Chasing the dream in spain

 In a word; no. Perhaps not really would be more appropriate, I do miss family, friends and workmates, but I do go home (a strange thing to say really, because it isn’t) now and then, and we do get visitors. Do I miss waiting fourteen times as long to get the dustbin emptied and paying in excess of fourteen times as much for the privilege, no. Do I miss being able to do my shopping seven days a week, no. Do I miss being constantly on the go for one reason or another, no. Do I miss ‘English’ food, no. Ok, I did have a really bad urge for a corned beef sandwich one lunchtime, no idea why, but I got over it. It’s strange the amount of things I’d thought I would miss, but don’t. Sure, there are some customs here that are strange to us ‘Brits’, carrying ID all the time, roundabouts that you drive through the middle of (it took my son-in-law a couple of days to get his head round that one), and leaving your insurance papers in the car at all times as it’s the car that’s insured, not you (maybe that’s just in case someone can be bothered to steal your car, at least they won’t get ‘done’ for no insurance, how thoughtful). You soon get used to a different pace of life and the shear amount of new friends you find yourself making; it’s a very social place. I went for a walk to check if the pool had been fixed once, its only two hundred yards away, the journey took an hour and a half, got chatting to some of the neighbours on the way past. Everyone here just seems to be generally more ‘happy’. Of course you still get the odd person who likes to moan about things, a very British thing to do, but never actually complain or do anything about it, the Spanish would, and very loudly from what I have seen. So perhaps it is a no after all, you get used to the lack of stress. After going to a market this morning, driving back through a small town, I ran into a traffic jam. Easter Sunday, there was a religious parade going through the town. Back in the UK, I would have been trying to get round it or something in case I would be late getting where I was going. Not here, engine off, handbrake on, and watch the spectacle unfold, lunch was going to be a little later than planned, not a problem. Linda and I have really settled in here now, and it is ‘home’, we’ll see how the other parts of the master plan unfold. By the way, if when reading this you find it a little disjointed, it’s because it has taken me about three hours to write it, I am constantly breaking off for a chat with various neighbours going past, being ‘social’ has its price, and I’m prepared to pay it.

 We have just had a week at home to do all the things that needed tidying up, check all the bills were ok and catch up with the agent who is looking after the rental our house in the UK. What should have been a relaxing week catching up with family and friends, and putting the finances in order, turned out to a lot busier than we thought. It was amazing how quick the time went, and it was a struggle to fit everything in, but we eventually managed to, and I even managed a few hours in Manchester with a friend to grab some Sushi and a few beers. Linda, of course, found time to go shopping for those ‘must have’ items of clothing that she could not live without! Packing to go back will require some ingenuity to say the least, thankfully Linda’s father is coming out with us this trip, let’s just say there won’t be any spare room in his case either.

There has been some time to reflect on the issue of buying a property in Spain. The wheels have turned, and now my ‘stupid idea’, has become a good idea. So, we going to see if we can rent one of the smaller houses to see if it really does suit our needs, buying a house is not a problem, selling it again if we don’t like it is another matter, and the cost involved is not small. I can see the potential in a smaller house, in particular the type we looked at, and out growing it would not really be an issue, and the Spanish just go up when they need more space. Some of these single story houses now have three floors and a sun terrace, and the variety of ‘looks’ and options are only limited by your own imagination. A trial run would definitely confirm or trash the ideas that are now floating about in my head, and since I did not actually take any measurements, I am relying totally on memory and a few dodgy photographs which I took myself. Most of the apartments we looked at didn’t really work for us, not enough flexibility or scope to put our stamp on them. One was only four years old and the owners had only ever stayed one night, the day they signed the papers, the plastic coverings were still on the furniture that came with the property. The hunt continues.

