Here are just a few of the most unusual and memorable signs we’ve encountered in South Africa. In many ways they reflect our experiences here.
Farewell 2017, Hello 2018
The holiday is over and it’s back to reality. New posts are already in the works. In the meantime, just incase you missed them the first time around or just really really want to read them again, here’s a quick round-up of Expatorama’s top posts from 2017.
The most read post ever is Why Expat Partners are Like Dung Beetles – a post basically detailing how completely awesome both expat partners and dung beetles are.
This would be an affectionate name for a really tough posting that will only be undertaken by the most badass of expats. It’s a term to describe the furthest flung, most chaotic, challenging and maddening places on the face of the planet.
We often become overly familiar with these. Any glamour we previously associated with international travel will quickly lose its’ shine, especially if frequently travelling solo with young children. Continue reading
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 in case you missed them the first time around, the most popular 5 posts on Expatorama in 2016 were:
The scorpion has now thankfully left the building and I’m busy working on some brand new posts for 2017.
So, the scorpion. We bought a desk for the play room and I decided first that we should have a thorough cull. We tidied, cleaned and de-cluttered every inch of the room. When moving a storage unit my daughter discovered the scorpion and jumped on the couch screaming hysterically.
Although it was dead, my son on the other hand was all too keen to prod it with a pencil or maybe even pick it up.
I found a piece of card to scoop it up with and was carefully doing so, when the jolly thing ‘woke up’ and scuttled under the skirting board. Once we had cleaned the room, I sprayed around the skirting boards and a day or two later an army of ants marched out of the skirting board with the prize of a dead scorpion which is when the photo was taken. Then it was finally disposed of.
Thankfully, this has been our only and hopefully last scorpion encounter. After much googling, I think this was a pretty harmless one, but I’m still very relieved nobody was stung.
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:
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.
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.
