Finding a dream home and the right school

Transcript

Welcome to Mallorca Living with Helen Cummins

Hi, I’m Helen Cummins, and this is Mallorca Living, a video podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of inspiring people who have made this beautiful island their home. For each episode, we’ll share their story; they’ll tell us about their journey, the challenges, the triumphs, the insider tips that make life here so special. Let’s dive in!

Hello, I’m here today with Colette Barr, who recently moved to Mallorca, and we’re going to find out why Colette and her family chose to move to Mallorca, how it’s been, the whole process of buying a new home here and getting her son settled into school. So let’s hear more. Colette, thank you for having us around to your new house. Thanks for coming. Yeah, it looks beautiful from what we can see so far. You only recently moved in and it looks like you’ve been here a long time already. Yeah, so, um, yeah, actually we bought the house about a year ago and just moved in about two months ago, so it is pretty new. It is. There was lots going on behind the scenes before you arrived, so okay, to get everything ready.

Meet Colette Barr: From Scotland and Dubai to Mallorca

So let’s go back to the beginning of the story. You moved here from Dubai, but you’re originally Scottish. I am. And your husband’s also Scottish. Yes. And, uh, can you tell us a little bit about why you moved, let’s say, from Scotland to Dubai and then your journey here? So, yeah, I mean, we always, both of us always wanted to live away and we both met at uni when we were quite young. My husband had actually already been living in the Middle East as a child for about 10 years, so I think it maybe was in him because his sister ended up, uh, leaving Scotland as well and going to live in America. So, um, and I always wanted to travel and my dad’s actually French Canadian, my mom’s family are all Irish. So I think there was just like, we wanted to get up and move and go somewhere different and we, it’s that way that we’d lived in Scotland all our lives and wanted a different adventure and we traveled a lot, so we wanted to go and see more. And, uh, yeah, so we’d actually tried quite a few different places. Where, where in Scotland did you meet and grow up in? Uh, we met in Glasgow, so yeah, I was born and bred in Glasgow and he’s, he was born in Edinburgh, was brought up in Aberdeen. So, okay, but lived sometime in the Middle East as well. Exactly. So, great. Um, his dad was an oil and gas. So, um, that and I was just talking to you there about the fact that I used to be oil and gas as well and that’s one of the things that kept us in the Middle East for so long as well. Okay, okay. So you decided finally to settle in Dubai. Yeah, at first my husband wasn’t really that bothered about going to Dubai. There was other places that were more interesting for him, but there’s only so many places that you can actually, um, do his job. And so what is his job? He is an employment lawyer. He’s an employment lawyer, yeah. So there’s, um, yeah, this opportunity came up. We just decided, look, let’s take it, let’s go. And it was one of the best things that we ever did and we were out there for, well, he’s still out there, so that’s nearly 14 years. Wow. And that was kind of, well, already Dubai was kind of moving.

Life in Dubai vs. life in Mallorca

And and you’ve seen over the last 14 years this incredible uh evolution of Dubai. Totally. So when I first went, for example, in Ramadan, like it’s, it is now. You couldn’t wear like short sleeves. Um, you couldn’t be seen in the streets like drinking or like all the malls were, um, like no food courts were open, certainly no alcohol. Whereas now, I mean, it’s like it could be any time of year. So really changed a lot. So the whole kind of religious part of it is much more diluted now for for people, for expats. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, but yeah, it was very different. We thoroughly enjoyed. My husband’s still there right now working. And it, it was time for something different and new. Okay, so tell us when you decided. You have two sons. One is studying in the US already and he’s 18. And then you have a younger son, Morgan, and he’s, he is at school here now. Exactly. So I think he was a big part of the reason. No, why you decided to. It was actually, it was the first son that really wanted to move to Spain.

