I"M interested as to where you could go, you might have trouble settling in europe permenantly, depending on your qualifications, and the old Aussie/New Zealand bolt holes aren"t that easy, were you thinking of Asia perhaps? It"s not a bad idea, got a few mates settled in Thailand and are the happiest they have been in life, ironically,the same blokes you would have thought wouldn"t get past a beano in Southend , back in the day.

It"s good to know, just depends how many shekles we are talking i guess. Obviously you would try to buy a place if you wanted to stay forever, just to save cash, but if you don"t actually get the documents, saying you can stay, you might be reluctant to purchase a property. I know lots lost money in Spain a few years back, buying a place that was deemed not water tight on the contract and got fcuked over, are you in Las A mericas or the greener side? You considering applying for permenant residency?

I’m up by Los Gigantes, we bought 8 years ago. Care needs to be taken buying in Spain, lots of crooks, scams etc, but find a decent estate agent with a decent reputation and all should be good. Mainland Spain suffered from a price crash which badly affected a lot of Brits however the Canaries have a lot more stable price structure and have probably seen about a 30% increase in values in the last 5 years. It has to be viewed more as an investment in lifestyle than a guaranteed cash investment however. You can still buy a 1 or 2 bed apartment round here for £100k (or less than a week’s salary for Wilf!).

I love the UK too much, despite its faults to live here full time, so following the current new rules we will probably make the most of the allowance which is 90 days in a 180 day period. So 3 months home, 3 months here. I appreciate not everyone can afford two properties, but if you can I highly recommend it (for your sanity as much as anything given the fact we have not been in lockdown since we arrived). Currently there are only 8 active cases in total in my area which covers about 5 square miles.

Sounds great, yes, moving between both makes sense and keeps life interesting,I love Tenerife and Gran Canaria,and the summer will soon be here, enjoy it Eagle, sounds like you have this life thing sorted!

Thanks, yes we were glad we left the UK when we did.

Ignoring Brexit for a second and it’s unknown long term impact on travel, they are showing signs of being desperate over here for UK cash to return. It’s the quietest I have ever seen it and loads of bars and restaurants have closed, not because of enforcement , but simply lack of trade. It all filters down to the local Canarians who work in the hotels as well as the bars, restaurants and shops, who are not the wealthiest of people at the best of times, so fingers crossed, the vaccine gets people back travelling and the Spanish recognise that us from the UK are a massive contributor to their economy.

Oh and back on topic, good on yer Tom, you showed what can be done with a bit of grit and determination and you deserved all the plaudits you got. RIP

Hope you dont mind me butting in with your chat with CP, i too, have bought property, but mainland Spain(Alicante) & we got ours in the price crash, which was brill for us. So, CP, look into it, you never know it could change your life.

BTW, EC do you know/have you ever been to this bar [Link] its run by 2 brothers Vilma & Yama, along with Vilma's wife, who's English, Tracey. give it a looksee.