The "X-Pat"

The world has truly become a global village with worldwide travel easier than it has ever been! There are numbers of foreigners living in almost every single country in the world.

While a few have chosen to change their allegiance to their adopted country, many have kept to their roots and support their country in it's endeavours. In sport we see a lot of support for touring teams and not everyone is a travelling spectator. In fact many are living in the home country but still support their country of origin.

Living in London, in Rugby there is plenty of support for the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks even though they have travelled hemispheres. Personally, second to actually being at the game, I watched the Rugby World Cup 2007 Final in England (on telly of course). The pride and emotion you get as you proudly parade in your team's colours is unexplainable. I am not the only 'X-Pat' to have experienced this, many others from other countries have experienced the same.

I recently received an email with a picture from a close friend now living in Australia who watched the Tri Nations game between Australia and South Africa in Brisbane. It was a game in which the Boks played terrible rugby and deservedly lost. Here's what he said...

'Hey buddy wow that game was sh1t! but entertaining at the least, i got soo much shit from the "wannabies" after that game haha but i just mentioned the ashes and they shut it.Otherwise working hard and staying out of trouble, I'm going to visit Sydney at the end of the month so should be good.cheers cheers'

Being an ex-pat has it's advantages and disadvantages, but as you can tell from the excitement in his email it has more advantages. To all the 'X-Pats' out there, have fun!