BE HONEST...Would you stay in Spain if it wasn't for the weather?

 Camposol .. si, we are the super saver scrimpers!  (Well, that and an occasional top up from my dear old daddy. Not a big pay out, but just enough to keep us going for the occasional beer and tapas each week. But at Eu2.40 for 2 this ain't bad!!!) Plus we grow our own veg :) But worried about hike in elec especially coming soon :(   

We have thought about the question 'Where do we live reasonably cheaply, with great weather (a lot of the time), not too far from the UK, if not in Spain?' but we haven't come up with an answer.  It isn't only the Spanish that are friendly, helpful, laid-back, have great food etc etc and one of the main reasons many of us go to Spain regularly is the fact that it is the nearest place to the UK where we can get some sunshine!

My sister and her husband are just settling into permanent living in Australia as they love it there. He always said he would never leave London... but he was lucky enough to be sponsored into a great job at the age of 52, otherwise they would be have been over the allowable age limit to be let in on a permanent basis. Another sister and her husband, retired, spend as much time there as they can afford.  They, too, love Australia and could afford to live out their retirement years there.  They are undecided (it's the 24-hour flight away from ailing parents and other family members that stops them) at the moment.  My hubby and I are retired and don't have the necessary income to be allowed to live there permanently.  However, it's a long way from the UK where the rest of the family reside...except for my neice who went to China last year on a TEFL placement.  She has decided this is where she wants to live.  She loves the kindness and humility of the Chinese people.  Her Chinese friends thought she was very brave when she asks a complete stranger the directions to somewhere! 

Good friends of ours went to live in Grenada a few years ago as they couldn't stand the British weather.  They absolutely love it there but it's a 10-hour flight every time they come back to the UK to visit their children and grandchildren.  However, for the first time since they went, they have decided to buy a small pad in the UK in which to live whilst they are here in the UK, visiting family and taking advantage of the British Health Service (which they are fully entitled to do, by the way) since medical facillities in Grenada are rather rundimentary in parts.

So, where to go?  Any suggestions?

 You cant beat Spain except for if you need medical assistance, looking forward to returning in 3 weeks for a month and will return in April for another 6 weeks, we are expecting costs may have increased since May 2012 however not like Australia

I've been watching this thread but not jumped in before so here's may take on this...

We moved over in 2004.  I was a young 30 year old back then (have lost a lot of hair in the following 8 years).  I was working as an engineer in the auto industry and the opportunity came up for us (me, Susan and the kids) to get some redundancy money.  I took it, it wasn't a lot but it's one of those rare moments in your life that you think you should really grab it with both hands and DO somethng.  We decided on CDS and to set up a business there.

Thinking back, for us it wasn't so much the weather that was the draw, in fact we hate the summer heat here and winters can get very cold, so it's not "hot all year round" as many agents used to market the coast.

Our main draw back then was more the freedom and openness of the area.  In the UK I always felt I couldn't sneeze without it being captured on cctv, speed cameras were everywhere and I was getting points on my licence for being 5mph over the limit.  It was all getting a bit silly.

Here in the South of Spain things felt very different.  It just felt a lot more free, laid back.  OK, possibly too much, which is why so many places are having such terrible problems now, but back then, the buzz, the opportunities and yes, the decent weather, all helped to pull us here.

If the weather in the South tomorrow became like the UK, I'm not sure we'd be rushing anywhere.  We're settled now, things have changed (and are changing) a lot here and we'd still get the occasional sunny days to enjoy the pool and the beach.

But for us it's definitely not the weather.  It's home now.

 Justin, lucky you, we have only been able to do this since our sixties, it is never too late

Definitely lucky.  I probably wouldn't have done it if the opportunity hadn't arisen to take redundancy. I had a good job and we were happy where we lived in Kent but I always like to try  new things so it had to be done.

And it's never too late (or too early)...

Well Justin,

it wasn't long ago you were returning...........to have 300+ days of sunny weather and then complain about the weather is a bit rich......but you seem to have over acclimatised and are shown usually overdressed to us southerners.......I can't imagine what the scots think?

You have an income from this set up but it is only there because you were a victim with all the others, like Maria you are benifitting from all the misery the victims are suffering.

I can't imagine the site would attract much advertising with just the ex-pat routine stuff.

As to "home" that surely is a fallacy since zero income is zero home as I understand it in Spain, is it not?

I don't know what you achieved in engineering experience at 30, but whatever you are unlikely to have benefitted from the eight year absence and are probably in difficulties in that direction, even if jobs are available.

As to your desire to travel over limit and avoid cameras that hardly seems like sensible life choices.

Then there are the children and future prospects??????

Doesn't really sound like a secure "home" to me.

So a change may be coming like it or not - just like many others I suppose.

Regards

Norman

 Norman, as much as I enjoy your banter with me, if you want to have a go at me you can just send me a PM instead of trashing this thread.  

I gave my opinion and if you don't like it that's fine.  Now let others continue with the thread.

PLEASE don't respond to it here, send me a PM instead.

Thanks

poor old norman he can not see how people can be happy when he is not

bee in his bonnet looks like a hive to me

 Norman = I've got it ...................... One foot in the Grave !!

We all make decisions....and then change them.  It depends on what is happening in your life at the time. 