Moving with family: A mother’s perspective

And when we came here initially and bought a house, um, quite like it was six years ago, we thought that this was like the perfect timing for us to move to Mallorca because we had two younger boys and, but time just kind of ran away. And then COVID came and then that obviously meant that people, um, were less willing to travel and people, places were recovering from COVID or the impacts of that. And I was like, I’m not going away now to build a new life just at this point. So we kind of delayed it a little bit longer. And so now I’m just here with the younger one who wasn’t keen to leave Dubai at all actually. But we also think that it’s very important to have a bit of building a bit of resilience because Dubai is very easy and he’s lived there all his life and things can be just too easy sometimes. And I think like building in a little bit of resilience in a very safe space in a beautiful place, um, learning a language, learning a different culture and yeah, we, we thought it was a good different experience and a different adventure. And how did you feel about the move? Because you’re the one who’s kind of uprooted your life and and moved to Mallorca. Yeah, so years ago when, when we had this idea and this dream, it was like quite exciting. It was all new and it was an adventure and it was something in the future that was like a great lovely dream. But as time goes on and it gets more real and the actual reality of uprooting yourself and everything that you know, going to somewhere different and new is whilst it’s exciting, it’s daunting. And it’s me that’s the, the, the, the sort of general manager of the whole operation. And so I knew that for a while and I was a bit anxious about it. And so, um, yeah, it was, it was a bit of a, it was a bit more of a difficult move I think, moving from Dubai to Mallorca than it was from Scotland to Dubai. Yeah, but it, it feels a bit like, although your husband’s been incredibly supportive, you’ve been the one that’s actually had to see it through, right? Yeah, exactly. I’m the deliver, I’m the delivery on the ground, yeah, yeah. So he’s still in Dubai, um, and obviously comes back, he comes back and forward and his job is still there, um, and we had this idea that we will do this for some time until, you know, um, our youngest is through school and it sort of, we’re investing in the future a little bit as well for a different life that we envision for ourselves. So there’s quite a lot of groundwork that needs to be done for that and it is literally a project management role. And, um, quite sort of, you’re at the coal face because when you are sent out to do a project and you don’t know anyone or anything, um, it’s quite hard. It is. But I do think that you had a little angel turn up on your side and maybe helped you a little bit with the process. So somehow, uh, you got in contact with, um, our, uh, buyers.

How they found their dream property

Property buyers agency service that we offer. And through that, you got in contact with Lucy Adamson. So, um, can you tell us a little bit about like the whole process of buying, you know, selecting a property then come because you were quite convinced that this was the property you wanted to buy, right? Yeah, yeah. So, um, Lucy, um, was fantastic, like an absolute gift, an angel as you said. So, um, yeah, we already had a property here that was, this was the what we were supposed to be moving to, but then over time we decided it wasn’t actually the property that we wanted to move to. And so we started to look and I was looking online and we’d already been receiving the ABC Mallorca newsletters for years and using that as a focus for whenever we wanted to do something for for everything, then when we came to Mallorca and yeah, so I got in touch with Lucy one time and just thought, let’s just have a very high level conversation. I wasn’t really even properly looking to buy. I was actually still looking to rent just for a while. And I was late to the meeting and that that we set up and I thought there’s no way she’s still going to be on the call. But I joined it anyway. She was. We got on fantastically well. She.

Settling into local life in Genova

Was very good and we decided to get back together and on a conversation um and worked together then to sort of build this vision of what it was that we were looking for and found the right property very quickly. Okay, and this was a new build in Genova. Very close, you know, it’s on the outskirts of Palma for anybody who’s not familiar with the area. It’s like a suburb really. Probably in the old days it was a a village outside, but now with the way Palma has developed, it’s actually become more or less a a suburb of a very beautiful suburb of Palma. Yeah, but quite traditional actually, very yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s exactly as you say, it’s just on the edges of Palma. So you’ve got that city kind of feel, you’re not too far from the city. We can see it, we know we can get there in five minutes. We can see the sea as well. We can get there in 10 minutes. Um, but yeah, actually around this area is very traditional and it’s lovely actually. Like the church bells, the little streets, the colors on the shutters and the windows. Um, like just the the the older people in the village as well. It’s like something out of a little book. It’s very, very, um, surreal actually. It’s very traditional. The, we go down to the panaderia, panaderia, the bakery. Okay, it’s so traditional. Everyone from the village is there and it’s, it’s lovely. Like just little things like that are so special because we’ve not had that before ever. So it’s very nice. Genova is a very special place. On one hand, it the streets are very narrow. It’s not easy to get around neither walking or with a car. Absolutely. But when you kind of go behind, no, and the streets on either side of the main road through Genova, it’s completely different. I know. And I went a walk, uh, just last week through the village and then took a different turn to somewhere else and ended up seeing these enormous houses I’d never seen before with amazing views. And there’s a whole other kind of world in there that’s in the woods and trees and, um, yeah, it’s quite interesting. Have you walked up to Navagesa to Utah? Because it’s a beautiful walk that you can do. And actually there’s many possibilities. You can go in the direction of Portal Nous if you want or you can go back towards where, where I’m based. But you the walk is beautiful and it’s, uh, you get the view of Palma. So I would really suggest you do that. And so you’re here in this more traditional area, but I know the the international schools was also a big, uh, magnet, let’s.

