Moving to Spain - the Easy Way? Chapter Ten.

MOVING TO SPAIN – THE EASY WAY? Chapter Ten – and finally. 

This final chapter is going to have to be an unfinished chapter or, as I prefer to call it, a work in progress.  The intention is to summarise our experiences to date, and to look forward as well as to look back.  What are the important lessons that we have learnt?  Do we have any pearls of wisdom to impart that will help you, if you plan to embark on a similar journey? (Probably not!)  What are our plans, hopes and possible fears for the future?

John and I started with only a vague idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to live once we retired.  I wouldn’t go as far as to say that we were disillusioned with life in the UK, but having lived in south-east England for twenty eight years and having worked in or near London for over twenty years, I for one wanted to get out of the rat race and start a new life somewhere where the pace of life was slower. 

We didn’t rush into our decision.  We weighed up the pros and cons of the different places that we thought we would like to live in, and eventually ended up with a shortlist of one: Spain.

As Spain is such a vast country, with so many different regions that we had visited already and both knew and loved, it took time to decide exactly where we wanted to live.  We researched areas that we hadn’t considered before, went on numerous viewing trips over a period of several years and eventually found somewhere where we both felt that we could live quite happily.

Like many people, we have found the internet to be an invaluable resource, both when looking to buy in Spain and after we had found somewhere to live.  We have become addicted to the many forums that we have joined, some of which cover most of Spain and one which is specifically aimed at the owners who are buying at Santa Ana del Monte.

A favourite website is Native Spain, for obvious reasons!  It has a good mix of articles, guides to various Spanish regions and a helpful forum: http:/www.nativespain.com/ .

Another website that has forums covering specific developments, as well as a very helpful General Forum whose members seem to spend most of the day online, and which also has some useful articles is Eye on Spain: http://www.eyeonspain.com.

For those of you who are interested in living in Yecla, Pinoso or Jumilla, the Spain Serve website has many ex-pat members who are already living in the area and who are very helpful: http://www.spainserve.com/.

 Finally, the website set up for owners at Santa Ana del Monte, where we share our worries, concerns, hopes and occasional celebrations: http://santaanadelmonte.co.uk/. 

We had drawn up a checklist of our requirements, and made sure that the estate agents that showed us round knew exactly what we were looking for.  In spite of this, we went on a couple of viewing trips that were, quite frankly, a waste of both our time and theirs.  When we eventually found both a property and location that the two of us loved, we thought that was the end of the story.  In fact, it was only the beginning.

We soon realised the importance of having an independent Spanish solicitor, who spoke English fluently.  We learnt about bank guarantees, NIE numbers, Padrons, residencia and SUMA (not wrestlers, but local taxes).  We became addicted to watching the latest euro exchange rates, and only wished that we had contacted our currency exchange company earlier when it was possible to get €1.50 to £1.

We accepted that if we wanted to have a three course lunch for 8 euros, we would have to wait until at least 1.30 before we could order it.  That made waiting until after eight for dinner much easier, especially when we could have tapas and a drink in between.  We loved the array of fresh fruit and vegetables in the local market, and the wide choice of fresh fish and meat in the supermarkets and only occasionally missed the wider selection of microwaveable meals in the UK.

We had a slight disagreement over whether we needed both air conditioning and heating in our new home.  I think I have managed to win the argument, after pointing out that inland Spain can be far hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than coastal resorts.  I hope that my point will be proved in August and next January – if not, I may be given the bill for the air condioning and radiators.

We learned to be patient.  We had no other choice.  

As I begin this chapter John has just retired, so in theory we will now both be living a life of leisure.  Fat chance!  We have the keys to the apartment that we are renting in Jumilla for the next nine months, but we have a maisonette in London to sell and before that we have a lot of clearing out to do. 

I have to confess to being a bit of a hoarder, and over the last fifteen years of living with John I have accumulated many treasures (which John rudely refers to as rubbish).  I will have to be ruthless and only keep the essentials, but it is going to be a tough task.  Books, clothes, CDs and various mementoes will have to be sorted out and I suspect that the resulting heavy bags will give the bin men hernias.

Before we leave the UK, there will be various financial matters to finalise.  Which bank accounts, store cards and credit cards will we retain? Standing orders and debit directs will have to be cancelled, as our gym memberships aren’t worth keeping on for the occasional visit to London and magazine subscriptions also need to be stopped.

Can our mail be forwarded to Spain?  I have ordered some cards announcing our move to Spain, to send to friends and family members.  I am just hoping that the Spanish postal system isn’t as bad as rumoured.

We are planning to buy a laptop and are investigating mobile broadband, as email seems the quickest and easiest way to keep in touch with both our families and our close friends.   We have already bought Spanish SIM cards which can be used in our current mobile phone handsets.  I have had new business cards printed, and am in the process of updating my website.  As we currently have broadband and our email addresses are provided by our ISP, John and I have set up new email addresses on Google Mail.

When we move to Jumilla, we plan to keep on running, not only to keep fit but also as a joint interest.  We have checked out the local athletics club on the internet.  It seems to be well organised and successful, however from what we have seen the majority of its members are juniors, and they only have four veteran runners, all of whom are male.  I suspect that a 60 year old woman running in Jumilla will be quite a novelty, however I see this as an opportunity to encourage more women in the town to go out running.

John has already spoken to the local tourist office about his plan to organise running related holidays in the area, and his proposals have been met with enthusiasm, so no doubt this will keep him out of mischief.  We hope that we will be bringing something positive to the community, and that it will mean additional business for the hotels, restaurants, bars and other businesses in Jumilla.

I hope to share my enthusiasm for complementary therapies with the local people of Jumilla and also with the new owners at Residencial Santa Ana del Monte.  In such a tranquil setting people won’t be as stressed out as London commuters, however I hope that a relaxing reflexology treatment will still be appreciated in Spain and after a hard day on the golf course, I am sure that the golfers will look forward to my on-site massages.

We know that life won’t be that quiet anyway, as John’s daughter Sarah, her husband Jerry and their four boys have already booked their flights to Alicante for July.  My children – Vicky, Mark and Kate - have also announced that they are looking forward to visiting us, hopefully for Christmas, although the cold temperatures may prove a surprise for them. 

I suspect that my brother David and his wife Debby will be checking flights from Devon, and John’s son David will want to bring his wife Katy and new baby Abigail to see us.  Many of our friends have also proved to be enthusiastic about our new home – I wonder why?

Our hopes are resting on the new development at Santa Ana del Monte.  There have been major delays and there may very well be further delays, however we believe that in the long-term it will be a fabulous development and once it is completed we will both enjoy living in such lovely surroundings.

Do we have any regrets?  So far, we have none. Hopefully we will be able to say the same in ten years’ time.

 Key Points: ·        Only one this time – if you have a chance to move to Spain, take it!