Is living in Spain really that bad now???

Tish......

 May I respectfully suggest that if you don't like Spain then go back to good old Blighty, I am actually positive that the UK would welcome you with open arms and that you will find alot of like minded people there as well.

I have just actually seen someone else that felt that the grass was greener and yes they are now back again only this time they have less money as they spent so much in the UK chasing the dream that is not there.

Times are hard here but believe me they are harder in the UK, the numbers are on the increase now of people moving back but believe me when I tell you that there are more Brits leaving the UK than going back.

Dear All,

is that what they call "polarised opinions"??????????

today the weather is fine and sunny but the wind is quite sharp, flowers and crops are exploding with energy, but anyone acclimatised to Saudi would want to stay indoors.

it is just a question of what you are used to I suppose.

the family holiday in Tenerife was a great success but I believe was heavily discounted with the result that the hotel complex was fully booked, without the discount the exchange rate would have made things more of a problem.

they are now hard at it making good their week's absence, lambing and calving with long hours and they certainly would not welcome 38' to do it in.

moving back to the UK to follow a dream is a difficult concept to follow, surely the people concerned must be highly confused?

I thought people were moving back to avoid the cold in winter, the heat in summer, the government problems, local, regional and national, the general corruption and behaviour standards, plus of course the exchange rate and financial difficulties.

Now these problems either exist or they don't, you can't just spin them away and live in denial, unless it is your intention to deceive others and you are really dishing out false information.

sidyid says..........

"Times are hard here but believe me they are harder in the UK"

He is so sure, yet has only visited once in six years, how come he knows things that I don't???????????

I may be old and doddery but am neither blind nor deaf, I sleep a lot and perhaps don't give the TV as much attention as I should, but have an extended family  to help me keep in touch.

Quite a mystery really!!!!!

Who knows?????????

Regards

Norman

I live in the UK.  Don't know where you get your facts from but  I can assure you, Spain is far worse off.

Tish

We are all floating towards the proverbial waterfall and discussing whether one canoe has more beer and cheese and onion sandwiches than the other. 

We as Europeans are heading towards the Third World and there is no politician who has the guts to do anything about it.

Sorry.

 Dear Max,

what on earth are you on about????

if you are saying that we have been outpaced technically by our cheap import suppliers who are now producing the cars, planes and all complex equipment etc. etc.

what do you imagine politicians can do about it, except refuse to admit it????

we will just have to expand our malt whiskey production and export our surplus population as slave labour somewhere.

or do you have a solution???????

Regards

Norman

You know, i am sick and tired of hearing, seeing or reading about people moaning about the state of the economy, how hard it is to live in Spain now, how hot the sun is, or wet the rain is, how windy the wind is or how cold is the winter. The party was terrible, the evening was boring, moan moan moan, that is all some people can do. If you are bored, if you don't think something is right, if you don't feel you can live in Spain anymore, then do something about it. Don't moan to the rest of us, or is it that you really want someone to agree with you, because your not confident enough to do something by yourself.

 Tish, you say you live in the UK yet are happy to spend your days knocking Spain!?!?, so you do not live in Spain yet know more than anyone else that the UK is far better, I am sure that I am entitled to my opinion as are you so I will (with your kind permission) beg to differ.

Norman, I probably speak to far more people that have associations with Spain and the UK than either you or Tish, I base my post on what I am told by The many Brits that live in the UK but visit Spain regularly (have property here), Brits that have left Spain to return to the UK and are now back, Brits that have just moved here and Brits that already live here but visit the UK regularly.

 Everybody's situation is different so can understand why some would now rather be in the UK and why some would prefer to be here.

It is the UKs £££ that is so weak yet I meet a lot of people that say the € is so bad against the £,....er...think about it.

I am in the Spanish system because I own and run a business here, I pay Spanish taxes, get Spanish healthcare and FROM MY EXPERIENCE would rather be here paying taxes and getting the Spanish healthcare than in the UK paying so many stealth taxes, being badgered to death by the tax system, getting awful healthcare, (my Mother is in Hospital in the SW of England at the moment and cannot have visitors because of another HRSA outbreak), I pay 700€ a year business rates for my 11 bedroom hotel that is set on 3 acres on a nature reserve, my car tax is 58€ a year, my 5 bedroom house set on a nature reserve costs me 60€ a year in council tax, the roads are a shear pleasure to drive on not the normal linea car park that I was used to 7 years ago when in the UK (sure its worse now).

