31/12 - Sun, Mountains, Snow and Jungles!

It’s the last day of the year and it’s a real scorcher, well in the 30’s - nightmare eh?

The Jungle Drums magazine came out yesterday so we grabbed a copy, the article that I wrote looks great and the advert also looks good so hopefully someone will be impressed enough to ring and ask for some help!

Yesterday we also drove inland a little, to ‘Onil’ and ‘Castalla’ (the red circle on the map) to have a look at the prices around there for both rental of business premises and for house prices, the place was quite Spanish and certainly it would drop us in the deep end with our language skills – Liesl thinks that we should improve our Spanish dramatically before we even think about moving somewhere like that – I on the other hand think that we should just go for it, I’m sure that Liesl’s more sensible approach will be the way that we go.

The price of a small 3 or 4 bedroomed place around ‘Onil’ with about 4000m2 of land worked out to be around 150,000€ (around £100,000), so its much cheaper than here on the coast where the same property with much less land would be around 3 times the price! It was a nice drive, about an hour, which took us up into and beyond the mountains, roof down, and sunny but with snow on the ground as we got into the mountains – extremely beautiful and stunning landscape; I wish I had taken my camera so that I could have showed you.

We are going to a street party tonight with Gerry and Trisha (and their family) who have arrive for Hogmanay, there was also mention of kilts – so look out for the pictures – hehe.

29/12 - We're In Business At Last!

I collected all the officially signed paperwork for the business and managed to setup a bank account, so I am finally ready to start trading!

The article and advertisments should go into the various publications in early January, hopefully that will generate some interest, guess I should get on and complete the second article.

Fingers crossed!

25/12 - Christmas in the Sun!

Today is Christmas day and some of us are suffering from a little over indulgence at the disco we went to last night (at Raffles the new ‘piano bar’ that has opened just 3 minutes staggering distance away from the apartment).

As you can see from the photo, Liesl again was the life and soul of party, however this time, unlike me, she had the foresight to stop drinking early and take some water – so she is hangover free this morning!

Once we were all ‘alive’ at about 11am we went down to the beach to celebrate Christmas with a bottle of bubbly, it’s a fantastically warm day and is pushing twenty degrees in the shade.

We asked a passer by to take a photo of the group, below, before we returned to the apartment to set about organising a traditional British Christmas dinner (yes, very Spanish I know!)

I phoned all the usual suspects back in the UK to wish them a merry Christmas while Liesl set about in the kitchen making a start on the preparation, Simon and Jim read and Dave, who was still a little the worst for wear went back to bed!

23/12 - The Boys Arrive and ......

We went to Alicante airport this morning to collect our Dave (our old neighbour from the UK and one of our closest friends), Simon and Jim, also very good friends that used to live close to us but moved to Southampton a few years ago – probably to get away from the late night wine and debauchery that used to go on in our house in Irthlingborough until we became the good, clean living people we are today!

Anyway, on the way to the airport at about 11am we spotted what we at first thought was snow at the side of the road, we both looked at each other and then back at the white stuff and said “no!” in unison. It couldn’t be snow, this was Spain and it was a nice bright sunny winter’s day.

As we drove on we saw more of the stuff, mostly rapidly melting, but sure enough it had snowed during the night – quite a bit in fact and by the expressions on the Spaniards that were standing around looking at the fields they were as surprised as we were!

We collected the boys from the airport and stopped the car as we drove back to take a picture of a melting snowman that someone had made at the side of the road, we thanked the guys for bringing the British weather with them.

It’s great to have some of our closest friends over to stay, they hired a car so we could all drive about together, and although they were only staying for 3 nights it was going a great time, we just knew it.

Gerry and Trisha (friends from the new comers club) were kind enough to offer their house to us, so Simon and Jim were ensconced there, while Dave had to put up with staying at the apartment with Liesl, Hetty and I.

Once the boys were settled in we went into Alicante and had a walk along the harbour looking at the thousands of little fish that gather at the waters edge and looking at the extremely expensive boats in the harbour. Jim has recently setup his own business teaching other people to skipper and delivering boats – http://www.marvinmarine.co.uk/.

As they are “boaty people” they were able to tell us interesting facts about the vessels moored in the harbour, many of which were worth several million pounds! I understand that our other friend Dave is partial to a good cruise as well ;-)

We stopped at a café in the marina and had a coffee before returning to Gran Alacant where we popped to get stocked up for the next few days of socialising.

