What Sunny Did Next
Posted: Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
Comments
Sunny, that is a sad story that you have to tell but I do hope you won't be equly disappointed by your future in another part of Europe. Your price picture for CB looks pretty optimisic from here and with summer heatwaves liable to become more frequent maybe Arran will not seems so bad. On a more positive note, I love to read of people who make positive decisions and get up and do them - come Hell or high water. Good luck!
Barney from Swithiod a blank cheque
Nice move Sunny. (I have to admit to being more than a little bit jealous!) Let us ken how its goin in the sun after you've settled in.
Ruthodanort from Unst
Good luck Sunny, I'm sorry one of iB's Best Bloggers is finally bowing out...you'll just have to become one of its Best Commentors instead...when you've got a minute...
Flying Cat from A Dios
Lots of good luck, Sunny. Vaya con dios. Do keep us informed through a note posted here and there.
mjc from NM,USA
Sad to see you go, Sunny. Best of luck in Spain and don't be a stranger to Island Blogging.
Carol from IBHQ
so pleased and jealous - have been to Denia - brilliant part of Spain. dos cafe con leche per favor, and la quenta per favor as well. and our petrol - can yours be any dearer - ours is 拢1.21 in sunny LK
scallowawife from not the costa blanca, costa lotta
Oh you poor dear. Spain. That's worse than Kirkaldy. Where next? Helmand Province? You will do the Spanish Fank, wont you?
elcalumannabello from Alhambra Hotel Public Bar Stornoway
I wish you luck sunny but i don't want to put a damper on your spirits by asking "do you speak sapnish fluently enough to get by and understand all the hassle of red tape etc etc? do you have jobs lined up? are you going to live like the locals? I ask this as i have a few friends who thought they would relocate to spain but didn't speak the language,had no jobs to go to(they thought it would be a swizz) they waiting for six months before getting hooked on to main line electricity and ended up going back home -also i've seen loads of brits coming to this area in the south of france,not speaking any french some have been here for over 15years,and they only mix with other brits-some even go on an 90kms round trip to do thier shopping in an anglish supermarket in st.remy de provence. So please think carefully about it why not try canada ok not the same climate but at least you will have no difficulties with the language and have should have more job oppotunities--or there is the perfect place -but i admit rather far away--- -NZ!! good luck anyway
carol from looking at the practical side of your move
Sunny: Good Luck - but I'm concerned for you. Of the 4 families I know who have moved to Spain 3 have given up and moved back after less than a year. A new country is a long haul. I think the trick is to fit in rather than to go there and fix it. I really do hope it goes well for you. You've got to make the adventure succeed!! So go for it!
Muness from Fetlar
Gracias everyone! We're south of miles south of Denia ear Javia. We get the ferry to Ibiza from Denia. Funny you should say that Calumanabel! Himself was in Afghanistan about 18 months ago, although not Helmand. He's working in Erbil in Northern Iraq at the mo and getting very similar weather to here. The last time he was home in Feb he was delayed in Erbil for three days, they were snowed in! Anyone want to see a photo of the snow in Iraq?
Sunny from Packing
yes please,sunny
carol from where its a dreich,damp day
Sunny, don't know how I missed it but I have just read your blog of 7 July 2007. Now I understand why you are prepared to take almost any chance to improve your life in 2008. I hopa you can prove me 100% wrong. As for getting up and going somewhere else, its the ones with most gumption that do it. (Does anyone remember what gumption was..is?). Good girl and good luck for the second time!
Barney from Swithiod recalcitrant
Now I have found and read Sunny's 2007 story of sadness and most of the comments, this is not simply a Scottish problem. Second homers are the core of the problem in Sweden as throughout Europe. We have the space in the northern 2/3 of the country but the real problem occurs along the coasts, especially in the archipelagoes around Stockholm and Gothenburg. The price of housing goes up, taxes go up too and poor folk can't keep on living in their family cottages. Well, the present govt. have introduced tax reforms to try to solve that particular difficulty adn, as the level of complaiants has gone down a lot, maybe they have succeeded. The conclusion is, political will is the way to solve the problem. The solutions will differ from country to country and region to region, but the people must vote for the politicians who will do the job. How did we get into this mess?
