Quote:
Doctors in the emergency departments of state health service hospitals will prescribe medicines on the appropriate medical report, but do not issue official prescriptions.
You must take the report to a primary care doctor who will issue the official prescription.

That´s if you want to claim back for insurance through official channels. When you leave a hospital you just take the prescription to the nearest pharmacy as anywhere else.

Oh my gosh! Youre almost as geeky as me!!!! When you get to the costa del sol find me out and we'll have a geek fest

jdr - thanks, I'd seen that list earlier but I've been through so many web sites I couldn't find it again later

The subliminal language experiment certainly seemed to work. Before I fell asleep the radio conversations sounded like a continuous wall of sound - when I woke this morning I found I was recognising word-breaks, structure of sentences and even the meaning of some short phrases.

What is most fascinating is I seem to be thinking/feeling it in Spanish rather than translating to English - something mikewalters identified as being important in his linguistic advances.

Hearing the sounds and accent is proving really useful - there are a few sounds that seem unique. One is like clearing the throat and occurs frequently, another is like rolling Rs.

For those of you that have already learned to speak Spanish:

1. How long would you say it took to feel confident reading and in conversation ?
2. What areas are you still not confident of (e.g. legal, colloquial, formal, business, youth) ?
3. Is there anything in particular that surprised or caught you out ?

What do you mean "almost" ? I'll have you know there's no-one can out-geek me!

I'm glad you popped up - some questions occurred to me last night that you'll probably have some insight into, along with those who have already relocated:

1. What things did you sell/give away/bin that you wished you'd taken ?
2. What things did you take you wished you had left in the U.K. ?
3. What are you taking/did you take with you ?

I'm wondering whether to take all or just a selection of clothes, electrical gadgets (I have cupboards full), DIY and mechanics tools (inc. power tools), 'special' furniture (I'm rather attached to my pale-blue Italian leather lounge suite), books, DVDs, toys, kitchen and utility-room equipment, etc..

I was already preparing to sell everything except a notebook PC and the camcorder for moving to the U.S.A. but in this case I could put some things in storage on the farm here, and move it later in a large hired van (adventurous cross-country road trip, maybe).

Lis48: thanks for that. I suppose I'm a bit rusty on that aspect of things in the U.K., the last time I was in hospital to have throat abscesses aspirated (Quinsy) the doctors in the hospital wrote the prescription itself and I got the drugs from the hospital pharmacy.

That information I quoted seems to be saying that the hospital doctors can't/don't write prescriptions, so you take the form they give you to your local "GP" who writes the prescription.

Actually, you might be more geeky than me, but i am sat here listening to my favourite radio station. Slay radio
Anyway.. im interested in your subliminal sleeping idea with the spanish radio. Though i doubt id get any sleep. I usually need the wirr of my PC to get me to sleep, and things like the TV being on and music completely keeps me awake.

I have not left for spain yet, but have been considering what to take, so can answer your questions in a future tense.

I already made up my packing list ( i was bored at work) and i instantly started with the essentials "laptop, wireless card, camcorder (as im making a video of my experiences of emmergrating)" then finally got onto toothbrush etc. Im leving my mrs in the house that shes in and not taking a great deal to start with due to a complicated situation whereby we kinda broke up but she might come out and join me once im settled and we'll have another go.

Like you my primary concern is communications, so im taking my Fujitsu Siemens T830, my laptop, an ADSL modem, all the cables, wifi card etc. At least with the T830 when im down there i can still communicate with my exchange server which will still be running in the UK to get my email and stuff. So even if im in the sticks, as long as i have a mobile signal i'll get my email via GRPS/3G. I also have a PC installed into my car, (and imd riving down) and a wifi areal on the roof, so im kinda hoping to find a few open wifis to borrow to keep my internet going whilst im sorted out. If theres equivilent to BT openzones and stuff ill probably subscribe. The internet will be essential to me.

And thast my priority, ensuring the car has everything good to go and that i have my gadgets, digital camera, t830, camcorder, laptop, ill be fine. Everything else is just material.

Ur lucky you got farm contacts for storing stuff, the problem with storage is you can pay like £50 per month and after a year youve kinda paid more than the stuff is worth. So free storage would be very good


It sounds like ur really doing some investigation into this, and youre coming to the costa del sol. be good to get to know you, join my meetup group on meetup.com ! We probably have a lot in common, and we could probably help each other out.

