So when the UK sleeps, we know you other MNers are out there part II

[tadjennyp]

I was looking for thumbwitch's recipe for that cake and found the old thread has disappeared so Linzer and I thought we'd resurrect it!

Not at all. We are in Colombia!

Sooo - Colombia hey - how much can you tell us about why you are there? Is it job-related or are you permanent there? Do you ever have problems with drug barons? one of my other MN "regulars" is in Mexico and her area is currently in the middle of drug gang warfare - not nice!

And meant to say - of course you can join the thread - it's for everyone overseas or who just happens to be up late; or in Stranded's case, was overseas but is now back in the UK.

Nothing sinister I promise. My DH is a consultant and is doing a spot of, well, consulting out here. We've been here for a year and will be here for another year. We dont have any problems here, but I do think it is best to keep yourself to yourself especially in the city we live. It can get a little dangerous, you just have to be careful. There is a lot of money around the area we live and its not always sensible to ask where it all comes from.

Anyway, thanks for having me! Nice to meet you

Oooh hi Sarice, Colombia eh? I have friends who have spent time there and RAVE about it, especially Cartegena. If I didn't have small dd's it would be on my list of countries to visit (having just left the Caribbean I am not doing another trans-Atlantic flight for a while, if I can help it!).

Mind you, lots of people rave about St Lucia after going there on holiday. Living there was an entirely different matter (as I have to tell people three hundred times a day, every day).

Talking of drugs barons, it was starting to get really dodgy in St Lucia as I SWEAR the place was full of criminals - half of them with dc's at my dd's school. One of the guys we "knew" out there (my dh met him a few times, he showed us round a property) is in the news here at the moment.

oh stranded - have just read your link - an "honest error"?! That really takes the biscuit as a defence for blaming your half blind, non-licensed, non-mobile father for someone else's speeding offence! Bet it was his underage sprog or someone like that.

Should mention that I am in Australia - no drug ishoos where I am that I have noticed - am 1.5h north of Sydney in a "country town" that suits me quite well, with Aussie DH and DS (although DS was born in the UK, he gained citizenship by descent before we came out here so he has 2 passports; DH has 2 because his Dad was Irish, I'm the only single passport holder for now).

My dh always said he was a crook, he did! He reckons he's protecting a floozy or his son. Apparently he once cracked on to the girlfriend of a very good friend of ours. The friend was there at the time. This guy just thought he was so irristitable to women that it wouldn't matter if her boyfriend was sitting right next to her....Incidentally, just to add a bit of spice to the story, it was one of his properties that Amy Wino was staying at when she was in St Lucia. She was there when we were shown around - we saw her car (great excitement. Not).

Stranded
It is just one of the most beautiful places in the world without a doubt. the beautiful green mountains and Cartagena is just stunning. But as I said before you jsut have to be a little careful where you go and remember that it is a 3rd world country.

I love Australia, I spent 3 months there when I was young and single. My best friend has been there for 12 years now and wont even consider going back to the UK.

The little one will end up having 2 passports but to be honest the Colombian one wont be any use to anyone, anywhere!

wow, hi, sarice.

south america is prob the area of the world that i know least about & therefore feels v 'exotic' to me. the only things i know about it are when news items appear - so generally bad things, like drugs, the falklands war etc (old giffer here).

now i live in the US it seems less far away - but I'm within spitting distance of Canada, so it's still not 'local'

ONE day i will have th time, money & gumption to travel round the world, slooooowly, visiting every country that will let me in without shooting me.

Hello sarice! I'd love to visit Colombia one day but I bet it's on the list of countries DH isn't allowed near.

Stranded at that story!

Colombia sounds gorgeous - my first Spanish teacher was Colombian and she was a hoot! Lots of the people I learn Spanish with now (am in Oregon, USA) have travelled extensively round South America and I am v envious! Congrats on the pregnancy Sarice! I am due in about 4 weeks and am quite tired now.

Kickass World Market are now selling off holiday food at 75% off, that means quality street and roses etc!

Hi thumb!

Sorry, frakkin - hello to you to

(and hello to Jason Isaacs)

Thanks tadjennyp I feel like a whale at the moment but I know its only going to get worse. I would quite like to just have 4 weeks to go only because Im impatient and I dont like waiting. But on the practical side I dont want to rush this, need to wait until the little one is cooked!
gold you should give it a go, you never know until you try. It really is stunning.

We had a smooth (if long) journey back to Austria - caught the 7.30 am train from my parents' and were finally back home at 10.30 pm (my parents living miles from the nearest airport and a three-hour stopover in Düsseldorf didn't help). Now at my ILs so I still don't have a lot of time for MNing; I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal when school starts on Monday!

