So....yesterday was the second and last farewell party for lots of very dear friends.  The sun shone and it was really glorious luckily.  When so many lovely people are gathered together it brings home quite forcefully what you are leaving which we chatted about this morning as we walked the dogs.  So an enjoyable time was edged with a little sadness, but at the same time we rejoiced in this age of modern technology and social media where it is so much easier to keep in touch with people and what is going on in their lives.  And some people will come out to visit us - we hope!  We also know so many lovely people in Puerto Pollensa so we feel very lucky.  Recent PP citizens and dear friends Ray and Sandy who have just moved back to the UK came to our party, as did another dear friend Mary who is back and forth to PP a very great deal and who we will, in fact, meet up with in the Port just after our arrival :-D

Here are some pics from our party (and if you aren't sure what we look like, we're the couple on the right in the first picture).

Following our previous post about the last time for things, we're now having meals at our favourite restaurants/pubs one last time and trying to cram in all the things you suddenly realise you want to do, for example I'd love to go on the newly opened i360 in Brighton and we've also just booked to see the Absolutely Fabulous movie.  It's the little things that you just take for granted that sneak up on you.  The major things you think about, but it's those pesky small ones that are in fact the bigger reminders of what you are about to do.  So our move is concentrating the mind wonderfully on all we've not done/visited/re-visited and so on!

Other reminders of our move (which is now just over two weeks away) is at Tesco - other supermarkets are also available ;-)  Recently I bought one of those large 3kg bags of pasta and the thought occurred to me that we wouldn't still be in the UK to finish it.  And I'm now buying 'normal' sized items such as ketchup or a box of washing machine tablets and knowing that we won't be here to finish them which is as good an indicator as any of the swift passage of time towards our departure date.

In the meantime we are hugely looking forward to a family wedding on 10th September and our last Saturday in UK.  It will be such a happy event and a lovely way to mark our last weekend here and as I love a good wedding I couldn't be more excited.  Then on Monday 12th our possessions are collected and start their journey to Mallorca and we leave on Wednesday 14th.....

There's always a last time for everything

So.....with less than four weeks before we leave we have moved into a reflective phase where many things we do make us think "This is the last time I will be doing/seeing etc this".  And it's quite a sobering thought.

I have been involved in scouting for many, many (oh so many!) years and had a wonderful time :-)  A couple of weeks ago I attended a Cub Scout camp for over 2,500 Cubs + all leaders etc to celebrate the centenary of Cub Scouting.  I have qualifications in air rifle shooting and abseil/climbing instruction and I went knowing that this would be the last time I used these hard-earned qualifications.  I instructed shooting all day on the Saturday and abseiling all day Sunday and as I instructed and enjoyed the day, all the time there was a little voice in my head saying "This is the last time you will be doing this" and it was quite bittersweet.  

We experienced the same feeling on our wedding anniversary which we always spend in Arundel (our special place) - it was the last time and we will miss it.  But we will create new traditions such as this but in Mallorca instead.  We already have a few ideas :-)

It's not even the more memorable moments like these.  Some everyday items such as large bags of pasta, bottles of shampoo and that sort of thing - it just suddenly registers that we won't be in the UK to finish them.  We've had to be careful that some things we've ordered will arrive in time and Ian, who wanted some non-emergency dental work done, has been unable to do so as it wouldn't be finished in time.  It's those sorts of moments that make us realise that we really are doing this........   It's not unsettling as such but a reality check nonetheless and probably one of the times that you could feel a bit wobbly about taking such a huge step.  Luckily - so far! - we've found it sobering but not worrying and fervently hope this remains the case.

In other news, we're making good progress with the packing and there's not much left all things considered.  I had a girly panic last weekend when I thought I'd packed everything appropriate to wear to a 'glamorous' themed hen-do but I managed to find something in the end.  The house has gradually been taken apart around us to a large extent and it feels like we're living in a perpetual state of departure.  

Overall, time seems to be flying by and we're trying to keep up with things like cancelling the various utilities, all of which seem to have different notice periods, and also sorting out our wills.  TOP TIP: make sure you have a will if you own property in either country.  We have had a Spanish will for a while now to cover our apartment in the Port but hadn't yet sorted out wills to cover our property etc in UK.  Apparently a lot of people don't have wills, perhaps because no-one likes to think about the fact that one day we won't be around any more!  But there is no getting away from it and you can get wills done in the UK really quite cheaply.  

