Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

sloan

Happy New Year to everyone! Looks like I might be going back to Cyprus by myself on Monday, as weather has meant that husband did not get the things done that he needed to, being snowed in in North Yorkshire!

Merrywidow

Hi Sloan - You will be lucky to go anywhere on Monday at this rate!! Here in Kent we got the great whallop last night about 9.15pm. In an hour it dumped about four inches of snow. We had been clear since before Xmas. More is promised in the coming hours and days. Gatwick is closed. Think I forgot to mention that I was planning a New Year's eve trip to celebrate with rellies in Amsterdam. Cancelled when the first snow hit - I am so pleased I did that. Getting back would have been a real hassel. Its minus 15 in parts of Holland. Good luck with your plans.

donny-gal

Please get rid of your snow MW before we pass through next Sunday!!
DG

Merrywidow

Will do my best DG - but no promises. Its snowing at the moment, lots more for tomorrow and apparently its really going to dump it down on Sunday. Waiting to hear if DS is delaying his return. I guess you will be OK on the main roads, its the side roads that are the problem. If we run out of grit goodness knows what will happen. The M20 has been a problem for days. Fingers crossed.

seven-day-weekend

The village here has lost its orange crop this year. We had very heavy rain (as you have probably seen on the news) followed by a hurricane-force freezing wind straight off the top of the mountains and the oranges have simply frozen inside.

We personally have lost several of our cacti and succulents that are outside in pots. They sucked all the water up and stored it, as cacti do, and then came the wind and froze them. We have however, managed to save what we call our 'Goth' plant, a tall and assertive-looking black succulent - my husband brought it inside just in time because it was flowering.

All the water blew out of the fountains in the village, ran down the steep streets and froze.

There is snow on the mountains at about 1200 metres (our village is at 1050 metres). Northern Spain is covered in snow, like the UK.

Never say it is not cold in Spain!

gallygirl

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Never say it is not cold in Spain!

Sorry to hear about loss of crops SDW. Must admit when we were in Spain we did scrump some from a well know golf resort . We were incredibly lucky with the weather, 1 hrs rain while we were having lunch one day & some overnight rain but otherwise warm & sunny. Lying on terrace in the sun with a book is a v good New Year's Day hangover cure! A lot of water lying everywhere though, and the nearby 'mountains' (which I think are big hills :rolleyes:) had some snow for a few hours the week before.

However, there's cold & then there's cold............ bbbbbrrrrr, freezing here again.

seven-day-weekend

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

The village here has lost its orange crop this year. We had very heavy rain (as you have probably seen on the news) followed by a hurricane-force freezing wind straight off the top of the mountains and the oranges have simply frozen inside.

We personally have lost several of our cacti and succulents that are outside in pots. They sucked all the water up and stored it, as cacti do, and then came the wind and froze them. We have however, managed to save what we call our 'Goth' plant, a tall and assertive-looking black succulent - my husband brought it inside just in time because it was flowering.

All the water blew out of the fountains in the village, ran down the steep streets and froze.

There is snow on the mountains at about 1200 metres (our village is at 1050 metres). Northern Spain is covered in snow, like the UK.

Never say it is not cold in Spain!

.....and now we have snow in the village. Gone from nothing to being covered 2cm deep in about half an hour.

And these old village houses have no decent insulation or heating.

Luckily we have a woodburner in our bedsit room. We will sit in there and the rest of the house can freeze.

Heating allowance, anyone?

hartcjhart

gallygirl wrote: »

Sorry to hear about loss of crops SDW. Must admit when we were in Spain we did scrump some from a well know golf resort . We were incredibly lucky with the weather, 1 hrs rain while we were having lunch one day & some overnight rain but otherwise warm & sunny. Lying on terrace in the sun with a book is a v good New Year's Day hangover cure! A lot of water lying everywhere though, and the nearby 'mountains' (which I think are big hills :rolleyes:) had some snow for a few hours the week before.

However, there's cold & then there's cold............ bbbbbrrrrr, freezing here again.

good to hear you had a good time,I thoguht of you while I sat here freezing,however this year I am determined to have my 5months over there:cool:

gallygirl

hartcjhart wrote: »

good to hear you had a good time,I thoguht of you while I sat here freezing,however this year I am determined to have my 5months over there:cool:

We had a great time thanks . A few people on the beach, but none looking like your avatar unfortunately

BTW we found a new place to eat, next to Lua. Called Fantasia, run by British with Spanish son-in-law, only been open since Dec so don't suppose you've come across it? Lovely menu del dia and menu del lune, massive portions though (dare you to ask for a doggy bag if you have pasta :rotfl:). They used to run,,,, em,,,,,, somewhere else, can't remember where

hartcjhart

cheers will pop in and try in Oct when I go over,just a teaser for you and SDW while we suffer this weather

http://www.almeriafreeads.com/webcam/