Me and Mrs D were lucky to get invited with the Essex Mafia to Newmarket On Friday gone, an evening of racing followed up with Razorlight ( lucky Ben let me know who they were ) for our friend Nats birthday.

Anway I managed to spot some super fillies, and the horses looked pretty good as well, had one reasonable winner at 7/2 returning 70 odd squids but that was as good as it got on the betting front.

We were also lucky to have a ‘behind the scenes’ tour beforehand, unfortunately Simon and his mates couldn’t stop laughing at the jockey weighing in place and we were asked to move on sharpish.

Razorlight were pretty good as well so a cracking day all round, happy birthday Nat, have a great one.

I just got meself one of those digital SLR cameras, you know the type, you look a bit of  a wally cos its a bit bigger than your standard compact and its got a strap to hold on to it, but you know you got to get one cos the picture quality is that much better.

Anyway , I was looking for a young good looking person to take a few test shots, someone who could look mean and moody, maybe even a bit of a smoothie, not being able to find anyone I got Enzo to sit in instead and the result is the picture left, which is very good apart from the amount of tidying up that needs doing round his desk.

Anyway if you need some really good photos of your rental pad I am looking pretty professional with the new gear, and I am not even putting fees up to finance the new camera !! You can’t say fairer than that !!!

Oh well that was the World Cup that wasn’t really, I was pleased that Spain won , even if Tony picked up the 22 Squids, I understand he is now hunting down the remaining 23 squids from Paul the Octopus.

I guess we can all give up on supporting England in the future and devote our time back to the Premiership, Harry has signed a contract extension at Spurs, I am going to be more optimistic and predict a decent run in the Champions League providing we can draw Undercrackers Warsaw in the preliminary match.

I am making some very good contacts over in Spain for when the cheap properties become available and the market eventually bottoms out , it is far too early yet as most of the Spanish Banks have decided to sit on their repo’s for the time being BUT there is going to be some cheap property to buy in 18 - 24 months time, start saving up, a weak euro could make prices cheaper still, it would still be best to buy with a sterling mortgage.

Anyway I will continue to do the research and build my contacts and will let you know when the timing is right.

I was giving little anne a game of tennis in the back garden the other day, on the odd occasion she wasn’t stuck to the computer, you know get some real exercise like we did as kids.

 Anyway, I give her the old dickie davies disguised top spin lob but it just went over chris akers garden next door, so we carried on but told her to get Goergia to lob the ball back over as you do.

Which she did no probs, BUT get this,  I realised little anne hasnt been next door to ask Georgia to lob the ball back over, so I asked her if she had, she said ‘ oh dad i facebooked her and asked her to lob the ball back over’. What is that about, facebooking Georgia next door to get the ball back, well i never……the good news is I can still play decent garden tennis and remain unbeaten in my street…..

Cracking game last night, at last the WC showing some life and I have Holland in the Sweep and will meet Ben ( Jeermans ) or Tony ( Spain ) in the final, 45 squids for the winner ( or 22.50  cos of several non payers ).

Anyway , has it been a classic world cup ?, I think not, maybe because England were so poor but the whole thing does not seem to have taken off, probably as there are so many highly paid eediots noncing about, anyway as my mate Tim reminded me at least my age group has the nostalgia of Italia 90 ( probably the best World Cup ever ? ) to reminisce about, and to think we were so disappointed back then.

Lets hope that Holland v Spain / Germany will be a proper good final.

I have seen it all, my next door neighbour Chris Akers has just come back from two weeks at the world cup and started blowing his vuvuzela in his back garden, then his old woman started blowing his trumpet as well !!

Anyway I am going to Spain to avoid the racket for a few days.

Useful tip for England players : try singing the National Anthem ( try to learn the words first ) , and placing the  palm of the right hand over the three lions on your shirt, you might just get some self respect and the respect of the supporters, up your game and we can start to believe………

Oh dear not such a good weekend for England, there are some obvious flaws with whats wrong but lets get behind the boys,if we win ( well ) on Wednesday then all is good, anyway the French seem to have a few more problems than us at the moment !!!

I dont know about you but this world cup seems to be taking time to get going, no doubt the vuvezelas are ruining the atmosphere, if you are a real football fan you will know what I mean, it just takes the excitement away from the game, listening to the locusts in the background, it sort of shows that, ok it is great for the coupe du monde to be in South Africa but where is the real love and passion and the real understanding of what football is about. I guess the later rounds will revert back to a real football atmosphere.

Anyway England are playing Algeria tonight, Mrs D has gone to see Leona Lewis with Little Anne, Sally and Evie, so me John boy, Jamie and Chloe are staying at home, We are pleased the England game clashed and havn’t got to go , We got a junior BBQ on the go and some baked potatoes in the oven. Big Dave Luckhurst, Tatey and the boys are on the wallop on his stag do at Nemwarket, no doubt the Galley Hall is packed, and the White Bear will be like Beirut Broxbourne High Street later on.

 Lets hope for a good result, come on boys, someone make a name on the world cup for the right reasons.

Well the waiting is over, the World Cup is here, I enjoyed the opening ceremony and South Africa - Mexico, the France - Uruguay game was not so good, but what is the racket from them horns the africaaners are blowing, i think they are called vuvuzelas, anyway it is like watching the footie being played in  a field of locusts.

 Mrs D asked if the England game would be the same tonight, I said I thought not but I have just seen on Skysports there are 25,000 neutrals, which means of course they will be bringing their vuvuzelas with them.

Anyway, Good luck England, enjoy the match, might just have to hit the mute button.

Ok I voted conservative at the recent general election, mostly because New Labour have had their chance, it has of course been difficult for them to successfully run our country with the problems of the last few years. So we have to have change.

So what is one of the first major policies with our new government ? The newly appointed chancellor, George Osbourn is expected to set out plans for a rise in CGT at the start of the new tax year, April 2011 and is widely expected to be as much as 40-50%, in order to pay for the increase in the income Tax threshold to 10%. There may be some taper relief the longer you have owned the property.

So of course this will affect our buy to let (BTL) landlords as they may choose to avoid punative taxation on the disposal of the rented property. New landlords will have to factor in additional tax when considering the merits of making an investment. We will have to wait and see, most BTL landlords are investing for the long term regardless.

On the plus side if there were to be wholesale disposal of properties then there would be an under supply of property to let, which would increase monthly rentals and provide higher returns to landlords, we will soon find out  in the emergency budget which is on June 22nd. If you have any questions you would like answered regarding this subject please e mail me on richard@anthonydavies24.co.uk