movingtoportugal

A bit of fun this week. Alyson, the author of another expat blog, www.algarveblog.net , approached me to do a short interview about the Moving to Portugal blog and my life here in the Algarve. You will find my interview by visiting this link. I enjoyed answering the questions so much that I suggested we do it as a joint feature, so she agreed to answer the questions herself too, so read on for her interview!

1 Why did you start to write your blog?

I was inspired by Ben’s Moving to Portugal blog as I found this such a useful resource as we planned our own move to live here in the Algarve – it was great to find someone who had already ‘been there and done it’ and it inspired me to start my own blog. It was also a great way to keep in touch with friends, and to answer the same question we kept being asked ‘How’s it going?’ (We’re still asked that one now – and also ‘How’s the weather out there?’)

Alyson's Algarve Blog

2 Why did you choose Portugal to live?

We fell in love with the sleepy fishing village of Ferragudo about eight years ago after a last-minute unplanned holiday to the area; and five years ago we managed to finalise our plans to sell up in the UK and buy our house out here. It then took another 4  1/2 years of planning and plotting to actually move out here.

3 What do you love most about where you live?

I love the people, our neighbours are all Portuguese and so friendly, helpful and gentle. The weather, obviously, but also the peace, slower pace of life, fantastic light for photography and painting, and the great simple food.

4 Is there anything you miss about the UK?

We have friends and family there and we obviously miss them – although the diary is filling up with visitors! Sometimes I miss the range of shops we had, how easy it was to get just about anything you might need, and some food items are hard to find here. But there’s a MUCH longer list of things I don’t miss!

5 Quick choice:

Mac or PC? - PC – I love the sleek design of a Mac but have not been tempted yet!

Starter or dessert? - Dessert every time!

Early morning or late night? - Erm, neither! I’m so not a morning person, but I also like going to bed and reading too!

Air con or log fire? - We don’t have either here – but a log fire would win for me – crackling and welcoming

XFactor or Strictly Come Dancing? - Strictly every time! I love Brucie!

6 What book(s) are you reading now?

Oh I’m a very shallow reader sometimes – I love soppy romantic fiction, so my Danielle Steel books are all being devoured again having been in the loft for so long. Also loving ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield.

7 Do you have a role model or someone who has inspired you?

As a teenager growing up it was Cliff Richard! I have just started a new blog and I have posted about the artists that have inspired me - The People Who Encouraged me to Paint

8 What blogs and web-sites do you read regularly?

Jeff Goins – Mr Inspiring!

Tamara Out Loud – love her quirky take on life.

Robert Brault –  love his quotes!

9 For people new to your blog, where should they start?

Just dive in there and see what catches your eye – and maybe check out the About Us page too!

10 What is your favourite meal to order in a restaurant?

I’d have to travel for this one, I’d have Salada do Polvo (octopus salad) for a starter from the little restaurant near the beach in Burgau; rabbit stew from a little restaurant we love in Odeceixe, and then mousse de caramel from Toc Toc’s in Ferragudo.. with a nice red wine (Monte Velho is good!)

The Beach at Ferragudo

11 What were your best subjects at school, and do they relate to your work now?

P.E. English and Art – So I took a degree in sport, a teaching qualification PGCE in PE and English, and then joined the Police, working my way out and into senior education roles! Finally I am now able to concentrate on my painting and art, and I am loving every minute.

12 Do you have any advice for anyone thinking about starting their own blog?

Go for it – but have a ‘theme’ and a purpose – and consider something like Wordpress as an easy way of hosting and designing a site.

13 Where else can we find you on the web or in print – any books, articles, Facebook or Twitter account?

Just started a new blog, thethoughtpalette, as I wanted somewhere that I could write more generally – I would often hear or see something and think ‘oh I want to blog about that’ but I didn’t fit the Algarve Blog theme. You can see our art and photography on our web-site A3 Art.

14 Can you share one thing about yourself that we would never know about you from reading your blog?

I’m a huge fan of John Barrowman!

15 For people considering a move to live abroad, what would you recommend they do first?

Visit the place lots of times first – at different times of the year, not just during the ‘holiday times’ – i.e. see what it’s like in Winter! Ask lots of people lots of questions, and maybe plan to rent first, if you can, to see if you like it enough to want to live there.

16 Can you name three favourite places you would recommend people visit if they are on holiday here in the Algarve?

Ferragudo, Silves and the West Coast.

Silves, Algarve, Portugal

17 Do you have any tips or tricks for anyone who has just arrived to live here in Portugal? And is there anything you wish you had found out or discovered sooner about living out here?

