Why a GPS Tracker

We now use GPS trackers to protect our assets, we have plant and machinery at the mill which has value and we have decided to protect it. Now I know what you are thinking, this region of France is almost crime free and yes I agree with you, but it is also frequented by people from the UK who have different values.

In addition the plant comes back to the UK on a regular basis and so we need to protect it as best we can, GPS tracking will do this and our Ninja Tracker is about as good a tracker that money can buy. What I really like about this system is the simplicity of it which is harnessed to amazing technology, it shares technology that is used in the iphone.

The tracker is set, amended and controlled via a remote panel that is accessed from any modern smart device such as a laptop, iphone, iPad etc.

We can even set a motion alert so if the machinery moves more than an inch we are immediately alerted, the live tracking mode will allow us to watch the tracker wherever it goes, the panel records the position every ten seconds and keeps the history. It makes the job of the police very easy since a  simple phone call will direct them exactly to the spot or if the tracker is moving exactly where to intercept the journey in minutes.

We think that GPS tracking is now about to be used by everyday people in their lives, people can take them skiing and see their routes and recorded speeds etc comparing to each other after a hard days skiing. Pets, horses, children even golf bags and luggage, track it anywhere in the world easily!

For me I am planning to take my Suzuki Sports Bike to France this summer and I will definately have a tracker on board.

GPS Tracker into my GSXR 750

We have our own Ninja now – Have you got yours? Here we have protection for my GSXR 750 which will be heading for France this summer and will need protecting.

Easy GPS Deployment

Well would you believe it, whilst working down on the mill I have caught the sun on the top of my head for the first time without me being on a beach!!  Now being in business for a long time I have made many friends and immediately one of them came to my thoughts -Dr Asim Shahmalak – I was just doing everyday stuff in the grounds and now I face three options, I can either wear a hat which of course will protect me from the sun but will be very hot, or I can use a lot of sun cream – looks a little silly but would be effective or I can get a hair transplant!!

Now to get a hair transplant I would need to know and trust the surgeon and this is where I have the edge – a friend of mine is the gifted hair transplant surgeon Dr Asim Shahmalak and so I could get a pretty good consultation into the possibilities that I would have regarding surgery.

Of course my family and my wife would argue that I should maintain my current slow recession and grow old gracefully so its really a bit of a conundrum.

Asim Shahmalak was responsible for people such as Dr Christian Jesson to have hair transplant surgery but look completely natural, unlike those early Graham Gooch / Burt Reynolds style hair transplants when the industry was pioneering.

Still I will consider my options and whilst I am beavering away down here in South West France I am also fairly inconspicuous which also means it would be a great place to recover from any surgery!!!

Well back to the river where I have trout waiting for the pan and whilst trying to catch them I will start with ‘option hat’ and then progress from there.

Next week I am back in the UK and a phone call to Dr Asim Shahmalak might just get him round to my way of thinking without him realising my subtle approach.

- Here we have on the left the illustrious Dr Asim Shahmalak – a surgeon from Harley Street with clinics all over the country.

Down at the mill we are now looking at blinds for the front windows, as you can see from the picture below the windows look amazing and so we want a really good product to both enhance the windows from the outside view but also to compliment the internal decoration of the rooms.

Magnificent Blinds needed for Magnificent Windows

Blinds For Windows

As the mill is 16c we decided to research different blinds products and blinds companies, we opted for a UK company called Web Blinds – their range is really good and we can get the blinds made up in the UK and then install them down here in France.

Web-Blinds are the Chosen Supplier

We will keep you posted as to the progress but our initial experience with Web Blinds has been excellent and we have every confidence that the summer will see our blinds installed.

Our intial concern was the sheer size of the windows and the fact that they are such an imposing part of the newly renovated South Elevation, the aspect will mean that the blinds will have to work hard as they will be in full sun all year round.

I will post pictures in a few weeks when they are installed.

The event I went to was a sunny affair with the amazing aromas floating around from the hog roast to the point where by 4pm we were ravenous for the pork and apple sauce. Parkers Hog Roast Hire – based in Essex did a very fine job on the day and kept everything moving on the cuisine front until people were absolutely stuffed full and content.





