UK, USA, India, Italy, Australia,Indonesia - and two summers in Philippines and Pakistan, not all in that order then at 18 to Switzerland for 5 years.

Children UK, USA and Colombia.

Family relatives UK, USA, Australia, former Rhodesia.

You raise a good question-I have Expat friends from school in Indonesia- half continued being Expats as adults, but about half returned to home country, even home city.

I think today a big difference is changes in travel and communication. I remember in Switzerland to make a call to Indonesia required making reservation to make the call.

There is a theory that the desire to travel is genetic, that is the DRD4-7R gene explained here:

https://www.eaglecreek.com/blogs/art...ravel%20lovers.

Mmmm. Maybe, John, maybe not. I suppose there must be some travellers governed by one of their genes, but I doubt if there are many of them. In my experience, most travellers have solid reasons for going out of their way. Inquisitive-ness is a pretty common desire to check out a country or part of a country, and a perfectly natural one, I'd say. What triggers someone to do so, well that's another thing, but I wouldn't say that the trigger is in his or her genes. The Eagle Creek people may be onto a good advertising gimmick, but I doubt it's backed by any science!

It's always good to know what nations people have worked in. Then, we can relate, even when they're different from our own. I worked in Australia, England, Canada, Bahamas, New Hebrides, and Cayman - the first three in auditing, the others as a tax-haven administrator. The change came by a fluke. My son and I pretend to believe in Loki, the Norse god of caprice - who gave us our word "luck", and "fluke" too.

He (my son, not Loki) has worked in Cayman, England, Australia, Mexico, Guatemala and Norway. His three children are all in Norway, and look like staying there, although they all speak English well. He himself has just married a Polish girl, so who knows what lies ahead for my lines of grandchildren. One of my brothers spent some years in Malaysia, and his second wife is from KL. I have cousins in the USA, freelance nurses who went there with their US patients, from England. And - to end my family's adventurers - at the age of 70 my long-widowed mother sold up in Australia and drifted around England for 17 years, ending up in an old-folks home in Hereford.

There's a lot left unspoken in such reports, of course. Why did everybody move on, or not move on? Maybe we will cover things like that later on in this thread, bit by bit.

I gave principal countries where I have lived , many others I have worked in. For example at one point I was spending three weeks in Paris every even weeks, another time as spending a week per month in Mexico. Today especially in Europe seems the young less daunted about international experience- last few summers in Europe noticed how many young people will work in various countries, but also sad because of Brexit less opportunities for young Brits. A few years ago in Croatia stayed at a place where the young workers came from all across Europe and UK- and quite encouraging the development of acceptance between the young people, returned after Brexit, no UK workers.

The ease of travel now makes moving less of a challenge in many ways, though for some taking the leap of moving too much. My father was a personnel manager at large company, he said it was always easier hiring a Brit for overseas work than an American, as they could adjust better. So perhaps cultural issues can effect interest in moving.

And... we should probably acknowledge the various hippy-communities that exist in various countries around the world. My son - in his youthful hippy-phase, back in the day - spent several months in Latin America, with a European girlfriend and her little child. For that kind of tourist, visitors' visas aren't much of a hindrance, and nor are work-permits. He actually managed an informal hostel for a few months while the owner went off to Canada on some family errand. For all I know, the hippy community is still going strong. there. It wouldn't surprise me; they're a flexible lot!

An incident from "Back in the Day" in South Africa... During a vacation there in 1973, Linda & I drove from Capetown to Durban. Most of it on the highway, but occasionally on back roads, just for fun. We got lost once, and had to stop for directions. The only building on our back road turned out to be a shabby "shebeen". Oh well, needs must when the devil drives, as the saying goes, so I stopped and walked in at the nearest door, and found myself on what was obviously the wrong side of the premises. 1973 - apartheid, remember? What to do? Standing my ground seemed to be the polite thing to do, so I explained my situation to both sides of the divided bar. What followed was a wonderfully good-natured and democratic shouting-match discussion/argument on the best way to get back to the highway. Only when everybody agreed, was I given my instructions and allowed to leave.

I remember thinking, on the way back to the car, "these fellows should be all right, when the change comes".

So, what about our children and grandchildren, morpeth? Can we predict how and where they all fare? Or influence them? Will they marry foreigners, and live or die in foreign places, and speak foreign languages? And even, what colours might they be? Unemployed in England at the age of 38, I asked an employment agency to find me a job in one of Jersey, Hong Kong, Kenya, Bermuda or Cayman. After two unsuccssful interviews in Jersey, I landed one in Cayman, and stayed there the rest of my life, with Linda and a baby. The baby has far out-done his parents' examples; the grandchildren - who knows?

My daughter-in-law rides an electric bicycle, in these backwoods of Ecuador. I've never dared to ride the thing! Back in the day - way, way back in the day! - I used to ride a "normal" bike three miles to school, when there was a local school, between ages seven and ten, out in the Australian "bush". I'd never seen an electric one until I came down here. I'd seen electric scooters - a danger to all road users - in the Caribbean; and I remember that my first reaction to the sight of an electric bike was "What took them so long?" Are any BE members familiar with the things? They're a wonderful invention. One push on the pedals and zoom, you're off at speed! No licence needed. She (the daughter-in-law) wears a helmet, which is prudent, and it has to be said that the traffic is pretty light on the roads near us; but gosh! I could have done with one of the contraptions when I was a young lad. Is anybody else familiar with them?