Learn to slow down! Eat where the locals eat and shop where they shop. Take time to settle and don’t rush things.

And I wish I had realised how slowly the wheels of organisations can actually turn – we are still trying to get our address at the bank updated and sort out our on-line banking!

18 How’s your Portuguese and  what would you recommend for people wanting to learn the language?

Oh I wish it was better! We are not frightened to ‘have a go’ now and we have found the Portuguese are very friendly and will always try to help you – usually by speaking English which doesn’t help us learn the language! We have found the Michel Thomas CDs very good as a starting point.

19 What is your favourite:

Film? - ’What dreams may come’ – a little known Robin Williams film

Book? - ’Wind in the Willows’ – Kenneth Grahame

Album/Music? - Sugarland, John Mayer, Tricia Yearwood – there’s a long list!

Gadget? - Before I left my last job I was a real gadget girl with all the latest toys, but now I would have to say it is my camera.

20 And finally, where do you think you will be in five years’ time, and what will you be doing?

Hopefully still living here in the Algarve; I would love to be known as a professional artist, with regular exhibitions shared jointly with Dave and his photographs, and maybe to have finally written that book that is lurking inside!

Don’t forget to check out my own interview over at the Algarve Blog.

Readers interested in the Portuguese language course recommended by Alyson can find it at the link below:

Total Portuguese with the Michel Thomas Method (Michel Thomas Series)

Image Credits: joaoa, timo_w2s

Technorati Tags: algarve blog, algarve interview, living in the algarve

For someone who has spent much of his working life in the computer industry, I can be strangely indifferent towards technology. When I am back in London, the extent to which people live their lives plugged into smartphones worries me somewhat. I think life was better when people used to talk to each other.

Staying in touch with family and friends becomes very important when you live in another country, and telephone conversations with your nearest and dearest come to replace what used to be lunches, coffees, and evenings in the local.

While Facebook, Twitter and email keep you constantly aware of what people are up to, these methods of communication are quite impersonal, so for affordable communication with the UK, Skype has been a bit of a lifeline.

Skype: A Lifeline for Expats

Skype has allowed us to have long and inexpensive conversations with family and friends, and the extra services we subscribe to allow us to call UK landlines very cheaply. We even have London phone numbers so that people in the UK can call us at no extra cost-highly beneficial for business as well as personal use.

On a few occasions, we have even had social gatherings with people using webcams, clinking glasses against the cameras and staying online for hours. In the (slightly adapted) words of S Club 7, “there ain’t no party like a Skype party.”

With all this in mind, it is annoying that we still manage to run up at least 40 euros worth of landline calls to the UK on our phone bill every month.

Why is that? Well, using voice-over-IP like Skype isn’t perfect. Quite often, people at the other end say we sound echoey, and when you are talking to anyone with less than perfect hearing this is far from ideal. In addition, using Skype means we are tied to the computer (I know Skype phones exist, but my experience of them hasn’t been great). Now it’s OK to wander around with my laptop, but not ideal, and if I have cause to wander somewhere where my wireless signal is poor, I lose the call.

Due to these reasons, I have got into the bad habit of picking up the landline at certain times and when calling certain people. I then curse myself when the bill arrives.

Now, as an ex-London resident, I am very familiar with the shops all over the city that sell a wide range of pre-paid telephone calling cards. The option of using one of these myself never really occurred to me, but, when I was approached to try one out, it seemed like it could be the answer to my problems.

Using a proper telephone from abroad has benefits

The huge advantage of using one of these cards, over a service like Skype, is that you can use any landline phone to make calls, doing away with the disadvantages of Skype. The card I trialed was from NobelCom, who are currently offering a free calling card. The card arrives by email. All you have to do is call a freephone access number, then dial in a pin code, followed by the number you wish to call.

The card I used held US$20 credit, which at their quoted rates is enough for 250 minutes of calls to the UK, just 8 cents per minute. This is significantly less than our Portuguese landline, and around a fifth of the cost of using our Portuguese mobiles. The call quality was crisp and clear, and a test call to my mother revealed that she found me a lot easier to hear than when using Skype.

The only disadvantage, to me, was the large amount of numbers you need to know: the access number, the PIN, the country code, and the UK number. That’s a whole load of dialing. Luckily there is the facility to input speed-dial numbers. Unfortunately, the “PIN Free” dialing option only works in the US, but they do offer a PC-2-Phone application that allows you to dial the numbers automatically via a computer.

