My life in Spain

Spain is infamous for its love of bureaucracy, especially where government departments are concerned. You can wait a lifetime waiting for an appointment for some simple task like a change of address, only to find that in spite of bringing every official document with you, something is missing, usually a DNA test, pound of flesh or your first born child. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but it’s actually not too far off the mark. I was waiting for a parcel to arrive from the U.S., and I got the registered notice to inform me that the Correos/Aduanas (Post office and Customs) were holding the parcel until I completed the relevant forms – which had to be returned within 5 days.

On receipt, the customs people would send the parcel to the Correos in Fortuna where I could pay the tax and fee, and receive the goods. Not much of a problem, you might think? The first hurdle was trying to get access to the website to provide the information they needed. I tried everything I could think of, including asking a gestor / paralegal, and a lawyer, all of whom were willing but unable to help. When I clicked on the website button to ask for help the website stated “Problemas technicos”. I don’t think I need to translate that one!

Finally, my wonderful friend Clare Shirley* managed to crack the code, complete the forms and get the information away to the customs people. We got an email saying the information had been accepted by the department, followed by an other email saying we had run out of time?! I sent off a swift complaint advising we were well within the time limit and they should forward the parcel to the local Correos office.

Now we wait. I cannot for the life of me understand why these government departments make it so difficult to access what you need. Surely it would make more sense to send the parcels to the local Correos office, only to be released when ID has been provided and the fees paid? Good grief, it’s not exactly rocket science!

I promise, this YouTube video is EXACTLY what it’s like, at least 90% of the time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wtbQUaC9mE

Last “B” word today is for the dreaded Brexit. I think it should have been properly called “Ukexit” as it is supposed to be the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. As most people (with one or two exceptions) are aware, Northern Ireland is still part of the UK, so it shouldn’t really be “Britain’s exit from the EU”. However, Northern Ireland is still in the EU single market, which means we can bring goods to and from Spain with no import requirements, and no taxes or fees. So, more importantly, when we go there to see family and friends, we can shop for Marks and Spencer’s foodie goodies, including proper NI butter, and bring it back to Spain with no problems. For smokers and drinkers, the customs limited allowances don’t apply, basically you can bring back as much as you like, and even though customs set guidelines, the onus is on them, not you, to prove the goods are for your personal use.

Many people we have spoken to here have admitted that, in spite of having voted in favour of Brexit, they now wish they had voted against it. It seems we were all, as usual, lied to again and again, so were unable to make a truly informed decision. It is, of course, still possible to emigrate to an EU country, but it is more difficult due to the paperwork/visa requirements, and it is also now far, far more expensive, requiring applicants to have many thousands of euros in the bank. Those UK home countries who voted to remain in the UK remind me of the joke – an English man, a Welsh man, a Scottish man and a Northern Irish man went into a pub. The English man wanted to leave, so they all had to go. Sigh.

A while back I had a wee slip and ended up with a bit of a problem. It was only then that I realised how debilitating it is when part of you stops working, and how creative you have to be to work around it!

I’m not ancient, I’m not decrepit, I wasn’t drinking, and I do generally look where I’m going but occasionally an uneven surface will catch out most of us! When I broke my ankle my lovely neighbour lent me her husband’s zimmer frame (fortunately he didn’t need it at that time) so I could get around the house easier with plaster of paris up to my knee. Getting round the house was easy, especially when Peter pushed me about on the wheelie computer chair. Showering? That was a different matter altogether!

So, in case you might need it in the future, here is my advice on how to have a shower with a broken ankle:
1. Get into shower cubicle.
2. Drag zimmer into shower after you.
3. Realise you’ve been so busy positioning the zimmer that you forgot to take your clothes off.
4. Take off clothes and start again.
5. Hook left leg (with broken ankle) over the top of the zimmer.
6. Realise you look like an advert for Readers’ Wives or Gynaecology magazine, start to cry.
7. Turn on shower, alternatively scalding and freezing your skin.
8. Bend over, balancing carefully, to reach shower gel, realising you look like an advert for an even more specialist magazine. Cry some more.
9. Load sponge with shower gel, slather on body…where you can reach with one leg up and the good leg bent at the knee.
10. Realise that rinsing is going to be no fun at all….keeping left leg hooked over the zimmer in a vain attempt to keep the plaster dry, start to rinse off shower gel.
11. Notice that bandage round plaster of paris is drenched so aim to exit shower as quickly as possible.
12. Fling the zimmer out and hop after it.
13. Give up idea of washing hair in shower and head for the bath to lean over it instead.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED…….if I lived on my own I’d just stay dirty until the bleeping plaster came off.

Our lovely wee family has now gone home to Northern Ireland and, happily, to some very fine weather indeed. It seems Marshall was a big hit at school, having brought in a mummified corpse of a little gecko he found in our garage, a poor little thing only about two inches long from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. He also brought some fossils he found in the garden – our garden is obviously a great place for budding Indiana Joneses! Lucy had a swimming class at school and not impressed as she had forgotten the classes only last 25 minutes – she’d got used to being in the pool with us all day here!

