Solar/Life Insurance/Monty

Well, I received 3 solar lamps - 2 for the garden and 1 hurricane lamp, from China this week even though I didn't pay for them. They felt sorry for my bank fiasco on the transfers. They are great - in the garden and lighting up every night. This photo looks like daytime when in fact I took it at night so you can see how bright they are - sometimes my camera is just too efficient for me. Anyway, I now have to decide whether to buy more. By the way, you may think our grass needs cutting but I actually had to find a spot where Ollie couldn't find them and carefully destroy the solar panel tops - they are very attractive.........

Life Insurance - got it here in Belgium this week as trying to obtain it long distance was not the quick process we thought (even if we had signed it all). It should be finalised on Monday when we have to sign yet another form for the NBD and that's the last, inshallah, piece of the loan jigsaw.

I got the latest pictures from Montenegro and the landscaping is looking great and the site cleaned up. However, the municipality having nearly finished the road outside have just dug it all up again, to relay new water pipes. Our next guests arrive on the 7th June, the clock's ticking....

Splish splash

The landscaping at the apartment in Montenegro is all finished and the pool is being filled as we speak. Can put this one to bed for now too, phew.

Friends and family rates of course:-

www.holidayrentals.co.uk - Property Reference 77447


Now we are working on how to build ours in Dominica incorporating solar power and an eco but reliable sand filtration system. At least we've found an expert to help us and can nod wisely at his suggestions....we are also learning about wind turbine power too. Who'd have thought it eh....will be wearing crocs next...

Rental Income/Money

Pando rang me from Montenegro today and said the landscaping and the water will be connected by the 20th May and the swimming pool will be filled by then too. Great. It would be good to have a full season this year of course. Originally the 'season' in Montenegro was 100 days but now it seems people want to visit all year round and our previous visits in September and February have both been great - nice weather and lots going on. This means there is no 'ghost town' feel when you visit out of peak months and the restaurants are still excellent and there is still a real buzz about the place.

I talk about money in this blog because that's what people ask - often indirectly but nevertheless I can see their brains ticking over and wondering what exactly we are going to live on and then outloud, how much it's going to cost us to move. What I can tell you is how much it is likely to cost you to relocate. You plan as best you can but there's always an element of juggling and this is what you need to be prepared for. Today was an example of that at 9am but by 5pm everything had changed. This is how:-

* Resigned to booking our flights to St Lucia at an increased GBP2,700
* My brother & sister-in-law step in and very generously and offer their airmiles, reducing out cost to GBP1100
* I want the children to complete their school year here so I postpone the packers to July 3rd. This pushes us into high season price and an increase of Euros 900 to their quote.

So that's how it goes and you can only do so much in preparing yourself for the final cost of a move as there are so many unexpected variables, so it's always tricky when people ask how much is it going to cost to move..... Later on this week we have our landlord coming around and will find out what this part of the process is going to cost us. It's very complicated here - our rental agreement is 25 pages long, in Dutch. So that will be interesting.

So there you go, money, and as they used to tell me in the Middle East:-

"Mafi felous mafi saddique"

Waiting to Ring

We had no computer access for the last week so no news on our loan. The first thing I did yesterday was crank up the pc (it's very old) and scanned for Tina's name. Yes, there was one on the loan but just saying we should transfer the Alien Landholding Licence fee to be held in escrow, if required. This morning, I see Tina sent another at midnight saying to ring her today as she has good news. Now I'm just counting the 6 hours until Dominica wakes up, fingers crossed. How early can I wake her without her jumping out of bed thinking it must be a 'someone's died' phone call, I wonder.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from Montenegro last week - the outdoor life and fish for lunch every day. I love it!

Once inside it's great says Pando (sic) the salesman!

You know the reality building programmes on TV, well we were in one last week. I guess the flight should have prepared us..........our 'direct' flight actually landed in Montenegro and flew onto Croatia. However, as we were not booked on this flight originally we had to carry on to Croatia and drive the 2.5 hours back to Montenegro. We arrived in the offices of A.V. Properties
(a.k.a Anyone Visible Properties?) to be advised that we could stay with an old lady in a field with the enthusiastic 'that will be great for the kids won't it' accompaniment. Jovo, our driver, saw my face and then saved the day saying we could stay at his apartment - Anyone Visible retorted they would only pay him what they were paying the field lady. He agreed, phew. The next day we saw the site and our apartment. A picture tells a thousand words so here they are.

One step forwards and a few back again

One step closer to getting our loan apparently as a letter from the solicitor explaining our situation may suffice. Medical results came through today - all ok - well as ok as you can be when you're as old as us. Still trying to find a child friendly apartment for tomorrow in Montenegro. See you next week....

What no water?

So the story goes on....there is no water or electricity now in our flat in Montenegro as the road diggers cut through the cables so we won't be sleeping there that's for sure. If we want to get our cases into the apartment we have to climb the hill with them. Interesting.

I know I have to get used to water and leccy cuts so this is a useful start....

Think we're allowed 100 kilos....

We are off to Montenegro on Friday to see the apartment we bought 3 years ago which is finally completed. Well, that was the plan. Last night, the developer rang and I just knew by his breathless tone that Plan B was imminent. Well, the good news is the apartment is finished, habitable and has water and electricity. The bad news is that without a helicopter we cannot actually get into it because there is no accessible road. So we have now been booked into an apartment nearby and have been told that the situation will be assessed (parachutes?), on Sunday. This morning I received the flight details finally as I had booked these online ages ago blindly ignoring the very tiny 'subject to change' line. The bargain flight has now been moved forward to 5.50am and is going via Corfu. So up in the middle of the night with the kids (dragging them along on their Trunkis at 3am at the airport) and then an extra 1.5 hours flying time with them too. Joy. Coupled with this, as you can see we're not travelling light as I have purchased all the stuff for the apartment here. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Anyway, hopefully the apartment is great and hopefully lots of people will want to stay there so hopefully this will give us some income in Dominica. Hope's my middle name.

From China to Montenegro in one post!

For us, our income in Dominica will come from a variety of sources, which is why we can make this move as we are not reliant, as in Europe, on having one/two large salaries coming in to support us all. The cost of living is cheaper and ultimately the biggest expense of rent/mortgage will not apply to us in the longterm. This means we can concentrate, hopefully, on options that we enjoy, have an interest in or just want to try out but we definitely need to work. One of these is an import business of a product that should be successful in Dominica, from our research to date. Today I sent US$120 to China for 3 samples so I am excited about these arriving. We can then decide whether we raise US$16,000 to turn this into a business in conjunction with our builder, Oliver, and anyone else who may be interested. However, importing into a country with only 70,000 people in is probably not as good an idea as trying to export something from there.

Another source of income for us will be our apartment in Montenegro - like Dominica a lot of people haven't heard of there either! For those who don't know, it was previously called Yugoslavia. We bought off plan 3 years ago - all we saw was the field and the view but we felt confident it would turn out well. We had spent about a year researching all the 'emerging markets' to try and spot the next hotspot and felt confident Montenegro fitted the bill. Now, all this time later, we are finally seeing our investment at the end of the month and staying there for a week. During this week, we will complete the furnishings and meet our agent who will be looking after our guests. I have advertised the apartment and we already have 4 bookings for this season so I am hoping for the best this year and a fully booked season next - ever the optimist!

Anyway, here's the view from our balcony in Montenegro.