Regardless, the calling card is a great addition to our “staying in touch” toolbox, and I now have a piece of paper by the phone, listing the sequence of numbers I need. Now, when I am feeling lazy, don’t have the computer on, or want to call someone hard of hearing, it won’t result in a telling off from the wife when the phone bill arrives. For that reason alone, it is worth every penny.

Before I sign off I am launching a new blog feature this week. As I have now been posting here on Moving to Portugal for nearly three years, my older posts are getting buried behind the new, and this is hiding away information that may be useful or interesting to new readers. To make these posts easier to find I am introducing “At this time in…….” to the end of some of my posts…

So for starters….at this time in…..2009 – I was just nine days away from moving to Portugal, and ranting about the popularity of “X-Factor” on British TV – the post can be found here.

Have a good week.

This time in 2009....We were about to move to Portugal

Image credits: Doodlepress, Stereoit.

Technorati Tags: calling from portugal, phone from abroad, phoning from portugal

As I write, I can see that it has been a full two weeks since I last posted here, and for that I apologize. It’s been a busy time. We spent the last week in the UK where we saw some friends and family, did some work, and, in my case, had a tooth extracted.

It was a bit of a whirlwind like every trip “back,” helped somewhat on this occasion by the fact we flew with British Airways. We choose our flights based primarily on lowest price and it just turned out that BA was cheaper on this occasion. Compared to our usual budget airline experience, which seems to bring out the worst in every passenger, it seemed so much more civilized. From the generous baggage allowance to the online check-in and seat allocation, the journey just seemed less of a chore than normal, and the floppy egg mayo sandwiches even sated my wife’s strange fondness for crappy airline food. Now their employees seem to have got their fondness for striking and worker militancy out of their systems, we will be sure to check their prices on each trip back.

A Civilised Flight to Portugal

Anyway, one of the reasons I have been absent from the blog for a couple of weeks is that I have been involved with a number of other writing assignments recently, which I am now going to proceed to plug shamelessly! All of these articles contain useful information about Portugal, so should hopefully be of interest and make up for my “content-free” fortnight!

First off, I have an article in this month’s (October) issue of “A Place in the Sun” magazine, exploring some of the more unspoiled areas of the East Algarve. You can get it in all good UK newsagents.

I have also produced an “Insiders Guide to Portugal” feature for Cheap Flights, a US company selling airline tickets, which you can find here.

Finally, I have taken on a weekly writing role for the Overseas Guides Company where I produce a regular newsletter about life in Portugal and issues related to buying a property here. The content of the newsletter is updated every Friday and can be found here.

Find me at OGC for Portugal

Now I’ve drawn your attention to lots more info about Portugal, I would like to quickly mention a situation that is developing over at the Expats Portugal forum. As many readers here probably know, Expats Portugal is a very popular site and a huge source of support and information both for prospective expats and those of us already living here.

Basically, the forum has ended up involved in legal action as the result of a post last year that contained a discussion about a property company. The company in question (who I won’t name here) took exception to the thread and it has all got unnecessarily unpleasant.

It is horrible to see something like this happen, as many people benefit from these forums, and as someone who knows websites personally, I can confirm that the financial rewards are rarely in proportion to the level of effort involved in maintaining such a site. If the forum has helped you, please take a look at this thread, and make a donation if you are able.

Expats Portugal - A Valuable Resource

That’s about it for today, as every time we return after a week in England, the house seems to have got dirty all by itself and there is never any food in the cupboards, so more next week. If you want more to read about Portugal in the meantime, I highly recommend this guide to Buying Property in Portugal. If you look carefully, you’ll find the bit that I wrote inside! Have a good week!

Buying Property in Portugal (second edition) – insider tips for buying, selling and renting

Image Credit: Deanster1983

Technorati Tags: a place in the sun, BA to Portugal, british airways, cheap flights, expats portugal, life in portugal, overseas guides company

It’s trivia time this week on Moving to Portugal. We’ve just come to the end of a long run of different guests staying with us, and this morning I was reflecting on some of the little bits of information about life in Portugal that sometimes come out in conversation, and are a surprise to those who haven’t been here before. So, here we have a light-hearted list of ten things not everybody knows about life in Portugal.

1. There is a reason why people often spend what seems like an unusually long time at the cash machine. The Portuguese Multibanco system is highly sophisticated, and allows you do to all kinds of things. Want to go fishing? Buy your license at the ATM. Need to pay your tax bill? Use the reference number on the bill, and pay it directly from your account using your cash machine (a quite scary task when thousands of euros disappear instantly from your account…. you will definitely want to double check that reference number). Want to book a seat on the train to Lisbon? Yep, you do it with Multibanco. With this in mind, try not to get impatient in the queue for the cash machine!

