I love reading memoirs about people making the move to live in foreign climes and this is a fine example. John tells of his, his wife Sally and their lovely little dog Freddie's move to an unspoiled and idyllic new home in Northern Tenerife. I really like the presentation, the book has a wonderful colourful cover and a blue font for the headings in the book-all really well done. John's brother-in-law designed the front cover of the book with a few suggestions from John as to how he wanted it-it's an amazing and colourful creation! There's even engaging reading at the acknowledgements chapter! Easy flow, humorous remarks-eg. a refreshing new way of saying 'sunburn', some very good similes, good descriptive writing of the lush green surroundings, it easily kept my interest. Lovely writing, John tells us some of the background about Puerto de la Cruz. Their home was originally intended to be a holiday home/rental property however Sally furnished it lovingly and couldn't bear to rent it out to anyone else. It's good to know they are still content here more than eight years later. I enjoyed the many amusing anecdotes about their friend Peter, his Standard Poodles, their trips out etc. A wonderful chapter. So many examples of John's gift for travel writing-I do hope he writes a travel guide sometime. Humorous remarks and different, not all done-to-death jokes-lots of light humorous remarks, gently funny, not trying too hard, you can't help but chuckle when you read this, so amusing are John's tales. Great Yorkshire Show hey? Up my way! The people of Yorkshire? That would be Yorkshire folk!-that's the correct term for us! I like this because it's all around where I live, places I have visited and can relate to: Harrogate, Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds so this was a pleasant surprise that he did talk about here as well as his new destination. Quite a way with words, a good new, refreshing way of saying it rains a lot! Blackpool-another place I know well. John and Sally's plan was to be a five year plan. It wasn't all plain sailing, some things not as they thought. I liked the book's structure. It was all very well organised, chapters not too long or too brief, just right. Interesting, amusing remarks inserted as well. Freddie had been abandoned at a few weeks old, they got him from the RSPCA. Again, such a refreshing way of putting things, perfect timing, slipping a little chuckle at the end of the comment when you're least expecting it. Heart warming to see evidence of such animal loving. You really get a good idea from the writing of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the locality and a bit of it's history. John makes it sound so peaceful and beautiful and all is content with life. You see, this is what I like, different choice of words rather than repetition, for instance:dog walk-then it's called morning constitutional another time. Lovely quaint and different little expressions. Good job. Much of this chapter rather like a travel guide and an excellent one at that. Plenty of scenic detail, wonderful and tempting descriptions of the varied foods available. John has made a name for himself as a restaurant reviewer and includes some examples of his reviews for places they visit. There aren't too many of these and they do enhance the book. A lovely style to his reviews. As they appear in a local newspaper, I personally would like to see these extracts appear as newspaper columns, again for variety and realism. Now, very interesting, I love people delving into their family tree! Many more different and refreshing choices of words-really quite charming how John 'speaks'- glad to see John hasn't lost his very English expressions. He has a wonderful way with words. When Sally's old faithful handbag bust, I loved the term-getting an 'interim replacement'! So many smiles in this particular chapter-I was at the hairdressers at the time and I was laughing while reading this! Their friends George and Eta who came to stay with them are from Oberammergau of the Passion Play fame and John and Sally go to their home for an exchange visit. Oberau brought back memories for me-I went there skiing years ago-I loved it there. There are some charming cameos about Freddie. So much material, varied content to hold your interest. Unexpected adventures on the flight to Munich. Funny about the food and the post it notes from Peter! Ha ha, the poodles' funny, faddy ways. So funny, and just describing an incident about a new household item! Many smiles here. Good conclusions. Wonderful, enjoyed it SO much. I do hope John writes more of his adventures in Tenerife, I would love to read more. This is a very accurate and polished offering. If I have one criticism, it's just that he used some of his expressions quite a few times and, charming as they are, perhaps select another word/phrase if you're going to say it a few times rather than too much repetition-eg. there are many examples of 'hither and thither' and 'trundled'. A wonderful, wonderful book.