Almost Local: Living Abroad Stories
Almost Local: Living Abroad Stories shares honest, human stories of people building lives and homes abroad. Hosted by Marc Alcobé, the channel explores what it really means to live somewhere new, beyond visas, checklists, and highlight reels.
Through in-depth conversations with people living abroad around the world, we talk about belonging, identity, culture shock, community, and the slow process of becoming almost local. These are stories about finding home in unfamiliar places, navigating life between cultures, and redefining where you’re from.
Whether you’re already living abroad, planning a move, or simply curious about life elsewhere, Almost Local is a space for reflection, connection, and real experiences of life beyond borders.
New episodes weekly feature personal stories from around the world, shared with honesty, depth, and nuance.
Almost Local: Living Abroad Stories
Almost Local #67 | Why Parenting Abroad Changes Everything with Anthi Patrikios
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In this episode, Anthi Patrikios shares her rich journey from childhood in Greece to living and working across multiple countries, ultimately pivoting to parent coaching and community building abroad in Uzbekistan. Her insights reveal how embracing mobility, cultural curiosity, and personal growth shape a fulfilling global life.
Main Topics:
- The transformative power of freedom in early life and choices
- Navigating cultural shocks and building social connections abroad
- The evolution from international career to parent coaching and personal well-being
🎙️ Guest: Anthi Patrikios
A parent coach and educator who has spent nearly three decades living abroad, building a life across Greece, the UK, the Philippines, Kenya, and Uzbekistan. Her perspective is shaped by international moves, deep empathy for families, and a strong belief in freedom, adaptability, and supporting children through change.
🔗 Guest Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthipatrikios/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthi-patrikios/
Website: https://www.anthipatrikios.com/
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[0:00] There is a version of living abroad that looks so glamorous from the outside.
[0:05] Promotions, constant travels, new countries every week. The kind of life that feels more like a movie.
[0:12] That was the sexiest job I've ever had.
[0:14] I mean, it was like I got a promotion and I started to travel and I was away for 3 weeks and every month. We all had
[0:21] two suitcases. You'd come home, you'd empty one into the washing machine, you'd take the other one. I had no food in the fridge ever. It was I mean it was
[0:29] so cool. It was so cool. I went to the weirdest places you could ever imagine.
[0:34] Unsustainable for the life that I wanted.
[0:37] But what I love about this conversation is that it's not just about the thrill of global mobility. It's about the
[0:44] moment you realize this lifestyle has a cost. And when you become a parent, that cost gets real very fast. Because
[0:51] parenting abroad isn't just parenting in a different place. It's parenting with fewer anchors, more transitions, and a
[1:00] nervous system that it's still trying to keep up.
[1:02] It is so hard to parent overseas. You have the regular difficulties of parenting
[1:10] and then you've got all of these other things that are happening around. Most of us who live overseas in these jobs are highly ambitious, highly driven,
[1:19] highly intelligent, highly successful, are used to that buzz, to let go of the buzz and be that parent who can be
[1:27] grounded and calm and in the moment with their child. In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to parent while living internationally, especially
[1:36] when you're a driven, high performing, and used to move fast. And your child needs suyu to be slow, steady, and
[1:45] present. Today on Almost Local, the living abroad story of anthropatriio. Let's start.
[1:57] [music]
[2:00] Who are you? Who is Auntie?
[2:01] Okay. Yeah. So, I'm a parent coach. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I live overseas.
[2:07] I've lived overseas now for my gosh, since I was 18 and I'm almost 46. What's that? Almost 30 years since I left home.
[2:16] I grew up in Athens in Greece. I have this accent. I put this on especially for podcasts. I also have like a regular Greek accent, you know. But I have this cuz I went to an international school.
[2:26] So I'm one of those international school kids and it's this sort of very generic international British accent which
[2:33] confuses people a lot. Right. What can I say? I moved overseas and did various things but I've always worked for young
[2:41] people. So my big passion is children and young people. I feel like they are the future of the species. Like they
[2:49] 100% are like our time is over. We're done. whatever it is that we were going to do, we're doing it. We're done. And then there's this whole other group of
[2:57] people who come after us. And so I've spent 25 years working to improve, I guess, the outcomes for young people and
[3:06] for children in different ways. And that's what drives everything I do, including where we choose to live, what we choose to do with our time, etc.
[3:15] Yeah.
[3:16] Nice. I mean it's sometime sometimes a little bit difficult when people comes with 30 years of living abroad to summarize the [laughter] whole things.
[3:23] You've lived in a lot of countries on top of that. It's not a single one. So but maybe just to go quickly to the origins you know I lived in Athens also.
[3:33] So I need to ask a little bit about that. And you you are now working with children but you were a kid at some
[3:40] point also like your mainly your time in Greece was being a kid teenager until 18 years old. How was your your early life
[3:49] there? How was your life in Athens in Greece? Yeah. Were you planning to live abroad also? Yeah. Well, you'll know this firstly.
[3:56] You know when people say to Greeks, where are you from? And they'll give you three answers always, right? they'll say where they grew up, where they live now, and where they're from.
[4:07] Those three things can be completely different, right? So, I grew up in Athens, but I am from the west coast of Greece, an island called Lefava. That is
[4:17] home to me. So, although I grew up in Athens, when people say to me, "Where is your home?" I say, "On a mountain, on an island on the west coast of Greece." My
[4:26] childhood was very Athens. It was just a very regular, normal, free, safe childhood. Very much a kid of the 80s
[4:34] and 90s. We played out in the streets until 10:00 at night when it was dinner time. Nobody really knew where we were.
[4:41] And it was it was free. And and this is a value of mine that I take with me everywhere. And I think that's what's led to this lifestyle that I've chosen
[4:50] is freedom for me. I mean, like, you know, the Greek national slogan is freedom or death. That's it. And so
[4:56] freedom for me is so important. Hey, I I feel like without that I would find it very difficult to get out of bed in the
[5:05] morning. It's such a deeply rooted part of who I am. And so that freedom as a child growing up in Athens, the freedom
[5:12] to then be able to go overseas to university because I went to an international school in Athens for very practical reasons, not philosophical practical reasons. But that led me
[5:21] automatically to go overseas to university and then the freedom to not have to go back to Greece until I chose
[5:27] to or until I choose to. Choosing to go into a space, my very first job with the freedom to see the world. So I guess for
[5:36] me that's yeah, I guess young people and freedom. This is a big part of of my whole life and especially as a child. Yeah.
[5:42] Interesting. That first move that you made 18 years old.