We spent a year in Spain with the intention of spending many more but we hadn't realised how difficult it would be for our, then 16-year-old, son to obtain a decent job.  So, we came back to the UK in order that he could go to college and further his education.  Once back in the UK, our (youngest) son went to college, made some good friends, got himself a full-time job and he didn't want to return to live in Spain.....even though he hadn't wanted to leave when we did!  We put our Spanish property on the market with the intention of selling it and buying another one in a different area. 

We had every intention of returning to Spain to live there for as long as we felt happy doing so.  NB: We never say 'permanently' when it comes to moving house and settling somewhere.  We've moved several times over the years and we've learnt that things happen in life that cause you to change your plans.  As it happens, we were lucky to sell our Spanish house but we decided not to buy another one (yet?) as the market started to slide dramatically just after we sold.  Further, our dreams of returning to Spain to live there full-time had to be put on hold as my mother became very frail and needed us to be near her.  Happily, she's still with us but for how long? Who knows.

As I mentioned, we have changed properties here in the UK several times since my husband and I were married.  We have lived in six different towns/villages and each time we thought we would be there longer than we were.  Of course, people are going to change their minds about whether to stay in Spain/move back to the UK (or somewhere else) because life changes....and we can't forsee what's going to happen in the future. How many times do you hear folk say, 'If only we'd known.....we wouldn't have/would have......'     If only we DID know what was going to happen in the next few years, we could all be rich!

Maddiemack, that is the most sensible, truthful and down to earth comment on this thread!

Thank you, Poppyseed.

Dear All,

decisions.......choices..........call it what you will.......the truth is that everyone's choices are limited in the main unless you have independant means to cushion you from some aspects of reality.

As yet we have not found a direct way of eating sunshine, even for the silliest of sillies, though some may be trying to eat Hay----.

Justins offence is unjustified, he is as vulnerable as the rest, though he is clearly reluctant to admit it, unless of course he has more to reveal.

the simple fact is that you can no more eat spin and insult than you can sunshine, so Spain is no place to be without sufficient means.

Regards

Norman

PS Please don't be offended at my observations, that is all they are and they have no power to trash anything

 Hi Norman, everyone has the right to an 'opinion' but your reply to Justin was rather personal and 'sounded' below the belt. 

I take onboard your 'observation' that one needs a certain income/amount of money to do somethings - as we are in fact living on a shoe string.  But your observations do come across as rather subjective.

I am sure you will carry on posting in the same vein.. as leopards generally don't change their spots.

But it is rather unfair to give peope the wisdom of your 'observations' when they are subjective and not objective.

(I belong to a writers group and we have a rule that any criticism must be 'positive'... It is an art and the more you practice it the less you upset people.) 

Well thank you Susan for the observation, contradictory though it may be.

You are quite correct, I am unlikely to change, have always lacked sensitivity, have even been accused of abrasiveness.

But there you go....................

As to your critique.....................

Justin gave a personal post to which I responded in kind

not subjective nor objective just repeating history from his own various contributions, somewhat mildly in fact.

As a lifelong engineer myself and still occasionally working at 75 to boost my pension and start lifesavings for the second time, thanks to Spain and its corruption.

The facts could have been presented in a somewhat harder presentation and yet still been totally objective.

As to your own position what is your objective view of a shostring?

One contributor claimed that but then revealed that the shoestring was boosted by frequent family handouts.

What many say is sometimes not factual - is in fact spin of one sort or another.

My only interest is in the facts of the position including both yours and Justin's.

If Spain is or has become untenable for you then say so as plainly and objectively as possible.

That is the information the forum and the thread needs.

Regards

Norman

Eye on Spain is intended to be an informative, helpful and pleasant place for property buyers, owners, expats and anyone with an interest in Spain to post questions and information relating to all things Spain.

We like to keep the forums friendly at all times and we will delete any messages which we feel are unncessary or could cause offence to other members.

 Life choices don't always work out the way you wish or plan as many have found out.Pensioners who had savings and their pension to give them the means have seen their income slashed in recent years as the pound dropped against the euro and intrest rates on their savings did the same

.Would Norman be one of those now if he hadn't had the misfortune he had

.Justin might of saved a fortune in fines LOL but as he has said its hard to make a living out there at the moment but i am sure his children will get a good education in spain,maybe better than the uk as teachers struggle to teach kids who have trouble understanding english, and those with adhd who in my time would have just got a clip round the ear now run around disrupting lessons.Justin my decide to return if things don't pick up so his children can seek work but who says in years to come the uk will be a place for the young to find work maybe in 10 years spain will have recovered and found a new vision to take them foreward (electronics and communications seem to be the most obvious ones)

I hope to retire to spain and will holiday there till i do weather i make a permanant home there or not depends on a lot of things i have a house which i live in  and a flat in the uk which is rented out at the moment with plans to buy another property next year to also rent.

When i retire depending on the situation i find myself in i might sell a property here and buy over there or just rent out all my uk property and rent in spain and use the rest of the rental money to fund my life style which will not be loud and expensive more relaxed and observational as i like to people watch and like justin am a motor sports fan so would like to go and see F1 world superbikes motogp and the like.I have my fingers crossed my life choices work out but who knows 

johnzx, are you now an EOS moderator?

SO, Jaldridge, you think the police wouldn't jump on you for doing 5 km over the limit in Spain? If they can fine you for carrying shopping on your back seat, not having a disposable glove in the first aid box,  using a mobile phone when you're not or  not carrying a danger sign when collecting a a gas bottle, they will have you for speeding - and rightly so!