Downshifting Abroad

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 6

October 17, 2008 on 11:45 pm | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

Everything started out as it should have done. Antonio and Carlos picked me up an hour late and we went immediately to a bar for some fortification. Had I known how the rest of the night was going to pan out, I’d have had ten more and stayed there.

To cut a long and painful story short, it soon became obvious that my colleagues were both theoretical beekeepers and knew nothing about any of the practical issues. They loaded the hives up without strapping them so that bees leaked in all directions; they didn’t do their protective clothing up and so were stung constantly; they used their smokers so frantically that blasts of flame were coming out of them which set fire to one of the hives and finally, the site which Antonio had chosen was on a near vertical slope down which we slipped, beehives and all. Finally Antonio decided on a new site which he reckoned would be perfect. It involved a stiff climb up rocks carrying the by now really angry bees in their leaky hives and finally, as dawn broke, we placed the hives on a rocky ledge sticking out from the side of a cliff. We sat down exhausted and looked at the sun rising over the sea in the distance. I said to Antonio that this was probably the worst site ever known for bees and his reply was, “yes David but just think of how much they will enjoy the view”! He had a point.

Life settled down after that into more of a routine and we began our dip into the world of DIY which lasted non stop for the next 13 years - and in fact still hasn’t stopped. The small house we lived in was very old and was once a typical Andalucian peasant’s cottage with all of the features that made them so pretty such as beams and alcoves. Ours however had been turned into a Costa del Sol villa with false arches and all of the nice beams and features covered with plaster board. The existing fireplace had been stripped out so there was no heating and the part of the roof that was flat had battlements put on it making it resemble miniature castle. The drains from the bath required water to flow uphill and the septic arrangements were very septic. All had to change but firstly we had to find out how. The answer came in the form of ‘The Readers Digest Book of DIY’ which had been given to me by my father. It saved us and putting all our doubts aside, we started off wrecking the house. Annabel started it off. I was away beekeeping for the day and when I returned, it was to see the bath tub lying outside on the ground with a hole in the wall of the house where it had come out! No bath tonight I thought and I knew from then on that things would only become more painful. Our main requirement actually wasn’t the bath, but was to have the house dug out of the bank that it was set into so that water didn’t flow through the house when it rained. For this we needed the help of a digger and this in itself in that part of Spain where there were so many JCB diggers rumbling around is a story in itself.

Benefits of Life in NZ - 4 - Back in NZ

September 29, 2008 on 9:38 pm | In New Zealand | No Comments

Been out of the country, but now back and starting to write again. Have been here for nearly 3 years now. On the down side, horrendous car accident (smashed up by a 16 year old driving a UHT), loss of job, heart surgery, feeling ‘What are we doing here…’ but on the up side, kids so happy at the schools, involved in tremendous outdoor camps, got a horse (cheap ex-harness racer…), trying to set up our own business (most stressful thing in our lives at the moment though!) as it is a ’small business friendly evironment’, no nasty bugs and Spring is here, so we’ll dust off those surf boards and hit the beach. More to come on these and more current topics such as the pending election.

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 5

July 25, 2007 on 3:07 am | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

It was now time to acquire some bees. After all, that was why we were there. We heard from a friend that an old boy was downsizing his bee stocks and contacted him in Velez Malaga. He turned up about an hour and a half late for our appointment and immediately took us off to one of his favourite bars for a pre-work brandy and a gossip about bees and how there was so much future in it and wasn’t I lucky to be able to buy at very reasonable cost his bee hives full of specially trained, hard working, completely tranquil bees. As usual, reality was different. We approached his apiary along a horrendous series of narrow tracks with million foot drops on Continue reading Diary of a Downshifter - Part 5…

Benefits of Life in New Zealand - 3 - Missed The Race!