Hi Sarice. I've never been to South America but Colombia sounds amazing. In theory, DD1 could have three passports but her US one has expired and we won't bother getting her a new one unless/until we go back to the USA and we haven't bothered with Austrian passports for the DC either. I have the feeling it would be far cheaper and less hassle if they had Austrian passports rather than British ones, but I just like the idea of them having UK passports!

Glad you got home safely and had a lovely Christmas holiday. Will dd1 have to file a US tax return when she reaches 18? Have had busy morning so dcs are watching Miss Spider's Sunny Patch while I sit down MN.

Ok, just crying at Miss Spider's Sunny Patch. Either I am exhausted or my pregnancy hormones are going haywire.

Would love to be able to comment on Miss Spiders Sunny Patch, sounds interesting.

I have to say my hormones have been all over the place today. I have been a wreck and really really annoying myself for being so irrational and pathetic! Stupid isnt it.

Poor DH has really caught it today too. Bless him

tad i heart you - hello to jason isaacs indeedy.

is that something lots of people are doing on mn today? or you just decided it was time.

i soooooo love that show, if only my rants were half as amusing when i get annoyed.

kickass. No as I was saying hello to people it just kind of came out. Listening to the podcast in the bath is my Friday night pleasure while dh plays on the computer. Did you see the photo of the guy with the 'hello to Jason Isaacs' poster at the Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rally in DC? I think I've had a crush on Simon Mayo for the last 25 years, but Kermode is just fantastic!

Um. Hello. Have skimmed through & would like to join in! Living in South Island of New Zealand (at the top end), have spent all day in bed with rotten cold (leaving the tv DH to look after the boys) and iPhone. Very homesick at descriptions of cold Christmases, it isn't the same in summer!

hi techno, hope you start to feel better.

really, christmas should be hot - at least i'm assuming it was for the first one. however, i love that we have snowy weather here (northern US)

tad didn't see that picture. not sure i'd take it as far as during a wedding - you could try doing it whilst giving birth, then email in - they may think you're a bit weird though.

Hi kickass - sure I will do soon, just hate having a cold. Can't even grace it with the name "flu" because it isn't.

What I found so strange with a hot christmas was that shops, nurseries etc were all spraying fake snow in the windows or using glittery/snowy themes for decorations. It can never have been cold here for Christmas!

what i really hate about having a cold is that on the 'actually dangerous' scale it's about 0/10, whereas on the 'feeling-crap-ometer' it can go all the way to 11.

there have been times i've had far more serious things (like bronchitis, or flu & chest infection together) but actually felt better than a truly horrid cold.

I know what you mean, kickass, that head-full-of-snot-and-wool feeling just makes you completely unable to even think straight, let alone do anything.

Hi Technokitten! I don't know if it ever gets cold in NZ at Christmas time or not - but I do know we had snow in Australia the week prior to Christmas, and that apparently it's not that unusual ! Only certain areas - so we didn't see any of it - but still!

The bit I really miss is the street decorations and the Christmas trees above shop fronts - they just don't do that here in Oz. Plus it doesn't get dark early enough to appreciate it - nothing like coming home from work and it's already dark but there are Christmas lights everywhere!

Thankfully over the course of the day (plus paracetamol / ibuprofen) (and a glass of sauv!) the snotty-stuffed-crapness feeling has gone, leaving me with a hacking cough which is more than copable with. Maybe it's just the sauv that makes it easier :) one thing I do like about living in one of the wine regions of NZ.

hi Thumbwitch! Not sure about cold - it's been in the high 20s for the last few days and generally hot and muggy. Good beach weather, though. We did get the tail end of a storm recently so we had 160kph winds swirling around with grey skies and hammering rain... definitely a reminder of English winters!

Shops don't seem to do decorations here - there are a lot of houses that go the whole US / covered in lights thing (together with sound displays, they turn it into a complete performance) but you can't really go and look at them until 10pm when it starts getting dark enough. We did take the DC on a tour of the lit-up houses one evening - DS2 (he's 3) fell asleep before we'd got to the bottom of the road but DS1 at the ripe age of 4 loved it.

Also felt strange putting the tree up - I think we only turned the lights on a few times. Normally we're in bed before 10 so it never really got dark enough to see them.

Hi techno and welcome to the madhouse. I would love to have long light evenings! It's dark by 8 here and it's midsummer....despite the fact it's raining at the moment and therefore scuppering my plans to go and laze in the outdoor pool at the gym. I feel less heffalumpish then.

I think summer colds are the worst kind to have. I always feel so much worse with them. And colds definitely beat most other illnesses of the feeling crappy scale.

We seem to be spacing the babies on this thread every other month! Can't believe you're only 4 weeks to go tad - it's exciting!

Glad you're back safe linzer. Do you fly from Bham or go to Cardiff?