I have been a traveler all my life. Day one started off on a small West Indian island; St. Kitts & Nevis. My parents then moved me around to Bordeaux, France, Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire,) and Abidjan in Ivory Coast until they decided that instead of learning about the world in a hands on way,  I should be whisked off to boarding school in the UK “to learn the Queen’s English”, since my education, up to this point, had been pretty much all in French.

After having been shipped off to Boarding School, the only time I got to see my parents was during the school holidays, but in fascinating places like Hong Kong, Lusaka in Zambia, Cairo in Egypt, Mauritius.  I remember being extremely excited each time my dad said “right kids, we’re off again!” To me, there was nothing more exciting than anticipating the next place we would be able to call home. This is when I learned that “Home is where the heart is.” Home was wherever my parents were.

At the age of 18, I began my own travels. Southern Egypt, Southern Turkey, Dodecanese islands. I ended up in France where I spent the next 4 years in Angers honing my already pretty polished French at university studying Spanish in French. You can think it was an odd choice, but I wasn’t ready to do the thing that everyone else was doing so didn’t really pay much attention to what kind of degree I should be getting.

England, despite having spent 10 years at school there was not the home for me. However, after those 4 years in France, I decided to give London a go and was lucky to land a job as the head administrator in a recruitment agency. Thanks to their belief in me (and I guess my ability to speak 4 languages fluently), outgrowing the job very quickly, the agency placed me in my dream job in International Advertising.

I met the love of my life a few months later.  From Southern Italy, with eyes the color of teal, who, quite ironically knew England better than me  – a role reversal of sorts with the Italian showing the Brit around. I found in him a kindred traveler spirit so it was destined for us to fall in love. 

But London life was not for either of us – too expensive, crazy work pace, so we decided to move to Milan the day after we tied the knot. Not because he missed home, but because we wanted a change. Change is a strong theme with us. We managed to get jobs in different ad agencies in Milan and were happy for a while, discovering Northern Italy, Switzerland, France. After a year or so we both got itchy feet and after one or two job interviews moved to Bologna to work for a large American company. Our traveling adventures continued on from there.  After two years we moved to the Netherlands, then after 8 years to Tokyo, Japan. After 4 years in Japan we moved to Portland, Oregon for 7 years. During that time 3 out of 4 kids moved onto college; 2 on the West Coast of the US and 1 in Barcelona, Spain. My husband, myself and our “baby” who is in her final 2 years of high school are now living in Modena, Italy with our beautiful golden retriever and our newly acquired crazy kitten.

All of this, as you can imagine, keeps us on our toes in the here and now, knowing and waiting for the next place to call home…..

In this blog I will attempt to convey the joys and the trials and tribulations of being a global nomad, by writing short stories or more like snippets in time from my past, experiences I’ve had during my travels, stories about my international family and their colorful and interesting history.

Timeline and places I’ve lived in:

November 1971-1973 – Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis, West Indies

1973-1975 – Bordeaux, France

1975-1978 – Democratic Republic of Congo

1978-1979 – Otford, Kent, England

1980-1984 – Abidjan, Ivory Coast

April 1981-1990 – Boarding school in England. Aged 9 1/2. Every 3 months returning home during holiday time.

1984-1986 – Hong Kong

1986-1989 – Lusaka, Zambia

1989 – 1994 – Cairo, Egypt

1990-1994 – Angers, France

May 1994-October 1994 – Gocek, Turkey

1994-1997 – London, England

1997-1999 – Milan, Italy

1999 – 2001- Bologna, Italy

2001-2009 – Hilversum, The Netherlands

2009-2013 – Tokyo, Japan

2013-Aug 2020 – Portland, Oregon, USA

Aug 2020-Present day – Modena, Italy