Outside the supermarkets the local council had planted Ponsetta plants around the usual palm trees that are planted along the walkways outside, back in the UK; they are house plants and wouldn’t survive outside. Liesl commented that my mum would have loved them; she was exactly right so I couldn’t resist taking a photo to show you.

20/12 - RAIN!

Busy day today, the carpenter had spent the last 2 days fitting some much needed cupboard space to our hall and terrace, we can now pack away all of my tools, Liesl’s card making paraphernalia and the excess amount of towels that we bought when we were renting the place out.

Its good to get the stuff packed away and out of sight, but because the carpenter took 2 days to do the job (he quoted for 1 day) I am now a long way behind on the arm long list that Liesl left for me!

Just finished cleaning the windows, which is no mean feat! For those of you that don’t know our apartment, it has 70’s style aluminium double glazed units that slot in and out of the runners that form the window sills. Some of the panes can be lifted out, but it takes great care as they are very large (the terrace ones measure about 5ft x 2.5ft), so trying to man handle these heavy panes out of their runners without dropping them the 4 stories down is quite an art – needless to say no one was killed that day by falling glass!

I also went to Guadamar to collect the rubber stamp that Liesl had ordered from a book shop for her card making. The owner, not surprisingly, didn’t remember me so I had a great time of trying to explain who I was, why I was in her shop and what I wanted, all in Spanish with many charades like hand movements!

After Guadamar, I drove down to Torrevieja to get some electrical manuals guarantee stamped for Gerry and Trisha, however as the customer service señora explained to me after I had driven the 35km to the shop, the manuals cannot be stamped until 30 days after you have tested the goods as, until that time is up Spanish law says that the goods can simply be returned for a refund – great trip – then it started to rain just to top it off!

I am going out tonight to the Jungle Drums Christmas party in Santa Pola, I wonder what will be on the menu – scary!

17/12 - Christmas? Yea Right!

Apparently it’s Christmas in a week’s time?

Well, it certainly doesn’t feel like it, its really strange being here, knowing that Christmas is just around the corner but it just doesn’t feel the same as back in the UK!

Today it was in the 20’s again and there was no need for a coat, even a jumper was too much, nightmare eh?

Decorations have started to go up around the urbanisations and streets (not like at home when they tend to go up in the last week of August!! I took a few photos of the lights that have been put around the trees in the urbanisation so you can see.

17/12 - Liesl Leaves Me!

Well this morning I took Liesl to the airport so that she could fly over to be with her cousin Tim who starts chemo therapy on Monday. I have a list as long as my arm (which aint short) to keep me busy while she is away, so I have just started preparing the wall for the carpenter who is coming tomorrow to fit some cupboards in the terrace and hallway.

Amazing weather today, 20 degrees in the shade and almost double that in the sun! Liesl and I said that we hoped the weather would hold out for when Dave, Simon and Jim arrive next week.

Right, DIY to do, better get back to it!

14/12 - Drink with Gerry and Trisha and Jungle Drums Article

Went out to the very Spanish "Dick Turpin" pub this evening with Gerry and Trisha (the friends we met at the newcomers club), they had moved into their new place yesterday and were manically trying to get things delivered, lights put up, beds made, etc so I think that they were glad of the opportunity to get away from the manic activity that was happening at their place 2 days before they fly back to the UK!

Afterwards with Liesl’s help I pretty much finished off the article for Jungle Drums, its been accepted and was described by the editor as “perfecto!” which I am assuming is good ;-)

I have also decided to take out an advert in the magazine as I have been offered a slot half price because of the article.

It should go into the magazine for the January issue and I hope that we get plenty of business from it, by then everything should be setup so I should be able to actually start working.

Guess I had better start to think about what to write about for the next article – it takes so long to perfect the text, never realised how much time it would take!

13/12 - Good food, good wine and good company

Paul and Jackie came round today for a meal, I cooked so, as usual it was roast chicken, Yorkshire pud etc. Lol, I really should try something new at some point in my life.

Anyway, they are going off on a 5 week holiday to Australia next week (lucky buggers), so it was good to catch up with them before they go.

12/12 - Table Top Wash Out!

We went to the table top today, what a total wash out, I don’t know whether it was the weather that kept people away - it was a bit colder than normal and overcast.

We paid our 7 euro entrance fee and setup alongside the 4 other stalls! I think that Liesl had 4 or maybe 5 customers, one of which spent the princely sum of 1 euro, so in total it cost us 6 euros’ to go to the event – lol, lesson learned.

