What changes lie ahead?

Well it's been a turbulent time as we probably all agree!  This post is NOT about the politics but about how we're approaching some uncertain times.  And  the quote in the picture sums up pretty accurately how both of us feel and are acting upon.

So.....Thursday's EU referendum brought a result which could be said to impact on all of us who love visiting Mallorca, are thinking of moving to Mallorca, are actively taking steps to move to Mallorca or are already living in Mallorca.  So probably the vast majority of people reading this!  Suffice it to say our plans are totally unaltered and we refuse to feel unsettled by the decision (remember that quote!).  However we have altered our plans on one thing - residency ('residencia'). 

Our original intention had been to get settled in, establish the work situation and then look at taking out 'residencia'.  However we have now brought this forward.  The situation is that if you live in Spain for more than three months a year then, by law, you are required to apply for a Residency Certificate if you are an EU citizen (and who knows when and how this rule will change?!).  There are various well-established and knowledgeable people/companies in Mallorca who are able to help with all the 'red tape' and paperwork involved in all aspects of moving to Spain.  One of these is, as we write, arranging an appointment for us in October (TOP TIP: you have to book quite far ahead, it's usually at the local police station) in order for us to take out 'residencia'.  We will say, here and now, that we all know many UK ex-pats who live permanently in Spain and do not have 'residencia' - effectively flying under the radar but it all seems to work out perfectly ok for all concerned.  Nevertheless, as a resident you benefit your local council and are entitled to pretty much the same rights as a nationalised Spaniard.

In order to take out 'residencia' you need to provide the following:

• evidence of private medical insurance
• evidence of sufficient financial means to ensure you can support yourself for the initial three month period
• a completed EX18 application form
• form of ID (such as a passport)
• NIE number (if you don't have one, you can get this at the same time as the 'residencia')

So...Thursday has made us bring this appointment a little forward but we are not panicking!  In this time of uncertainty for all of us involved in or committed to any country in the remaining 27 EU countries, it's easy to become bogged down with negativity.  But we are moving forward, as we always have, and would encourage others to take a 'business as usual' approach too.  After all, what else can you do?? 

In other news.... I have taken a few days off in between some temping and starting my summer job teaching English at the summer language school here in Worthing.  We start on Monday with 185 teenage students rising to 229 by Friday, all of whom have to be assessed and placed in the appropriate level class so busy times beckon!  I am currently busy planning lessons and activities and am hopeful of being able to continue teaching in Mallorca.  Ian has now officially retired but is keeping busy sorting out our things and packing boxes ready for the move.  The garage is gradually filling up and 12 weeks today we arrive in Mallorca......

Journey plans

Hi again! :-) We're just short of 13 weeks until we make our move to Mallorca - not that we're counting or anything!!


So....last week I finished my temp job and have two weeks leave before starting to teach English to foreign students at a large local language school's summer school.  It'll certainly make a change from working in a busy office.  We have some relatives to visit in Norfolk and I have lessons to plan so time will probably fly.  In particular we are starting to pack up things prior to the move and ladies will probably get where I'm coming from but Ian is indeed right - I have too many clothes and accessories!  When moving anywhere, the space you take up reflects the cost and obviously we want to keep this down as far as possible.  So I've spent a lot of time this weekend doing a clothes 'cull' - lots for the charity shop and the best stuff for eBay.   It is rather nice though to get rid of some of the more extreme winter stuff on the basis of just not needing it out in Mallorca where winters are rather different to the UK!
Ian has just taken early retirement and finishes on 15th June.  He has plenty of jobs to keep him busy along with all the packing of things like pictures, tools.  He's also been sorting out all the contracts, utilities etc that you have to give notice on by calling them all and finding out what the notice period is.  They seem to vary but some are three months notice so it needs to be sorted out from now.
This may be a good time to explain our journey plans.  We normally fly out but with two little dogs we simply couldn't countenance putting them in the hold.  We also felt we wanted to make a real event of the journey in order to mark the huge change we're making to our lives.  After taking advice from friends in Mallorca we decided on the following journey:

• Drive to Portsmouth and midday ferry to Bilbao which arrives there the following midday.

• Drive from Bilbao to Zaragoza and staying in a dog friendly hotel, should arrive late afternoon.

• Drive from Zaragoza to Barcelona, should take the morning.

• Spend a few hours in Barcelona and then the evening ferry to Palma.

• Drive to PP 

• Collapse in happy, emotional exhaustion!