The house is so, so quiet without Laurie and the children here, and I miss them very, very much. However, we are going over in November and probably again in March or thereabouts, so it’s something to really look forward to. There’s no denying that it is difficult living far away from the people you love, but it’s still only a short flight away so we make the most of it.

We’re now starting to think about the slow slide into autumn and winter, and I’m beginning to look forward to it. We have plenty of logs left over from last winter but will order a big load more from Angel and that will last us through until spring. Though we’re looking forward to cosy days and nights with both the big log fires going, we’re not yet quite ready to let go of summer. Plenty of days left for enjoying the sun and spending lazy afternoons in the pool with a nice cold glass or two of cava.

Cheers!

*Clare is fluent in Spanish and is very well versed in the vagaries of Spanish bureaucracy. She knows where and who to contact if you need help with issues such as applying for residencia, visa problems, driving licence requirements, and a host of other problems thrown up by the weirdly outdated systems here. You can contact Clare via her Facebook page which is “Clare’s Solutions”, or message me and I will forward your details to her. You don’t even have to live in the same area, we’re now about 160kms from Clare since we moved to Murcia, but she’s still been able to help me with the hateful customs and correos problem!

I thought the title might grab your attention, more of that later! We are currently being very patient waiting for the rain to move on and away – we have a day or so of it to look forward to, and it’s very welcome. Not always so welcome for holidaymakers though, they need to find other distractions if it’s too wet and a bit on the chilly side. Happily we should be back to normal sunshine and blue skies in a matter of hours, although we have really needed some rain after a very dry and hot few months.

Speaking of holidaymakers, one of the difficulties of moving to another country is leaving family and friends behind, and the feeling is multiplied by squillions when we have children and grandchildren elsewhere.

My daughter and children are over on holiday with us at the minute and our normally quiet and peaceful house is now filled with the laughter and chatter of tiny wee voices, usually all at once! The children have been so excited about coming here again, they have spent almost every waking hour in the pool having a great time, and, as always, it is an utter joy to have them with us.

Spot the difference in the two photos, no prizes for guessing how excited they were to get here to us and the pool!

However, I now feel the strongest pull towards home, to spend far more time with them. That’s why we are lucky to be able to plan ahead to eventually sell this big house and buy two smaller ones, in Spain and in Northern Ireland, so we can hop back and forth as the notion takes us. If you’re thinking of emigrating, be aware that the pull home is strongest when little people are concerned!

We have a rather lovely celebration coming up, it’s our wedding anniversary on 4th September. Since the grandchildren are here they are going to help make a big cake for everyone to share, multi-coloured and with lemon drizzle icing – well that’s their choice!

Our wedding was in Gibraltar, far less paperwork required than holding it in Spain. Our two best friends in Spain were unable to come to be our witnesses, due to illness. We were a bit stuck, and didn’t want to just arrange for people on the street to come in case they forgot – we’d have missed our slot and would have had to start again! So… as I used to write a page for the Local Women monthly magazine I thought the best idea might be to ask fellow writers for help. I emailed the Gibraltar Chronicle, their daily newspaper, explaining our dilemma and asking for suggestions. One of their top journalists volunteered, along with the paper’s award-winning photographer, who kindly provided all our wedding photographs free! What a result, and how lucky were we! We had a lovely lunch at the marina, all in all a few great days away.

After all of that, and the great photos we were given, my favourite is this one, taken by Peter, of the new Mr and Mrs Kopczynski. It was great fun, and now we’re lucky enough to be celebrating our anniversary with Laurie and the children, and a multi-coloured lemon drizzle cake!

Okay, so back to “Who let the dogs out?!” One of the more difficult things about living in Spain is their attitude towards animals, and dogs in particular. You can divide this approach into two main areas – dogs kept as pets, and dogs for hunting and guarding. It is a continual complaint from non-Spanish (and by that I mean mainly English speaking people) that dogs are all too often left alone for long periods, or chained up, or left to bark incessantly. Well I have bad news for all you dog lovers out there, all of the above is true. It is mainly in the campo, or countryside, that you will see dogs mistreated like this. Near us is someone who keeps 11 dogs, yes, ELEVEN. We’re not sure why he thinks he needs so many, but most are let out to run around between the house and the front gates. However, two German Shepherds are chained to a long rope running up a very steep slope of about 30 metres, and they are never, ever let loose. They all also bark at all times of the night, all through the night, setting off every other dog within a 5km radius – thank goodness for efficient double-glazing! One other dog near us is kept in a large cage, permanently, which hangs off the side of the hill. In the almost 5 years we’ve been here that dog has never been out of the cage. Absolutely awful. The government is now bringing in legislation to help protect animals like this, and will be “live” from the end of September. There will be a lot of requirements for the owners, such as neutering, insurance cover etc, so it might mean a glimmer of hope for the dogs. Or, being Spain, it might not. I also simply can’t understand how people can let their dogs bark all through the night without ever going out to see what they’re barking for, and how on earth do they sleep through that racket?! The main offenders are a couple of hundred metres away from us and still manage to wake us!