I'm the opposite there - even the slightest computer noise drives me crazy. I try to keep the gadgets out of the bed-room. The notebook spinning up the hard-drive occasionally is enough to annoy me.

The radio is usually on very quiet such that I can barely make out what is being said. I generally wake up at some point during the night and switch the sound-system off, though.
When I travel I've made an art of only taking a carry-on bag for flights (no hold luggage) so I'm trying to work that magic for the move.
That does sound difficult - I hope it works out for you. What do you define as settled? Home rental, job, language, cash-reserve ?
From my experience that is the bit that'll be a pain - I once went through U.S.A. border control with a Vaio notebook, a tablet PC, PDA, camcorder - and the mess of wires and adaptors and chargers was embarrassing.

It looked fabulous on their scanner and they just took one resigned look at it and waved me through - they didn't have the stomach to check it all
thats not something I'd have expected you to admit - serious loss of street-cred there
I read during my research of some areas of Spain where a company gives away free ADSL + WiFi routers if the owner agrees to run the WiFi openly so the public can use it.
Same here. This is my primary concern especially during the initial days and weeks. I'll be interested to find out how you get on.
I'm a farm-boy, born here and live here. Its going to be the biggest wrench for me to leave 1,000 acres of fields and privacy behind, not to mention walking the dogs for miles every day.
I believe in doing thorough research and being prepared for everything and anything. From what I've read most people experience problems because they didn't do sufficient research and used inappropriate U.K. expectations in dealing with matters in Spain.
I saw that but couldn't really see much point right now, until I have decided when to move. If you want to add me to MSN the icon on the left should work - if not, P.M. me.
Are you an active sportsman? I'm keen to find sporting partners and hopefully a football team to play for.
Your experiences will almost certainly help me fit my plans to the realities of relocating. When I finally make the move it'd be cool to have someone familiar to throw me a welcome party

TJ.
"The only intuitive interface is the nipple; everything else is learned"

Hi intuitivenipple,

Yes ive turned into a bit of a microsoft boy these last 5 years. I am running an exchange server and i know it looses street cred but at least its better than a lotus domino server.. urghh they're horrible. I tried getting into linux but couldnt.. so u probably win the geek battle there. Just didnt have time for linux.

Anyhoos im not particulalry sporty, hate football but am taking my mountain bike over with me in the view to get back into cycling because i have no energy no mussles or nothing so need to pick it up, plus the good weather will encourage some swimming too. Thats as far as im going

Ill certinately keep you up to date as far as getting connected is concerned.
You are right that spain hasnt worked for a lot of brits because they didnt research properly. I have done just about as much research i feel i can do online. I think to a certain degree theres just going to the element of just "go out there and see what happens" the info on the internet is too conflicting sometimes. I read that crime rate is really high in the costa del sol, then elsewhere i hear its not too high etc.

Ill add you to MSN and hopefully we can chat there!

I have followed this thread because I love research and researchers.

Have you by anychance bought/read the book "living and working in spain", it might be worth flicking thought the latest edition.

But as with all new ventures, and please excuse the pun IN but I cannot refrain from a bit of soft abuse, sometimes you have to suck it and see.

When do you plan to go again?

I fully intend to do my fair share in that department

Thanks for the recommendation on the book, I shall Amazon it.

I'm not risk-averse at all, but I do like to know what I'm getting myself into. I know myself well enough to expect that whenever anything can go wrong, if I'm involved, it surely will

I'm looking forward to it as a great adventure - learning an unfamiliar language and culture especially.

My time-line will be dictated by how quickly I can develop a reasonable conversational mastery of the language. Right now I'm figuring it will be at some point over summer.

Hearing about the incidental experiences of other people, as I've mentioned previously in this thread, is a big part of the adventure for me.

Remember the book will probably be a year out of date, and a years worth of law changes in Spain is about half a book. ;-)

I have both "Buying a Home in Spain 2005" and Living and Working in Spain 2005" I bought them from http://www.survivalbooks.net/
There is now an October 2006 edition.

I rang them to do the transaction as I still do not trust online shopping, so much so that I have just recently set up a special bank account with a £100 limit linked to a paypal account.

Whilst I agree that any and all informative books are always out ouf date before they hit the print button what I do know is that they contain rolling information and contact details that is,in regards to these books, constsntly being revised and reprinted.
As a research stepping stone they are invaluable pointers.

Hi Intuitive Nipple
I cannot recommend all the research that you are doing highly enough. The only thing I would say is when you do come to Spain, especially if you end up in Andalucia is that I think you might find some things are a bit of an eye opener. I´ll give you example as you have been researching laws and legal regulations, you will probably know that helmets are required to be worn on motorcycles and scooters and there are fines if you dont but you will find young kids and families with small children riding around without helmets, no lights, pass through red lights and go up one-way streets. The police 80% of the time just turn a blind eye. That is just one example, you will find that the Spanish in these parts do not tend to do everything to the letter of the law and have in the past got away with most things. Illegal house building is another issue, corruption has been rife for a long time especially in local governments. Take a look at the problems in Marbella with a gentleman called Munoz and his associates.
The only thing that I havent read much about is your research into where you want to live apart from, HOT, ADSL, WATER SPORTS & RURAL.
I have found the perfect place for all of those apart from the internet connections (in certain areas).
It is Cadiz Province. Check out our website for further info on all the towns & villages in the province.
Best of luck
Paul

Paul: thanks for the advice, its very much the kind of thing I want to discover now. Its another aspect of understanding the culture.

Do you know if there are similar regulations regarding bicycles, especially with regard to wearing helmets?

One thing I find intensely annoying in the U.K. is the interference of the state and do-gooder busy-bodies in the choices I make, supposedly for my benefit as if I'm unable to make my own risk-assessment. I'll stop there before I blow a gasket :curse:

Suffice to say I might find this an irritant in Spain too, but blind-eyes sound like a good solution to me

I've read with some fascination the ongoing corruption investigations and arrests and have wondered how it impacts daily life. I've been avidly reading the legal news about land issues especially on solicitor's and legal web-sites. My lawyer tells me that whenever I ask for an opinion I seem to know more than he does, so all this research does pay dividends.

As you say on your web-site, "Fore-armed is Forewarned".

My aim has focused on the Costa del Sol area as my research has progressed - not so much because that's where many ex-pats are but simply for the quality of the local communications infrastructure.

I understand the sea temperatures and water-sports opportunities are much better to the east of Gibraltar.

The local I.T. opportunities seem most numerous around Málaga, with the exception of Gibraltar. This is especially important as I expect I'll end up employing people.

Researching the night-life, the best nightclubs appear to be around Torremolinos which is mentioned amongst my clubbing-friends as almost on a par with Ibizia.

My thoughts right now are that I'll initially rent in or close to Málaga, and use that as a base to find an inland property to buy that suits my farm upbringing.

The one thing I've not yet found much information about is buying farm properties, their typical size, facilities, what you can do with them (we have diversified here into letting out barns to the local TV shop for storage, a classic-car restorer, stables for townies, and more).

In the end I will be guided by my instincts when I have had chance to visit and fit the theoretical research to the actualities.

My expectation is I'll go through three key stages:

1. Initial relocation
2. Permanent home
3. Spread my wings once I'm settled in the region

I´m sorry but I can´t bring myself to keep using your user name. It just brings me to a stupid giggle but thanks for putting a smile on my face
As for using helmets on bicycles, as far as I know there is no law but someone might correct me if I am wrong. As has been stated many times the laws change and get updated very often.
I really like these forums and especially this one, you get great people trying to help fellow expats make the move that much easier and having a laugh at the same time.
I really like your attitude to be trying to help those who come behind you with collating all the information and wanting to put it out there for all to see.
I don´t participate very often as there never seems to be enough hours in the day plus I don´t want to give the impession that I just come on to plug my business.
I was obviously wrong about your final destination (temp)as you seem to have investigated your target area well. I don´t think the watersports are any better east of Gib but I suppose it depends on what sport you are looking at, the water temps are much warmer, it is true. You are also correct in both your other points (IT & Night life) especially if you are looking at Ibiza standards.
You are doing a sound job, the only thing I would suggest is, if you want to integrate and learn Spanish quickly, is that you should look to move to a Spanish barrio (neigbourhood) in Malaga. I am not sure about inland Malaga but around these parts you can get an awful lot of farm (agricultural) land for you money. They normally come with small run down houses with lots of out buildings & land. I wish you luck in your adventure and I am sure you will find Spain to your liking, just don´t expect everything to happen like it does in Britain & you will enjoy.
Paul