Food here is pretty much the same as in the UK price wise, fuel is of course cheaper here, electricity is about the same, gas is far cheaper here, it is far cheaper to eat out in Spain, wine and beer is cheaper,he Spanish although taking health and safety seriously are not stifling with it but sensible, we are not constantly having to watch out for speed cameras or the Thousands and Thousands of traffic Police all trying to stop someone to hit them with a fine for anything that they can make up,

I am allowed to cuddle my kids without being accused of being a pervert, my kids go to Spanish schools, (state schools) yet my son speaks 4 languages and now studies latin, my Daughter speaks 3 languages (only 12 years old), their education is far far better here without doubt and they both actually enjoy school, the schools here are safe, we do not have the murders and the muggings, the break ins and the car thefts here either, I can still go out  and leave my french doors open all day and my Children can still walk down the street without worrying about being mugged, abused or worse.

My experience of living here makes me want to stay for myself and my family, it does not suit everyone and I can understand this (some people don't actually know what t is like to live here but are happy to comment) I have experienced both!

Happy days!

I applaud you sidyid, I live in UK now but hope to out is Spain in 12 months. The moaners and the groaners are the one's who left UK for Spain, for cheap beer, cheap fags, English breakfast and Sunday roast. They made no attempt to fit in to the Spanish way, no attempt at the Spanish language, but plenty of foul mouth English language. Now the pound is weak, they are finding it hard, well tough !!!! why don't they !!!!!! off back to England where they can moan with the rest here, and we can then enjoy our lives in Spain

 My thoughts entirely!

 Dear Sid,

thank you for that.

the Council tax is something of a knock-out punch but all is noted and sounds good to me, not that I wanted anything more than a holiday home.

perhaps I lead an insulated existence here, but am very badly affected by the silliness of official attitude and behaviour to "regulations" such as planning and speed limits plus of course the HSE nonsense.

Some common sense from the officials and even a regard to costs would be more than welcome.

However I have only been stopped once for not stopping at a stop sign in the middle of a dark night on a deserted road by an unlit police car and lectured that a rolling stop is not sufficient, all in perfect English by a Spanish policeman.

I still don't understand the English dream argument, do they think that the UK they left behind has somehow improved whilst they were away?????

Thanks again info' is all.

Regards

Norman

Hi Sid,

I have seen your advertisements in the local press - the place looks lovely!

Also - I agree with you fully.  We have lived in inland Spain for thirteen years only moving to the coast recently in search of work.

The kindness and friendship of the Andalusians has been humbling, we love the towns and cities, especially Granada.  The hospital care and cleanliness is exemplary.  Secondary care is effectively non-existent, but that is because the Spanish stick to their family units and it is assumed that anyone discharged from hospital will be cared for in the bosom of an extended family (if that's not an oxymoron!).

The only disagreement I have with you is that I think that Zapatero has learnt a lot from the evil Blair/Brown.  There are now police traps almost everywhere, checking everything on cars and drivers.  All well and good - IF it were solely for the improvement of road safety.  My money (what I have of it - O.K. 50cents) is on it being stealth tax.  Outside of that, the Guardia and local police are always polite, reasonably well presented and sometimes don't smoke in public!

I miss my old village, with the kindly old ladies, the shop where the owner has gone out the back and left the till open.  Where I can leave the car unlocked with my briefcase on the back seat, where I can buy products from a shop and be told "pay me next time". 

Where I get a big hug from the staff in the town hall when I drop in after a few months away on the coast.  Where we get invited to meals where the home made olives with garlic are hotter than pakistani chillis (no - I didn't know that garlic could be picante either!). 

BUT......we return to the problem that NO-ONE has any money.  They are used to it.  They lived through the Franco years and can live on next to nothing.  Us Brits don't know how to.  I'm learning though!

NORMAN:  You have put it in a nutshell.  It is too late.  They should have closed the ports 20 years ago.  I would just like a politician to have the courage and honesty to say so.

 Hi Max,

Many thanks for your comments, I suppose as far as the Guardia and local police are concerned it does depend on where you are, 

I often take people home at 2am in my mini bus often having to drive a 80km round trip, the only time that I get stopped is when I get close to the coast as the local Guardia and Police are a friendly bunch, they make me blow into a machine, check my insurance and bid me a safe journey (always very polite to me but I always am to them).

