Arrived in Palma on Sunday, and spent a few days relaxing. Due to complete on Wednesday, I managed to get a bit of work done, and see a few of the sites.

The bank wanted to charge me 300 EUROS to get the cheques written out, so my first job on Monday was to go in and see if I could negotiate. I was told if I took out home insurance with them, they will reduce the fee to just 50 EUROS. The home insurance was only 119 EUROS, so it was a no brainer.

So Wednesday came, I checkout out of the hotel, and made my way to the bank, to get the cheques made out for the purchase, then made my way to solicitors where I met the sellers for the first time, originally from Yorkshire, and really lovely people. 

After waiting over an hour for the bank to show up, we all signed our papers, handed over the checks, signed the contracts, and I got me keys... That was it, I now owned my own place  in Mallorca.

I dropped off my suitcases, had a few minutes looking around, then headed into the town for a nosey. I didn't have any bed linen or anything like that, so I thought there must be a shop somewhere that I can get all that, but it seemed not.

After wondering around for an hour or so, it was getting pretty obvious that out of season, not many of the locals spoke English, and trying to find pillows and duvets in a foreign country definitely is not easy.. 

Then I overhead an English couple talking outside a cafe and politely introduced myself. After chatting for a while, it turned out that sell jewelry in the summer and we looking at getting a website set up... Bingo, client number one within a few hours.

We chatted some more, and I mentioned that I had some furniture to sell, and they mentioned they knew someone who might be interested. We swapped contact details and I went on my merry way, feeling quite happy with myself.

I met up with Rachel and she introduced me to her mum, who runs a small charity shop in the port. So she offered to take all the furniture and bits that I couldn't sell.

Later that day, I phoned up Sam and Allan (the contact Lynn had given me) and Alan came round to look at my furniture, and offered me 200 EUROS to take the lot... I'm happy with that, and with my furniture arriving next Tuesday, it should mean everything will be clear and ready within a week.

Friday morning came, and I was still getting to grips with everything. Not very pleasant sleeping arrangements at the moment, as I don't have any of my quilts, matresses etc, so I'm making do with an old mattress and two, not so pleasant, single duvets (without covers).... But, I don't have any other options at the moment.

After spending a bit of time looking around the apartment, I did start thinking that it would be nice to get it painted sooner, rather than later. The yellows, blues and purples just weren't floating my boat... So off I trundled into town again.

I spent a little while walking around, and whilst walking into  the main square, I saw an English looking couple with another guy, carrying a tin of paint... (I know, you couldn't make this stuff up)...

I politely stopped them, and asked if there was any chance they were painters... Unfortunately not, but they knew a guy who was. After chatting for a while, I followed them down to their apartment where they gave me the business card of Fran... The "man to know" on the island. Fran knows everyone. 

So, I called Fran, and arranged an appointment for today (Saturday). He popped round this morning, and I had a great chat with him. Got a good quote for redecorating the flat, and, if you can  believe this, his brother is a tennis coach. So it seems that Fran, really is the man.

After meeting with Fran, I decided to drop his brother a quick text.... Apparently he owns a bar in the main port, and he replied to my text saying, come meet me tonight at my bar. If I'm honest, I was feeling a little tired after a long day,  but, I made the effort and wondered down.

I managed to find the bar. A lovely place, quiet at this time of year, and behind the bar was Rafa, a 60 yr old, full of life, bar owner and tennis coach. I ordered a few beers and we chatted about tennis.

A few minutes after arriving, another English fella walked in and started chatting to Rafa. He'd had a few tennis lessons with him over the years.

I got chatting to him about why I'd moved, and mentioned that I play piano. Low and behold, he runs a block of apartments with a bar, and was looking for a piano player in the season, UNBELIEVABLE.

So we chat some more, and he gave me his number so we could have a game of tennis sometime. We spoke about website stuff, and he said he used to be in the web business... He founded a little website called LateRooms.com. 

Needless to say, my first few days on the island, and my long lost outgoing nature has led me to meet some amazing people, and given me some amazing contacts already.

I have to say, this week has been pretty exhausting, I've worked it out that I've walked over 50 miles, just getting to know the area, and so far, it seems I really have made the right decision, and I'm even learning a little bit of the lingo.

Who knows what might happen in the next few weeks / months.

It's been a while since I've lasted posted, but I had to get all this off my chest.

I should really have been documenting this on a weekly basis over the past few months, but it really has been so stressful, blog posting has been the last thing on my mind.

So, let's start where my last post left off..

I had a couple of offers on the house, but none were close to what I wanted. So I changed agents at put it up with a local agent, Ward and Partners. I managed to negotiate a fixed fee, but still wasn't generating many viewings.

I had a young couple offer £400k but really, I needed to be looking at closer to £425k. things were getting really stressful, I managed to increase my credit card limit, and also stick a 2k overdraft on my personal account.

Just when things were getting really tough and close to breaking point, I got a phone call one Thursday evening from a good friend asking if I wanted a free holiday. This seemed a bit too good to be true, bearing in mind that I didn't really have any money, but her sister had pulled out, last minute. Flights due to depart in 2 days time, as long as I paid the name transfer I could go. So I did, and I have to say, it was a real life saver. A week away in Turkey and it gave me chance to think things over

So, when I got back from Turkey, I knew exactly what I needed. I needed to sell my house, and move abroad. So I got straight on to my agent and told them that if the couple that offered £400k could up their offer to £410k I'd accept it and we could get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, they'd offered on another property, so that wasn't a possibility.

So, things are looking up. House is sold, at a price I'm happy with, the exchange rate is at nearly 1.45 Euros to the pound, so my budget seems reasonable. I book my flights for mid November to go out to Mallorca and look at properties.