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Andy finally flew in to Alicante for the summer on Sunday, the last of the 'No Wives Club' to come back to Spain. Only Pete is now out of the country, working abroad. It was a day of drinking at Zest, after picking Andy up from the airport, with Paul and Michele joining us in the afternoon and Dawn in the evening.  The weather was glorious in the main; it was lovely, sat in the sun chatting; nearly all of us back together in the same place.

For myself and Darrell, the hard work starts now.  We have a mountain of paperwork to sort out for Darrell's Residencia, here in Spain. As readers are aware, I got my residents status on my Birthday, last year. Darrell however, chose not to; that was a bit of a mistake, one we are rectifying now.  The process however, is not easy and we have a lot of documents to sort out, before he can even apply for his green card. In order for everything to complete successfully, I have to obtain suitable employment, sooner rather than later now, so will be hoping to overcome this hurdle very soon.  Waiting is no longer an option for me; I need to do what ever is necessary, to secure our life in Spain. Important documents also have to be legalised.  These will include our Marriage certificate and possibly birth certificates.  The legalisation Office in Britain will legalise the documents by attaching a stamped official certificate (an ‘apostille’) to it.​

The whole process should take a few months to complete, then finally we will  both be legal in Spain. We do seem to spend our whole life, filling in forms, because of the relationship we have; that is something, that will continue for a lifetime.  This is just how it is, if you have a foreign partner, who is non EU; on top of that , Brexit will have its own problems, for our ability to stay in Spain.  Other factors that are aggravating the issues we are facing, include, Australia  not recognising gay Marriage and  Darrell's 'Indefinite Leave to Remain' visa, expiring once he has been out of the country, for two years. Added together, we have quite a few hurdles to overcome, still.

We have a busy few months ahead, that's for sure. Hopefully we will finally be able to relax in a few months, when we have both overcome, all we need too, fingers crossed!