Christmas in Malaga

It seems I haven't posted anything for a while! The real reason for this is that I just had to stay away from the computer over Christmas or else I would have got carried away and would have missed the whole festive season.

But I'm (sort of) back now.

We'll we had a really nice Christmas here. It was very relaxing, got the presents that I more or less wanted and the sun was shining (that bit's not so Christmassy). The kids had a great time too, and now they're looking forward to the Three Kings.

If you don't know, the Spanish don't really celebrate Christmas much. Their real "Christmas" is the Epiphany, the Three Kings on the 6th of January. As our kids are in Spanish school we have to celebrate "los reyes" too so our Christmas is far from over yet!

In fact, it's only just starting to feel like Christmas here as we approach the 6th of January.

We went to Malaga with some friends yesterday to check out the lights there. What an atmosphere. I never really hear many people talking about Malaga but it's a great city. They have some stunning lights all over the centre and there's a real buzz around the place. There was a band playing in the main square, ice skating, and lots of other activities.

If you're in the area then I suggest you spend a day in Malaga. It's a really happening place at the moment in the build up to "los reyes". Highly recommend you check it out.

Anyway, best get back to "chilling" a bit more....

I'm in London

I'm in london this week to do a spot of Christmas shopping with the family. It really feels like Christmas here, unlike Spain which often takes a lot longer to ramp up to the festive season and even then it doesn't get the same commercial oomph that you get in the UK.

The trip is going well so far. What I've realised is that the UK offers so much more choice for things. Just going into shops such as Woolworths you're presented with such varieties of everything that it is actually overwhelming. And customer service such seems on another level here!

Although it's December I wouldn't say it's particularly cold, in fact, it feels the same sort of temperature as at night in Spain...maybe I've just been lucky so far. Also haven't had much rain which is great.

Anyway, I am actually enjoying my trip so far and really appreciating the many good things that England has to offer. Don't worry, won't be leaving Spain just yet!

Who getting all the web traffic?

Ever wondered which websites actually get any traffic? Ever wondered which agents get the most Spanish property web traffic?

Watch this video and see how Eye on Spain is doing compared to some of the big websites such as www.idealspain.com and www.andalucia.com.

But more interesting, what level web traffic are the main agents getting?

Watch the video to find out how you can compare web traffic using www.alexa.com:

www.eyeonspain.com/videos/traffic/

If you would like to comment on this video please click the comments link below.

Thanks

Holiday week

For the benefit of those who aren't aware yet, today is a national holiday in Spain as is Friday 8th. It means that most people will also take the thursday off to do a "puente" or bridge between the holidays so that they in effect get 5 days off (including the weekend).

Susanna and the kids flew out to UK last night to visit family and friends. They had a dreadful time. They were supposed to be flying out of Gib on the evening Monarch flight but because of the strong winds yesterday the pilot decided he couldn't land in Gib, so the plane was diverted to Malaga. It meant that they were all hussled onto coaches and taken to Malaga to get on the plane there. By the time they actually took off it was about 10 in the evening. It's not so bad if you're just on your own but when you've got two tired 4 year olds with you then things become much more complicated!

So I really felt for them all last night. We'd booked the Gib flight as it's so much easier than going to Malaga for us, but in the end it was actually the wrong decision.

Anyway, they got there in the end, albeit very late and very tired.

Going back home

Susan took the kids round to see some friends for the last time yesterday before they return to England for good. It was an emotional affair as you can imagine.

It got me thinking about the number of people who do actually return to the UK, most of the time within the first 12 months. So many of the friends we've made over the past 2 and a half years are now back in the UK.

There are many reasons why all these people have decided that enough is enough and packed their bags and gone home. The main factor seems to be money. Making money here is not easy and if you have to work for someone else then you'll probably be earning less than you would back home.

Some of them have gone back because they were bored and couldn't settle down, maybe missing the family too much. In fact one family we know were barely here 6 months when after the kids had settled well into the school here they decided to return because one of them was bored (not fair on the kids really).

Some people have just grown tired of not understanding the language and getting frustrated with the sytems in place here.

And the list goes on...

I suppose at the end of the day it's just not for everyone but you don't know until you try. We have on occasion considered moving back to the UK. We had a really tough start when we first moved here and we get frustrated ourselves with the mañana mentality which, by the way, takes some getting used to! But the kids are happy and I definitely think Spain is so much better than the UK for kids.

We won't be going anywhere ourselves for now but I wonder how many more of our friends will??