XTreme

It's an involved bureaucratic process that goes on for years.....and involves passing Language exams and general knowledge of Spain exams. I could piss through the exams (wife couldn't though) but at nearly 70 I can't be arsed with that shit!

Rock concert?

No.....I am a British citizen with a British passport, same as you. I have Permanent Resident status which means I can stay here indefinitely, that is not the same as citizenship. Spain doesn't allow dual citizenship, so I would never give up my UK passport! Because legally I would not be Welsh anymore. I can never do that! Ever! But who knows if Welsh Independence is in our future? That would be my ideal outcome!

Wise words Lionel!

Quite legal to buy a second hand bike with an NIE!

Why don't you get a Spanish bike that you can keep there? @Skippy could find you some hideous third world POS no bother!

See you HERE at 11AM Sunday!

So what route there are you talking about? Coming up from the direction of Cantoria?

Are you getting to Oria via Chirivel?

Definitely! I'll figure somewhere interesting to take you!

Thanks Ray.......so I'm more marginally more interesting than staring at your living room walls?

I put a tenner in and it went from half to full. But I've noticed it drops to half a lot quicker than it does to go from half to one bar left.

I thought I'd better put some petrol in the bike cos the last time was in July!

Not really no! And anyway, I can't even see her face!

No......hair is different and he's too blonde! And I never wore shirts with little patterns on them, and then left my shirt tucked out.

Got to keep momentum going.......and they bite every time!

That's the pic that's been doing the rounds for years on FB! Apparently taken around 1972/1973. It completely freaks me out! I used to wear a watch on that arm back then as well........broke it falling off one of the bikes around that time and never wore one again. Hair, clothes, height and build seem to fit.....no idea about the bird though! But they were regularly rotated in that era. Is it me? I just don't know! The wife doesn't think it is.....but she didn't meet me until 10 years later.

Don't look too bad here as long as I can get out early...... I've got some work on tomorrow so it looks like Sunday will be the day! What you lot doing?

She's stuck here now cos the boys have got school places. And Jake's got a better bike than me now.

What I've been hearing is that Spain (after initially seeming to enforce the 90 day rule) are now turning a blind eye to it. A client of mine who's not a resident (despite living here longer than me) was told to leave 2 years ago. He's still here now and the authorities have never bothered him since. My boy left Spain in 2016, got residency in Poland (technically invalidating his Spanish residency) then returned last year and Spain has no knowledge of him having left or re-entered as no passports were ever stamped. Yes, in principle they could investigate and find him having gone through the airports when he did, but they can't disprove any assertion that he re-entered via car numerous times during that period. And knowing the Spanish as I do, they're never going to make work for themselves to try and ascertain what actually happened during that period.

Salobreña's nice I heard!

I didn't know the pair of them had an issue!

How many people would want to face that bureaucratic nightmare in Spain though? @Skippy couldn't get round it and that was just to import a bike! I'm sure it's more efficient in NL, Germany etc......but here? It don't bear thinking about! It would certainly stop me making the move that's for sure.

All that's been achieved is the retirement dreams of many Brits to move to Spain, France, Italy etc have been taken away from them. The vetting threshold is far too high for ordinary people. And it can also cause issues within families.....look at Bob's situation for example. His missus and his boy could move to Italy if they wanted......but he's going nowhere. He's stuck where he is. Now they may well not ever want to move to Italy.....but that's not the point. He had those rights and now he doesn't. If something happened to me......what's going to happen to the wife? She's not just allowed to move to NL as she would have been able to do. If that day arises my boy will sort something out, but it's still going to be an involved process. None of this affects the rich of course.....nothing ever does. Just working class folks like most of us here are.