I love my life in Andalucia!
After visiting many countries, this is where I decided to move to, full time. However, I was head hunted & offered a great position back in England, thinking how great it would be to be earning a great salary again........We left last year & went back to live in our house in the UK, after selling my car, shipping his back, locking the doors to our home in Spain, the new job was ok, but long hours & stress turned into arguments. It took 9 weeks before we were back living in Andalucia! - Why? - Because it rained everyday in the UK, there were people everywhere, even the most secluded pubs near our house were packed with non locals & had lost their ambiance. The food didn't taste as good, we spent most of our time in the car in a jam, inside watching the box & feeling pretty miserable, the weather got to us, the road rage came back & we soon realised why we had left in the first place.
Since we got back "home" to Spain, we rarely switch the tv on, have conversations again, eat out on a regular basis, buy the most fantastic, fresh fruit & vegetables from the market, sit on the terrace 'til late evening, socialise more so with an outside life, even during the week!!!
If we get cold in winter we have a log fire, put on a jumper & chunky socks, big deal....did the same in the UK. We have power cuts occasionally, but living in the countryside in the UK we did too.
Our friends love coming to stay with us, they get a cheap holiday, we see more of them now than we did occasional weekends in the UK.
The only thing I would change is down to me & me only & that's becoming fluent in Spanish, I've started lessons & I get by, it's made a real difference to quality of life being able to converse with Spanish people & I feel there is more of a mutual respect, I've decided to live in another country so it's up to me to make the effort. I've just negotiated Spanish lessons for free with a neighbour, in return for me helping her with her English, because she feels her business will not survive with Spanish custom alone - How sad!
It got to me today when my car wouldn't start & I popped into an English bar (with a packed car park) to see if anyone could possibly give me a jump start, no one would leave their pint for 2 minutes. A Spanish gentleman parking his car, saw I was having problems & very kindly helped me out. It cost him less than 2 minutes of his time & made someone appreciate him.