Author Topic: Changing location - by over 1000 miles  (Read 11632 times)

BarriedaleNick

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Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« on: July 09, 2020, 17:29:56 »
I've been thinking about this for years and we have finally done it and put an offer in for a place in Portugal.
All being well (and god knows if it will be), we will be out of the UK by the end of October and living the good but hard life in a warmer climate.
We are buying 6 acres near a town called Cartaxo - near a river with lemons, oranges, peaches, vines and loads of other fruit.
It's scary and exciting but we have a plan and if it all comes together i'll never work a day for anyone else again!
Here's some pics if you are interested...












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Palustris

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2020, 17:39:35 »
Best of luck!
Gardening is the great leveller.

Tee Gee

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2020, 18:38:13 »
Best of luck Nick

Who know’s you might have to come to A4A members for fruit pickers rather than photo entries! :glasses9:


saddad

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2020, 18:53:42 »
Looks impressive... must visit Iberia... never quite made it yet...

cudsey

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2020, 18:59:53 »
looks fantastic lucky you hope all goes well 
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BarriedaleNick

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2020, 19:31:39 »
It is going to be challenging but I have already found a few agricultural shops..
The whole area is covered in vineyards, peppers, toms and generally very agricultural in nature.  I have a million questions floating around in my head but I am trying not to get over excited as it could all go wrong..
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

peanuts

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2020, 19:40:32 »
Oh wow, what an adventure!  And we understand that, having done similar ourselves in moving to France in 2006.  Don't regret it for one minute, except distance from our now married offspring, and five grandchildren (the last one having been born this morning!) Do you speak Portuguese?
hope you'll continue to take as active a part in A4A.  All the best.

galina

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2020, 20:17:54 »
Congratulations Peanuts.

Brilliant news Barriedale Nick.  What a super place.  Wish you and yours so much luck to get everything done.  Very happy to read about your excitement and share in it.  :wave:   

Tee Gee

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2020, 20:19:46 »
Congratulations Grandma 'Peanut'

peanuts

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2020, 06:45:07 »
Thank you!  The distance from our two offspring and grandchildren has been hard this year, as for so many people.  Seeing photos of the new arrival yesterday, and realising he will be the first one we've not held when very small.  We still don't know  when we will be visiting them all - end of summer?  or perhaps in October?  As our daughter and son-in-law both work  in the NHS, they are adamant that they don't want us to come back and risk they give it to us.  Easy to say that's not a risk now, surely.  But we know one family near us where the offspring came from Paris for the lockdown, unknowingly bringing the virus with them, and gave it to their parents here,  . . .who both died.  Just awful.  So we do understand the attitude of our two. 

Sorry this is a bit off-topic, except that  distance from family is one of the aspects that you must have considered in your exciting decision, Barriedalenick, and one that will go on being relevant!

pumkinlover

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2020, 07:48:13 »
Congratulations to PEanuts and Nick!
Wow it's all happenng.

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2020, 09:02:32 »
I don't have any family here aside from my wife.  My sister is in Egypt and her kids are all over the place including Portugal so I don't have any concerns myself.  My wife's mum is still around and that has been hard but she has come around and will visit often.  We will of course miss our friends and all plots and our work colleagues but we have loads of room for them to come and visit and we will pop back every now and then ourselves. 
The benefits however outweigh these issues.  A warm climate, loads of space for fruit and veg, cheaper food, massive amounts of house (there are three kitchens and another kitchen area!), 50 mins from Lisbon, clean air, a river beach nearby.....  We will keep and rent out our London house so unless we want to we never have to go to work again - there is plenty of work for us there as it is though!
We will get residency and then hopefully citizenship in time so we will benefit from that..
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Obelixx

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2020, 13:24:37 »
I hope it all goes thru to plan and that you will be happy there.

We moved 800km from our old home in Belgium to get a warmer climate and easier house for our retirement.  It came with even more land than the old one but we definitely wanted countryside and not village or town.    Our daughter is still in Belgium, finishing her studies this year and was then all set to work in Belgium or set off and travel, neither of which look likely now.   

You'll probably get loads of visitors to start with but it is important to integrate with locals so you have year round contacts and a social life plus places to go for help and advice on local stuff.    Learning the language is a great help too.   Have to say we avoid like the plague the kind of Brit who's been here for years and still can't speak French and sticks to English friends and habits - wrong mentality. 
Obxx - Vendée France

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2020, 15:10:45 »
I will do my best to learn the language but it is a hard one!  A lot of Portuguese speak English but that wont be an excuse and we are looking at options for learning at the moment. 
The place we want is about 5-6 km out of town but 500m from the station to get to Lisbon so we have countryside, town and city all within an hour of our doorstep.
There is so much space too.  There are two houses and one house has a couple of flats under it so we have space for B&B or visitors.  Trying not to get too carried away as there is much that can go wrong between now and then. 
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

galina

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2020, 17:34:11 »
The picture with that lemon tree looks amazing.  All that in exchange for renting out your London house.  That's a very good idea.  Place looks well connected too.  As for language learning there is always Duolingo.  Is Portuguese much more difficult than Spanish?    https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/pt/en/Learn-Portuguese

:wave:

galina

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #15 on: July 10, 2020, 17:39:17 »
There is also Memrise which is free as well as a whole load of paid for Portuguese courses.  https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/

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BarriedaleNick

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #16 on: July 10, 2020, 18:27:44 »
The Portuguese have a very different pronunciation of certain syllables - it can sound very Eastern European in parts and they tend to swallow letters.  Our local station Setil is pronounced like Shteel so speaking what you see is difficult.  As long as I can make an effort and be polite when I get there I will have plenty of time to learn..
I just have to decide which of the 3 or 4 kitchens or which of 3 bbqs I will cook on each day!
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galina

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #17 on: July 11, 2020, 07:46:26 »
You will manage this.  Know what you mean as we experienced the reverse in how our Portuguese dentist (who has sadly gone back to Portugal due to Brexit) used to pronounce English. 

Wish you all the best.  Presumably you need to register at the local office before January and also have your driving license exchanged.  Is there a national health service? 

Is it like a summer kitchen in a smaller house to vacate the bigger, posher house for tourists in summer?  Or was it a multigenerational house?  In any case, there are great options for earning a bit of tourist Euros.

:wave:   
« Last Edit: July 11, 2020, 07:50:21 by galina »

BarriedaleNick

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #18 on: July 11, 2020, 08:20:05 »
Memrise is pretty good. Vamos La!!
There is the old house and the new house but like so many places out there they have separated the bigger new house into a couple of units.  So underneath the house is a proper flat with a decent kitchen but there is another flat that needs a lot of work.  So altogether there are four units.
I'm more excited about the wood fired bread oven!
We will register for residency before the end of the year and real Brexit hits (although Portugal is very liberal with its residency esp for UK folks) and get our driving license exchanged.  Health service is very good, there are some costs involved but nothing too much.  After 5 years we can apply for citizenship which we will do and we will retain our freedom of movement. 
The plan is to never come back here to live but who knows what the future holds.  When we are ancient and can't look after 6 acres we can go and settle anywhere so we might head to Lisbon which is a beautiful city or we might head to the coast to finish up our days, as we grew up, by the sea.
Moved to Portugal - ain't going back!

pumkinlover

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Re: Changing location - by over 1000 miles
« Reply #19 on: July 12, 2020, 08:31:45 »
It sounds like a good plan. Living in London would feel like a complete change, I could not imagine living there and can see why you want to move. What is it like for growing vegetables?

 

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