PHIL SALE?

November 2017

I was born in January 1958 in England, where I served as a British Police Officer for thirty years between 1976-2006. Upon my retirement I moved permanently to live in Spain, but with that decision came my second divorce. I lived in the mountains south of Granada with my campo dog Luis, and except for circumstances beyond my control, I would never have left, I had many friends, both Spanish and English, and both the culture, and the people made it the perfect place to retire to. I had built up a Carpenters workshop full of tools over a lifetime and a stock of wood, I had machinery to work my land, and a couple of computers to keep me occupied when physical labour was not on the agenda, so I had a full life.

However, life was not perfect, I did not like living alone, and wanted to find a partner, this time for life. After a couple of short term relationships, and much time on the internet, I decided to give it one last chance, before accepting that I would have to live alone and make the best of it. I was contacted by Marcela.

At first I was unsure, there was a big age difference, but Marcela soon re-assured me that age was not a factor, and it was not long before we clicked! Thank goodness for Skype, otherwise I would have been bankrupt with huge phone bills.

Just over two months later I was on a plane to Colombia, the two weeks I was here, flew by, and we soon knew that we had to be together. I met the family, who are all brilliant, and I was readily accepted once they realised that I was serious, and not playing games. So I asked Marcela to marry me, and she accepted, the hard part was then saying good-bye, until my planned return in January 2012.

Back in Spain, my life was hectic to say the least, I had papers to obtain from the UK for the wedding, and for my Visa, because there had never been any question of Marcela moving to Spain, I was retired, with no commitments, she had a good job, and she is close to her family. I therefore had to sell everything, I kept ten cartons of clothes and personal items, that I had shipped to Colombia by sea.

I spent a week back in the UK, saying farewell to my Family, then I was working twelve hours a day, sorting everything out. I had a House Sale, where all my possessions, including a lifetimes collection of woodworking tools were all sold off at silly prices, but the one good thing to come out of it, was that a local Spaniard who came to the sale, then made me an offer for the house, things were looking up.

People were very good, they knew my plans, and many who purchased items from me, let me hang onto them until I left, which made Christmas a little more bearable. Unfortunately I had to let Luis, go to a friend, knowing I was going to be living in an apartment, and in town, as well as the journey, I knew that was not fair on him, and despite him having been my constant companion for nearly four years we said our good-byes on Christmas Eve.

January came, and it was back on a plane to Colombia, I stayed at the family home, for a couple of weeks, whilst we signed for and furnished a rental apartment, and then our life together began.

Marcela has been the best thing that could have happened to me, and we were married on February 19th 2012, after many complications with my house in Spain, it was eventually sold in December 2013, and we then bought a Finca (rural house), which was our first property but not our last!

Am I happy?…I couldn’t be happier, and the Blog followed my first three years here in Colombia. I stopped blogging for a while, returned but only to document my projects, when I suffered health problems I hung up my keyboard again, but now I am back, at least for now.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, now you know who I am!!

Phil