dung beetle

Scorpion on the Line

Expatorama5 Comments

 

scorpion-on-the-line
Did you ever hear the story about Thomas the Tank Engine and the scorpion?  It’s got a sting in the tail.

This is a passenger announcement.  Regular blog services are running late.  Normal service has been severely disrupted by The Christmas Holidays…and a scorpion on the line.

Regular service will resume shortly.

In the meantime, just incase you missed them the first time around, the most popular 5 posts on Expatorama in 2016 were:

  1.  Why Expats are Like Dung Beetles
  2.  The Escape Room Phenomenon hits South Africa
  3.  10 Things I’ve learned from running and Expat Facebook Group
  4.  Ladies who Lunch
  5.  Which School? An Expat Parenting Dilemma

 

The scorpion has now thankfully left the building and I’m busy working on some brand new posts for 2017.

Why Expat Partners are Like Dung Beetles

Expatorama8 Comments

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There’s always a bit of a brouhaha when it comes to labelling or describing expat partners. A few of the titles used include Expat Spouse, Expat Wife, Trailing Spouse, Trailblazing Spouse, Lady of Leisure, Lady that Lunches, Guy that Golfs, Excess Baggage or as my husband endearingly calls me Expensive Habit. None of the terms is perfect and some are deeply loathed by the expat community.

So, I’ve come up with yet another alternative for you.  It’s an analogy that first occurred to me when I wrote about the industrious dung beetle after we saw hundreds of them on safari.  They are completely fascinating little creatures and the comparison between expat partners and dung beetles has been scratching about in the back of my mind ever since.  Yes, I am comparing the Trailing Spouse to the Dung Beetle.

Confused?  Here are 6 ways that expat partners are like dung beetles:

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The Big 4 – part II

Expatorama4 Comments

Sorry, I’m not quite done writing about the bush yet.  Here we continue on our safari quest to spot the Big 5 (or in our case the Big 4).

Game Drive 2:

Guide: “What would you like to try to see today?”

Us:       “A leopard please.”

We set off with high spirits, very much hoping to spot one.

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En route to leopard territory our guide stopped and pointed out a curvy trail through the sand. “What do you think made this kind of trail kids?” she quizzed. I bit my tongue, desperate to shout out the correct answer. “Er, a rhino?” said one of the children. “Try again”, said the guide. I’m now bursting to shout out “it’s a snake track, ha ha, it’s so obvious, can’t you see it’s a snake shaped trail made by a snake. Easy peasy.”.

“Is it an elephant?” asked one of the children. “Doh” I thought to myself.

“Yes, that’s right, well done” said the guide. “The elephant sometimes drags its trunk along the ground leaving this kind of wavy mark”. I nodded enthusiastically as if I had known the answer all along and said nothing.

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