Thursday 1 October 2009

Why Puglia?

October 1st, it's sunny, warm (27.5 C), the beach is sandy, the sea water is crystal, probably a good day to ask the question "Why Puglia?". It's a question we are often asked, by tourists and fellow ex-pats alike and by the locals too.

In fact, there should really be two questions :
Why did you want to leave the UK?
Why did you choose Puglia?

So, Part 1, why did we want to leave the UK? The simple short answer is, to escape the rat race, and achieve a better life style. Having left school just short of my fifteenth birthday and, apart from a short 6 month gap when I had my son, I worked continuously. Making up for my lack of qualifications along the way, I climbed the greasy pole, eventually ending up as a freelance IT consultant. Working away from home most of the time, leaving home on Monday morning (and sometimes Sunday evening), to return on Fridays after a week of long hours, I was a confirmed workaholic.

Not satisfied with the IT consulting where I was at times working on more than one contract at a time, I simultaneously set up my own business, an internet accountancy service for IT consultants. The business grew to a point where I gave up the consulting and concentrated on it full time, and although I was now not travelling for work, I was working even longer hours, 16 hours a day 5 and half days a week, and sometimes more.

When an opportunity came along to sell the business, I decided to go for it. Part of the deal was that I was tied in for two years to continue working for the company after the sale went through. But with the promise of more normal working hours! Unfortunately that just didn't happen. The demands were greater, the stress higher and the working hours just as bad. As the two years came to an end I was looking around for another job and found one, just 2 days before the entire IT department was made redundant! I wasn't sorry to go but it was a sad day for the other employees who lost their jobs.

My new job was a classic 9 to 5, should have been just what I wanted. But I just wasn't happy.

I'd always feared retirement, wondering what I would do with myself when work was no longer my primary focus. But things were changing ......

So restless and unhappy, unable to afford to take early retirement in UK, what were my options?

Why Puglia - Part 2, to follow!

Sunday 6 September 2009

Beach Update

Unexpectedly today the tides are high, the sea is rolling in, right up to the roadside, and the top part of the beach is covered with stones again!

Egg Mayo Sand(wiches) or A Blustery Day on a Puglia Beach

You could tell we were Brits, almost the only two people on our beach Saturday afternoon. With a strong south-easterly wind whipping up the waves and clouds racing over head, Contrada Cipolla changed character yet again. You'd be forgiven for thinking we were on a Yorkshire beach in November, except of course it was more than warm! There we were with our egg mayo sandwiches with the savoury addition of a sprinkling of sand, and almost completely alone.

But back at the house, just a few hundred metres away ..... no wind, baking heat and oh so high humidity, according to the news much higher than normal for this time of year. Without a doubt the beach was the best place to be.

And in typically British fashion we couldn't resist a dip in the sea. A sea with wave, big waves ..... well for us anyway, you couldn't exactly surf but great fun to jump around in. The Adriatic here is normally either as still as a millpond or only has little ripples of waves. And unlike Morecambe Bay the sea was warm.

Our beach, Lido Cipolla (yes that's Onion Bay) has been described as "undeveloped, narrow and shabby" by one recent visitor. I'm not sure what constitutes shabby for beach. Certainly it is completely uncommercialised, one of the things we like about it. No roach coaches (burger/hot dog wagons), sunbeds to rent, beach bars, karoke or other loud music. Just a few metres from the house the beach is, it's true, not over wide but plenty of room for us to set up camp even in the height of summer. We've even had a barbeque on the beach complete with table, chairs, tablecloth, the only things missing were the candles on the table and champagne bucket - next time!

Walk in one direction, towards Torre San Gennaro, and at that end you reach a nice bay. Walk in the other direction towards Lindinuso and at the other end where the beach is a lot more stoney, weather conditions allowing, you will rind the kite-surfing school.

For those that like things a little more sophisticated, Lindinuso, 10 minutes walk away offers the Bar Benny Lido and a little further on you will find Mosquito Beach, Exotic Beach and Sun Beach, all with bars, sunbeds and parosols to rent.


Puglia beach in July, Contrada Cipolla, beaches in Puglia
In fact the beach is a constantly changing landscape. In January and February the high tides wash in all the stones and pebbles and there is very little if any sand to be seen. In March, heaps of black seaweed are washed in, I keep intending to collect the seaweed to mulch the garden but have not done so yet. In April the tides wash out the seaweed and stones and by May we usually have a nice long sandy beach which stays with us through the summer. The local comune clean the beach (using a tractor) from late June to early September, and the Italians flock here in those months. At weekends in July/August it can be pretty busy but during the week, even then, there is always plenty of space. Unusually this year we had exceptionally high tides in late July, but we still managed to find space on the beach for our sunbed, chair and sun parasol!

As always here, my memory lets me down and I don't remember the October, November and December months. Bob just reminded me that we get lots of driftwood washed in, great offerings for the fire later in the year!
...... to be continued later this year



Puglia beach in January, Contrada Cipolla, beaches in Puglia

Saturday 5 September 2009

Life in Puglia

I'm wondering why I have decided to start this blog ........ maybe it's that long unfulfilled wish to do something really creative. I can't paint, sing, act or draw ........ back in the dark old workaholic days, programming went a long way to satisfying my creative urge. But now, retired and living in Puglia, Italy, programming has pretty much been assigned to the back burner. So lets try writing ....

Of course the other reason is, my totally lousy memory, which is only getting worse with age! What was the weather like this time last year? When did I cut the asparagus back last year? What did I plant when, what worked best in the garden ..... etc. etc.

So this blog will be my musings and daily happenings, possibly of little interest to anyone else (except long suffering family and friends of course) ... but just maybe if you are thinking of taking early retirement, jumping ship from the UK and landing in Puglia, also known as Apulia (more about Puglia soon) or somewhere similar, our experiences, failures and successess may give you some inspiration!