Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

donny-gal

Oh yes big style. I am in ex-pat Spain, and British breakfasts are the the theme for most cafes - competing on prices from 2€ upwards. depending how large you wish to get IFYWIM.

We like to find Spanish restaurants wherever we can, and try different things. While I do like bacon - I can live without it and never have it at breakfast time anyway.

My biggest frustration is the number of our fellow countrymen/women who having lived here for 6 years or more do not even use the basics of manners in Spanish, do not know the numbers and cannot ask how much in Spanish. It really annoys me at how rude they can be. My Spanish is appalling, but at least I try, I know the words, and how to say them, but the link between the brain and the mouth is not as young as it once was. They do understand me (eventually), usually with a smile which says well at least you are trying. What I wish though is when they see you are trying they speak to you slowly in simple Spanish rather than practicing their far superior English!

Last year some intelligent friends came out with us, and they would not use Hello, please, thank you etc., even though we were using it, and the words are not that hard. Even worse they did not use correct English, at one French petrol station cash desk, the guy said "Ta, luv". Hence they have not been out with us since!

Exist, unfortunately there are more than there are those of us who try (or are very trying) :rotfl:

DG

droopsnout

I do recognise all this.

Mum is now 83.

At the supermarket checkout, I say, "Mum when you go past the girl, just say, 'Bonjour, madame', or even just 'Bonjour'."

Look of absolute horror. "I'm not saying THAT!!!"

Merrywidow

How entertaining all your tales...my own Father, born 1909 thought "all wogs began at Calais" which didnt help when I married a Dutchman. When he went into hospital for an op in his late 70's, I talked to his Surgeon, hansome, beautiful tailoring, shoes and well groomed - and Indian. I walked into Dad's room and in his best loud (he was deaf) whisper, he said "Have you seen the Wog thats looking after me?" I just wanted the floor to open up devour me.

Loved the woman who didn't realise Majorca was an island. Was in a shop in Amsterdam many years ago and a woman was bemoaning the fact that all the souveniers were from Amsterdam and where were the Bruxelles ones. I politely pointed out the obvious and she was very rude to me and told me not to be stupid as they had been there for days and she would have known.

Just a little laugh to end the session! 20 years ago my husband and I took his mother and father on a trip to America and Canada to visit his brother and family. We were in a Galgary Motel and my MIL noticed a phone book. Oh she says, I once had a boyfriend who emigrated to Canada after the 2nd W.War - I explained to her that the Galgary phonebook was not the whole of Cananda and how big Canada was (she wasn't the brightest). No matter, she picked up the book, found the old boyfriend and rang him!!!!!!!! We all laughed ourselves sick, but I don't think she ever realised just what she had done. It erased the fact that she had written and stamped 30 postcards in the States and posted them in Canada.

One last one

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we were in Las Vegas (she spoke not one word of English) but each morning she went out alone and came back with 4 coffees, sugar, milk and doughnuts and in Las Vegas in the Casino we lost her and found her playing on the slots, she had found out where to obtain tokens, bought what she needed and was busy playing when we found her - trouble was she was being shouted at by a woman who was playing the whole bank of slots at the same time and there was my MIL queering her pitch - soo so funny.

Droopsnout - guess your Mum was more ladylike than mine. My husband taught her some pretty shocking swear words in Dutch (and she knew it) and she used to trundle them out at Dutch family gatherings for the shock effect, pretending she didnt know.

droopsnout

What fun! Thanks, Merrywidow.

Your mum sounds a hoot! I'm quite looking forward to the time when others will just say of me,"He's getting on a bit, you know. He can't help it."

And I will sport a very wicked grin!

seven-day-weekend

My dad (born 1904 - he was 46 when I was born!) hated foreigners. He was in the Merchant Navy, went all over the world and never ever bothered going ashore in any country - apart from one place, Malta.
For the rest of his long life the Maltese were 'the scum of the earth'.:eek:

TBH, even though he lived in the Midlands for most of his life, he didn't really like anyone who didn't come from Norwich (his home town).

My husband and I were imagining the other day what our parents (all dead now) would have said about us coming to live here in Spain.

My mum and his stepfather would have said 'right, go for it!' and his SF may even have visited.

His mum would never had mentioned it in other than a derogatory fashion as she would think he was getting 'above himself'.

And my dad would have said 'What the B**** H*** do you want to go and live there for? Place is full of Wops!':o:o

God bless them all!:rotfl:

seven-day-weekend

Love your wicked grin Droopsnout!

donny-gal

Oh yes what a tale we have to tell of our biased/prejudiced old folks.

My Dad has dementia and when starting with it very suddenly after a stroke in his head which did not affect his limbs, he was taken into an assessment unit (for his own safety). First of all he at 84 years old took it into his head to do a handstand in the middle of the day room - frightened the life out of the staff but Dad had always been fit. Anyway this assessment unit wanted the old and confused folk to feel at home so wore civies. Can you image a 84 year old suddenly going into dementia being told what to do by a coloured male staff nurse in jeans:eek: , male testestorone (sp) kicked in. He took more notice of the cleaner as she wore an overall. He ended up being violent twice. Two lots of sectioning (to section 3)= they pay for his care;) They ended up sending for the sister our of the main elderly mental unit, over she bustles, full nurse uniform 50ish pump - you know the old sort - she lead him by the hand back to his room like a lamb no problem, she was in charge and he could realise that. We told them the problem but they did not agree.

Unfortunately he is still in care totally oblivious to the world now 88. What would he make of Spain - he would love it he adored the sun, my one regret is that we didn't buy this early enough for him to make the trip.

DG

seven-day-weekend

I hope I haven't made my dad sound a nasty unkind person, he wasn't - even though he didn't like foreigners, if someone had needed his help he would have given it, wherever they came from.

It was just ignorance and the time/class he was brought up in.

Didn't want to blacken his name!

droopsnout

No, s-d-w, you didn't. It sounds as if all our parents are of a similar ilk. But, of course, their memories, like ours, are of the "good old days", except that theirs are before ours. And their times were pre-war and wartime, before immigration started, before any of us had seen garlic, before Chinese takeaways ...

Yes, their prejudices were and are wrong, and boy do I hate it when my mum starts one of her daily rants about asylum seekers, benefits, schools and the NHS! But it is a consequence of the times and environment they lived in, and it's hard to point the finger at someone who doesn't, won't and probably can't understand.

seven-day-weekend

Just thought you all might be interested in our holiday for next year - we are delighted:



We have a home exchange holiday next June for three weeks in Pembrokeshire (one of our favourite holiday destinations) - this will be incorporated into our usual summer trip to the UK - we'll probably be in the UK for a couple of months.

Here's a link to the place we are going:
http://www.homeforexchange.com/prope...p?propId=26302

And here's a link to the place THEY are going (i.e. our house!):

x http://www.homeforexchange.com/ID=13365

If you are an adaptable type, Home Exchange is a very good way of having holidays. You have to trust them because they are in your house - but, conversely, they have to trust you, because you are in their house!

This will be our fourth (our third is a long weekend December 5-8 in Granada, which believe it or not we have never visited as tourists! ) Here's a link to the Granada one: http://www.homeforexchange.com/property_detailed_view.php?propId=5025