Buying items related to your special interests

I've got the same problem-try and not get carried away and get too much collecting and yet I always end up getting way too much. It sounds like you collect some lovely things though-I would love to collect stuffed animals. 

You sound real adventurous with your cookingI cook from time to time but I'm not experienced and generally always make the same things-I find cooking stressful though. 

Have you considered online shopping so you can get the ingredients you're specifically after? I get a lot of things online now-find it a lot easier and a lot less stressful than having to go in to the shops in town.

Sounds lovely!-I used to own lots of historic books but my collection is dwindling a bit now-yours must be amazing though! Do you read them much?

I really want to get vinyl-only got cds at the moment.

Wow great pictures-thank you for sharing them! I really need to get myself to the Lego House one of these days-I'd move in there if I could!

Lmao!!! Strawberries.  But they're no longer the giant nightmare they were. The war is over! Uhane's tip of using Vaseline was genius and actually worked-today I still have 2 Strawberries still thriving.

That’s a really good find in a charity shop! DVD’s will make a comeback one day like Vinyl, so definitely keep hold of your DVD’s, you might have some gems in there!

As for your minifigure collection, I know how many you have and I’m jealous! I went to the Lego House 6 months ago and loved the display of some of the very first minifigures ever made… 

I’ve also found you a piece of Lego that has your name written all over it…

I don't set out to collect anything, but because I keep gathering things I like over time, it becomes a collection. I have many card decks, crystals, books, puzzle cubes, stuffed animals. I try to be sensible and not get too many things, but considering that my collections are always growing, I'm not doing a very good job at that, to my own dismay. 

I buy a lot of history books and some I could borrow from the library but I feel I have to own them.  But I do actually read them rather than have them gather dust.

I don't have the money to indulge my interests or the time or the space, I would end up living in a library, I do have quite a few books, but read many more on kindle and use the library for non fiction that I can't afford to buy.

Luckily cooking needs to be done, but living where I do, it's hard to get ingredients so most of my food tends to be 100 different things you can make with what you can buy in an understocked supermarket. A disaster happened a couple of weeks ago, when I realised I could no longer buy jack fruit in our supermarkets, that requires a special trip to Bangor, as do so many other things. I live in a bit of a restuarant dessert too, to have a 3 course meal out would require me to go to a different restaurant for each course and a drive around the island. Most of the food is steak and chips, fish and chips and stuff like that and anything veggie is cheese heavy which is no good for me. I've not eaten food cooked by anyone else for over a year now and I can't remember the last time I went out for a meal or had a takeaway.

I do indulge myself with plants though, although the local garden centre has got very poor recently and my growing conditions arn't the best as we get strong salt laden winds.

Wow, it sounds like you're living quite the adventurous and fulfilling life in Spain! Your passion for refurbishing apartments and mentoring autistic school leavers is truly inspiring! That's such a wonderful-kind thing to want to do, just helping others, we could do with more people like you in the UK. It's wonderful to hear that you find the climate, food, and people in Spain so delightful. The low cost of living and high interest rates on savings definitely sound like great perks of living there, something we need more of over here-for sure. Sounds like you have immersed yourself there and settled in to that way-pace of life. It must be amazing to experience the diverse climates and cultural influences that Spain has to offer, from rainforests to European climates. I've read up a lot about Spain but all the reading I bet-doesn't do it justice!

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences here, I find it really interesting and it's clear that your positive outlook and adventurous spirit have brought you a lot of happiness and fulfillment there-thank you for being so open to sharing your experiences of-life in Spain. Also super appreciate your offers of help as a guide which i would undoubtedly need lol. When I visit a new place I'm like a lost sheep! One day I will def visit there-though I need to get my anxiety sorted out first. Your post has literally made me want to visit there even more now. 

Paige said:

Do you live in Brazil

I live here now - semi retired in my 50s but keep active buying derelict apartments and refurbishing them. I also mentor some autistic school leavers to help with the transition to work which feels really rewarding.

For me the climate is great (it is currenly the same season as the UK in Jan and is 27C / sunny), the food is awesome (nowhere near as challanging as some of the Far Eastern cusines with the level of chilli and spices) and the people are really friendly.

I bought my one bed flat for £20k and have renovated it to live in while doing other, more special properties in old, famous buildings - and living here is really cheap while having a 12% interest on my savings in the bank. I don't even need to work to have a good income.

You do need to speak Portuguese to get by here as English isn't spoken much at all, but it is fine if you stay in the big hotel chains and go to upmarket restaurants.

I try to live as the locals do and it works well.

A return flight from the UK starts from about £650 direct so it is affordable for long haul (6,000 miles) but the 11 hour flight direct is a pain in the bum, especially in economy class.

The country is so big (something like the 5th biggest in the world I think) that it takes up to 6 hours to fly from top to bottom, but this leads to lots of different climates from rainforest, desert, grassy plains down to very European climates in the south.

There are big cultural groups from Africa, the Middle East (especially Lebanon and Syria), Europe (French, Italians and Germans especially), Japan and Korea.

These groups are mostly well integrated and the fusion of their cuisines with the awesome ingredients out here makes eating a wonderful experience.

It is a long way to come for just one country, but you can experience so many wildly different things when here that you don't need to go elsewhere.

If you are ever considering coming out then I can either give tips or be a guide to help you find your feet here.

Do you live in Brazil or are you there for work? I've always wanted to go to Brazil-I love the history there and it's always looked appealing to me. That's really good of you to lend your books like that to help others learn and improve. What a cool thing to do. 

One of the nice things about it is when I complete a set of books then I can pass them onto people here in Brazil who are working on their language skills and are also into the genres. This gives them a great motivation to read and expand their vocabulary.

And it makes space for me to fit more books in...

Wow! That's a lot of books-big collection, you've got a lot of reading to do!  I own a few sci-fi books-though nowhere near as many as you. That's a really cool special interest to have and it means you can get enjoyment from it repeatedly if you want to read them again in the future. 

I do my special interest shopping once every 6 months when I'm back in the UK - fantasy and sci-fi books have been the special interest for the last 3 years and I've been building on my existing collection largely thanks to eBay.

I've read about 15% of them so far and getting through 3-4 a week, so they will last a few years yet.