Australia or Spain????

It was another very wet and windy night last night, although it had calmed down a bit when I took the dogs on a 1.00am walk around the marina!

I had to do some repair work on the bed today as some of the pvc sliders had broken, making the bed stiff to slide in and out ... it is a cross bed, not an angry bed!  It sits cross-ways across the boat but has a split mattress so it can be turned into daytime mode in about 30 secs. We had purchased some new sliders from B & Q yesterday, so today I fitted them.  Everything went well and it only took about one hour.

Ray and Diane popped round for a cuppa.  We bade farewell to Ray, he is off to Oz tonight for a few weeks.

Later in the afternoon I walked the dogs to Stone and back.  Elly and Mick (NB Parisien Star) plus Carol and Barry (NB Wintons Folly) were moored up down there ... I havn't seen them for about 9 months ... they gave me a wave through the boat window.

By the time I got back to the boat the sun had set, it was 16.30!!

It was nice and calm though but there was a fair chill in the air.

On yesterday's blog post I mentioned that we wrote down the pros and cons of living in Spain vs Australia on a scrap of paper whilst having lunch. Tom from NB Wherethebloodyhellareyou left a comment asking what our pros and cons were, so here they are ...

As I have mentioned before we would love to live in the UK but cant handle the winter, plus we can't get our Aussie pension in the UK ... but can get it in Spain.  The absolute ideal situation would be summer in the UK and summer in Oz, but there are two things stop that ... we don't have that sort of cash and you can't do it with furry creatures!

So this is OUR pros and cons list ...

Australia ... Pros

1. Great weather

2. Stable economy

3. Speak English, with a funny twang

4.Good but expensive health system

4. We have lived there for 30 odd years, we know it and it feels safe

5. Laid back, healthy lifestyle

6. Good pension 

7. Stable banking system

8. Have friends there

9. Good cafe society

Australian ... Cons

1. Very expensive to live

2. Expensive housing

3. Not animal friendly

4. Long way from UK family

5. World's worst drivers

6. Nasty spiders, snakes, ticks etc

7. Rugby league...they don't get football   

8. Crap pubs (apart from the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay)

Spain ... Pros

1. Great weather

2. Cheap housing, villa with pool and fully furnished £150,000!

3. Laid back lifestyle

4. Close to the UK and the rest of Europe

5. Fantastic motorways, new airports, hospitals etc

6. Animal friendly unless you are a bull

Spain ... Cons

1. Language and cultural barrier

2. Bureaucracy

3.  At the mercy of exchange rate, as our cash is in Oz

4. No friends or contacts

5. Spanish government volatile, could you lose your house or tax rules change.

6. Health system ... a great unknown!

7. Not a pretty country, as in harsh scenery

That is OUR list off a scrap of paper!

We still intend doing Europe in the motorhome as you cannot beat being there for a while rather than fly in and out in a few days ... but at the moment I would have to say Australia is in front.