Whether you’re a future Mum or Dad to be, nine months is a long time to play with ones uncontrollable imagination. The older I get, the more I worry. I suppose because you realise just how cruel life can be at times, so I rarely let my guard down these days. So when my wife … Read more
I’m later than normal writing this post because this month has been a little hectic: I have finally launched my book, the Expat Partner’s Survival Guide. In the making for the past three or four years, the Survival Guide is aimed at anyone accompanying their partner on an overseas posting (I use the word ‘posting’ … Read more
A recent article about smart packing got me thinking about my packing list for the annual, month-long trip to the motherland. With weight restrictions these days, any kind of packing requires some forethought but for many expats, staying with family for extended periods of time and often attending a variety of events, throwing items into … Read more
The continuing adventures of June Finnigan, her Man, and Farty Barty the cat. Now you probably think that life in the Chianti Hills in Tuscany is very quiet and relaxing. Well, sometimes it is, that is as long as we are not being shaken by an Earthquake, which is so violent that you sleep walk … Read more
Those dam butterflies in my stomach… they’re persistent buggers! I try to catch my breath, inhaling, deeply… as our car crawls slowly in and out of lanes, jammed with thick Saturday evening traffic. We are late. Naively forgetting about the headache of weekend traffic in China, we’ve severely underestimated how long it will take to … Read more
Cutting the ties On October 22nd 1995, at the ripe old age of 53 and following a two week cheap package holiday in Malta, I left England’s green and pleasant land for a new life. My destination was Cape Town, a city I had grown to love over the preceding four years on several short … Read more
I FELL IN LOVE WITH Italy the minute I spotted that peach-colored swing coat in Florence more than twenty years ago. Though it was ruinously expensive, I had to possess it. Being nineteen at the time certainly helped me decide. I handed over my MasterCard, put on the coat, and pranced out onto the beckoning … Read more
I feel like I have been on an extended vacation. It has been a month and a half since I have been in Lisbon, Portugal and my sense of visitation has evolved. I always knew that I wanted to live abroad. The idea of walking by the river and smelling pastries from the local bakery … Read more
We emigrated to the Morvan in 2005 from rural Suffolk. By the time we left, shopping in our nearest town, Woodbridge, was no fun at all. The town had for various reasons – rapacious rents, scarce and costly parking, and a retail park a few miles away – lost many retail businesses. Corbigny, 10 minutes’ … Read more
An exciting new development has started here in St Louis, as work on the Delmar Loop Trolley gets underway. I’m sure there have been other films set here, but “Meet me in St Louis” is certainly the most famous. Like many of these films that “everybody has seen” it seemed to pass me by entirely, … Read more