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Blog: wordgeyser Topics:expat, netherlands, family and life expatsblogs
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Category Archives: Personal challenges
Where has the year gone?
It is with shock and horror I realise how long it’s been since I last posted on Wordgeyser. I wish I could tell you I’ve been traveling the world, or training to be an astronaut ready for the manned space … Continue reading
Light Bulb Moments: Recognizing the ‘Monkey Mind’
Ever heard the expression ‘monkey mind’? For those of you rolling your eyes in disbelief that once again I’m behind on things, please bear with me. I only came across this recently, in the process of editing a book. I … Continue reading
Posted in Expat Experiences, Family Life, Personal challenges, Writing
Tagged apple gidley, empty nest, expat experiences, Expat Life Slice by Slice by Apple Gidley, feeling overwhelmed, feelings about children leaving home, Graduating high School, monkey mind. traveeling to France, Senior Prom, stepping back, when you can't write, writers block
4 Comments
James Brownhill: Moving Forward
A year ago James Stephen Brownhill was tragically killed, alongside his climbing partner and friend, David Evans, during an ascent of Mont Blanc. A peak previously climbed along with others on different continents. A year in which everyone who knew … Continue reading
Posted in Family Life, Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges
Tagged Chamonix, Climbing, climbing deaths, climbing Mont Blanc, Frendo Spur, James brownhill, James Brownhill Memorial Fund, James Stephen Brownhill, JBMF, loss of a child, moving forward with loss. coping with loss, remembering loved ones
3 Comments
The Expat Good Samaritan: Cultural Attitudes to Caring
Whether you’re a serial expat moving from country to country with the huge machine of a global company, working in a foreign country under your own steam or emigrate from one country to another, there will be times when disaster … Continue reading
Posted in Expat Experiences, Family Life, Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges
Tagged caring in the community, cultural attitudes to caring, expat caring, helping other expats, looking after others overseas, responding to others in crisis, the good samaritan, what to do in a crisis
2 Comments
Versatility: Something We All Need
It seems I am Versatile. A startling and unexpected revelation to someone who has spent much of the past month deliberately under the radar. This is the time of year when awards are awarded (think the Baftas and the Oscars), … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges, Writing
Tagged adventures in expatland, Adventures in Integration, blog awards, Drie Culturen, expatcalidocious, Expatlogue, Find My New Normal, Gidday from the UK, I was an Expat Wife, In Search Of A Life Less Ordinary, perking the pansies, postcards from across the pond, The Unexpected Traveller, versatile blog awards, What About Your saucepans?
6 Comments
Mental Sabbatical: A Time to Step Back
After the New Year and a return to the Netherlands from visiting friends and family, I did something inconceivable only a few months previously. I decided to take a step back from life, review it and decide whether anything needed … Continue reading
Creative Detox: Using Writers’ Block to Refocus
I hold my hands up. I’ve been struggling with what I can only assume is writer’s block these past few weeks. Not in a hand wringing, anguished kind of way, rather an intellectual curiosity as to why the creative juices … Continue reading
Dutch Car Insurance: You’re On Your Own
We all have those times when negative energy seems to stick to us like glue, overshadowing everyday life with lethargy, leaving us dispirited and resentful without fully understanding why. It saps strength and creativity, sucking away fun and joy as … Continue reading
Through the looking Glass: Spinning Plates
Wondering where yours truly has disappeared off to, yet again? Or has the dismal absence of blog posts driven you to pastures new, assuming wordgeyser is finally wordless? Well, dear friends, I have neither disappeared or been wordless. The words … Continue reading
Somewhere Between Anna Wintour and Citizen Kane
The next great adventure and literary project? A concept and vision which first appeared on my horizon at the beginning of September. A dream graphic designer, Simone Branson, has nurtured since her late teens. The product of a British father … Continue reading
Silver Linings: Two Sides to Every Coin
You may have noticed I’ve been AWOL over the past week, but maybe that’s an arrogance on my part. Perhaps other things have piqued your interest during my absence and you’ve moved on and engaged with other things. Despite rumours … Continue reading
Creativity and Talent: Don’t Dismiss The X factor
One thing I rarely admit to, certainly not publicly, is that I love what many people regard as scraping-the-barrel TV; American Idol and now the USA version of the X-factor. Recording the programme I fast forward through the dross, which … Continue reading
And the Dog Came Too: Travelling with Expat Pets
The often forgotten passengers in a life of global gallivanting are the unsung heroes who are dragged hither and thither, without discussion or consideration of climate; our family pets. Now I know there are people who have cats and idolize … Continue reading
A Century of Posts: A Bit of a Milestone
Tah – dah!! Drumroll, cheerleaders and ignition sequence for fireworks . . . It’s with surprise and a bit of a shock I realised today that this is the 100th post I’ve written. One hundred posts, published, read and commented on; … Continue reading
A Period of Solitude: Why We Sometimes Need One
I haven’t posted for a while as sometimes life necessitates taking a step back, pulling up the drawbridge and keeping yourself and family safe in the Ivory Tower. Protected, for a while, from the devastating whirlwinds of sadness, loss, fear, … Continue reading
Every Parent’s Worst Fear
If you’ve been anywhere near newspapers the past week or so you can’t have failed to have noticed the untimely deaths of many young people. I wrote only a few posts back about the sister of Missy’s best friend, killed as … Continue reading
Posted in Expat Experiences, Family Life, Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges
Tagged Chamonix, climbing deaths, death of a child, death of british climbers on Mont Blanc, deaths on mont blanc, French Alps, grief of parents, james brownhill climber, james brownhill sheffield, Mont Blanc
5 Comments
DIY: Household Chores and the Retention of Sanity
We have been busy catching up on the home front, trying to pull in all those niggling little household jobs that have been outstanding for months. The Captain refuses to pay the exorbitant cost of having a man do the … Continue reading
Alternative Vote: Politics of Apathy by Committee
Before I get started I want to make clear from the outset that this is not going to be a for or against rant for one side or the other of the political debate. I have been relegated to the bench by … Continue reading
Posted in England and Things English, Personal challenges, Politics and Social Comment
Tagged alternative vote in UK, american political system, british political and electoral system, dirrering political systems of the western world, expats and overseas voting, living in different voting systems, living under a coalition government, political systems in Europe, politics in the UK, referendem on the alternative vote in britain
6 Comments
Turning Points and Defining Moments
A bit of a change of pace for this post. I got to thinking the other day – always a dangerous pastime – about how many twists and turns there are in life. How its course can hinge on a single decision and the … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges
Tagged crossroads in life, defining moments in life, facing life challenges, how to deal with life crisis, inspiration, life's challenges, looking for guidance in life, Religion and Spirituality, turning points, turning points in life, when life doesn't work out as it should, when life falls apart, when life goes off track, when life turns upside down
4 Comments
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer
Day twenty-one of a thirty day blog challenge, two-thirds behind me and one-third to go. I should be feeling wonderful but sadly I don’t. I’ve hit that wall where it’s too much effort to take a take the next step, … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges, Writing
Tagged becoming a better writer, benefits of blog challenges, challenge of writing, how to keep blogging, lonliness of the writer, self-esteem, struggling to write, writers block and how to resolve it, writers finding inspiration and encouragement, writing, writing momentum
7 Comments
The Art of Thinking
In my opinion thinking is a much underrated pastime, often confused with indolence and idleness by those who do not allow their thoughts to roam freely and often. I can recommend doing nothing but thinking as a wonderful way to … Continue reading
The Ultimate Blog Challenge
Oh shoot, now I’ve really gone and done it. I’ve signed up, registered and will make have to make myself accountable. Why do I always get gung-ho on an idea only to wake up the next day with that hangover-like … Continue reading
Boomerang Kids
Life is pretty interesting in our house right now, especially for Missy who has moved back into the bosom of her family after graduating in December. This is not the scenario she had planned as she stood on the verge of … Continue reading
Posted in Expat Experiences, Family Life, Personal challenges
Tagged boomerang kids, employment for graduates, entry level jobs, expat family, expats with boomerang kids, financing kids post college, graduates moving home, TCKs finishing college, TCKs moving home after college, TCKs returneing home after college
3 Comments
Disaster and Tragedy: The Emotional Cost
In 2001 I spent days watching footage from Japan. Then last week Hurricane Sandy. What struck me with both was my utter numbness. It seems inhuman and inhumane to admit this in the face of such horror and suffering on … Continue reading
Posted in Expat Experiences, Hurricane Katrina, Personal challenges, Politics and Social Comment
Tagged aftermath of disasters, aftermath of hurricane Sandy, clean-up after disasters, emotional trauma, emotional trauma after natural disasters, Expat, hurricane Katrina, hurricane Sandy, Japan, mental well-being of survivors, New Orleans, psychological effect of natural disaster on
8 Comments
Raunchy Daffodils and Randy Tulips: Learning the Lingo Part III
February, and those fragile signs that winter is finally drawing to a close and spring is just around the corner. Spending time outdoors walking the Archster I’m perhaps more aware than most of the changing seasons – when the first snowdrops appear and … Continue reading
Posted in Dutch Culture, Expat Experiences, Family Life, Learning Dutch, Personal challenges
Tagged daffodils, Dutch language, Dutch tulips, Expat, expat experiences, expats and new languages, how to speak Dutch, learning a foreign language, learning Dutch, Life Around The Hague, Netherlands, speaking Dutch, Tulip
3 Comments
Fear and Indecision: Unlocking Painful Emotions
This morning I find myself in a mad mood, not at all conducive to creative thought. If I started to vent I would end up looking bitter, twisted and in need of immediate psychological help. This does not sit well … Continue reading
Posted in Inspiration and Reflection, Personal challenges, USA, Writing
Tagged dealing with suppressed emotions, Deep South, Expat, expats and feelings of loss, fear of writing, homesick for new orleans, missing new orleans, New Orleans, Writers Resources, writing about pain, writing about painful emotions
1 Comment
How the English Approach Language Learning: Learning the Lingo Part I
The Captain and I settled into uncomfortable silence, looking down at the space between us. We had made an executive decision to, maybe, engage the services of a private Dutch tutor to finally get to grips with the language. There … Continue reading
Posted in England and Things English, Expat Experiences, Family Life, Learning Dutch, Personal challenges
Tagged Battle of Agincourt, Expat, expat experiences with languages, expat life, expats learning new language, how to learn a new language, humor, languages, learning a new language, learning Dutch
1 Comment
wordgeyser 
PVC: The Journey Continues
This week finds me back in Houston in time for Lizzy’s surgery to relieve Pelvic Vascular Congestion. (I chronicled her journey to here a couple of posts back). I have to admit this trip was not as hopeful as my … Continue reading →