The Majorca Daily Bulletin printed a ‘Relocation Supplement’ recently. This was to help the thousands of new people arriving here each year and those making future plans to join them.
A very interesting read with articles from columnists and those offering services to incomers.
My contribution went like this
My story starts as a visitor and then a second home owner on the beach. We bought an apartment on the Repic Beach of the Port of Soller and Trev and I were frequent visitors. We dipped in and out and thought we had the measure of the place. Then we made a three generational decision to move permanently. This all took place 15 years ago and I still laugh at our naivety. Something about being savvy Londoners’ made us feel we knew our way round. We took the most obvious expensive routes when buying a house and did everything via a recommended Palma lawyer. We spent an unnecessary fortune and lived to regret it when the lawyer was arrested. His arrest meant we looked more locally for the legal services we needed and that is what we did from then on.
The Soller Valley was our choice and where we put down our roots. Trev, my husband, was retired and I opened a business in the Port of Soller in 2008. This was not recession proof and when the huge financial downturn came it was tough. Much of our retirement money was needed to pay staff and extract ourselves with honour from the company. A failure to understand what a global recession would do to Majorca was hardly under my control but the financial effects were difficult.
In the meantime, my daughter, son in law and by now three granddaughters were having their Soller lives alongside us. Another house purchase and renovation project for them and all the decisions that young family life entails. School choices took them to Bellver college in Palma for an English education. This worked for the eldest two but the youngest felt herself too Majorcan to go down that route and has stayed local. The advice my family would give newcomers is to immerse your children in the local school and life when you arrive. You might make other choices later but take the plunge into the language and culture from day one.
Reviewing the past 15 years we would all say that the children have had a wonderful Majorcan childhood. The outdoor life and being part of a small population has given them great choices and experiences. Majorca is a great place for children as far as our family is concerned.
Now, in 2019 life brings new challenges. My husband died recently and everyone asked if I would now go back to the UK. Majorca is my home and Soller is the place I am attached too and enjoy. Going back is not an option as my life is here. My family live round the corner and their lives and mine are intertwined.
The irritations of Spanish bureaucracy is well catalogued especially as there is a different office and paperwork for so many things. I have lived here long enough for this not to be an irritant and just a fact of life. For incomers I recommend taking the relaxed view because in the early days it can give you sleepless nights.
My story involved arriving to a place I already knew from our holiday apartment here. Many friends and contacts were already made and I had history. We arrived full time alongside a group who relocated at the same time. Some older people and many young families. We were on the cusp of the change here in the relocation story. The past was full of older retired people coming to see their senior years in the sun. This has now all changed and the new arrivals are the families and six month residents who are here under the new rules.
Living in Majorca is an evolution and constantly challenging. The island is changing into the international hub it wants to be. So many opportunities and a great outdoor life makes it the place for me.
Pic of my daughter and I partying….