10/12 - Domingos de Mercado

Today was the day of the Sunday craft market in Alicante, we rose early, well for a Sunday anyway, and packed the car with all the essentials, it was not a very warm day – fine in the sun but in the shade it was quite cool, so we wrapped up well (well for Spain anyway, no need for a coat or anything silly like that!).

We arrived at the designated spot 15 minutes early at 9:45 and in typical Spanish style we were amongst the very first there – no need to worry about being late in Spain, some were still setting up at 11am! The setup is pretty good, the local council provide all the tables and chairs, the workmen bring them to the site and set them up at 10:00 – all you have to do is lay out the stall, which was a job for Liesl – of course! I went to put the car in a more secure space as we had just abandoned it, Spanish style in the middle of the side street, in our rush to get there on time!

By the time I returned after parking Liesl had already made her first sale! Good girl! The morning passed into the early afternoon and we had a lot of interest in her cards together with the occasional sale, more importantly both of us got the opportunity to speak Spanish to our captive audience - the other market stall holders!

Liesl spent a lot of the time talking to the Spanish niece of the stall holder next door, she felt less embarrassed at attempting her Spanish at a child rather than an adult – I listened in and she did very very well – although she would never admit it.

I had a chat to the book seller in the stall next to me, asking him whether he had read all his books and whether today was a busy market day. He said that he hadn’t read all his books (saw the funny side of my question) and that today was a very poorly attended market, of the 4 weeks that he had been coming, this was the slowest one (in terms of punters), probably because it was cooler today than it has been.

Poorly attended market or not, Liesl did remarkably well for her first week, she managed to raise enough money for us to pay for our normal weekly shop – so as far as we are concerned it was a great success!

We finally packed up at 2:15 and headed back to let Hetty out – she had crossed her legs for the whole time that we were away so we took her into Santa Pola for a walk along the beach and sea front.

Tomorrow I have offered to take a friend (Gerry of Gerry and Trisha from the "newcommers club") to Torrevieja to try to track down some money that seems to have gone missing between the UK and Spain! Hope he has plenty of patience!

We have booked a place at a "table top sale" on Tuesday 12th December for us to hopefully sell some of the excess stuff that we have here and also to try to sell some more of Liesl's cards.

8 /12 & 9/12 – Friends, Cards, Cards and Pinoso

We met up with Gerry and Trisha on Friday night for a drink in the White Rose, had a really good evening although Liesl is clearly still suffering from the dinner dance episode as she was on coke all night - poor thing! I did mistakenly buy her a glass of red wine when we arrived, more from habit than by mistake really and by the end of the evening it was still not fully drunk - now for those of you that know Liesl, you will also know that this is NOT NORMAL!

We spent pretty much all morning printing and sticking “hand made by Liesl Cavender” stickers to the cards that Liesl had been fevering away making over the past days and weeks to build her stocks up in preparation for the Sunday craft market, I also made a new email address of cards@cavender.co.uk that we added to the stickers incase anyone wanted to email special requirement cards into her.

We photographed all the different styles of card (over 70 in total) for future reference, or for a web site at some point in the future (wonder who will be making that?), stuck the “hand made” labels on the back, put each card, together with envelope, into a little plastic bag and stuck the price on – they ranged from 1.50 euro’s up to 2.50 euros’s per card, pretty cheap when you consider the cost of cards in the shops!

Liesl even had a little sign written out telling the punters that the cards were left blank so that they could put their own message inside – las tarjetas no están escritas puedes completar con tus propias palabras.

In the afternoon we took a drive up and around the Pinoso area, about 40 minutes inland, west of Alicante and to the north of Murcia to have a drive around and look at estate agents details to see what we might be able to buy. Ideally we were looking for a small farmhouse with at least 3 bedrooms and some land in an area that was close to civilisation and not too isolated. We drove through some stunning countryside with fabulous views but didn’t get to see too many estate agents details as we were there at siesta time (between 1 and 5) and everywhere was closed, it was well worth the trip though and I took some web site addresses away to have a look at later on.

7/12 - No International Club and a trip to Alicante

Had to ring John and Maurine this evening as a certain person is still feeling a little 'delicate' - he he, poor thing.

They were very understanding, having seen Liesl the previous evening and promised to book us tickets for the Christmas dinner as they would be going to that as well.

I decided to 'pop' into Alicante to buy some stickers for the back of Liesl's cards so that we can print something like 'hand made by Liesl', well it was an absolute nightmare!