Portugal Multibanco Machine

2. There is a nominal fee made in Portugal for a TV license. It is charged automatically on your electricity bill.

3. Petrol is even more expensive in Portugal than it is the UK.

4. So are cars. Due to the ways cars are taxed here, they are a LOT more expensive. On the bright side, the climate down here in the Algarve means they are less likely to rust.

5. When, after a meal, you appear to have become invisible to the waiter as soon as you have been served your coffees, it doesn’t mean standards of service have suddenly dropped. Here in Portugal, people often sit for some time after finishing a meal. On one occasion, I even saw someone place head on table and have a short nap before leaving. We don’t have a table-turning culture. Just ask for the bill as and when you are ready to leave.

6. Shopping centres here universally stay open until 11pm, even on a Sunday.

Fernando Pessoa

7. Portuguese people typically revere literary figures at least as highly as famous musicians and sports stars. In an increasingly dumbed-down, X-Factor loving world, this is a wonderful thing.

8. It is unclear why there is a nationwide shortage of all euro coins in Portugal, but there is. Prepare for wrath if you intend to pay for a 2.08€ grocery transaction with a note and you don’t have the 8 cents. Once you’re known in your local town you may be sent on your way with your goods and asked to come back tomorrow with the right change!

Portugal - Where are the Euro Coins?

9. When eating, it is customary to keep your napkin to the left of your plate, and not on your lap. I’m not sure why this is, but it is practical. Constantly reaching down for a napkin below the table results in sardiney fingers making clothing smell unpleasant.

10. It can get cold here in winter. Really bloody cold. Without central heating, it can feel colder than the UK. People never believe this, but those of us that live here don’t just say it for a laugh. People who have actually visited us during the winter know this to be true, but, for some strange reason, May and September always seem to be “the popular months” for most!

So, I’ve thought of the first ten. Can any Portuguese residents think of more? If so, please comment below.

PS. Anyone wishing to become familiar with Portugal’s literary output would do well to begin here:

The Book of Disquiet (Penguin Modern Classics)

Image credits: anabananasplit starrynight1 FreeFoto

Technorati Tags: facts about portugal, life in portugal, living in portugal

Those readers who follow the Expats Portugal blog will have probably seen a long recent thread about the opening of an Iceland store, down here in the Algarve.

I’m sure when the original poster typed his short message to share the news of the opening; he never expected it to generate 21 forum pages of comment, opinion, and, at times, vitriol. I myself voiced some strong opinions, but these were more in disagreement about the discussion’s descent into something akin to a class war, than about the opening of a British discount store and freezer centre.

The whole debacle raised an interesting question though, which is just how much us expats / immigrants should integrate or do integrate into our new home countries?

Various aspects of the culture of Portugal were strong factors in our decision to move here; strong family values, a relaxed pace of life, and a cultural existence that compels citizens to revere famous authors more highly than X Factor “stars” being just three examples. Simple, high quality cuisine was another reason we were likely to highlight when asked the “so why Portugal?” question.

Portugal Weather - Another Deciding Factor!

We have been here around two years now, and have worked very hard to integrate. Our stuttering Portuguese has enabled us to make friends with our Portuguese neighbours, we don’t huff and puff when held up during shopping or driving because those in front of us have decided to have a chat, and we are familiar with the works of Saramago and Pessoa. If you were to walk into our home at around 9.30pm (because that is now when we usually eat dinner) you would be as likely to see us tucking into bacalhau a bras as beef stew and dumplings.

However, none of this means that we don’t get excited when we spot a jar of mint jelly, a frozen Yorkshire pudding, or (as joyfully happened last week) the opening of an English style butchers. I was perhaps initially surprised just how much you do come to miss things from “back home” once you have lived abroad for a while.

If you think about it, there’s nothing unusual about this. If you go for a wander around Stockwell in south London, you will find plenty of Portuguese shops and restaurants. The culinary variety that can be found in London is made all the more rich by the immigrant populations. Everybody wins, because the restaurant and food stores that provide comfort and familiar products to those populations also provide variety and new flavours to all.

Sometimes Expats in Portugal Miss British Food

Now, I know that Iceland is hardly a home of epicurean delights, but I’m not going to complain about increasing availability and value of products that add variety to our daily meals. After all, when we lived in London, we didn’t “eat English” every night, any more than we “eat Portuguese” every night here. Chinese, Indian and Italian all make at least a weekly appearance.

