The first time you hear a kookaburra call is pretty damn spooky. Here, have a listen. But when I hear them now, cackling madly in the Australian sun, I sprint outside for a look. There’s something about these birds, something quintessentially Australian.
And in the height of the Australian summer, on the eve of Australia Day, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘expatica’
Oh, Your daddy’s rich and your mamma’s good lookin’
There are ways to tell the tides and waves of change
If you could soup up a DeLorean and travel back to 1989 to ask 17 year-old not so Free Man where he would be living in twenty years, he would have probably told you Charleston, Savannah or New Orleans. One of those old genteel port cities of the South, slowly crumbling into the sea. One [...]
And now I know there are no secret tricks
Those of you of a certain age may rememeber the Minneapolitan alt-rockers Soul Asylum. They hit it big in 1993 with their album “Grave Dancers Union” and the brilliantly marketed single “Runaway Train” – one way to get your song played to death on MTV is to turn the video into a PSA. They were [...]
And all the fallen leaves filling up shopping bags
The company that I write for has a number of American clients. Yesterday at work two of my co-workers were in my office talking about one of them that is giving us a bit of trouble. One of them said, “Well, you know how the Americans are – rather, ru…”, and then as she glanced [...]
Is it true you tell me we’re failing to see that we were dreaming of a lifestyle
Now this is why I moved to Australia. It is finally starting to feel like summer in Adelaide and I’ve got to say it was worth the wait – warm, dry days and cool, breezy nights. It’s as near a perfect climate as I’ve found. The locals tell me that I may change my mind [...]
Half a year in Oz
In my obsession last week with an impotent hatred of the State of Florida, I missed out on a couple of significant dates in my expatriate journey. As of last week, it’s been four years since we left the U.S. and six months since we arrived in Australia.
A lot of the expat bloggers who [...]
Deep South Smack Talk: The Expat Feud Revisited
10 Oct 2008 at 10:18
A Free Man
Australia, Boy Z, Britain, Football, Georgia, Georgia Bulldogs, expatica, parenting
Deep South Smack Talk continues this week as the hated Tennessee Volunteers roll out of the hills of east Tennessee and into an almost certain ass kicking at the hands of my beloved Georgia Bulldogs. Those of you who have been reading A Free Man for a while may remember the humiliation visited upon my [...]
A new parade of faith and sparks
Do you guys ever get the idea that you’re being ruled by a gang of not very bright, petulant children? One of the advantages of being an expatriated American is that I can typically watch the goings on back home with an air of detached bemusement. But sometimes devastatingly dumb decisions made stateside can spiral [...]
Went out swimming, got hit by a jet-ski.
“She’s got eyes of deepest blue
He’s got hair that’s green
Everybody’s got nice stuff but me
I wish I had the kind of cash
To make heads turn when I walk past
I wish I could live in luxury
Everybody’s got nice stuff but me…”
-The Dead Milkmen – “Everybody’s Got Nice Stuff But Me”
As our bus pulled away from Oxford [...]
We come from the land of the ice and snow
Dr. O’C is the latest member of A Free Man’s household to crack the job market. After what will be nearly a year in the purgatory of stay-at-home motherhood (she would quite possibly use a different word), Dr. O’C will re-join the ranks of the gainfully employed next month. This is the latest in a string [...]
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