quote:

Hey Kozz. Im glad my bors head episode had such a profound effect on you! All I can say is that I did manage to escape a very corporate life in England and for better or worse ended up living in Spain...and I have been one of the lucky ones. For some reason my weird combination of abilities fills a couple of niches that allow me to live here quite well.
Saying that, living in Spain has not been the best financial decision in my life but it has been the most rewarding one in terms of lifestyle. I have had the chance to meet great artists, and hang out with flamencos in a beautiful city in a careless way that would be the envy of a lot of people.
I would tend to agree that however idilic it seems to run a small restaurant or bed in breakfast in Spain, I can assure you its 10 times the work and headache than you first think. There's cleaning, getting provisions, opening licence, spanish builders, seguridad social, quarterly taxation. As Escribano says, the crisis is hitting spain really hard. Its a bad time to be starting a business. However I know restaurants that are doing well now despite the crisis if the quality is good.

However if you would like me to come a cook a boars head for you the you only have to ask

quote:

Yes looking for the niche is good advice. The first year here during a Spanish class we were asked to write down our dreams for the future. Mine was to buy a house in the Albaicin and live in Granada. The teacher looked at me and said " well you have to be either very rich or have some skill that no-one else here has". Needless to say I had neither. A few years later I met my profesor in the street and he asked if I was back on holiday. I told him that I was now living in the Albaicin where we had bought a house and he asked if I had won the lottery. No, I said we discovered that my husband had a skill here that no-one else had, 40 years of experience of music production.

We had been here only a few months when one night in a bar a friend came in all excited saying that Enrique Morente wanted to meet Harold. It was 3 am but that did not seem to be a problem, Harold set off for the Morente studio where they were working on a project and had become stuck with the mixes. Harold mixed the tracks in a matter of hours. He went on to work on Estrella's first two albums. Other projects followed, a TV series of live music which run for 3 months and broadcast every night, a best selling jazz album, film work, rock albums, and award winning flamenco albums and tours with flamenco artists. He now does sound production for Farruquito. That's not to say there have not been lean times and difficulties.

We eventually bought our house, but we nearly gave up on that dream as no-one would give us a mortgage, until Enrique called his bank and a mortgage was instantly approved. This is another aspect of Spanish life, it is called enchuffismo, meaning to be plugged in, or well connected. It can work for you or against you, but is a fact of life here and can be very frustrating. If you want to open a restaurant find the most influential people in the town, get introductions and invite them to eat

quote:

ORIGINAL: val
But make sure any permission promises are backed up with legal documents!

quote:

it reminded me of Pimientitos experments with the pig

quote:

Did you mean the cooking experiments or the other ones?