Integrating, to me, is about showing respect for our new home, contributing to the community, ensuring we operate our fiscal affairs according to the laws of Portugal, and respecting the cultural differences of our new country. I don’t think we’re really going to offend anyone by buying the occasional packet of smoked mackerel from Iceland (something I am greatly looking forward to, as it happens).

I do take the point that large stores make it more difficult for independent local businesses, but that situation is far too advanced for one more chain to make any difference. In fact, despite the recession, small businesses continue to pop up everywhere in our area, with low overheads that still, in my opinion, make it easier for entrepreneurial types to try something out here than back in the UK.

Are signs with no Portuguese respectful?

I’m quick to moan when I find myself in touristy areas such as the Albufeira strip, and see wall-to-wall English breakfasts, menus with no sign of any Portuguese, and sunburned Brits shouting “two large beers” without attempting so much as a “bom dia.” That does display a frustrating lack of integration. But I refuse to be judged for being pleased that I will soon be able to buy inexpensive Branston Pickle. And, who knows, some Portuguese people may even get a bit of a taste for frozen “double stuffed takeaway style pizzas with a sweet chilli layer.” Sometimes, after a hard day, crappy junk-food in front of the TV is just what the doctor ordered…..

Image credit: higgot

Technorati Tags: iceland, integrating abroad, living in portugal

It rained at the weekend. Now, for those of you who don’t live in the Algarve, that won’t seem particularly interesting, but for August in these parts, it’s actually quite unusual.

Given that a lot of people move to Portugal for the climate (and it certainly played a large part in our own decision), it is strange how much your attitude to the weather changes once you get used to it.

After a couple of years, I have finally managed to get out of my system the urgent need to get outside as soon as I see the sun is shining. It is important to do this if you live here, otherwise it’s impossible to get anything productive done between June and October!

When I was in the UK recently, a friend said to me “what’s the weather supposed to be like when you get back?” My reply? “Hot, I imagine.” The fact is, once summer starts, I don’t really even check the weather any more.

I´m reluctant to say that I now take the weather for granted, but I have got used to this different climate.

Which is why rain in August came as such a surprise, and, it has to be said, a wonderful surprise too. It was fun to have to grab our BBQ food and run for shelter when the storm blew through. A day of rain turned out to be an unexpected treat, like a day of hot sunshine would in March in the UK. See how back-to-front our lives have become?

Algarve Portugal Weather - Back to Normal

The following day, the rain had removed most of the humidity from the air, resulting in a cooler day (though perhaps the word “cooler” should be kept in perspective, given that we now call anything under 25C “cool.”) The bigger treat was a cool evening last night, which meant we could step IN from the balcony to a warm apartment, rather than in from a HOT balcony to a cool, air conditioned apartment. I can think of no better proof of our acclimatization than the fact that that in itself felt unusual.

So, what’s it like outside today? It’s back to normal: hot and sunny, with no change predicted for the next couple of weeks, which is fine by us. It was, however, wonderful to get a sneak preview of the change in seasons, and enjoy a cosy Sunday indoors, complete with newspapers, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

In conclusion, we had a splendid weekend, BECAUSE it rained. Strange.

Technorati Tags: algarve rain, algarve weather, portugal weather

Living in Portugal is great, and I’d be the first person to support and encourage anyone thinking of making the move themselves. Having said that, a dose of realism is required. Every week, someone new pops up on the expat forums stating their intentions to move here, and you can detect a level of naivety and lack of research that is only going to end in tears.

So, for this week´s post, the time has come to dispel some myths about life in the sunshine.

First off, living somewhere is NOTHING LIKE being on holiday there. Being on holiday in London is nothing like working in London, and it’s no different in Portugal.

Tourists enjoy the beach in Portugal while we work indoors

For a start, unless you have retired, you actually have to work, and trying to be productive when it’s 32C outside is vastly different to reading a book on the beach when it’s 32C outside. Just because it’s hot and sunny every day, it doesn’t mean you have time to sit out in it and get a tan. By the time our work is done for the day, the sun has lost much of its strength, and it can be rather frustrating finding yourself half way through the summer with less of a tan that a tourist who has only been here five days! Looking over the top of a laptop at people swimming in the pool all day sucks too.

We have also been a little bit surprised that we still frequently find ourselves desperately short of time at some points. Once the working week is out of the way, the house tends to need cleaning, and shopping and other errands need to be sorted out-in the blazing heat. So, that’s Saturday gone. Then it’s Sunday, and then, shit, it’s Monday again. Much like real life in any other place!