Choosing the right school in Mallorca

Say a reason for you to be in this area, isn’t that right? So what were the options in terms of schools? So there’s quite a few schools and we looked at the Mallorca website to get a list of all the different schools and, um, and this was years ago. So actually our sons were both, the names were down, uh, for Queens College. Their names were down six years ago. Wow. And Queens College is the, they follow the British, uh, curriculum, yeah. So because we were in Dubai and we were, our boys were at, um, well an English curriculum school because, um, yeah, that’s, that’s the choice that we took back then. So we wanted to kind of follow that as well. Um, IB perhaps and obviously Agora Portals was is something that we looked at too. But actually this one just follows the same, um, Queens, Queens, it follows the same curriculum and we quite like the way the school was set up and it’s very traditional. It’s like, it’s quite, um, it’s almost surreal. Like it’s in an old, um, convent or monastery and then it’s got trees all around it. And then it’s got lovely views and also it’s set up a new, um, campus with like an saltwater swimming pool and, um, uh, facilities, football facilities and a gym and everything. So we thought that would be a really good idea, um, and just to follow that and I wanted to get into that school. So I bought the house to get in. So you bought literally the house on the doorstep of the school. That school, I just want to say, it has an excellent academic, uh, reputation. So it really for for for those considering going the British, uh, curriculum Queens is probably academically one of the the ones with the best reputation. But that also makes it more challenging to get in and there seems to be always a queue. And but anyway, you were, you were lucky you and your Yeah. And it was funny because even after six years and even after coming out for a a look and a tour of the school and even though we’d already bought in the, on the island, um, there still wasn’t any places when it came to the time to the crunch. So this was a total risk buying here beside the school that we didn’t know we had a place for. So, um, it just actually happened that in the May before we were to move and this was bearing in mind, we’d already moved, we’re moving out of our house in Dubai. Um, everything was already packed and coming here. Um, we my husband had moved into an apartment in Dubai. Um, and everything was on the high seas, basically coming to Mallorca to this house and we still didn’t have a place and it was the end of May and I had a missed call from them one day and they said, “Oh, you know how you were number six on the list? Well, actually something happened and now if you want, uh, you can come and do the exam.” And yeah, so I was like, “Yeah, it’s actually screamed down the phone.” I was like, “So that’s that was good. It was supposed to happen.” Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, we have seen this with other clients to be fair, where if you’re just talking to the schools from afar, they’re saying, yes, yes, yes, there’s a list or d. And we’ve always seen that when somebody actually physically gets here and says, you know what, I’m committed to Mallorca, I’m serious about my application. I really need a place. Somehow magically a place comes available. Of course, it’s a risk. So you need to shop around. I mean, you did have a plan B. You did. I remember we, we talked about that. So, um, it wasn’t that if that particular place that was your first choice, but you did have a second choice and a third choice. So that’s really great. How is your son settling into the school? Because it’s such a transformation from he did all his education, yeah, in Dubai until now. And now he’s in this new school. How has he adapted to this big change? Yeah, so I.

Helping their son adjust to a new school

Think it’s this size is actually the biggest thing because he came from a school that was 3,500 pupils for high school. I don’t think there’s any school in Mallorca with three and a half thousand people. And then now there’s like 350 pupils for the whole school, 10%. So yeah, a bit of a reduction, mhm. Um, so I think that was one thing. And then also just a bit of an adjustment into, in terms of the teacher, um, pupil teacher relationship because I think in a bigger school, there’s more room for, um, getting away with things and a little bit more banter and maybe just a little bit more kind of being under the radar. Yeah, whereas if you’re in a much smaller school, you can’t escape, escape, you’re under the microscope kind of. Yeah, well, that’s interesting. And but so it, it took a little bit of adjustment and also the kids that are there have been there from like the very, very early days, so it’s not so, so it’s not so transient. It’s not transient as much as, you know, maybe Dubai, which is very transient. Um, so there’s quite a lot of, um, I think it’s mostly local children that are in the school. Are they mainly Spanish nationality or foreign? I think there’s quite a lot mostly Spanish, but, um, there’s quite a lot of Germans, Danish, um, and a couple of English and, um, yeah, I think there’s, there’s a Russian. Okay, so it’s quite multinational, yeah. Um, but yeah, and so I think it was difficult for him to like, break into some friendship groups at first, especially coming being the new boy in the class. And he came, I think a bit quite, um, confident and, and he’s, he’s 15 now, nearly 15. Yeah, 15, it’s a tough age. It’s very tough. But he’s actually, you know, football is great. Exercise is amazing. Like, you know, he, he, he exercises a lot. He has spoken to the teachers and opened up to them about, you know, how his it’s a challenge for him coming from a bigger school. Um, he has just been sociable, being himself and now he’s got quite a lot of good friends that he goes and he’s an outgoing, yes, person, yeah, that helps definitely. Um, and so now he’s on, um, the golf course all the time at the weekend. Oh, he loves golf. And you, which go, the one in Summer where there’s the academy. He goes there every week. Yeah, would you recommend that? Definitely. Yeah, I go too. So I like that, yeah, you’re a golfer too. But the, the range, the golf range there is very nice. It’s such a beautiful place. So it’s a really nice place to spend time definitely. And I’ve taken up some lessons there and my husband when he.

