# Should I stay or should I go?



## Xose (Dec 10, 2008)

Hello all, new to the forum so my first post. Sorry about the title, but this question has no Clash for me whatsoever  (sorry, about that!).

We've been here Since Aug 2005. We've had our fair share of nightmares - including DNI (for me, Spanish, UK since age 8 though), NIE for my wife and nothing for the kids... yet - soon need DNIs though for school. Car from UK re-registry, Empadronamiento, Seguridad Social.... and we built our own house to boot. Let's say that the biggest project in my working life had nothing on this experience when it comes to challenges and stress. 

Even so, I don't understand why there are so many people (or so one reads) looking to go back. I have had some doubts, minor ones, and mostly down to the settling in pains explained already. I knew it would be tough for 5 years or so.

The other day however, I got my first Rates notification from those awfully nice Funcionarios at Catastro - or at least from what they sorted out in the IBI registry (rates register) following another paperwork challenge..... and there's why I can't understand. Following all the negatives above, a bill for one year at €250 made it all go away and reminded me of why we came here in the first place. Less crime than Southern England, less road works, lesscrowds, more sun, sand and sangria and more DISPOSABLE income by a mile. 

Three years on and I'm having problems making the kids speak to each other in English at home - so they're sorted. I've had more problems being Spanish than my wife. As a European Citizen, she gets things that I have to wait for being Spanish but with no history in Spain (having lived in UK since age 8. The Spanish don't know what to do with a 48 year old Spaniard who has no work record in Spain - so the INEM are even more useless than usual.

I say - stop shopping at the Corte Ingles and start shopping at Lidl. Booze is much cheaper. Orange Juice is the same (unless you pick it from a tree). Fresh meats and fish and coffee etc., in another Supermarket and Bingo - you've saved the 25% already. Go on, think about it, I talk to UK people all the time and Spain ain't as cheap as before, but neither's blighty and my € still buys the same as 70-80 pence in the UK. Check TESCO on the web and see.

Cheers all - don't worry, be happy.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Xose said:


> Hello all, new to the forum so my first post. Sorry about the title, but this question has no Clash for me whatsoever  (sorry, about that!).
> 
> We've been here Since Aug 2005. We've had our fair share of nightmares - including DNI (for me, Spanish, UK since age 8 though), NIE for my wife and nothing for the kids... yet - soon need DNIs though for school. Car from UK re-registry, Empadronamiento, Seguridad Social.... and we built our own house to boot. Let's say that the biggest project in my working life had nothing on this experience when it comes to challenges and stress.
> 
> ...


Well said Xose
It only takes a short visit for me, to the busy roads, traffic jams, rain, cold, before I am remonded for the reasons we came here


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Stravinsky said:


> Well said Xose
> It only takes a short visit for me, to the busy roads, traffic jams, rain, cold, before I am remonded for the reasons we came here


AGREED! Even with the exchange rate and interest rates, its still much better here!!!

Jo


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

Good post. Yes, I am going nowehere after all the hassle (mainly other people's) over the years. 

Gorgeous sun here and the smile of the girl in the CAM would float a thousand ships. I think I was the first client she had spoken to in Spanish all day!


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## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

I've said it before on many other sites (prior to that megalomaniac Stravinsky banning me of course)....that's there nothing wrong with Spain.

But there's a hell of a lot wrong with the continual procession of Brit knuckledraggers that turn up here!


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## SunnySpain (Jul 30, 2008)

XTreme said:


> I've said it before on many other sites (prior to that megalomaniac Stravinsky banning me of course)....that's there nothing wrong with Spain.
> 
> But there's a hell of a lot wrong with the continual procession of Brit knuckledraggers that turn up here!



I ditto that 100%


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## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

SunnySpain said:


> I ditto that 100%


I always get funny looks at the Spanish border controls when I have to show my Brit passport aka The Moron Licence.

And all because I have hair, teeth, no tattoos, no beergut, and can actually manage to put a sentence together in Spanish.

