More food?!

I keep saying this, but the cuisine in Spain is so good it can match anywhere in the world. It’s why when we cook at home we always use fresh ingredients, and cook everything from scratch. It’s very disappointing to see the meteoric rise in the fast-food chains like McDonalds and Burger King. Immensely satisfying to eat as they’re all fat and sugar with hardly a nod to any kind of decent nutrition, and becoming more popular by the day, but not at all great compared with freshly prepared local food. When we go out to eat, usually for lunch, we tend to choose Spanish bars and restaurants as the food is cooked to order from fresh, local ingredients. One place we love is the Restaurante Thermae El Pozo, in Mula, Murcia. It is right beside the balneario, or thermal waters and spa centre, not unlike the one we have in Fortuna, only smaller.

The restaurant is excellent, the food is fantastic! Everything is freshly prepared to order, and beautifully presented. It certainly is a “cut above” the average places, a bit special and worth every cent. Anywhere that provides linen tablecloths and napkins has a head start on most of the others! A morning spent relaxing in the rejuvenating thermal spa waters, followed by lunch at the restaurant makes for a great day out.

We are lucky to have a wide range of bars and restaurants in the Fortuna area where there are always tapas and menus del dia available. We also have both a Chinese and an Indian restaurant. However, the latter two leave a lot to be desired and are very disappointing – the food is generally very poor quality so best well avoided! Having said that, most of the bars serve good, hearty food, and are very inexpensive, so it’s no wonder we eat out so often! When we do, it’s strictly on an “OMAD” basis, that is, one meal a day, otherwise we’d be the size of a house! We’re very happy to drive quite a way to meet up with friends and to enjoy decent food, part of the pleasure is finding new places.

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When you move to a foreign country, not only do you need to adjust to different ways of life, you need to also try to make friends, learn a new language, and sometimes change some long-held expectations. We found it’s generally best to just “go with the flow” and see where things lead you! One of the major issues in helping to settle somewhere very different from home is whether or not you need to work. There are many “ex-pats” here who are retired and able to live comfortably – or sometimes not – on pensions and investments. Others need to work to pay mortgages and rent, and perhaps have young families to provide for. Spain is no longer the very inexpensive option it used to be, and since Brexit was rolled out it’s become even more difficult to be able to move here. For those with UK passports it now costs a considerable amount of money to move to Spain. You have to apply for a particular and limiting type of visa, you can’t work for some years until you get residence granted, you need to prove you have enough money in the bank to keep yourselves and pay your way – this incudes taking out full private medical insurance cover. All this amounts to many, many tens of thousands of pounds/euros, making the dream now unattainable for so many people. We are very fortunate that we don’t need to work, and have a number of good pensions between us, meaning we can enjoy a very good quality of life without a mortgage or rent to pay, and without having to work for a living. We are very, very grateful for this and count our blessings every day.

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If you’re not working, how might you spend your day? There is plenty to keep us busy, like the usual chores we always did before moving to Spain. So, floors still need swept and washed, bathrooms need cleaned, kitchen needs cleaned, washing needs done, ironing needs done (but only if it’s linen or something that can’t be rolled up very tightly to avoid wrinkles!). See? The usual suspects! It can take longer here as this is a much bigger house than we had before. That’s also before we start on maintaining the garden and the pool. Once we have finished the main renovations (any day now!) we will be able to have a cleaner come in a couple of times a week to keep things running smoothly. What to do then with all that free time? Well there are lots of activities available to try, wherever you live. There are walking and running groups, language groups, painting classes, church activities, lots of voluntary work in different areas like dog rescue centres, the list could go on forever! There’s a group of people locally who are keen on quad bikes and who get together every week to explore some of the mountain trails together, followed by a welcome cold beer at a local bar. One way or another you need to find something you really enjoy, something to look forward to! Amongst other things, we attend a meditation class every Monday – it is great because it helps you to metaphorically blow away the dust from the previous week, and centres you to look forward to the week to come. I also practise meditation at home, very calming and relaxing.

Peter is a good artist, so we have converted one of our rooms into an art (and music) studio, where he will be able to enjoy developing various projects. I have my own study at home, where I can use the computer to develop my writing. I belong to a local writers’ group and really enjoy our meetings. Everyone is very encouraging and we get the chance to practise and share what we write in a safe and supportive environment. One thing of note about our group is we are a very cosmopolitan bunch. Members include English, Irish, French, Dutch, Welsh and Norwegian! It amazes me how well our non-English speaking members manage to write in a language outside their own, a very talented group indeed!

Other than our current hobbies we just like to explore the region, whether it’s to have a day out somewhere different, or to find and area that looks interesting enough to spend a couple of days exploring. At the minute, because it’s been so hot here with temperatures stretching up around 40C we have been spending much of our time just relaxing in the pool. Bliss.

It’s a hard life but yes, somebody has to do it!