Starting up a new side line business, decorating Marmite jars, turning them into mobiles for windows and porches.  A lot of people here in GA, do many different things, as well as their jobs.  A doubt very much I will sell any, and will probably end up, with thousands of Marmite jars and nothing to do with them.  Just another hobby, for me to keep myself occupied, whilst in Spain.

Anyway, have to go, and get some more rays of sun.  It's been another successful few days for me.  My work contract will be through soon, I've paid for my Social Security number today, which will entitle me to free health care, access to pensions as well as any future benefits.  I'm still enjoying my job at Dunbars, the sun is out and Summer is well and truly here.

I had forty messages of support over the last few days, from friends in The UK, happy to see us doing well.  It does seem that other people's happiness can indeed breed positivity in others.  People both here and abroad in Britain continue to be a great source of inspiration and we look forward to welcoming many of you, to our new home, this summer!

Peace and Love!

a while, so when he picked me up, still wearing my chef´s whites, we popped over to Dicks and had a few too many drinks.  We spent the evening with Barbara, one of the first people we met here in  Spain, she is adorable.  She has been great at letting us know the in´s and out´s of things here in GA, is always honest and will always go out of her way to help new comers.  We appreciate all the help and advice we receive here, because without it, we would be just stumbling on, instead of feeling happy, settled and at peace with where we are!

I´m really enjoying being back cooking in a kitchen and am getting better each day. It helps when you have good employers and I am already very fond of Mandy, the proprietor and Grandson Reece.  I am working in their family restaurant and it really is a family affair.  They have been very welcoming and perfect to work for.

I have worked for many organisations in the past, as well as also owning my own business, but have never worked, so close to where I live, employed by a local family.  Initially I had no idea what to expect, but very quickly, I felt completely at home and happy working with amazing people.

Mandy and her husband are grafters, in every sense of the word.  Mandy works long hours at front and back of house and for that reason, you know you are truly working, with professional people.   

Loyalty of staff can be a problem here in Spain, with other bars and restaurants poaching staff, so you can understand how weary employers can be, with new comers. Working for six months and having six months off can also be a difficult working practice to get used too, especially coming from the UK.  So you can imagine, how surprised people are, that I am actually doing so well here.  That is mainly due to the nature of all those who work for Dunbars.  They indeed have my loyalty and I look forward to spending the next six months working for them!

Just a quick blog tonight, as I´m off to bed shortly, I´ll do my best to write as often as I can, although the entries will be a little shorter, with a larger, more comprehensive blog, at the end of each week.  Love to everyone in The UK!

#stilllovingspain 

I have been working at Dunbars, here in Alicante for a few weeks now.  I am enjoying doing what I used to do twelve years ago.  I am working for The Dunbar Family, in their restaurant.  They are great people to work for, honest, up front and a wonderful inspiration, for me, in my endeavours.  I feel proud to be a part of their team, working hard, to produce home cooked, fresh food, from locally sourced ingredients.

I have agreed to help set up a website for the restaurant, which will be up and running shortly.  I encourage you all to come and sample the food, where you will be offered a warm, friendly welcome, by all the staff!

We have heard from a lot of people since leaving The UK.  Close friends have kept in touch regularly through social media, others, like my volunteers from my old job in Southampton, have written emails and letters and others have rang, like clockwork.  We have also been surprised at the number of people, who we had lost touch with, over the years, living in Southampton, who have contacted us, sent us goodwill messages and rekindled old friendships.

It has been wonderful to hear from people, we had either fallen out with or moved away from.  These friends are very important to us.  They have reinforced our views, about the reasons we left Britain in the first place.  You see, many of those, who we now have the bonus of talking to again, have specifically told us, that due to the dubious nature, of those we used to mix with, they felt unable to continue with friendships.

Now under normal circumstances, I would actually be bloody angry with these revelations.  I mean who are other people, to determine, who we can and can not see as friends?  These are not normal times.  We left Southampton, because of some of the worst people you could ever meet.  These were never personal slights against myself and Darrell, but rather a need to remove themselves from associations with people, who quite frankly deserve nothing but our contempt.

When Jamie decided to come along with us.  He was at a low ebb.  Rather than most of his so called friends encouraging him to move to Spain, start a new life and regain his dignity, there were those, who just wanted to destroy him further, start rumours and mischief and quite frankly, act like the immature children they always were. Very few people, ever tried to help Jamie, just as very few tried to help and encourage us, with our move to Spain.  Even those closest to myself and Darrell, continued to stick the knife in.  Cornering one or the other of us, singly, when they were able, to try and throw a spanner in the works.  These were close and trusted friends, people we had supported over others, offered a roof over their heads and been there for at very traumatic times.  To realise that these individuals were nothing more than opportunists and manipulators was a hard lesson to learn!

