Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog recording the misadventures and assorted ramblings of our new life in Moz.  I have the good fortune to be married to Jane

A minha espousa A Senhora Jane aka der missus 

who works for the Department for International Development (DFID) that delivers the UK government's overseas aid programme.  Both of us are seasoned overseas travellers, but for the past seven years we and Monty the cat were settled happily in Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland (IMHO God's own country).  Pensions and free bus travel starting to peek over the horizon.  Then...

 

Then Jane did a temporary four month posting to cover an absence at DFID’s office in Nepal and she got the travel bug again.   One application later and she was accepted for a post in DFID’s Mozambique office and we arrived here at the end of January 2013.

Monty failing his cat camouflage course

I thought I better go with the missus or people would gossip.  More sensibly Monty decided to go live with my brother.  I  am now what is officially designated by DFID as a “Trailing Spouse”.  Jane sent me an article by a fellow trailing spouse in which he described himself as a Spouse Trailing Under Duress or STUD.  When I told Jane she should be calling me Stud she said I am hardly under duress having happily given up my job in a Glasgow call centre. She thought I was more  a Spouse Trailing Unconsciously Pathetic In Denial or STUPID.

O Senhor Stupido

One of the many things I said I would do in Mozambique was write a blog.  I was probably drunk at the time, but thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with friends and family.  The only problem is that I actually have to write it.  We arrived at the end of January and I started writing this at the beginning of September so I am obviously getting into the relaxed Mozambican attitude towards deadlines.  Anyway here it is.  It is not going to win a Booker or Pulitzer prize but I hope it will amuse or entertain and help us keep in touch with our friends and family.