manana attitude

Hi Lisar329,

Welcome to the Alicante forum

Can you please introduce yourself to the community and tell us more about your query?

Thank you,

Priscilla
Expat.com team

Hi my name is Lisa. I am trying to find a place to retire. I saw Alicante in spain and it seems wonderful. I plan to visit in November.

My wife tends to be a bit more mañana than me so if you asked how prevalent mañana was in our house it would be a tricky question to answer. I think the same is true for Spain in general. It depends who you're dealing with and about what.

Lots of bureaucratic things you can do almost instantly, on the Internet for instance, others can take months and even years whilst you wait for some "civil servant" to finish their breakfast and send you a response. It's the same with goods and services. Phone a plumber and they arrive in minutes, phone another and they never arrive. I don't think I've ever had any trouble with the delivery of goods in the sense of buying a washing machine and the like. If they tell you it'll be there tomorrow morning and tomorrow morning it is. In fact buying white goods from a local shop is usually same day delivery. Parcel delivery can be a bit more hit and miss depending on whether you have a straightforward address or if you're up some country track.

In general I find Spain as reliable and unreliable as I found the UK. The difference is that for most of us the language, lack of language, makes it more difficult to deal with things and so we're more upset when something goes wrong and we have to do it again because it's more difficult.

Enlightening and hopeful response, i am hoping this attitude is hit or miss like you describe. I am trying to learn patience in this
Life..lol!