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?

Sorry, mean Sue ofcourse.

Blimey Cote. A new pretender to crown!

I prefer the term 'contender'

I can't possibly compete, we are ineffably dull, a Brit married to a Brit, living in a former British colony, with 3 Brit dc. Too dull for words But we have moved house 10 times in 10 years in 7 different countries.

Brioche, the 'gouter' used to kill me in Cameroon, the dc would stuff their faces with crepes and then never eat their supper at 5.30!

Moondog, Bangladesh sounds more chaotic even than Africa. More stories, more stories. Are you working there?

Sounds like you had better wrap up warm Eids...

Nairobi is hotting up again, the temperature is a pleasant 23 degrees and the sun makes it out for the afternoon. Two weeks left of school holidays and thankfully we don't have to buy reams of equipment and not too costly uniforms. In that true Colonial British Prep school way dd (6) has to have all items of uniform labelled and the poor girl gets introduced to cross country and hockey next term. Heaven help her. DS1 goes to a kindergarten who's headmistress is an old battleaxe, who is proudly boasting that Jason Dunford (Kenya's swimming sensation who came fifth in the final of the 100m 'Michael Phelps' Fly) first learnt to swim in her swimming pool. There is hope for my ds yet.

I believe the idea is that supper will not be anywhere near 5:30

We eat at 20:00 or so at night, after DH comes home from work. It is 21:45 here and DH is still reading her stories in bed.

She wouldn't be able to survive this routine without the 'gouter'.

The problem was Cote, that they had to be at school at 7.30am so had to be in bed by 7pm! There is no way either of them wanted to siesta... Our French friends thought we were bonkers.

I have been telling my dh about this thread of ours for weeks and he keeps saying e-mail the link to me so I can read it in my lunch hour.

Today I finally remembered to do it and he came home saying "It wouldn't open my company has a ban on any "chat" websites. Can you go through your thread and e-mail me the best bits, please?"

So this evening that is what I have been doing. For me it has been a pleasure to re-read everyone's posts and a nightmare to decide which to copy and paste and which to leave on the side.

I am deeply embarrassed over one thing I read. While in London, and no-where near a computer type environment ggglimpopo explained that she was going to be in Paris - I live a few metro stops from where you were staying ggglimpopo and would have loved to pop over and say hello! But the timing was wrong - I was in the UK AND hadn't read your post due to having no access to a computer... perhaps if you are in Paris again I can buy you a drink to make up for not reading your post. x x x Sorry - I feel I have missed a fab opportunity!

On a different thought that came out of re-reading-

I re-read some absolutely blinding reports from people who are always posting but also from people that haven't posted lately... if you are reading this and haven't posted for a while - PLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEEE post again - we loved your earlier reports and really really want some more info on the place where you live!!!!

bye for now - and keep foocing (oh eeerrr that sounds a bit rude!)

This is a lovely lovely thread

I can't challenge the crown and we have had no exciting food incidents recently. I think a random lady wandering up to DS and giving him a cheese string is not in keeping with this thread, is it?! All your talk of food made me want Kaffee und Kuchen. All I could find was homemade cornbread and imported tea, so that's what I'm having!

FOOC in the Windy City

no challenge here either.... very european in ancestry my lot.

My family is welsh, french and english with a french great gandfather who actually fought for the aussies during world war one.

Do have the essential aussie family memebr - a great great uncle who died at Gallipoli. I intended to go to Gallipoli for an Anzac Day service but the easter dh and I planned to go we decided against it as I was pregnant with dd1. good thing I did - that is when we were having various tests for dd1 in utero and that is when we learnt about her heart defect.

My aim now is to take all the dds and dh to an Anzac day dawn service at Gallipoli!

Dh's side - english, scottish and irish.

Bow to those of you who are far more multicultural than us.

Love reading about the different meal times and traditions, availability of food, tourist things etc.

Shall be visiting the following when I go to Canberra:

national archives

war memorial

this is the part I want to see Under the domes are lists of men who were killed in combat. My great great uncle's name is there.

some markets

hopefully get in a visit here too

now claims to fame - taught a kookaburra ( aussie olympic hockey player - male) he was a lovely kid from a great family and I am so pleased to see how well he has done.

Master (are you an old Moscow hand like me?) I am not in Bangladesh permanently as I work as a salt in UK and am busy with MSc. We also want our kids educated through medium of Welsh. Still, I get lots on unpaid leave to be here which is great.

Dh working on EU project, the remit of which is to relieve suffering of 18 000 'ultra poor' women through training and education.

moondog - that sounds great - lots of opportunities to see the world and experience different cultures.

I am waiting to go to the pool with my kids and once again the leccy is off, as it is about twice a day, so no A/C.

Eids, we used to celebrate Anzac Day when growing up in PNG (at that time an Oz. protectorate). I really wanted to go to Gallipoli (or Gelibolu as is known there)when living in Turkey but was other end of country. Did you see the film?

