Mr Grumpy

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By Mr Grumpy - Sun 8th Dec 2013

 

This past weekend I had the misfortune to be stuck in an airport lounge for a couple of hours en-route to a business meeting somewhere, with nothing but one of those God-forsaken glossy “Spanish Lifestyle” Magazines for company.

The much-clichéd cover photograph of a setting sun over a desolate sandy beach, and the 90% advertorial content, gave way to the usual predictable crap that was hastily re-written in a slightly different format every other week.

This Week / Fortnight / Month’s chosen ramblings about the Spanish Lifestyle went on to give us the usual stereotypical guff about Tapas and Jerez in deepest Andalusia, and then went on to tell us about an early-retired couple who were in the midst’s of reforming an old watermill in darkest Galicia.

Then later in the mag, some other Property Agent had sponsored another advertorial about a further expat couple who had purchased a run-down Finca in rural Murcia. The photographs of oranges being harvested in the field and some rustic bread and olives being served in terracotta bowls on the table could not have been more predictable or stereotypical if they tried.

Of course, I fully appreciate that these Magazines have to make a living by selling such advertising, and of course a minority of smug expats do actually manage to renovate a 12th Century Monastery in some idyllic rural village.

I suppose my argument is that the reality is that the overwhelming majority of expats are lucky if they can afford the luxury of a life in Spain, or living in Spain, and that a Spanish lifestyle is simply something that has been created to sell Magazines.

Pressing our own Olive oil and tending our own free-range Hens after walking along a dusty mountain track to the local village bakery might be a dream for many a Expat, but the reality is that thousands more will count themselves lucky to be able to afford a second-line apartment somewhere on one of the Costas.

Nothing at all wrong with that, and this is probably more typical of the average expat – and therefore that is quite possibly more worthy of being a realistic and reliable read.

I suppose the problem is that ‘average’ and ‘typical’ doesn’t sell advertising. Most people in the UK don’t dream of relocating for a new life in Spain, but a ‘lifestyle’ in Spain.