[5:46] I mean logically international school, you speak English. So you end in UK. Yeah. London as far as I remember.
[5:54] Yes.
[5:55] How was that like because you had the different moves afterwards and the first one is normally marking a little bit.
[6:02] Do you know? So my mom was English. I don't I don't connect to that side of my heritage and that's not I just don't
[6:09] culturally I don't feel English. And when I went to England it was it became even more obvious to me that I wasn't from this place. So even though I sound
[6:17] like this and people would say to me where you from and I'd tell Greece and the first question oh my god the first question everyone how come your English is so good.
[6:24] I say like a lot of Greek people speaks very good English. It's one of the most surprising things like in comparison to Italy, Spain, other places in the
[6:32] Mediterranean Sea, the Greek level of English. Crazy good. It's really good.
[6:38] Yeah. I mean, I would say that most Greeks under the age of 45, bilingual almost, you know, and
[6:45] certainly under the age of 30 will speak English, academic English even, right?
[6:50] Not just kind of like movie English, but academic English. and they're learning that at school from from, you know, this
[6:58] old. So, yeah, when I went to England, I it wasn't a culture shock so much, but England to me, you know, growing up in Greece in the 80s and '9s, I got to be
[7:06] honest, like we didn't have much. We really didn't. I remember getting a colored TV. I remember getting like one
[7:13] plastic tea set for Christmas. That was it. Like, we really didn't have toy shops. We I was trying to explain to my husband the other day cuz he's English
[7:21] and I was trying to explain to him like we had one chocolate bar when I was a kid. There was one brand of chocolate.
[7:25] There was one brand of biscuits that weren't like just plain. You could go to the bakery and buy biscuits, but the supermarket there'd be like just two
[7:34] brands of biscuits on the shelves in the 80s. We didn't have imported stuff unless you were related to the American base. the Girl Scouts would sell cookies
[7:41] at our school sometimes and like I'd be like, you know, so it's when I went to England, I thought that this was going to be this,
[7:49] you know, we used to go there on holiday and it always felt like this really exciting place, like so different and I guess it was for a long period of
[7:57] time and I was a student there and so everything's exciting when you're at university, right? But then there came a point certainly after I'd lived there
[8:05] for many years where I was like, "Okay, I'm I'm the excitement has worn off.
[8:10] It's time to move on." What did you study back then? Like it was already related and going into the direction of a No.
[8:17] Uh I did chemistry and management. Yeah, I did chemistry.
[8:25] Hey, I was one of those kids at school who was good at everything. I was, you know, I'm And this is a lot of people find this really jarring to hear
[8:33] especially a woman say this. I'm just going to say this to the listeners. Like if this stresses you out and upsets you, I want you to notice that and just think
[8:40] about why that is. I'm a really intelligent, hardworking, highly ambitious individual and I was at
[8:48] school. And in those days, if you were a woman and you were good at science, you went into sciences because you knew you were going to get a job. No, that was
[8:57] really it. like I could have done anything. I chose that because I enjoyed it and I was good at it and it was easy for me and I knew I could get a job at
[9:04] the end as it happened. I didn't want to do it after university but I could have done if I'd chosen to. Yeah.
[9:10] Interesting. A little bit like the engineering of nowadays. I think
[9:14] [laughter]
[9:15] right. Yeah. Everyone's an engineer but no one's actually building Okay.
[9:19] [laughter]
[9:19] I am. Here we are. Yes. There we go.
[9:24] You studied the whole career there in UK. You live more years there. When is like do you go back to Greece at some point? Where is work coming in like?
[9:36] Yeah.
[9:37] I went back to Greece when I was 21 after I finished university. I lived with my parents for a month and then I was like, "Oh my god, I can't do this."
[9:44] And I left again and went back to England and lived with my grandmother for a couple of months while I tried to find a job and a place to live. I decided to move out of her place when I
[9:53] came home one night at like 8:00 and she was phoning the police cuz she didn't know where I was and I was like, "Okay,
[10:00] it's time to move out." And so I got a job. I lived in this little room. I shared a bathroom with a complete
[10:07] stranger. And I did it for six months just to save money to then I live where I wanted to live. And I got a job at my old university because it's quite it's
[10:16] one of those universities quite universities are like this, right? They they like to hire their own kite.
[10:21] They're like, "Oh, you've been institutionalized by us, so we'll take you. We'll keep you." So, I actually started as just a person working in the
[10:28] office doing filing and booking flights and stuff for a research group that was based in the department of infectious
[10:35] disease. And we did research into school health and nutrition programs in low-income countries. So, mostly Africa,
[10:43] Asia, and then the Caribbean to a certain extent. And we used to go out, we'd collect data. We were funded by the World Bank primarily and UNICEF and
[10:52] UNESCO. And we would go out and we would gather data and we would build local planning teams who would then do big
[11:01] plans for big funding from these agencies, the kind of, you know, multi-million dollar projects. So we were the seed funding in a way, I guess
[11:08] you would say. So I did that for eight years and that was the sexiest job I've ever had. I mean, it was like everyone
[11:15] had two suitcases. I got a promotion and I started to travel and I was away for three months in every month. Three weeks in every month. We all had two
[11:24] suitcases. You'd come home, you'd empty one into the washing machine, you'd take the other one. I had no food in the fridge ever. It was I mean, it was so
[11:32] cool. It was so cool. I went to the weirdest places you could ever imagine. And boy, I suppose. No.
[11:39] Entirely unsustainable for the life that I wanted. Yeah. So amazing. Like if you were willing to hand your life over to
[11:47] that career, amazing. But then something happened to a friend of mine and I couldn't be there for her. And I was like, "No, I I don't want to live my I
[11:56] don't want my whole life to be my work." Yeah.
[11:58] Yeah. It's I suppose one of these jobs that requires you to be focused 247 on the on the job. And
[12:06] Yeah. Yeah. when you start when things happen back home or whenever it's when you start realizing that you're not there physically.
[12:15] Yeah. Yeah.
[12:16] Is that the moment that you say okay it's a little bit of I don't know burnout disillusionment like not feeling that it was it didn't felt right
[12:25] anymore. You do a career switch is when you train as a teacher.
[12:30] Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I'd been doing I'd been training teachers. So I started on like deworming programs which was not so
[12:38] sexy. There was a lot of collecting poo and like looking in microscopes and stuff and that wasn't so sexy. And then I and then I went into HIV policy and
[12:47] teacher training and policy writing for education sectors. And that was when I was like this teaching part now is
[12:55] really interesting to me. And I decided then I wanted to leave England. I sort of I was like I'm starting to feel a bit itchy. I've been here 8 years. That's
[13:03] quite a long time for me, you know, and I thought I'm going to go into teaching.
