Almost Paradise.... (31)

What about swordfish? Fried in garlic and olive oil! With a spot of fresh Maltese lemon on top. And some fresh Maltese bread? Wow, mouthwatering indeed.

No there are some places that seem to be better than others, especially where the cost of living and the value of money is concerned.

In my opinion, Spain should rate as number one. Cheap good abundant food for very little money, and renting and buying are still in a decent bracket.
Second come the Greek islands, if one gets used to Greek quisine.

For abundance of fresh food at relatively cheap prices (but going up) Sicily, and Corsica.

Can't say the same for Malta, where food has become very expensive, and so has lodging and property in general. Of course food and renting are still cheap compared to Germany, but buying property could cost a few times more than buying in France, Sicily, Germany and many other European countries. Best property buys are in Bulgaria.

And does the Maltese cuisine meet your obviously very high, cordon bleuish standards, Antcus????

Hmmmmm???

Greek Breeze

Quality of life is, by definition, impossible to quantify, because everybody will have different priorities.....but check out this attempt to number-crunch it...first the links, then the the intro:






Interestingly enough....France scores an overall top with a total of 85 points...as a measure, Iraq scored lowest with 29.....Malta??....would you believe 74!..Not bad for a little chunka rock in the ocean....

Quote from the survey:

"Quality of Life is something we all strive to achieve but may define differently. Men might define quality of life as having complete control of the remote while relaxing in the Lazy Boy then entire month of March Madness. Women might define quality of life as the ability to attend a weekly spa session complete with facial, manicure, and pedicure. According to International Living, you cannot quantify something like quality of life, but they researched and ranked 192 countries to find the World's Best Quality of Life in 2008.

The 2008 Quality of Life Index released by International Living defined quality of life in countries based on cost of living, leisure, culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, risk, safety, and climate. Overall total scores ranked France on top, followed by Switzerland, United States, Luxembourg, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the Netherlands as the top ten best locations in the world for quality of life.

Mexico, named by International Living as the 2007 World's Best Retirement Location, did not make the top ten list of countries with the best quality of life. Many other things go into making retirement decisions that may not necessarily be a quality of life priority. In individual quality of life areas, Mexico ranked higher than France in Cost of Living and Climate, two priority considerations for those aging populations considering retirement."

Hi Anctus, like a coffee, bring you round a little and up to speed with what,s happening here in Spain? Since we changed to the euro the price of a simple coffe has doubled !!! Everything has gone up so much it,s front page news everyday! Spain used to be cheap,you are right, not any more. Salaries in comparison have only gone up by about 3 percent, which is pathetic. The biggy here at the moment is bread, they say it,s because the crops used to produce it are being used for other things (so much for Rusty,s forecast of a glut of gluten).
Property ? Forget it. Property prices are now about five times what they were five years ago. A fifty grand flat will now cost you 250,000!!!
And finally, just got back from the fair with the little fella. Couple of years ago it was about a euro a go, now it,s between three and five.