If this type of travel appeals to you, particularly if you have a pooch, the cross channel ferry does have some limited dog friendly cabins but they get booked up a very long way in advance.  We were booking in January for September and they were long gone.  In addition, it's one dog per cabin so we wouldn't have been able to do it anyway.  In any event, they have a wonderful, secure dog area on board, with individual runs, exercise area etc.  It looks lovely and we intend to spend plenty of time with them there.  The ferry looks well appointed and really quite luxurious.  We have booked a basic cabin to sleep in as the journey is 24 hours.  Dog friendly hotels in Spain seemed fairly easy to find and very reasonably priced.  The ferry to Palma was booked in March when booking opened, they seem to do so only 6 months in advance.  We haven't booked a cabin as it's only an 8 hour crossing - the distance isn't great but this is Spain and there's no hurry! - but will nap in our seats which look similar to plane ones so not a great problem.  Cabins are available but quite expensive.  There is a similar dog area to the cross channel one on the ferry we're booked on which looks great and as it's overnight and ours are used to human bedtimes, hopefully it shouldn't be a problem.  We believe that some of the ferries are more well appointed than others both for humans and for dogs so watch out for that.  We made sure we booked a good one.

For us this journey is as exciting as if we were embarking on a round the world trip but in many ways it's more so as this is a permanent change (we fervently hope!) and the start of a completely new life in every possible way.  As we head towards the "13 weeks to go" countdown this is beginning to feel very real indeed......

That home from home feeling

Hello again :-) If you liked our last post and have come back for more, many thanks!  We thought we'd focus this time on really getting to know your prospective new location and other useful social bits 'n bobs!

As mentioned in our last post, a holiday (or even lots of holidays) in a place is a wonderful thing and yes, you do get to know where everything is and some familiar faces, but ultimately you get on that plane again and you go.......home.  Because that's where you spend most of your time, where you might be working, where you have all your friends and most likely all your family, where you speak the language, where you take a lot of things for granted....... the list is endless!  But if you are considering a move to live abroad you'd be wise to approach it with a different mindset and see it in reality - warts and all.

With this in mind, once we had our apartment, we started coming out three times a year (and let's face it, flights are cheap enough if you fly at the right times) and TOP TIP have now been to Mallorca in pretty much every possible month, season and weather.  So when we've been sitting in our apartment with the heating on and watching TV whilst the rain or hail lashes down outside (if you live in the UK is this ringing any bells?!) this is the reality - yes, the weather in Mallorca is amazing BUT it is an island and does get some pretty impressively bad weather too and not just the premier league storms which are dramatic and over with relatively quickly.  We have had grey, rainy days and we have been in winds so gale force it was actually quite difficult to stay upright.  We have also been in snow (admittedly in the mountains but we mean snow on the walls and around the roads snow, not just on the mountain tops).  We have worn our sweaters, coats, boots, hats and gloves.  And despite all this, we still adore the place!  And for us the weather is in inverse proportion to the way it is in the UK; in other words, when we all get very excited when the sun shines in UK and run around buying BBQ stuff before it sells out, that feels like roughly the same amount of time that the weather in Mallorca is actually what a reasonable person would call 'miserable'.  It seems like a 'no brainer' to us!  We've also made sure we know exactly what the island, and specifically Puerto Pollensa, is like out of season when the tourist 'buzz' has gone and things are quiet.  It is very different but just as lovely and it's actually our favourite time of year.  Unlike some parts of the island, Puerto Pollensa is a proper working town which means that whilst many frontline amenities may shut over the winter, lots of wonderful places just off the seafront remain open and over the last year or so we've actually noticed a number of frontline facilities staying open now too.

It seems pertinent here to mention another, related, aspect.  The light.  As in daylight.  It occurred to us that it wasn't so much cold days that 'got' to us as the dull, grey ones.  And every winter we have hated the dull, short, grey days more and more.  We noticed that the minute the daylight improved we felt happier even if it was cold.  If this resonates with you and you are lucky enough to be able to consider a move to more southerly climes, then such a move could be the right thing to do.

This is a view from Pine Walk during the 'off' season - just beautiful.

During our visits to Mallorca we have done very little stereotypically 'tourist' things and focused instead on relaxing and importantly, on TOP TIP getting to know people.  We know some people find this easier than others but really do encourage you to make the effort.  We have met many people out and about, and the vibrant live music scene in the port has provided a great backdrop to get chatting.  If you decide to make the move you will most likely be leaving behind a long established social network and it's important to start investing time and effort into creating a new one.  We think this is important as the people you meet are a wonderful source of advice, encouragement. hospitality and support as we have found to our delight.  Try, where possible, to meet not just people from the UK but also the locals.  This may involve the 'hardship' of eating local food in locally run restaurants and drinking (don't forget the tapas!) in local bars but it is really worth it.  If you don't speak Spanish don't let that stop you (and we'll address this in a later post)!  The wonderful musicians in the port are from all over the world and we are lucky enough to have got to know many of them too.  Then use social media - Facebook is ideal for this - to stay in touch and also make new friends linked to where you want to live.

In such a way, we've come to see Puerto Pollensa as our home, and the UK as a temporary situation.  This in no way guarantees our move abroad will be a success but we think it probably maximises our chances :-)

How we got to this point.....

Well hello! :-) and welcome to our blog.  Sarah writing today (1 June and exactly 15 weeks until we leave UK on our big adventure).