[13:06] So that's when I trained as a as a chemistry teacher, no less. Yes. Makes sense. Of course. Yes.
[13:13] I mean, you had the knowledge. No, like why not? Why not? Did you enter a classroom in UK or you? Yes. Yes.
[13:21] You you you teach as a you know, Mark, it was the best teaching I've ever done. My god, don't tell my international school bosses that. But it
[13:28] was such I mean I taught in I don't know if this is gonna this will mean something to to many people. I'm sure I taught in East London in places like
[13:37] Essex and Dagenham and Barking. These are extremely resource poor parts of the UK primarily not everywhere right Essex
[13:46] is like also the the richest people in the UK or in England I should say not UK and I taught in state schools of 2,000
[13:55] 3,000 children just high schools right so just secondary schools in England that's kind of year 7 to 13 grade 8 to
[14:04] to 12 and it was incredible I I couldn't I mean it was miserable in many ways And also it was amazing to me to be part of
[14:11] these communities cuz these schools and the work they do for the students in those areas it's just it's just
[14:19] incredible like the amount of commitment that we had as teachers when we worked in those schools. So yeah, I did that for three years.
[14:28] See, and then I left.
[14:30] That left is Philippines. It's it's it's a huge one. Like it's not something that you do like, oh no, I'm teaching here in
[14:38] in in Essex and I go to Manila. How does that happen? Like so my husband worked for a very niche.
[14:49] He also had a very niche job. We're a very niche job family. He sold I used to tell my students he sells drugs to billionaires. He basically provided
[14:58] medical supplies for super yachts. So like okay I know who knew that was a job but he was a biochemist and he his job was to
[15:07] provide medical supplies to super yachts and his company was so niche and there's only like two in the world that did it at the standard that they did it at and
[15:16] they got bought out by obviously got bought out by some international company and part of the buyout you know like when companies get bought out there's always that kind of sales pitch oh it's
[15:24] going to be great for all of you and they came in and they said oh it's going to be great for all of you you can go and you go and work in any of our offices anywhere in the world now. And
[15:33] so my husband was like, so he comes home to me. He comes home to me and he was like, "Oh, they said this." And I was like, "Right, let's go.
[15:39] Let's go." Cuz by then I'd lived in England for two winters. So until I taught, I'd never spent winter in England, right? Because I'd been traveling.
[15:47] Okay.
[15:48] So yeah, it was eight years of living in England.
[15:50] And then when you're a student, you don't notice the weather. Who cares what the weather's doing? But then when I was doing my research job, I was never there. And then I lived and taught in
[15:59] Essex for 2 years. And I remember coming home to my husband and being like, "What is this weather?" And he was like, "It's England in February." And I said to him,
[16:08] I said, "Is it always like this?" And he's like, "I think you've lived here for 8 years." And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no."
[16:15] And so, uh, and I said, "We're leaving." I said to her, I was like, "We're leaving. I I'm not living here anymore." And so we got out the list of countries
[16:23] that his new BIS company was based in had offices and I went to an international teachers job fair with my
[16:31] list and I was like okay these are the countries and I saw the school in Manila and I was like this is a good school this is a good school and so I got that
[16:39] job and he got a transfer to the Manila office of the company he worked for. Yeah.
[16:45] Interesting. So you went there both with jobs actually it's like a kind of safe move in somehow. Yes. How was it?
[16:53] How was the shock of arriving to Philippines? Like amazing. Amazing. I you know when you
[17:00] when you move to when you when you're an international teacher your first job in your first country overseas is like it's
[17:09] a big moment for most of us and it will always be the one that is closest to your heart for whatever reason and
[17:17] sometimes those reasons aren't good for us they were we were there for seven years it was some of the most joyous
[17:24] seven years of my life I would say I absolutely loved it I of the weather. 75% humidity, 35° all year. Yes, please.
[17:32] I know. Very good. humidity.
[17:34] Yes. Very good for the skin. Very good for the skin. Yes. Yeah. It was very sweaty. Very sweaty.
[17:41] Yeah. I had I had students who never went outside. They'd be like, I just don't go outside. My gosh.
[17:47] I know. So many I most people would walk to school teachers and then get changed before they taught cuz like you couldn't Yeah. You couldn't stay in the class.
[17:56] Yeah. get out of the shower and you're you need to shower again.
[18:01] You'd have the air con on just to dry the air, right? Not cuz you wanted it to be, but you had to have it on just to keep things dry all the time. We had
[18:08] like little desiccators in all of our wardrobes and that there was fur on everything. But it was it was amazing.
[18:15] It was a great place to live. It was one of those cities. It's one of those cities. Manila is a city that makes you feel alive. Like I it's like Athens is like that to me, right? There are some
[18:23] cities that when you're in there, they're 24 hours and you know they're 24 hours. Like even at 3:00 in the
[18:30] afternoon, you know that this city will still be buzzing at 3:00 in the morning.
[18:35] And Manila is like that, right? Because they have a lot of call centers. There's a lot of international business, a lot of international trade that goes through there. So, the city runs 24 hours a day.
[18:44] You can get pretty much anything you want any time of day or night. So, we were it was just the two of us. We didn't have any children. Um, we had a
[18:52] lot of money. The pay was amazing for both of us. The school I worked at is truly one of the top I' I don't know
[18:59] people listening to this who are also international teachers can have something to say about I would say it's one of the top 10 at least schools in Asia, right?
[19:07] Okay.
[19:08] Possibly the world, but I don't know about that. I'm not going to claim that because I've not been to other parts. But I will say it's just a great school.
[19:16] Great atmosphere. very, you know, international schools, they take on the atmosphere of the country that they're in.
[19:22] They could be international or American or whatever, but there will always be a flavor of where they are, even if they don't want there to be, even if they
[19:30] don't realize it, right? And this school had that energy and that feeling of being alive that you get in Manila. And
[19:40] the community was like this. It was such a great community to be part of for seven years.
[19:44] Seven years. It's a long time. It's it's a really really long time like Yes. Yes. I get the point of Manila like thingy.
