A New Decade is Approaching

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A New Decade is Approaching

I don’t know where this post is coming from or what I am trying to achieve. I’m running on no gas, I’m super tired and scared of what the immediate future holds. I may look ok on the outside but the inside is not dissimilar to a bomb waiting to explode. I know this is all cryptic, it’s not intentionally a cryptic style Facebook post.

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Expat Life - When to go home?

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Expat Life - When to go home?

We’ve missed so many Christmas’s, birthdays, weddings, arrivals of nephews, anniversaries, saying final goodbyes and the list just goes on. At what point do you go “That’s enough, we need to go home?”, how do you make that decision when you have two 5 year olds…

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London Gatwick LGW Drone

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London Gatwick LGW Drone

If you have looked at any UK news website over the past couple of days you will know that there is a drone hovering around London Gatwick airport. Drones, airports and planes do not mix well and as a result this drone has managed to close the airport down for the third day in a row.

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Samichlaus - The Swiss Way

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Samichlaus - The Swiss Way

Let me explain how the Santa tradition in Switzerland works. In the evening of 6 December, the Samichlaus (or Santa Claus) visits every family with his helper Schmutzli, who is usually dressed in all-black clothes with a blackened face. [Note from Matt: Why the blackened face?]

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Christmas: A bitter sweet time of year!

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Christmas as expats can be a funny thing. Some years you go home and other years you stay in your adopted home.

I find staying in Switzerland can be lonely as a lot of time, expats being expats, leave to go home. Most of our friends are expats which doesn’t help. Don’t get me wrong we always have a fantastic day with amazing friends but it’s not the same as going home!

I personally would always go home but sometimes life just doesn’t allow it. Christmas for me is not only about being with Greg and the twins but also being with Mum, Dad, Kelly, Callum, Lachie and Ollie and of course Greg’s parents, Darryl and Fizz. Then there’s my lifelong friends who I want to see over this period and can’t. It’s what Christmas is all about to me; spending time with people I love, the most important people in the world to me. 

So it’s bitter sweet. I enjoy Christmas in Zurich and it has the advantages of not spending 30 hours on a plane but I miss my family so incredibly much that it almost destroys the holiday season especially Christmas Day. All I want to do is be with them.

It’s such a hard call. Bitter sweet.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.  Hard to believe it’s 2019 soon!!

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