Sounds like the decision is now made but FWIW another vote for Spain. Good luck! 😀

Made me think of this ->

Daddy?
– Yes son.
What does regret mean?
– Well son, a funny thing about regret, It’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t done. And by the way son if you see your mother tell her …

SATAN 😆

Video

I went to school with them.

Also consider the Racism you’ll get as for a Brit in Spain…

flamejob

I went to school with them.

For a minute I thought you meant this lot 😯

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NreA8yT4nlI

Spain every time! Quality of life better, education system good .. look at how many languages their kids speak fluently at 15!!!
I started studying Spanish at uni, as I always wanted to live in Spain and wanted that 1 year studying in a Spanish uni. I bailed out after 1st year deciding Spanish was too hard (did Psycholinguistics instead) always wish that I’d kept the Spanish. Would love to live there.

GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO
PS Can I come and visit!?

Go, if it doesn’t work out, come back. Imagine if you don’t go and you spend the rest of your days thinking what if?

I live in Spain.
I think it is a fantastic country, well at least the parts I’ve seen. The weather is great as is the culture, arts, food, countryside, wildlife and most of the people in the town where I live.
Give it a go.
I find the language hard, but I find all languages hard :(.
It is a work in progress and all my Spanish friends are very helpful and patient while I mess up their language.

I am on a 2 year secondment down near Roper too. I was surprised at how nice parts of Malaga can be, and of course there is an insanely good choice of riding within a 2 hour drive, plenty within half an hour to 1 hour too. I wish I was living there rather than Gibraltar.

Good luck and remember to pop down and we’ll show you some of the good stuff down here(*) that is probably the opposite of aggressive XC – we like it deeply chilled in this neck of Andalucia.

*Second time lucky as I am meant to be out with Roper this weekend on my secret trail that I failed to find a couple of months back. 😀

I live in Spain too. (Well, the Basque country) I like it a lot. One of the best things is how diverse the different parts are. Malaga is a canny city, has a great old town with some excellent bars and restaurants. The biking of course is excellent too. One of the advantages of having britland down the coast is you can get a decent curry.

Hmm sounds great, and I’d jump at it, but what’s in it for Mrsflamejob?

Well Simon and Roper…..

…warm up the barbie, fill up your CamelBaks, I’m ready to relax to the Max.

Mrs Flamejob was in deep negeotiations with ‘ze Germans’ (providers of the Malaga contract), goth the contract sorted and flipped off the London job, so it looks like we’re heading South!

It does mean I have to be without my lovely iberian princess (*puke) for nearly four months though, while they tell her ‘ze most efficient way to conztrukt un train’

@andym if she isn’t doing something very engaging (like doing another masters or talking to me) she gets bored. She’ll have plenty to do, starting with learning German.

She’s a keeper!

Good Lord!

Your wife is a beautiful looking woman. I definitely have a soft spot for the Spains! And Columbian ladies. By Christ some of them are incredibly lovely!

I toyed with the idea of moving to live in Barçelona for a bit, but I’ve not been able to get onto a Spainish lanuage course (local Adult Ed service are useless, and failed repeatedly to contact me to let me know when the bloody courses started, even though I’ve now paid 3 times to enrol..)

I had some bad issues with some of the Spainish people I knew, which kind of put things on the back burner for a bit, and I certainly can’t afford it for another year or two, but I’d love to flit back and forth between London and Barça.

Mm, great food, lovely ladies, fantastic climate, nowt much that can bite you and kill you….

I’d do it. But not forever. Home is here.

Does your missus have a sister, btw…?

She is your missus therefore what she says goes-well thats what I learned from relationships lol if you want what you want/need too so you both win…

🙄

@Rudeboy – Just do it! Though those catalans are a bit temperamental; go somewhere like Valencia, way more chilled.

News in;
We have been given the contract for the relocation and the rental supplement has doubled our original budget. Which is nice.

We’re going on an expenses paid trip next week to ‘have a look’ and they are giving us a 20ft container and a packing team for all our stuff.

They’re also giving me €3500 to ‘integrate’.