[19:53] I've never been there but it's it is this kind of stuff that you get. I mean I got it in Athens. I got it in other
[20:00] places also. But Athens has this life of like I discovered that actually one night that I went out with friends and I had dinner three times and one of the
[20:07] dinners was at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. in the morning and I was like what is happening here? And it's something that you don't have when you travel as a tourist. I I
[20:16] suppose in Philippines is a little bit the same. You don't really realize about this kind of stuff until you live in a place a little bit more based there. No,
[20:25] and and working and having a routine around it. Do you remember something that it was like culturally shocking in the sense of like okay this took a while
[20:34] to adapt about it or like or surprised you? Do you know I think it's very difficult for me because before going to
[20:42] the Philippines remember I'd worked in over 20 countries worked not just holidays but worked in over 20 countries
[20:51] and so I think when people go to the Philippines for example one of the things people do I think find shocking is things like poverty for example you've got these this immense wealth
[21:00] immense wealth next to extreme poverty and for me I think that probably should have been shocking but it wasn't because
[21:07] I'd just spent eight years researching exactly that and writing papers and books about it. Right? So I was like,
[21:14] well, this is so I think that's probably the aspect of Manila. I think for me what shocked me was a lot of people talk about it as not being a very attractive.
[21:23] People say like Athens, people do this for about Athens, don't they? They'll go, "I'm going to Santorini this summer. I'm not going to bother with Athens.
[21:29] I've heard it's not very nice." And you're like, "Good luck." Yeah. See you, my friend.
[21:33] Go on. Go on. Yeah. Yeah. go Santorini Mos and stay there if you want.
[21:38] Yeah. Exactly right. And so I feel like Manila has that same reputation. Oh, she's ugly. It's not worth visiting.
[21:45] There's nothing to see. I mean, Athens, people don't say that, but people say she's ugly. Don't stay. And I think Manila has that reputation. I didn't
[21:52] know anything about the Philippines much before we went. I prefer not to know about the countries I'm going to. I like the kind of moment.
[21:59] Sure.
[22:01] But I I did I do remember going to a very bougie mall and it was outside lots of gardens and this with a friend and we
[22:10] both stood there going can't believe we live here because it was so beautiful and green and lovely and peaceful and
[22:18] none of these things are things that people would necessarily associate with Manila if you hadn't lived there. Like those are not words people would normally use about Manila, right? Yeah.
[22:28] You also mentioned something in there like Philippines, Manila, seven years till the two of you not being parents yet.
[22:38] But I know that you relocated to Nairobi with a newborn. That means Yes. With a sevenweek old. Yes.
[22:45] Seven week old. Like what? Yeah. What? Okay.
[22:50] That must be the fastest relocation I interviewed. But for sure.
[22:54] Yes. He was seven weeks. He was born in Philippines.
[22:58] No, in Athens. He was like the perfectly timed teacher baby. He was born right at the start of the summer holidays.
[23:03] So, we had to leave the Philippines a bit early, but we wanted to have him in the Philippines and then go to Kenya, but we couldn't get a passport in time. Okay.
[23:11] The the bureaucracy of Greece overseas is problematic. Yeah, sure. It's problematic in Greece.
[23:18] Imagine. [laughter] Yes. Although, I have to be honest, passport, getting a passport in Greece is very easy. You get it in 24 hours.
[23:25] But getting a passport overseas, first passport, right?
[23:29] Getting a Greek passport overseas, like I can get one in 10 days. But getting a first passport overseas is hard for any
[23:37] country. I mean, it's impossible. You can't do it in We had two months. It's not possible. So, we went to Greece and
[23:43] we lived in an Airbnb and we had him uh not in the Airbnb. I hasten to add if anyone's listening. I did go to I did go
[23:51] to birthing center. I thought it'd be a bit weird for the Airbnb to have a baby.
[23:55] You know what I mean? People say to me like, "Why don't you have a home birth?" I'm like, "In the Airbnb?" No. Yeah.
[24:01] It didn't say anything in the rules of the state. [laughter] No parties. But no parties, no home birth, no having birth. Yeah.
[24:09] Right. So, I was like, "Oh, we better not do that." So, uh, so we had him in Athens and um, which was nice cuz my mom
[24:17] and dad was still living there. They were still around. And uh we yeah we packed up and we'd sent lots of stuff
[24:24] onto Kenya and we had suitcases with us with stuff we needed for the first few months cuz when you relocate obviously you can send your stuff in multiple
[24:32] different ways and so we were doing shipping at that time. Shipping was still a viable option. It is no longer a viable option but it was back then.
[24:40] Yeah. So you know we were very organized. My husband and I have these sort of weirdly organized people. He he loves spreadsheets and lists and that
[24:48] sort of thing. So it's all very Yeah. Good. Every every every relationship needs a person like that.
[24:56] Yeah. That means that you knew that you were moving to Nairobi to Kenya.
[25:01] Yeah. So international months of the pregnancy during the pregnancy how during timeline during so international schools if we
[25:10] think about like northern hemisphere right if we think about Alevel IB those types of schools SAT schools they or AP
[25:18] schools they all start their school year in around anywhere between end of July and September right and they run until
[25:26] June June July so if you're a teacher in those schools you're on twoear cycles normally contract cycles, but you have
[25:34] to resign usually before the Christmas of your final year. So you're basically even before you have a job. So all the
[25:42] teachers all over these international schools are all resigning at the same time or the jobs come out at the same time. It's like some weird sorting
[25:50] situation and at the end of it everybody has a new job. But you you take a real leap of faith, right? You're basically, and there's not many jobs that are like
[25:57] this, where you quit your job and you take a step into the void and you hope that the job you want will come in the school you want in the country you want.
[26:06] So, you've got three criteria. Yeah.
[26:09] Yeah. So, it's quite a big deal. So, we knew we were leaving Manila. We were like, seven years, that's enough. I had a bit of I had burnout. I was wor so
[26:17] hard now. I'm done. I'm going to have a baby. And I was looking for a job. I don't know what I was thinking that I was just going to go back to work in a
[26:25] new country with a seven-week old. I don't know what I was thinking. I was looking for a promotion as well and I almost got a couple of them and thank god I didn't cuz that would have been
[26:33] wildly terrible. But my husband got a job cuz he'd become a teacher by this point. He trained when we were in the Philippines to be a teacher. So he also
[26:41] teaches and he's a learning support teacher in special education. and he got a job in Kenya. And in fact, his boss
[26:49] was the first person we told that I was pregnant because his boss looked at me and he was like, "Why? Why are you not applying for a job?" He's like, "You're
[26:57] so qualified." And I've got a job. And I was like, "I'm not working." And I had and I was like, "I'm not working because
[27:04] I'm having a baby." So they they were they were expecting us to turn up with a baby. It's not like we just I do have a friend who did turn up
[27:12] to a school with a baby that they weren't expecting years ago. She was
[27:15] [laughter]
[27:16] she got to this school and she was like, "Oh, surprise. I'm pregnant." Uh, no, I did not. They knew I was coming with a baby or they knew we were coming and I was supposed to take one year off and
[27:25] then start working at that school, but I chose not to in the end. Yeah.
