I’ve often said becoming an expat is the closest you can get to experiencing life from the uncluttered perspective of a baby – if, and it’s a BIG “if”, you can detach yourself from preconceptions and the urge to make comparisons.

‘Travel broadens the mind’ is a proverb dating from the early 20th century. GK Chesterton’s 1921 comment on it is a significant travel quote, too: ‘They say travel broadens the mind; but you must have the mind.’ The expatriate life offers a chance to exist untainted by knowledge and expectation, to absorb the world fresh with colour and brimming with sensory overload. Moving to a new country forces you to think differently, to leave comparisons behind and accept new ways of doing things. It frees you from the restrictions of old definitions; you have a blank canvas on which to paint a new identity and the forgiving gift of the “foreigner” label to absolve your mistakes.   more ...

Where “chilled” is more than just a temperature – it’s a state of mind…
Here in Canada, “the powers that be” recognize the restorative properties of a celebration and have worked hard to ensure they occur regularly throughout the year. Often at school there will be a Spirit Day, for no reason I can fathom other than the refreshing sight of everyone dressed as their favorite Disney character or in their pajamas.

This month, the humble groundhog takes the spotlight, as February 2nd is Groundhog Day, when people across America shun modern technology in favor of a buck-toothed rodent for prescient meteorological advice. Folklore has it that if a groundhog sees its shadow on Groundhog Day it'll flee back to its burrow, heralding six more weeks of winter. If it doesn't, it means spring's just around the corner.   more ...

If I distill my expat existence down to its most basic components, it’s a lot like January. Yep, you heard me right - expat life is like one long January. I’m not talking about weather, some people’s January’s are filled with sunshine and scorching temperatures. I’m referring to the emotional peaks and troughs of the New Year.

New beginnings are unfailingly accompanied by good intentions and high hopes - healthy diets, gym memberships, self-improvement. They’re a thrilling unknown quantity; what happy encounters and lucky breaks await us we wonder excitedly. How will the world reward our new, improved selves?   more ...

Another mark on the door-frame of expat growth

Expats are a tough bunch to please – trapped as they are between worlds. Here I am in Canada, so a white Christmas is practically a given, but for me, a Canadian one still leaves a thing or two to be desired. It’s funny how we can be deluged with captivating new experiences yet still crave old familiarities.

Christmas is traditionally a time for reflection and speculation, balanced ponderously on the coattails of the old year and the cusp of the new, it offers the potential for another chance to get things right, stay on course or make those changes. Like a bookmark, jammed between the pages of your life story, it’s a fixed point from which to look back and forwards – something expats do with dedicated regularity.   more ...

Living in the UK doesn’t necessitate much emergency planning. Usually, the only thing to prepare for is a disappointing summer. If snow’s forecast panic buying might leave supermarkets devoid of bread, milk and lager – but British weather is generally best described as “nondescript”. The rare exception to the rule will follow meteorologist Michael Fish.

I’ve written before about my love of the Canadian weather my love of the Canadian weather; it’s a whole different kettle of fish from what I’m used to. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I thought I’d share the preparations you’re advised to make here in Canada when potential catastrophe is breathing down your neck.

Seeking a higher plane
Flooding is the main danger to people who, like us, are close to water. It’s important to stay away from lakes, rivers and coastlines; the raw power of nature is a mesmerizing sight, but not one worth risking your life for.   more ...

Canadian and British homes are worlds apart in terms of style and layout.

Before moving to Canada, my husband and I renovated and extended our 1930’s UK property, stripping the interior - re-plastering, re-plumbing and re-wiring. It was a major undertaking; six months of dust and noise made possible in equal measure by vast amounts of tea (aka builder lubricant) and a forgiving bank manager. We learnt a lot about house building in the process, from the basics: planning and preparation, laying the footings, positioning the steel, to the niche intricacies: installation of quartz work-surfaces, molded sinks and sun-tubes. We were involved every step of the way.

Built to last?
Living in Ontario, we discovered your average Canadian house is a very different animal. The exterior walls of our UK home comprised two layers of brick with insulation between them and an outer cladding, pebbledash or brick for example. Interior walls were brick or timber frame and plasterboard, and steel girders were used structurally to span and bear load.   more ...

However many times you do it, moving to another country is a big deal. We try to wrap our heads around it by learning as much as we can about the new place before we go; climate, currency, language, demographics… but it’s the small stuff that someone once said you shouldn’t sweat, that can make you feel like a visiting alien.

Here are five things the guidebooks didn’t put nearly enough emphasis on that made an impression on me when I moved here from the UK:

1. Car culture
Yes, Canada’s a huge country, but I never thought that it would be so car-centric. Here, the car is king. Forget popping down the road on foot – there might not be a sidewalk and at some point you’ll have to cross six lanes of traffic! Road systems, housing and shopping areas are all designed for the motorist.   more ...

A record-breaking start to the year

We’ve been experiencing some record-breaking temperatures here in Ontario this year. Our last winter was incredibly mild and spring got off to a flying start with the first record temperature occurring in March, when many parts of Canada saw temperatures in double-digits. The last day of snow was March 9th - unheard of since record keeping began in 1937 and unbelievable considering 6 C is more usual for that time of year.

Since then, things have just got hotter and hotter. As the mercury rose above the mid thirties in early July, Toronto’s power-grid struggled to cope with the increased demand as air-conditioning units citywide remained on day and night. Transit companies were also affected as the heat had the potential to expand/buckle the steel rails, leading to speed restrictions on trains and streetcars throughout the city.   more ...

Whenever people travel somewhere new, they talk of “the sights and sounds”, and out come the photos to give us an idea of what they’ve experienced. But without the auditory soundtrack the pictures are static and flat. We can’t feel the atmosphere.
It takes sound to flesh out the visual experience and imbue it with life. Sounds can take us on a journey far more effectively than any picture. The more blanks the mind has to fill in, the more engaged it becomes. With an evocative noise and a vivid imagination, you can travel anywhere. It’s with this in mind, that I’m taking you on an auditory trip to Canada.

From the outset, my experience here was marked by sound. When we first arrived, we were woken in our hotel room throughout the night by the insistent, metallic clang of alarm bells on a railway crossing and the whistle of the freight train as it rolled through with a low steady rumble.   more ...

Is it time to pull the plug on Ontario’s government-funded faith schools?

There’s a struggle taking place in Ontario that pits Canada’s most cherished freedoms against one another and could potentially change the face of education in the province.

Ontario politicians are attempting to amend the province’s Education Act, brought in last November to provide a framework for dealing with the problem of bullying. The act seeks to:

• Introduce tougher consequences for bullying and hate-motivated actions -- up to, and including, expulsion

• Require all school boards to support students who want to lead activities that promote gender equity, anti-racism, understanding and respect for people with disabilities and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, including groups with the name gay-straight alliance or another name   more ...