Is this forum running out of ideas ?

I think the main slowdown is due to not so many people looking to move or buy in the area, also those that have done it seem to lose interest as they have aquired what knowledge they wanted and dont bother to contribute anything going on in their area.

The drop in package holidays/flights to the area also does not help but hopefully it will pick up.

Facebook does seem to split the community with grouos springing up that are more relevant to smaller areas that happened to the old CA site and also to the Martin Lewis forum in the UK.

I have personally not been back to the area since before the pandemic and as some will know I have swapped my alleigance to Albania,however I still have many friends in the area and garner any info that could be helpfull from them,sit tight it will pick up again

I don't have a Facebook account, but Mrs Matt is glued to Facebook and has her hang-up of obtaining a few million Facebook Friends (How sad is that?).

I contribute to a fairly serious forum in RoI in which with few exceptions many posters on here would be out of their depth. I'm not including Devo in this as he is capable of holding his own on any forum and when he speaks others listen. But, there are some guys on here who are off-the-wall with their offensive comments and self-opinioned blatant racist tripe. Then we have Dario who willingly gives his time to good advice. 

I am sorry Mojacar has lost HartCJHart as he is a pretty good poster except on the days which he has sat on his Panama Hat. I'm sure Albania will be all the richer for his presence there. I bet some Brexit issues had something to do with that. Has anybody noticed? - Mojacar Playa is becoming more Spanish. Many ex-pats have married Spaniards and have children whose first language is Spanish. You can now hear children with names like Cynthia and Trevor who don't have a word of English. 

I would like to see more posters on here. Especially those who are intelligent, broadminded, humorous and are open to some criticism etc. And I nearly forgot . . . somebody who can laugh at himself/herself.

I think those of us who live here, have moved on from the crazy Brexit vote. It turned out well for us and prompted us to retire early and all is good. Integrated into the local community along with many foreigners from Belgium, the Netherlands, Holland, Germany and other countries. 

The news from the Uk is getting increasingly negative, we’re glad we left and made a new life here. Facebook for us gives more information, particularly about what’s going on, via the town hall pages etc..

The Brexit Vote consequences will be with us for years to come unless there is some bona fide movement in the UK to regain some kind of EU membership. Our Taoiseach retired to the bank benches only with the past few weeks. In his departure speech he alluded to the ongoing Brexit situation in the UK which is affecting the Irish economy on an ongoing basis. Make no mistake about it, the UK was a huge loss to the EU and the EU membership is a great loss to the UK. Both can survive without the other, but it would be so much more convenient if they were together. Therefore, it would be folly to say that the UK has moved on because it hasn't; it has just moved apart. 

There are local elections looming in RoI and a general election seems to be coming later this year too and there will be a general election in the UK too. This forum will light up like a Christmas Tree then. I hope we have plenty debates.

I’ve noted a lot of repeating questions along the lines of “how do I get a visa?”, “is there any work for <…>?”, even “how can I stay longer than 90 days?”

These are all questions that have been answered repeatedly and at length, and I have noticed a tendency for the OP to not respond if the answer they get is not in line with the direction they were heading.

It’s almost as if there are still people being misled in the UK over how “easy” it is to just come and work here and settle, and how “easy” it is to simply stay longer than the allowed 90 days for non-residents.

Conversation here is also perhaps being stilted by deliberate fearmongering in the British press about a need for a letter of invitation or “£97 a day”.  Despite being told over and over that this will not normally apply to UK passport holders, and despite others sharing their experience of these things not being needed, it seems there are some that still want to believe this and will not be told otherwise.

The forum exists for a variety of reasons - one of those reasons is to give good experience-based information to people coming here, or looking to come here; but all too often it appears that that experience based advice from a variety of people is willingly disregarded 

yes Dario it does not help when programes like place in the sun do not explain the exact situation at the start of every show

One thing I like about this forum is its capacity to jump from a limp subject into something more serious in seconds. We've lost some good posters along the way too. That's the pity and I put it down to "I'm all right Jack" and not many are prepared to share their experience with others. Willingly, most of us part with information and feel all the better for it. 

Whenever a Spaniard wants to talk in English with me I have no problem, but the middle age female Spaniards in Vera ain't willing to speak to me in Spanish when I ask for directions; usually they just walk on with a scornful face that would send a funeral up a side street. I must say if I need directions now in Vera I tend to ask younger people who are always willing to help. 

You just don’t have the touch Matthew 😂😂

95% of my clients are middle aged Spanish women … they are wonderful people.

Have to side with Dario on this one Matthew you may scare them off, especially if you look anything like oul John  that your using as you profile picture. Your height alone may scare them.  😉😁

I ''volunteer'' -help out- what ever, at an English class for Spaniards. This helps me with my understanding of the language by hearing it and practicing speaking it. It also let's me give back something to the community. 

Anywho the class consists of around 8 to 12 mature (read middle aged I guess) Spanish women and they could not be more friendly. They greet me as if I'm thier best friend and always, everyone of them, make a point of  saying hello to me in English and Spanish and then thanking me for helping out after the class has finshed and asking me will I be at the next class. If I say no I can not make it they seem disappointed. 

In the class they all sometimes forget that my spanish is not anywhere near fluent but still they speak to me or ask me a question, as if it is. When they see the slight look of confusion on my boat race they apologize profusely and switch to English and try to ask again.They will then ask me if they have the pronounced all of the words correctly and thank me for my help.  

One day in the supermecado I met one of them with her family. She shouted out my name and came over and grabed me by the arm and introduced me to what seemed to be an extended family saying ''Este es (my name does not translate into Spanish), él nos ayuda a hablar mejor inglés. Él es un muy buen hombre. Es muy amable y paciente.'' She was fogetting that I understand Spanish much better than I speak it. So color me red after that intro. She then turns around and drags me over to introduce me to a friend of hers and her family and does it to me again, embarazoso 

What turned out to be a milk run ended up with me being there for nealry an hour.

I have since then been hailed around the area by Spaniards, by name, and I have no idea who they are.

I have found that 95% of the locals always say either Buenos días or at least buenos to which I answer ¿cómo está usted?