After the hour drive to Alicante, it’s usually about 15 mins, I found PC City.

Nope, the smallest labels they had were far too big – ok I thought, lets try El Corte Ingles as they say in Spain that if you can’t find it in there then you can’t find it anywhere. By the time that I had made my way through the traffic and found the car park underneath El Corte Ingles, another hour had passed!

Ok, given that we had shopped here before this should be pretty easy, I thought, they have a large 'paperia' so I made my way there. On the way I received a call from Trisha (we met Trisha and Gerry at the newcomers club on Saturday), inviting us out for a drink on Friday - must remember to add that to our calendar - social life seems to be picking up
!

Nope, don’t sell them here - if you want to print onto a blank tea shirt then we can sell you a kit to do that - but 'no tengo etiquetas' (I don’t have labels), ho hum. The assistant was helpful though, she suggested that I try the 'informática' on the fifth floor of the ‘other’ El Corte Ingles shop about 5 minutes walk down the road.

Fount it!

Yep, they had labels, but again they were larger than I wanted, however with the words “if you can’t get it in El Corte Ingles then you can’t get it anywhere” ringing in my ears I decided to buy them, if I don’t get these now then I will never find any I thought to myself.

At last, now I just had to fight my way back to the car park – I had been shopping for a further 30 minutes so far.

On my walk back I passed a third El Corte Ingles, 30 yards from the first one that I had gone into, that seemed to specialise in computer equipment so I popped in there – just to have a look – yep, you guessed it, they had exactly what I was looking for!

Now, how to approach the delicate negotiations, in Spanish, of “can I swap this for this please guv?”

Thankfully the assistant was very accommodating to my appalling attempt “Yo compro a que en el otro El Corte Ingles, pero no es bien. Es posible con….eerrrm swap?”

Believe me, you don’t need to translate it to figure out that the assistant too great pity on me by saying “Si, no problema Señor”, it would have been just as easy for him to say “que?”

Right, mission accomplished, it’s only taken a little over 3 hours so far! I made my way for the car and got home finally at around 9:30, having spent the sum total of around 11 euros on the labels and probably about 20 euro’s on petrol – lol, at least it was warm enough to have the roof down on the way home – life’s still good.

6/12 - Dinner Dance...

Went out this evening with Liesl’s mum and Ken to a dinner and dance, 10 euro’s each for a three course meal, with as much wine as you can drink - don’t think they had counted on Liesl coming!

There was also a live act with dancing (us not them!)

Had a great time, met loads of new people and some that we had already had the pleasure of meeting – Liesl did have a little too much ‘vino tinto’ – which for those of you that know us well is an almost impossible task - although, as usual, she was the life and soul of the party, getting everyone up to dance and chatting to everyone.

One of the couples, John and Maurine have kindly invited us along to the ‘International Club’ tomorrow evening, I said that if Liesl had sobered up by then that we would meet them at their house in Gran Alacant and go down together.

Once we got home Liesl stumbled straight to bed and I took Hetty out for a short walk before making a start on the first draft of my magazine column - quite excited!

5/12 - My Very Own Magazine Column!

Went to visit some friends yesterday, Paul and Jackie, Paul has a pool cleaning business www.pjs-pools.com - they told us that they are off to Australia in a few weeks on a well deserved holiday - lucky buggers!

We sat and chatted on their terrace for a couple of hours and when we left Jackie gave us a bag full of oranges and lemons from the trees that she has been growing in their front garden - sometimes its easy to forget that its common for people to have little fruit trees growing in their gardens, amazing really, she said that she has has so much fruit from them that even though she has given away as much as she can, she is still having to throw fruit away - in total I think that she has 5 trees, each only about 5 ft tall - just amazing!

Met with Dave today from "the" local English speaking magazine "Jungle Drums" - http://www.thejungledrums.com/, he has asked me to write a monthly column to be published, if it’s any good, in the magazine – quite excited about this but I have no idea what to write about; somehow I think that detailed technical information about the intricacies of how” Transmission Control Protocol” works is not what he is looking for – all suggestions gratefully appreciated!

There is always the opportunity to get more interest in BlueMoon Soluciones through the article – work, work, work eh!

On the plus side, I get to advertise in the magazine at a reduced rate and he has even invited us along to the magazine Christmas party on the 20th December – a meal in a ‘very’ Spanish restaurant - wonder whether now would be the time to ask whether they have any Marmite? ;-)

At least it will be another social event and chance to meet people.