[27:27] So, you that's the moment that you never come back to teaching in schools. Okay. Yes.
[27:33] So, that's the shift like Nairobi it's arriving with a seven weeks old kid. Yeah.
[27:39] To a new country, to a new situation, of course, not working in the seven weeks of your baby kind of normal.
[27:48] Yeah. Yeah.
[27:50] How that was that transition because I suppose that you were used to in life a kind of thing with certain connections
[27:58] with friends with people. What is how did you deal with the isolation? Because it's a lot.
[28:03] It is a lot. And I think I I underestimated how difficult that would be. And also I had lived in Athens,
[28:10] London and Manila. These are three super busy, buzzy cities where you can be out
[28:17] doing stuff and no one questions you and it's really quite safe. I mean Manila people are like it's not it's really quite a safe as long as you're not a
[28:25] complete It's really quite a safe city. So Nairobi also is not an unsafe but where we were there was nothing to
[28:33] do. nothing like to go out and be in a place with a lot of people was really quite difficult. Luckily, I was part of the schools have very good communities.
[28:42] So, we were part of the school community and that was really good and we were just getting into our rhythm. But then my husband had a really bad accident.
[28:49] So, we stopped for a bit because he was in a cast for a few months and it was very difficult and he had some PTSD he
[28:57] had to deal with. So our world got smaller and then CO came and so our world got even smaller and we went back to Greece for CO. We were in Greece for
[29:06] 8 months which was fine but also the world was became very small. I mean it was literally me and this baby and my husband working on the computer all day.
[29:15] It was very very difficult like it was for so many people during co I think it would have been easier if we'd been with a community we'd already established
[29:24] like if we'd been in you know Manila had the longest lockdown right the Philippines had the longest lockdown of of co so part of me is glad I wasn't there for
[29:32] that but the other part of me is like yeah but I had a community that I'd spent seven years building in Kenya I had I didn't have one really right you
[29:40] don't build community when you're when you've got a six-month-old this is not it's not a realistic thing. So, I think I I paid the price mentally for that.
[29:49] And actually, I did end up with massive depression and had therapy, got an ADHD diagnosis, which is kind of a a link for that.
[29:58] Yeah.
[29:58] Yeah. And I I now take the tablets for ADHD, which helps with the depression or deps with the wild mood
[30:08] balancing swings. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I mean it was it was it was hard but we did six years so it was not all bad, right? I mean if it was that bad we'd have left much sooner.
[30:18] Yeah. Yeah. Of course it was a great place to have a small child. That's what it was. I mean like you know six-year-old like a
[30:25] three-year-old on safari and like nature his relationship with nature and his relationship with the planet and we're
[30:33] not like crusty hipp. We're just really not like we like comfort and you know we we eat meat and dairy and like we're not
[30:42] but his relationship so it's not like something that we've really emphasized.
[30:48] Yeah, we've definitely nurtured it because we're scientists and we believe in all the stuff that's happening scientifically to our planet.
[30:56] I'm not going to go into the political stuff. That's a whole other podcast. But uh but we do we do deeply believe in that and so we did nurture it and but it
[31:04] was so easy to nurture that like you can nurture a love of nature anywhere in the world but how easy to nurture it in
[31:11] Kenya you outdoor life 365 days a year you can be outside in the garden you know we had snakes in our garden and he
[31:19] he just he has no reaction to any of these like he's so like it's a snake whatever he used to flick them off the slide you know he'd be they'd be on his
[31:27] slide in the gardener he'd be like after the slide and they were harmless, but they're still snakes, right? Like I mean they're they're not listeners. I did not
[31:35] let my child touch dangerous snakes. But but it's just that comfort with being with nature which is amazing to me.
[31:44] Cool. I mean I just been to Bakistan and it's the first time that I run out from a dangerous snake in my life. It was Where did you see a danger? A viper.
[31:52] Yes. Yes, we have them. Yes. Yes. Where were you? First. Okay.
[31:59] Yeah. Did you Did you actually run? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Did someone film it?
[32:04] No, we didn't have time for that. But when I saw the face of the guy who was showing us the the petetroglyphs and the and the trial and everything and he was
[32:13] running the first I said, "Okay, now we need to run all of us." Like it was like Yeah. We used to have this. Yeah. Our gardeners used to hate the snakes. They
[32:20] they'd call me to get like to, you know, they'd be like, "Have me snake." I'd be like or like Zephy would go out and he'd
[32:28] be like snake. And the guards would be like, "Oh my god." Zephy would just be there with a stick sort of moving it along, you know, getting it away. So
[32:36] yeah, it's what it's just what you're used to, isn't it? But they weren't dangerous. I I wouldn't have done that if it had been a viper.
[32:43] You said six years. So seven years in Manila, six years in Nairobi. Yes.
[32:49] Nairobi clearly being a change of paradigm for you of style of life probably but also with hardcore times
[32:57] like for everyone with COVID but then you depression like your husband having a car accident everything like is that
[33:05] the turning point for saying I'm not going back to teaching in the traditional way I want to start doing
[33:12] coaching on my own because at the end you are now coaching on parenting abroad and on doing this Is this the turn
[33:20] moment of saying okay enough of that kind of like more routinary lifestyle or or what is the the decision in there?
[33:28] Yes, for me it was a moment of realizing that and I' I'd noticed this even as a teacher in Manila but when you're parenting overseas it's so hard.
[33:38] Parenting is hard and I'm not in you know a lot of people are like oh you know do you sit I never sit around and talk about how difficult it is. People don't come to me if they find it easy.
[33:47] So, we don't need to talk about the fact that it's difficult. We're we're all in agreement, right? And I mean, I don't find it difficult now, but obviously I
[33:54] did at that time because I had my own stuff going on. And that's really what appeals to me about the coaching, right?