I really can only speak for myself and my experiences and am sure that other people have experienced it differently, life really is what you make it but to me its easier to make a better life here.

ABOVE all the WEATHER.

Sid, your life sounds wonderful. Long may it continue for you and your family

I would say though that I get really pee'd off with some who have left the UK and enjoy slagging it off. Not everywhere is ghetto land.

Max, i sincerely hope that job prospects come good for you soon.  IT is not a good place to be in, in the UK either.

Thanks Tish

I have a number of strings to my bow, but at the end of the day if there is no money circulating, there is no money.

I see it on roads that I have used for years.  A 3 hour drive a few years ago on an A road was hell because of huge convoys of artics.  Now, the same road is mine alone.  Hardly a vehicle in sight.  To me, that is a barometer of the situation.

Thanks again for the kind wishes.

Tish said:  "I would say though that I get really pee'd off with some who have left the UK and enjoy slagging it off. Not everywhere is ghetto land."

Well, maybe some people get pee'd off with others who slag Spain off, who don't even live here!!

It's all relative at the end of the day.  I see as many Astons, Ferraris, Porsches and other luxury cars outside my son's school here at pick up as I did outside his school in Dubai!  So obviously people still DO have money here. (And let me add I am not sitting in one of those luxury cars when I'm waiting for my son outside school, unfortunately!!!)

I get pee'd off with people who keep slagging Spain off because they read something in a forum post!!  I could stick a load of links to BBC news or Sky news which would detail many, many pretty appalling crimes in the UK, but that's not really relevant is it!? Because this thread was about "living in Spain" - although you wouldn't think that!

As has been said many times on this thread (perleeeeease someone kill it off!!) life anywhere on this planet is what you are able to make of it! 

Edited to say:  Sidyid, your hotel, and the area, looks stunning! Hoping to visit one day.

Pitby

I have driven round the Sierra Espuñas although haven't bumped into sidyid's hotel.  It is wild and spectacular.  Just like so much of Spain that the coastal residents have never seen. 

sidyid.....Can you feed the wild boar from your hotel?

 TISH,  QUOTE...I would say though that I get really pee'd off with some who have left the UK and enjoy slagging it off. Not everywhere is ghetto land.

I did not mention it was "GHETTO" but simply wrote about my experiences when in the UK and what I see on the British TV,

I lived in a Sleepy country town in Devon for the last 15 years that I lived in the UK, the local town school had 2 murders in 4 years, was riddled with drug abuse, 26 assaults and 3 rapes, I decided to move before the education authority made me send my Kids there, we were in 2 caption areas, one school was far better than the other one and when they told me that I had to send my son to the worst one I contacted them and asked if I could get my son into the better one, I was laughed at and told that everybody wants that so the places are filled, | then informed them that I would never send my son to the bad school and they informed me that they would prosecute me through the courts if I refused to send my son there, I moved to Spain, best thing that I could ever have done, we are all totally de-stressed.

Spain has its problems but I am not one to complain about a country that I am a guest in (too much.....lol), I love my life, I love where I live and really do not want to live anywhere else.

 Max,

we do get the wildboar at the hotel but only in the winter as it tends to be warmer for them here than higher up, we see many Mouflon and Arui though especially on the Barranco de Gebas (Badlands)

Sid,

Re your children's schooling, a very good reason to move away from the UK. Education & health are the two most important areas that need to be addressed here.  We are very lucky where we live in that the state schools are very good and our local "secondary" school gets scholarships to Charterhouse. We also have a large number of both prep & public schools in the vicinity.  I have two granddaughters, 3yrs & 10 months respectively. It does concern my husband & I that they will not benefit from the private education that both their parents were lucky to have.

Looking forward to your own situation, do you think your children will have good employment opportunities in the future in Spain? 

And the effects of the drug culture from Sidyid's awful experience....... these aspects need to be brought to the attention of the politicians in the areas hard hit. So sorry to hear of  the negative aspects and perfectly understandable that you would feel more secure elsewhere Sidyid.

Time to put Politicians under scrutiny in the way their decisions are influencing all our lives? (in both countries to be honest).