Buying a new build: Challenges & lessons

Comes over just spends the whole time there at the weekend with um Morgan and some of his friends actually. Okay, how often does your husband visit? My, he comes over, uh, every three weeks. Wow, that’s. Yeah, because it’s the, it’s a bit of a flight now from Barcelona or Madrid, yeah, or Swiss Air as well. They go via Zurich and come here, um, which is a good connection, yeah, great. So I want to talk to you about the whole property, uh, selecting the property. What drew you to this particular, uh, new build? Because I, I think, you know, the end result looks amazing really. So, um, when you were looking for a home, what was important to you, what, what characteristics did it have to have? Because you had already, as you said, a previous home that you’d bought on the island in a really good location and that was rented out. And you decided rather than you make that your primary residence when you’re here, you wanted to find something new. So you knew what you were looking for. So what were you looking for? So it was either going to be near the sea or sea views. So that’s like, it has to have that. Okay, um, and also, yeah, a swimming pool, so that’s, that’s something. Um, but a new build is quite good because it has all the guarantees. If anything’s going wrong, you have like maintenance for years to come. And I quite like that. New builds not necessarily always have the best character, but this is already in a very character-filled village. Um, and it’s so, Genova, um, is already, has a lot of character. So this new build just fits in. Already there was an old finca that was here and then they built these three small kind of townhouses. Um, so the, the views are one thing. The proximity to the school, um, and in the modern, I mean, obviously because it’s new build, you could take advantage of all the latest home fittings and comforts, let’s call it, rather than starting with a an older home where you have to compromise maybe on a lot of the. Totally, yeah, I mean, the biggest thing for us here coming from Dubai was the space. So this is a very tall, um, small, neat, compact townhouse. Um, and we’ve, we’ve come from a big, you know, in Dubai everything’s bigger. So everything, we just left it like practically, practically everything. We came with with very little furniture and it was just gaming stuff and, uh, clothes really. But, um, that was on my mind. Think, how can we fit our lives into a such a much a smaller kind of property? But you manage and it’s like Europe, everything’s smaller here. The streets are half the size of the rest of you just adapt. And actually, I was saying to you earlier, I don’t even have half the things in here that I usually have with me, like clothes or anything. And you just, you, you don’t need them. No. Yeah, true. We, we surround ourselves with so much stuff, we actually don’t need. What I love about here, it seems quite spacious and airy, right? Kind of gives you a lot of kind of mentally it’s very calm. So this is another thing. Um, the sun comes in here, so it’s energy. So the energy that comes in here and in the back air is amazing. And if you go up to the roof, um, you can see out and it’s just gorgeous. Yeah, it was a Swedish property developer who developed this. Did they have any of the kind of expectations you have from a Nordic builder? Did they add any features into the property? Yeah, I think so. I think there’s like, well, there’s, um, there was wooden floors upstairs. I think that’s quite my too. But it was a sort of an oak that’s very familiar to Sweden, I believe. Okay, um, actually, I painted it white. But anyway, um, it makes the rooms look bigger. But, um, no, it was the same architect that developed the houses that further up this the street and I think they’ve done a great job actually. It’s really nice. It’s very, um, as I was saying like before, it’s very neat. So for example, you could not get a mattress or a bed up those stairs or even it’s difficult to even get like a chair up. Everything needs to be thought about how you’re getting it from the downstairs. Okay, but you manage and so no, I think the high-end, um, there’s high-end gadgets, there’s, um, really lovely details, details, yeah, yeah. So you bought, you bought it off plan or did could you physically see it if it was being cons, physically see it. It was ready. It was ready for it was pretty much ready. So then you made your offer. It was accepted. And then you needed to wait until it was completed. And I know you had a little bit of stress, right? Because I remember, I think everybody in our office was there saying, “I really hope they get into their house for Christmas.” I know we were all pushing to see could you manage it for Christmas? But it didn’t quite work out as much as we tried and we really wanted it to happen for you. Um, yes, so it was an interesting kind of ride and I think this because the developer this even though they’ve got, um, other properties in Sweden, they had never done, uh, properties here before. And so they weren’t aware of all of the municipality, um, administration, administration, licenses. Uh huh, which we were not necessarily aware of either. And, um, actually our, our other property that we bought six years ago when we bought that in Bendina, it was so easy because it was an older property. It was actually so, so easy and it w, it just flew past quickly. The, the stress, it didn’t actually even impact us practically. We got the house and it all just happened very fast. And so that, that was great. This time we saw the house. We knew what we wanted. We got it. Um, and obviously Lucy was fantastic. But, um, it was just, yeah, we can get in for June, July, August, September, October. And I think it just the, um, the administration was underestimated by everyone and so that just it took longer.