So we will at some point sit in the sun with some fine wine and let the hog roast cook away over the afternoon and then Parkers can feed us through the night as we watch the sun go down.

It will be a perfect inaugural event for the mill, a mixture of traditional English with some Gallic ingredients and a group of friends coming to gether just as the Mill has – in harmony.

Cannot wait to do this so mark you need to hurry on and get the Mill to that special tipping point where we can start to stay over.

Its possibly one of the most complete renovations of a historic building in that region of France and the project has caught the imagination and approval of a great many people in Charente. The watermill is well on the way to being habitable and should see us get the first use out of it this year in Autumn 2011.





So the pictures are in two steps, firstly a very brief timeline of the renovation and then secondly a series of snapshots from the most recent progress.

The watermill will of course be featured far more comprehensively with a complete and structured timeline, there are approximately 1000 pictures of the renovation project in our archive at the moment and many more to take as the next few months pass.

Starting with an older picture of the waterfall this is one of three streams that run round the watermill grounds.

Here we have an early picture of the watermill as you arrive.

The rear elevation in 2006 before we started the watermill renovation.

View from the roof terrace in summer, the lake will go to the top right of the picture.

Upstairs in 2005 now it is completely different, the watermill has 3 floors.

The roof of the mill before it was removed, cleaned and renovated, now the master bedroom ceiling.

This is the kitchen and its outlook to where we now have the breakfast terrace.

The kitchen from the front of the watermill.

Kitchen from Roof Terrace

More Kitchen 2007

Side elevation showing the kitchen and the bread oven where the breakfast terrace will be.

This is the rebuilt kitchen before boarding – note the bifold doors to the breakfast terrace.

Outside standing on the top of the bread oven which is now fully restored as well.

Bi Folding Doors - Watermill Side Elevation

Rear of the watermill- the bread oven, breakfast terrace and all the new windows, plus the roof terrace.

Front elevation showing the new windows.

Newly restored roof and floor for the mill master bedrooms (x2).

Breakfast terrace with the doors open, ballustrading and flooring to be added to the terrace.

Roof and wall insulation to keep the mill warm.

Top floor bedroom with large windows.

Steel going in for the studwork.

Roof terrace before ballustrade.

Roof terrace looking to the back of the kitchen.

Watermill from the back.

More  mill from the back.

The mill kitchen from the front, completely rebuilt.

Plasterboard now on the kitchen walls, the vaulted ceiling makes for a huge room.

Looking down from the roof terrace door.



There are tons more pictures to process yet and when time permits this blog will show the complete step by step renovation for each aspect of the watermill including the grounds.

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We have miles of stone wall to create to border our land and streams and so I have been looking for a bricklayer of repute, luckily I found one in my area, Anthony Duff is a bricklayer in Colchester and I have had the pleasure of his bricklaying skills for my house in Weeley and now in my garden.

Anthony is one of the few college trained bricklayers who also has a wealth of commercial building experience after spending several years on large building works in London and housing developments in and around Colchester and Essex.

Whilst my main builder in France is amazing his time will be better spent on the actual mill rather than the more pedestrian aspects of walling to the perimeters. Although Anthony is a Colchester lad he will be more than willing to cross the channel to lay bricks, blocks and stone down in our French retreat.

One of the most crucial aspects will be to delineate the boundaries on some of the streams from the courtyard areas, this will help to prevent any flooding but also make the streams more child safe. Anyway there is more than enough work to go around and Anthony’s bricklaying skills will be very welcome if he makes the trip.

Anthony Duff Master Bricklayer

It has come into our thoughts a number of times that maybe when the mill is done we should consider renting it out for certain weeks in a year. Property renting in France is certainly big business and of course this region has amazing weather for 8 months of the year.

Added to that the fact that the mill when finished will have a lake and a swimming pool and the actual building is jaw droppingly good then it should make property renting a viable option but also a well paid one. There would be some pleasure in renting the property out to people in the satisfaction concept as we are very proud of the renovation, but, there is also the coveting factor whereby would we want to keep it all to ourselves.





