One-way flights booked to Aphrodite’s birthplace

Even if you’re not into your Greek mythology then you’ve probably heard of Aphrodite, the Ancient Greek Goddess of love and beauty.  The legend goes that she was born from the sea foam here:

Click to enlarge, Happy snap of Petra tou Romiou

Aphrodite apparently rose from the waves and was escorted on a shell to this beach.  That beach and those rock formations are in the Paphos district of Cyprus – our soon to be new home.  In the end our choice of new homes came down to Spain vs Cyprus and specifically the Costa del Sol vs Paphos.  Now not for a second am I saying that we couldn’t have found somewhere more suitable in Spain or Cyprus or elsewhere for that matter but what I am saying is that eventually it gets to the point where you have to make a decision with the data you have and strap yourself in for the ride.  We did that this week as we made our first irreversible commitment – we’ve booked our one-way flights.

So how did we arrive at Paphos (Pafos), Cyprus?  The process was:

• We firstly scoured the internet, which included numerous forums, to shortlist possible locations.  
• With that information we tried to build a ‘head’ matrix where we scored many topics including ease of visiting friends/family, ease of travel, cost of living, financials including taxes, economic stability, language, demographics, desired lifestyle compatibility, crime, security, noise, weather and healthcare (short term and long term) to name a few.
• If that showed promise we then visited the location and if we liked it we tried to visit again in the opposite season.  During our visit we then tuned up the ‘head matrix’ for comparison against other locations.  For a location to qualify we had to have visited it at least once for more than a holiday.

What was interesting was that as locations in Malta/Gozo, Australia and Italy fell away there was a cigarette paper remaining between the Costa del Sol, Spain and Paphos, Cyprus.  In the end the decision was made with a ‘heart’ question – where feels most like home?  It proves nicely, at least for us, that there is no nirvana where unicorns roam freely.  Instead there is just different and it’s a different we are very much looking forward to experiencing.

While we’ve been committing to Europe our risks brought on by the Brexit shambles aren’t going away but we aren’t prepared to waste more life while this plays out.  More than 2 years since the Brexit referendum the government still don’t know what Brexit they want and while Rome burns brightly our politicians holiday, the 25 guidance documents for people/businesses published this week to help with Brexit doesn’t consider those looking to leave Britain and the pound is falling yet again.  What a time to be moving home...  That said our conclusion of the best thing to do remains unchanged – be in Cyprus and importantly be registered with their MEU1 process before Brexit day, the 29 March 2019.  Also rely on nothing in the transition agreement as nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and certainly don’t rely on a post Brexit deal.  Instead it’s gain rights to live in Cyprus which would have to be physically rescinded by the Cyprus Authorities for us to be kicked out, continue to plan on no State Pension (who knows if they will continue to up rate it for those living in the EU) and secure private healthcare (who knows if the S1 will exist for UK citizens) that we can carry into our dotage which includes considering those costs in drawdown simulations.