Barney from Swithiod no instant sunshine
By not having the politicians who will do the job, no matter who we vote for?
Flying Cat from just trying to be helpful
scallowawife here the petrol is the equivilent of 拢1.35 the litre!
carol from the usual place
I wonder what the French for pork-barrel is...
Flying Cat from flogging a hefty mare
Thanks Carol for the practicle advice. We spend a lot of time in Spain anyway. Himself works abroad anyway. At the moment we go to Spain every time he's home to keep his Non Domiciled status so we know the area well and have friends there. I've been learning Spanish at night school on and off for the past couple of years and try to speak it in Spain, although everyone answers me in english with a look of pity on their faces. I work in advertising and my company are happy to branch out in Spain! I do my shopping in the local shops and market and although my Spanish is still ropey, I get by just fine and it's getting better. We would love to go to NZ but Himself is over 40 and they're really tight about who they let in. I don't think they're desparate for account managers. And it's too far away from our parents. They can fly direct from both Edinburgh and Glasgow and be with us in a few hours. If we do hate it we can always up sticks and come back. It's not just the weather, it's the way of life. It's more layed back, everyone has time for their neighbours and people really socialise, much like Arran but cheaper! They actually want us to move there. There are lots of incentives to move although we have decided on an established property. We know people in the houses round about so we know the rules of the pubelo, we know all the services work and we know there isn't going to be a sodding great block of flats built in front of our lovely view. The move has been bubbling away ever since we got the eviction notice. It's a big step so that's why we've been thinking it through. Himself is away a lot, I'd rather be sipping a cold one by the pool with some friends than stuck in doors on my own.
Sunny from Amid packing cases
I did post photos of the snow in Iraq and the Scottish Rugby and the view from our bacony but it still hasn't published!
Sunny from Do I really want to take all this with me?
well i wish you all the best and hey its not a long drive from my neck of the woods. good luck and keep in touch love carol
carol from over here
Well if you only posted this week Sunny, there's still plenty of time... I hope your Spanish Liff is all you could wish for and more. *furry hugs*
Flying Cat from Farewell to all that
Yeh and when the locals sell their houses for 拢700,000 on Arran you can't moan about incomers..
royston vasey from arran
So you will be the incomer pushing up the price of houses in spain - dont criticise people moving to Arran
a from here
Sunny wasn't criticising the people but the system, esp. the stranglingly controlled planning. Everyone has to pay the going rate, whatever it happens to be, wherever they go. Nobody in their right mind expects house owners on Arran to sell at less than market value in a kind of lunatic philanthropy.
Flying Cat from Orkney Mainland
Its a shame that people won't engage with politics except when it is in their own interests. House price increases are a UKan disease, people think that they are getting richer when house prices rise, when in fact they are only getting richer if they want to move somewhere cheaper. Paying more and more of your earnings into a mortgage is pure madness and makes you more and more tied into a modern system of slavery. Everyone now wants to own their own house whereas in the past people were happy to rent, and council housing existed. However the thatcherites and blairites have stigmatised renting so much that it is deemed undesirable. Buying a house has never been easy, and for most people has required saving and tightening of belts. Like everything, young people today expect to have it all, cars, phones, holidays, lots of nights out etc. I don't own my own house. I get paid 17k, which is considered poverty levels these days, but I could own property if I hadn't spent my money on other things in my youth. We need some socialist answers to social questions - the free market economy is not interested in the dealing with societies needs - only the rich people's wants.
the blair rich project from Inner Hebrides
I wish people would read the origional blog before making sweeping acusations. I haven't got anything against people moving to Arran. Most of my friends have moved from other places. What I object to is the planning departement refusing to let us build affordable housing and the high level of holiday ownership where houses lie empty most of the year
Sunny from Costa Blanca
Arran ExPat wandering the world, residing in Cyprus for now with the odd visit home.
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