Notes

A View From Spain

I've been blessed to have spent a lot of the winter of 2019-2020 living across the southern shore of Spain. Occupying a leased casa near the center of an old town for a protracted time, which necessarily involved engaging with sailors, such as commercially with shop keepers and the like, gave me a great opportunity to see how daily economic life is lived at a place far from my New Hampshire home.


<img width="491" src="https://www.livecareer.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/5-Common-Accounting-Interview-Questions_image.jpg" />

To be clear, I really do have a life beyond financial observation, but for purposes of the piece I'll focus on a tiny anecdotal contrast between the way folks conduct commercial exchange at a corner of Spain and at NH. To further set this up, notice that I deliberately lived without a car and had no information plan for 3 weeks, relying instead on public transport and WiFi (or wee-fee as they cutely say there).


All these near-monastic practices aside, allow me to tell you a little about my provisional Spanish hometown. Fuengirola, a little city of approximately 75K residents, lies along the Mediterranean coast about 25 kilometers west of Malaga, the huge city in those areas. It is in the autonomous region of Andalusia (like a US state), that's the largest of these self-governing regions in Spain. Given that read this was controlled from the Islamic Moors for approximately seven centuries the architecture and culture is a unique mix of Christian and Muslim influences never seen elsewhere in Europe. I concur.


What's her latest blog is how conservative things look, at least to a guy in his late sixties. In NH of course we get in our cars and drive to big supermarkets and big box stores to buy our stuff, or as is increasingly the casewe purchase things online and have them shipped to our homes. But here, the little &quot;Mom &amp; Pop&quot; stores are alive and seemingly well. The sidewalks every day, except Sunday, are teeming with people carrying their everyday promotion of vegetables, fruits, medicines, clothes, breads/pastries, alcohol, and lottery tickets (really large here).


I have to admit that despite an apparent inefficiency with moving to one store for your bread, to a different to your veggies, and also to the next for meat I liked the quaintness and private touch of having to know the people who worked those establishments. Levels of private service always seemed high and I never felt rushed. Sure Amazon.es and big box stores such as El Corte Ingles exist, but little brick &amp; mortar retail is hanging here quite well.


i thought about this of Europe is legendary and it is in full swing in Fuengirola. Folks sit with friends and family for what seems like hours chatting on coffee and beer throughout workdays and weekends alike. Cafes and pubs are everywhere spilling onto sidewalks. The jabber is lively and boisterous and leaves a Yank with the impression that life really should be fun and lived with gusto. &quot; But it does. Police attendance is minimal.


The Euro is the currency. And now its value is just about 10% higher than the US dollar. But, Continue Reading for most commodities seem lower here. our website 'm often struck by how much value I'm getting for so little cash. Granted, gasoline is greater than in NH and I don't have a good sense of the costs of power and big-ticket items, but overall prices seem cheaper in Spain. Additionally, this a cash-based society. My pocket often is weighed down with those heavy coins (a First World problem, I know). Sure blog link use credit cards and phone pay programs, but cash is still quite widespread.


Homepage: http://www.alan-shaw-architects.co.uk