From Our Own Correspondent, 2013

[Salbertina]

If I may? Loads of us seem keen. Idea is to post a little about your daily life overseas or a particular trip, event etc of interest, modelled on the R4 programme.

Got the school run but shall think of something to post later.

Felt totally out of my cultural depth today as DS brought home letter from preschool informing me that he needs to wear Nigerian national dress on Friday for Independence Day party and I need to bring a Nigerian dish, a list of those to choose from was attached. Cue trip to market with truculent toddler, baby and nanny ( in cultural adviser capacity) to find appropriate outfit. Blond DCs drew a crowd and we weren't short of advice as to what to wear. DS1 is now proud owner of a very garish jolly shirt and shorts combo which he will no doubt flatly refuse to wear on Friday as they don't do a fireman Sam version. (super) Nanny has agreed to cook traditional jollof rice and fried plantain (and let me watch help) so I don't let the side down. Am quite looking forward to the masterclass!

Howzit, The Big? What do you miss about SA then to make me feel better ? Climate, people, landscapes, home pool, cheap childcare, biltong?!

Sorry, TheReal i meant
Night garden, good luck on Fri sounds quite an event, hope ds does himself (and Nigeria!) proud. .

I just got all excited because a job ad for House of Fraser popped up on my facebook.

Wow I thought, we're going to get a HoF here!

But then I read the comments and realised the job is in Abu Dhabi . But I find it interesting that they're recruiting from here.

So my kids are learning Japanese on top of Afrikaans (slightly more useful!) thanks to karate class..
Hanging out in a local cafe, MNing

studying. Without exception, all the staff are black, all the customers, white. Sigh, 19 years on, rainbow nation not so evident where i live.

My helper is trying to potty train my 13mo daughter. Apparently DD is super-advanced and can tell her when she needs the toilet. Three puddles on the floor point to the contrary but yaya is unbowed. She's psyched for another attempt tomorrow. Ah well, at least we have hard floors.

Loving this thread - as a UK dweller with previous expat form (Brussels until age 17; NZ and Australia at various times since then) and an urge to go forth and travel again! As other UK peeps have said, living vicariously through you expat girls for now though Sometimes it's not clear where you're posting from though, so it would be really helpful if you could say - thanks

Wow Salbertina! Japanese? This language thing always cracks me up. The kids pick sooooo much.
We had a short spell of Brazilian Portuguese doing capoeira in Singapore!
My kids can immediately identify pretty much ANY Asian language and get by with basic civilities better than us in most.
I think my son is well set to become a comedian "a la" Russell Peters!

So no one commenting on the west gate massacre in Nairobi?

Well that's good news for me thanksamillion. I live in AD and look forward to the opening!

Well, we lost the Americas Cup this morning here in New Zealand... Most of the country didn't bother going to school/work until it had finished - we left for school after it became clear what was going to happen and I never got there so quickly, and we were the first ones to the classroom despite only arriving at the bell! Perfectly acceptable here though, if NZ is competing in something it is alright for the country to become obsessed :) I do love the way here there is a very balanced sports news, if NZ is competing in it, it gets shown

My drives around are very interesting at the moment, as they have managed to shut off most of my means of driving anywhere with roadworks... Totally necessary as this is Christchurch post earthquake (DH is involved in the infrastructure rebuild and keeps telling me so... ) but it does make finding a route somewhere quite amusing, and there are some bizarre diversions around! Woe betide anyone who relies on a SatNav . I have taken to cycling to school as I often find it easier (3 kids, 1 bike = thighs of steel ) but that does also have it's own perils - very big potholes... I am now off on my bumpy ride for school pickup :)

Greetings from Nothern Alberta, Canada. I live in a city with a population of around 130,000. It is a 5 hour drive to the next city, with nothing much in between except for trees, water and wildlife.

Autumn is very short here. I do mean like 3 weeks. We go from blazing hot summers to freezing winter pretty quickly. We had snow on the ground for Halloween last year.

We've just come back from a two week trip to England. It was nice to see family, but I couldn't wait to get back. This is home now :)

Funny you saying about languages, my son was learning Irish in school six months ago, now he's learning Indonesian! He can switch to Japanese in Senior school though, rather him than me, but might be more useful than Irish or Indonesian!

Bear jam on the way to work, and it's snowing. 43 days until the ski hills open.

It's Friday afternoon here in HK, and I am recovering from one too many glasses of bubbles from last night. Not meaning to show off in any way, but we went to a big corporate bash last night, out in the wilds of Tseung Kwan O, and the entertainment was Kylie! Sparkly costumes and everything. She was fab and even played 'I should be so lucky' and 'Locomotion'.

