We’ve been quite fortunate to have visited quite a few places in the world during the last few years. My wife is a member of cabin crew for an airline in the UK and we’ve had a few discounts here and there to enable us to see places like Mexico, New York and Caribbean resorts. This year things have shifted somewhat. We’re parents now, so late deals and simply dumping everything and jetting off aren’t as easy now. Planning is needed and flight times have to be considered, but we’ve made it.
This part of Fuerteventura isn’t as developed as I’d expected and, in my opinion, that’s a good thing. Some of the Brits abroad love the restaurants and cafe’s that do English breakfasts and show Eastenders on the TV all day long, however for me I’d rather try to speak to the locals in Spanish and try something different. Watching the footie on an exported Sky TV box, drinking Carslsberg and eating bacon and eggs isn’t my scene any more. Sure, a few years ago in Ibiza it was :)
The little guy loves the pool we have in the villa and the Spanish are lovely. They really appreciate it when you try to speak their language. I’ve lost count of the times that people enter the UK to work and we just say, “Why should we pay for translators? They should speak OUR language in OUR country!” It should be the same when we come to foreign lands.
I can see why people from the UK come out here to live too. Technology helps. Broadband is cheap, Sky TV seems to be installed everywhere (which legally it shouldn’t be, but I guess Sky still get the cash), several British radio stations and there’s other ex-pats to help you out. A 4 hour flight is relatively cheap and I guess it’s possible for me to work out here with the aid of a VoIP phone too. It’s easy enough to imagine a life out here. Getting up, not having to worry about heating the house or rushing to work, do a couple of laps in the pool, turn on the laptop and the VoIP phone and start work. It’s even in the same timezone as the UK too, so there’s no early starts or late finishes to worry about. At the end of the day we could walk to the beach and perhaps have a meal on the way back.
Would it work in reality though? Could we stand being away from our home back in England?