Tales of a First Class Nomad
Book Details
Author(s)Richard Luxmore
ISBN / ASINB00AMO7Z16
ISBN-13978B00AMO7Z18
Sales Rank1,847,763
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
It was February 1991. The First Gulf War had just started, Deng Xiaoping was in power, and the Eastern Bloc was starting to open up, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a very different world from today that Richard found when he left England, in search of a trinity of warm weather, adventure and romance, in the guise of a roving international auditor.
In the course of the next few months he completed a round the world trip, travelling to Caracas, Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Bahrain, Paris and London. He found all three of his desires, including his future wife, Elsa, who he met in Manila. Thus began the story of how he came to raise a family in a foreign land and with a foreign wife.
Their first family home was in Istanbul. And from there they moved locations every two or three years: Krakow, Istanbul again, Atlanta, Brussels, Atlanta again, a brief period back in the UK when he spent most of his time travelling on the African continent; and finally to Johannesburg. They lived in eleven homes and went through twenty-two cars. The story tells of the ups and downs of making a home and raising children in these diverse places; the history and culture of the peoples with whom they lived; the people he met; and the places he visited along the way: Buenos Aires, the Arctic Circle, the Okovango Delta in Botswana, the palaces of Rajasthan, the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and Dolly Parton country in Tennessee.
The story is sometimes sad, as he deals with the death of his parents, but frequently amusing as he recalls anecdotes: the girl he dated in the Philippines who turned out to be a boy; a chance encounter with the Penthouse International Pet of the Year; his attempts to coach soccer in Belgium and the USA; an interesting experience in a nightclub in war-torn Ivory Coast; in and out of hospitals in Manila; and a near-death experience when he rolled a Land Rover in the South African bush.
But, in the end, despite the climate and the excitement, the difficulties of continuously moving with visas, driving licenses, bank accounts, and forever changing schools, simply became too much for him. He realised, after twenty years, that there’s no place like home.
In the course of the next few months he completed a round the world trip, travelling to Caracas, Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Bahrain, Paris and London. He found all three of his desires, including his future wife, Elsa, who he met in Manila. Thus began the story of how he came to raise a family in a foreign land and with a foreign wife.
Their first family home was in Istanbul. And from there they moved locations every two or three years: Krakow, Istanbul again, Atlanta, Brussels, Atlanta again, a brief period back in the UK when he spent most of his time travelling on the African continent; and finally to Johannesburg. They lived in eleven homes and went through twenty-two cars. The story tells of the ups and downs of making a home and raising children in these diverse places; the history and culture of the peoples with whom they lived; the people he met; and the places he visited along the way: Buenos Aires, the Arctic Circle, the Okovango Delta in Botswana, the palaces of Rajasthan, the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and Dolly Parton country in Tennessee.
The story is sometimes sad, as he deals with the death of his parents, but frequently amusing as he recalls anecdotes: the girl he dated in the Philippines who turned out to be a boy; a chance encounter with the Penthouse International Pet of the Year; his attempts to coach soccer in Belgium and the USA; an interesting experience in a nightclub in war-torn Ivory Coast; in and out of hospitals in Manila; and a near-death experience when he rolled a Land Rover in the South African bush.
But, in the end, despite the climate and the excitement, the difficulties of continuously moving with visas, driving licenses, bank accounts, and forever changing schools, simply became too much for him. He realised, after twenty years, that there’s no place like home.