It’s actually not too dissimilar with dogs kept as pets. So many people seem happy to let their dogs run wild, chew everything in sight, both inside and outside the house, jump up on you and so on. We always had dogs at home, gun dogs and pets, and were always very well trained. Not so here in Spain in many cases! Why they don’t bother to train them properly is anybody’s guess, laziness, perhaps, or a general “don’t care” attitude. I’ve not even touched on the people running the dog rescues – they help out when dogs are abandoned by their owners, but it takes, time, human hours, and a lot of money to keep these places running. It really is a bit of a problem and we’re glad to see the law will now be making owners far more responsible for their animals who have often been condemned to a miserable life.

In spite of it all Spain is a very good place to be and we’re stil glad we’re here!

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!

One of the brilliant things about living in Spain is that we are able to drive to most of the places we want to visit, and they are usually easy drives at that, due to the excellent road system.

Accommodation here in Spain is so reasonable that it is easy to just decide, on the spur of the moment, to throw a couple of overnight bags in the car and head off somewhere different. We often use booking.com but it can also make sense to contact hotels directly, as they frequently offer far better deals. Both hotels and self-catering options are very easy to find in Spain, offering everything from the totally luxurious to just basic, shared dormitory hostel options, and all points in betweeen. For us it’s more like the former – we leave the latter to the young and those on a much tighter budget! We have stayed in some fairly basic places, but always immaculately clean, comfortable and well presented. One of our best bargains was in Cordoba – LOVE that city! – where we had a little quaint hotel on a street corner about 20 metres from the Mesquita, the Islamic mosque. It was built in 756 after the Muslims conquered southern Spain. It was converted to a Christian place of worship in around 1236 following King Ferdinand lll re-taking the area from the Muslims. Fortunately for us, the “new” cathedral was built over the original mosque, so we can see both.

One of our favourite restaurants in all of Spain is in Cordoba – it’s a very special award winning restaurant called Garum 2.1 and is utterly fabulous! The first time we went we were very honoured to be shown into the “holy of holies”, the upstairs private dining rooms, where “the elite meet to eat”, quite an experience! If you ever go to Cordoba please, please eat there! The food is fantastic, the atmosphere amazing, and the staff are so helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. The website is http://www.garum2punto1.com so have a wee peep and don’t miss it if you’re in the area.

If you’re looking for a holiday in Spain but don’t want to be in the hustle and noise of the traditional tourist areas, then why not consider staying somewhere inland, where the mountains and lakes will blow your socks off and you can relax and enjoy the scenery.

One fabulous place, near us, is run by Julia and Kelvin, and is called Tranquil Stays. Their home is part cave, and you can enjoy a different experience there, though with all the comforts of home – as well as a swimming pool for those hot summer days!

The house is located close to Fortuna, Murcia, in the quiet of the countryside, yet is only 10 minutes from town, and 30 minutes from Murcia city. About 40 minutes will have you at the coast, so really it’s a great place to stay if you want to explore our little part of Spain.

Julia and Kelvin, the hosts, are very friendly and welcoming, and will do everything they can to ensure your stay is a memorable one. The website for viewing more photos, and for contact and booking information is at https://tranquilstays8.godaddysites.com/

If you need somewhere to stay in Northern Ireland, you just can’t beat the Metropole Maison de la Plage, in Portrush, on the north Antrim coast. This is an utter gem, and is probably the best place we have ever stayed in – and we’ve travelled a lot! The house is immaculate, having been renovated, restored and rebuilt by our friends Rhona and Stuart, much of the work being actually done by themselves.

It is beautifully decorated and equipped, with three double bedrooms, two bathrooms and two sitting rooms. A lot of thought has gone into what guests really want from their holiday accommodation. The house is only 2 minutes walk from the beach, and 10 minutes walk into town where you can get everything you need, including rail and bus links to wherever you want to go. Rhona is just the best host ever, read the reviews and see for yourselves. I’m not at all surprised that they are usually booked up well in advance, with lots of returning guests. We absolutely LOVED our stay there!

Since we’re talking bit about travel in Spain, a word about toll roads, some good news and some not so good! Apparently they are going to do away with the tolls on the AP7, it’s the main toll motorway along the east coast of Spain. Good news, certainly. When we use this motorway to go shopping in La Zenia, or other areas near to it, the toll is €2.85 in the off-peak months, and €4.35 during the busiest peak tourist season. You pay this to get onto the motorway, but listen to this – you also pay the same again to come off at La Zenia Boulevard shopping centre! Eh?! A great little moneyspinner indeed! But there’s worse….we were there last week, on Wednesday, meeting friends for lunch. We paid by card to get on and to get off again. No problem, you might think, even if €8.70 is a bit steep for the pleasure of a virtually traffic-free road. Well no wonder it’s virtually traffic-free at those prices! And no wonder we don’t usually go near the coast in summer – too many people!

