A Bit Of Background On Me And Spain

I decided from a very young age that I didn’t want to live in the UK and Spain seemed a rather natural place to come and live as it was close enough to what I used to call home to not feel too isolated yet exotic enough to be different.

As a teenager, just like everyone else, I spent much too much time in my bedroom but I was doing stuff that other teenagers may well have missed out on, or was it me missing out on things? My companions at the time were “Radio Nacional España” fading in and out of shortwave and medium wave on the vicissitudes of the ionosphere and a copy of the Thomas Cook International Rail Timetable.

As Archibald, Hughes and Lineker scored in Spain and El Tel became news in the UK I began to get into this unfathomable language with the fantastic commentators holding the shouts of “Goooooooooooooollllll” for up to a minute at a time. This is how an obsession can be built up.

As for the well thumbed doorstep of a rail timetable, growing up in Widnes meant that the lures of the early morning Munich to Krakow train held much more allure than the delights of the high street in November. Shooting glances over the route of the Paris to Barcelona express and the stops that were made were always going to be more enticing than venturing out into the drizzle on a freezing cold January morning.

It was inevitable then that after making my first visit to Spain, a holiday on the Costa Brava for two weeks with a bunch of mates with a totally different agenda to mine, that Kismet had struck. I made sure that I got a visit in to Barcelona and I was able to see and hear those sights that had only been fading in and out on the radio previously and I was hooked.

The only thing to do now was to work out a plan to get myself living here and that was where the idea of working hard came up. (Working hard, please no) I had no knowledge of Spanish apart from the words “Gol” and possibly “Fuera de Juego”, and was on a career course that wasn’t going to take me there so I looked into the UCAS intakes and found a University that would take me in without having previously studied Spanish and also give me a year abroad within the course. (That was nice of them I thought) The next step was easy, make sure I passed my one year A levels with flying colours so the University chosen, Sheffield, would take me in. I spent a year back in my bedroom studying like never before with the inevitable Radio Nacional España in the background, making sure that when the exams came I was more ready than anyone ever because when you have a motivation then nothing should really stand in your way.

So almost a quarter of a century later what have I got to look back on? I have to say that Radio Nacional and the Thomas Cook have got a lot to answer for but luckily the balance is extremely positive. Ups and downs and massive changes have happened in my life just like in everyone else’s but my life plan is still working out, I live in Spain and work here and, after all, that was the plan all along.

I love it when a plan comes together.

How did you come to be where you are in life then?

Related Posts

1) I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

2) The Dynamism Of The Spanish Entrepreneur

3) Goals and Progress

4) Hobbies? Do Me A Favour I have Three Kids

Originally posted 2010-03-22 07:47:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter