Can we make our own 'from our own correspondent'

[teafortwo]

I love love love this radio show...

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm

Can we please please please have a thread that has a vibe a bit like this?

We can have a bunch of parents who live all over the World in all kinds of countries (including Blighty), with all kinds of neighbours and themselves living in all kinds of situations (rural, city, suburbs and anything inbetween) explaining what is happening where they live. Day to day things (what is on sale at your local market, what you ate for lunch), portraits of figures in your community (e.g a lovely old village character), big news stories (e.g student riots), little news stories (a much loved dog has died that used to wander around the town centre), arguements in the cafe (sport, politics, religion), music and dance (e.g I notice all Parisian teenagers like to do this weird wiggling dance and they even have lessons for how to do it on national telly), observations on things that are different from where you come from (I don't know...e.g a New Yorker's take on living in the Lake District), interesting discussions on languages spoken... etc etc... I think it could be fun!!!

So tell me...

Am I making sense?

and..

What do you think? Shall we give it a go?

[wrinklytum]

T4T I would love a Mn FOOC (the acronym makes me chuckle,for starters) Seriously,I am stuck in England but loved travelling before the dcs and I truly love this programme on the radio and think it would make a really interesting thread.

So,give us the lowdown on your part of Paris then

[suedonim]

I live in Nigeria where things can be beyond weird!!

[QuintessentialShadows]

I live in North Norway, where things can be quite quaint.....

Quite Quaint from Quint!

[MmeLindt]

Great idea.

lol at Quite Quaint from Quint

[teafortwo]

I AM SO SO HAPPY that you have all responded this quickly!!!!

It is sillyoclock in France so I will pop back in tomorrow to tell you a few things about living in the Paris 'burbs!

But please - tell us more about England, Nigeria and North Norway... anything and everything - seriously - I am on the edge of my seat... this is really fab!

[teafortwo]

oh and also California and ... mmm... MmeLindt... where are you living? We want your input too please! If you would like to give it!

(sorry cross posting)

[MmeLindt]

We are in Germany at present but soon to be moving to Switzerland so I can let you all know how it is to move 2 German/English speaking DCs to French speaking Geneva

If DH's ueberboss gets his arse into gear and signs the contract so that we can move that is.

[claudiaschiffer]

oo oo me too me too

jumps up and down waving<

I love FOOC (teehee) and live in Adelaide SA where it is fairly quiet but can tell you all about Kargaroos in the garden - drought - local delicacies - ummmmmmmm . . .

rushes off to do some research

[BrownSuga]

I'm in Montreal. I'm a bit rubbish at expressing myself and no one on here seems to get my humour, but I could give it a shot.

And I'm a thread killer extraordinaire.

[UnderRated]

I'll report from the Midwest. Not that anything much happens here. I don't have kangaroos in my back garden or anything.

[sakurarose39]

I'll have a go - only news from Japan is that its hot and humid....ooh I know, we have our local fireworks display tonight. Over here, fireworks are a summer thing, which was weird at first, having been used to wrapping up warm and eating baked spuds for Bonfire Night in the UK. Here, you are in your swimsuit on the beach, eating watermelon!

[HumphreyPillow]

great idea for a thread.
will watch with interest.

[UnderRated]

Oh yes, summer fireworks does take some getting used to. And here, they set them off all day on July 4th, way before it gets dark. Very odd.

[Cies]

Can I join in?

This is your foreign correspondent signing in from Galicia, N.W Spain.

It's been a mixed bag weather wise recently, which has affected the local tourist economy. Added to that, one of the local council's garbage collection companies went on strike, allowing refuse to collect on beaches and in the street for a week. Not nice. Some places even had to take down their Blue Flag because the beach was full of rubbish.

We also have lots of fireworks here in the summer. During the day, you'll often be given the shock of your life when a banger goes off to signal the start or end of some festivity. They'll send up about 10 rockets that go 'BANG' and have a little puff of smoke. The pretty ones are saved till night time.

[suzywong]

don't you wish you'd stayed in that flat in Germany, CF?

I'll share Perth, Western Australia corespondent with Israel and Humpydumpy and Nottsmum.

It's a brisk and windy winter's day here, checking in at 22 degrees. I have just got back from the supermarket - god how I miss Waitrose - with ds2 who milked me for all the good behaviour bribes I was worth. He knows I have to take him with me as the West Australian govt does not allow shops to be open later than 6pm or Sundays, except for late night shopping til ....NINE PM!!!! ON Thursdays so as not to "erode family values". Tasmania had 24 hour shopping years ago, this really truly is Hicksville in many regards.

I am hoping that a mighty rainbow, a triple one yesterday, will span the cloudy, bright skies over ds1's school at 3pm again today as it has been all week so me and ds2 can skip together up the road and marvel at nature's paint box.

Got my English and Irish girlfriends over tonight to perve at one of my boyfriend's movies and drink wine and eat crisps and say FECK a lot. I love my European friends. They break the grinding vanilla monotony of the suburbs.

So that's this week's report. Just a couple of words of warning: DON"T get me started on tossers who drive pristine 4x4s with brahma bull bars on the front and the state of drving here generally. And we'll get along just fine.

who's next

[Shells]

Oooo me! Happy to share this with you other kiwis out there.

News from Wellington, New Zealand today. Never ending rain. Storms further north up the country. The news is full of it, which at least makes a change from the relentless coverage of the All Blacks activities (yawn).

DS1 lived in London til he was 5 and still has english accent a bit. But today he couldn't decide whether his friend Maggie, was called 'Mahgie' or 'Meggie'. Quite amusing.

[GordonTheGopher]

Boo hoo. Corresponding from Reading doesn't really have the same ring does it?

[QuintessentialShadows]

Finally semblance of summer in the Artic!

Sunny day with clear skies from across the artic circle, in fact you can use the ocean as a mirror, it is that calm. It is "ripening berry season" so we are headed up a nearby mountain after school to start stocking up on blueberries! If we are lucky we may find that the artic cloudberries are ripe for picking too! But I am not holding my hopes up, as it has been the coldest summer in a few decades! In fact, we may not even find ripe blueberries.

I will be back with further update on the wild berry situation in Northern Norway, in the next edition of Quite Quaint from Quint!

[teafortwo]

WOW - this is really great!!!

GordontheGopher - perhaps you can tell us about developments since the flood? That was international news!

Brownsuga... COME BACK and tell us more... you live in such a wonderful place how dare you tease us with this interesting news and then sneak away!!???!! I promise to write the last comment when people get bored of this thread. So you must write about where you live now!

And lastly thanks to all of you who have responded already or impressively written your first fantastic reports while the rest of us slept (snore, snore).

So I am going to go and think about what to write about in my first report and try to get my two year old out of the Nutella pot!!!

Keep in touch all you foocs!

[Hassled]

A great idea for a thread and fascinating to read - keep going, please

[hughjarssss]

Fantastic thread

Just posting to say that although I won't be able to post on this thread as I live in boring Berkshire, I will lurking and reading every post with intrest as I'm sure many UK MNers will be!

[teafortwo]

Hassled and hughjarass - What lovely things to say - but if suddenly something wonderfully interesting happens in Berkshire we will be calling on you for the insiders eye! {smile]