Here’s the word of warning… from now on we will always pay cash, we will NEVER pay by card again and here’s why. We were charged the two lots of €4.35 for our trip last Wednesday, one to get on the motorway and one to get off. No problem. We didn’t use the toll road on the way home, we took our time meandering along the coast road instead. However, on Monday of this week I noticed two transactions on my Wise euro account for another two lots of €4.35 apparently for last Friday, when we weren’t anywhere near the motorway. This has happened before to me on this motorway. I had contacted Wise and they paid the excess money back to my euro account and retrieved it from the Autopista del Sureste management people. I’m very happy to report they did the same this time when I advised them of what had happened yet again. Incidentally, the day after the previous incident occurred, I noticed that someone had managed to spend almost £3000 from my Wise sterling account, in London! I contacted Wise at once and within 48 hours the money was back in my sterling account. Someone had decided to pay their council tax, utilities and goodness knows what else using my card details. I’m very glad Wise acted so promptly, and I now freeze my card immediately after every use so the details can’t be used. You live and learn!

A couple of recommendations for you now…we’re very fond of music in this house – we have a guitar, piano, mandolin and kalimba, and a few hundred CDs, only outnumbered by the amount of books we have lining the walls. The husband is learning to play then mandolin, little by little, or “poco a poco” as the Spanish say. We’ll get there!

Here are some links to some of the best music you’ll ever hear, and I’m very happy to confirm these are friends of ours:

http://www.eilidhpatterson.com

http://www.anthonytoner.net

http://www.brigidoneill.com

All amazingly talented singer/songwriters from Northern Ireland, and all often feature on our playlist at the pool every day. Enjoy!

When you move to another country, especially one where you don’t initially know the language, it can be more difficult to make friends. You will inevitably meet people who do speak the same first language as you, in our case English, but some expats seem to only associate with other native English speakers, thus losing out on the richness of cultural exchange. It never ceases to amaze me how many English expats there are who are only able to utter a few basic words in Spanish, even after living here for years.

We don’t claim to be fluent in Spanish, or anywhere near it, but we can hold on-going conversations with most people and in most situations. We are reasonably competant, which is really how it should be, given that we’ve been here for a total of 38 years between us!

Forming new friendships in a foreign country is difficult, mainly because you have no shared history, and no real knowledge of who the person is, so you have no idea what their agenda is. My lovely friend Karen Roberts offers really sound advice when making new connections in a new setting – she says you should always ask yourself “If these people lived down the road from you at home, would you be friends with them?” If the answer is no, probably not, then remember you can be friendly without having to be best friends. So many people come out to Spain with a different agenda, a need to reinvent themselves, and any problems they had previously are just brought with them. Often they can end up with even more problems once they get here. Sometimes they end up suffering with poor health or even, in the worse case scenario, finding out the house they’ve bought isn’t actually legal. In fact, many expats themselves aren’t in the country legally – they haven’t registered for residence as required by law, and they often work for cash in hand to avoid paying tax. We knew quite a few like that in the last place we lived. It’s now becoming much more difficult for people to fly “under the radar”, thus many seem to be heading back to the UK.

In the last town we lived in there were quite number of illegal or “irregular” houses, making the owners’ lives more stressful than necessary. In addition, many ex-pats tend to confine themselves to the same cliquey groups, often, sadly, arranged round drinking. The drinking culture is alive and well amongst ex-pats. Sadly, it often means their friendship connections are limited. They also lose out on a lot of the Spanish culture and tradition, sometimes not even venturing too far outside their own area. Sadly, we saw this all too often in the area we used to live in, though I’m sure it happens everywhere. Drinking and driving is a national problem in Spain, so many people think nothing of downing beers all afternoon in a bar, then driving home. In Spain the alcohol limits are much lower than in the UK – two bottles or cans of beer will put you on the edge, if not just over the limit. Three bottles or cans means you will be well over the limit and will pay a fairly heavy penalty. It’s no wonder the place is full of the most atrocious drivers!

It’s not always easy adapting to a different culture, but the most important helpful hints are to learn the language and to get out and about, away from your immediate area. You will find that this enriches your life abroad!

That’s why, so often, it is just brilliant to catch up with friends from home, and it really does the heart and soul good to keep those connections alive and healthy. We love it when friends from home come to stay with us, or come on holiday to the coast within easy striking distance so we can get together and catch up on all the craic from home as well as from here.

Cherish those friends, people, they’re your tribe!

