Have Your Say – John Woodhead

What brought me to Almerimar?

My wife Jacqui (Mays – we agreed that she would keep her name after we were married) and I decided in the year 2000 that we wanted to buy a holiday home abroad. We spent two years using all our holiday time visiting loads of places in Spain and Portugal and spent some time looking at climate statistics etc. We wanted a place where we could play golf in the winter which was close enough to London so we could have long weekends away and not spend ages on a plane. It ended up being a choice between Murcia or Almeria due to the relatively low amount of rainfall in these areas in the winter.

In 2002 after a couple of visits here we decided that Almerimar was the place for us and we were about to buy our holiday home. However, we both worked for Reuters in the City of London and the market was going through a bad patch so I was made redundant in 2002 and Jacqui was made redundant in 2004. This forced us to put our plans for a holiday home on hold. However, after much discussion we decided to try living out in Almerimar full time starting in October 2004. By early 2005 we decided we really wanted to be here full time, sold our house in the UK and bought property here in Almerimar. We have been living here ever since.

One of the main things that drew us to Almerimar was the friendly and welcoming attitude of the people in the area. They made us feel very welcome whenever we came here. Also, the fantastic view that you get on the approach into Almerimar once you have got through the sea of plastic by the motorway still makes us smile every time we drive back to our home town. Just like it did the first time we drove down the hill and first saw the view.

What are the main things in my life here?

We play a lot of golf and have made a lot of friends in the area. We like spending our time meeting up with our friends, going to barbeques on the beach and generally having the opportunity to enjoy a more relaxed way of live compared to how things were in London. We have weekly Spanish lessons at Centrepoint with the lovely Adela and we do some work but not as much as we did in London. We develop websites for people and we are currently working hard promoting and developing a web portal for Almerimar. I also provide I.T support services. You can see more of what we do here.

How has my life changed since coming here?

The biggest change is that I have more time to spend with Jacqui and we both have more time available now to socialise compared with when we were in the rat race in the UK. Also, our golf handicaps have reduced significantly.

What are the main things I like about Almerimar?

The view from the hill on the way in to Almerimar, having a golf course on our doorstep, the fact that Almerimar is a multi-national place but it hasn´t lost the feel of being a small Spanish town. Plus the other big factor is the weather. Much better than the UK even though we have to put up with some windy spells from time to time.

What do I miss?

The only real thing I miss is the disposable income that we had when we were working in London. However, there are enough positives associated with Almerimar to compensate for this.

Do I feel fully part of the Spanish way of life here?

Not really, but we are slowly becoming more integrated with the local community. We still spend a lot of time with English speaking people here so our Spanish language skills are not very good (although they are improving slowly). We listen to Onda Cero when we are in the car and are understanding more and more of what is said. We are learning to have a siesta and looking to stay up later which fits in well with the way of life around here. Also, playing in many golf competitions with the locals has helped us get to know more local people.

One thing I find really difficult is the mañana attitude to the provision of services. It is very difficult to get used to waiting in for delivery men or people who provide services (gas, electricity, telephone etc.) and not have them turn up when they say they will. However, this is a small price to pay for the great benefits we get from our life here.

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