June 4, 2007 on 10:35 pm | In New Zealand | 2 Comments

Due to compete in the club’s 10km race this past Sunday, however on Friday my back locked. I was sitting on the stairs tying up my laces prior to the last training run with the club when the back muscles went into such spasms I could hardly breathe. Luckily my husband was able to pull me up! I still foolishly drove to the club and completed a ‘gentle’ run, hoping the exercise would loosen up the whole back system. My legs had little power and by Sunday morning just taking a step made the bottom of the back groan. So instead of race entry fees I’m paying for another session with the osteopath….my husband’s parting remark on this matter was ‘perhaps you’re just too old’….

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 4

June 4, 2007 on 9:19 pm | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

After stalling this potential thief who was the owner of the supermarket in the nearby village of Los Romanes, we contacted our lawyer. Once you have a set of deeds in Spain, you can keep them, even after you have sold the property. New deeds are made up for the new owner and in the deeds register, it is only these latest dated deeds that count. The grocer had simply tried it on with a set of old deeds and a letter from the lawyer threatening a court case shut him up immediately. He assumed that we were rich and ignorant and found that we were neither. We had passed the first of many tests that would try us in Spain. Sometime after this event, we mentioned the incident to some Spanish friends who far from being surprised actually said, “Well he had to try didn’t he. He owns a supermarket. He is an important man!” It was our first realisation that, however well you thought you knew these people, their 1000 years of different history to ours just made them think so very differently. It was a continuing theme throughout our time in Spain.

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 3

May 11, 2007 on 6:01 am | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

So we had arrived. It was unnerving to think that this was it. The cottage was fairly sound but still lacked electricity and in fact compared to what was to come over the next few years, it was pure luxury. Many days later the electricians came and in the meantime we begged jerry cans of water from neighbours. Our water was pumped from our water tank by electricity. Had we thought about it properly we’d have made sure that the line from the tank to the house was down hill. Instead it was uphill. Then 5 days into it all the heavens broke and we went from a deficit of water in the house to a huge surplus. Water came in through the back wall in rivers, flowed through the house and out of the front door. We battled it by night and day and in the meantime all our boxes in the sitting room became sodden. There was no relief though. Continue reading Diary of a Downshifter - Part 3…

Benefits of Life in New Zealand - 2 - Up the Mount

April 27, 2007 on 8:55 am | In New Zealand | No Comments

Joined the Mount Joggers (Tauranga, North Island) and am following a 10 week plan to run up the ‘Mount’, a hill over 200m high next to the harbour entrance. Great way to meet like-minded people and to get fit at the same time. Club offers creche facilities for Mums, so no excuse! Can only go on Fridays although the club meets twice a week (Tues/Fri) as work intefers! My week runs from Sunday to Thursday, which means I unfortunately miss a vast majority of the sports events held on Sundays. Am looking for a training program to continue with after I conquer the Mount…

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 2

April 24, 2007 on 11:04 pm | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

The Journey
On October 3 1993 we set off for Plymouth and the ferry to Santander in a Luton Van driven by our friend Graham and us in the lightweight Landrover and trailer. It was strange to think that ‘that was it’. No more salary. No job. No England and all the English things, and even harder to imagine that this wasn’t a holiday. It was for real. Remarkably very little happened of note and we boarded the ferry without incident and went on to enjoy the 24 hour journey to Spain. It’s really well worth while travelling this way even if a bit pricey, but you avoid the exorbitant cost of motoring through France (toll roads/campsites/fuel/refreshments/drinks). We’ve been through France many times but delightful as it is, it’s just so expensive. That hasn’t changed over the years. Two years ago I crossed the Pyrenees into France by car. En route, I stopped to have lunch in Spain where for eight euros I had a meal of roast Pyrenean rabbit with all the trimmings, half a bottle of white and a coffee. Eight euros! On my first stop in France at the end of that same day, three small beers in tulip glasses cost me nine euros! (I had to have three because the glasses were so small!) Continue reading Diary of a Downshifter - Part 2…

