It's difficult to advise someone not to come and live in Spain when they can see that you're obviously enjoying life here. It's difficult to explain that it has taken you many years to to get to this happy state, with many tears along the way.

My wife is currently helping a new expat to become 'legal' in the first instance,yet another one who is so eager to come and stay that he hasn't thought much of it through. Luckily he's a pensioner who's left everything behind, his wife of many years, children and grandchildren galore. He's wandering around with a permanent smile on his face, and he's already had four days of queuing for various things, with more to come.

In his case I strongly suspect that he has come to Spain to escape, not from the UK, but from himself. But I've seldom seen anyone look happier.