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Interview
5 April 2015 2.00 h

I heard it on the grapevine

Števe Brown Every Friday afternoon on El Punt Avui TV Nicole has a chat with an English speaking expatriate who lives in Catalonia. Here is her chat with Steve Brown.
As it is the theme for Small Talk we know you live in Cat­alo­nia. Where do you live?
I tell peo­ple I live in Girona, but it is just out­side of Girona. A lovely lit­tle town called Celrà.
Very close to Girona, just 10 min. What made you move there?
This goes back about ten years, I had an op­por­tu­nity to quit my com­pany in the UK. I was work­ing in elec­tron­ics and when I was 60 years old there was a win­dow where I could walk away from it. I had come to Girona on hol­i­day be­fore and wanted to live near Girona on the coast side but not on the coast.
What drew you to the Girona area?
I had come on hol­i­day to Llafranc many years ago and I al­ways liked the lo­ca­tion. France is very close, that is very at­trac­tive, the Mediter­ranean is close and Girona is a beau­ti­ful city. I just won­der­ing around the es­tate agents in Girona, look­ing for a flat or some­thing and I ended up buy­ing a flat from plans.
You didn't see it be­fore you bought it? That is brave!
Well it was just a shell, they had started build­ing it.
How long did it take for the build­ing to be com­pleted?
Two years. I would pop over from the UK for a week­end, stay in a hotel and go and check on the pro­ject. Check the roof was still on!
So once the it was com­plete you made the ac­tual move over – no look­ing back?
No look­ing back, I have no in­ten­tion of going back to the UK. I love it here. I go back to the UK just once a year.
What do your friends think of you liv­ing here?
My friends in the UK envy me be­cause of the weather of course! And here my friends envy my free­dom as I am re­tired, I have an in­come and I can do the things I enjoy doing.
You say you are re­tired, but re­ally not com­pletely!
When I came here I started paint­ing but the ‘techi' side of me very much liked the idea of web de­sign and graph­ics, which was re­ally tak­ing off back then. I have this lovely mix­ture of art and tech­nol­ogy, so my techi side is sat­is­fied and so is my artis­tic side. A long time ago I went on a re­treat and I started doing sketches of cot­tages in pen­cil. Then a friend com­mis­sioned me to do a wa­ter­colour of the house where she lived. So it went on from there. My style has re­laxed since then. I did one paint­ing re­cently where the trees where blue!
Very David Hock­ney! You re­cently had an ex­hi­bi­tion in Celrà…
It was in the civic cen­tre in Oc­to­ber 2014. It was my third ex­hi­bi­tion and I think I would like to start show­ing my pic­tures in Girona, maybe at the Sant Nar­cis fes­ti­val for ex­am­ple. I also sell post­cards and greet­ings cards in shops in Girona.
Your other hobby is cy­cling, road or moun­tain bik­ing?
Road, moun­tain bik­ing has never at­tracted me. The roads around here are great. Some peo­ple ask me if it is dan­ger­ous but I think the roads are mar­vel­lous. I am fit enough to go to the beach and back in a day. Just an­other thrill of liv­ing here! I also love going to France. Not by bike though! I am a big fan of the train.
What is the rail­way ser­vice like over here in Cat­alo­nia com­pared to the UK?
In­fi­nitely bet­ter. It is cheaper. I often go to Per­pig­nan on the high-speed train. I like to go there to prac­tice my French, do a bit of shop­ping, change of food.
How has Girona or Cat­alo­nia changed you as a per­son since you have been here?
The change is dra­matic! I was a recluse, so­cially. I worked for my­self, I worked from home. Since being here I have got in­volved in two so­cial groups, which I help or­gan­ise. Once is Girona Grapevine and the other is a meet up group.
Girona Grapevine has been going for quite some­time. It is sim­ply a so­cial group for Eng­lish speak­ers. We have all sorts of na­tion­al­i­ties. We meet once a week.
The other group, is like a so­cial net­work but you ac­tu­ally meet. They or­gan­ise events. I took it over or­gan­is­ing it a while ago.
So Catalunya has changed you for the bet­ter?
Learn­ing a for­eign lan­guage, it is amaz­ing for self con­fi­dence. I don't know why it is, it isn't just self con­fi­dence in speak­ing the lan­guage it is gen­eral self con­fi­dence. My life had def­i­nitely changed.
Give me three top tips for liv­ing or vis­it­ing Girona or Celrà.
The thing I love about Girona is the pub­lic trans­port. I don't have a car so it is an im­por­tant part of my life.
One place I re­ally like in Girona is Plaça de la In­de­pendència. I love the at­mos­phere. It is full of restau­rants and bars.
And as we have men­tioned, the cy­cling. It is a cy­cling mecca!
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