Then there is the upkeep and further works, this could be funded by proprty renting, we have friends and neighbours in France who would help us and the income would certainly help with the expense of French builders and the tax element.

Still Plenty To Do

Renting property in France ….. should we or should we not?

At least we would not be using letting agents such as – Essex and Suffolk Lettings thats for sure, it seems that the UK letting and rental industry has so much bad publicity that using an agent would be the last thing we would do if we decided to let our French Watermill.

Either way property renting is a personal thing as well as a business concept so lets see how we feel when the watermill is finished.

After growing the business for 10 years High Position’s partners have rebranded the company after winning the largest search marketing contract in their history. With the new brand divided into verticals of service incorporating HP PPC, HP SEO and HP Design all under the umberella of The HP Group the metamorphosis from plain old High Position to a fully corporate group was always going to happen, the client acquisition was the catalyst

High Position to The HP Group

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The new branding also goes hand in hand with a move to prestigious new offices in Colchester, Essex, the catalyst for the rebrand was the latest client acquisition which is a major technology company, the PR department for High Position will not disclose the client details yet but have gone on record saying ‘ this surpasses our Sony account by some margin’.

this is indeed great news for the directors at what is now known as The HP Group and it will no doubt speed up their transition to the Moulin down here near La Rochelle. Shaun Parker stated – ‘The idea is to be able to deliver our SEO and PPC expertise from our tranquil French Watermill, whenever we needed a break, the communications connectivity allows us to work perfectly well in a wonderful setting’.

This is probably just as well considering the stress and strain in the transition from High Position to The HP Group, the office relocation the major client conquest from a pitch that lasted 4 months and the problems that a delinquent BT corporation bestowed on a simple communications transition exercise!!!

Time for a deep breath and then its onwards and upwards for The HP Group.

Well we are about to fly out to the mill to check out the latest renovation phase, this time though we will not be driving down from Calais but flying into Poitiers and then hiring a small car from Budget at the airport.

There is an advantage or two in doing this, the first is that the flight is quick and we land refreshed rather than the 12 hour trip door to door that we are usually faced with. The second is cost, you see we can fly into Poitiers or La Rochelle for perhaps £20 and then hire the car from Budget for a hundred Euros, this is less than the cost of going through the Eurotunnel and the added cost of all the petrol for the journey both ways.

We have had a number of trips where we have hired a car from Budget at the airport and the added bonus here is that both Poitiers and La Rochelle are only just over an hour from the mill. In the picture below you will see the latest progress, the outside of the West wing has now been rendered, there is still some sand blasting to do so the over spray will be removed at that point.

The finish is a colour that was hand picked to match some of the large Granite corner stones, up close there is a definate synergy between the natural material and the coloured render.

West Wing rendered to match the Granite cornerstones

With the flights now booked and the hire car also booked we will be in France for the first week in October, it should still be sunny and so I hope to get some really good video footage. The picture above shows the bread oven fully renovated too, this is one of the best heritage bread ovens in the South West of France and we are currently getting it dated.

So what can I say other than I am excited, the car hire option that we have means it is easy to make a quick trip and get things done without too much fatigue and of course returning the car to Budget at the airport is also very convenient going home.

Bon Voyage!!!

Why build a lake at all?

Why buy a JCB?

Well there are a number of reasons one of which is enjoyment, secondly value, digging a lake will add value, then there is the aesthetic view, how lovely would a natural lake look in the shell behind the trees.

Of course a huge benefit to diversity and wildlife too, we have many wild animals including deer and boar and the chance to see more of these animals will be exciting.

To dig the lake we needed to purchase a JCB, the need to purchase is great because there will be many more projects coming up that will need the JCB, due to the high water table we now know there is no need to use a 360 heavy excavator so once the last part of the drive is done the excavator can go and be replaced with a permanent JCB 3CX machine.

In full flow the JCB starts to dig the lake

The machine above is the JCB model we wanted, it will help massively with landscaping and the front bucket will be invaluable to us.

See more of our plans and use of our JCB as we expand the JCB page in the coming weeks and months, I hope to show how valuable and well worth the money this digger will be over time.