Judith Morgan, Wealth Coach for Entrepreneurs

Your Little Bit of Paradise in the Caribbean for only £1,000

Only £1,000 down for your own freehold little bit of Paradise in the Caribbean?

Can this really be true?   Or is it simply Too Good To Be True?

I have always wanted a life in the sun, so when one of our own ex-clients on the 2007 Money Gym Gold Express programme contacted me earlier in the year, I couldn’t wait to hear about the opportunity she presented.

At the time, I had challenges of my own – I was right in the middle of moving house in the same week as Janet Swift took me to a 3-day Alan Forrest Smith and then I hurtled up to Manchester to find out all about Cartel, about which more later.

And to be honest with you, and I don’t think Victoria would mind my sharing this with you, when she brought it around to me, she hadn’t got her own head round the offering yet and so I simply didn’t understand it either and with all that busyness on my hands, I just parked it – a bit further down the To Do List!   But I do remember calling Nicola and saying we must tell our clients about this.   Nicola said “no, not now, let’s wait until someone we know and trust has invested their own money in it first” or word to that effect.

But Money Gym clients are not fools and so Victoria hedged her bets and she also showed it to Marcus de Maria AND Maria Davies.   These days, Maria writes a regular column for A Place in the Sun magazine and so if Victoria could get get past Maria’s defences, that would be a great result.

As Maria tells the story, Victoria badgered and badgered and badgered until Maria caved in and looked at the details and followed up on the opportunity in a way which I simply had not had time for.

And what did she discover?   

Travel Matters - Independent Travel Advice & Service

I had dinner last night with my old pal, Karen Simmonds, who runs Travel Matters in Clapham.   This is the travel agency I started about twelve years ago.   Being a Creator profile, I soon got bored with the project but Karen has taken it from a tiny acorn and grown it into a splendid, strong oak tree, far better than ever I could have done.

Now, why use a travel agent in this day and age when you can book and pay online?

Well, firstly it doesnt cost you any more to book with Travel Matters and they will give you their time in sourcing the right holiday for you for free so that's great for us time-poor types.   They have a wealth of experience in the travel industry, the tour operators send them on familiarisation trips so they can frequently recommend resorts to you in which they have stayed themselves.   Although they are based in Clapham, in SW London, there is absolutely no need to visit them, you can talk to them on the phone or email them and they will send you brochures etc. in the post or point you at web links.   

I have travelled frequently on holidays booked for me by Karen and her team and I thoroughly recommend them.   Join Karen's postal mailing list and she sends you out quarterly a gorgeous little glossy brochure with inspirational photos and ideas for your next break.   I'm just enjoying my copy now over a cup of Starbucks!

Travel matters to Karen and Travel Matters is a Great Little Business.   And guess who encouraged Karen to blog?

How Can I Find a Way To Do That?

Having met and worked with Lynne Franks on Sunday at one of her SEED Experience Days, I can't wait to find a way to join her at one of her Women's Creative Leadership Retreats at her home in Deia, Mallorca.

They are a week long, and start on 7th June, 27th September and 1st November.  Prices range from £1950 to £2250 depending on the accommodation you choose. 

How can I find a way to do that?

So is SXM The One?

This is the view from our terrace on holiday which I have chosen to use as my new desktop, to remind me of the view from "my office" for December 2006, note the rainbow.   So is St Martin (SXM) The One - the place where I can make my winter home, my dream paradise in the sun?

Let's add up the pros and cons...

Shepherds Pie at Midnight

The return journey was not quite as ghastly as the outward one, as you all promised me it couldn't possibly be.   We set off at 12 noon from our lovely little home in St Martin, stopped off for a final juice at Top Carrot, returned the car, and were first to check in at the airport, so no queues this time.   But this did mean we had to kill about three hours at the airport, which was blissfully air-conditioned and comfortable, clean and new.

