British Expat Newsletter: October 2018
Hello, and welcome to those of you who have recently signed up.
In this issue
- This month: British Expat update
- Write for British Expat
- British Expat Amazon Shopping
- How to subscribe
This month
Well, as we suggested might be the case when we last wrote, we’re slightly late. (Sorry about that.) But we made it – all more or less in one piece, thanks to a bit of planning, a lot of hard work, more than a touch of last-minute improvisation. Plus of course plenty of support at both ends, for which we’re grateful.
Luckily for us, the weather here at this time of year has been unseasonably warm for Eastern Europe. In fact, at times it’s been warmer than London and South East England. So we’ve been spared the need to accustom ourselves to a colder climate at the same time as settling into a new city and country.
That said, the culture shock moving here has been the slightly unusual experience of finding that things are a lot more similar to the UK than we’re used to. We’ve been out and about a bit and found that shopping isn’t anything like as much of a challenge as it could be in, say, Dhaka or Delhi or even Bangkok. I’ve discovered that I needn’t have bothered dragging over here some of my must-have Asian ingredients (though I’m glad I packed the Marmite). Transport seems to work OK, though we haven’t yet made it onto the city’s trolleybuses – the taxis are cheap, reliable and nothing like as hair-raising as their counterparts in the sub-continent. We’ve even been able to shop online, after a fashion, though it’s a more clunky process than in the UK – we’ve been paying cash on delivery rather than by card.
So our next challenge will be dealing with the winter. We’re told the city is well geared up for it. Certainly our flat is. We’d already seen the radiators and the combi boiler, and discovered the underfloor heating the morning after we arrived – much to our pleasure. And then last week the landlord pulled a control out of a drawer and told us it was the climate control, heating as well as cooling. Bliss!
For a change, this month’s Quick Quiz is a mix of general knowledge questions, taking in Jupiter’s moons, The Simpsons and yellowhead disease. No connection between the latter two.
On the other hand, there is a connection between the quiz and our latest Pic of the Week, which features Jupiter’s four largest moons together with Earth for comparison. They’re an interesting bunch of planetoids, but you wouldn’t want to raise the kids there.
Are you ever flummoxed by fancy foodie words, mystified by menus, or confused by culinary terms? Then head on over to Scoffopedia.com and become enlightened by our quirky A-Z of food. And it’s got cartoons in it! Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it too.
Meanwhile, of course, the forum continues to provide information on a wide range of expat issues, as well as the opportunity to socialise with like-minded people all around the world. You can see the full range of discussion boards here.
Write for British Expat
Would you like to write for British Expat? Sorry, we don’t pay for articles but if you have a website we’ll link to it in the author’s blurb below any of your articles we publish. We use all sorts of content as long as it’s useful and/or interesting to our readership.
Besides articles, we also publish quick trivia quizzes—five questions about any subject. So, if you’d like to write for us but don’t feel like producing a literary masterpiece, then why not try writing a quickie quiz about your city, country, or even your hobby? Please use our contact form to get in touch.
British Expat Amazon Shopping
Amazon don’t just do books, you know. We’ve teamed up with them to bring you the ultimate in online shopping—from a micro SD card to a garden shed! A great way to do your shopping online, especially if the shops aren’t up to much in your part of the world.
BE Amazon Shop: UK & EU | BE Amazon Shop: non-EU
So there’s a round-up of all that’s been going on. Come on over and see for yourself! Don’t forget…
Visit the BE website and join in with our lively community!
Till next time…
Happy surfing!
Kay
Editor
British Expat—the definitive home for British expats
PS: Please do comment and help us to give you what you want from the newsletter.
How to subscribe:
If you like what you’ve read here and would like to sign up to receive your own newsletter, please click the link below and enter your name and email address on the form there:
Sign up for the British Expat Newsletter!
Leave a Reply