Sadly what happened to us, continues to happen to others.  Natalee has decided to move out to Spain, to start a new life with us.  This was her decision, nothing we had influenced, but a choice she had made herself, for her own personal reasons. We are delighted she is coming here, and after everything Natalee has done for us, she well knows, our home, is always hers, for as long as she wants.  Friends do not judge others, friends accept their friends decisions, friends support one another.  That´s what we do right?

Yes of course that is what we do for those close to us.  Their happiness should be our only priority, but like us, Natalee has had her fair share of nastiness.  Deleted from facebook, removed from friends lists, ignored and treated with disrespect, and for what? 

There is absolutely no reason or justification for what is happening to Nat, what happened to Darrell and I or indeed happened to Jamie.  These are selfish motives, from angry people, with jealous minds and a desire to see others fail in life.  Just because they are not here, they hate the fact that someone else, may actually move out  to Spain and might, just might succeed, just as they could have done. The `If I can´t have it, nor should you´scenario.  This just shows them for the people they are, in fact the terrible human beings they always were really, and I was just taken in, to believe them and their motives.

I would like to thank all those people for offering their support.  From Justin Phillips, who had no reason to say any kind words and who´s encouragement is particulary invaluable, to Gavin Manning, who had not spoken to us in a few years and to Nathan Stephens, who thoughts have been very welcome.  These are people, who literally have no reason to say anything, but they have done and have pushed us ever forwards.

To those, who have been so disrespectful towards us and our endeavours.  Just think for a minute, what pain and hell we went through for over a year.  In fact on the anniversary of my relapse, the reverberations of that time are still being felt. You just remember what you claimed to be and offer and then justify your appalling bahaviour, not only to myself and Darrell, Jamie and Natalee, but also to every single person, who we supported over you.  How wrong we were, once again? How wrong Jamie was? How wrong was Natalee? how wrong were we all? Especially how wrong was I, to ever think you were anything but genuine?  Finally, it´s time to say goodbye, finally it´s time to lay you all to rest!

​Peace and Love always!

Popped into Zest yesterday evening, with Jamie.  It had been a terrible day weather wise and none of us had even bothered to leave the house.  With no one prepared to do any cooking, Jamie and myself just headed for the square.

​We hadn´t eaten all day, and forgot that Zest stopped serving at 6pm, but they managed to throw two toasties together for us.  Nothing is too much trouble for everyone who works in the bar!

Darrell and I have travelled all over the world.  We have lived in Australia twice and I think Darrell would agree with me, when I say, that Bar Zest, as well, of course Dicks, in the square will bend over backwards to offer a great and most importantly, friendly service.  This has been the common theme, here in GA.  The welcoming nature of the residents, have been an eye opener.  Nothing quite like it exists, at least in Southampton.  People in GA are particularly friendly and will always put themselves out to help others.  All new comers are made to feel part of the community here, from day one.

​As is usual for Jamie and I, we had a little too much to drink.  Actually Jamie was steaming.  We had an evening with great conversation, laughter and new friends and enjoyed it thoroughly.  If you do come and visit us, we will take you to meet them all in the square and like us, I am sure you will fall in love with the place, you can´t but not!

​Thanks for another great evening at Zest, perfect hosts, Lee and Brett, were a pleasure as usual!

​

Cars are expensive to buy for a start.  Due to the hot weather, they do tend to hold their value.  Often after owning a vehicle for two years, you can still get the same amount of money you paid for it, when selling.

​Like everything else here in Spain, when you buy a car, you have to pay tax.  The amount of tax you pay is based on the value of the care.  Not how much money you paid for the car, but based on a data base of values held by the Government.  There are also a number of other fee´s you need to pay and like everything else here, the process itself is long.

​The Spanish do like their paperwork.  They like paperwork on a massive scale and the different departments, that deal with paperwork at an official level are vast and many.  No single department communicates with another and, it does seem as though one spends ones whole life filling in forms and jumping through official hoops.

​This is really just nothing more than the Spanish way of doing things.  They have always done things this way and it is the way the system actually works.  Well I say works, what actually happens is something completely different.  It works to a point, but actually, in practice it is adding to a very sluggish, economically bad and non people friendly Country, that does need a lot of change in order to move forward successfully, in Europe!

