So were in our new place now and starting to settle in. There have been a few disasters along the way, like the car choosing the weekend we move house to finally die (beyond economical repair I believe is the correct term) and my camera to go missing hence the lack of photos on my blog. Never mind though, we're here and here to stay this time.
I finally began to calm down after the stress of the move and a recent Trust law exam (which I passed by the way - yeh me) and decided it was about time I set foot in the kitchen again. Actually, the kitchen in this place is great. Everything is new and high tech. We've got a touch sensitive hob with digital display and bleeping noises to remind you that you've left something switched on. The microwave doubles as a grill and the oven has so many settings we don't know what to do with them (especially as the instruction books are in Spanish). The oven even has network capability so I can hook it up and operate it from the PC and even my mobile phone while we're out. Not that I see the need really but you never know, it may come in handy one day.
Anyway, I decided to cook this weekend and with all the mayhem going on around here all I could think to cook with my new futuristic kitchen was comfort food.
The ultimate comfort food.
A huge fry up. Bacon, sausage, eggs, beans, fried bread... the works.
Now were on a month of de-tox and dieting.
Until next time, if I don't have a heart attack first.
Steve
Monday, 21 June 2010
Friday, 11 June 2010
A brief note on Spain
As the more observant of you may have noticed, it has been close to a month since my last post. The reason for this is due to a minor change in our living arrangements, namely a relocation. Before going into the whys and wherefore's (or whatevers) one needs to take into consideration the current economic situation in Spain and in particular our little corner.
The campo (countryside) long the coast from Marbella down to Sotogrande has been desecrated by over development. Greedy developers have built scores of Urbanisations and apartment blocks all along the coast totalling thousands of houses, flats and apartments for which in the current climate there are no buyers. There is estimated to be around 120,000 empty properties in Andalucia. This situation has been compounded by the number of expatriates who, due to the fall of the pound against the Euro have found that their incomes, pensions, savings etc... are no longer sufficient to cover mortgages and living expenses. It is also noteworthy that property prices in Spain have been grossly inflated beyond what the properties are worth.
Since the 'global financial meltdown' property prices have now fallen to more realistic levels which has resulted in property owners having mortgages in negative equity. Mix this with the fall in value of the pound and you can understand why expats are simply handing their house keys back to the banks and moving back to their home countries.
This now brings us back to our current situation. We rented a property on an urbanisation (urbanisacion) in the campo. Our landlord owned five such properties he'd brought off plan for investment purposes at inflated prices. He has since decided not to pay the mortgage for the properties with the result that the banks have re-possessed them and evicted the tenants including us. Fortunately for us we have dropped on a new place and moved in a couple of weeks ago. As you can imagine things have been hectic and its taken a while to get t'internet back up and running but here we are again.
You will be pleased to learn that the olives survived the move and are well. The Italian feast will follow before too long. Please keep popping by.
Oh by the way if you do have some spare cash to invest, re-possessed Spanish property could now be a good buy. Prices have really dropped. There are rumors of two for one sales at property auctions and although Spain's economy is yet to see its worse (likely to have similar problems to Greece) eventually things will come round. Historically these things work in cycles. Boom, bust then boom again.
Sorry for such a serious post but then we did advertise a site with a bit of everything. Next one will be a bit more lighthearted. I might even throw in a few jokes about rudely shaped vegetables... ooh err misses.
Steve
The campo (countryside) long the coast from Marbella down to Sotogrande has been desecrated by over development. Greedy developers have built scores of Urbanisations and apartment blocks all along the coast totalling thousands of houses, flats and apartments for which in the current climate there are no buyers. There is estimated to be around 120,000 empty properties in Andalucia. This situation has been compounded by the number of expatriates who, due to the fall of the pound against the Euro have found that their incomes, pensions, savings etc... are no longer sufficient to cover mortgages and living expenses. It is also noteworthy that property prices in Spain have been grossly inflated beyond what the properties are worth.
Since the 'global financial meltdown' property prices have now fallen to more realistic levels which has resulted in property owners having mortgages in negative equity. Mix this with the fall in value of the pound and you can understand why expats are simply handing their house keys back to the banks and moving back to their home countries.
This now brings us back to our current situation. We rented a property on an urbanisation (urbanisacion) in the campo. Our landlord owned five such properties he'd brought off plan for investment purposes at inflated prices. He has since decided not to pay the mortgage for the properties with the result that the banks have re-possessed them and evicted the tenants including us. Fortunately for us we have dropped on a new place and moved in a couple of weeks ago. As you can imagine things have been hectic and its taken a while to get t'internet back up and running but here we are again.
You will be pleased to learn that the olives survived the move and are well. The Italian feast will follow before too long. Please keep popping by.
Oh by the way if you do have some spare cash to invest, re-possessed Spanish property could now be a good buy. Prices have really dropped. There are rumors of two for one sales at property auctions and although Spain's economy is yet to see its worse (likely to have similar problems to Greece) eventually things will come round. Historically these things work in cycles. Boom, bust then boom again.
Sorry for such a serious post but then we did advertise a site with a bit of everything. Next one will be a bit more lighthearted. I might even throw in a few jokes about rudely shaped vegetables... ooh err misses.
Steve
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