Life Changing Moments Blog Posts

I no longer feel like an expat. I'm not sure when I started to feel less like an expat and more like a local. It may have happened gradually, sneaking up on me over time. Or several triggers combining to create a sense of home and belonging. Maybe I...

Something extraordinary happened last week. Something quite wonderful. My son, Elliot Nixon Ward, was born. Weighing 9lbs and 55cm in length from top to toe, Elliot is the most precious, miraculous thing to ever happen to my wife and I. We are smit...

We're often influenced by people from different walks of life. By men and women we respect, admire and look up to. This is the story of one such person. He was born to Raymond and Mary Windsor on the 29th November 1918 into a world recovering from...

My wife is now 31 week’s pregnant. We’re getting there. In reality, she’s the one getting there and I’m the one still playing catch-up. I watch from the sidelines feeling mainly admiration and a fair bit of apprehension at that fast-approach...

The first time I saw an Australian tree, I thought it mighty odd. Words like spindly, scraggly and misshapen sprang to mind. The trees here were unfamiliar. Some were exotic and tropical, others seemed better suited to a desert or arid plain. The t...

It was our first weekend away together. Our first 'proper' date. We were in Paris, the city of love, and we were totally smitten with each other. Taken from opposite sides of the planet, we had been drawn together like moths to the light. Said...

It was a photo of reasonable quality. It had a sepia tone and the corners had curled. I imagine it might have a musty, papery smell that would make you want to inhale deeply and breathe in its age and memories. I say "imagine" because I could not to...

It's been a week for big news here at In Search of a Life Less Ordinary. First of all, I got to the finals of the Best Australian Blogs 2012 competition (by the way, the winner is announced on 10 May). Now I get to share my biggest news of all. Th...

The word went out early Tuesday evening on Facebook. They'd been spotted in Manly, a local beach suburb. And drinking at Hugo's no less. After screaming hysterically for an entire five minutes and dancing my way around the house with hands in the ai...

The word went out early Tuesday evening on Facebook. They'd been spotted in Manly, a local beach suburb. And drinking at Hugo's no less. After screaming hysterically for an entire five minutes and dancing my way around the house with hands in the ai...

The word went out early Tuesday evening on Facebook. They'd been spotted in Manly, a local beach suburb. And drinking at Hugo's no less. After screaming hysterically for an entire five minutes and dancing my way around the house with hands in the ai...

I made a solemn pledge last year... A pledge to read the printed word. I didn't swear the pledge in front of a row of witnesses, write it in my own warm blood, or chant it before the high altar of grave and earnest oaths, but it was serious an...

There was a fairly seismic shift in my world a week ago.   It only dawned on me in its full entirety once the dust had settled, but my personal landscape had changed - and arguably for the better. I was paid to write - and paid wel...

This week marked the start of the 'Chinese' New Year - the Year of the Dragon no less - while Australia Day will take place on Thursday. A Chinese tiger. In other words, moi. Now I'm no water dragon (I'm a...

Something a bit different today on ISOALLO. The lovely Linda Janssen of Adventures in Expatland, who you will know and enjoy from our monthly NorthSouthEastWest: Expat Dispatches posts, joins us as part of her virtual blog tour. A blog tour for what...