A recent report by InterNations has shown Spain is the second best place in the world to live in, for ex-pats. Not surprising, given the beautiful weather, the fabulous variety of scenery, and the generally much more affordable standard of living, compared to the UK. Mexico scored highest – I’m not too sure about that one! If you retire to Spain you can have a great life if you have no mortgage or rent to pay by owning your property outright, and if you have an income that means you don’t have to work to pay the bills. It is more difficult if you have a young family, and mortgage or rent to pay. We’re very fortunate in that we own our (fully legal) house outright, and we have a very healthy and comfortable income – all that hard work over the years has definitely paid off for us! Since Brexit changed the rules for UK passport holders it is much more difficult to emigrate to Spain, or any other Schengen country. It is also very, very expensive in terms of having to take out private health insurance, and the amount of money you have in the bank to prove you can support yourselves as initially you will not be allowed to work. It’s no wonder so many people from Great Britain suddenly decided to love the Irish and pursue family links that would enable them to obtain an Irish passport! And here’s another way Irish passports are very desirable – they have music and poetry printed on every page!

There’s no doubt that, for us, Spain is a great place to live. It’s a very big country, with great infrastructure, making travel to the different areas quite straightforward. Decent hotels are very affordable, so we often just decide to have a night or two away somewhere different, to explore and enjoy a change of scene. We have two more little breaks in Spain planned before now and Christmas, as well as our upcoming trip home to Northern Ireland. Of course it’s also lovely to come home to your own bed after a trip away – and we think the views from our terrace match any views in Spain!

We’re thinking of renaming our house “The Forth Road Bridge” as all the things we want and need to do to it seem never-ending. We really are almost there in terms of renovations and repairs, just a few more upgrades to some of the electrics, replace one of the bathrooms and then it’s just the decorating to do. Well I say “just the decorating” but with 13 rooms it’s going to take a fair old amount of paint! It will look grand when it’s finished – eventually! Probably just in time for us to decide to sell? We are thinking about a few years hence, and looking at the possibility of selling the big house to buy somewhere smaller in Spain, and also somewhere in Northern Ireland. As we are both Irish citizens and thus have Irish passports we won’t be limited to the “90 days in any period of 180 days” that third countries have to manage when visiting the Schengen zone. The main issue would be to not stay in Spain for more than 183 days in any full year, as otherwise we would remain fiscally resident in Spain and be liable for taxes here. Being taxed in the UK is far more advantageous – the personal allowance there is £12,750 whereas in Spain it’s a miserable €6000, not great! So, six months in Northern Ireland and six months in Spain sounds like a plan we’ll be considering further.

Watch this space!

Two good things about Spain for you now – food and body confidence. Is there a link? Probably. but these are just my observations, see what you think!

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it – one of the fabulous things about Spain is the rich and varied range of food on offer. We do like to eat out, mainly because it’s usually very inexpensive, and we truly believe we’re worth it! I wrote recently about a favourite restaurant in our town, where the “menu del dia” is the most amazing value. We often venture into the city by tram for a bit of a stroll, some shopping, and, of course, lunch! One of our favourite places in Murcia city is the Mercado de Correos, or the “market” which was the old post office building. It’s somewhere a bit special where we can bring friends when they come to stay with us.

It is a tapas bar, with a garden courtyard to the rear, where all the gorgeous young things gather in the evenings for cocktails and live music. In the main building the seating area is in the centre of lots of little stalls preparing and cooking fresh food to order. There’s everything from traditional Murciano fare, to Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and a variety of others! You have a wander round to decide what you’d like, the waiter then comes and takes your order, and it’s brought to your table. They are supposed to be tapas but honestly the portions are much bigger that you expect, and very reasonably priced too. Problem is my eyes are always bigger than my stomach and it’s too easy to over order! It’s a lovely, lovely place to eat but be warned – get there by about 1pm, if you leave it too much later you’ll maybe not get in as there’s always a long queue outside the door by 2pm, Spanish lunchtime.

There’s a lovely “fin de siècle” elegance about the place, and it’s no wonder the smartly dressed professionals like to eat there.

When we do have friends to stay, and we go into the city, another place of interest is the Casino. Gambling is a funny thing in Spain, you’ll be hard pressed to find general betting shops, but most big towns and cities have casinos which are not at all like the Las Vegas type places. I’ve always thought of the Las Vegas casinos to be devoid of all culture – unlike our beautiful casino in Murcia! It’s like a private club, with reading rooms, restaurant, ballroom, and beautiful design everywhere. Just the entrance alone is enough to take your breath away. Up a few steps straight off a little side street, there’s a rather ordinary looking building. Open the door, go inside and…oh my word! A different world!

The entrace is Arabian and is the most fabulous tile and mosaic sight. there are also works of art and statues throughout the building. If you’re in Murcia you must go there!

So there you have it, a couple more of the good things about Spain. When it comes to food I think the rise in fast food outlets really should be labelled “bad”. Now there are loads of places you can get “fast” food in Spain, but those are the real, freshly cooked dishes that seem to be conjured up out of nowhere and taste divine. The others are….outlets like KFC, McDonalds and Burger King. I’m happy to report that although they are all to be found in the local big shopping centres down the road towards the city, there are, so far, none in our wee town!

