Diary of a Downshifter – Part 4 Downshifting To Spain
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 Continue reading 4: The Deeds
Diary of a Downshifter – Part 3 Downshifting To Spain
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 Continue reading 3: The Arrival
Diary of a Downshifter – Part 2 Downshifting to Spain
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 Continue reading 2: The Journey
Diary of a Downshifter – Part 1 Downshifting to Spain
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 Continue reading 1: How It All Started