[33:59] That it's it's about change and it's about moving things forward. And so, what I found in that moment and what I'd noticed in Manila was it is so hard to
[34:08] parent overseas. You have the regular difficulties of parenting and then you've got all of these other things
[34:16] that are happening around you. And that can be you're living somewhere that's peaceful one minute and the next minute it's not. You're living somewhere where
[34:24] you don't have access to the health care that you need. You're living miles away from elderly dying parents. You're most of us who live overseas in these jobs
[34:32] are highly ambitious, highly driven, highly intelligent, highly successful are used to that buzz. And when you have
[34:39] that buzz and and you have become a parent, it's very difficult to let go of the buzz and be that parent who can be grounded and calm and in the moment with
[34:48] their child, right? And not thinking about work all the time. So I'd noticed that over the years already and even
[34:55] when I worked in Essex, I'd noticed certain aspect of parenting was was the same. And when I worked in I don't know
[35:02] Kenya or when I'd worked in Kenya years ago like in 2000 or when I'd worked in Zambia or when I worked in Eratraa or
[35:10] when I worked in Cambodia like the challenges that people had raising children were the same. They just the
[35:17] context changes, right? M and I got a parent coach for myself because my therapy was great but it
[35:25] didn't move me forwards in the way that I wanted to and I'm not a very patient person quite often with change you know I want to do something I make it happen
[35:34] I do it we go that's it and so that's where I started to seek coaching and then my husband said to me one night he's like a you spend so long in like
[35:41] parent groups with moms and I trained as a doula and she's he's like why don't you why don't you do this like this this
[35:49] is what you've been doing for so many years. Even as a teacher, this was a lot of what I did cuz I was a pastoral leader. I was a head of year or whatever
[35:57] you want to call it, a grade level leader, whatever people call it in their schools. And my job, a lot of it was to work with parents to ease people, you
[36:05] know, through transitions, through difficult times, through times of stress. So that's where I started to get into parent coaching. Yeah.
[36:14] Interesting. And then I did Yeah. I did a course for 18 months and Yeah. Yeah.
[36:19] So you're kind of certified to become a coach. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm big on bits of paper.
[36:26] I like pieces of paper that say that I can do something. Diplomas and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a thing I have.
[36:33] No. I mean it's curious because at the end you I mean you have now like when you moved to Nairobi the experience from your own one but you also work with
[36:42] parents before that. So you have the experience of seeing the parents from the outside know a little bit but you also have the ex I mean I'm
[36:50] imagining that mainly the part of your job it's talking to the parents and having like sessions with the parents
[36:57] itself but you also know the children part of it like yes how is the complexity also looking for
[37:05] the kid like the emotional social identity thing of it coming do you know one of the reasons I
[37:12] didn't go back to teaching is because children talk to me like I was one of those trusted adults in a school, right? And I used to come home
[37:21] carrying the weight of some of the things that these children share and I would share them back to the people who needed to know that information because
[37:28] it's not my I wasn't a counselor or anything. And also it was very difficult for me to just compartmentalize and shut
[37:35] that out. So one of the reasons I don't work with children now is that the other reason is I think we put way too much
[37:43] pressure on children to make things better for themselves. Like they literally are missing a third of their
[37:49] brain. I cannot it it makes astounds me how many people say things like my 2-year-old needs to learn to share and
[37:57] get over it or whatever. And I'm like I can't even like they're too I don't like you know and I feel like schools do that too, right? Oh, you're not doing well in class. You should do all of this stuff.
[38:07] And the parents also struggling and nobody's supporting the parents. And so what happens is then more and more gets put on children, right? More and more
[38:16] stuff. Study harder, work harder, get sorted, be more sensible, don't be a douchebag, you know, be kind, be gentle,
[38:24] be ambitious, be driven. Like, and so I wanted to take some of that pressure off children. I wanted to to take that pressure of behave well. I wanted to
[38:32] take that off them and go back to parents and say, "Hey, if we do this as parents, if you do this as a parent, you're going to see so much change in
[38:42] your child's behavior, way more than they will ever be able to do on their own without you doing this, right?" Yeah.
[38:50] Yeah.
[38:51] Makes sense. This leads probably to one of the last questions on this section, looking at the time, but who cares? It's
[38:59] a nice conversation. this relationship also know because what you're saying it's very true like a lot of thing of this pressure ends in the children
[39:06] nowadays there is also this kind of like pointing at each other between the teachers and the parents so I was
[39:12] wondering like you do the parenting part have you considered working with teachers also at some point I do I do the teacher part too I do
[39:20] actually I was just writing about it on LinkedIn today I do I do workshops with teachers on building trustful relationships with parents and that
[39:29] whole holistic IC school piece. So I'll go into a school, I'll work with the teachers, admin, and the parents to
[39:35] build a a sort of like a relational practice within the school that is aligned and that has everybody using the
[39:44] same language, having the same understanding of children, um the same understanding of relationships. Because it's a really interesting thing is until
[39:51] I became a coach, I didn't realize that not everybody thinks the way that I think about relationships. Empathy, for
[39:59] example, is a thing that most people really have to work hard at. It's not a natural thing. I didn't I mean, I'm one of those people who is deeply empathetic
[40:07] to a fault almost. And I you just don't realize you you think that everybody sees things the way that you see them
[40:14] when you have this special skill of seeing people for who they really are.
[40:18] And my husband keeps saying to me, he's like, most people don't see the world like you do. Most people don't see things the way that you see them. And part of that's ADHD and this sort of,
[40:26] you know, it's just and part of it is just a personality thing, right? And that never ceases to amaze me. I can say
[40:33] the most what I think is the most basic simple thing to even an educator or a parent or whoever and they'll go, "Wow,
[40:41] I'd never thought of that." And I think this is what we forget. We assume that everybody cuz we used to be so homogeneous as communities, didn't we?
[40:50] everybody like where you grew up 50 years ago everybody would have been from there where I grew up you know 50 years ago everybody was from there we didn't
[40:58] have a huge massive population movements and so it was easy to assume that that's the same now that we all have the same
[41:05] awareness and culture and and knowledge about people and we really don't like people are all over the place when it
[41:13] comes to relationships and understanding each other. Yeah, definitely. I mean it's it's it's good like the fact of like we as do the assumptions for the
[41:22] others based on our own backgrounds. No, no, no. Yeah.
[41:27] Checking a little bit the time. I wanted to introduce the fast reply questions in the best way that I have because we have
[41:34] one country left and I did it like this on purpose. Yeah.
[41:39] You are currently living in Usbekistan in Tashkant.
[41:42] You spent six years in Kenya. The first question before I jump to the to the fast reply questions, it's why Tashkant,
[41:49] how did you end in Usbekistan? What happened there? So I I think I'm a bit of a manifestor.
[41:55] When we wanted to leave England, I was like, we're going to do this and we found the Philippines. When we wanted to leave Philippines, I was like, we're going to Kenya or Tanzania. And in fact,
[42:04] my husband got an offer from both and we chose Kenya. And then July before, not July last year, July the year before.