We amused ourselves with a final lunch - the only rip-off of our trip, we shared a sarnie, and a bag of crisps and a drink which I bought, and then Nicola bought me a final wonderful vanilla ice cream.

Crocs and Franglais

My travelling companion, Nicola, ever the trendsetter, bought her Crocs in the early summer.   As you will see they are a modest and subtle but fashionable shade of beige/mushroom/khaki which goes with everything.   Here is a picture of her twinkle toes, fashionably and appropriately clad on a beach on our island paradise of Pinel in St Martin, in the French West Indies.

Not wanting to be left out or behind in the shoe stakes, I bought mine somewhat later.   They are pink, no suprises there then, but unlike N, I look like a great galumphing idiot in mine, at least I did in Canary Wharf... but here on holiday in the Caribbean its a whole other story.

13 Days (and Counting!) Without a Hairbrush

Great news!   The banana daquiris have been sourced and consumed with relish; still no idea what's in them, but they were great.   We drank them in a seafront bar on Barefoot Street, Philipsburg, the Dutch Capital of St Martin where the cruise ships dock.   We were doing a tad of shopping.   What can you buy in Philipsburg?    Well,... the answer so far is nothing.   You can buy diamonds, and the usual old tourist tat (including a timeshare) and smokers eat your heart out, you can buy cigarettes for $12 for 200 which we reckon is well less than 20% of normal cost, although neither of us has any idea what ciggies actually cost in the UK!

Nicola's Nature Shots

Despite being too impatient to read the manual, Nicola takes some good photos with her camera, especially what we call NNS, Nicola's Nature Shots.

Here is a selection of this week's, so far...they say a picture paints a thousand words, so you have been saved my witterings today!

Some Sights, Sounds and Smells of St Martin

The sights are mainly of the sea, the sky, the moon at dawn, the sunset, the barracuda we were told to watch out for (if only we knew what they looked like), the yachts, boats, cruise ships, planes, birds, palm trees, lots and lots of corrugated iron (where would the Caribbean be without that as a building material), lots of building work on new shoreline homes, and the wonderful colours of this part of the world - turquoise sea, white sand beaches, and the pretty colours in the garden.  Lots of green, thanks to the daily rains, and pinks, purples, oranges and yellows in the garden on the way to the pool.

Tales From Tree Frog Cottage

We are relaxing into life at Tree Frog Cottage.   It is set right at the water's edge at the south side of the island of St Martin (if you are French) or Sint Maarten (if you are Dutch).   The waves crash onto the rocks outside the window of the front bedroom and just feet away from where I am sitting now, at night, in almost complete darkness except that of the computer screen and two citronella candles.

We think this is a photo of an actual tree frog, presumably the one after which our temporary home is named, since Nicola was able to get this great photo of him this morning on our roof.

'Tis Better to Travel Hopefully Than to Arrive?

Whoever said that was clearly not with us on Friday 1st December as we left Blighty for pastures Caribbean.   We were due at the valet parking kiosk at 4 a.m. and normally they don't open until 4.45 a.m. and although someone had phoned ahead and got special permission for them to open up early for us, naturally enough this didn't happen.   A very sweaty and stressed little man called Emo arrived at about 4.35 a.m. by which time we too were sweaty and not a little stressed.

Check in was 4.45 a.m. and so technically we weren't actually late.   However, the rest of the world had got there before us and the queue was very, very long and my travelling companion was heard to bark at me in an accusatory tone even before we had joined the first queue "You see!   This is why I always like to be early" as if the previous debacle had actually been my fault! As if I too didn't actually prefer to be early!

Gorgeous August for a Business Coach

August is here again.   There is something gorgeous about August, its long and sunny and summery and lots of people go away so its quieter, the kids are on holiday so there's less traffic on the roads, no-one can really be bothered to work in August, including me!

I don't coach during August or December because that's what they taught me - coaches don't coach.  The logic being they are both holiday months and so who would want to be working on their goals, which I follow entirely and thoroughly agreed with.