The slowest cash machines in the world

Does Spain have the slowest cash machines in the world? I may not be the most patient of people but I find that particularly Unicaja cash machines seem to take an eternity to hand over your cash. Are they intentionally programmed to be so slow? And not just that. If you dare to use a cash machine outside of your banks' network then you can expect some pretty stiff commission charges for the privilege!

I think I still need to slow down a little to truly blend into the Spanish ways....

How thin are those walls?

I don't think they bother with sound-proofing walls in apartments in Spain. The walls are truly paper thin. Luckily for us we get on quite well with our neighbours so we know not to make too much noise particularly in the evenings. If you don't like noise....don't buy an apartment in Spain!

Now, if you are moving to Spain and will need somewhere to rent long term, check out our long term rentals in Spain portal that we've just launched. It's free to list properties for now so if you've got one to list do it now!

On the subject of the Google update, well, it's not been brilliant but the big G is starting to like us again....it's good fun really.

BHS and M&S not so far away

We popped in to Gibraltar the other day. The queues getting in and out can be quite long most of the time but we were quite lucky.

Gib has a much more Christmas feeling than Spain at the moment. Lots of the shops are all kitted out for Christmas and it was actually nice to visit BHS and M&S (I know, a bit sad really!). But when you're away from the UK for a long time seeing these shops again is actually quite exciting! (M&S cookies must be the best in the world).

It's quite handy having "the rock" close by, especially with Morrisons supermarket there for buying those essential English foods, although I hear they will be selling the supermarket and the land may be sold to a property developer! May not be worth going in again....

It's raining like mad at the moment...but we really needed some!

Communities in Spain

It seems a lot of people are struggling to understand what a "community" is. I have noticied various urbanisations where owners blatantly disregard the rules in place.

In an urbanisation (community) owners are not allowed to change any aspects of the outstide of the property without the consent from all other owners. But you still get people breaking down walls to create a garage, building terraces in, putting up unsightly satellite dishes, etc. Well, that's what happening on my urbanisation anyway!

It's a gorgeous day again today. Check out our web cam to see what it's like right now (sorry, the image isn't brilliant, we've just ordered a new web cam).

We're taking over the world

Eye on Spain has been a massive hit amongst buyers of off plan property in Spain.

We're now rolling out the concept to the rest of the world so that buyers all over the world can communicate with each other.

Check out our new site Eye on Worldwide. We will be officially launching it this week.

Banks...no thanks!

Have you noticed how boring banks in Spain are? Not that they're exciting at the best of times but I noticed today after losing an hour of my life in one that they always seem to have the temperature too high, inducing that drowsy feeling and they are just too quiet.

I think I wouldn't last 5 mins working in one as I would fall asleep just walking through the door.

Someone should really look at making banks a little bit more "human".

Fuengirola - nice!

Took the family to Fuengirola for the day today. Yes, I know what you're thinking...tacky, high-rise building, "England in Spain, etc.

But what a great place! In the summer it's absolutely packed with toursits, but at this time of year it's much more relaxed. Fuengirola is a great place to go on a Sunday. The promenade is bustling with people from all walks of life, there are fun rides for the kids including a train ride around the town, but most of all it's really "happening". It was also so hot today that there were even people on the beach (yes, mainly English!).

They even have a really good zoo in the town, an aqua park (only open in summer) and some great shopping centres (I'm told).

Don't knock Fuengirola until you've tried it. We had a great day there today. Will certainly go again...but maybe not in the summer.

P.S. Google still not our friend!

Glorious day

What a glorious day today on this bank holiday in Spain. It was boiling today. In fact it was so hot we took the kids to the beach! The beach was deserted but it was stunning. It's hard to believe that on the 1st of November its still ok for the beach (although the sea was very cold!).

Google still not our friend at the moment...hoping for better things with their update this week!