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@Vamanos
I think it's still hard (in the fukt up post Cameron/Osborne/Brexit disaster area that currently exists) to climb down from the status and income reward a 'good job' can give you, however dull, tiring or soul destroying it may be. For some it's just a fence too high to see over the other side.
I've a pal in southern Spain spent 15 years in front of screens sorting security for city banks. It left him ill, clinically depressed and he even jacked in cycling! (The shame, the shame...) He came here in 2005 with pretty much all his savings and did odd jobs for a few years, repairing bikes, buying and selling bikes and eventually married and settled here. I've known the guy for 25 years and I've never seen him so tangibly happy. He's got a small painting and decorating business now and has a lot of English speaking clients who love his work. He probably makes 25% of what he did in the City but that means jack to him in 2017.
Anyone thinking of coming to Spain to live and work, just do it! The quality of (and pace) of life is fantastic. The food is easily as good as in France, the weather is stunning (this is the first real day of rain in 75 days of straight sunshine!) and it's relatively cheap to live here. Barcelona is cool but the city centre is worse than London for busy/parking but in the suburbs like Badalona there's a proper thriving young tech/artist community, mostly English speaking and you have the metro system if you need to travel into town. Rentals there can be 2-400 euro a month in a shared flat. English speaking/part bilingual in anything is highly valued here. And a Ryanair flight Barca or back home is usually less than 50 Euros a hop... You can go home for the weekend, but you'll soon not want to ;)