able to contribute 100% of that amount to a pension scheme (we’re ignoring the NHS Pension Scheme here, this relates to a private personal pension type scheme).

A bit of a ‘catch 22′…

Well, one solution is to have the company pay the pension contribution on your behalf. The advantage is that there is no upper limit to how much can be contributed, although you need to make sure you follow the ‘wholly and exclusively’ guidance from HMRC.

Above all, make sure you take professional advice before you take any action.  

Key Considerations:

There are a number of options available to the Limited company owner. From leaving the money in cash to investing with more risk (and potentially a greater return) the business owner has a number of decisions to make.

Action Point

As you’ve probably done with your own personal affairs, take the time to research your options to enable you to make better decisions regarding the ongoing management of the company’s (your) money.

# Click here and here for articles on the financial and legal aspects of setting up a Limited company for dentists.

* Source: Scottish Widows techtalk June 2010

I live with my wife and daughter in Rothbury. We live here because its quiet and beautiful, yet has good facilities and schools.

Did I say quiet?!

You may have noticed that we have been in the news a bit. It is really a very strange feeling to have a killer in your midst.

I was seeing new clients near Oxford when the news broke. When my wife called me she was panicking a bit, as the gunman was loose near where our daughter Charlotte’s school is situated.

I immediately thought about driving back straight away, but it is a 5 hour drive and apparently police roadblocks meant even residents could not get into the village. So taking a deep breath, I tried to calm my wife whilst worrying about Charlotte.

I finished my review of the file, and went to see the new client, a Max Fax Surgeon and his Physio wife. I introduced myself, and after being offered a cup of tea, admitted that my mind may wander as my village was on the news. They were very understanding and even put Sky News on for me. I can honestly say it was one of the strangest meetings I’ve been part of!

However, I got through it, apparently even making sense as we agreed to work together. Thanks for your understanding N & K.

Then it was into the car and off, grabbing a sandwich on the M1. As I covered the miles, I rang the police to see if I could get into Rothbury. It turned out that I could now get in as a resident, but they wanted everyone to stay indoors.

Then my wife called to say that the police had been around the streets to say that children who actually lived in Rothbury could now be picked up from school, although those from outside the village had to stay put. Poor things.

So I now knew Charlotte was home, but the girls were very nervous. I approached Rothbury at 8.50 pm, and I hit the first road block. They waved me through when I said I lived in the village, but 2 miles on, another roadblock had me stop and explain myself.

Another mile and the final roadblock had me stop and re-explain, as well as check the boot. I have to commend the police on the way they handled matters, as they were very polite whilst under considerable pressure.

Finally, I drove through what seemed to be a ghost town. No one was about, although I noticed the pubs were open! Two minutes (not hours!) later I drove onto our drive, and parked up. Stretching the old legs, I was welcomed by the managements, with Charlotte quite proud of herself for being brave.

The gunman was still loose then, and as I write still is. The amount of police around is incredible, with 10% of the armed police in the whole of the UK now in Rothbury! On Thursday helicopters were whirring around all night over our house, and although I slept like a log (alarm on & axe handy) the girls didn’t!

Let’s hope it’s over soon.

On a lighter note, I was invited to a friend’s 60th birthday party recently. John now lives in Gourock near Glasgow, having been a neighbour of mine some years ago. It only seems 5 minutes since his 50th!

It was great to see him again looking fit and well, and the venue he had chosen near his home was an amateur sailing club on the Clyde. I arrived in good time, and booked into my hotel, with the sun shining down on the very wide twinkling river. It really was very picturesque, and knowing we would be imbibing a few shandies, I made the effort to go for a little run.  

The old docks, like Newcastle and many other cities, were gradually giving way to new developments. I hugged the river as best I could, but had to keep coming inland when the path ran out. This made it a bit like an obstacle course, and 20 minutes into the run I really started to feel the heat from the blazing sun.  

Weaving my way along I managed to rejoin the Clyde. It is a very impressive river, with a mixture of large ships and smaller pleasure craft busily making their way up and down.

It was a bit spooky that they were talking about Victorian Glasgow on the radio as I reached my hotel. One of the amazing facts was that in 1800 there were some 18,000 inhabitants, but by 1900 there were over 800,000!

After about 45 minutes I made it back, hopped into the shower (cool water very welcome) and got a taxi to the sailing club. What a cute place. It was perched on the end of the Esplanade, where the ‘posh’ people lived years ago, and maybe still do. Lovely houses fronting onto the Clyde with excellent views.

I pushed open the old door, and after signing in found John with several members of his family and friends. It was clear that I was some way behind on the pints front, as the bar was busy to say the least.

