Born an expat, in Cuba to British diplomat parents, Clara Wiggins has travelled all her life, and has lived in 11 countries on 5 different continents. Clara has used her extensive experience of living overseas, as a child, as a diplomat and as an accompanying spouse, to write The Expat Partner’s Survival Guide. From how to organise an overseas move to what to do in the event of an earthquake, The Expat Partner’s Survival Guide is a light-hearted yet in-depth guide for anyone considering moving abroad.
We all know that Eskimos have many ways of describing snow – I am assuming because snow is such a huge looming part of their lives. But as an expat I have started to wish there were more words in the English language for “home”.Okay, there are of course different words you could use – … Read more
I am running a series on my blog at the moment about expat depression – posting roughly once a week on the subject and working my way through what it looks like, when and why people might experience it, the association between depression and culture shock, and how people have helped themselves get over it. … Read more
I was in the gym the other day, trying out a new class. The name of the class was “Shape” but to be honest I had no idea what I was getting myself into. One of my new year’s resolutions was to try out some new exercise routines and find one or two that I … Read more
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 my case, South Africa. But what you sometimes forget about is how enriched your life … Read more
As an expat in South Africa, life is pretty good. I can afford to join a good gym, we have someone clean our house and do all our ironing. We eat out every week, often more. We can buy very good wine for a fraction of what we would pay for it in the UK. … Read more
As I was driving home from the gym today I suddenly remembered I hadn’t written an October post for Expat Focus. It has completely passed me by that it even was October at all, to be honest – despite being “pinch punched” by my daughter the other morning. The days are passing me by because, … Read more
While writing my book the Expat Partner’s Survival Guide, one of the things that struck me over and over again were the similarities between becoming an expat and having a baby. Okay, I admit, there are lots of differences too (after all, how many nappies do non-parent expats have to change? Hopefully not too many!) … Read more
It’s been a long, long time coming – but here we finally are: South Africa. And what a relief it is! The last few weeks in the UK were, like I am sure it is for most expats, quite exhausting. We had planned our getaway well – the packers came the day the girls finished … Read more
This month, the deadline to write my Expat Focus blog has crept up on me so stealthily that I can’t believe I really need to get this post written so soon. We returned from a much-needed holiday in Florida just three weeks ago. Since then, I have been playing catch-up with both work and blogging … Read more
A few years ago, in pre-children days, I went travelling around the world. I was a little older than your average back-packer (29 when I left, 30 when I returned) but nevertheless followed a typical backpacker route through Hong Kong, to Australia and on to New Zealand. To be honest, despite my, err hum, advanced … Read more