They say there’s a definite link between the rise in fast food chain outlets and health, in particular obesity and diabetes. There certainly seems to be a rise in children and young people looking much heavier than their peers did some years ago. It might be also down to a far too long lock up during the covid episode, so children weren’t as able to get outside for proper fun exercise as much as before. It might be to do with the rise in computer games, meaning children stay indoors and are not out with all their pals. It might be any one of a number of reasons, but most likely a combination of all of them. I just feel a little bit sad when I think of the fabulous reputation Spain has for really good food, and then see these artificial, nutritional wastelands springing up everywhere.

But….back to the good again. One of the things that I really appreciate is women’s and girls’ body confidence in Spain. They don’t seem to come under the same pressure to be thin, thin, thin as the media tries to impress on us in the UK, for example. I’m in no way advocating for females to emulate someone like the rapper Lizzo in any way, but it does seem that they carry themselves with a sense of pride about who they are, and they wear what they want. I have seen girls and women weighing at least 130 kilos – more than 20 stones in “old money” and they’re happy to walk around in skimpy vest tops and very short shorts. While nobody should condone it from a health point of view, there’s something rather admirable about a woman who knows her worth isn’t dependant on the size number on the label on her clothes.

And so to the ugly. The really, really ugly – in my opinion. Bullfighting. A fiercely guarded tradition in Spain. I have noticed the new, temporary bullring being built in our town for an exhibition of bullfighting this month. I won’t be going anywhere near it. Nor do I intend to be even in town at the same time as I do not wish to hear the cheers of a crowd of people who still believe it’s a noble sport. I’m not sure how anyone can call it noble when an animal is being taunted and tortured, causing it severe pain, before finally killing it when it’s actually no longer a threat. Most people are unaware that the bulls are actually tortured prior to going into the ring. For example, they have acid poured into their eyes, amongst other things. The matadors often make tens and even hundreds of thousands of euros for each fight.

It’s good to see that the “tradition” of bullfighting is slowly dying out across Spain, but it is holding on tenaciously in more rural, inland areas.

A final word? It may well be that bullfighting is a long-held tradition in Spain. However, it’s not always right to continue to uphold traditions. Yeasrs ago it was traditional to send pre-school age children up the inside of chimneys to clean them. Happily we realised that this was one tradition we needed to obliterate.

I rest my case.

The temperatures have been soaring recently, and there’s been lots of frightening stories bandied around by the media about climate change making each year hotter than the one before. All accompanied by the sensational stories of wildfires consuming the whole of Europe. Well that’s what they intend us to think at any rate.

I’ve checked out the temperatures from the previous years here and actually it was mostly hotter in years gone by. Having said that, we had a bad storm recently and a lightning strike caused a fire just up the mountain a bit from our house. While we know that one was due to lightning, I do wonder at the number of fires around the Mediterranean, are there arsonists/pyromaniacs at work here? Happily the local bomberos were quickly on site here and worked very hard into the night to stop ithe fire spreading and get it extinguished. And yes, that’s one of our chimney flue things on the roof, that’s how close it was!

Another word of praise for the health service here in Spain. I had an appointment with our GP, Laura, two weeks ago. She got me an appointment for an MRI at a private clinic in the city – Murcia Salud, the health service here also uses private clinics to ensure prompt patient attention. Had the MRI last week and collected the results today. I think it’s just an excellent service, and seems to be so much better than many are experiencing in the UK at the minute. Oh, and I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I’m still on the right side of the patio!

For the good of our health, and general wellbeing, we’ve started going to meditation sessions held and guided by my lovely friend, Sarah Dawkins. I’ve been practising meditation for some time but it is lovely to have guided sessions with someone you can trust. Sarah has written an Amazon best seller book called “Heal Yourself” and it is truly excellent.

It focuses on how our lifestyles affect our wellbeing, and what we can all do to help ourselves. Sarah is an expert on natural nutrition and healing, and is also a wonderfully warm and encouraging person. Buy the book, it’s brilliant!

You all know by now that one of the joys of living in Spain is how many fabulous places there are to eat out – no wonder we indulge so often! We are starting to make our way round some of the great restaurants in Murcia city, and so far there’s one which is a clear favourite, but I’ll write about it next time!

For now, we are eating less than usual, like most people, due to the heat. One meal a day is about all we need, and actually nothing much in the way of snacking other than fruit. Between the horrendous bout of food poisoning I had, and the lack of appetite due to the heat, I have now lost a total of 18lbs in just over 7 weeks. If I keep this up nobody will recognise me when we go back to Norn Iron for a wee holiday in November!

Salads are the order of the day, and it has to be said that Peter can be very creative in the kitchen!

We always keep bottles half filled with water, in the freezer, so when we fill them up ready to use the ice melts slowly and the water is always lovely and cold.

The husband really likes a home-made mix of muesli and other very suspect-looking things added to it, but I found a way for me to really enjoy a very healthy and filling breakfast as a change from big bowls of fresh fruit – banana and porridge muffins.