​This all sounds very anti Spanish, doesn´t it.  Well it is not meant to be.  It is about discussing the need, for Spain to change drastically, in order to be the success it deserves.  The high rates of unemployment here, as well as the extreme levels of red tape, is the major stumbling block to Spain building a successful economy, long term.

​Like all major European States, there is much that Spain can do to alleviate its problems.  Sometimes the Political will power, is just not there.  One needs to be bold and brave enough to actually get to grips with what is actually needed in conquering the instability and problems that exist in Spain, making it one of the worst Countries in Western Europe to find a job.  These factors need to change!

​So we bought a car or rather, we have started the process of buying a car.  I have no idea how long the full process will take, God only knows.  It will take as long as it takes. We are in Spain after all.

Mañana

Mañana, probably the most famous of Spanish words, translated into English,  means tomorrow.  The word mañana is used as a derogatory term, meaning ´Put off what you can do today, to tomorrow` Claiming the Spanish are lazy.  ¿But is this really the case?

​Unemployment is high here, it hovers at around 20-25%, which is a huge number of people not working in Spain.  This is the fault of The Government, not the Spanish people.  The antiquated employment laws here in Spain, do not make it easy to gain and sustain employment.  The restrictive contracts and expensive get out clauses are not congenial to long term, credible jobs and needs to be revised.

​Spanish people want to work and those I have had contact with, who do work, work hard, long hours and with less protection than their European compatriots. Mañana  is wrongly contributed to a whole race of people, because it is the way we perceive things here in Spain.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

​Life is harder here.  In fact from my travels and knowledge of Southern Europe life is very different in many ways.  Wages are much lower, up to about 50% lower in fact.  You must factor in the low cost of living, in order to get a true picture of what is actually going on here.  In relative terms, even with lower wages, people are much better off living here in Spain, that is a fact.  When one considers the high costs of housing in The UK.  A similar sized property, where we lived in Southampton would cost on average, 1300€, here the cost is 350€.  You can immediately see, just how much cheaper it is to live here. 

​We have no travel costs  at all, working close to where we live.  Even if we want to go into Alicante, it costs 1.50€ on a superb bus service, you can only dream of in Southampton.  This is for a half an hour journey, which in the UK would probably cost 6€ equivalent.  Food is also cheaper, a lot cheaper here.  For three people we probably spend about 60€ a week, compared to 110€ in the UK.  Petrol costs 99c a litre and 1.50€ in The UK.  The disparity in costs also has its down sides.  Electricity costs three times what it does in The UK and water costs slightly more.  Road tax in Spain costs 70€ a year in the UK it costs 320€. We pay 25€ a month for Wifi here.  In the UK, you have to have a line rental and we paid approximately 45€ a month. The biggest difference in cost are the price of cars.  You can pay 40% more here in Spain for a similar car. 

​There you have it, the cost of living here in Spain.  Life is certainly cheaper.  You absolutely work much harder, but you also enjoy the benefits of living in such a gorgeous Country, with 320 days of sun a year, now that can´t be bad.  We are looking forward to a productive future this year, with more work than we could possible do and we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have finally come home to Spain, left the dregs behind and are finally happy in life!

​Peace and Love always!

paintings, collectables and objects of desire. Useless and without purpose, now all sold in auctions around Britain.

​So ´New Capri´ or ´Casa Capriçe´, is a little different to the old shack we sold in The Hamptons.  It is smaller, taller and is taking a lot of getting used too.  Climbing up those flights of marble stairs, during the winter months here in Spain, could have changed our minds on our new adopted home.  We could have left as those desert evenings took hold, here on the chasm, and the edge of a cliff, in the hills around Alicante. Stoicism and memories prevented a quick departure.  Memories of The KitKat Club debacle and the beggar who captured Jaymie´s heart, kept us here, cold, shivering, but coping with the extremes, that Spain  through our way!

​When a Queen falls on hard times, there is only one thing to do.  Straighten your crown, brush down your ermine and pick yourself up.  As options go, myself, husband and Jaymie picked the hardest option.  We could have quite easily stayed in The Hamptons, but after the life changing antics of people, who don´t have an ounce of class in them​, people who´s only ambition is a dirty mattress in a squat and those ugly personages, of personality and appearance, the lowest of low, the sinister antics of a few and the reprehensible crimes of those who should know better, we, us, our family, our damn, hard working, honest and loyal family, decided to move onwards, out of Country and home.  Leaving behind the nightmares of a troubled past and looking forward to the challenges of a future in exile, with like minded individuals, not afraid to make the changes necessary to survive in less palatial but never the less beautiful, scenic and wonderfully breath taking circumstances.​