“School’s out for summer ...”
Yep, the school summer holidays have started here in Spain. Three months of freedom and sunshine stretch into the distance.
As my brother in England commented, it seems like a crazy length of time off. After all, the English schools won’t finish for another month yet, and then ‘only’ for six weeks.
Indeed, the schools in Spain seem to be about the first in Europe to break up. If the car registration plates are anything to go by it will be the beginning of July before the French cross the border to start their holidays, and a few days after that before the Belgians, Dutch and Germans arrive.
Still, the Spanish timetable is understandable. Through June my daughter’s school shifted its hours so they were in from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., instead of the usual 9-12 and 3-5 p.m. The afternoons get too hot at this time of year to do anything else.
And now, with the full force of summer upon us, it’s too much for the kids to continue.
It’s been a long term too. Unlike in other countries, where there is a half-term break for the kids to recharge, here there are merely three long terms. The last holiday our daughter had therefore was Easter. And that was only for a week, rather than the two her cousins in England get.
So now 12 weeks at the beach beckon. What a prospect.
It’s not so great for the parents though. With so many working full time – and for people that live by the Mediterranean this is peak earning season – what are they supposed to do about childcare?
Hello grandparents ...
Hmm, not necessarily an option if you’re an expat and the rest of your family live thousands of miles away.
Or, as is commonly the case, you could enrol the kids in a summer school. So, back to class then. Maybe it’s not such a long, lazy vacation after all.
June 24, 2009
June 20, 2009
Elbow’s Lessons in Life
My brother recently gave me a copy of Elbow’s album ‘The Seldom Seen Kid.’ It contains some great songs, but there’s one in particular I can’t get out of my head: ‘One Day Like This’ ... what my niece calls “the holy cow song.”
I confess I hadn’t heard of the band before. I’ve become desperately out of touch musically since moving to Spain six years ago, and now rely on my much-more-with-it 40-year old brother to tip me off to the new releases.
Elbow are hardly a new sensation though – The Seldom Seen Kid is their fourth studio album. Yet it is only as a result of winning last year’s Mercury Music Prize that it has brought the band a level of commercial success to go with their long-standing critical acclaim.
As such they are an object lesson in the value of persistence.
After forming the group as schoolboys in 1990, they recorded their debut album with Island Records in 1997. However, it was never released. Instead they put out EPs in 1998, 2000 and 2001 before their first album, ‘Asleep in the Back,’ eventually came out that same year, earning them both Mercury Music Prize and Brit Award nominations.
Despite apparently being well-received critically though their third album didn’t sell well. So the band was dropped from V2, its record label, in 2006.
But instead of giving up Elbow signed with a new label, and recorded, mixed and self-produced The Seldom Seen Kid, which has proven to be their breakthrough.
In addition to the album’s Mercury Prize success, the song ‘Grounds for Divorce’ was used in the trailer for the Coen Brothers’ film ‘Burn After Reading’ as well as in several TV adverts, while One Day Like This was used by the BBC in its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, and has featured in adverts for the film ‘The Soloist.’ And Elbow went on to win the 2009 Brit Award for Best British Group. Not a bad list of credits.
I don’t know, but I’m guessing the V2 label bosses are feeling a bit stupid right now.
More importantly though Elbow’s long-awaited time in the sun is a testament to the group’s love of music, belief in themselves and sheer determination – and that is something from which we can all take heart. For they are a real-world demonstration that if you dare to cherish a dream, believe in it and (crucially) keep working towards its achievement, the rewards eventually will be yours.
So if your dream is to move abroad then why not go for it? Work out what you need to do to make it a reality and take the necessary steps, one at a time. It’ll be easier than you think.
And the same goes for all life’s ambitions.
It’s easy to lose sight of your ultimate goals in the current economic mess, when many people – myself included – have been scrambling just to survive. But, if you’ll excuse the cliché, you’ve got to ‘keep your eye on the prize.’
That’s what’s happening to me with the upcoming publication of my book, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You’ – and that is the essential message within it ... work out what you really want from life and start living it.
I’ll finish with a quote I was sent yesterday as a subscriber to Simpleology (a series of courses I highly recommend by the way). It’s from that great British writer Rudyard Kipling:
“If you don’t get what you want, it’s a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.”
Words we’d all do well to remember.
I confess I hadn’t heard of the band before. I’ve become desperately out of touch musically since moving to Spain six years ago, and now rely on my much-more-with-it 40-year old brother to tip me off to the new releases.