[42:14] Yes. I was looking online in a Facebook group I'm in because I'm very into architecture and design and I was looking in a Facebook group and somebody
[42:22] had posted photographs of the Tashkent Metro and I don't know if you saw it when you were here. Yeah. Yeah, of course.
[42:28] But I mean like I do photography and it's a paradise.
[42:31] There you go. I' I'd never seen them before, right? I'd heard of like the Moscow and St. But I'd never seen Yeah.
[42:38] I'd never seen Natash once. Right. So I saw these photos and I forwarded them to Jake, my husband. I was like, "Hey Jake, let's go and live here. Look at these
[42:46] metro stations and he replied and he's like, "Yeah, I think Tashken's on my list of countries because there's a
[42:53] really good school there." Okay.
[42:55] In fact, there's a few schools here, but the school that he wanted particularly and I was like, "Okay, well, let's put it on the list." And then a job came up
[43:02] for him like 3 months later. He applied for it and he got it and so here we are all because of those metros. That's it.
[43:10] I mean beautiful to be honest like just came back so for the audience to know like last Friday from from there. So an
[43:17] amazing country. I really really enjoyed and Tashkin as a city it's very cool like lot of green a lot of like uh I mean it's hot
[43:26] but and there is a lot of like traffic and the streets are huge and whatever but it feels safe. It's clean. the metro
[43:33] stations are like it works that's a public transport it works if you don't you grab a taxi and it work like whatever the buses are working like
[43:41] fascinating so without biasing even even more because now it's whatever I want to know your perspective onistan so I will
[43:49] ask you these 12 questions that I ask everyone a little bit in a fast reply approach so okay yeah like okay
[43:57] one minute for each let's say like this the first question that I have it's cultural adjustment what is the biggest culture shock that you had when you arrived to was biggest.
[44:06] I think just being back in a busy city cuz like Nairobi wasn't at all.
[44:11] But then also like you say things like the green and stuff to me was crazy. I did not expect it to be like that. Yeah.
[44:18] Not everything was metro stations. Makes sense.
[44:20] No, no, no. It turns out there's more than metro stations here. Who knew?
[44:24] The second one that I have it's social life. How has been to make new connections, friends, meet people?
[44:31] So easy. So easy. I have had a better social life in the 10 months I've been here than the six years I had in Kenya. Wow. Okay.
[44:39] Yeah. Yeah. I find I think also it reminds me a lot of back home. There's a lot about this that reminds me of Greece. There's a lot about Usuzbcks,
[44:47] right? And not just Usbeks, but like Russian communities here and the Tatar communities and the Kazak and the Tajik communities. Like there's a lot about it
[44:55] that reminds me of Greece. And so what I love is my favorite thing is not like I'm not into BFFs necessarily in every
[45:03] country. My favorite thing is just is there somebody that I can just chat to in the cafe and say hi. Can I just meet someone randomly in the supermarket and
[45:12] just have a random conversation with them? But also our school here is amazing. The community is like a it's
[45:19] like family. I have never been part of it was very similar to Manila. It's the same vibe. Such a tight community. Yeah.
[45:28] Cool. Next one. It's language. You touch about ethnicities and meaning you're living in Tashkan, meaning you don't need to touch Tajik but Russian.
[45:39] Yeah. So, I came thinking that I was going to do a good thing and learn, right? And I and I tried and I was like,
[45:47] "Oh my god, this means I just could not." because as it's a Turk language with some Persian whereas Russian is
[45:56] just another Indo-Uropean language with a funny alphabet like mine. So I've started Russian lessons and Russian I
[46:02] find very easy but in Tashken you can get by with English it's always easy and everybody uses Google translate on their
[46:11] phone everybody even the like babushkas and the dushkas are using Google translate outside of Tashken it's a little bit harder but we've been all
[46:18] overan we went to the Arrol Sea like two weeks ago if you can really get by more and more with English but I'm I'm glad
[46:27] to be learning a language outside of English cuz I'm a bit tired of being the person who only speaks English. Yeah.
[46:33] What about the cost of living? Like, is it cheap or I think it's cheap. Nairobi is one of the most expensive cities I've ever
[46:40] lived in in my life. Like, it blows my mind. I would say here you could live very cheaply if you want to. We choose
[46:48] to live pretty well. I think probably we there's a family of three, right? We probably spend anywhere between $2 and
[46:55] $3,000 a month. But like we're living it up. We have a great lifestyle here. Yeah. Yeah.
[47:00] What about finding apartments? How do you find what is the best way of finding a home?
[47:05] So, normally when I do podcasts and and online coaching sessions, there's a beautiful wall of pictures behind me.
[47:12] Right now, there is just what's left of it. Uhhuh.
[47:15] Because we're moving of course in like two days. And do you know there's a lot of really good choice here
[47:22] if you don't have a pet. We have a small dog. She's tiny. She's like handbag sized and culturally people just don't want
[47:30] dogs in apartments and we don't want a house.
[47:34] Um, so it's been very very difficult. I will say that finding an apartment with a dog is very hard. Yeah, she's lovely but pain in the bum as well.
[47:45] Interesting.
[47:46] Otherwise, it's fine. Ox is the place to get started but half those adverts are fake so find a good agent. Okay. Don't get scammed.
[47:54] No, no. Don't waste your time.
[47:57] The work life I mean for yourself you were coaching so it's not directly like that but maybe from your husband how is like the life balance between working
[48:06] and great absolutely brilliant. Yeah. The best I would say the best he's ever had. The best we've ever had as a family.
[48:12] Yeah. Yeah. It's people here they work but they there is again that that it's that sort of central Asian southern
[48:18] Europe kind of feeling of like I'm gonna go to work going to do my job. I'm going to do really really well and then I'm going to go home at the end of the day
[48:26] and be with my family and my friends and live my life. Yeah.
[48:29] Cool. We talk about the metro but getting around. What is the best way of moving through Tashkan?
[48:35] Yandex. Super cheap. Hey, did you use them? They're so cheap. It's ridiculous.
[48:39] I don't even understand how they make any money. It's wild to me. It's cuz the fuel is so affordable here but compared to most places, right?
[48:46] 080 per liter.
[48:48] Great. I know. Obviously, the metro is really good. It doesn't have stations everywhere, so you've got to be lucky, I think, depending on where you are. And
[48:57] I've never tried the buses, which sounds terrible, but I'm my goal is to get on a bus after we have our long summer break coming up now. So, when we come back in
[49:05] the new school year, I'm doing I'm going to do buses. This is my I've done metros, Yandex. I'm going to do the buses because everybody uses them and
[49:14] they seem frequent and incredibly affordable. Yeah.
