Portugal: 1 Year Birthday

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It has now been 1 yr since I moved to Portugal so I thought about writing a summary of what has happened, how things have been and what I'm thinking about the future. Those of you who are waiting for the blog post about my trip to Morocco (including Moroccan mafia, robbery by me, stoned babies and typical etch style adventures), this will follow in the near future.

So, September 2012 I decided to move to Portugal and as always, time has flown by crazily quick. One full yr in Tavira has been eventful and at times challenging. I made an effort early on to make friends, join a gym, etc as having a social life is important to stop us from going insane. I also decided to take Portuguese lessons from the 1st week, something that has helped me greatly when dealing with the bureaucracy of the country.

The first couple of months were really fun as it takes time to settle into a new way of life, and especially, a new country. I was going on adventures every week and pretty much ticked off my list by October. I was fascinated by the lifestyle I had, living by the beaches, having a swimming pool with sunbathing girls, the beautiful weather and breakfast on the balcony, midnight strolls into the village to eat tuna toasties .... it was like a permanent holiday.

Eventually reality kicked in that life is life wherever you are and things can't be sustained without money ... and that's where the main challenge was. My line of work is online as a web developer and that's perfect for being able to work from anywhere with an internet connection. Initially there were concerns about this as I didn't have reliable internet, and the cable company told me they couldn't fit me a line. Once this hurdle had passed, it was onto finding ways to earn enough cash to keep life going here. Things haven't been smooth, but then again I do live like I'm semi-retired and am very laid back about how I spend my time and efforts (not like the old Etch, I'm more Jamaican now in my ways) ... so I've managed to scrape by fine so far. Until June of this yr I had minimal expenses to deal with and that made the situation a lot easier. Going forwards, expenses have gone up 3-fold, so it's time to step things up a few notches. It is always challenging being your own boss ... the added challenge for me has been that I'm in south Portugal where there are no web-related opportunities ... and a lot of competition online. More on this later.

After the 3-month mark, I had to decide whether I'm going to be like a lot of British expats here and be in the country illegally, or properly register myself as a resident. The decision was made for me because I needed to import my car onto Portuguese plates or risk getting F^cked in the A ... a painful experience I don't want to have again. If you're planning on staying in Portugal for more than 183 days in a yr, you need to register as a resident after 3 months, and the car has to be imported within 6 months of it coming into the country. So January was when the red-tape games began .... and man oh man was it a challenging few months. I won't go into details as I've written about all of this ... let's just say I conquered where others have failed ... feck Sparta, "THIS IS ETCH".

Being legally in the system now means I'm bound to the tax and social security laws of Portugal, which are pretty harsh compared to the UK ... a lot of mula goes to the government here. I've managed to work around it this yr (I hope), mainly down to not earning much and having different systems in play in the UK. From the next tax yr (which begins Jan 1st here, not April 6th), I need to make sure I've got a good system set up in Portugal to keep me protected and hidden from the eyes of those who are trying to find me.

I was hoping to have more visitors than I have had. So far only my sister and parents have visited ... which is a shame since Portugal is only a 2 or 3 hr and cheap flight away from the UK. But it's ok since I have friends over here too. Hopefully my UK friends will come by to experience the paradise next yr.

It was good my sister came in January as for a few months it is very cold here and having more bodies = higher room temperature. Yes I know Algarve doesn't get that cold, nighttime temperatures won't drop below 9 celsius. However, buildings here aren't designed for winter so it's as if you're living outside for a few months. Definitely not fun times ... and a dead town too, so quiet, barren, not much to do. When February hit, a lot of golfers came by and I then had the issue with the air-conditioning units ... you'll remember from my blog post back then how upset that month made me ... I was for the first time depressed to be in Portugal.

All that passed and summer arrived in June, something I was really looking forward to ... stunning weather, Portuguese bikini action, nightlife of summer, some DJing ... basically social fun times. And they were ... in July/Aug people appear, clubs open, crazy things happen ... say no more.

I decided to take August off and just enjoy Tavira summer. I turned off Skype, got myself disconnected from the world and enjoyed the sun ..... which was pretty scorching here, difficult to do anything other than sleep, swim and eat. And when August was over, I actually felt like I needed a break from Tavira. Wherever you live, life becomes life and not really a holiday, so it's important to take a break and do something different, get away from the norm and the everyday dramas. As I like to go to new unexplored territories, I booked a trip to Morocco ... it is after all just around the corner ... made sense.

Ok, so the above is a summary of what has been happening over the past year. So what do I think of my decision to move here? Simple, it was a good one. I've never regretted any decision I've made in life ... all paths are full of interesting challenges and adventures. I look at my life now and compare it with London and Cambridge, and I very much prefer the now to the previous. Cambridge was a good life too, and maybe one I return to some day .... I've still kept my house there so the door is open. London was a bizarre move for me, it's like it didn't even happen. The good things I got out of those 10 months were being closer to the friends I class as my 'family' (they know who they are) ... and having great fun with them. Other advantages were being around halal meat ... and the DJ lessons, that was a bonus ... London is defo the place to experience things and find classes for pretty much anything. Other than that, I didn't feel like I belonged ... I'm not a city boy ... would much rather be milking cows in a farm.

What's in store for the next 12 months? Well, I don't plan on spending another winter here and I think it's a good idea to budget for a 3-month break during winter to experience other parts of the world. In December I leave Portugal and don't return until April ... couple of months in Miami and a month in Brazil. The trip to Miami is also work-related ... to meet the people I've been working for and acquire new business that can keep me going for the rest of the year. I am definitely planning on being around in Portugal until the end of next yr ... and then we'll see how things are working out. I'll be looking forward to summer 2014 ... now I know what to expect I will be preparing for it to make it epic fun.

Maybe this post hasn't panned out the way I hoped ... it's kind of been a brain dump that has helped me analyze the past yr.

Thx for reading.

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