Snap.

I've seen inside quite a few companies in Madrid (when I taught English to business classes there). It's probably not a totally representative sample - some were IT based eg IBM, Sun, Cisco, some were in engineering or facilities support, some were media based; I even worked in an investment bank. But there didn't seem to be much difference between there and UK companies - and I've worked in loads of different places in the UK both on the shop floor (factory and supermarket) plus a lot of work in IT departments. In a lot of cases the companies concerned are multi-nationals anyway, so there isn't really much difference at all. If anything the only real difference is that I never came across a decent works canteen in Madrid (although I've seen a great one at one of the Fords suppliers near Valencia); I suspect they rely on workers either bringing a packed lunch or going to a local bar-cafe. There again, the places I've worked at lately in the UK haven't had a canteen at all.

Doesn't B&Q have a canteen

you surprise me, I'd put you down as someone who's never worked.. Now you tell us you work in B + Q!!

10 euros an hour, that is 1700 euros a month which you can live pretty well on around here.

It goes without saying that many Spaniards and non-Spaniards earn a lot more than that, but depends what your qualifications are and what speciality you have.

Still, I think a family can have a better quality of life of £1500 a month on the CDS than you can on £3k per month in London.

Is this a serious question?

I haven't read all the thread so don't know whether anyone else has commented.

How about:
Cheap second-hand cars, cheaper clothes, groceries and household appliances.

Beautiful and varied scenery. (Edited to add: I see you are from Snowdonia - this was actually our plan A - but we ended up in Spain instead).

Reliable and cheap (or sometimes free) broadband.

Consistent rules and regulations.

I'm sure there are a lot more but these will do until after breakfast.

Work-wise, I did the really big bit in the UK, but I still do a bit here in Spain, albeit on a self employed basis only.

Yep, and that's mainly why we always include a spring visit, and head for inland Andalucia, usually Ronda, Jerez, Arcos area. But it's good here, just different flowers. Snowdrops are out, soon the area will be covered in primroses, primula, daffodils, wild garlic etc, a bit later areas will carpeted in bluebells, foxgloves etc. The coast paths will be covered in thrift, sea campion, campion. There are huge areas here that belong to the coast path, military etc, which haven't see any pesticides of any sort, and as such wild flowers flourish there.

True, but I always found where we were in East Anglia, you had to go out of your way to see wild flowers. There were some areas where you could see bluebells as a blue haze under the trees, but those areas were private property. Here we see huge swathes of blue and purple from suegras all over the place, and I always think, were those bluebells, people from England would be incredibly excited to see such colour.

One odd flower is a tiny, blue flower on a plant that hugs the ground very closely. The first time I saw it I could not understand what it was. The blue was so bright, intense and continuous that I assumed someone had spilled blue paint over a couple of thousand sq metres of the field.

The only wild flower worth a damn that we used to see on the UK roadside verges were the cowslips. In the last 30 years I saw them go from practically none, to being quite common again. The only other wild plants were grass, nettles and cowparsley.

Here there is a lot more plant diversity on our doorstep as not every square inch is farmed intensively, and the wild areas aren't groomed and controlled.

Fair play, that made me laugh out loud !!!!
Oh yea, the Weather was shit ( OMG )
DSB.

I AGREE.
Thing I've noticed with this FORUM is any Post longer than, say .. 3-5Pages generally veers off around Page3 ( no pun intended ).

Back to the shopping, for fuc*s sake TESCO, just get your ass over to Spain then all the British Expats won't have anything to moan about, apart from Telephonica that is

DSB.

People always rave on about Tescos.It is good for clothing but their ready meals etc are awful and so is their fresh meat.Prices are good but whats the point if it all goes in the bin.

I stopped shopping there when we lived in the UK,only visiting the clothing or toys dept.

Sainsburys are much better but some of their stuff is debateable.Again clothes are good.

Luckily well be clothes shopping so Ill be flying.

Ok, my go now...

England is great, but it feels shit, for the most part. When I land the feeling is almost like a hangover, the next day it just feels weird, and all the things we used to "put up with" actually tickles me to the core..

I left, in a manner of speaking, because I was tired of people moaning about what they had to do for a living, and could not wait until the weekend.

I agree with ALL the plus points about "visiting England" already made.
From my perspective, at least, I think I would have more to worry and or complain about if I was to be told; "This time you are staying in England and leaving Spain".

On that note, I'm happy where I am, because I feel like I can discover more and challenge myself to make life what I want it to be; In Spain.
As oppose to; Living in England - And that's that .. you know.

Love England ; Prefer Spain
DSB.

EDIT* Back to the shopping, for fuc*s sake SAINSBURY's, just get your ass over to Spain then all the British Expats won't have anything to moan about,

I have quoted the above as more of a representation of all that some people think is wrong about the UK ex-pat community in many parts of southern spain.

I have seen this attitude grow over the last 40 years (bought my apartment in 1971) and have given up trying to explain that looking back to the UK with rose tinted specs is probably the most negative thing you can do. Like a small minority of others I made a decision to stop pretending Spain was the UK with sunshine, stop moaning about what we couldn't get and buy the local equivilant. Sad thing was that with the ex-pat's came the 'english' bar the 'Irish' bar and all other associated tat and UK seaside rubbish. Thank god for the recession and the disappearing 'theme' pubs/bars/clubs.

On the odd return to the UK all I see is a society hemmed in by rules,taxes,health nazi's and signs forbidding you to do anything !!!!!
Even passport control treats me like something they have just trodden in.

Rant over.....

Andy

War is God's way of teaching americans geography