1 Year On

We've had a week of grey skies and drizzle, a common occurence following Bonfire Night here in the UK, and the temperatures have definitely dropped a few degrees. And so, as we head into another winter with a variety of predictions as to how severe the snow will be, how long it will be until the sun appears again, I thought I'd reflect a little .

We've now been back in the UK for almost 18 months. In many ways our lives in Spain seems even longer ago. That's probably because I really do not miss it. Yes, I have the odd moment where I find myself thinking back to sitting in a cafe in Terreros watching the world go by, chatting with my friends over coffee. It is still a pretty place to live but when we went back for a visit in January there was no longing to be back or a feeling of missing home.

Equally, I see photos of the house in the mountains and have no sense of wanting to be back there.

I am very settled back here, love seeing my family & friends again and really enjoy work.

I often find myself in conversation with people who have the dream of retiring somewhere sunny, somewhere by the sea, somewhere to escape to - away from all the things they don't like about the UK, and I realised that actually that never was my dream. Spain was an accident for us, not a lifelong plan. So maybe that was why I never settled there.

I have no regrets about our Spanish adventure, and at least we will not look back in 10 years time and wonder 'what if'.

There is no doubt I needed a break from work to allow my health to recover and to enable me to get a better understanding of what my body will allow me to do now that the arthritis is in so many joints, and it was definitely a bonus to have that break in Spain. To be able to experience a different lifestyle, culture, location etc was a good experience. To actually organise it, make it happen and manage to find our way around the complex issues involved in relocating to another country was interesting, challenging and frustrating all at the same time - but we did it, and without too many mishaps.

It was probably more scary thinking about moving back, predominantly because one of the main reasons for coming back was that I wanted to work again. I missed going to work, I was not ready to retire, but I'd been out of the job market for 3 years. I'd left a good job that I'd been in for over 20 years due to ill health. Now, here I was, over 50, not worked for 3 years and hoping to find a job in the worse job market  in 20 years - my timing couldn't have been worse.

The other issues surrounding a move back were all hinged on whether or not I would be able to find a job. We could afford to live in Spain without working (although that may not still be the case with the way prices over there have risen and the continuing rate of the euro) but the cost of living here meant that we needed an regular income. Where we lived depended on where I could find a job so I think looking back, there was a bigger risk involved in moving back than there was in going to Spain.

It was a huge gamble but as they say, if you want something bad enough, you can make it happen.

More soon.