Every year most expat communities will have some kind of parade or festival to celebrate their multiculturalism. Often it’s connected to the International schools. There is plenty of flag waving and any accompanying food stands can get quite competitive, (and that would be down to the parents, not the kids). It’s the perfect excuse for… Continue reading National Dress Dilemma
Author: Expatorama
From dodging stray bullets in Lagos, to dodging stray cats in Istanbul, we are now getting cosy in Jozi. Far flung travels and further fetched tales of expat life.
Expat Superheroes
Is there an expat superhero in your life? I actually had a short-lived Wonder Woman when I was about 5. I would try to dress like her and twirl round the back garden in tiny shorts and welly boots with a dressing gown belt tied round my forehead. It took me several more years, but… Continue reading Expat Superheroes
Hot Metal: Starting Jewellery School
How does an expat wife fill her time with a ‘not permitted to work’ clause attached to their visa? One way is to pick a shiny new hobby that you wouldn't have the time or opportunity to take up in your home country. It gets you out of the house, you meet new people and adds much… Continue reading Hot Metal: Starting Jewellery School
Selling Car Insurance in South Africa: 15 Silly Questions
Trying to get car insurance in South Africa turned into the South African Inquisition. The Insurance Guy was obsessed with my husband's driving credentials, even though the insurance was for me.
The World that Was Ours by Hilda Berstein: A Review
As an expat it's always a challenge to dig beneath the surface and figure out what makes your new country tick, to comprehend the national psyche. In South Africa, the wound left by the Apartheid years is still raw. History books can be a dry, slow route to enlightenment. For me, literature is often the… Continue reading The World that Was Ours by Hilda Berstein: A Review
Balancing Act
This is a gardener. He is trimming back trees on our residential estate in Johannesburg. To do this, he is standing atop a wall with electric wires both in front of and behind him. He looks up at the sound of my camera clicking. Then returns to the task in hand, shuffling further along the… Continue reading Balancing Act
South Africa: One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four
Five Potato, Six Potato, Seven Potato, More... Years ago I remember a South African friend waxing lyrical about the amazing potatoes in Nigeria. At the time I thought it was a bit odd. They were perfectly nice potatoes, but nothing to write home about, (and yet ironically here I am writing about Lagos potatoes a… Continue reading South Africa: One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four
Count your Lucky Stars
International Women's Day Yesterday was International Women’s Day. Do you know what? I nearly missed it. My Mother-in-Law happened to mention it on Skype, which got me thinking over dinner. Dinner, I might add, that Mr Incredible whipped up on the braai for us. Mr Incredible who had just returned from a business trip 1000’s… Continue reading Count your Lucky Stars
Soweto: Place of Much Rain
In the early days of Johannesburg, the township of Soweto mushroomed in tandem with the surrounding gold mines housing labourers in dire overcrowded hostels. Heavy downpours were frequent and would flood the mine-works, so it was known as Place of Much Rain….or more affectionately, So Wet Oh! Soweto Then and Now No, not really, Soweto IS a… Continue reading Soweto: Place of Much Rain
South African Birds: Mohawks, Mobbing and High Maintenance Chicks
South African birds are weird and wonderful. Confession; since moving to South Africa I have become a bit of twitcher. To clarify for any of you not familiar with the term, it’s a synonym for bird watcher. My husband gleefully insists that this new interest is middle age trumpeting, hooting and twittering its’ arrival. Not… Continue reading South African Birds: Mohawks, Mobbing and High Maintenance Chicks
Expatorama 