[49:17] Nice. The next one that I have, it's healthcare. I don't know if you had contact with it or not. How is it?
[49:24] Yes. So for us, we have a clinic that is next to the school. It's a clinic funded
[49:31] by a lot of the embassies of Tash Kent for foreigners who need access to health care for basically for professionals who
[49:40] speak English. That's the challenging part in healthcare. Most doctors speak English, but it's it's difficult [snorts] to talk about health in in in
[49:48] another language. Like I would even struggle to do it in Greek these days to be honest. So we have that clinic but I've been to a couple of state clinics
[49:55] and they were incredible doctors and it's again I think it's a little bit like hope. The the doctors are fantastic. The facilities they are what
[50:04] they are. Some of them are great and some of them aren't. But the doctors themselves I've been very lucky and I have had like minor medical procedures
[50:12] since we've been here. I had some skin cancer. Not not a big deal. Not not the not the bad kind. Removed and it was done super professionally, really well.
[50:21] I got a referral from a public clinic doctor to a private clinic to do it. So yeah, it's it's good. I you know, I'm
[50:29] going to say what I say about every country. I don't care even if you're in Europe, have private health insurance.
[50:35] I'm sorry. Just outside of the European Union where you'll get we all get free healthcare no matter where we are. have a private health insurance if you're
[50:43] going to live overseas. It's just compared to the cost. Yeah.
[50:47] Yeah. It just makes life easier. Things are quicker, right? It's less. You can access healthcare that speaks your language, for example. Yeah.
[50:56] Now, the one that everyone hates bureaucracy and paperwork. Is it also good?
[51:02] Hey, look, if you don't speak Usuzbek or Russia is a nightmare for obvious reasons because everything is in Usuzbck and Russian. Yes,
[51:10] we don't do our own paperwork. I'm not even going to pretend we do. School does. And also, you know, there's complex paperwork here in Isbekistan, like the registration, which you
[51:18] probably I don't know if you realized you were doing it, but somebody was doing it for you every night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[51:25] So, things things like that make it feel, I think, intimidating to people.
[51:29] People are like, "Oh my god, that sounds" It's really not. It's really simple, but the first few times you do it, it can be tricky. And in fact, uh,
[51:37] you know, once you live here, your landlord has to do it for you anyway, right? So, it takes it out of your hands. Yeah. The rest of it, it's okay. It's okay.
[51:46] Cool. Uh, the next one that I have, it's the best and the worst part of living in.
[51:51] Okay. the best I would say that that sort of the safety and the the culture of of together like just life I guess
[52:02] and the the the art and architecture and art and stuff like I it's beautiful to know absolutely beautiful the worst look
[52:10] I mean the driving it's variable it's variable but then it's not so bad cuz like we lived in Nairobi and like Manila so it's and I grew up in Athens so like
[52:19] whatever you're from Athens there is Exactly. I mean, yes. I know people say to me, they're like, "Oh, the driving is terrible here." And I'm like, "Mate, I
[52:27] grew up in Athens. I learned to drive in central London and I've lived in Manila and Nairobi. The driving here is, do you know, I would say the only thing I would
[52:35] say is it's fast because the roads are so good." That is my only thing I would say that that because the roads are so good and they're wildly good, aren't they? Like you're going through the
[52:43] middle of the city and there's three lanes in every direction. It's incredible. But it does mean over everywhere else.
[52:49] Yes. Everyone's watching. the camera 2 minutes like it's crazy.
[52:54] Yes. Yes. And I guess a lot of people find that it doesn't bother me. I'm like whatever the challenge I don't know. Do you know I haven't found one. I was
[53:02] thinking this today. I was in advance of this. I was like is there anything that I'm finding hard and I I don't think there is.
[53:09] Yeah.
[53:10] Nice. The last one that I have for this it's the top tip. If somebody is planning to move to Tashkan or
[53:17] tobakistan in general, what would be your biggest recommendation?
[53:21] I would say don't do too much research because the best thing about it is the surprise I think and also I would
[53:29] strongly recommend you have a job before you come here. Okay.
[53:32] Because it doesn't sound like much fun when I hear people who don't. Yeah. So job market difficult one I suppose.
[53:38] You know as a foreigner the language is an issue. Yeah. Of course. Yeah.
[53:42] Cool. Thanks a lot an like we summarize like this a little bit on the past but yeah that's that's nice before we wrap
[53:50] up the episode and we close it how can people get in contact with what you do where websites uh but also can you
[53:58] explain a little bit more on what you are working which programs are you doing like is anything on the go right now yes yes there's some good stuff on the
[54:06] go right now so you can find me on Instagram Anthony Patricios or on my website is anthropypricchios.com. If
[54:14] you're a school, we work in schools. You can find me on LinkedIn as well. Right now, I'm running a 10day intensive
[54:22] coaching program and we're on day three, but it's all recorded. It's it's sort of like a it's live, but it's also voice notes so you can listen to them anytime.
[54:29] And it's for parents who are really worried about the upcoming long holidays. So, maybe they're worried about a journey home, maybe they're
[54:37] worried about spending a lot of time with extended family because that's very different for us overseas. Maybe they've got a child who really struggles with a lack of structure during the holidays.
[54:45] Maybe they feel pressured to be this all singing, all dancing happy parent for eight weeks and that's that's a long time to be happy for. So any of
[54:54] that sort of stuff we're tackling in 10 days to holiday joy. So if people want to do that, it's day three, but it's not too late. Come in, you listen to what
[55:03] I've already recorded in there, and then it's very easy to catch up. You're not missed anything. It's all in there. And then I also do a lot of one-to-one
[55:10] coaching for people who want more specific support. And then there's a few other different programs. Things like parents who struggle with their temper,
[55:18] don't have patience, want to stop shouting, that sort of stuff. So there's lots of different things depending on your need. But yeah, 10 days is the thing that I'm doing.
[55:26] Yeah.
[55:27] Perfect. So for anyone interested, parents, listeners who are out there, the links are always in the description
[55:34] of the episode as always. and it has been a great pleasure. Har. Yes.
[55:42] Thanks for joining. Um, thank you. It has been an incredible conversation.
[55:46] For the listeners, as always, if you enjoyed this episode, give some love to to the podcast. Subscribe, you know, all the things. As always, YouTube and all
[55:53] the platforms, but also give some love to Anthia and her social medias and the websites and go check out her things. It
[56:01] has been a great pleasure. Until the next time, keep exploring, stay curious, and see you in the next episode of Almost Local.
[56:12] [music]
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