Being into history as I am, I looked around the walls at all the memorabilia. It turns out that the club was dated from the 1860s, and several walls were covered in old pictures and oars etc.

They had laid on a buffet, and music was playing in the background as I nosily pottered around munching a sandwich. The best bit was the balcony. This was one of those large classic Victorian balconies that reminded me of an old cricket pavilion. It looked out over the Clyde, and even though it was now past 9 o’clock, the mild evening made it a perfect spot.

The night went well, and we got our act together and have arranged a walk along Hadrian’s Wall soon combined with a beer festival.

Predictable? Me? Never!

Finally, and on a serious note again, something happened the other day which reminded me that it is so important we get the planning right for clients. I was on a guided archeological walk near where I live at eight in the evening, looking at an Iron Age fort (I do these things!) when my mobile phone rang, and excusing myself I walked a few yards away to take the call.

It was a client, who sounded very down. He told me that tests have shown he needed heart surgery, and they had kept him in to get this done sooner rather than later. He is 49 with three young children, in fact his wife had given birth just before he had chest pains!

To say the least he is worried, and wanted to check out his protection policies. I was able to reassure him that the cover he had, reassessed just months ago, was sufficient for their needs.

This gave him the peace of mind he needed, and we now await the results of the now delayed (no beds) surgery.  

I wish you the best J – get better soon.

Q. I know that there is going to be a review of all public sector pensions, including the NHS scheme that I am a member of, but have I heard it right that the government have already announced that any pension inflation increases are going to be linked to a different index than the Retail Price Index?

A. You are quite correct.

From next April, RPI will be replaced for the indexation of pensions. From then, the consumer price index (CPI)will be used, and this index does not include housing and heating costs, which has caused some concern.

This is because if we look at the year to May, while the CPI rose by 3.4%, RPI increased by 5.1%. If thisoccurs over many years, it will have a serious impact on the buying power of a typical pension.

We will be taking a keen interest in the whole public sector pension review, and will report back here when matters become clear.

As we have said consistently for many years, we favour passive funds and tracker funds when investing clients’ capital. The evidence for actively managed funds where the Fund Manager stock picks, and perhaps tries to time the markets leading to consistent long term performance above the average is thin on the ground.

Especially so when you take into account the higher costs usually associated with active fund managers.

So, in our opinion, the decision for canny investors using passive and tracker funds is beyond doubt.

However, there are various types of tracker/passive funds, and this is what we would briefly like to look at here, as well as to remind ourselves how to go about building your portfolio. So, how is an investment portfolio built?

The vast majority of new clients we meet usually have a collection of funds that has been sold to them over the years.

It’s also unlikey they will have a formal investment philosophy (as normally their previous financial adviser has not implemented one for them), so to create order from this chaos is one of our principal objectives.

So how do we go about helping a new client?

Let’s say Dr Smith and his wife are in their 50s and have £250,000 invested in ISAs with various investment companies (87% of which is invested in equities).

After discussing their planning, Dr Smith agrees that they are now entering their wealth preservation years (as opposed to wealth creation).

They will be relying on their capital over the next 20 years to fund lots of holidays and travelling. They don’t like volatility, but like the idea of these investments growing a bit better than what they’d receive if they had it in cash with the bank.

After analysing their risk profiles, we agree that no more that 60% of their money should be in growth stocks like equities.

So the ‘obvious’ risk to them is that their asset allocation (how much they hold in stocks, bonds, property and cash), is totally out of line with their comfort zone.

So we recommend that they reduce their allocation of equities to 60% (from 87%), with the remainder in fixed interest investments.

Clearly risk and return are linked, but the good news is that The Smith’s cash flow forecast has shown that this lower level of risk/return portfolio will still allow them to achieve their goals in life.

So, so far so good!

We then come to how the equity part of the portfolio is arranged – the strategic allocation. This means how much is invested in the UK, and how much globally?

To keep things simple, let’s say this is 50/50. So 50% UK, and 50% global. This is key, as we shall see below.  

Concentrating here on the UK, you then decide how do you get exposure to the stocks you want – i.e. what fund?

A tracker or passive fund is the sensible answer, but which type and what fund do you choose that does the job?

This is where the ‘hidden’ risks come in.

What we mean here is that if you choose a FTSE 100 tracker, you have to understand that the top 10 companies account for around 47% of the value of this index.

Why is this significant?

Well, for example, we have seen the BP share price massively hit recently because of the problems they have had, and we all remember Northern Rock. BP has halved in value this year. In fact, BP was the largest value company in the index until recently, but is now number 4 in the list.

(A new client we’ve recently met has many 10s of thousands of pounds invested with BP, and to see this value halved over just a short period of time is uncomfortable to say the least).

