This is The North East

Our website presents the expat section, in which people originally from the North-East and North Yorkshire and now living abroad write for the website.

Unfortunately we are no longer able to take new writers for the section, but hope you enjoy reading contributions from around the world.

Latest columns from around the world

Commonwealth Games
Well done Britain! We enjoyed watching all the athletes performing, they were magnificent. Still have a long way to catch up with the Aussies though. Well done Melbourne, now they only have to pay for it. Some people are starting to complain already about the cost of it all.

A special night on the beach
Last night my husband I and our grandchildren went to Mon Repos beach (Place of Rest) in South East Queensland and had a really memorable experience.

On our way to TSV
Well, our Australian immigration visas have finally been confirmed and we've booked our passage, nearly two years after this whole odyssey began.

One extreme to the other
For a brief spell, I worked in the UK as a trainee chartered accountant. One of our tasks involved "stock counts", where we would go out to a company and double check the list of everything they said they had in stock, to make sure they actually did and weren't trying to pad out their books.

A birthday treat
On Sunday I was treated to a day out as a birthday present! The weather was beautiful, so we decided to head over the mountains towards Competa stopping for coffee on the way and having a good lunch in the Paiza when we arrived.

Waiting for the cyclone season
Now it is summer in sunny Australia, although at present we are getting very welcome rain.

Let's do the time warp again
How many of you remember the dreaded birthday party where your mother invited a bunch of people, who didn't like you anyway, and you were forced to endure the humiliation of being the centre of attention, people singing to you and forcing you to blow out trick candles and all?