Spanish Practices

Do you really need to speak Spanish in Spain? Can you get by with a few words, Google Translate and waving your hands around. And which company was voted worst Company of the Year in Spain in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

Many move to Spain chasing a healthier, freer life under the sun—but does it really happen? What are the true keys to living longer, better here? Also my glorious failure as a radio producer—paired with the legendary Pete Murray, who somehow survived my on-air blunders (though only just!)

Forget about the culture and language skills -  are Cheap Booze and Fags the biggest danger to your succcessful new life in Spain? And, I sacked Top Gear and The Grand Tours Richard Hamilton for not knowing enough about cars, was I right or wrong to do so? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.    

Is it safe to drink the water in Spain? And the horrific story of a suicide that happened right under our noses. (Contains material that some listeners might find disturbing) This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

Why does Spain have a reputation for casual animal cruelty? WARNING This Episode has depictions of animal cruelty from the start. This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

How do you watch British TV in Spain? And the reality of living in a foreign country, leaving our friends and family behind, have we made a big mistake? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

What happens when you wake up on your first morning living in Spain and you realise you might just have made the biggest mistake of your life? What's it like to live just a few kilometres from the Mar de Plástico and how do they grow those delicious strawberries so cheaply? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

Is Spain’s reputation for “machista” - sexist or chauvinist men deeply rooted in its historical, cultural, and political past? Is modern Spain ever going to be able to tame the Matadors and their macho ways? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

The famous Okupas of Spain - squatters with more rights than the owner of the property they have illegally entered. But are the days of the Okupas numbered? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

How a Spanish Mayor and a Bikini kick-started the Package Holiday, we carry on abroad with a look back at the great British Holiday to Spain. This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

This is our real life in real Spain and an invitation for you to join us on the journey. Like, it's free, follow, it's free and subscribe, it's free and really helps us make more of these episodes.

Why do around 25% of adults smoke in Spain? Why is it still socially acceptable to smoke in front of children here in Spain? This episode, Spain a smokers paradise? This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

How do I get to live and work in Spain? Is it better to rent first and buy later? The answers and our experience of buying a property in Spain. This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

In the one hundreth episode of Spanish Practices we celebrate the rhythm of Spanish life. It’s brash, colourful, very very loud.. yes we are having a Fiesta. This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.  

How on earth do you cope with the hot Spanish Summer Sun?  This is our real life, in real Spain. Ten years of adventures since swapping our glorious Victorian House in leafy Essex for a tiny flat in a wild Andalusian village. I was once a Radio Producer in London, not a great one. Feel free to comment, like and of course follow - it really helps the show.

Transcript: Day 98 The End? Sunday and the Alarma is over, Lockdown is unlocked, 99 days, it started on Saturday March 14th, but actually I consider that weekend to be the two phoney days of Lockdown.   Saturday 14th March was a pretty normal day, the supermarket rammed with people taking everything off the shelves, including the toilet paper, something that the Spanish do not a use a lot of, most prefer to wash in the bidet than smear on the pan, as it were.   Sunday was equally as busy as people rushed around to be in the right place before the strict measures and fines started on Monday 16th March.  Our friends Jen and Dave making a run for it to their seaside flat, Jen told me “Well it will only be for fourteen days, so we grabbed a few things from the village flat and drove early to the coast.”   As it turned out it has been 99 days and Jen only had her flip flops to wear which after week three fell to pieces and had to patched up with sticking plaster.   For us that first day felt, well felt like this:

Full transcript: Day 97 Of mousy women and men Saturday the weather is calm, the sun is shining, I have been doing some extreme weeding on the mountainside and managed to not fall down, the one time I did I thought it was best to relax and just let my body slide to a bit where I could cling on.  Our garden in Essex did not have the same extreme challenges, unless you count the incredible numbers of snails that ate their way through most of our English garden.   I have been spending some time reflecting, yesterday about the reasons why we came to Spain, today a reflection of things past.  Sometimes it is not healthy to keep reliving the past, much better to look forward to the future.   But often the future is fashioned by the past, all my mental health problems during the 1990s definitely changed me long-term as a person. I am pleased to say now I am a much more ‘mellow’ individual, although I am still capable of falling off my perch as my dear colleague Richard Dallyn used to say.   Over the years we have wo

Full transcript: Day 96 Tim Tams   Friday and the I made a terrible mistake today, I try very hard now to avoid the TV news from the UK, we have enough to occupy ourselves here with events in Spain.   I caught a picture of Headmaster Boris holding a packet of Tim Tams up, from what I understand following a new trade deal with Australia you will get tuppence off this less than delicious biscuit from Australia and the trade deal will end up adding only a gnats thingy to the UK GDP.   Worse I then wandered into the news that the New Zealand trade deal could well have a negative effect on GDP, as things like delicious but cheap New Zealand lamb will lose its trade tariff that allows British farmers to sell their lamb at competitive prices.   I scooted away as quickly as I could, off to Facebook for some friend’s kittens being naughty in his apartment in Spain. Oh no! the next post concerned the much-heralded UK tracing APP.   The story that unfolded that Apple and Google make a free tracing App but the UK Governm

Transcript: Day 95 Bonfire night   Thursday and now just a few days before everything un locks, the end of the Alarma and the new normal will start on Monday, many Spanish can go back to work and get the working week off to.. er, well er, a two day start, because next Wednesday “we are having a Fiesta”   The Fiesta of San Juan to be precise, the beginning of summer and those long summer holidays, after all we have all been working so hard these last few weeks … erm!   San Juan is when hordes of Spanish all head to the beach for a party, it will last all night and bonfires are lit all along the coast on the beach, there will be a lot of food and drink, all in throwaway plastic containers, barbecues and plenty of booze, that will also come in plastic containers and tin cans.   The idea is that the bonfires of San Juan are said to purify and protect, and ward of evil spirits, also at midnight, Spanish time, you go to the water’s edge and wash your face in the sea water to bring you good luck and hope for the fut

Transcript: Day 94 Assassination  Wednesday and the excitement cannot be contained, I am going shopping with Chris, well to be honest he doesn’t want me in the first shop, - Mercadona, he tells me he has a routine now and that doesn’t include me putting unsuitable items in the shopping trolley.   Never mind I am going to the Post Office instead, to pick up a parcel, the Post Office is only open between 8.30am and 2.30pm, the local office is tiny and usually packed, as many Spanish still come and pay their bills and do very complicated administrative things.   I arrived to discover the entrance was hidden behind some railing and the pavement outside was in a complete mess.  I followed the arrows around to the back entrance, I am guessing the temporary entrance that will take you through the sorting room/office.   Just ahead of me is curly lady, she is our local Postal worker and delivers the mail to the Estate.   But as I reach the door the sign on the door says closed at 2pm.  Madre Mia I said to her waving m