You are my new hero.

Same: travel in skirts is the answer.

Hotel soaps stashed discreetly about the luggage. I’ve just collected another pleasantly scented batch that is currently refreshing my luggage. (And the boxes and bags I have stored for my eventual move.)

A friend and I once had a breadmaking competition. I am anti-breadmaker. Five assorted loaves and a cake later, it was agreed: no breadmaker.

Curses! palest option available IS my colour! Also, my friend swears by this stuff. I trust her make-up, and now Jezebel confirms. Time to shop.

You are not alone! I went to Amsterdam (oh the stereotype) a year and a half ago with someone who has a clue and tried smoking, tried brownies..as a first time partaker.... It was so boring I almost died. Of boredom, not an overdose.

I read the whole book. On purpose. (Okay, it was 50% hate reading.) I worked in a book shop when the film came out. Travel books are my thing. So many women asked for it. I ordered a dozen copies of Tales of a Female Nomad instead. Sold out. Twice.

I was one of those college students! Except I paid for it myself. .. But I was never comfortable saying that I lived there. To this day I say I was a student in Ireland (studied would be so much simpler). Particularly after I had to pay rent and graft in Thailand .

I’ve decided that if I paid bills there, I lived there.

I hate to sound judgy, but this. A hundred times this.

I mean, I talk about my travels like I talk about everything else: taking joy in the ridiculous. Minding my audience and the jet - set life they think I lead, I try (and mostly fail) to include Tourist Things. Alas, I am a crap photographer and it’s more fun to play tourist bingo and people watch anyway.

No word of a lie, I have seen the fish - as - centrepiece in actual real life. At my school. For a teachers awards event. I’d add a picture but im on my phone and apparently havent that skill.

I’ve never heard this. Thank you so much for sharing.

I really love dress code articles, because it gives me a chance to share the level of ludicrous I deal with every day. (Full disclosure: I teach in the Middle East.) We do daily checks for dress code (are you wearing your shayla/headscarf? Is your shirt blue? Is your jumper black, white, or blue? Are your shoes black…

After spending a year of postgrad studies listening to professors hailing the vaunted status of peer reviewed journals........I can’t say I’m surprised. Whatever the subject, it seems who you know remains more important than what you know.

Isn’t that one of the perks of being an expat?

You are not an avid reader of STFU Parents, apparently.

And the nouveau riche drive yellow Ferraris.

Yes, I know what you mean! I've done those trips in the past, too. Because we want to see and do EVERYTHING! Now I'm old(ish) and have embraced the joys of aimless wandering and lots of people watching over coffee or wine. Still a lot of walking, but less rushed.

I pack with the bundling method instead of the rolling method. I'm a fat woman, and my clothes just naturally take up more space. With bundling, I packed: 2 maxi skirts, 1 dress, 2 leggings, 3 long tops, 2 cardigans (bought in Greece, so I didn't start with them) 2 wraps, 3 tank tops, underwear, pyjamas, swimsuit, 2…