Last week Ì was preparing a few musical offerings for Neil, my old school friend in Hong Kong. That got me thinking about what sort of music the modern British ex-pat longs to hear. It probably isn't Vera Lynn and Noel Coward. It's more likely to be The Buzzcocks, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Clash or for the even older ex-pat, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Soft Machine etc.
This led me on to the question: what is an ex-pat and more importantly: am I one?
The theasaurus gives sone useful suýnonyms: fugitive, wayfarer, emigrant,refugee, displaced person.
I asked Emile who came up with the useful definition something along the lines of:
an ex-pat is a disgruntled Brit sitting in Torremolinos, Dubai or somewhere else sunny, leafing their way through the Daily Mail and grumbling about a dreadful state the UK has got into. He puts the blame firmly on immigrants, the Labour Party,the abolition of miltary service, women's lib, rock music, the anti-foxhunting lobby,etc.
That's fine, as far as it goes, but what then of the thousands of Brits abroad like myself who are reading the Guardian on-line every day.
Not to mention their children. Kai inhabits a strange Anglophile oasis where Bagpuss and Basil Brush are king. These unlikely icons are completely unknown to his classmates. He can't be an ex-pat as he's never been a pat.
Clearly one could write a whole book on this topic.
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