We are going out tonight to a dinner / dance in Santa Pola (the nearest town) with Liesl’s mum and Ken - it should be a good night and another opportunity to meet new people.

4/12 - Business Nearly Setup!

Emailed a local popular magazine today to ask them about advertising and we got onto the subject of computing, their editor said that he was looking for someone to write a computing column for them on a monthly basis (advantage would be that BlueMoon would receive a 50% discount on any advertisments!), so I have arranged to meet with him tomorrow to discuss what he is looking for - you never know!

Also went to the solicitor again today, everything is on track (well as much as it ever is in Spain!)
All the paperwork is signed, I should have a temporary CIF number by this time next week - then, and only then can I start working (doing anything before means a large fine!)

Every company in Spain has a CIF number (unique number) assigned to them, without this number you can’t even blow your nose! I tried to register a domain name and buy some stock from an online computer store, and I couldn’t do either of these things because I don’t have a CIF number!

After I receive the number I can start to advertise, work, pay social security payments (and therefore receive medical benefits etc), receive a state pension, pretty much everything is based around this number.

When we arrived back at the urbanisation the Christmas lights had been turned on in the urbanisation – over the past 2 weeks the gardeners have been winding rope lights around the large palm trees in the gardens of the urbanisation, they look really nice, but quite strange to see Christmas lights in such a tropical setting.

We went home and celebrated with a pizza (yes I ate my first pizza over the weekend – what next paella – not sure about that!)

Trisha (one half of the couple that we met at the "newcomers club") rang for Liesl this evening to give her the details of a table top sale she had seen advertised in Gran Alacant so Liesl is going to book us in so that we can sell some of our wares and hopefully lots of her cards!

2/12 & 3/12 - Fantastic Weekend!

Had a great weekend...

On Saturday we went down to the "newcomers Club", hoped to meet new people and find out a bit more about the social scene around us, it wasn’t all that we had hoped, it seemed a little 'clicky', but we did find some interesting information about the rail system in Spain and how cheap it can be with a particular card (if you are a pensioner!), so we will try to remember that for 30 years time - lol

We did end up speaking to a nice couple - Gerry & Trisha who were in the process of buying a holiday home in Gran Alacant, we agreed that it would be nice to meet up before they went back to the UK in two weeks time.

I met up with Mark (the guy that organises the "newcomers club") and talked to him about a local Lions Club that he is trying to get off the ground (you know, they have them in the UK, quite like the Rotary Club, but less business orientated - http://www.lionsclubs.org/), I was interested in being one of the 'founder memebers' so I ended up agreeing that Liesl and I would share responsibility for being treasurer!

Not sure what I have signed us up for, but I guess time will tell.

On Sunday morning we went to “the Clot”, a piece of seemingly waste ground at the bottom of the hill, opposite the beach, it turns out that this is a wildlife reserve – you would never know by driving past!

We went because we had seen a post on the Gran Alacant Forum that guided walks were taking place. We were the only 2 that turned up, a real shame as I get the impression that the walks will only continue if there is demand for them; however it was a great bonus for us as we had the guide "Miguel" all to ourselves, he spoke very good English, however we agreed with to continue in simple Spanish to give us some practice - what a genuinely nice bloke, so willing to accommodate!

So, we had a guided 2 hour walk in stunning surroundings, having the wildlife and plant life pointed out to us as we walked - WHAT A FABULOUS SPANISH LESSON!

The best part was it was totally free, "buen precio” We were loaned a set of binoculars each and we learned more about the wild and plant life in our area in that time than we had ever known before - even saw some bunkers that were built on the land during the Civil War - although thankfully never saw action!

Afterwards we signed up for their newsletter and for some volunteer work - hopefully we will meet more Spaniards and further improve our language skills.

The only pity was that Hetty was not allowed to come as she may have frightened some of the lizards and snakes away – yea right!

Afterwards we went into Alicante to try to find a little craft market that we had stumbled across the previous Sunday, my sense of direction didn’t let us down and we soon found the place – hehe

It was tiny, only about 25 tables, all full with the wares that the locals had made and were trying to sell, Liesl was interested in whether she would be able to sell the cards that she had made and enquired, in Spanish, as to what the process was (I was impressed!).

We eventually found out that they would welcome her contribution and that we should come back at 10am next Sunday to sell her cards, they were only really interested in whether they were ‘hand made’ or not – they are so they are welcome!