Mango I had no idea about the different types of masking tape required, will investigate more when we have another typhoon, which one works the best?

Juniper we were in ChCh last year and loved it, what's the verdict on the cathedral? Does it have to come down?

Wow. House of Fraser in Abu?? It's at least ten degrees cooler than it was in August. Have only had a couple of humid days. Looking forward to perfect weather for the next five months or so.

You heard it here first veiled . These are the details of the ad I saw

Last minute Vacancy- Sales Executive
Company: "House Of Fraser"
Salary: 1226 $ ( Minimal Medical Insurance will be provided accommodation for the first 3 months).
Moldavian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and from Belarus are welcomed to apply.

prissy snowing already I thought we had it bad with cold winters (in Moldova) but at least it's still sunny at the moment.

What with Lakeland plastic AND HOF I see no reason ever to step foot in England again.

Kylie, masking tape and bear jam, all in the last few posts?!

Reporting from SA where it's Spring-time, apparently, despite the lashing rain and thermal-wearing hordes.

Possible SA link to Kenya situation was the main story yesterday. Don't know whether just an angle on the story or not.

Good evening from Sydney. Middle of school holidays here and 28 degrees today, so the DCs and I spent the afternoon at the beach. Then queued around the block for fish and chips to take back home with us. Not entirely sure why that is a culinary requirement for all after beach time here, but it does seem to be.

Laughed my head off at the Russ Abbott reference above after the recent election.

Lovely to read everyone's experiences. Will hope for something more Australian to happen and to report tomorrow.

I can't get my car off the drive. The street is rammed with mosque goers for Friday prayers.

Only an hour ahead of UK time here in southern Germany where I am sitting down with a cup of coffee just ahead of ds coming home from his second week at school.

Getting to grips with the variable daily start and finishing times of the German Grundschule has been interesting. Looking on the positive side, all those 11.20am finishes mean that I get to spend lots more time with my lovely ds :)

The recent election results here mean things are still not very settled politically. On the radio this morning they reported that when surveyed most Germans were for a grand coalition of the CDU and SPD; then they pondered whether the survey had actually asked any SPD members :o

It's a bit grey and cloudy outside, but not raining, unlike yesterday when the dogs and I got caught in an unexpected downpour and got soaked to the skin. There's nothing like the smell of Wet Dog in the morning to remind you that autumn is here :o :o

Bubble, the controversy continues with the Cathedral! The Anglican diocese (who owns it and the land) have decided to knock it down and build a modern replacement - they released 3 options earlier in the year; restoration, modernising the existing building, or replacing it with a modern interpretation and the public were allowed to vote on it. However, the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust are challenging them in court as they want the cathedral restored, a high court decision went in favour of the Anglican diocese, so now the GCBT have taken it to the Supreme court....

It is a really sensitive subject here as many see it as the heart of the city, but if you see it, it really has been destroyed, and is just being held up by massive scaffolding - they can't send anyone into it as it's too dangerous. There were people who were killed in the Feb earthquake that had been sent into a church, due for demolition, to remove an organ and the church collapsed on them, so no one is going to risk sending people in to the Cathedral. I love old buildings (I have a history and archaeology degree) but I think it should come down. There were buildings that collapsed onto people into the quake that were going to be demolished after the first September quake, but some heritage groups fought to delay this...

Don't be worried by all this for anyone visiting Christchurch though, anything that was deemed as even a slight risk of collapse after the Feb quake has been cordoned off and has (or will be) either pulled down or repaired. I would say Christchurch is probably the safest place in New Zealand to be if there is an earthquake! There are some fantastic things going on here and it is still a great place. The Gapfiller project is great and have built all kinds of things such as art installations on empty plots around the city - we were playing the crazy golf course that has been built around the city the other day (built out of cones etc - great fun!). At the moment we have a Cardboard Cathedral as a temporary replacement for the doomed one - it is built out of massive cardboard tubes, it was fascinating watching it being built! You can see it here
www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/8996908/Cardboard-cathedral-finally-unveiled

Hello, reporting in from holiday in Thailand but we live in Brisbane....we have taken a different holiday approach for these school hols and met up with family in Asia rather than us flying over to the UK or them coming to us for endless weeks in Oz....this method of holidaying has been an epiphany.....no one has to 'entertain', we all had to fly long or v long haul, kids getting to see GPs without it all getting too much, GPs can escape young kids into sanctity of their own rooms, brothers and husbands have beer mates....it has all worked out well, so relieved as the first 3 years since moving to oz have been hard work in terms of visits etc....anyone got any suggestions for other family get together type destinations then let me know!