Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[reteid]

good luck Bonus.

[SAGecko]

We're flying out today SAG - so will have to take a rain check.

 

My ticket is to come back at then end of the month to wrap up things here - unless something happens in Spain that needs me to stay on for a bit.

 

Will keep you posted.

 

 

 

We will get that ride eventually mate!

 

Life does rather get in the way of riding, doesn't it 

 

Fly safe Tony.

[DIPSLICK]

if you need a pocket full of zoomas(not that there is much to go around)and you need a partner,,,,PM 

LOOKS like the only way I could leave zoomaville is if I buy into a business  

[Bonus]

Life does rather get in the way of riding, doesn't it 

 

Fly safe Tony.

 

Cheers mate.

 

 

 

Dips - Don't give up hope! Maak n plan.

[Grey Hubs]

Safe Trip to new beginnings!

 

Enjoy the Jamo and Cafe con letche

[Bonus]

Landed at LHR this morning 6:25am after an OK flight :-)

 

My son picked us and our 6 suitcases and 1 bike box up. 6 suitcases 'cos we used this trip and the last one to start freighting small important items out of SA. No gold bars I'm afraid, just stuff we don't want to wait three months for when we finally pack our container. At £50 per extra 23kg suitcase each it's cool.

 

Went to the bank at lunch time and moved money from here to our account in Spain, with only a debit card, a passport and 1 signature. (Compared to the pile of forms, print-outs, proof of travel, copies of ID, proof of address and answers to "secret questions" I needed to change a wallet of Forex at Std Bank on Tuesday)

 

Now we have a few days with my son before we fly down to Spain at the weekend . . . .

 

and I believe we just missed the cold front hitting Jo'burg . . . .  ;-)

[Bonus]

As of about an hour and a half ago, we are the very proud owners of a property in Spain!

 

Yesterday we went to see our solicitor and her assistant (who is acting as translator for us) in Huesca (big town about an hour away) where we went through the purchasing contract, ironing out a few bits and making sure we understood everything. We also went to the bank to formally open the bank account the solicitor had set up for us so that we could produce a bankers cheque to pay the balance on the property.

 

Today we all went to the local Notaries office (10 mins away) where we met the sellers of the property. We went through the contract again, signed papers, handed over our bankers cheque, received a copy of the title deeds and its "job done"!

 

It turns out that the sellers will be our nearby neighbors, they have invited us round for tea when we come over here properly to start renovations. They will pick up any post that comes for us and hand it in to the local office of our solicitors and they will keep an eye on any materials etc that we leave here any time we're away.

 

The Notary as offered to introduce us to the four English speaking couples that live in the area (of course he knows everybody because he's overseen every property purchase) and to the South African couple who live nearby!

 

We are not going to hurry too much to meet up with the English speaking people, it will be nice to practice our Spanish for a bit first.

 

As shown in the previous pictures, it's gonna take some money and hard work to fix it up - but we'll get there.

 

Everyone we've dealt with here has been professional and friendly. The girl who has done all the legal correspondence with us since our trip in June and who translated for us this week now considers us to be her friends. She and her husband will take us out for dinner when we get over here next. The notary wants to have us round for dinner and the seller of the property will lend me any tools I need to start renovating.

 

What a pleasure it has been!

 

Fingers crossed that it stays that way :-)

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Awesome!

[Jacques@ACT]

That is great news, you must be super excited. I hope for your sake that you sorted finances out before the Rand went for a ball of ****. Luckily we have a small amount in the UK, but most of our money is still tied up in SA.

 

On a side note, we just arrived in Amsterdam on Friday. Not as organised as you, but rather took a leap into the unknown and certainly the deepend. Testing times on our side....we will certainly come and visit when you are ready.

[Ozzie NL]

That is great news, you must be super excited. I hope for your sake that you sorted finances out before the Rand went for a ball of ****. Luckily we have a small amount in the UK, but most of our money is still tied up in SA.

On a side note, we just arrived in Amsterdam on Friday. Not as organised as you, but rather took a leap into the unknown and certainly the deepend. Testing times on our side....we will certainly come and visit when you are ready.

Why the interest in the lowlands? Grew up there and despite the problems in SA am rather here than there

 

Not critical, just interested as I am aware that one might be blind for the good stuff of the homeland (just that after 20 + years in SA I have not found it yet)

[Gen]

As of about an hour and a half ago, we are the very proud owners of a property in Spain!

 

Yesterday we went to see our solicitor and her assistant (who is acting as translator for us) in Huesca (big town about an hour away) where we went through the purchasing contract, ironing out a few bits and making sure we understood everything. We also went to the bank to formally open the bank account the solicitor had set up for us so that we could produce a bankers cheque to pay the balance on the property.

 

Today we all went to the local Notaries office (10 mins away) where we met the sellers of the property. We went through the contract again, signed papers, handed over our bankers cheque, received a copy of the title deeds and its "job done"!

 

It turns out that the sellers will be our nearby neighbors, they have invited us round for tea when we come over here properly to start renovations. They will pick up any post that comes for us and hand it in to the local office of our solicitors and they will keep an eye on any materials etc that we leave here any time we're away.

 

The Notary as offered to introduce us to the four English speaking couples that live in the area (of course he knows everybody because he's overseen every property purchase) and to the South African couple who live nearby!

 

We are not going to hurry too much to meet up with the English speaking people, it will be nice to practice our Spanish for a bit first.

 

As shown in the previous pictures, it's gonna take some money and hard work to fix it up - but we'll get there.

 

Everyone we've dealt with here has been professional and friendly. The girl who has done all the legal correspondence with us since our trip in June and who translated for us this week now considers us to be her friends. She and her husband will take us out for dinner when we get over here next. The notary wants to have us round for dinner and the seller of the property will lend me any tools I need to start renovating.

 

What a pleasure it has been!

 

Fingers crossed that it stays that way :-)

Fantastic.

 

Congratulations and may everything go as smooth as possible..

 

What an adventure.

[Dicky DQ]

Fantastic.

 

Congratulations and may everything go as smooth as possible..

 

What an adventure.

Seems so much like the good old R of SA!

 

Edit - this was not meant cynically, just commenting on the past.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Dick

[Jacques@ACT]

Why the interest in the lowlands? Grew up there and despite the problems in SA am rather here than there

 

Not critical, just interested as I am aware that one might be blind for the good stuff of the homeland (just that after 20 + years in SA I have not found it yet)

We've always like the Netherlands whenever we travelled through Europe. Having lived in London for many years and having had enough of the crowds made us decide to try it out here. We've tried a couple of times to settle back in SA, but there are unfortunately just to many things for us to ignore. It certainly isn't because we don't love SA, it is more about the mindset of the general public and goverment. That off course is a whole different debate.

 

Just a quick example, the whole train debacle and PRASA compared to an article i just read about the train services here where the aim is to have all trains running on wind generated power by 2018. That sort of stuff and much more....

 

Anyway, dont want to hijack the thread

[Wendy]

Thank you everyone who wish us well, and even those who are sceptical about what we are doing. Now that its all ours I have to get my skates on and leave my lovely broken SA. I will enjoy a celebratory glass of champagne at the casa shortly, in between my tears of sadness. My parents arrived in SA 47 odd years ago and i was a small child. I feel like Im tearing a piece of me away.

Very hard

[Bonus]

Anyway, dont want to hijack the thread

We appreciate that Jaques! And good luck with your adventure!

[Bonus]

Bugger me. Wendy has sat and watched me run this thread for 10 pages now and when she finally posts something herself, she "double-posts" and I have to show her how to edit! Lol

 

We're both a bit tired . . . .

 

:-)