bil

I find Lidl staff better than Dia, but nowhere near as pleasant as Mercadonna or Supersol.

Emma-Louise

I've been here 11 years now and many many times I have been embarrassed to be English!

A year or so ago me and the OH decided to cut anyone out of our lives who were part of 'a click' ...... you know the kind that are only happy when slagging off someone else, we now get invited to a hell of a lot less bbqs but we're definately happier!

Today is a bad day, so probably not the best day to take part in a Brits verses debate! A British family has done a runner from a house in our urb. and returned to the UK owing rent and bills, taking the owners belongings with them and worse of all they left cats and 3 x 3/4 week old kittens in the porch area of the house and 1 cat actually trapped in the house which we managed to get out.... no-one would have been any the wiser if the owner hadn't asked me to go and check if the shutters were down!

bil

Cliques are a bugger, and for sure, when you aren't there it'll be you they are slagging off.

jdr

I wondered why my ears were burning.

Ka Ora!

Anyone that gossips to you, Will gossip about you.

Mitzyboy

Believe it or not, an ex member of this forum did that to another member of this forum a while back, in Torrevieja.

HBG

I live in the Torrevieja area and keep well clear of the cliques, of which there are many. There are literally hundreds of clubs catering for all tastes and sorts of expat activity, from the British Legion to sewing circles. They serve a useful purpose to enrich the social lives of the 100,000 expats living in the area, but the downside is the inevitable, destructive gossip that pervades it all, Eastenders and Corrie brought to life right before your eyes.

People suddenly leaving, leaving pets and debts behind, is an every-day occurrence, reading the police reports involving expats is unbelievable, and the local prison in Alicante has a sizeable British contingent.

To be honest, it's much the same as being back home.

tonyk38

I dare say these experiences aren't confined to Spain. Anywhere where sizeable expat communities pop up can be like this.

I live in Cairns, Australia and there's a big expat community here as you can imagine. Most are absolutely fine; some are good friends, but there will always be a clique who bitch and moan and whinge and are downright mean to other expats who don't see their little corner of 'paradise' in the same way as they do.

I get around it by having plenty of Aussie, American (there's a big American community here), and European friends (Swiss, German, Greek etc) in fact anyone who just happens to be a nice person. The 'nasty' contingent will be nasty whether they live in Spain, Australia or the Moon; and in business will be particularly ruthless. They want to do down the competition after all...

mikelincs

That sort of thing even happens in the UK, where I was working we had a chap left work Friday evening, didn't come in Monday morning, no indication he was ill or anything, by Tuesday someone went round to his house, it was empty, no furniture or anything. We hard nothing until a local bank contacted work to see if we could shed any light on this person who had just stopped paying his mortgage or loans, and had emptied his bank accounts.
We found out, many months later, that he was in Australia, where he had worked previously.