45 and Spanish!

This was my aim, when I came to Spain, to achieve legality over here.  I knew from the outset, how difficult that would be so achieving it, just over three months in was amazing for me.  When one considers that there are approximately one million Brits living in Spain and only 350,000 are legitimate, many of whom have lived here for many years, I actually don`t think I have done too badly.  I am happy to have got this far, this quickly.

The people at the Police Station deal with many different applications, from passports, to NIE and Residencia.  They are always pleasant and polite  and the lady who dealt with my application was happy to wish me a Happy Birthday, presenting me with my Residency as a present, as she put it.

So now I am a Spanish Resident, with all the benefits that entitles me too. The benefits of Residency are wide and varied.  They include access to all health and social security benefits, including a pension, lower taxation, with my tax status now transferred from The UK to Spain as well as, making travel easier in the Euro Zone without a passport and a dramatically lower Capital Gains Tax than the UK.  You are on the other hand obliged to file a tax return each year and declare all over seas assets.  

People have questioned why I wanted to become Spanish.  There is quite an easy answer to that.  I know full well I did not have to go through the tonnes and tonnes of paperwork, I have in order to become 'Official'. but I wanted too, in every sense of the word.  Britain is no longer my home.  I need to remove all memory of that place. not because of my Country, but because of what happened.  When one does go through tough times and experience dreadful, unmentionable things, you really have to take a deep look inside of yourself and finally move forwards in life.  So many people have asked us, 'Are you not afraid of failure?' well No!  Failure is not an option, not now.  We have too much to prove to one another and those who questioned our motives, as well as those who put us here in the first place.  Most of all we are free of their influence, nearly.  There is that one person, who is still trying to cause trouble and more pain. The one person we trusted.  Karma will bite her hard in the arse in the end, I am now sure of that!

I have worked really hard over the last few months to achieve my new status and I am proud of what I have done.  It is not about being big headed, it is about realising a dream, when all my previous dreams were taken away, by a desperate group of individuals, whose only goal in life, is to cause harm to others.  This was a great start to my 45th!

I met my boss, Darrell, Jamie and Natalee at the bar a little later and it was nice to sit down with friends and have a chat.  All of them understand what we went through and know just how important success is now, however long it takes.  The funny thing is, there are a lot of people like us out here, for similar reasons and we are just beginning to realise, the World is full of distasteful people, shattering lives!