Columnists Archives - Page 25 of 86

Seven Things All Expats Need To Stop Apologising For – Right Now!

We all come across challenges and expats are certainly no exception to this. But when things get tricky we start to feel that well-known guilt building up inside and shortly thereafter we feel the need to apologise. For lots of

Girl Scouts Cookies: The Time Is Now

If you are moving to the US, at some point in the early part of the year you might get a knock on your door and a cute little uniformed girl will ask if you want to buy girl scout

Living In An Offshore Tax-Haven

People usually expect “offshore” tax-havens to be wonderfully exotic places. But in reality, they’re not. Linda and I have lived in three different ones during our marriage – Bahamas 1967-70, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) 1972-75, and Cayman 1978 to date

The Morvan Greets 2016

Twelfth Night – time for John and me to take down the Christmas decorations. Not so our friend Christopher in California. His Christmas tree will remain on display until the spring. In his Christmas greeting he says: “Instead of pulling

A Month in the Life of an English Writer in Tuscany

The continuing adventures of June Finnigan, her Man, and Farty Barty the cat. November Reflections Benvenuti to all my Loyal and New Followers. November in Tuscany can no longer be described as the beginning of winter. The countryside stubbornly hangs

Saying Goodbye to the Supersized American Passport

Rumors reached me earlier this year that the “big, fat, American passport” would be no more. I love reaching for my passport and feeling the heft of extra pages, filled with stamps and VISA stickers, tabbed with post-it flags to

Going From An Independent Expat To A Dependent Trailing Spouse

Trailing spouses… I am not sure who came up with this term, but I don’t like him or her already. Years ago it was “trailing wives”, but my 21st century brain won’t let me say those words out loud. It

Living The Multicultural Life

One of the things I have loved most about living overseas again is meeting such a huge range of people from all over the world. When you move somewhere, you expect to meet people from the host country – in

Greetings From The Morvan

I have a new Expat Focus editor, and before I embark on my monthly effusion I’d like to thank her predecessor Carole Hill for our happy collaboration. Enjoy your retirement, Carole. The season of Christmas markets, concerts and Réveillon blowouts

Is Australia Really Trying to Kill Me?

I read every article on local geography I could get my hands on before my first visit. Being in close proximity to a number of Aussies brought me a wealth of additional information. The only difficulty was sorting fact from