Tips and thoughts on the ups and downs of living abroad
Mea culpa – it’s been too long since my last post here. My excuse is it’s been a frenetic time, with lots of professional and personal changes going on – and all for the better, I hasten to add. Still, I’m making it a New Year’s Resolution … Must Blog More!
One of the big developments is the upcoming publication by Lean Marketing Press of my book on the pros and cons of moving abroad. We’re still finalising some details, but it should be out in print in the next few weeks.
Tags: book, expat, expert, Marketing, Moving Abroad, publisher, publishing
November 5 doesn’t mean much to most people around the world. Here, in our home in Spain, it’s just another workday.
However, in the UK it is one of the major events of the calendar – Guy Fawkes Night (also called Bonfire Night).
It commemorates the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, when a group of leading Catholics planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in an attempt to assassinate King James I and replace him with a Catholic monarch. Guy Fawkes was supposed to execute the plot, but was discovered in a cellar underneath Parliament along with the gunpowder.
Tags: Children, family, fiesta, home, living abroad, Spain, tradition, UK
Mid October and it was already down to -2 degrees centigrade this morning. Daytime highs at the moment are struggling to reach 5C.
Not in my balmy corner of Spain, I hasten to add. In Norway.
I was conducting a phone interview with a banking executive in Oslo this morning, and this is the weather report she gave me.
Tags: country, development, environment, income, Norway, quality life, sea, Spain, sunshine, weather, work
A special treat today – I’m joined by fellow expat author Mike Harling, whose wonderfully-funny Postcards From Across the Pond is a must-read for anyone dreaming of a life abroad, wherever you are and wherever you may be going. Mike is finishing up his virtual tour promoting the book, so without further ado I’ll hand over. Mike …
Mike Harling - author of Postcards From Across the Pond
Tags: Abroad, adventure, Australia, author, book, Britain, Canada, England, expat, Foreign, globe, life, location, Paul, Pond, publisher, Spain, Tenerife, tour, world
It’s been a while since I’ve done any blogging for Expat Living 101. In truth, like so many other expatriates I’ve been hit hard by the financial crisis over the last year – a double whammy of soaring interest payments on our mortgage, and plummeting currency rates when converting my foreign earnings into euros. As a result I’ve had to work twice as hard just to standstill. Not what you want at the best of times, but especially when the sun is beckoning outside!
But now I’m starting up again with a new zeal … for I have just signed a contract with Lean Marketing Press to publish a print version of my book on the pros and cons of living overseas: “Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You.”
Tags: Abroad, book, country, currency, euro, expat, expatriates, financial, Foreign, living, moving, overseas, publish, sun, work
It’s Mardi Gras next Tuesday, and around the world people are gearing up for Carnival.
Being from England this is a somewhat alien and exotic event, conjuring up Rio, New Orleans and Venice, with their colourful processions, music, dancing, and reputation for louche behaviour.
But living in Spain I’m now getting to experience Carnival first hand. And while it has elements of all of the above – an event that has an anything-goes licence – it is more than that too.
There is certainly a lot of drunkenness that goes with the parades and the parties – and no doubt a lot more besides …
But it’s a festival for kids too. They dress up in costumes, make masks, sing and dance and throw confetti, and generally have a blast.
My bemused daughter has been caught up in Carnival activities at school all week long – wearing one of my ties to school one day, an apron the next, having her face painted the day after. And while she (and we) may not yet understand the local significance of it all, she and her schoolmates are clearly delighted by it all.
I’m discovering that Carnival, at heart, is pure celebration of life itself. And I’m sure we could all use a bit more of that.
Tags: Carnival, England, festival, Mardi Gras, School, Spain
After months of anticipation Barack Obama has at last been sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.
It is not exaggerating to say this is a day of hope, not just for millions of American citizens, but for the billions of citizens of the Earth as a whole.
The weight of expectation is enormous – too big probably, as if single-handedly and in just a few years he can solve all the deep and desperate problems facing America, and by extension much of the rest of the world. But hopefully his term(s) of office will bring real improvements nevertheless: to the global economy, to the environment, to war-ravaged Iraq and Afghanistan, to the problems of the Middle East, to relations between the Islamic world and the West.
Tags: America, citizen, Earth, economy, environment, expat, Islam, Middle East, Obama, president, United States, war, West, world
For many people Spain epitomizes the moving abroad dream: a country that offers the prospect of year-round sunshine, lower living costs and a more relaxed pace of life.
Not surprising then that year after year Spain has proven to be one of the most popular destinations for expatriates from around the world, with 10% of its 45 million population now made up of foreign nationals.
Yet the beneath the alluring sheen of the Mediterranean sun all is not well.
Tags: costs, country, culture, currency, economy, euro, expatriates, Food, Foreign, lifestyle, living, location, Mediterranean, move, Moving Abroad, prices, property, recession, Spain, sunshine, unemployment, wine
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