I’m a serial expat. Originally British, I now live in Brussels, working in recruitment. Before that I lived in Malta, where I sold timeshare. Before that Italy and Malaysia. I’ve done a myriad of jobs from professional arse-wiper to street performer, through European civil servant and English-teacher. I have not yet been a lawyer, doctor or novelist.
This website is largely about me, but also includes notes on Belgium and Malta.
Kim Bah Lee was originally a graphic design company. Very quickly realising that I wasn’t a good graphic designer, it chronicled my trip through Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Since my return in early 2006, this blog has taken a turn for the worst. You can read the highlights of the trip (and the best bits of this website) in the archives.
Back in Brussels, I’ve bought an apartment, and sick of answering questions about the property buying process in this town, I’ve put together the Kim Bah Lee Guide to Buying Property in Belgium.
I’ve done a degree in Politics and International Relations, am working on a freelance journalism course and am doing a Masters in International Politics.
Kim Bah Lee doesn’t mean anything. It’s a bastardisation of one of my names. I rather wish I’d chosen something else now.
For blogging, I use the very good Doteasy.com for my web hosting. Doteasy was great for me when I was a beginner. It remains great because it’s simple. Blogger powers the content.
Please feel free to get in touch. I’m always interested in get-rich-quick schemes, shoplifting and gossip.
UPDATE 03/06/06
I got one of those ridiculous circular emails the other day from somebody who should know better … the type that ask you what your favourite colour/day of the week/boyband is …
But it reminded me of this email I had lurking from months ago that was doing the rounds of the blogging community. So here, for posterity, are my answers:
Four jobs you have had:
Auxiliary nurse - now called nursing assistants. All bums and bedbaths.
Street performer - I was Joe the juggler from the ages of about 14 to 18. On reflection, it was highest paid job I’ve ever done. I was topping 25 UK pounds an hour. But I’d only do an hour, then spend it all on cider.
Timeshare salesman - revealing an unnerving knack for separating folk from their money (and common sense.)
Actor - touring Italy in a car that smelled of old curtains, explaining the intricacies of Shakespearean English, largely through the medium of slapstick, to disinterested teenagers.
Four movies you could watch over and over:
Cabaret
The Man Who Would Be King
Twelve Angry Men
The Anniversary Party
Four places you’ve lived:
Kappara, Malta - “Sundown Court Leisure Resort” was my address for the best part of a good year.
Mantin, Malaysia - Rugby and French classes for another audience of disinterested and wealthy teenagers.
Brussels, Belgium - Home of the waffle, Jean-Claude Van Damme and, currently, me.
Claviere, Italy - A sleepy alpine village, with two restaurants, three bars and a hotel. Lots of snow and the hidden jewel of the Milky Way.
Four television shows you love to watch:
The West Wing - If I ever get elected to anything, the scriptwriter will be my policy advisor.
Arrested Development - American comedy proves that we Brits are wrong are wrong about the US propensity for irony.
University Challenge - For feeling intellectually inferior. Coupled with The Apprentice for the opposite effect.
Globetrekker - Non-patronising travel guides.
Four of the best books in the English language:
Impossible to name only four, but today’s four would be:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Line of Beauty
The Heart of the Matter
The Old Man and the Sea
Four places you’ve been on vacation holiday:
Tunis - great.
Phnom Penh - greater.
Bucharest - great but simultaneously pretty shit.
Bognor Regis - just plain shit.
Four of your favourite foods:
Deep-fried calamari
Mr. Kipling’s Bakewell tarts
Avocado
Beer
Four places you’d rather be right now:
Oman - never been, apparently awesome.
Capetown - ditto.
Piazza San Marco, Venice - with a caffe ristretto, glass of tepid tap-water, and ten euro “orchestra supplement”.
Bangkok - for the everything.
Four sites I visit daily:
Guardian Unlimited
BBC Radio 4
Random Acts of Reality
The bathroom
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