Terenia Taras
WE’VE been back in the UK now since lockdown kicked in four weeks ago, but are desperate to get back to Mallorca.
We had only spent three weeks there before we had to come back to the UK, but despite the brief amount of time, it is our home!
We made the move to Mallorca after my partner relocated with his job and it was a dream for me as I’d always wanted to live in the sun. I had a brief taste of expat life after I moved to France when my son was four. I decided by the end of our one week holiday to Nice that I loved the way of life there so much, I just didn’t go back!
Despite the fact that I had no job, nowhere to live, was a single mum and didn’t speak French! That’s just the kind of spontaneous girl I am.
Within a week I’d found an apartment, enrolled my son in a playgroup and was job hunting. But there was the crux, it was very difficult to get a job to suit playgroup hours and my high-school French! But being determined I eventually got a job working for a PR company in Monaco, which sounds very glam and it was, but I found Monaco a little soulless as most ‘money places’ seem to be.
But we know that our lovely apartment in Bendinat is waiting and when we do get back I cannot wait to meet new people and make friends
Within the first year I had to make the hard decision to return to the UK, accepting that I couldn’t sustain life there on a single mum’s salary. I also had the pressing decision of school and whether it was a good idea to start my son in the French system, but it would have been very unfair on him if for whatever reason in the future we couldn’t stay. So, reluctantly I went with the sensible option for once and returned to Leeds!
Like so many parents you put your own dreams on the back-burner. You live where the schools are better, just so your children can have the best start. It’s predominantly women who put their careers on hold, or adapt it to suit school and childcare. So, having done that, and with my son reaching 18 and the Mallorca offer on the table, now was the time to live my dream! Which we did, very briefly, until coronavirus put the kibosh on it!
Every day since we’ve been back we’re checking the flight situation to Mallorca. We already have vouchers courtesy of BA after our flights in May were cancelled.
But we know that our lovely apartment in Bendinat is waiting and when we do get back I cannot wait to meet new people and make friends.
There is so much of the beautiful island we’ve yet to explore, new restaurants and bars to discover, we may even get to see the newly-inhabited dolphins. But most of all we just can’t wait for our long-awaited life in Mallorca to begin!