Driving back to Portugal from Spain

And don’t expect anyone “back home” to believe you or offer any sympathy. Whatever you say, they will assume that you spend at least half of every day drinking pina coladas whilst floating in the pool. There is nothing you can say to convince them otherwise.

Next up, finding work. We spent three years designing a way to earn money remotely. So when the forum newbies say “what kind of work will I get, I can’t speak any Portuguese yet?” What do they really expect the answer to be? Why not ask a different question: “I’m Portuguese and moving to England, I can’t speak any English yet, what kind of work will I get?” Does that help to answer the original question?

Portugal is going through hard times economically. There’s a fair bit about it on the news. The ground-level reality of the situation bears no resemblance to the situation in England. The UK has a fair minimum wage, and there IS still work for those willing to do it. There are people in this country working very hard for a level of income that a UK benefits claimant would turn their nose up at…and the cost of living isn’t THAT much different.

For those of us lucky enough to have income, we have just been told there is a new extraordinary tax for 2011, meaning we have to give the government an extra 3.5% of what we earn. It IS hot, it IS sunny, but it’s not always easy.

Portugal - cost of living is fairly high, but sunsets are free

Now, I know all of that sounds like a rant, which is why I preceded it all with “living in Portugal is great.” It truly is. But you have to work and research to make it that way. Which is why, when people come to the forums expecting to be able to have a life which is like their summer holiday, and arrive here and walk into an English-speaking job, they need to realize that life isn’t like that.

Youngsters in their teens and twenties CAN just get on a plane, find seasonal work in bars and restaurants, and have a damn good time in the sun until the work dries up, and I admire their guts for doing it. But, it is different for people with families, and the thought of people coming out here without doing their research when it involves taking children away from their schools and friends frightens me a bit.

For those with serious intentions of moving, there is a wealth of existing information to help, on the forums and on blogs like this one. The people who dedicate days, weeks and months of their lives getting familiar with it develop realistic and achievable dreams, and they end up being the people we walk past looking happy at local beaches and markets. The others are the ones who have their dreams dashed by the time they’ve read the first three replies to their first post on a forum.

I highly recommend this book to anyone seriously considering a move, it contains lots of interesting information and case studies from people already living here, including (shameless plug) a bit that I wrote!

Buying Property in Portugal (second edition) – insider tips for buying, selling and renting

Technorati Tags: living abroad realities, Moving abroad, portugal economy

It was when I was in London a couple of weeks back that I got to thinking about the ways in which we were becoming “more Portuguese.” I had just bowled into my hotel, smiled, said “Ola, bom dia” loudly to the receptionist, then gone very red when I realised I had spoken in Portuguese instead of English.

It wasn’t the only time I did it during that trip to the UK. In fact, after that initial embarrassing experience, I started to over-think it, and found myself saying “good afternoon” before beginning a checkout transaction in Tesco Express, because I was translating the Portuguese “boa tarde” INTO English in my head before saying it. Saying good afternoon in a London Tesco may be polite, but I was looked at as if I was trying to parody a city gent from the 1930s.

Now, I know people say “when you start thinking in the language that’s when you are fluent.” Well, I am still very very far from fluent. But, in these day-to-day interactions, it has obviously become instinctive, and to such an extent that it feels more natural in some situations speaking Portuguese than speaking English. This realisation made me think about the other ways we are now “being Portuguese.” It must be time for another list post:

Being Portuguese

1. 10pm now seems to be a perfectly sensible time to do the weekly grocery shop. Midnight seems like a perfectly sensible time to light the barbecue.

2. If we are due somewhere at 2pm and have still not left the house at 5 past, I don’t really see that as being late, as such. (Although to be honest, my timekeeping has never been particularly good, I just now live somewhere where a lack of punctuality is more ingrained!)

3. If a person dawdles in front of me in a shop queue, I don’t feel an instant blood-pressure rise and begin seething and silently blaming that person for all the problems in my life. I just wait.

4. The same applies when the car in front stops for several minutes to chat to someone they’ve just spotted walking along the road.

5. The other day I saw a sardine recipe which called for the sardines to be gutted, and my horrified reaction was: “WHY would you gut them? How silly.”

Sardines are not usually gutted in Portugal

6. Still on a fishy theme, I actually find myself craving bacalhau at least once per week.

7. I now know which days of the week the butcher has lamb, so I don’t end up sulking because I can’t find any on a Tuesday.

8. 27 degrees Celsius is no longer defined as a “hot day.” In fact it is more likely to cause us to remark that “I’m sure it was warmer last year.”

