Tag Archives: living overseas
Burning Up on Re-Entry
Having lived as an expat for nearly five years now, during which time I have seen many fellow expats come and go (it’s a transient sort of place), I have noticed that, while many take back to British life like ducks to proverbial muddy water, others find it a little bit more tricky to adjust… …
The Paths Untaken: Making the Most of Where We Are…
We’re all guilty of it: never visiting that National Trust property that’s only half an hour away; never getting around to trying that lovely looking restaurant passed every day on the way home from work; never walking the promising public footpath that cuts back across the fields just before the motorway turn-off; never exploring the …
Like a (cautious, considerate and law-abiding) bat out of hell…
I had never driven an automatic before, or driven on the right, or driven on the crazy roads of Dubai. But we were moving house and buying furniture and transporting fish tanks and cats, and the whole thing would have been a nightmare without a car, so I grasped the proverbial nettle… The advice I …
Wanted! Wine Gums, Pain-Killers and Muddy Vegetables
Many an expat blog discusses the foodstuffs, home comforts and edible luxuries unavailable to them in their overseas posting. Sometimes I imagine them all – thousands of variously dispersed blogging Brits – soaking up the sun somewhere suitably exotic, and longingly salivating for a decent pickled onion or a packet of Scampi Fries. In Dubai …
Opposite, Above and Beyond: Ponderments from a Balcony
From my fourth floor apartment’s balcony I have a spectacular view of… someone else’s balcony. In our particular part of town, the apartment blocks are packed together so snugly that, should one choose to sit on the balcony and soak up some sun (for the seventeen minutes a day when it isn’t eclipsed by other …
How to Cope with Homesickness: Top Ten Nostalgic Puddings
There are many different ways of coping with homesickness. One option is to indulge it completely by eating buttery toasted crumpets and sobbing to an episode of Countryfile. At the other end of the willpower spectrum we have the healthier, low-fat option: ignore the homesickness completely, go exploring, and lose yourself in the ‘otherness’ of …
Suffering from Homesickness? Get a Cat. You’ll Soon be Feline Better…
According to recent medical research, owning a cat can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, improve your immunity, lower your blood pressure, help depression, reduce stress and anxiety and even lengthen your life. I would like to add my own (highly scientific) findings to these: having a cat helps with homesickness too. For the last …
Talk About the Weather
We don’t really have seasons out here. We have hot and hotter. At the moment we’re just emerging from the hotter part of the year, which means I still stay in the apartment most of the day and when I do go out I wear thin, loose clothes, walk very slowly, and use my favourite old Marks …
