Over The Fence: Spain - Costa del Sol
For Sarah Drane and her friend Jesus Miguel Prieto Molina, Marbella is much more than a package holiday hotspot– it’s a way of life
The New Girl It was a colleague’s offhand comment that made Sarah Drane start thinking seriously about swapping her business suit for a bikini and heading south for the warmer climes of Spain’s Costa del Sol. At the tender age of 23, Sarah had said that she’d like to live abroad one day, but she just hadn’t anticipated that it would happen so early. “I had a perfectly decent job in a PR agency in south London but it was a casual chat with my then account director that got me thinking,” she says. “He recommended that I do it sooner rather than later as once I had a mortgage, a spouse and kids, it would become far more complicated.”
After sending her CV to some randomly selected companies on the Costa del Sol, Sarah promptly forgot about her flurry of spontaneity until fate intervened. “Very soon I had a phone call from a large Marbella-based agent saying they were interviewing in London. To cut a long story short, I went along, got the job and was moving to Spain about a month later!”
Sarah touched down in Spain on April 1, 2002: “I like to do important life-changing moves on April Fool’s Day so as not to take them too seriously and panic,” she says.
After just over a year working at a large real estate company doing bits and bobs of copywriting and PR “on the side”, Sarah decided that the bits “on the side” were enough to warrant her setting up her own business, and so Purple Cake Factory was born on – yes, you guessed it – April Fool’s Day, 2004. “It didn’t seem brave or crazy for a girl in her mid-20s because Spain feels like it has more opportunities, less ageism and less competition. I couldn’t have done it in London.”
Today, Purple Cake Factory is a specialist PR Agency that deals exclusively with residential real estate, and it won Best PR Company, Spain in the 2008 CNBC-sponsored European Property Awards. “The main difference is we work in flip flops and take time out on a lilo, floating on the swimming pool in the sunshine, while the London PR equivalents wear power suits, and eat a Subway al-desko for lunch.”
Unsurprisingly, Sarah has found life in Spain completely different to the UK. “It’s much slower, at times incredibly frustrating and quite old-fashioned. Banks still lean towards face-to-face personal relationships and there isn’t one person in Spain who hasn’t got a Telefonica nightmare story of trying to get a line installed or transferred.”
But for Sarah, it’s these things that also make Spain better. “Stress doesn’t exist. How can you be stressed when you’re staring at the sea every day and enjoying your free time on the beach or lounging on the terrace?”
Today, she lives in a cute mountain pueblo called Ojén – she describes it as: “The sort you see on postcards, like a handful of sugar cubes thrown on a hillside. Only seven kilometres inland from Marbella it feels like a different world – and century.”
While Sarah is totally au fait with Spanish life, she still can’t escape the scrutiny of the locals. “Ojén is certainly full of curtain-twitchers, particularly among the older folk, and you can’t keep any secrets. Have some flowers delivered to your house and the whole village will be wondering what nasty, life-threatening illness you have. Invite a chap into your home who isn’t your partner and the village will be frowning upon your extra-marital affairs. It’s quite amusing if you don’t take it too seriously.”
When making the move, Sarah found that people were hugely encouraging: “They just told me to go for it – you can always come back.” But Sarah has no intention of returning to the UK. “Marbella’s not just a place to live, it’s all things to all people, from a quaint old town to a modern metropolis where nightclubs host the world’s best DJs. There’s miles of sandy beaches, chic marinas with designer boutiques and mega-buck gin palaces – not to mention all those titchy white mountain villages to explore inland. Need I go on?”
Undeniably, her life has changed for the better, and it’s not just the day job that’s improved. “I’m generally a lot happier and relaxed,” she says. “I absolutely do not miss the rain, the Tube, the traffic, the high prices, the miserable faces, the crime… but I’d give anything for a proper English country pub.”
The Local Forty-year-old Jesus Miguel Prieto Molina was born in the Andalucían city of Cordoba but today lives in La Quinta Golf & Country Club, one of the most sought-after addresses on the Costa del Sol. He’s a lawyer but strictly Monday to Friday only. His spare time is very important to him and he fills it hanging out with friends, travelling and playing sport. “My golfing handicap of 28 probably means I don’t practise enough,” he says.
Jesus moved to Marbella after his brother found him a job there. “He called me up one day and asked if I fancied working in a friend’s law practice,” he says. “The next day I came to take a look at the business and the following week I relocated and started work in Marbella – I like to work fast.”
For Jesus, Marbella makes a big change from Cordoba, in particular when it comes to business. “Marbella has many more opportunities for professional development than the interior of Spain, yet it’s not too big to feel impersonal and of course it’s right on the coastline,” he says. “You’ve got the trendy cosmopolitan hotspots of Banús and the more traditional towns like San Pedro on your doorstep, while it’s close enough to Cordoba to nip back to see the family.”
Marbella is well-used to “foreigners”, having been one of the world’s biggest tourist hotspots since the 1960s. Jesus says: “Marbella’s multiculturalism is absolutely a good thing. The best way to enrich your life is to get to know people from different countries – you learn what makes them laugh, and I can continue to practise different languages.”
Jesus feels that many outsiders may still have a romanticised view of Spaniards as being nothing but bullfighters, flamenco dancers and feria revellers. “While each does have a place in modern Spain, the wider picture is somewhat different,” he says. “Spain is now a modern country, yet still clings to important values of family and friendship. Spaniards are naturally optimistic, avoid negativity and don’t allow personal problems to get them down. And with so many ferias and festivals to dance the night away to, worries are soon forgotten.”
In Andalucía, the Spanish stereotype is accentuated as it’s the birthplace of flamenco and has some of the longest and most impressive ferias in the country. “With warm weather and a laid-back, unrushed lifestyle, the Andalucíans are well known for enjoying themselves,” Jesus explains. “The warm sunny climate undoubtedly makes the local population more friendly and approachable so expats don’t feel like outsiders. The Andalucíans work to live, rather than live to work, and instead of cautiously saving their euros, they tend to spend what they earn enjoying themselves – and who can criticise that attitude?”
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