Linda’s eighty-two year old father has come out with us for a couple of weeks, his first passport, and being a true Yorkshireman, he intends to use it a lot, just because it cost him ‘nowt’. The weather is not as good as I would have liked for him, but having said that, a least he won’t look like a lobster from falling asleep in the sun, which he is known for doing at home. He has got used to being told to go inside and get out of it for a bit, and being handed the factor thirty before going out again, and has now grasped the fact that even cloudy days here can get you sun burn. As dark mild is not on the menu out here, he’s on the bitter, and making his nightly two pints last longer, strong beer and sun do not mix well at his age. He has really got to like it here, and can see why we do, but is still in meat and three veg mode, we have yet to introduce him to prawns, squid and the like, but there is time yet. He has occasionally been persuaded to swap a pint for a glass of ‘tinto’, and enjoyed it. He’s eating a lot more healthy food as well, and has gone mad on the strawberries, the Spanish must send all the rejects to the UK, they are sweeter here, not the acidic rubbish we get at home, and not needing any sugar on is good for a diabetic. We’ll see how Linda copes with him on the return flight, coming out was ok, despite some hold-ups at the airports both ends. Spain may yet have to put up with him yet again, I think that he may be considering using his depleted winter fuel allowance out here, it goes a lot further. Time will tell. We will just have to take it in turns playing chaperone to him on a plane, unless he wants to go to Benidorm for the tea dances and bingo, not really us that. But watch the next TV series; he might be one of those people on a ‘Madgemobile’ running people over having got a drive on part!

 The time had come to start house hunting in amongst trips to the beach and sight seeing. Not that we are in a desperate hurry to buy, but I don’t think we want to be paying rent for too long, I consider that to be dead money. We have looked before, but not seriously, and house prices out in Spain have changed a bit to say the least. It seems despite the rumours, estate agents are still alive and kicking in Spain, the ones left are more determined and seem to be less keen in taking no for an answer. So we drew up a list of the various house types where we are that we wanted to look at, and a few in nearby towns, with a couple of apartments thrown in for good measure. The search criteria was fairly loose, must have a least two bedrooms (room for the seagulls to land), some sort of outside space, no point in having good weather and not being able to sit out in it, and fairly good access to local shops etc (I am partial to the odd glass of red with my evening meal, so having things within ten or fifteen minute walk makes sense, I have seen what the ‘Men In Green’ do to people they catch driving after having a few ‘shandies’, it wasn’t pretty, but that’s another story). Whilst both estate agents were not too pushy, what they wanted to show us were the properties they had some sought of exclusivity on, rather than what we wanted to look at. We did eventually get to see roughly what we wanted, it was more about the house types, what you could get for how much. This is where the differences of opinion between myself and the ‘boss’ surfaced, me being practical, her wanting more bedrooms and the outside space that everyone was telling her you must have. So, five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool, and all set in about two acres for £50k. Not going to happen, is it, not even in this climate. I want something fairly compact, easy to heat in the couple of ‘bad months’ in the winter, and easy to clean. Yes, you read that right, a man mentioning easy to clean. It’s me that complains about sand being bought in by the wife when I have just swept and mopped through, I don’t mind doing it, just put the earphones in, and away I go. I digress. We don’t have a large budget, these huge mansions you see out here are out of our league, we want to still keep our house in the UK, we don’t want to saddle ourselves with a lot of debt, the carnage from people that have is everywhere. As long as we have enough room for some guests, it’ll be fine. If the whole clan comes out, we’ll just rent somewhere for them, there’s enough rentals about, and I don’t have to maintain a huge house on the prospect of visitors. I think I’ll win on this one. I’ll rephrase that. The boss says the smaller house is a stupid idea, but she was impressed by the amount of space in them, give it a couple of weeks and my ‘stupid idea’ will be forgotten. Give it a month, and she will have the ‘idea’ of looking at some smaller houses, which she will like, asking why the hell had I dragged her round all those big houses that were not practical. It just takes a while for the wheels to turn. Watch this space.

A point to note for people thinking of buying out here, never, I repeat never, mention that you are thinking of buying when you are in a bar. We did. Oops. We had called for a coffee and brandy half way home after eating one evening, it seems that all of the dozen or so people in the bar had a house for sale, one woman had two! It was hard work getting away, and of course the word is now out, and it travels fast! You talk to people you see in the street out of politeness, you then get asked in for a drink, they then insist on ‘showing you round’. ‘We are thinking of going home or downsizing’ is the usual line, followed by ‘what do you think of the house then?’ It is really hard to be polite and tell someone you are not interested, perhaps they are out of work estate agents, you never know, they must have gone somewhere.