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?

So, signing in from Colorado where the temp is finally under 90 degrees and it's rained - yeah. (Sorry CF). Driving here is pretty reasonable in Boulder, they tend to be laid back drivers. The turn right on red is awesome as are the Stop signs. Ban roundabouts is my opinion. What makes me laugh here because they are so laid back it's like the proverbial "no after you, no after you at stop signs". Me being who I am think - hesitate and be damned . So off I scoot. Boys are soooooo fedup of the long vacation they even asked to go BACK to school. One week and counting. Yeah. Supplies, shoes and clothes bought - we're ready to rock. I'm planning my vacation in November. So ladies what should it be - Florida or South Dakota/Wyoming????

i second dakota - one of the places I have not been but really want to go. Florida was okay for me but I went more to Tampa Bay St Petersburg area rather than Miami or Orlando areas.

Right turn on red is the single greatest threat to my survival. I speak as a former heavy smoker, too.

Here, the "when there are no pedestrians on the crossing" bit of the rule appears to have dropped off the end, and people just go sailing through as if it is exactly the same as a green light. They also drive the wrong way down one-way streets and often drive on the pavements. I used to be quite expert at flicking cigarette ash through people's open windows as they ploughed through the crowd but unfortunately I no longer smoke. I did boot someone's tail light in recently when he nearly hit me and missed clipping DD in the pram by a whisker. In a nanosecond I thought "HEY! ooh look at that, I am wearing clogs with heavy wooden soles; BOOT". He screeched to a stop thinking he had hit someone and I told him to f*k his mother's smelly c*t (this is a bog-standard obscenity in China). I am not usually given to shouting foul obscenities at strangers but he did very nearly kill us both.

Very satisfying.

Now we have all the foreigners in one place, I need to ask a favour. I have a large collection of miniature metal souvenir buildings (you know the kind, those 3-inch tall Eiffel Towers, Empire State Buildings etc). If anyone living somewhere exotic sees one, could you please CAT me and I will paypal you to get me one?

ROFL at your post ninedragons. No wonder the Chinese are making Africa their next home, there are many similarities. Rules of the road? Who needs rules? To get from A to B, go the shortest possible way in the quickest possible time. And that includes lorries. And preferably with a live goat strapped to the top of the cab, for the folks back home of course.

Overtaking in Kenya needs to be done:
a) on a bend
b) via the pavement
c) right at the top of a hill
d) just when there is a matatus about to pull out on the opposite side of the road
e) when it is dark and your lights aren't working

Trying to overtake at any other time, is well, frankly quite dull.

Talking of roads, the road around Lake Naivasha where we spent the weekend is a disgrace to this nation. The fruit/veg/flower farming in this region is the second largest forex earner after tea and coffee, yet the road around the lake and all the farms is one of the worst in the country. It is a strange community made up of expats, shanty towns full of migrant workers, some retirees living in swiss chalet style houses, a golf and country club and some private houses, notably Joy Adamson's house and the Gin Palace of White Mischief fame. You can drive around the lake and see zebra, impala, waterbuck, giraffe, buffalo and hippo right there beside the road. And they wander up into the gardens of the houses. The house we stayed in was in the grounds of a farm, where the night watchman spent the whole night chasing off hippo and buff who kept trying to eat the cabbages, armed only with a long stick and his fire!

Will keep my eyes open for suitable mementoes ninedragons. Cali does ds have any Kenyan Shillings? Happy to send some over for you.

Emailing you now I have put some pics of the glass place on my profile. I'm not sure they will come out too well...

Has it arrived yet?

Paris is crazy parking and crazy driving - all sane people take public transport.

I find it so liberating and relaxing to hop on a metro and just read my way to where I want to go.

Ninedragons... I presume you have a little Eiffel Tower but if you haven't just give me a shout...!!!!!

THeMandM - love to the toilet pic - I am prone to take photos of strange toilets at various locations.

Road rules - dh thinks here in Qld the rule is always assume nothing is coming when you pull out from a side street, onto roundabout etc.

US mners - I was very shocked the first time I drove with someone in the US and they went through a redlight ( turning with care of course) I was too polite to say something but when she did it a second time i had to ask.

Here in Aus we have turn left anytime with care little slip lanes at lights often.

will keep an eye out for things when I go to Canberra for you Ninedragons.

Califrau - I have coins from all over the shop - picked up from various travels. More than happy to send some Aussie ones as well as whatever I have in the cupboard.

Califrau - have singapore coinage and $2 notes
50c singapore
tiny 5c singapore

have mexican ten peso notes as well as

n$5 mexican
$500 coin from mexico
$1 000 coin from mexico
A deutsche mark (2 marks)
canada dollar

handful of japanese coinage - not sure what each is - except for the one that has a 1 on it.

I am more than happy to send it and he can work out what each is or I can work out what each is and then send it with the info.

can give him some 1 yen coins - feel like play money

10 yen coins, 50 yen, 4 5 yen coins.

I do have an Eiffel Tower, thanks Tea (actually I have two - a normal one, and I bought the weird blue one I mentioned before). But if you ever come across a Pompidou Centre I would love one. And thank you so much Eids - I have a Telstra Tower from Canberra (it was actually a wedding present - DH didn't care at all about gifts so anyone who asked what we wanted was told a souvenir building from wherever you are coming from) but I don't have a Parliament House or anything else.

Lets have a little schoolyard swap, Cali: I will trade you a Golden Gate Bridge (and if you ever happened to go to LA and find a Capitol Records Building I would love you forever) some time in the future for a handful of coins including ones from:
Hong Kong
China
Malaysia
Indonesia
The Netherlands (pre-euro)
Spain (pre-euro)
Thailand
Norway
Singapore
and New Zealand

I have been clearing out my desk drawers ahead of our move and am a bit mystified by this coin from New Zealand that has turned up - I have never been there in my life.

Are there any gaps in the Japanese collection? I have just unearthed a bag of yen.

ninedragons - you often get NZ coins in aus - some of them are the same size etc and they get used and circulated.

Cali will email you for an address to send coins off.

Is there anything that ds2 might like???

ninedragons - you often get NZ coins in aus - some of them are the same size etc and they get used and circulated.

Cali will email you for an address to send coins off.

Is there anything that ds2 might like???

Ah, of course. It is a 20 cent piece so it is the same size as an Australian one.

Happy to help CF.

Now that you mention it - I remember EMIL thread but I just know what my two are like - they love getting parcels and letters in the post.