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?

We are having loads of fun travelling about by rickshaw. School transport is brill too. A little metal wagon pulled by a bloke on a bike containing about 8 kids.
Not sure it is altogether wise however in view of traffic insanity.

People travel on top of buses doing about 70km an hour as is 50% cheaper.Conductor hangs out of open door and screams at all and sundry to move.

First post from your correspondent in the South of France:

Today, DD (3) and I went to Nice, for a leisurely stroll along the pedestrian street 'Zone Pietonne'. It was vibrant as usual, with tables on the street and the usual summer mix of bored waiters and tourists.

We went in and out of shops, bought a present for a friend's daughter who will be 3 this weekend, and two books for DD. Then, we sat down at one of the restaurants on the street and ordered a pizza. Just as DD was getting fed up with sitting in one spot, and a man in his late 50s/early 60s arrived with his guitar and a filthy looking little dog.

He sang for a bit, which I didn't really listen to, because I was trying to eat in peace while DD was transfixed, staring at him. Then he started to sing a song so beautiful, and sang it so well and with such emotion that I joined her in staring at this old man in tattered clothes, his dirty feet sticking out of his tongs. I wasn't the only one in the restaurant who stopped eating to watch him.

When afterwards he walked along the tables for tips (of which he got quite a lot, I was happy to see), I asked him what that song was. He wrote down its name and said he "composed" this song for the singer, ages ago, and that it was about a girlfriend "who had problems".

This was the song. Imagine what this man would have been like if the years weren't so kind, if he were singing on the streets for his money. That was the scene in front of us. And these are the lyrics in question:

---------
She was saying "I'm already tired of walking
My heart is already too heavy with secrets and pain"
She was saying "I can't continue. What awaits me, I already lived it. It's not worth it."

She was saying life is cruel
She didn't believe in the sun anymore
Nor the silence of the churches
Even my smiles scared her
It was winter deep in her heart

Wind has never blown so cold, rain so violent
As that night, the night of her 20th
The night she put out the fire behind her eyes
In a white bolt of lightning

She must have joined the heavens
Shines next to the sun
Like new churches
And if I cry since that night
It's because it is cold
Deep inside my heart
---------

I'm not sure if I believe that he wrote this song, even with Francis Cabrel. Just that he was an unusually good guitar player and singer for an old street performer. I have listened to it a couple of times since then, and can't shake off this sadness - at the beauty of the song, an old and obviously very talented man who now has to make a living singing on the streets.

Intriguing Cote!
I love Nice. My bil is a Nicois.

Nice is so beautiful. Especially its seaside. I have never quite seen that shade of blue. Before DH and DD, I used to rollerblade along the coast of Nice, from the airport to that last turn before the port - about 5 km, all on the beach.

Brill!
How long have you been there and in France?

I've been here for eight years now - time goes by so fast. I live in Monaco actually, and not in France. (No, I'm not a heiress, just ended up working here) But distances are so short down here that where you live makes little difference to where you choose to pass your time. From my doorstep in Monaco, I am in center of Nice in 20 minutes, in center of Cannes in 45 minutes, and in Italy in 15 minutes in the other direction.

At the moment, there is an amusement park at the port of Monaco, where there would be pitt stops during F1 Grand Prix. Trampolines, climbing wall, merry-go-round, carting, little boats in water, etc all for little ones. We are there pretty much every afternoon after about 17:30, when there is a bit of shade.

It is during events such as these that Monaco welcomes an influx of people outside its usual faces of beauty/style of a certain perfection that only big money can buy. Speakers of various African languages, their wives covered in the hijab, families with a multitude of children running about, overweight women (yes, they are a rare sight), heavily made-up teenagers with accents from dodgy parts of Nice, etc.

Although Monaco is only 1.9 sq kms and completely surrounded by France, very few of its residents are actually French. Excepts those who were living here before some date long in the past that I can't remember, French have no tax advantages in Monaco. In that, they share the same fate as Americans, the only other nationality who can't escape tax in Monaco.

Your correspondent will now cut for commercials, because she realized she is rambling

CoteDAzur... my dh lived in one of the buildings on your photograph of Monaco Port when he was a teenager (I remember on another post telling you a bit about it)! It is one of the buildings on the front after the swimming pool! Also my favourite neighbour is in your town right now (do the Parisians invade you like they do everywhere in France???) so we will be reading your reports quite very extremely carefully!!!

Moondog - your life sounds very exciting!!! I request as many reports from you as your fingers can possibly type!! Also... I have a practical question... how do you keep your children from constantly having bad tummies while travelling around the place? - We are going to go to Pune in India next year to visit friends and need some advice on how to keep our dd healthy - dh is afraid she will spend the whole trip being poorly.

Sue - You are the current champion of "How Multicultural can one family be in one given moment?" - but I am sure someone out there has some stiff competition for you!!!

that sounds fab Cote. Remember that aussies get tax breaks when living in Monaco ( for when I win the big one )

Well a relatively quiet day today. Dd1 off to prep and the other two and I are off to morning tea. The local Down syndrome association ( actually for Queensland) put on four morning teas a year. They have guests speakers who speak on a variety of subjects and put on a lovely morning tea. Great opportunity to meet up with other parents ( usually mums) who have children with Down Syndrome. Usually also meet any new parents which is always great to see gorgeous new babies. Makes me broody all over again.

Dd2 loves going to the dancing drome office ( as she calls it) to play with the children. It is so funny how she just does not see any differences between her and the other children and she is a child who would talk and ask questions about it.

I am a new parent support person for that organisation and so whilst most of the topics are not always relevant to me - good to go along and support other parents who are not as far along on their journey.

So unlike the UK that has the Down syndrome association UK with the smaller groups affiliated with them - we have state groups for each state and territory who then send reps to meet for a national meeting. Our group receives very little funding from the government. It is largely run through grants that we may have been lucky enough to secure and donations.

Bermuda is some 700 miles from the nearest next place - which is in North Carolina. As it's only 20 square miles, it isn't possible for the country to produce all the food it needs, and so imports are heavily relied upon.

Shopping can be hit and miss. You can never make a list and be sure of being able to obtain everything on it. If one shop runs out of something, it won't be long before every shop runs out of it. Once that happens, you just have to wait for the next ship to come in.

I remember buying the only ironing board in Hamilton the first week I lived here. The following week the shops were full of them. Having been diagnosed with a medical condition requiring that I use an electric shaver rather than blades, I set out to find one. It took three months, and when I did find one the assistant said 'You were lucky to get one of those, they go like hot cakes when we get them in'.

During my time here I have known the island to run out of plastic kitchen bins, oatibix, carrots, white card, cornflakes. Carrots are a story in themself. We are only allowed Bermudian carrots - none are imported, so if they run out they run out until the farmers produce some more. Typically a 2lb bag of carrots will be thin, stubbly, mis-shapen and set you back $4.50 (2 pounds 25). The topsoil is only 4 inches deep in most places hence we have extremely short carrots. There's no carrot fly on the island and they want to keep it that way, that's why they don't import carrots.

At the moment all the shops have run out of diet coke; this is a cause of much panic for me. Shopping last week I was thirsty and couldn't find a diet coke anywhere. Since then there hasn't been any in sight anywhere I've been. Some of the shops had coke zero, but that's getting a bit thin on the ground too now. I bought the last pack from the supermarket I visited this morning. I will just have to eke them out until the boat comes in.

Anorak
Fascinating, how strange for us spoilt Europeans to read of carrot shortages. We do take so much for granted here.

Today we have a Parents Getting to Know You coffee afternoon in the Kindergarten. For me it is more of an Aufwiedersehen coffee morning as we are leaving (hopefully) the end of September.

Coffee is important here in Germany. Kaffee und Kuchen, coffee and cake is a ritual that most Germans know and love. The country grinds to a halt on Sunday afternoons as everyone visits parents or friends. The roads are full of drivers in hats crawling along to the next village at about 30km/h. Afterwards we go "spazieren", for a walk. It is something that I miss when we are in UK, noone just goes out for a walk there. We often go into the town in the evening and wander around, have an ice cream or a coffee.

Eidsvold, MmeLindt, anorak and califrau - brilliant posts! Sometimes I find myself reading aloud like the boy in The never ending story!

Keep up the great posts - I love them!

MmeLindt - I love your posts cause many moons ago I learnt and then as part of my teaching taught to year 8 students - German. So I sit here reading your german words out loud practising my accent

I love Kaffee mit Kuchen. I do it often - even if it is just with dd2 who is becoming very fond of babychinos - esp. at one cafe as they do it as a hot choc.

I have just been reading up on the weather for my forthcoming trip - it is going to be bloody cold in Canberra. Here our lowest was 2 degrees one night and I missed that being in Melbourne - where it was actually warmer than Queensland.

In Brisbane on the weekend it is going to be:
7 - 20 on Saturday and 8 - 21 on Sunday. I have to be at the airport at 5am and so will leave at around 7 degrees.

Canberra - -2 - 12 degrees - Saturday
-3 - 13 on Sunday!!!

OMG I was thinking about walking down to some markets that look not far from where I am staying and then to do some walking along Lake burleigh Griffin - might have to change that for an art gallery visit!!!!

How bizzare, Eidsvold, that I always associate Australia with sunny warm weather. Now you are confusing me

I can remember a friend telling me that she went skiing in Australia and we all laughed at her.

She was very amused and told us that Oz is not really like Neighbours,

well Canberra is inland and not far from snowy mountains. My aunt had snow in Melbourne not last weekend but the weekend before. We have the snowy mountains as well as ski fields in VIC. Not sure about tasmania.

No snow in Canberra as far as I could see.

What I find makes the difference between english cold and brisbane cold is the huge range of temps. IN the uk it might jsut change a degree or two but - for example the other day when it was 2 degrees in the morning it got up to a sunny 20 degrees later in the day and the temp drops quite quickly in early evening and again in early morning.

Mme Lindt

info here

That is cool, Eidvold. It must make it difficult to decide what to wear when you get dressed in the morning.

DH is in her room playing, she has just made me a feather duster for my keyboard. She used a lollipop stick, a balloon and some feathers. I will put a pic on my profile.

FOOC in Nigeria.

Carrots are not a vegetable that is ever in short supply in Nigeria, albeit twisted and mangled into bizarre forms. The sandy soil is, apparently, ideal for growing this seemingly very British crop. Indeed, many of the vegetables here are British in nature white cabbage; leeks, beetroot, radishes, potatoes. Maybe this is a previously unrecognised legacy of colonialism. Onions are available in abundance, although the colour and price differential is contrary to that in the UK, where the brown onion is at the bottom of the price scale followed by red then white. In Nigeria red onions are the bargain buy, then white, with the humble brown onion occupying top spot.

Other crops are yams, sweet potatoes, aubergines, courgettes, tiny cucumbers, tomatoes - just the plum variety - green beans, chilli peppers, lettuce, garlic and a range of herbs. All vegetables and fruit must be cooked or, if eaten raw, sterilised in Milton before consumption due to the use of human manure as fertiliser. Fresh produce also comes with its own wildlife in the shape of ants, cockroaches and other nameless bugs so it's best to rinse it off in the sink unless you want a safari park in your fridge.

Eidsvold, for some reason dd2 always looks at the weather in Melbourne on TV forecasts. She claims it's always 11degC and foggy!! What's a babychino - apart from a pair of small beige trousers?

Tfor2, I have an added extra up my sleeve to any challengers for my multinational record. But I am rather excited that as of less than one hour ago, all four of my dc are on this 'sceptred isle' of GB. Ds1 has just arrived in London to do some research for his PhD. He's coming up to Scotland this weekend so I'm feeling very excited about that. Sadly dh is toiling away in Lagos but 5/6 ain't bad!

Cote, that song is beautiful. Francis Wotsisname couldn't be anything but French, could he? I just can't conceive of a Brit or US popster looking like that! I've never been to the S of France. We were booked to holiday there in 1996 but then I got pg with dd2 and was so ill we had to cancel. Haven't had the chance to go again. Maybe one day.....

Tea, I've never worrined about the food and kids. They just eat what we eat. Ds was weaned on flat bread and yoghurt in various shack cafes in Eastern Turkey!

Sue, amy I challenge your crown?
We are in Bangladesh, one sister and family in Caribbean (Martinique) other sister and brood in Korea, father in Saudi and mother in Wales!

But thinks of claiming it back on grounds of having both a Jewish (American) and a Muslim (French/Algerian) dil whilst being staidly Church of Scotland oneself. Not that one had darkened a church door for many a long year, bar weddings funerals and christenings.

Ooh dear, not terribly multicultural here. English, married to an Englishman, kids born in Scotland and France (the auld alliance). Parents live in AZ, sister lives in England (for some reason, she's the only one who stayed in the area we grew up in. I've moved to London, Edinburgh and France and she's never made it further than ten miles away.
Anorak, I used to work for Bank of Bermuda, but in Stirling, not Bermuda. At first I could never understand why all the Bermudians were so keen to come to Scotland...I mean, Stirling is pretty but not much going on, but then they would rave about the opportunities for travel, the climate (believe it or not, most of them preferred Scotland), the real estate prices and the fact that stuff was just generally available.
Mme Lindt, the French are also keen on walking, esp. if you are in Paris. About 6/7 p.m. everyone goes out walking with the kids, has an apero at a cafe and then home for dinner. Out here in the styx, everyone just congregates in the playpark, but it's still very friendly. The other real French ritual is gouter, the meal kids take at 4 o'clock which is just an excuse for cake and dairy products.
Moondog, you are making me long for more interesting climes. Haven't been out of Europe for a couple of years now (finances not allowing). Even a trip to the parents in the US desert would be a welcome change.

Cal, you have trounced me with the dils!
Brioche, we always crave what we don't have eh?

I find myself in bizaree situation quite often of being abroad and reading about yet another 'abroad'. I once spent an afternoon in aKurdish volcano reading about Ethiopia and last week was absorbed in a book about the Caribbean whilst deep in old Dhaka.

What's that all about???