johnnyone

Can someone explain to me what constitutes expat land and what doesn't.

Mitzyboy

I'm not even sure I understand the question
Theres no such thing, surely

johnnyone

It cannot be populated as I can find no one who admits living there.

cricketman

It is more a state of mind than a specific geographic location

The expat life can be lived anywhere in Spain that has the following resources closeby; a Lidl, an Iceland, the all-day breakfast, a British bar with Carling on draft, a British school, an English speaking golf club, an English hairdresser and most importantly, a nail bar and "beauty salon".

They are inhabited by strange characters such as the Middle aged man in shorts with the big beer belly, the hooded teenagers with caps who think they live in the Bronx, the bald and stocky golfers about to go on the p*ssup and end the evening in a fight, the diminuitive Spanish golfball seller, the 18 year old girls from Liverpool handing out flyers to cr*ppy bars with expensive drinks and of course.. the English timeshare ripoff merchant, estate agent and gangland drug dealer (the same person does all three jobs).

Lenox

Expats - used to be Pats
Exiles - those who are living in Spain because of some reason, and try and make the best of it by being as British as possible (dentro de lo que cabe).
Remittance Men (and women) - not wanted in Britain, money sent out regularly on the understanding that they stay away.
Cricketman has pretty much answered it above.

HBG

Christ, Cricketman, did you confuse me with your post. I read through it quickly and realised that the people you describe live only a few streets away from me, several families of them living in a row.

Then I read through your post again and realised that you seem to be talking about British people. Did you make a mistake and meant to say Spanish people?

Because the ones you describe which live a few streets away from me are Spanish, born and bred, apart from one family from Ecuador.

Dick Dasterdly

I would say that UK expat land is quite similar to native Spanish land.

However if you ever come across a house resembling Colditz Castle, complete with huge outer walls topped with barbed wire and broken glass and patrolled by half a dozen hungry Rottweilers, it's a fair bet that you'll be looking at German expat land.

steviedeluxe

A slight difference in aroma, I would argue. Mornings and late-afternoon the smell of freshly-brewed coffee, with possibly cigar and/or ducados smoke. Other times a waft of prawns cooking with garlic or fish or meat being grilled on the plancha. Fewer discernible smells from the Brit quarter, unless someone's making a killer curry of course!

HBG

Nice one, there’s quite a few around where I live. I don’t have broken glass on top of my high walls, and only have one Doberman to fight off the intruders; my neighbour, a Dane has four dogs at the moment, two of them are a special breed whose name I can’t recall just at the moment, but he daren’t let them out in the street.

At least two families, one Spanish and one Finnish have guns to protect themselves.

I know it sounds horrific, but that’s how it is, just as horrific as the crime statistics.

I must be mad, but I still like living here, but I’m very careful and still do press-ups every day. I did press-ups when I lived in Hackney too, even more of them.

bil

Oooo, that sounds like a little bit of heaven, doesn't it?

HBG

Yeah.

Dick Dasterdly

Don't quite get it.

The locals are kitted out with guard dogs and guns, I would imagine any would be bandits will be at least equally well tooled up for action, and you are in your garden doing press-ups

Unless you appear to be the neighbourhood version of Rambo, or else have an AK47 stashed behind the door, I think you may just find the odds slightly stacked against you.

bil

The really funny part is that he felt he needed to do more when he was in Hackney.....

HBG

You misunderstand. The bandits are usually Moros or Gippos, opportunists without much brainpower. On the seven occasions I’ve been attacked (in ten years), my dogs have alerted me to intruders in the garden. I’ve gone out to them, suitably equipped, and they’ve fled.

They got in on the one and only occasions and things got really nasty.

I’m no Rambo (and that’s a silly thing for you to have said) and my press-ups over the years have been done because of a sport interest, not because of some snotty-nosed thief trying to steal from me.

Nevertheless, any one of us who lives in a nice house in a nice area, with a nice car, whether in Sunderland or Southgate, will be targeted by the arseholes who blight our lives.

HBG

That's a simple one to answer, Bil. The crime rate in Hackney is about three times higher than here in Spain. Who's rattled your cage at this time of morning?