Elbow are hardly a new sensation though – The Seldom Seen Kid is their fourth studio album. Yet it is only as a result of winning last year’s Mercury Music Prize that it has brought the band a level of commercial success to go with their long-standing critical acclaim.
As such they are an object lesson in the value of persistence.
After forming the group as schoolboys in 1990, they recorded their debut album with Island Records in 1997. However, it was never released. Instead they put out EPs in 1998, 2000 and 2001 before their first album, ‘Asleep in the Back,’ eventually came out that same year, earning them both Mercury Music Prize and Brit Award nominations.
Despite apparently being well-received critically though their third album didn’t sell well. So the band was dropped from V2, its record label, in 2006.
But instead of giving up Elbow signed with a new label, and recorded, mixed and self-produced The Seldom Seen Kid, which has proven to be their breakthrough.
In addition to the album’s Mercury Prize success, the song ‘Grounds for Divorce’ was used in the trailer for the Coen Brothers’ film ‘Burn After Reading’ as well as in several TV adverts, while One Day Like This was used by the BBC in its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, and has featured in adverts for the film ‘The Soloist.’ And Elbow went on to win the 2009 Brit Award for Best British Group. Not a bad list of credits.
I don’t know, but I’m guessing the V2 label bosses are feeling a bit stupid right now.
More importantly though Elbow’s long-awaited time in the sun is a testament to the group’s love of music, belief in themselves and sheer determination – and that is something from which we can all take heart. For they are a real-world demonstration that if you dare to cherish a dream, believe in it and (crucially) keep working towards its achievement, the rewards eventually will be yours.
So if your dream is to move abroad then why not go for it? Work out what you need to do to make it a reality and take the necessary steps, one at a time. It’ll be easier than you think.
And the same goes for all life’s ambitions.
It’s easy to lose sight of your ultimate goals in the current economic mess, when many people – myself included – have been scrambling just to survive. But, if you’ll excuse the cliché, you’ve got to ‘keep your eye on the prize.’
That’s what’s happening to me with the upcoming publication of my book, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You’ – and that is the essential message within it ... work out what you really want from life and start living it.
I’ll finish with a quote I was sent yesterday as a subscriber to Simpleology (a series of courses I highly recommend by the way). It’s from that great British writer Rudyard Kipling:
“If you don’t get what you want, it’s a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.”
Words we’d all do well to remember.
June 11, 2009
Expat Living Book Deal
It’s been a while since I’ve done any blogging for Expat Living 101.com. In truth, like so many other expatriates I’ve been hit hard by the financial crisis over the last nine months – particularly in the interest rate on our mortgage and the currency conversion of my foreign earnings into euros – which has forced me to work twice as hard. Not what you want at the best of times, but especially when the sun is beckoning outside!
But now I’m starting up again with this new Blogger site and a new mission ... for today I signed a contract with Lean Marketing Press for them to publish a print version of my book on the pros and cons of living overseas: “Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You.”
The publishing contract may not come with a $1 million advance and movie tie-in rights as per my J.K. Rowling aspirations, but it’s an exciting prospect nonetheless – one that hopefully will help a lot more people get a better handle on the real benefits and costs of moving to a foreign country, and enable them to get a much clearer view on the right path to take. And if it can help readers towards living the lives they truly desire then I will be well satisfied.
This blog then will record the book’s journey to fruition and beyond, as well as being an opportunity to record some of my thoughts and observations on the expatriate life as they crop up.
I hope it proves interesting – and if you have any comments or questions on the way then please feel free to add them.
Hasta luego ...
But now I’m starting up again with this new Blogger site and a new mission ... for today I signed a contract with Lean Marketing Press for them to publish a print version of my book on the pros and cons of living overseas: “Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You.”
The publishing contract may not come with a $1 million advance and movie tie-in rights as per my J.K. Rowling aspirations, but it’s an exciting prospect nonetheless – one that hopefully will help a lot more people get a better handle on the real benefits and costs of moving to a foreign country, and enable them to get a much clearer view on the right path to take. And if it can help readers towards living the lives they truly desire then I will be well satisfied.
This blog then will record the book’s journey to fruition and beyond, as well as being an opportunity to record some of my thoughts and observations on the expatriate life as they crop up.
I hope it proves interesting – and if you have any comments or questions on the way then please feel free to add them.
Hasta luego ...
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