It is the ultimate luxury for the camper who has everything – a mobile SAUNA.
Carpenter Tony Goulden, 72, built the two-wheeled hot room to make his partner feel more at home following her move to Britain from Finland, the land of the sauna.
The plush pine wagon includes a wood burner to give up to six people a sweltering sauna and there is enough room for holidaymakers to sleep in the dream machine. It fits on the back of a car or caravan, making it the perfect accessory for glamorous campers – nicknamed ‘glampers’.
The barrel-shaped trailer, complete with a chimney and balcony, is now up for sale after the couple put it on the market - for a cool £3,800. Merja, who lives near Glastonbury, Somerset, said:
‘’Everybody who has been inside it has loved it - so it would make a great luxury for campers. ‘’In Finland you have saunas most days to clean your body and your mind. ‘’I loved my old sauna but when I moved house, I had to leave it behind. ‘’I tried to get one when I moved over here but I was told the best place to get one was back in Finland, so we ordered a wood burner from there and Tony built one instead.
“He put wheels on it so we could take it wherever we went but now we are moving house we have decided to sell it.’’ Merja, 48, who came to England in the 1980s, began to miss her daily sauna so she persuaded boyfriend Tony to build one four years ago. The project took him about two months to complete and cost £3,500 after they imported a wood stove from Finland.
Tony said: ‘’All we had to import from Finland was the wood-fired stove, which cost us about 600 euros including transportation costs. ‘’I built the trailer and then built the sauna on top of it. The trailer can be removed if a permanent site is available. ‘’The sauna is double-skinned and fully insulated. It uses scrap wood from skips but will also burn logs up to 16 inches long.
‘’It heats up so quickly and you get the best steam. In 20 minutes it’s ready.” The couple spent a lot of time in the sauna after it was built, mainly moving it around the large garden of their country home.
Now they have put the ingenious invention up for sale after Tony began to build a permanent sauna, without wheels, in the garden of their new home. Tony said: ‘’you can sleep in it on a double air mattress, and cook on the stove.” Saunas have played an important part in Finnish life for more than 2,000 years. In fact, there are estimated to be more than two million saunas in Finland, a country of about five million people.
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Campaigns & Issues
Councils’ care home policy may cost families £millions a year, says charity
Thousands of families in England may be paying councils millions of pounds a year for care home places that should be free, according to a report by older people’s charity Independent Age.
The families are having to ‘top-up’ their elderly relatives’ care home fees because some councils refuse to pay the full market cost themselves. Councils are required to provide an appropriate care home place to elderly people with few assets but the maximum rate they will pay in England is on average £45 a week, compared to an average real cost of £524.
News
Inflation falls for all age groups, although elderly still hit hardest
- The latest figures from the Alliance Trust Economic Research Centre show that all households experienced a decline in their inflation rates in April
- Despite this, it is still the elderly households which face the highest rate of inflation
- The over 75 year old households face an inflation rate of 3.6% and although this is the lowest level since October 2010, it is still higher than the official rate of inflation
- The 30-49 year olds, once again, have the lowest rate of inflation at 3.0%. This is the lowest level recorded for this age group since November 2009
- Gas price inflation remains elevated at 15%, which continues to affect the elderly households disproportionately
Competitions & Fun
Win a pair of tickets to South Pacific
This breathtaking and lavish Lincoln Center Theatre production reinvented Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical.
It swept the 2008 Tony Awards, played for two years to sold-out houses on Broadway and was televised across America.
Reader Offers
You could win one of three superb weekend breaks in Silver Travel Advisor’s “Best of British” Diamond Jubilee celebration this month
Silver Travel Advisor is a friendly website packed with advice, tips, information and honest reviews written by and for silver travellers (aged over 50).
A team of advisors are on hand to answer queries (for free), and you can share your own experiences too.
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Health & Wellbeing
Patients to benefit from better advice on pain control
New guidance for doctors and other prescribers on the use of strong painkillers for patients with chronic or incurable disease has been welcomed by researchers at the University of Leeds.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is today (23 May) launching a new clinical guideline on the safe use of opioids – a family of drugs derived from the opium poppy that have been identified by the World Health Organization as essential in the treatment of severe pain. The new NICE guideline should help ensure that when patients receiving palliative care for chronic or incurable illnesses start treatment with strong opiods, the drugs are prescribed safely and consistently..
Property & Finance
Older people need specialist housing
Britain’s housing market is failing to meet the needs of the elderly, despite a rapidly-ageing population and a growing demand for retirement housing, a charity has warned. Housing charity Shelter has found that if demand remains at current levels supply would have to increase by over 70 per cent in the next 20 years in order to keep up.
The report explored the housing options available to those over 55 - a group that will make up one in three people in England by 2030.
Lifestyle
Learn how the internet can make life easier for you
Stocking up on the heavy grocery essentials was a full day out for Sheila, age 82. “I could see the advantages of doing the supermarket shop on the internet: having the groceries delivered, saving the taxi fare and not relying on others to shop for me if I’m ill,” said Sheila.
“But although I used the internet for emails, I didn’t really enjoy or trust it. My daughter suggested that Pearson Love to Learn’s Internet Basics online course might give me confidence and when she offered to try it out with me, I decided to give it a go.
Travel & Leisure
New sat-nav for older people
There could be a new solution for the increasing number of elderly drivers in Britain who are driven round the bend by complicated sat-nav devices. Scientists are developing a new satellite navigation system - dubbed the Granny-Nav - to help technophobic pensioners. The new device, which tells pensioners to turn at a specific point, such as a pub and not in a certain distance, is being hailed as a new way to keep the elderly as independent as possible.
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