Here’s the recipe;

You put into a blender 1½ cups of porridge oats, a small pot of plain Greek yoghurt, 2 eggs, a big plop of honey (about a tablespoon), 1½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoom bicarb soda (baking soda), 2 large ripe bananas cut into chunks, frozen raspberries, blueberries etc. Blend the whole lot till fairly smooth. Spoon a bit into each wee bit of a muffin tray – but just use 10 out of the 12 holes – you don’t need paper cases. Plop a couple of frozen berries in and top up with the porridge/banana mixture. You can sprinkle some weee sugar nibs/pearls on top if you want to. Bake at 200C for about 20 to 25 minutes. Try not to eat them all at once!

That’s it for now, try to stay cool, and look after each other!

I’m sure that title has grabbed your attention, so I’ll explain! Something a little different… At the beginning of June we went to Granada for a weekend, for my birthday. We’ve been before, a few times, so we didn’t plan to go round the Alhambra again – though if you’ve never been then please make a point of seeing it, utterly fabulous! We just wanted a bit of R&R and lots of shopping in the fabulous little Moroccan shops that are everywhere.

The King and Queen of Spain visited the city on the Saturday, complete with massive military airshow, most exciting! I did think this was a very different way to celebrate my birthday but more was to come.

Somewhere along the weekend we both picked up food poisoning, no idea where, as we ate in so many different places. His was milder, mine was severe.

Managed to drive the 3-ish hours home on the Monday morning, straight into bed feeling like I’d been disembowelled by a 15th century torturer. Into the bathroom approximately every 15 minutes, morning, noon and night. Not actually funny at all, and at one point I genuinely thought I was dying, this was backed up by later reading about two women with the same problem who actually DID die. No joke.

About 2 hours after we got home I was actually asleep when the husband raced into the bedroom and shouted “Get up! There’s a snake in the bedroom!”

Indeed there was. About three feet long, looked like a ladder snake, usually harmless but still…

It shot across the room. We had to pull out, strip and dismantle the bed, lift all three pairs of the full length curtains up, pull out bedside cabinets, pull out the big chest of drawers…then suddenly the husband spotted it under a bag where I’d put the winter duvet when changing it over to the summer one. He put his size 12 foot on it and yelled at me to “Get it!” Get it? Get it?! Good grief, I was suffering the pains of hell from the food poisoning, and needed to be within a few steps of the bathroom, and he wanted me to “get it”?! Well, I ran downstairs to the kitchen, lifted the long tongs and ran upstairs again, grabbed the thing near its head, but not near enough. Had to make sure the husband didn’t move his foot, grabbed it again, right on its head and lifted it. It wasn’t happy. It wriggled and writhed, trying to wind itself round my arm while I tried not to be sick from one end or worse from the other. Got it into the bathroom, up with the blind, out through the rejas (security bars) and flung the thing as hard as I could, where it bounced off one of the lower roofs and disappeared.

So there you are, how to catch a snake! And…we found where it had got in, through the extractor fan vent in the kitchen which we’d been intending to properly seal off outside, and which is now well covered with very fine mosquito netting. Never put off till tomorrow what you really should have done weeks ago, that’s what I say!

P.S. I’m still not quite over the fact that the husband shouted “Get it!” to me….

After I’d moved to Spain a lot of people used to ask me what on earth I did all day, and did I get bored? Well if you think about it you’ll realise that you have the same household chores to do in Spain as you ever did at home, cleaning floors, bathrooms, kitchen, washing, ironing etc. The major difference is that when you hang out the washing it dries in about an hour, and you can hang it up and head out for the day, knowing it isn’t going to be even wetter than when you left it. Oh, and I don’t usually iron between March and November except for linen items, it’s just too hot here. Take everything in off the line, fold a couple of times lengthwise, and roll up really tightly. No wrinkles and takes up less space in drawers and suitcases, plus you can find what you’re looking for more easily.

In summer it’s best to get up really early to do the regular chores, as it gets so hot during the day, and the longer you leave it the worse it gets. So usually we’re up around 7am to sweep and tidy up the terrace and pool area, then get the floors swept and mopped, the bathrooms and kitchen done, and the dinner prepped. This means the rest of the day is our own so we usually either go out to top up supplies and have lunch somewhere or we’re at home relaxing – such a hard life!

There are lots of things to do and toget involved in wherever you are in Spain, from walking groups to yoga classes, from craft and painting classes to quizzes, basically anything you can think of. If you are more comfortable with people who speak your language then there are loads of activities to get involved with. However, I would suggest that you dip into some things that might be a wee bit outside your comfort zone, and with a mix of nationalities – you will learn more about the world and about yourself that way.

The husband is very keen on art, and has been to various classes where he’s produced glass and stone mosaics, and has ideas for decorating wall sconces. He buys plain, unvarnished sconces and then decorates them in a variety of ways. They’re great for presents as well as for our home.