Working with Lucy & our property buyers agency

Yeah, and it was, it was difficult because you were living in a kind of rental accommodation looking at your beautiful house, “I want to move in and I want to get on with my new life!” But really, I, I guess I hopefully you’ll forget that pain now and enjoy your new home. So can you tell us some of the ways that Lucy was able to help you, uh, because it’s not normal, uh, here in Mallorca that you have a buyer’s agent, like a home buyer’s agent. We’re absolutely convinced it makes a difference because we just feel that to for the home buyer to have an impartial person, yeah, fighting their corner, looking after their interest always somehow works out as a better deal. Yeah, and there’s no doubt that you did encounter, as you say, some stresses along the way, which hopefully, um, having somebody like Lucy, it was a benefit to you. Could you explain maybe some of or even tell us some of the stories or incidents where where she could maybe add some value to what you were going through? There’s so many, there’s so many. So many. Okay, well, if you give us the big ones, I’m happy to hear them. Let’s hear maybe talk about some of the, yeah, so first of all, she came across very, very, um, well, when we spoke on our first Zoom call and like knowledgeable, knowledgeable about the market. Exactly. And she, um, you came away thinking like, she knows her stuff and explained about the exclusivity as well, which obviously when you don’t really know someone, you kind of like, but actually because I’d been looking at ABC Mallorca newsletters and I knew the company and I knew the name and everything. I thought, look, let’s go for it. We need help. We need somebody on the ground. Lucy seems excellent. Let’s do that. And I’m really glad we did, um, because it’s that one point of contact, who then becomes, um, like the introducer to others. So for example, now we have, there’s a maintenance company that looks after our house here. We’re good friends with the the owners. They were the maintenance people that were in the rental that we were in. Um, and there’s other things that have just sort of the the guy who Lucy recommended the builder to come and help us here, excuse me, uh, he’s fantastic. And I’ve even since recommended him to other people in a shop that I go to, a coffee shop and they’re using them in their new shop. So there’s just little things like that. Also, um, she introduced me to an interior designer, um, Daniel, who’s been fantastic. And so all of the introductions that she’s made have really been fantastic. So you don’t have this kind of nightmare of trying finding somebody online or finding somebody and then it doesn’t work out and you’re totally disappointed. And this, this is so common a story here in Mallorca, where if you have a base, uh, like you say, of connections, and then I think everything happens here with recommendations. It’s like, oh, I need this. Do you know somebody who can help me with that? And then you’re have been referred to people who are tried and tested, yeah. Because unfortunately, you can be very disappointed if you get the wrong, yeah, suppliers. So going back to your question about like an an example. So one of the things that, um, we’d, we, we learned about sort of the hard way was that when we were told the developer could, um, let us into the property early and that’s been done in Mallorca several times before. And it doesn’t matter if all of the paperwork hasn’t been completed, but if you’ve already paid your deposit for example, and are able to, um, move in, you’ve got your school place, et cetera, then, um, they’re happy to let you, you live in the property, um, subject to a couple of legal, uh, um, caveats. So that became, um, known to us that it wasn’t really going to happen right up until the very end. And so Lucy was there to navigate that, to negotiate for us to find something else to be there. And she made it her like absolute like project to make sure that we were okay. And she felt bad for us. She, she was here all the time, making sure that I was okay. And, um, was, was, was excellent. I saw that that during the process there was, she intervened at every moment, whether it was with the the mortgage company, the legal team of the seller, the developers team, technical team, it was kind of she was the one that was behind everybody pushing, pushing, pushing to get this result that you needed. Totally. So you probably with the language and and and all of these different barriers, you mightn’t have been able to do that. So having somebody there putting definitely made it a difference in terms of the timing. Because there was times that I would have walked away. There was definitely times and if she hadn’t been there picking things up, even explaining them to my husband as well, having those conversations with us regularly, um, discussing with our lawyers, discussing with the other lawyers, discussing with you, like, it was a whole big process. Loads of things were going on. And she was pivotal to all of that. And I think that’s what people underestimate. Buying a property is a complex transaction in a foreign country where you don’t know the language, you don’t know the laws, you don’t know the regulations, you don’t know the people, you don’t have the infrastructure. It’s like you’re going into a complete unknown. You’ve got to have somebody on your side who you trust that can deliver when things go wrong or when there’s issues. You know, if everything goes beautifully, then no problem. But invariably in a complex transaction, things do pop up. And it’s like, how serious is this? How do I gauge? Is this a big issue now or is this a kind of a normal thing and it’s all going to be sorted out, right? Totally. And I think because our first property that we bought here was so easy and we just thought, okay, that’s great. It’s easy to buy and it’s not. We’ve had the two extreme extremes. But I think, well, the big reason that things were difficult with this was it’s a new, it was a new build, yeah. And the timing mattered. If you didn’t, if you’d been still in Dubai without a deadline to move in because of your son’s school starting, you probably would have said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. We’ll get the keys when it’s ready and it’s all going to be fine.” But because of the circumstances, you had a pressure. Um, the other thing I would say, the other property you have, it was a an older property, so it wasn’t a new build. And it’s in an urban area where these, you know, things generally are straightforward in with those characteristics. But when you go to rustic new build, all these other things, where potentially things built without planning permission, there’s different possibilities. You know, it, it, you definitely need a good lawyer and a good person on your side who’s kind of 100% in, yeah. Somehow it’s a like a mediator in between. Yeah. I think like she definitely get went above and beyond what I would have expected her to do for the sale, definitely. But she takes on, she takes you on as a kind of a personal, you know, project and she’s like, “I’m going to do this.” Yeah. She was excellent. And she, it’s nice because she came around, um, a few weeks ago with a big lemon tree for me and I was like, oh, thanks so much. It’s like she really goes all out to make sure you’re all right. She really cares. And also she’s no pushover either. So you can see that she’s a really good person, but she doesn’t take any. She was in my office saying, “Okay, we got to sort this out. Who do you know that you can call? You know.