Downshifting Hijacked by the Green Movement

April 22, 2007 on 6:46 am | In Downshifting | 2 Comments

Sustainability in all aspects of our lives is a laudable aim in my opinion, but what has this got to do with downshifting. Take an example: Mike and Lynn decide that they’ve had enough of the stressy jobs, the grumpy bosses, the commuting and the sheer lack of time to enjoy life. They look at their circumstances and decide to go to Spain and set up a small but interesting business providing proof reading and translation services to expats on the Costa del Sol. They buy a small place just out of town in a semi rural area for the peace and quiet and work almost entirely by computer/internet. They work their own hours, set by them, don’t commute to anywhere unless it’s to the local tapas bars; go to the beach every weekend and summer afternoons; have two children who grow up bilingual in the only two truly global languages, and they all live happily ever after. Hard work but less stress and they are in control of their lives. They are typical downshifters.
Now that is as much downshifting as anything else, in fact more so, but at no time did they raise chickens, buy organic produce, plant their own vegetables, or recycle their waste; yet so many websites/books/newspaper articles and ‘downshifting days’ now simply provide offerings of green wisdom and advice to do all of these things if you are a serious downshifter and these sites merely seem to be off shoots of green politics. There is even a ‘National Downshifting Week’ in the UK. The website offers little except the usual green sustainability message (which is good, but isn’t necessarily downshifting). In fact one of the suggestions on the site is to use ‘……preferably organic ingredients’ in a simple meal, indicating to my mind that you need to work more hours for your grumpy boss to increase my income to pay for these very expensive ingredients. And in general, they are more expensive. These sites seem to suggest that if you aren’t green, you aren’t a downshifter.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a drive for sustainable living, but don’t you think that the Downshifting Movement or ideal has been hijacked by the greens. Downshifting can be all about going green, but it doesn’t have to be, and often isn’t.

Diary of a Downshifter - Part 1

April 19, 2007 on 1:26 am | In Journey Through Spain | No Comments

How it all started
This diary tells the ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies and daily routines of a typical overseas downshifting couple which grew into a downshifting family. All of it is true and it all began in November 1993 when my wife Anna and I left the UK for a small cottage in the Spanish hills. We had decided to get out of the rat race in the UK and become honey farmers. The main reasons for leaving the UK were not that we were anti British, but just anti living in Britain. We believed firmly that we were simply not being rewarded for effort in our jobs; the jobs themselves were boring (although decently paid); we dreaded Mondays; we dreaded Fridays because it was the weekend and time increased in speed dramatically and it would go in a flash and Monday would on us again; We dreaded Thursdays because that was the day before Friday and so it went on. Out on the streets, nobody seemed to respect anybody or anything and the decent people (and they were and still are the majority in the UK) had to shut up in case they offended someone. A glass of wine in a pub and a couple of beers required a mortgage and the cost of petrol to get to the pub required another. We were frazzled, overtaxed, totally fed up, powerless to do anything about it and knew that something had to change. In fact everything had to change. Continue reading Diary of a Downshifter - Part 1…

Benefits of Life in New Zealand - 1 - Find a Sport!

April 2, 2007 on 9:57 am | In New Zealand | 1 Comment

After more than 10 years in rural Spain, and over 1 year in New Zealand, I completed my first duathlon (run, bike, run) at the young age of 41. Never too late to try a new country and a new experience. A week before the event I duly completed my evening training after work, saw the night was drawing in so thought ‘no need for a cool down’, hopped in the car, drove home, only to find my back locked and I could barely climb out of the car. A large amount of money later and a huge grin from the friendly osteopath, ’see you after the event…’ left me doubtful of my ability to start the duathlon. I’d trained not just to ‘do it’, but to ‘do it well’. The tremendous support of work colleagues and the general view of ‘Go,Girl, Go!’ convinced me to give it all. The atmosphere was fantastic. Over 450 women entered of all shapes and sizes and my usual English reserve went by the wayside as we lined up to start. If you’ve never done such an event, find one, train for it and then just do it!