Writer, EFL teacher, trainer, and translator, I was born in Tanzania, have lived in a dozen countries over three continents, and describe myself as an ‘expatriate sin patria’. Wherever I go I make it my business to learn the language, get to know the local people and customs, and discover the country’s remotest corners. I became interested in writing in mid-2006, did a short Open University creative writing course and a Writers’ Bureau course, and began getting articles published in 2007.

=> Read more!

A quick last posting before I fly off to Ireland tomorrow. Perdida snagged her claw (what's that dangly high up claw called? I know it has a special name...) Anyway the vet had to remove it today and gave her a fancy yellow bandage to match my jumper, and you can see pics of her, me, the bandage, the jumper and my kitchen here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4832&l=4418c&id=664241054

Happy blogging while I'm away!

I'm off to Donegal on Wednesday for four weeks: then two weeks in Belgium. There'll be little blogging but, I hope, lots of inspiration ... we're going to the same place as last year - I have some photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolafhanna/sets/72157600182530517/

=> Read more!

The Uruguayans like partying – and they hook their parties onto Días – special days. El Día de la Mama, el Día del Papa… Okay, those are pretty ordinary. But then you get Child’s Day, Grandparents’ Day, No Smoking Day, Holy Innocents’ Day – even the Light of the Nights in December, when the sky is ablaze with fireworks for the official opening of the beaches. And in the middle of winter, on 24 August, there is Nostalgia Night.

=> Read more!

It’s six-o’clock in the evening in the Old City: an Indian summer has hit Montevideo in the middle of the fall, and it’s almost ninety degrees. I stroll through the artisans who line Sarandí, the newly restored pedestrian street which stretches from the port to Plaza Independenzia, where I catch the 105 bus which will take me the twelve miles east to my home. The bus looks as though it dates from the seventies, with rickety plastic seats, but spotlessly clean. My ticket costs me sixteen pesos, which is equivalent to sixty cents.

=> Read more!

First published by International Living, Sept 10, 2007

Have you ever heard of a capybara? I hadn’t, until last week,

=> Read more!