While the husband is busy producing all sorts of mosaics and paintings I’m getting involved in my main hobby, which is writing. Some of you may remember I used to write a page every month for Local Women magazine, and I suppose this blog is about carrying that on here. I’ve also joined a writing group which is a fantastic support and encouragement to all its members…and we’ve even had books published! We’re a very cosmopolitan group – there are Irish, English, Dutch, French, German and Norwegian members, an amazing mix. What amazes me even more is that everyone writes in English. We share our writing with the group and get constructive feedback, as well as useful information about finding information on publishing. If you’re very unlucky I might throw up a couple of my offerings on here in the future!

Things take longer to do in Spain than at home, so even when you are out for regular shopping it can take much longer than you think! We have very few huge supermarkets here that sell everything along the lines of Sainsburys and Tescos, for example. Most of the major supermarkets just sell food and household goods. However, there are a couple, like Al Campo and Carrefour, which sell everything from food to garden supplies, household linens, school supplies, books, clothing – you name it, it’s there! Generally the shopping takes time because, well, because nobody is in any rush. The best idea is to combine it with a nice lunch, then head for the shops around 3pm when the Spanish are still at lunch or at home. I never mind doing the grocery shopping in the heat of the day at the height of summer as by around 3pm there’s hardly anyone around and I get finished up far sooner.

Most of the fruit and veg shopping is done in our local market which is held on Saturdays. Plenty of variety, good prices, and always the opportunity to catch up with friends for a cool refreshing drink as well. You can buy everything here, fruit, veg, clothing, leather goods, spices, great choice and something for everyone.

There is very little time to be bored in Spain. As someone once said “If you’re bored, you’re boring”. If we’re not doing the usual household chores we’re out and about shopping, having lunch, meeting up with friends, exploring new areas, apinting, writing, walking, cycling, swimming…the list is endless! If all else fails we are happy to just lie about in and round the pool and relax, especially on days when it’s really too hot to do anything else.

Speaking of markets, apart from the usual weekly markets we often have night markets, especially on the coast, where there are lots of tourists in the summer months. These run until at least 2am, so it’s a lot cooler to be out, and there’s something a bit magical about walking round market stalls in the early hours of the morning, in a gentle warmth. These markets are always busy. Given the number of them, and also how the Spanish don’t usually have dinner until 10pm or 11pm, I’m amazed that anyone is ever able to get up for work the next day!

These late markets, as well as those at special fiesta times, sell an even wider variety of street food, clothing, artisan crafts, jewellery, household goods and everything else you can think of. One stall which really, REALLY surprised me was the one selling all kinds of knives, from little to huge, as well as guns. You live and learn!

It seems a fairly obvious thing to say but if you’re going to move to a foreign country it makes sense to learn the language. When I was at school I learned Latin, French and German, and had the tiniest bit of Italian you could imagine. I never learned Spanish, and I really regret it now as I’d have been streets ahead on moving here.

Still there are plenty of opportunities to learn the lingo, from lessons provided by local town halls, to private group or one-to-one lessons.The best way, of course, is total immersion, but this often is neither possible nor practical, as it involves not speaking or listening to or having any access to your own language for a minimum of three months, though apparently the result is like switching on a light bulb, hey presto you’re practically fluent!

I’d say our language skills are reasonably competant, but I can certainly say more than I understand,though between us we manage in most situations.

When I first came house-hunting here one place I viewed was owned by an English couple who very proudly told me they had lived in Spain for 21 years and had only ever really needed to learn 7 words in Spanish – si, no, hola, adios, cerveza, cafe, gracias. I was amazed, but not in a good way. They had always lived in English-speaking “colonies” and shopped in “English” shops, so had genuinely never learned to speak Spanish.

Accents vary wildly too, as they do everywhere. We lived in one province for 11 years before moving to our current home in a different province 4 years ago. Trying to tune in to a different accent is so difficult – it’s a bit like someone from “sarf Lundun” trying to decipher Rab C. Nesbitt’s fabulous Scottish accent and vice versa!

Deciphering different accents and learning new words and expressions is difficult enough, but then you come up against the “false friends”, the words that sound like one thing but mean something else entirely. For example, if you go for an X-ray there’s a notice advising you to let the radiographer know if you are “embarazada”. This doesn’t mean “embarrased”, it means “pregnant”! Another “almost but not quite right” words is if you want to ask for a chicken in the butcher’s department. “Chicken” in Spanish is “pollo”. If you forget, and ask for a “polla”, especially a large one, you might find the shop staff laughing uncontrollably, as you will have just asked for a large, err, man’s VERY private part also beginning with “p”! Oh well, at least we are trying!

If you need to start somewhere then start with learning how to order food and drinks in restaurants, as this is likely to be where you might spend a good deal of time. Once you’ve mastered the basic words you’ll feel great, and don’t worry about the grammar or about getting things exactly right, it’s a perfect start to getting the hang of a new language.

My advice is to practise every day, even if it’s just the same few words every time, to make sure you get them right. The Spanish people really don’t care if your language is grammatically correct or not, but they DO care that you are making an effort to learn, and are always willing to help you find the right words.

I’ll never be fluent in Spanish, but I don’t need to be. I can get along with far more words thatn I ever thought I’d know, and if I get stuck there’s always google translate.

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