Why community & local connections matter

And and make this happen?” And I was like, “Okay, I can call this one and I can see if we can get this sorted out.” So I was pulling out my contacts from many years to to see if we find a solution to some of the problems. So but it all seemed to work. So yeah, we got there in the end. Well, being well connected on the island just makes a difference. You can smooth things out. You can open doors. You can go through red tape a lot easier really. And and having, I think like you say, uh, the business ABC Mallorca, we’ve been around for 22 years. We have, you know, consistently, I think, done a good job and we have a good reputation on the island. So we’re kind of well respected from that perspective. So it’s not like some unknown person calling to say, you know, who are you and and I don’t know you, so I don’t trust you. And I don’t know where you’re coming from. So totally.

Settling into Mallorca

These things definitely matter on a small, absolutely. Yeah, and we knew that. And so yeah, it, it worked. So I’m so happy. I’m so happy. And and then there’s been the follow on because actually we’re now in the process of helping you sell your other property and Ventinat. So yes, we, we homestaged it and with Daniel’s help and it was really great. So I want to talk to you a little bit about the whole idea of how is it for settling into Mallorca? So you know, your son’s settled in school, you’ve got the house, you’re getting all the furniture, decoration and now you’re you’re you’re looking back on your past life in Dubai and you’re looking to the future of your next chapter in Mallorca. How are you feeling? Good actually. Good. I feel in a much, much better place now to have space to think about these things. Whereas during the house move in the last few months, it’s just the future was all a bit of a blur. Did you like it? Did we not like it? We do like it. We don’t like it. We, you know, you just are up and down emotionally, yeah. So, um, you know, sometimes my husband would come. I’m like, “We’re leaving. We’re going. We’re packing our bags. We’re coming back with you.” Okay. And other times you’d come and I would be like, you know, this is, this is our territory now. You know, this is I’m happy. Yeah, this is island life. You know. So what makes the difference of those emotions? What, what’s the cause? And so I think getting into your own place is a big, is a big deal for us. Um, and having your child settled is really massive. Um, and in any family, everyone wants different things at different times. And I think having, um, getting into your own place and being settled in that gives you a bit of space to then think about what it is that you want to do next. You’re on a solid ground, isn’t it? You, you have a base and then you feel a bit more grounded and you think, okay, now I can really start to consider my future. But from a solid place. Exactly. Exactly. So it you can’t really underestimate that. And whilst obviously we’re very, very lucky, um, it, it’s turbulent moving. And of course it’s, they say it’s one of the most stressful things you’ll ever do. You’ve moved country. You’ve moved, you know, away. Your husband’s still there. You’re here. It’s kind of the family is a little bit now more fragmented. Totally. And also I have an older son who’s in the US. And so, um, even though he had already left home a few years before to go to boarding school, um, he is further away now as well. And so there’s just that, this your different dynamic in the family. Uh, you have it takes a while to adjust. And yeah, like it’s different for me and a 14-year-old living together than it is for the three of us over in Dubai with friends around us. So it’s you adapt. So how are you doing? Good actually. Morgan and I have ended up being better friends through this. It’s quite nice. He does like to have his friends obviously at the weekend and that’s fine. Um, I run after him a little bit, but it’s great. We stick him on the golf course. He’s got, um, you know, sports that he does and that’s, that’s fantastic. Um, and what about you? What are you doing? I, I love, um, yoga. I’m not getting to go to yoga as much, um, at the moment as I would like. But why not? Um, I think it’s just because there’s still like people in, I mean, even like there was guys in earlier today, you know, fixing a window, fixing the pool, fixing stuff. So we’re still in that, um, period. But yeah, so I, I love yoga. I go week long walks. So you’ve been to Sedana Works. No. You, you’ve been connecting with Mariana and her studio, which is beautiful. Absolutely. It’s gorgeous. And you are a Hatha yoga teacher. Yes. So but I also do sound healing, which I love. Sound healing. So I’m going to Sedana Works this weekend. That’s your passion now. You think because it’s like you’re on an a path of exploring different, different areas of the, the spiritual life. Let’s say. Yeah, because it’s like, I mean, one of the things that we said is life in Dubai was easy. It’s good. We’re there with friends. We’re there for the long run. But you can try something different. If it doesn’t work, fine. At least you’ve tried it. And I like just have that bit of space as well to now get back into things like my sound healing. And you’re doing a.