Mrs Flamejob asked if it was for me to learn Spanish, they said ‘Oh no.. we’re paying for that anyway, this money is for him to be settled in his job and make friends’
She said ‘does that mean he can use it for mountainbike guide training’
They said ‘Perfect’

Hang on… I get to live in Spain with my amazing spouse and get paid to go riding!?

so let me get this right….

Get to live in spain….check
Get PAID to live in spain…check
Get paid to RIDE in spain…check
Get to do all this along with having a lovely wife….check

You can really start to go off some people 😆

as with the majority of people, never look back and say what if.

I’ve been living in China for 6 years, married for 2years (Chinese lady) Child on the way.

Mum was concerned that I was too far away, but with technology bringing the world closer, and at worse, a 10hr flight, it’s not that bad.

I love it here, the food, the culture and of course my wife.
The ridings is excellent (once out of city centre) and I for one, don’t consider the UK my home. We are looking forward to going there for a holiday though.

We can get Heinz, Marmite, and all the food needs (even Branston Pickle now, so I’m very happy)

Oh… and Chinese I think is harder to learn than Spanish.. but if you love it there, you’ll find the language comes along with time.
(Wife says I have excellent Bar Chinese, since that is where I learnt it 😮 )

Go, don’t look back

I mved to Andalucia 18 years ago with my Spanish wife and kid, best move we ever did. You know you´ll regret it if you don´t try.

Oh yeah.. we’re going alright! I was updating this thread so the peeps who responded have a bit of an update.

Sounds like you’ve got a great deal! At least you don’t have to worry about the financial side of moving which was a stress for me. I’ve done the “move to spain with my girlfriend and ride my bike” thing too. It’s been great and I am so glad I did it but it’s been hard too. Miss my friends a lot and although I’ve learnt a good bit of Spanish it’s hard living somewhere where people don’t speak your native language, guess that’ll get easier.

I hope it all works out for you!

Riding your bike every day is great too!

Mackem – I’d kill for a descent curry. I really didn’t appreciate how good it is in Britian to have access to such multinational food. Here’s meant to be the best food in the world but it’s all Spanish!

Flamejob; well, it was a nice idea at the time, and certainly something I’d like to do, but things change, you know?

I had a really good group of Spainish friends, and things were looking good for a move over there (I’d have somewhere to stay, people to hang out with, help me out with stuff, etc), but sadly a situation developed where those relationships /opportunities were severed beyond repair (there’s someone who fled back to Spain, who knows they will face hefty legal action if they ever set foot in the UK again). Hey ho. It hazzunt put me off entirely.

There may be a possibility that my mum will buy a small holiday place there, actually. Thatull be perfect! I’ll be able to spend winter months over there, and still pop over every now and then. Mind, there’s certain relationships I have in London, that may make me want to stay here. It’s not that simple. Things have changed a lot in the last 2 years.

The grass always seems greener, and all that, but when you’ve been cultivating and tending for your side of the fence for so long, it makes you realise what you’d be leaving behind.

Good luck, though, and I hope it all works out for youse!

You sir… are a jammy barsteward!

Deeply envious, could use a break like that in life myself – enjoy it (as if you need any encouragement!)

Hrumph.

😉

fj if you don’t take I’m coming to the smoke to kick you in the lobbocks…… 😈

I’d rather be working in a London office, using crowded, unreliable and expensive trains. Not riding here because it’s raining and paying higher taxes. Just so I can have a good rant on STW! 😆

Spain? Sunshine and an outdoor lifestyle? Living with your gorgeous wife and being happy? Tsk tsk!

Some people just don’t know how to live! 😉

Once you start guiding can you remember to do some tours for the ahem ‘advanced’ gentleman???

Good luck and enjoy, I’m sure it will be a blast. Spanish food, weather, culcher….. good stuff!

Was loving the British weather today. How I love getting covered in cr@p and being cold and wet. Even had a migraine half way through to top it off.

@oldgrump08 I actually put my 60 year old uncle on my 6″ bike and took him for a trail ride. It was a brilliant ability leveler. He loved the ride.

