Nice to hear someone happy for a change......

Natural Honey Body Lotion - available in supermarkets and Farmacias. Cover yourself in it and they will keep well away.

Quote:



8 years since I bought my little bit of paradise. And yes it's not easy adapting to the laid back way of life out here, there are a lot of cultural changes to be made. But I managed
I am fortunate that my Catalan neighbours are really nice and helpful.
My biggest problem is that I don't know where to go for a holiday, because I don't want to leave here at all.
The thought of returning to the yUK is totally abhorrent
Soon I shall be virtually self sufficient, growing all my own vegetables organically now and raising my own meat.
Next step is a miniature cow , because I love milk and a decent joint of beef is more than welcome.
Things I miss from from England are listed below

This new thread is so refreshing from the normal doom and gloom which so often covers these pages.
We have been here over 9 years and I don't know where that time has gone either.

OK, it's not always plain sailing, but you get over the hurdles as best you can and learn from your mishaps/mistakes etc (hopefully) my 15 year old Son is now more Catalan/Spanish than he is English.

Can honestly say that I don't miss anything English, and if I do, can usually buy it online.

What advise would I give to new comers????????

Have a positive outlook, and try to see the good, even in bad things, as it is quite often a necessary learning curve.

If there is a large ex-pat community where you decide to put down roots, be very selective as to who your 'friends' are, we learnt the hard way on more than one occasion, and most of all, at least get a basic understanding of the language, and you will not go far wrong.

I actually work more here that I did in the UK and I came here for a more comfortable, laid back life style, but it just never happened, but, hand on my heart, I would never change it for the world, and the thought of going back to live in the UK is like a nightmare to me, it's just a no brainer for us.

Jools

As I sit here in my shack on the hill, gazing over the surrounding countryside ( even though it is brown ) and lazily fliking my finger to make contact with the forum, I realise when you get to my age many years seem to fly past quickly. As for the above comments if it helps Cleethorpes is a nice holiday location and I'm not sure what happens in Rome but when in Tortosa I do as the Tosa's do. I do try to fit in and understand the local culture but the following incident horrified her indoors and made me think that a wet weekend in Rhyl is not too bad and also left our Catalan neighbour totally confused. Our relaxed lifestyle started one morning with a relaxed stroll around my little empire and ended with me doing a mad dash back to the house with my neighbour's very large and very mean guard dog who had escaped from his pen and had decided to protect the entire mountain in hot pursuit after me. I rang my neighbour at his other house who came up at once and confind the escaped beast and the balance of life was again regained. Later that day my neighbour returned to my property looking like an underfed Rambo, wearing oversized combat gear, carrying a shotgun and two very suprised looking dead thrushes in his other hand. As we both only speak our own language, I thought he was telling me his dog had killed the birds, this my other half agreed with but she couldn't understand why he wanted us to bury them. As instructed by her indoors I dug a hole while the neighbour looked on somewhat mistified. I took the proffered birds trying not to look too miffed ( as I felt I had now added undertaker to my C.V ) and placed them in the hole and started to refill it. At this point he jumped towards the hole and my first thought was should we have said a prayer before filling the grave. It finally transpired after much arm waving and I thought a very good game of charades, that they were a gift to eat in return for phoning him about his dog but as the wife has strong views on hunting insisted the funeral continued he left looking somewhat dazed but as I said to the wife no harm done he thinks its an English custom. He has never returned with anymore dead creatures and we still communicate through charades. Arn't different cultures and customs wonderful, hence the number of wars in the world.
Yours an uncultured and none customed Bulldog.

Do l hear a " Weekly Report " from our correspondent in his Shack on the Hill?
Can't wait for next instalment.

New Flash: Dog bitten by Mosca Negre bites Man.

Is A PLACE IN THE SUN. available on youtube ?
would love to see it
rgards
r