Escape to Andalucía

Last April we resigned from employment, packed our bags and moved to Spain.  But what I couldn't talk about was the TV programme.   As part of our move out to Spain we took part in a TV programme called "A New Life in the Sun", the show follows the progress of a number of British people as they make the move abroad and set up a business. For the first 6 months we were out here we had a TV camera follow us on our journey and they have recorded a lot key events, starting with the day our furniture arrived, following progress with renovations to the house, obtaining residency permits, our first craft market and lots of soap making.  I must admit I am a little apprehensive about how we will come over but there is no going back now and I only hope that people will enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed taking part. The show is due to air in the UK on Channel 4 at 16:00 weekdays starting 12th February and we've been told that the section of the show which includes us w

When we viewed the house before buying it we thought it had a wonderful shabby chic aesthetic but having lived here for a while we're starting to realise that there can be a fine line between shabby chic and downright ramshackle and we've come the conclusion that our kitchen sits the wrong side of that line.  The kitchen is quite small and having only 2 cupboards we've had to restrict ourselves to keeping only the bare essentials in the kitchen.   The adjacent cellar, which is huge, compensates but it's becoming increasingly annoying having to nip into the cellar for basics like mixing bowls or bags of flour.     We've had a quote for a replacement kitchen which was well over our budget and so it is after much consideration that we are about to embark on the daunting project of fitting a new kitchen ourselves.  Today we're having a drive over to Murcia to take a look round IKEA and find out what their flat pack kitchens look like.   We're not planning to b

I had a blog 12 years ago, at the time I was undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C and I used the blog to talk about the experience of the treatment, which wasn't easy.  That blog was cathartic and allowed me to connect with a wonderful group of people in the same boat, some of whom were also blogging about their experiences.  I wrote an entry in that blog every day for a period of 6 months or more and so I am bewildered that now I have something exciting to talk about that I have been so remiss in jotting down my thoughts. I sit here today with a renewed enthusiasm and a promise to myself to try harder.  I think I may have scuppered myself initially in trying to write something that people might find helpful and provide information about moving to Spain and frankly I probably bored myself with it.  So instead I am going to revert to what worked for me all those years ago and just jot down a few lines about what's currently going on in my little part of the world here in Almer