9. I no longer check the weather online every single day. It’s summer, and therefore it will be sunny.

10. Carpets feel weird (that one was my wife´s contribution).

Just another Sunday in Portugal

Settling in another country is like getting older. When you are about 25, you look back at your 21 year old self and think “I can’t believe how little I knew.” Then you get to 30 and think the same about your 25 year old self. After 20 months of “being Portuguese,” I look back at posts I wrote after just six months in the country and can’t believe I thought I was already settled. It’s all a learning curve, and I feel that even after this long we still have a long way to go. It´s a good job that a fair proportion of it is jolly good fun.

Image credit (Portuguese flag): tiseb

Technorati Tags: becoming portuguese, being portuguese, going native

As I type this I am 30-odd thousand feet above Portugal or Spain on my journey back to the Algarve, after a quick week working and socialising in London.

We are very much looking forward to re-establishing a routine after our recent residency nightmares, which were exacerbated by three weeks of toothache, which thankfully has abated since a trip to the dentist in London.

Heading home to Portugal

All in all, June was probably our most unsettled month since moving to Portugal, so I am relishing the thought of something approaching normality, or as least as close to normality as we can get as the real holiday season beings in the Algarve. This means strategic planning is required when visiting shops, beaches and restaurants, to avoid the worst of the hordes.

Montegordo Beach - in quieter times

Tomorrow should be a rather exciting day, as we are finally picking up our own car after 18 months of supporting the local car hire companies. Car hire has proved so affordable throughout the winter that if we could get those rates year round, we would be tempted to just keep renting ad infinitum. The trouble is that in the summer, we can end up paying the same to hire a car for a week as we usually pay per month off-season…..and that is if one is available.

Shortly after finally getting our residency, we were approved for car finance on something nearly new–quite a feat when our income all comes from the UK. I apologise to the environment for the trees that must have been felled to produce all the paperwork that was required! If anyone wants information on what we did and what was required, let me know, but I won´t bore everyone reading the blog with the details here.

I don´t have a lot more to say, having been away from Portugal for a week. Once we arrive back, I look forward to embracing life in the sun, which I have been unable to do fully with residency stress as well as toothache!

All is good right now, but I imagine within a week or two I´ll be complaining about the tourists….there are certainly plenty of them on this plane

QUICK UPDATE: After typing this on Friday on the plane, I didn’t get round to posting it until Tuesday. We are now back, the sun is shining….and…….we have our car! It was a quick and easy process, but at some point soon we really ought to attempt to translate all the bits of paper we mindlessly signed when we collected it. Oh, and my wife is already complaining about traffic and “dawdling tourists.” All much as predicted then really!

Image Credits: Deanster1983 Bert Kaufmann

Technorati Tags: flying to portugal, holidays in portugal, summer in portugal

It’s been a while since I posted. Long enough that people may have wondered if I had done a disappearing act and left Portugal, never to return.

Well, strangely enough, it came pretty close. We had so much difficulty renewing our Portuguese residency that, for a time, we thought we may have to leave to return to the UK, or have another go at life in the sun over the border in Spain.

Well, I’m pleased to report that all is good again now, but I can’t overstate how tricky the past few weeks have been.

Portuguese EU Residency Document

We knew before we moved that the bureaucracy here in Portugal was going to be difficult. Nothing, however, prepares you for just how difficult, frustrating, illogical and inconsistent it really is.

As an EU citizen, you have freedom to live and work wherever you like in the EU. “Getting residency” is really only a simple question of registering in the country where you have settled – it is in fact called a “Certificado de registo de cidadao da uniao Europeia.” According to both the EU’s own website and the SEF (Portuguese immigration authority) websites, all you should need to do is take your passport to the SEF office and be prepared to sign to say that you either have a job, are studying, or have funds to support yourself. You should then be given a five year document which can be exchanged for permanent residency after that time.

Sounds like a five minute job doesn’t it? This is what we had to do:

1. Visited the SEF within 3 months of settling here as instructed. Were told that the camara (town hall) now handles residency.

2. Went to the camara with necessary documents, they also insisted on our rental contract and fiscal numbers (neither was a problem). However, they also required us to go to our village hall and get an “atestado” to prove we lived where we said we did (even though we had a tenancy agreement).

3. Went to the junta (village hall) to get the atestado. Told we need two local residents registered as voters in our local village to sign to vouch for us–an interesting challenge when you have just moved somewhere and don’t know anyone.

4. Awkwardly asked a local bar owner and the lady in the corner shop to vouch for us on our atestado.

5. After a wait of a few days managed to get a signed atestado from the junta.

6. Went back to the camara who now seemed like they were willing to give us a residency. Paid 15€ and were told to return in a couple of days.

