EXPAT LIFE IN AMERICA: Cultural differences. This may be the single hardest challenge to overcome when moving to a new country as an expat. Hard to prepare for but even harder to anticipate. Sure, if you’re moving from Miami to Myanmar, you should be expecting that there’d be significant cultural differences, so you would plan […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: My teenage son has just turned 15. This is a major milestone in his life. Sure, you could think it’s because he would be starting Year 10 at school if he was in Australia or for several other reasons. But these are not the real reasons why turning 15 is a milestone. This […] Continue reading → 
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: Spoiler alert! Expat whinging (Australian for whining) straight ahead. WARNING: Stop reading now to avoid. Yes, it’s been a while but I am about to throw an expat-style dummy-spit about my adopted home country. Going to the hairdressers here has never been easy. It’s not that there’s a lack of […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: How different is the USA to Australia? Well I’d say very different, culturally. But considering we were both colonies of Great Britain only two hundred years or so ago and settled by the same people (Brits originally), you would think that when it came to everyday systems, we’d be pretty similar. Surprisingly, that’s […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: Being an expat must give you early Alzheimer’s. I’m just waiting for the study results to show up one day proving me correct. No, it’s not the stress of moving to the USA that I’m talking about (although that does contribute I’m sure). It is the constant need to check and recheck your spelling when […] Continue reading → 
EXPAT LIFE: Tipping in the USA has to be one of the most confusing things to deal with for the new inexperienced expat. There are no exact guidelines and it’s no exaggeration to say there is a huge amount of variety in local behaviours, traditions and practices. And here lies the difficulty. As an […] Continue reading → 
RELOCATION: It’s always easy to be wise after the event. And there was never a better example than when we moved to the US on our first international assignment. In hindsight there are many things I wished I had done before relocating our family. Here are some of our learnings that were gained mostly […] Continue reading → 
LIFE IN NEW JERSEY: I know you must be thinking “she’s kidding right? Everyday American food? How different could it really be? It’s not like she’s in upper Mongolia!” True enough. We don’t have any exotic stories about eating chicken entrails or monkey brains here in New Jersey. Nevertheless, all of us found eating here, […] Continue reading →