Re: Incomers.....
 

I can actually see lots of positives about living in a small village - but for me it would be a non-starter principally because I don't drive and don't want to, but still want to be able to get about without my OH having to take me anywhere I want to go. I've come across quite a few cases where women (and it does mainly seem to be women) in that situation have ended up regretting a decision to live in the campo or a small village without much by way of public transport and consequently feeling isolated and wanting to move.

The area where I live is part of a very big town but, being the oldest part within the original medieval walls and almost totally traffic free apart from motos (not too many thankfully) has something of a "village within a town" atmosphere. Most of our Spanish neighbours are part of large extended families with grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins living very close, who have been here all their lives. It's not at all anonymous, everybody knows everybody and what you are doing, not that I mind that. We have quite a lot of the dreaded gypsies living around us, too. Some of them I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them, but other families are perfectly good neighbours who go to work every day, bring up their children well and pitch in to help if they see us doing something. My OH asked the son of one such family, who is restoring a house nearby, if he could get some sacks of mortero delivered for us as part of his next delivery of building materials, and not only would he not let us contribute to the delivery costs, he wouldn't take anything for the materials either as my OH helped him and his brother unload their bricks. That's not the first time they've helped us out, so my OH is happy to lend them tools when they ask.

If we move away from here in future years it will be because we think it would be sensible to be somewhere more easily accessible in case we get too doddery to cope with lugging the shopping home every day, but I know I will miss it.

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Sounds like the best of both worlds. As long as you keep half an eye on the ones you don't trust. Even in our village I don't leave the doors open like most people do. Force of habit.

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Lynn what a good post:) I know you say you don't want to drive but have a think about it. One friend had never drove, never even dealt with the finance. Her Husband died suddenly the same day as they had a new car delivered. They owned a block of apartments that she had never dealt with. In no time at all she learnt to drive. She is allover the place now, even drives into málaga which I avoided at all costs. She now wonders why she didn't do it before.

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:amen: to that!

I'm in the screw loose club too! ;)

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I agree with all of your post as I am "townie" myself, London or Oliva.
I do understand how some do prefer the Campo and good luck to them but it's not for all.
It would be a dull world if we were all the same.
At least this thread hasn't degenerated into a them versus us thread.:fingerscrossed:

On your point about a village within a town, I think that's right. In Oliva there are still local neighbourhood fiestas and I think that this has the same effect.
I must say that whilst we only have a holiday home in Oliva we are warmly welcomed (genuinely)by our neighbours.

However is this really any different to the Uk. I believe you get back what you give out wherever you are.
Ps That's down to the wife not me.

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Thanks for that. I did have driving lessons once, many more years ago than I care to remember, but having come within a whisker of crashing into a plate glass shop window on my final lesson I decided it would be safer for everybody if I gave it up as a bad job! I'm not a nervous passenger at all, but put me behind a wheel and it's a different story.

I am a very independent person in other ways and I am the one who deals with all the finance in our household, it would be my OH who wouldn't know where to start if anything happened to me!

Public transport is fine for me, it's very good and cheap here, it may take a little longer to get there but hey, time is one thing I'm not short of now.

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I'd agree that it's worth learning to drive. I had convinced myself I didn't want to drive after taking my test once in my 30s and failing. I had to take it several more times in my 40's before I passed. At the age of 46. I had real performance anxiety and hardly could get out of the loo at each of my tests. My instructor just couldn't understand why I kept failing. Eventually I told my tester who I'd met twice before about my anxiety and it magically disappeared! I passed that time. I don't think I'm a great driver even now. But at least I can and it's not that I'm unsafe I'm just more inclined to let my husband drive so I'm not very experienced. But I'm really glad I did, especially as my husband has to have regular eye tests and laser surgery. Without me driving we'd be in trouble as there's no public transport to speak of and I've never seen a local taxi..if there is such a thing!

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Congratulations on conquering your fears. It's not just nerves with me, though, I am just unbelievably bad at operating machinery (even a sewing machine is beyond me, and I can't kill anyone with one of those unless I hit them over the head with it!). I can't do puzzles either or understand those diagrams that show you how to assemble things. Whether you call it spatial skills, motor skills or what, I don't have them.

Plus not having a car means we are spared at least some of the hassle and bureaucracy of life, don't have to bother about all the corrupt Guardia Civil lurking behind every lamp post to extort money from us or greedy Spanish garage owners ripping us off!:sneaky:

We did say when we got rid of our car before moving that if we needed one for something specific we could just hire one, but we've never needed to yet.

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I'm not sure it would be so difficult to get up to the Spanish driving standards from what I have seen:p

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Good points. It's probably cheaper to get taxis if and when you need them if you have access.

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I find taxis expensive here, a 4 Euro bus ride, the same journey and the taxi wanted 85 Euros, or maybe it was because we were foreign?:confused:

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I don't think the Spanish are bad drivers.

Ok they haven't quite got the concept of stopping at pedestrian crossings unless they are likely to hit someone but on the motorways they have far more lane discipline than most UK drivers and stick to the inside lane unless overtaking.

I just cannot understand middle lane hoggers on motorways. You know who you and perhaps can explain to me why you do it.

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Whilst I agree with you about middle lane hoggers, I see nothing wrong with the practice where such drivers are either keeping to the max speed limit or retaining position close to traffic in front of them on such occasions as when the inside lane is virtually chock a block anyway and attempting to weave in and out of it is a nightmare.

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It's the ones that do it on an empty motorway that I meant even if they are at the max speed limit.

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They do it here in Spain too......it's very annoying!