In the meantime the clock keeps ticking.........

OK, so who put time on 'fast forward'?!

Well the truth is dawning - we're moving to Mallorca NEXT MONTH!!!!!  Cue running around in small circles like demented chickens.......

Not sure where the last month just went but wherever it went, it went there very quickly!  I've been teaching English to foreign language students for the last few weeks which was great fun and as quite a large number of them were Spanish it gave me a chance to practise my listening skills ;-)  So now I can join Ian in the box packing and general kerfuffle at home. 

So, we move next month and things are getting really imminent now.  We're both in the process of cancelling mobile phone contracts, utilities etc.  This has proved pretty frustrating as they all seem to have different notice periods varying from 3 months to 30 days to a week!  We have therefore diarised the different dates so that we don't forget anything.  Life is never simple is it?  We've also been getting in place all the necessary paperwork for our residencia application and re-registering our GB car in Spain.  It's an old but very reliable workhorse and worth us doing so in case you wonder!  We plan to use it until it falls apart so no plans to re-sell (and there's no market for RHD cars out there which we know).  Unless you are in the same position with an old, reliable and therefore cheap to re-register car which you don't plan on re-selling, our TOP TIP would be to buy out there although cars are not that cheap so do take that into account whilst budgeting for any move. 

On the subject of budgeting, whilst we were able to pay in full for the hotel in Zaragoza and the ferry from Barcelona to Palma ages ago when we first booked, this was not the case with the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao where you cannot pay that far in advance and you only pay a deposit.  They take the payment six weeks before travel so although Ian realised this and put a reminder on his phone, it still comes as a bit of a shock to have to find the best part of £500 so TOP TIP do bear this in mind if you are making similar travel arrangements.

In other news, oh dear the UK weather :-(  At the moment - and let's remind ourselves of the date of 2 Aug - it is grey and very blustery and has been wet all day, in fact this morning the rain was relentless sooooo..... whilst this is all very depressing, it is in fact quite helpful as it spurs us on, although to be fair we have had a few decent days - aren't we all lucky ;-o  Ian looks at the webcams on Puerto Pollensa seafront daily which is not necessarily what I want to see when it's chucking it down in UK but he finds it keeps him going - each to their own!  If you would like a daily live 'fix' of Puerto Pollensa, just click on this link and away you go 

http://www.seemallorca.com/webcams/port-de-pollensa

And if you want a quick look at what it looks like out there on that webcam as I type then we hope this makes you smile:

So to summarise, the closer you get to a major, life-changing event the faster the time goes by - fact!  As we get closer to the actual date (14th Sept) we will post in this blog more often and during the actual journey it will be every day :-D

Time's running out.....

Time has never gone so fast and we leave for Mallorca in just over 9 weeks so we're now into single figures!

So where are we up to?  Well, our house looks a bit odd as the bookshelves are now all empty with books and ornaments packed away and stacked in the garage ready for the big move.  A lot of our clothes and shoes are also now packed and we've had another blitz on ebay, a local auctioneers and the local charity shop so our possessions are fast reducing (although not enough, according to Ian!).  We've revised our cubic metres of what we are removing upwards as, predictably, our 'can't live without' items are breeding whenever we look away!  As it stands we think we'll be bringing 14 cubic metres of possessions rather than the original estimate of about 10 cubic metres.  Bear in mind we aren't bringing much by way of furniture apart from a king sized bed so if you are planning a move we'd suggest adding on a bit to your original estimate as it really doesn't take much to fill a box.  

I'm currently busy teaching English at a language summer school so a lot of the packing for our move is falling on Ian's shoulders.  He's also met with his pension consultant to discuss the best way to juggle pension income, particularly in view of the poor sterling exchange rate following the Brexit decision.  It turns out there are various ways pensions can be made to work to best advantage for you, TOP TIP: so if you are in a similar position to us i.e. expecting some or all of your income to be generated from a pension(s), then it may well be worth having a chat to an expert.

This coming weekend we have the first of our two 'leaving the UK' drinks for friends/family.  We're having two to cater for two friendship group locations which will make it easier for everyone and also it gives people a choice of dates at a busy time of year.  In any event, it's adding to the momentum of our departure although quite a few people are suggesting that we need to organise an "Hola!" party in PP so if you're in Mallorca in September - watch this space ;-)

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 :-)