Colette’s career: From oil & gas to environmental author

Mindfulness course. I am. I am. So yeah, it’s nice. I mean, it would be my dream, but I always feel I have so many different commitments. I can’t, you know. But just to have that time, don’t underestimate it. Because there’s many of us listening to you saying, “Oh, it sounds like heaven. Your son is settled. Your husband’s busy. You, you’re saying, ‘Okay, it’s my time. What shall I do?'” Yeah. Oh, it’s so exciting. Yes. And just we because we talked a little bit about, just give us a little, um, summary, let’s say, of your career. Because I found it fascinating what you’ve what some of the things you’ve done actually. Yeah. Okay. So, um, I started out in consulting, um, when I So what did you study in in university? Law. Oh, you’re so you did both you and your law study school and then from there you went into, um, I went into an international trade. Okay. Um, so I worked.

Writing children’s books about sustainability

For one of the big four companies at the time, big five, um, accounting companies. And then I went into oil and gas. So I was an oil and gas for quite a while. And that’s one of the reasons I stayed in the Middle East as well. I worked for oil and gas companies there. And then after a while, I felt like I needed to do something and give back and spend a bit more time, um, with my kids. Um, so I started to write books on the environment. And how were you inspired by that? I think it was always there. It’s just that I didn’t have the courage to do it. And also, I believe, believe that like, I realized there was a gap in what my kids were learning at school and what we were doing and what was actually happening. And I thought we need to have more, um, sort of sustainability stories, I suppose, that relate to where we were in the world at that time. Beautiful. But like, do you feel that you worked in oil and gas and then you were becoming quite an environmentalist or, you know, was it? Because so everything’s a bit of yin and yang, right? So, um, oil and gas, big baddies. But actually, uh, to understand the energy crisis, I suppose, and understand the way certain things work. I mean, oil and gas is drives everything. I know. We need it. Yeah, well, it’s heat. It’s, it’s movement. It’s everything. It’s an everything. Like makeup, paint, every single thing that you do and buy, it is oil and gas. And so, but I didn’t understand that to that extent at that time. I was just very interested in what it did. And also there’s really good money to be made in it. And it was interesting. I love geography. I was interested in actually like the where it came from. How did it come out the ground? How did we get it there? Like I didn’t actually work in the extraction part of it. But, um, I worked in oil and gas for 10 years, um, downstream and, um, exploration. So, um, it was interesting and got to see lots of different countries. I was on Iraq project. Um, so it was very, very good for for me to understand. And then also at some point, you start to realize, well, maybe this company isn’t doing as best it could for for the people around it or the villagers or the the people where the oil and gas has actually come from. And so I made a decision at the time. I was working for one particular company, um, that I didn’t feel that we were doing enough to to to help the people that we were that were being affected by exactly, exactly. And eventually I just sort of sto stepped away from it. Um, and that was fine. It was a good decision because, um, yeah, then I kind of went the opposite way. But I’d always been, I’ve been vegan. I’ve been vegetarian for years. I was in into animal, um, you know, animal protection. Exactly. Conservation. I was in ocean conservation organization in Dubai. I was on the board there. Um, like like diving and all of that kind of stuff. So, yeah, there’s a bit of everything, yeah. But I love that you were able inspired to write books that can help like, as you say, create the stories for the kids that can make a difference or fun explain it to all. And how was it the whole process of writing and it was fun. It was fun. And, um, I did it with my neighbor in Dubai at.

