Downshifting Abroad

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 | No Comments

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!