It seems rude not to introduce ourselves and tell you a little about us so you get an insight into our motivation so here goes....

We are Ian (just turned 60) and Sarah (54) with 6 children and 6 grandchildren between us.  We met 7 years ago and as we were singing from the same hymn sheet about a lot of things, one of which importantly was moving to live somewhere sunny in the not too far distant future, we took the plunge and got married (again in both cases) 4 years ago.  

Ian is a trained mechanic and also skilled in minor building, refurb and handyman work as well as most aspects of gardening and gardening maintenance.  He has spent the last 8 years test driving Rolls Royce cars.   I am a fairly recently qualified Trinity CertTESOL teacher with admin and secretarial skills and have spent the last 15 years teaching/training adults in the volunteer sector.  Prior to this I variously worked in admin in the medical sector, as a secondary school English teacher and as a fundraising manager for a cancer charity.

Both of us have had a long held intention to live somewhere sunny and for seven years I lived in South Africa many years ago.  But we've increasingly come to hate the UK weather and also wanted to step off the treadmill of work/shifts etc before we were too decrepit to actually do it!  We had had a few holidays on the Algarve (Albufeira) and loved it, nearly buying a place there in spring 2011 but decided against it as didn't quite feel like home and this is an important point: you need to feel like you could live in a place.  A holiday is one thing, everyday life is quite another.

And so to the summer of 2011 when we decided to change location and I suggested Mallorca where I had spent many happy holidays as a child as my great aunt and uncle lived near to Palma in a lovely villa right on the coast at C'as Catala.  Ian had also had a couple of great holidays in Cala D'Or many years ago and agreed.  My daughter was coming with us so we chose three places in three different parts of the island from Owners Direct and Ian made the final decision - and as it happened he chose an apartment in Llenaire!  We had a wonderful time and really loved the Port.  Back in the the UK as the short days drew in and we thought wistfully of the sunshine in the Port, I suggested buying a place in Mallorca.  And so it was that we found ourselves contacting several estate agents on the island and arranging to view several apartments in two locations - Cala D'Or and Puerto Pollensa.

January 2012 saw us on a four day whistle-stop property-viewing tour of the island starting with Cala D'Or.  And it was there that we instantly fell in love with a large one bedroom apartment with enormous roof terrace overlooking the marina.  Once we arrived in PP (in the pitch dark and in gale force winds) we couldn't find our accommodation (turns out they messed up and eventually we got a refund but I digress!) and ended up finding a room at the lovely Bellaverde Hostel in the town.  We looked at some more apartments and found another we also liked - also one bedroom, light and airy, overlooking the apartment block pool area (see below).  Then we returned to the UK to deliberate.

Long story short, we bought the apartment in PP (obviously!).  In the end it's all about location, location, location and if you are lucky enough to be buying property in Spain and especially if you are buying as an investment then our TOP TIP would be to stick to this mantra.  We could have bought a larger apartment elsewhere but having one in the Port, 5 minutes walk to Tamarells beach and not much further to the town centre was definitely a good choice.  After all, the one thing you can't change is the location!  Another TOP TIP is to find a reputable and personally recommended solicitor.  Don't go to one recommended by the estate agent - we're not saying they would necessarily be no good but that you need to be careful in Spain and make sure that your legal representation is working for YOU and not with any other party in mind!  In any event, we used my family's solicitor on the island so were in very safe hands.  

You need a NIE number to buy property - and remember, although you have that number in perpetuity, the certificate expires after 3 months so if you are intending a move to Spain you'll probably need to renew it at some point.  We would recommend that you obtain the assistance of a professional or someone from your solicitor to help you as getting the NIE is quite an experience.  If you're getting one in the winter - not so much of a problem, but if in the spring/summer then another TOP TIP is to GO EARLY to the Police Station in Palma.  The queue starts from about 7am and is filled with people who need paperwork done in order to work during the holiday season.  Moreover, once they have issued enough entry tickets for the day then that's it - doors close and you have to go away and come back again the next day.  We know this from bitter experience.  On the second day we got there super early and got in and with our professional on hand we got through the paperwork easily enough as she had advised us what we needed and also spoke fluent Spanish but beware - you then have to take the paperwork they give you and take it to a bank to pay the tax and then return with the payment proof etc to the police station - which of course closes at lunchtime for the day!  On our third trip there we finally got our paperwork, so allow plenty of time to get this sorted before you have your meeting with the notaria to complete the paperwork for the property purchase - and you have to have it in order to do so.  The actual meeting with the notaria is rather different to buying in the UK as the seller, the purchaser, the solicitors, the notaria, people from any mortgaging banks involved - it's quite a party!  And actually very sociable :-)

You can see more about the apartment we bought here

Since that day we have been visiting the Port and staying in our apartment three times a year and during this time have made lots of friends and contacts.  But more about this next time!