Debbie Johnson meets a globe-trotter who is glad to be back home where his heart is

DANIEL SMOUT has travelled all over the globe with his job – but home is most definitely where the heart is.

And, in Daniel’s case, where the rugby club is.

He says: "I have lived all over – including Slovakia, the Philippines and Brazil – as well as travelling to countries like India, Argentina and Romania, but now I am back in sunny Wirral, and I am really happy about it to be honest. I still get to travel, but have this home base to come back to."

The 23-year-old works as an outsourcing consultant for a company called Accenture, which was first responsible for his move to Slovakia.

He says: "I loved it – it was fantastic. I’ve found the key to settling in to a new country is finding a good gym, and a good rugby club, and, after that, your social life tends to develop quite rapidly!"

Daniel grew up in Wirral, and his current rugby scene is at Birkenhead Park – although he is not playing at the moment due to injury.

Being home also means he is close to his friends and the place he knows so well – Merseyside.

He says: "It is the place I grew up and will always be home. It also has the best-looking girls in the whole world!"

Daniel’s home is a three- bedroomed apartment in East Mill Float, in Wallasey. The former warehouse was previously used for grain, and is believed to have been designed by GF Lyster, the man who also designed the Waterloo Warehouse in Liverpool.

The imposing five-storey building has now been transformed into luxurious apartments, which have kept many of the original features such as cast iron, columns and exposed brickwork.

Daniel first viewed his apartment completely by accident. He says: "I was getting my car repaired at a nearby garage and was told to come in at 4pm. When I got there, the mechanic said he needed an extra half an hour, so I was at a loose end. The apartments were on show and I just kind of wandered in, never intending to buy anything.

"I had always imagined myself living in a swanky apartment, and this one knocked me out. Mainly it was the sense of space. Apartments can be on the small side, but this is huge. That and the decor completely won me over. And the storage space – whenever I had seen apartments I’d always thought things like ‘but where do you put your Christmas tree and your old rugby kits?’, but this place has huge amounts of storage."

The living space in Daniel’s home is, indeed, enormous, and designed in an unusual shape. He says: "It is one large room, but kind of compartmentalised, so it lends itself to different uses – such as the dining area, the chilling out area, that kind of thing. It is so big, I have a dining table in there, a large corner sofa unit, a 50in TV and all kinds of other things – but it is still big enough for me to have a pool table and a bar fitted as well, which I’m planning on doing later this year."

The room is painted off-white, with two feature walls with bamboo-shoot wallpaper. The kitchen is fitted to a high specification, with dark granite and dark wood surfaces and cupboards.

All the bedrooms are double- sized, with the master room being particularly large. Again, it is painted off-white, with soft furnishings and a sleigh bed all in different shades of brown.

There is also an en-suite shower room attached, and a master bathroom which is tiled in white and grey.

One of the other features of the apartment is the views – over the water to Liverpool.

Daniel says: "People have this mental block about being over the water, but to be honest this place is less than 10 minutes away from Liverpool city centre.

"And then there are the views – from pretty much every room in the apartment, you can see Liverpool, the cathedrals, Radio City Tower, the Liver Buildings. It is gorgeous."

* SOME East Float Mill apartments are still available, priced from £139,950 for a one- bedroomed, to £275,000 for a three-bed duplex. Call Knight Frank on 0845 6035503 or 0151 236 1101 for details.