Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

Hmmm....I place no faith in league tables either...but that's extremely interesting.

seven-day-weekend

Three years later, work finally begins on 'La Ruina' (the little derelict house next door that we bought for a song not long after arriving here).

The first floor of La Ruina will be used as an additional room to our house Casa Sol (accessed from the rear of the first floor of Casa Sol) which initially my husband will probably use as his artist/photography studio. This floor also has a very nice azotea (covered balcony/terrace originally used for drying vegetables and hams). Downstairs will be a garage for the scooter, storage and workshop.

Later, we may add a bathroom on the first floor (when we have more funds). This will have a FULL SIZE BATH - quite a rarity in this part of Spain, and a treat for us as we don't have a bath at all at the moment, just a shower.

It's quite difficult getting usable space here, as it is small and very narrow and the ground floor has the mountain stuck out into it! So the space under the stairs where we were going to put a washroom will just have to be for storage now, as the rock makes it impossible to fit any units or a door!. Also the ground floor window - at normal window height inside the house - is at ground level outside. (This is what happens when you live on a mountain!). The ground floor would make a decent dining kitchen however.

The place does have a couple of original features, for example one of the side walls is drystone/rubble (traditonal building method here), the house has wooden supporting and ceiling beams throughout and of course the azotea.

So it could be used as kitchen and storage downstairs and bedsit and bathrooom with a usable balcony, that you could use for eating, upstairs. It's a challenge!

It's good to be getting it done after all this time!

donny-gal

Hi Everyone

Had PC problems and had to rebuild my laptop while out here, though had to wait for a neighbour from home and here to bring my disks - never again will I travel without system disks, so a bit late in joining in the medical debate but will add my twopenneth.

We have a new Spanish NHS hospital built about a mile from us, which looks brill, and the comments from anyone using it cannot compliment it enough, as you say relatives are expected to stay and help with the TLC, this has individual rooms with an extra bed for the relative if needed. One of our neighbours parents who were having an extended stay out here fell ill with appendicitis (Sp.?) another neighbour with some Spanish took her down, they wanted to check it was what they thought and didn't have the ability to scan her that day, so took here by ambulance to the Private hospital a couple of miles away for the scan, and then brought her back, and operated. She was lucky because it had almost perforated. Most of the staff at the new hospital are expected to speak English to some degree, though obviously if necessary you do have to get an interpreter, but as you say there is no reason they should speak English. Her husband stayed with her all the time.

Myself, I have taken private cover out as I am neither here or there and too young yet for auto cover, Travel insurance will only cover emergencies. Went to the private hospital to make an appointment with the consultant I had been referred to by the GP on Tuesday lunch, appointment Thursday, wants MRI scan on my knee, 10 days later. I have had problems with this knee at home since early this year, with no response from GP. Getting a private appointment in the UK is not that speedy as everyone is starting to go down that root, and the private doctors are getting overwhelmed. The private hospital provided a translator automatically, it was really great to be seen by a Doctor who asked the questions you could say, yes that's when it hurts, to and when examined knew exactly where to press to get the appropriate yell!
MRI on Monday back to consultant Thursday - let you know how I move from there.
Take care
DG

missile

You have not missed much, site has been down.

I have been in Torre hospital and it is very good. Clean, well equiped and plenty of well trained staff. As you say many speak English, but I would suggest you learn a few words

delor aqui

and point = it hurst here.

donny-gal

I have been attending classes for 3 years while working. Trouble is I need a memory expansion, and a extra harddrive!! It's not as easy as it was when I learnt French and I keep breaking into that. Getting better as I am here for 6 weeks at the moment, and I do try.
DG

missile

Sorry I did not realise and good for you. I got a chart showing names for parts of the body. It was really useful as a learning aid and I still refer to it occasionally when I forget.

seven-day-weekend

You can get a really useful 90-page booklet called 'Tell the Doctor' with English/Spanish translation and it covers vocabulary for both GP and hospital visits/admissions and gives details about how the system works.

Available from [EMAIL="cath@one-name.org"]cath@one-name.org[/EMAIL] or phone 966 40 53 65 (English speaker). Or you can send five euros in cash or low-value stamps to
Jenny Bussey
Tell the Doctor
El Moreral 3
03782 Parcent
(Alicante).

We have found it very useful.

(I hasten to add I have absoluely no personal connection with this booklet!).

bgwuser

If you have been resident in Spain and return to UK, we have found that we are not entitled to use the UK NHS for 6 months. It can also affect any travel insurance you may want to purchase and some banks insist on you being resident in the Uk for 12 months before you can open an account.

We would always advise people to rent for at least 12 months before you burn your Uk bridges. We are glad to be back after 5 years of good times abroad. we are just glad that we are young enough and healthy enough to have had the best of both countries.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks and welcome bgwuser.

We have kept links with the UK. We have a house there (our family home still lived in by our son), various bank accounts, a dentist, my husband pays his taxes there and we are registered on the electoral roll as non-resident voters with a proxy vote. (I also still have my library card and my Matalan card - the latter used as recently as last August!).

I understand that because we have kept these links it demonstrates that this move to Spain was never meant to be permanent and hopefully we should have no trouble accessing the services when we return.

I agree that unless you know an area well, it is best to rent before burning boats. Preferably don't burn them at all unless you have to!

Welcome again!

krisskross

donny-gal wrote: »

I have been attending classes for 3 years while working. Trouble is I need a memory expansion, and a extra harddrive!! It's not as easy as it was when I learnt French and I keep breaking into that. Getting better as I am here for 6 weeks at the moment, and I do try.
DG

This made me laugh as i was exactly the same:rotfl::rotfl:

I would start by massacreing Spanish but if I couldn't think of the word then the French word would arrive in my head or failing that the English one. No wonder the Spanish shopkeepers looked totally dumbfounded at me. The word loco said with a shrug was part of my shopping experience.

Thank heavens when I finally mastered weights and numbers. We were sick of ham or cheese by the time we had ploughed through 'medio kilo' (half a kilo) which was the smallest amount I knew how to ask for for weeks. And when I mastered asking for three or four slices I had really cracked it:rotfl::rotfl: