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?

Oh man, don't become beholden to your evil ILs for my silly little hobby.

They are quite an American thing so even quite obscure places often have them - I have seen all sorts of models from little shitsplat towns. If you could just bear me in mind when you are passing through odd towns and peek in their tourist information centres to see if they have a model of their town hall or library, I would be thrilled.

I think I still have your address from sending your DS banknotes - I will email you again if I cannot find it.

Cali
I see that you have all the Euros, how about Swiss Francs? We wont be moving till mid Sept but if you want any Swiss or French money, let me know. I must have a look in my penny jar, I seem to remember that I have some Liechtenstein coins.

9Dragons
Same to you, I don't know if they do little statues in Geneva, perhaps of the Jet d'eau?

Here in Germany, as you might imagine, Recht und Ordnung are the main virtues expected when driving a car. Law and Order, especially Order. The other side of the coin is the no limit on the autobahns which strikes fear into the hearts of foreigners when they first go on the motorway. Once you get used to it, it is fine.

You do need to develop a thick skin when overtaking on the motorway so that you are not scared off when a business man in a big Mercedes or BMW comes flying out of nowhere, then brakes at the very last possible moment. Then follows the moving from right to left in the lane while indicating left to show that they are very important and that you should move out of the way to let them past.

A couple of years ago a test driver for Mercedes did this and so scared a young mum that she panicked and drove off the road, resulting in her death and the death of her young child. He was estimated to have been doing 250km/h and fled from the scene of the accident. He was eventually caught, tried and convicted. One year probation.

There is often talk about limiting the speed limit (which is often done anyway with all the roadworks at the moment) but I don't know if that will ever happen. The Germans love their fast cars too much.

I have noticed that here in Germany the car you drive is much more important than in UK.

Today is a special day for the iDötzchen in the area of Germany where we live, Rheinland.

iDötzchen I have learned is a word that originates in this area and has been exported to other areas of Germany. A Dotz or Dötzchen means kleines Kind, small child. The i stands for the children who learn to write i as their first letter, Erstklässler or primary ones.

The children, DD included, walked first to church this morning with their Schulranzen very ugly rucksacks that weigh a ton. The one linked to is the one that DD has, and there were others this morning that were even uglier

The other important piece of kit for the iDötzchen is the Schultüte. This huge cone is filled with sweeties (and sometimes little presents) and is often almost as big as the child. After today, I can report that most of the time the parents have to carry the Schultüte as the DCs struggle with their Schulranzen.

The church service was nice, the children from P2 sang and the children were blessed by the priest (Mama, he drew a shape on my head) then we set off to the school. The whole village drew to a halt while the children crossed the road to the school, a winding excited snake of schoolchildren.

At the school the children sat in the gym with the rest of their class as the P4s put on a little show. The school was proud to show us that they were able to sing some songs in English (If you're happy and you know it and a song about Sleeping Beauty) that DD was the only one to understand.

The children then went into the classroom for just under an hour to find out where they were to sit and who they were sitting next to. They did a bit of "work" and got some "homework" so they were well chuffed with their first day at school.

It was a very celebratory day, with the mums, dads, grannies and granddads watching with pride as their DCs took their first tentative steps into the education system.

Der Ernst des Lebens, the serious side of life, begins tomorrow with the first normal school day.

When I manage to find my card reader, I will put photos of DD on my profile.

MmeLindt, you've just brought back memories for me: I lived in the Rheinland for a year when I was a student. I have several German friends here in France and they were all wondering where they could buy Schultüte when their DCs started school as they didn't want them to miss out!

Goodness, I go away for a few days to that foreign land called Yorkshire and come back to loads of messages!

No earthquakes required to make buildings in Nigeria fall down. They do that of their own accord, which is why living on the 8th floor may not suit those of a nervous disposition.

Drivers in N Ca seem to display the heights of civility and pleasantness. But maybe that's cos they're all stoned.

Re the blue Eiffel tower. We have a blue Empire State Building which dd thought a suitable present for us on her first (lone) trip to the US when she was 12. I'm inordinately fond of it.

I'm fed up of rain in the UK although dh says it's still raining in Nigeria. And I had to pay £17 for seven hours parking in Edinburgh last week. That makes a 10p parking tip in Lagos an absolutely a bargain!

Dd and I paid a rare visit to the exotic land of Ikea yesterday. It's a dangerous place; I fell down their stairs and now sport some fine bruising, which joins a sore shoulder and the remnants of a chest/throat infection in making me feel as old as the hills!

I agree ML, I think in GErmany the car you drive is more important than the home you have. So people will live maybe in a smallish flat (if they have to) yet drive a Mercedes or BMW or maybe an Audi.

Suedonim, I loved your posting about the PTA, it was hilarious and so colourful and real. I feel really really tempted to let rip like that just for the heck of it except no one would join in!

Message withdrawn

Mr Frau (what a name!) is true blue Ozzie surely?

why are they doing this whole santa thing in August though calif?

Cod/Califrau
I did try to steer DD towards the most tasteful Schulranzen that I could find, Prinzessin Lilifee. but my pleas fell on deaf ears and tastefree eyes.

She obviously takes after her father, it must be the German genes.

Lol at the bus that goes nowhere useful. At least we have found one thing that Califrau found better in Germany

hmmm not sure if she did you know ML. She mentioned the public transport only because the car traffic was so bad she had no choice. She didn't mention either that the buses run to schedule. That totally stupified me when I got here. I'd be waiting at the bus-stop and ask someone if they'd been waiting long and they'd look at me like I was nuts and point me towards the schedule, saying the next bus comes at 15:03 or something, which of course it did.

Love this thread so much.

We have had hail and thunder and lightening here in Westbury.

Summer.....where is it?

Anyone in Charente Maritime area of France?

We are off there on saturday so would like good news of sunshine and warm temperatures.
pretty please?

that we do - places do a christmas in July - usually in places like Stanthorpe etc where it gets very cold in winter - so they can have the log fire, huge roast dinner and not pass out from heat exhaustion.

But that area also calls their winter tourism time - Brass Monkey season

this region

transport is a bit hit and miss here. We have a bus service but it only runs on the hour - out here in the outer suburbs of brisbane. So if I was to catch the bus anywhere like to take dd1 to her sn school - we would either be an hour early or an hour late. Have caught the bus into the city with dd2 - she loves going on the bus or the train. We could catch three different buses which take us from our doorstep ( although there are designated stops you can hail the driver from wherever.) right to the city, museum, art gallery in town, major shopping centre etc.

As to her mainstream school - 5 minute walk with just me and dd2 but add a knackered dd1 into the equation and it can be up to 20 minutes after we sit for a couple of little rests and talk to every person we see on the way home. Next year her classroom will be up in the main area of the school so a definite 5 minute walk.

Trains are pretty good. We only have one car - lots of families have two. But he can walk to the train station - about 10 minutes walk and then catches the train to his work - when he worked in the city he had about a 2 minute walk to his office. Now he has about a 10 minute walk at the other end.

We are quite lucky though as our station is a 'major' station and so during peak hour we have plenty of trains and some are fast trains - only stopping at about 3 stations from the city to our stop. About a 20 - 30 minute train trip - otherwise all stations can make it a bit of a journey.

No trams here in Brisbane although there is regular talk of bringing them back in to the city area.

Mme L- that start of school sounds fabulous. We have all the parents turn up and stay for a little while and then dd1's teacher said to the children - time to say goodbye to mum and day and send them on their way!!! I held it together until we got outside and then I cried for my big grown up girl starting mainstream school.

Califrau - we are a family of dual citizens - although I have not claimed dd2 and dd3's passports yet. Dd1 has aussie citizenship by descent through me. I have british citizenship from my father. Dh was naturalised a couple of years ago now.

Stanthorpe looks lovely, and lol at Brass Monkey Season being a trademark

califrau - was dh born in Aus - cause all I had to send off in the UK was dd1's birth certificate and my birth certificate.

got your email and am onto it cali

Well dh has a bank holiday ( as you lot call it in the UK) public holiday here in BRisbane. It is his show holiday for the exhibition - link to it earlier on the thread. Today is called People's day - usually huge attendances.

DH and I are off to the movies ( cinema) to see a brit film called The Bank Job. Then out to lunch whilst grandma has the girls.

oh that is something I found very strange when I went to the UK - assigned seating in the cinema. I just looked very blankly when the woman selling me my ticket asked where I wanted to sit. In Aus - you just got your ticket and could sit wherever you liked.

THey have only recently brought that in over here and there were lots of complaints. However now you can buy tickets online - you can see the cinema and get your seats that way.

Greetings from Toronto correspondent

Driving back from Cottage Country on Sunday evening (yes, that's what they innocently call the countryside North of Toronto), we hit a bit of a driving snag. The entire Highway 401 (a 12-lane superhighway) had been shut down. As a point of reference: this is like shutting down the M25, M1 or suchlike. It was barricaded off by big trucks and police-blockades.

Well, the car-full of Sprats speculated ?what can the matter be?' DHs initial speculation was that it had been shut down to film an expensive car-chase. In Toronto, that wouldn't be surprising, as it regularly plays LA, NYC, Chicago, Shanghai, London or any other location more exciting (or more expensive) than Toronto.

We've not really got the hang of the local radio stations yet, other than being generally aware of how rubbish they are - think UK-local radio in the 80s with jingles and ad-breaks to addle the brain. Eventually between this aural detritus, we gather the road has been shut since Sunday morning, due to "the Explosions" and various train-lines are out of action too. Sadly, in today's money, that never sounds good. So the travellers in the Sprat-mobile sat rather tensely in the solid traffic-jam waiting for a more informative newsbreak or travel-on-the-ones.

And we waited. Eventually half an hour later, we learned that 'the explosions' emanated from a propane-plant in North Toronto, something nearly on the scale of Buncefield, which had caused all the road and station closures and mass-evacuation of a huge shopping mall. Luckily not many serious casualties, sadly one fire-fighter died and someone who had been working on the plant.

So a bit of drama in Toronto, a bit more than bicycle thieving.