Transitioning into wellness & sound healing

The time who, um, was the illustrator. And so we created these books and they were, were such good fun. We went to the Emirates, um, festival of literature. And we went to different like reading festivals. I went to schools and, um, it was really good fun. Would you do more of it? Would you like to do more of it? Um, the thing is it, it kind of evolved and kind of finished with the evolution or the growth of my children. Okay. So now my kids are up and they’re, you know, teenagers. Whereas at the time they were still in primary school and it felt more.

Reflections on motherhood & empowering women

Relevant at that time to speak to younger kids going to the schools. Um, my, my books are still being sold in Dubai. But, um, I’m not as involved with it anymore as engaged in it with. What do you see as your next chapter for you? Um, I’m doing a lot more in the sort of wellness space. So I’m just continuing my yoga teacher training, um, keeping up with that. But very much in the sound healing. And yeah, um, I think help helping women to thrive. Yes. And you know, we need that. We need that woman support. I was reading recently. It struck, it really struck me so hard because you’ve come from big business and and you’ve studied and you know, I think those of us who get those kind of opportunities, it’s, it’s fantastic. And certainly our mother, well, my mother, you know, we’re a new generation and our children, it’s also a new generation. And I think, you know, women, we, we sometimes kind of put ourselves in the second place. Absolutely. And we, we always kind of somehow feel a bit guilty when we say that we have goals and we have things we want to do. We sacrifice a lot, let’s say. But I think that it, well, one of the things I would love to see is a change in that where where women are more, you know, really taking stepping into their power and their place in the workforce, but not at the cost of feeling guilty all the time. Totally. How do you feel about all that? Yeah, I just feel like I, I agree with you. I wish I had known 20 years ago what I know now. Or because I think you do get to a certain point and you’re just like, why did I put up with this? Why have I not stepped up to some of the potential that you have? And really, you have children, you have a family, and you put all of that first. Um, and so I think you get to a certain point and you’re like, well, I can use my voice to to do more. And so, yeah, this just is giving me a bit of time to think about what that is and where to. I love that because I think what, you know, I’m also quite involved in the the spiritual world and and a yoga teacher as well and and meditation and all that. And what why I think it’s important or the role I see it can help women to change their mindset. Yeah. Because it is a mindset that’s been passed on from, you know, our mothers and and our lineage, let’s say. And you’re, you’re Scottish. I’m Irish. It’s, it’s kind of we, we would have had a very similar probably values growing up. But I really think that if you know, if we can help or inspire or be role models for other women who are more at the beginning of their career journey or women that have been maybe spending some years raising kids and and looking to get back into the workplace or have dreams about setting up their business. It’s, it’s so great that you can use tools like mindfulness, yoga, breathing. And these things can actually become your best tools to go through the challenges, right? 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s funny. It’s a bit of a somebody said to me, “Oh, don’t tell me you became a yoga teacher.” I’m like, “Yes, I did.” Because it actually helps you to understand. I mean, I think this should be taught to everyone. Is it’s everybody would have less, um, stress and more of an understanding of their own, um, issues. I think from a very early age. And so, yeah, I, I like the idea that I can help people with that. I’ve certainly used all of these tools and techniques to help myself. Um, and so, yeah, I, I see myself doing much more in that space. And I love that it’s I enjoy it as well, yeah. But I think I suppose what I’d love to say to you Colette is use all the experience and all the knowledge and that you’ve learned in the workplace and as a mom growing up and all all the things. And it’s kind of there’s a point in your life where you can offer something very unique because nobody has had your experience, right? Yeah. Yeah. But it’s not that you go into the spiritual world and kind of close the door on your path your past. I think the point is to create your own kind of unique cocktail. No, that you can then offer to other.

Final Thoughts

That’s a good way of putting it, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So I’m really inspired and I’m really excited about what is your next chapter. And I think, you know, Mallorca, from my experience, I’ve been living here many years. We need women like you. Oh, thank you. No, we really do. Because I think we have, you know, you’ve s you’ve been very, very successful in your past life and in your career. And now taking all that, it can help other people, other women who want to do the same. I hope so. Great. And I look forward to to hearing more about that. And thank you so much for having us around today. Thank you so much. And I wish you all the happiness and health and joy and peace and everything, uh, for your future life in Mallorca and in your beautiful new home. Thank you, Helen. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you for tuning into today’s episode of Mallorca Living. We hope you found it inspiring and uplifting. If you’re planning to relocate to Mallorca and buy a property here on the island, we would love to guide you and support you in your journey. Reach out to us today, book a consultation, and let’s start your journey together to move to Mallorca!