So, a FTSE 100 tracker has these ‘hidden’ risks of a small number of ‘super companies’ dominating the index. One way of alleviating this risk is to use an All Share tracker instead, made up of over 600 companies.

Crucially, as mentioned, we have also bought into global stocks, and therefore this reduces risk as it gives further diversification as the FTSE companies make up just 9% of all the world’s quoted companies.

Finally, as to which fund you use, it really boils down to finding a passive fund that does the job and is as inexpensive as possible, and how well it tracks its index.

We have recently looked at a Fund Manager called Vanguard, and will be using them for part of our portfolios.

Why?

They are cheaper then the alternatives and track the respective indexes better than other alternatives, and so we can improve the investment experience for our clients.

Key Considerations

Understand why you have the investments you have. What investment philosophy do you and your adviser have?  What strategic decisions were made regarding your UK/Global exposure and asset allocation?

Do you have active, tracker or passive funds? 

Action Point

These decisions are absolutely vital to get right for your future wealth. Ask your adviser these questions, and if the answer is that he/she picks the ‘best funds’, get a second opinion.

If you would like another impartial opinion contact us.

Well, it’s been holiday time again.

We have been visiting the same seaside resort of Saundersfoot in Wales for over 20 years now, so I guess we like it!

The packing of the car has always been an interesting one, with family priorities changing over the years as daughter Charlotte grows. Now a 12 and a half year old, clothes and make up etc have well and truly taken over. Along with collapsible chairs for the beach, surf board and surf suits, we just about fill a family car.

We were fairly lucky with the weather, and most days allowed Charlotte and my wife Aly to get into the sea, which was just a few yards from the apartment. Its really excellent position meant you could dash out when the tide was in, have your swim, and be back in quickly if the weather changed.

This brings us to the subject of surf suites. You see, they both have them, and I don’t. So as the sea is still pretty chilly in June, I decided it was high time I got myself one.

The managements both smirked when I announced I was to brave the shops for one, with comments ranging from “we’ll inform the coastguards” to “surely they won’t have one your size!”

So off I went, and having found the right shop, popped in to see if I was in luck. The racks were based on sizes, so I went right to the very end to peruse the goods. They had black or black in the ultra large section, and so grabbing the largest size they had, I made for the changing room.

After much wriggling (they are not easy to get on are they?) I emerged to look in the full length mirror. It was fine!

Ok, I looked like a particularly weird species of seal who had just had a huge fish meal, but the main thing was that it would keep me warm.

Back to the apartment, on with the suit, a dash onto the beach and a sprint into the sea to join the girls. After they had stopped laughing, I began to enjoy the warmth and buoyancy the suit give, and it meant you could stay in quite a long time without going blue.

Most evenings we ate out, and enjoyed a good variety of restaurants. One particular favourite is an Australian place called the Kookabar which specialises in steaks.

By this I mean pretty much any type of animal you care to mention, from Kangaroo to Ostrich or Crocodile!

But the king of the steaks here is the Wagga Wagga. It’s a double portion of rump steak, done with any sauce you fancy including their own BBQ sauce, and a side dish of king prawns. Oh yes, and salad and chips.

Oh boy!

I also made the effort to visit St David’s Cathedral in the very bottom south west corner of Wales. What a lovely place. The sun shone, which helps, and I had checked out The Farmers Inn beforehand for lunch. Great beer and tasty food at a reasonable price.

The history really speaks to you here, and the scenery is very pretty, with the sea a dramatic background to many buildings. Unfortunately there was a funeral on and so I couldn’t get into the Cathedral itself, but I will be back.

Before we knew it the week was gone, and the car repacked, and it was bye bye Saundersfoot until next year.

We broke the journey down on tha way back by staying at the Premier Inn(we know how to live) in Wrexham. This meant that the first England World Cup game against the USA was on the Saturday of our return.

So, I ordered a taxi and found a Weatherspoon’s pub with a huge screen. Excellent. They had Abbot Ale on at £1.80 a pint. Fantastic. However, it soon became obvious that not everyone was supporting England. My first clue was when We scored, and boos echoed around the huge pub!

Of course we played badly, and the USA played well, and When our goalie let an easy shot in, you should have heard the noise of rejoicing! To be honest, I’ve had better evenings.   

On my return home, some of you might remember I had bought a plasma TV to watch the world cup on in HD. The difference in picture quality is very clear, but what was also clear was that England were still playing rubbish!

I am finishing this newsletter soon after we played quite well and beat Slovenia, meaning we are through to the quarter finals! Then I heard who we were playing – THE GERMANS!