The cost – nothing - "buen precio” yet again!

Following the booking of our next social event – lol, selling hand made cards in a very Spanish area of Alicante to the predominantly Spanish people there, we decided to have a wander around the rest of old Alicante – a really pretty place, narrow streets, old buildings and churches nestled in between shops, and then openings where courtyards had been made, people sitting around chatting and children playing – very nice, also helped by the fact that the day was fantastically sunny, around 21 degrees in the shade.

Finally we walked back along the harbour, saw the thousands of fish milling around between the million pound boats, what a place!

The Story So Far!

We had moved, lock, stock and barrel to Gran Alacant (near Santa Pola) on the Costa Blanca.

Liesl had stayed behind in the UK for a day with a great friend, Dave to get the house ship shape and ready for the new people to move in.

The next day another set of sterling friends, Chris and Linda gave her a lift to the airport (Chris even too time off work!) where she met her sister Adelle for a tearful farewell. Liesl then left to fly ahead of me and arrived a day before I did.

With the help of more good friends Bob and Jackie, she readied the apartment for the arrival of the furniture (and me). To be honest, without these (and many more friends and relatives like my brother Nick, his wife Sez, my longest suffering friend Donnie and too many more to name) it would have been much more of an ordeal than it turned out to be - everything went pretty smoothly really on reflection!

Just as “my old man” had said, I followed the van all the way through France and Spain for 3 days until we arrived at the apartment, then we set about the work of cramming a detatched four bedroomed house with double garage into a 3 bedroomed apartment – well it didn’t work, we had loads of stuff without a home, we just had to be inventive where we stored things – suffice to say it’s a good job that we don’t have a cat!

I had taken 6 weeks holiday from work to help complete the move and setup our lives in Spain, we hoped that the house sale would complete during that time, however when we got to the final week of the time off work (note that I didn’t refer to it as a holiday!) it was clear that I would have to return to the UK to continue to work until the sale completed.

I returned to the UK on the 5th December 2006, it was cold! Amazingly Dave offered for me to stay with him and even for me to use his car, which was incredably generous of him, whilst I was there so we got into a routine where I dropped him off at the station in the morning and then drove to work and then collected him in the evening after I had got home, I think that he was constantly disapointed that I didnt have the dinner ready for him, on the table for when he got home! Chris and Linda also offered for me to use their second car if I needed it whilst I was back in the UK - it really was humbling to know that these people were so willing to go out of their way to help me.

Thankfully the house sale exchanged on the 8th November and my work accepted 2 weeks notice, I am sure that Dave was glad to be getting rid of his lodger so that he could get his house, car and life back and so that the steady stream of 'visitors' could once again beat a way to his door - joke Dave, honest ;-)

... and then I was back in Spain before the end of that month – boy it was good to be back, but now what????

We had always talked of me setting up a small computer business in Gran Alacant, but we had done nothing practically about it – now was the time to start! I had already read a book about the best type of business to setup, but after visiting the FAB (Foreigners Advisory Bureau) I decided to take their advice and plump for a simple partnership agreement business with Liesl, it was much cheaper to setup and didn’t have the administrative cost overheads that the S.L (Spanish Limited Company) business I was intending to setup had. The business was going to take 2 weeks to setup, it’s now half way through the first week and I have to return tonight (the Spanish work strange hours!) to sign the papers – scary but exciting!

“The Spanish tend to start work early (between 8 and 9), work until around 2pm and then they tend to go home (or to the beach in the summer) until around 5 or 6pm when they start work again until they finally finish at about 8 or 9pm. This late finish leads to them eating every late and it’s usual for restaurants to be full of non-Spanish at 9 but fully occupied by the locals
at 10 and 11pm.”

Liesl has been under tremendous pressure to continue to work at a job that challenges her and it’s been very hard for both of us because of this pressure. Its also difficult as we have not had much time to make friends or speak any Spanish – the Spanish here speak such good English that when you attempt to communicate with them in their own tongue, they simply reply in English – I guess they want to practice their English as much as we want to practice our Spanish, although its pretty frustrating.

The plan moving forward (in no particular order) is….

• to make a determined effort to get my business off the ground





• to get Liesl doing something that she enjoys more





• to socialise more with Spanish people





• to find quality time to spend with each other





• to try to spend an hour each day immersed in the Spanish language





• to invest the money that we have made from the house wisely!

lol – what a list, I wonder how we will get on!, here starts our Spanish Adventure!