Keith Floyd, Mark Hix and How the World Turns.
September 16th, 2009
As I have aged it is strange how bit players from my younger days have come together in strange circumstances. A perfect example of this happened this week with the untimely death of Keith Floyd.
I never really knew Keith Floyd other than to look down on him with the arrogance of youth when I would go for a drink at (among others) The Greyhound Pub in Clifton, Bristol. Back then I was at the top of my yuppie game with an, on the face of it, thriving financial services business and all the accoutrements that went with it. I felt I was the man at the time.
Keith would occasionally be propping up the end of the bar with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He would invariably be with another chap in a similarly merry state and would be holding forth about all the things he had been famous for in years gone by. I have to be honest and say that I formed an opinion of him as a bit of a loser who would spend the rest of his days bathing in the faded glories of his previous successes. Not because I had spoken to him or anything you understand, but because I was obviously on the way up and he was so obviously on the way down. I was young and the future, he was old and the past.
He would probably have been all of 42 or 43 at the time.
Going back even further in time, my dad’s second marriage brought me and Mark Hix together. We are step-brothers. Again we hardly knew each other. Mark lived with his grandparents and his younger brother whilst I had the joy of switching my time between boarding school and living with his mother.
Mark speaks very highly of his grandparents and I can confirm that his grandmother was a great woman. (She once caught me stealing change from the charity jar at her work and never told a soul.) Top lady!
Mark went off to London where he made a great success of himself in the restaurant trade. He owns his own restaurants, writes books and articles in national newspapers and is an authority on English cooking.
I only really know that he has been so successful because it has been in the news this week that Keith Floyd ate his last lunch at Mark’s restaurant in Lyme Regis before heading off to Bridport where he died on the sofa in front of the TV, his stomach full of oysters and partridge (Which should have been Grouse apparently but Keith saw the funny side with the misplaced order and didn’t complain.)
I have not really thought about either Mark or Keith for at least two decades but today I sit here thousands of miles away in Florida and offer a toast (and an apology of sorts) to Keith Floyd and then another to Mark on his success. Best of luck to both of you!
PS. Whilst reading up on Mark I have discovered he has spent many a drunken Sunday afternoon in his bachelor pad, and is good friends with Tracey Emin. That makes me just a little bit jealous. 
PPS. A big hello to my Sis in Bridport. It all goes on down there, doesn’t it?
New Twitter Background
September 8th, 2009
In my ongoing endeavours to make myself look far more professional than I actually am, I have now taken delivery of my new Twitter background. I am sure this will make a huge difference to the level of leads generated and friends contacted by Twitter because I read somewhere that it would.
Of course having made my Twitter page look all jolly I am now going to be forced to do the same with the blog. Isn’t it great how design works? It just keeps on giving….. more work to designers.
Anyway, thanks again to Kit at vojodesign for all work and putting up with me. Good job, I think.
You can follow me on Twitter @michaelpeach
Ongoing Changes At Reunion Resort Not Good For Owners
August 26th, 2009
The news from the new management at Reunion Resort seems to show that they still don’t have the interests of their owners at heart. Owners who were let down terribly by the rental program run by Reunion, many of whom have lost or are in the process of losing their homes, are finding out that the management is not going to help them with their own efforts to gain some rental revenue. Indeed, in their own self interest, Reunion Resort are going to work against them.
Owners who began renting out their homes themselves are finding that they are going to be hobbled by the fact that guest passes (Which allow access to the water park and the three championship golf courses) will only be available to their guests for a maximum of six weeks a year. A similar restriction was put in place by the previous management but was not enforced as even they realized they had let down the owners so badly that they had lost any moral right to do so.
Homes that stay in the Reunion Resort Rental Program will have no such restrictions. Guest passes will be available all year for them.
This confirms that the new management are going to be putting their own self interest ahead of the interests of those owners who need to be making a good revenue to keep their homes. I am sure this action could be challenged legally but should it really need to be. Personally, I find it amazing that in these dire economic times Reunion Resort are attempting to stop owners gaining enough revenue to keep their homes in the resort. These restrictive practices will force more owners into foreclosure, therefore reducing even further the income stream to the HOA.
How can this be beneficial in any way?
The above is the calendar from one of the homes I promote in Reunion. Between the owner and I, we have successfully managed to keep the home occupied with paying guests who have all spent money on the resort. If Reunion insists on restricting the ability of this owner to book out her home then she will lose it and Reunion Resort will lose out on all the revenue generated by those paying guests.
Of course, the reason Reunion are enforcing these restrictions is to protect their own rental business that, they believe, will not be able to survive the competition from it’s owners, many of whom are now running efficient small businesses and paying tax revenue to the county and state. Revenue that is much needed.
If I am incorrect in my assumptions perhaps someone from Reunion could correct me but if I am right I urge Reunion to rethink these policies for the benefit of the resort, the owners, potential guests and……me!
All guests, both of the Resort and of the owners should have equal access to all the facilities on the resort. Come on management, I am sure even you don’t want to put more of your owners into (even more) dire financial straits.