I’d be happy to lead all levels of ride 🙂

going to look at places on Thursday… Mrs has seen an amazing flat in town:


But we would have to have a seperate trastero (shed) and car park somewhere else; plus there is no outside space, though it is smack in the middle of town. (she is in love with it)

or this fishermans house nearer the sea:

What do you think? The fishermans one seems way more practical (bikes etc) or is that being selfish?

fishermans place looks nice to me.

Trasteros can be a bit of a security problem, how much money have you spent on bikes?

And how far is the house from town?

I woon’t fancy trying to tackle those stairs, after a few too many…

I’d go for the one with the roof terrace. Nice, to have your own little bit of outdoor space. You could put plants and stuff up there, grow food, have BBQs, etc.

Good luck with escaping the UK. That is next on our plans is move to France or Italy within the next five years. As everyone says, if it doesn’t work out you can always come back.

Get yourself on ‘A Place in the Sun’ 😛

Daddy?
– Yes son.
What does regret mean?
– Well son, a funny thing about regret, It’s better to regret something you have done than something you haven’t done. And by the way son if you see your mother tell her …

That is very, very true indeed. And given the chance I’d probably go aboroard for a few years too (Not Spain though. No thanks. Canada, USA, Italy, Ireland, NZ though)
But I know I couldn’t do it for more than 2-3 years personally. I love England too much. Of all the places I’ve been there is NOTHING anywhere that compares to the beauty of the English countryside for me and I’d miss that too much. I’m prooud to be English and live in England, always have been, always will be
🙂

rose.tinted.specs

rose.tinted.specs

Peter? Naa.. I agree with him.. for the 10mins of summer in this country it is the best place to be in the world. 😉

I lived in spain when i was working on the Americas cup and volvo ocean race boats…TBH its quicker to get to spain and back than it is to get into some major cities in the UK

I used to think like peterpoddy british born and bred however times are a changin

definitely do it you wont miss sunny England when its hitting 40 degrees on your way to work I can guarantee you that !!!

I’m with Peter on this one. Many people, some on here quite often, have questioned how I can want to live in a place like London. I was pootling around the City yesterday, just looking at stuff, and enjoying the Bank Holiday peace and quiet, and it was one more time when I remember what an incredible place it is; it’s my home. I’m sure many others feel comfortable in other places, but I love it here. I know, if I went anywhere else, I’d just pine for London.

Best of luck for making the move, though. I can easily see why you’re going. Were I in your position, I’d probbly do the same thing, tbh.

This week’s update:
Went to Spain for the weekend and chose the swanky looking place. It’s huwage!

I am already coming up with ways to store bikes NY loft styliee. Mrs even agreed to have Flameboy (my Ro-Ti hardtail) as ‘wall art’ 🙂

In a blink of an eye the movers came and moved EVERYTHING to the apartment in Malaga. They put my 5 (big) bikes in massive jiffy bags and carted it all off. I am keeping Mr Brompton with me and sticking it in the plane's hold when I go commute to work.

On arrival they asked Mrs Flamejob how many kids we had… and 'those are some very expensive bikes'. I think they were referring to the Scalextric set and the Lego Robotics 🙂

Bikes ready to leave

From the entrance; what you see when you enter the house…

I'll have to keep all the tools etc nice and tidy!

Go for it, you'll regret it if you don't.

We left the UK 3 yrs ago to live in Australia. A compnay offered me a job and flew my family and myself out here, then shipped all of our stuff over from the UK. I have since left that company and now work in Brisbane.

We did it for lots of reasons. Far better job prospects, excellent money, change of lifestyle, better weather, sick of th eway the UK was/is going.

We have flown back a few times, and each time we notice that we feel less and less about the UK. It's good to catch up with friends and family, but that's the only real attraction that the UK has.

People say that you should give it at least 2yrs, as you could be homesick during that time, but less so afterwards.

Remember, Spain is a lot closer to the UK, and flights are a lot cheaper than if you were travelling from Oz!

Go fo it, life is too short!!!