Why Every Expat Needs A Blind Date

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

The Christmas Spirit In Xi’an, China

“He’s checking his list, he’s checking it twice, he’s going to find out who’s naughty or nice…..” Sing it with me! “….Santa Claus is coming to tooooown!!” No pretending you don’t know this one ladies and gents! It’s one of those traditional, well known and much loved songs you hear ringing out across the radio, … Read more

Expat in a New Country? My Top Ten Survival Tips

I’ve been living in the middle of China for almost a month now. It’s my second expat posting, so while I’m not a newbie to “expat life”, having bandied about the term ‘culture shock’ on this column many times, I’ve got to say, in all honesty I had rather naively forgotten how confronting moving to … Read more

The Expat Club: The Membership That’s For Life

I now know my departure from Hong Kong is (sob) imminent. After calling this foreign frenzy of bright lights, burgeoning buildings and bustling bodies my ‘home away from home’ for four years, we are heading north… to China. Yes! (gulp) real Mainland China (but that’s a story for another day, you can read about it … Read more

Help! I’m Moving to Hong Kong – What to Expect

As an expat blogger in Hong Kong, I get all sorts of weird and wonderful requests to collaborate. Everything from joining a ‘baby formula selling’ business in South Africa to taking part in travel focus groups in the US, to write ups for removal companies and health bar reviews come my way. Naturally some things … Read more

I Come From A Land Down Under…

G’day, If you’re a regular reader of my ramblings, you probably know I’ve spent a fair bit of my writing time, wearing expat shoes and being quite vocal about the thrills and spills of culture shock – you know – stuff like: what happens when you find yourself catapulted into the arms of another country, … Read more

The Expat View: Why Traveling Will Never Be The Same

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson As an expat, my arrival in any country (these days) brings with it, the steely eyes of a super sleuth. The minute I step off the plane, I’m giving my holiday destination the once over! Judging, comparing, making … Read more