From England to Egypt and now in Greece, this is a Blog about Finding Happiness on the Road. Read stories & travel info. from Greece, expat features and the occasional author interview. Enjoy!
Monday, 20 May 2013
Nafplio - the old capital of Greece
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Author interview with Savannah Grace - "Sihpromatum - I Grew my Boobs in China"
I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to
interview some great guest authors.
Being a Greek themed blog, initially I started out with interviewing
fiction & memoir authors about Greek topics: Fiction writers Sara Alexi
and Paul Dillon,
Anthology editor Camille
Cusumano and memoir writer Dario
Ciriello. I then discovered a plethora of writers who I thought
would suit the topic of my blog and decided to branch out…authors who document
their travels and lives and experiences in other countries such as Margie Miklas
and Sonia Marsh.
Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Savannah Grace about her book “SIHPROMATUM – I Grew my Boobs in China.” To quote from her site, “SIHPROMATUM…” is a series about one family’s four year backpacking
adventure around the globe, “I Grew my
Boobs in China” being the first in the series.
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Savannah, I don’t want to give too much away
and spoil it for potential readers, but there are a few burning questions I’d
love to put to you. Thanks for agreeing
to this interview.
Thank
you so much for having me, it’s a pleasure!!! I always love discussing my book
and answering questions with my readers.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
Adverbs & Cliches In A Nutshell - Jessica Bell
As some of you know, I feature guest authors from time to time. Author Jessica Bell is one that I interviewed about her novel "String Bridge" based in Athens, Greece. Well today she guest posts with practical tips for us writers.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
League of Expat Writers: Breathing in the Catalan Life - Living as an Expat in Barcelona
Emma Higgins has been writing and travelling on and off
since 2009. Her blog, Gotta Keep Movin’
is full of stories and advice from her trips, which include Europe, India,
Morocco, South America, the USA and Canada. Her main focuses are budget travel
and volunteering, and she has been involved in sustainable farming in
Argentina, animal shelters in Peru, and even tried her hand at making goats
cheese in British Columbia. Follow her travels on Facebook, Twitter
and Pinterest
Today she shares with the League of Expat Writers her discovery of Catalian life in Barcelona, Spain.
Monday, 13 May 2013
My Fearful Adventure
I've travelled a fair bit: solo around Australia when I was nineteen, Sri Lanka teaching English in 2004 to name but a few.
I'm going on a trip in June 2013 that leaves me juuuuuuuust that little bit fearful: I'll be the only passenger on board this thing:
I'm going on a trip in June 2013 that leaves me juuuuuuuust that little bit fearful: I'll be the only passenger on board this thing:
 Yes, that's right...I'm going to be travelling on a container ship, from Athens to Hong Kong...amongst a crew of roughly twenty four (all male). And now it's all booked and paid for, I am starting to feel just ever so nervous, maybe even fearful - more than a little bit "What the hell Bex? What have you gone and done NOW!" You see, I pushed past my "What if's?" and booked the thing...I can't keep thinking "What if I get kidnapped by a pirate?" What If's make us - well - fearful!
Torre DeRoche inspired me to write this post - you'll see more about her below. Ever since discovering her on Twitter, I've been following her progress as she takes the literary world by storm with her novel. Most importantly, I recogise a little bit of myself in her...we're fearful girls together.
Thanks Torre!
 This post is part of the My Fearful Adventure series, which is celebrating the launch of Torre DeRoche’s debut book Love with a Chance of Drowning, a true adventure story about one girl’s leap into the deep end of her fears.
"Wow, what a book. Exciting. Dramatic. Honest. Torre DeRoche is an author to follow." Australian Associated Press "… a story about conquering the fears that keep you from living your dreams." Nomadicmatt.com "In her debut, DeRoche has penned such a beautiful, thrilling story you’ll have to remind yourself it’s not fiction." Courier Mail Find out more… |
Living the unconventional life?
Shouldn't you be living a 9-5 life? It's not as if you're a teenager any more...
If I gave a pound for every time this insinuation has been levied in my direction, I'd be a poor woman. And it's mostly from family members.
You'll have seen from my About page on this site that I describe myself as an "unconventional British lass, living in an unconventional country...".
Why is it, when someone decides not to work in a 9-5 career, not to get married and have kids in their 30's, they're 'tut tutted' at by society? Well, I saw this today and decided to share it with you:
If I gave a pound for every time this insinuation has been levied in my direction, I'd be a poor woman. And it's mostly from family members.
You'll have seen from my About page on this site that I describe myself as an "unconventional British lass, living in an unconventional country...".
Why is it, when someone decides not to work in a 9-5 career, not to get married and have kids in their 30's, they're 'tut tutted' at by society? Well, I saw this today and decided to share it with you:
I posted this on my Facebook page and it prompted the following comment from a fan:
"A very apt poem by Cavafy (translated from Greek by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard)
An Old Man
At the noisy end of the café, head bent
over the table, an old man sits alone,
a newspaper in front of him.
And in the miserable banality of old age
he thinks how little he enjoyed the years
when he had strength, eloquence, and looks.
He knows he’s aged a lot: he sees it, feels it.
Yet it seems he was young just yesterday.
So brief an interval, so very brief.
And he thinks of Prudence, how it fooled him,
how he always believed—what madness—
that cheat who said: “Tomorrow. You have plenty of time.”
He remembers impulses bridled, the joy
he sacrificed. Every chance he lost
now mocks his senseless caution.
But so much thinking, so much remembering
makes the old man dizzy. He falls asleep,
his head resting on the café table."
An Old Man
At the noisy end of the café, head bent
over the table, an old man sits alone,
a newspaper in front of him.
And in the miserable banality of old age
he thinks how little he enjoyed the years
when he had strength, eloquence, and looks.
He knows he’s aged a lot: he sees it, feels it.
Yet it seems he was young just yesterday.
So brief an interval, so very brief.
And he thinks of Prudence, how it fooled him,
how he always believed—what madness—
that cheat who said: “Tomorrow. You have plenty of time.”
He remembers impulses bridled, the joy
he sacrificed. Every chance he lost
now mocks his senseless caution.
But so much thinking, so much remembering
makes the old man dizzy. He falls asleep,
his head resting on the café table."
The picture and the comment sum it all up: I'm not leaving it until I'm too late. I'm not going to live the life people want me to. And neither should you!
Don't leave things until they're too late. Don't feel guilty for being happy with a life you're leading, even if it doesn't fit others ideas of how to live life.
I'm an EFL teacher. I love teaching kids, they teach me so much about myself. I love living in Greece; this country's taught me so much about myself too.
And as for being unconventional? HELL yeah! And proud of it.
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What's your experience? Agree/disagree? Share in the comments below.
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Saturday, 11 May 2013
12th Festival of African Gastronomy and Folk Art - Athens
Today I attended a delightful event in the grounds of the South African Ambassador's Residence. The embassies and consulates of represented African nations here in Athens held their annual African Gastronomy and Folk Art event.
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