_No disrespect intended to bald, toothless, tattooed, obese, Brit monoglots of course!
_


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## SunnySpain (Jul 30, 2008)

XTreme said:


> I always get funny looks at the Spanish border controls when I have to show my Brit passport aka The Moron Licence.
> 
> And all because I have hair, teeth, no tattoos, no beergut, and can actually manage to put a sentence together in Spanish.
> 
> ...



Que ? No Entiedo, soy Ingles - lol


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## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

SunnySpain said:


> Que ? No Entiedo, soy Ingles - lol


Steve will be along to correct your spelling you know! 

And thank God I don't have to tell people that I'm English. I just say you lot are nothing to do with me! 

Then a dumb _Welsh_ knuckledragger turns up and blows my cred.


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## SunnySpain (Jul 30, 2008)

XTreme said:


> Steve will be along to correct your spelling you know!
> 
> And thank God I don't have to tell people that I'm English. I just say you lot are nothing to do with me!
> 
> Then a dumb _Welsh_ knuckledragger turns up and blows my cred.



Spwelling mishakes you say

The saying - No enitendo (lol), soy Ingles - can be very useful if you are caught speeding, as they don't tend to want to take it further as they think you are here on holiday and thus won't pay the multa anyhow

Yakedah...


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Hi guys - I am new to the forum (as you can see from my huge number of posts so far - and all today coz I am bored at work) but try as I might I cannot find a definition for knuckledragger. It's obviously not intended as a term of endearment!!! I write this post looking out of my office window over one of the drearier parts of Croydon. The weather is useless, the traffic at a standstill and I face the prospect of unemployment in the New Year because I work in financial services - nuff said. However, all is not lost!! My in-laws visit us from Velez-Malaga for Christmas in a few days - they do this to remind themselves why they left UK in the first place (6 years ago now and they have no intention of returning for more than a few weeks at a time) and they will recount tales of good food and long walks etc in the beautiful region of Axarquia. My wife and I plan to leave the UK for Spain within 18 months in spite of some of the gloomy (but true) posts on this forum. We have met several people who have returned from Spain, most often citing exchange rates and increasing cost of living etc only to discover it is MUCH worse here. And we hardly ever see that strange bright orb in the daytime sky. Of those we have met, most are already planning their return to the eastern Costa del Sol. Great forum - keep up the good work...


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

thrax said:


> Hi guys - I am new to the forum (as you can see from my huge number of posts so far - and all today coz I am bored at work) but try as I might I cannot find a definition for knuckledragger. It's obviously not intended as a term of endearment!!! I write this post looking out of my office window over one of the drearier parts of Croydon. The weather is useless, the traffic at a standstill and I face the prospect of unemployment in the New Year because I work in financial services - nuff said. However, all is not lost!! My in-laws visit us from Velez-Malaga for Christmas in a few days - they do this to remind themselves why they left UK in the first place (6 years ago now and they have no intention of returning for more than a few weeks at a time) and they will recount tales of good food and long walks etc in the beautiful region of Axarquia. My wife and I plan to leave the UK for Spain within 18 months in spite of some of the gloomy (but true) posts on this forum. We have met several people who have returned from Spain, most often citing exchange rates and increasing cost of living etc only to discover it is MUCH worse here. And we hardly ever see that strange bright orb in the daytime sky. Of those we have met, most are already planning their return to the eastern Costa del Sol. Great forum - keep up the good work...


Welcome Thrax from someone who is sitting looking at a similar view in Birmingham and reminding myself why I moved from here in the first place

UK's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't like to stay too long


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## chris(madrid) (Mar 23, 2008)

SunnySpain said:


> The saying - No enitendo (lol), soy Ingles - can be very useful if you are caught speeding, as they don't tend to want to take it further as they think you are here on holiday and thus won't pay the multa anyhow


 Erm - not as such! - I know two guys who were stopped and escorted to a cash point.


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