7. Returned a couple of days later and were told to come back again after the weekend.

8. Returned to the camara after the weekend and joyfully collected our residency. Strangely though, it was only for one year and not the stated five years. Decide to worry about it again in a year.

Residency Celebration Feast

9. Visited our bank to get our accounts changed to residents accounts. Big fail. It turns out the camara have put the wrong addresses on our precious new one year residency documents.

10. Go back to the camara, told to return in two days to collect our new residency papers.

11. A year on, our one year residency is near to expiry, so we need to renew it. Confident, as we now feel like very legitimate Portuguese residents, having done a full and honest tax return involving us contributing a significant sum of money to the faltering Portuguese economy, we return to the camara with our heads held high.

12. The camara insist on copies of our work contracts. This proves difficult as my wife works for a UK company and they won’t accept her contract, saying it must be translated into Portuguese. I am self-employed and don’t have one. The tax return document we proudly proffer is shuffled back towards us with a sneer. They also want a “declaracao da segranca social com os descontos efectuados,” which is proof we don’t owe any social security here. This is also tricky, as there is no mechanism for my wife to pay it here–my wife is not employed by a Portuguese company or self-employed here. I have recently become self-employed here, but I am not liable for any for the first 13 months. We return home downhearted.

13. Turn to the expat forums for advice – a lot of which amounts to people saying it is near impossible to do everything legally the way Portugal works and that we should have “stayed under the radar.” A lot of people did offer helpful suggestions and offers of assistance, for which I am very grateful.

14. We contact our accountant for help but she refers us to a document agency in Almancil. We’re not up for this as we tried one of them last year and they wanted more paperwork from us than the town hall did. Exasperated, we decide to involve a lawyer.

15. We visit the lawyer. He suggests that as our family members applied in Olhao and were given their residency in 5 minutes that we should pretend we have moved there instead. Not the kind of legal advice we expect from a lawyer! He then suggests we bypass the town hall and go to the SEF instead.

16. We go to the SEF. We show them a print out from their own website stating the residency requirements. The printout is dated May 2011. They tell us the law changed–in 2007. They send us away empty handed, and with a bit of a smirk.

17. We go back to the lawyer. He says we should come back in a few days and that he will come with us back to the town hall to try again.

18. We go to the lawyers office. He has passed our case onto a new trainee. She knows none of the details. We spend an hour taking her through what we have done so far. We decide to first visit the social security office to see if they can give us the document the camara want. We arrange to meet her at the social security office later that week.

19. Arrive at the the social security office. Trainee lawyer is 30 minutes late. Needless to say social security office cannot provide the document. They do at least confirm that we are correct that there is no mechanism in place for my wife to pay social security in Portugal and that she should continue to pay National Insurance in the UK under the EU reciprocal agreement.

20. We sign a form so the lawyer can go back to the camara and discuss the case on our behalf. The lawyer contacts us to say that they have dropped the requirement for the social security declaration and instead want three months of bank statements and a translated work contract. This sounds a bit better. Unfortunately they also say we can’t renew it until the day after our old 1 year document expires. This means we are in a position where we have to wait, and not know if our staying in the country is authorised until we are already “technically” illegal.

21. We go back to the camara on the appointed day. The lady there this time is not remotely interested in our newly translated (at a cost) work contract. They do, however, have a good look at our bank statements. They then request photographs and proof of our private medical insurance. Given that this is the first mention of this, it is a happy coincidence that we happen to have it, and carry the cards around with us at all times.

22. The lady in the camara goes and photocopies everything. We start to get excited. Have we done it?

23. Camara lady returns and tells us to return in a week for the answer. Yes, another week. We are now onto week 4 of sleepless nights. They stamp our form so we are legal in the country while we await the paperwork.

24. One working day before we are due to return, which happens to be my birthday, my wife secretly arranges for the lawyer to go back and ask about our documents. We now, finally, have residency for another four years, to add to the one year we were originally granted.

Blue Skies in Portugal - Red Tape Trade-off

So there you have it. The 24 step process required for an EU citizen to be permitted to live in the EU. We are legal, legit taxpayers, and once again we can go in the pool or to the beach without worrying that it will be the last time we have the chance. Normal posts about beaches, sardines and wine can now resume.

FOOTNOTE: While I have been typing this post, I’ve been listening to Absolute Radio 90s on my laptop. The song that came on as I reached the end was “If you tolerate this, your children will be next” by the Manic Street Preachers. Not sure what to make of that!

Technorati Tags: EU residency, portugal residency, residencia