Yes Eids, after alifetime abroad I still love seeing the world but my heart is in rural north Wales, maybe as contrast to itinerant life.

Oh moondog - the film.

I have seen the film and the first time I just sobbed at the end and still cannot watch the film - I cry at the end - like really cry.

Then I started teaching and had to teach it to year 10 English class!!!! OMG what do I do. I know I am going to break down in the scene where the blonde lad goes over the top and is shot and the camera shot is held.

I managed to stifle the crying and just had tears running down my face with students looking at me so I shared a little history lesson about some of those 'men' who were really boys fighting on the other side of the world in a war they essentially knew nothing about. Did you know the youngest aussie to fight at gallipoli was just 14!!!

As a history teacher whose WW1 history 'love' was very australian - to discover I had a relative who had died at Gallipoli made my year!! I had just started researching family tree and learnt that my grandmother's uncle who no one had ever talked about had been a lighthorse man ( as well!!!) had died at Gallipoli. No wonder no one talked about him - the family had been split and when that lad's sister was giving birth to my grandmother as her french husband and aussie brother were signing up to join the A.I.F. to fight for Australia. Her husband comes home a broken man after being gassed on the Western Front and her brother dies of shrapnel wounds to the chest and a fractured spine.

Have you seen the movie - 'The Lighthorse men'. That is fabulous too.

i'm with you - I love going to different places and experiencing different ways of life BUT I am essentially an aussie girl and always will be. You can take the girl outta OZ but can't take the Oz out of the girl!

Wow Moondog, how lucky to be able to take a break and see some of the world. Yes I am an old Moscow hand I did Russian and French as my first degree and went to Moscow and Voronezh for some months. And you??

Themasterandmargaritas I have photos of my Dad taken at Naivasha in 1949, he was in the RAF at Eastleigh which was near Nairobi I think.

He had friends who had a Sisal Estate, near the Lake and would spend weekends and Leave there.

I watched Gallipoli when I was about 10-11, I think, in Turkey. It was very touching, there were many teary eyes in the movie theater, but in our conversations afterwards, there was also the overwhelming sense of "What on earth were they doing here anyway?"

I understand why the English were trying to take Gallipoli, but why did Australia send their young to die in a war they had no interest? If anyone could explain, I would be interested to learn.

Australia at that time still felt itself strongly to be part of The British Empire. The population at that time was overwhelmingly of Anglo-Celtic descent and felt that they were British citizens under another sky. The formal declaration of war is very telling - it says something like "Britain has announced it is at war, and therefore so is Australia".

I have been thinking about wars too. Last night the thunder was so loud I was thinking that this would have been what it felt like when Shanghai was being carpet-bombed by the Japanese. Apparently you could see the flash when the Americans bombed Hiroshima.

I have noticed that the very elderly are unfailingly delightful to me and my DD when we are out wandering around. They remember that the Europeans were all evacuated in 1948 and see it as a re-birth of their city now that the foreigners are returning.

Please keep up the good work - I love this thread and read it first in the morning with a pot of tea whilst my boys are playing.

We are planning on going camping in Northumbria on Friday and taking in Alnick Castle, Alnick Gardens and Bamburgh castle. The site is next to Hadrians wall and DH has been explaining to DS1 (3.5) that it was built to keep the Scots out . I hope that the nasty summer rain holds off.

The rain has been so bad that York has been on flood alert and the first and second day of racing has been cancelled.

you're right ninedragons - it was like that - England is at war and so is Australia. Basically England declared war on our behalf almost. In fact a large number of people who enlisted to fight as part of the AIF were actually born in the UK. In searching through the archives ( ww1 war records are available for viewing online) it shows a little bit of info on the search and lots of men have POB as places in the UK! We still felt very very british. In fact they had referendums to introduce conscription for ww1 and thankfully both times it failed. There was a large group who felt that australia should not be fighting on foreign shores a battle that did not seem our own.

In fact the same happened with ww2 - and until 1941 and the very historic speech by Curtin after the fall of singapore - where we looked to the US to help defend our nation. There were huge ructions when Churchill wanted to get the aussies to go to defend India at the expense of Australia. Despite the direct threat that Australia faced. In fact I have two relatives who fought the Japanese on the Kokoda Track/Trail. A great uncle on my mum and dad's sides. I also have a great uncle who at 18 was sent to Japan as part of the occupation forces. Can't imagine what it was like for an 18yo to go to Japan at that time.

AUstralia really believed that we were safe with Singapore protecting us from the 'Asian hordes' as they were viewed.

Those in 1940's soon realised that Churchill was not going to help protect Australia and desperately wanted our troops to remain in the European and African Theatre.

The statement that changed the course of Australian alliances was thus:

"Without any inhibitions of any kind, I make it quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom."

[steps down off box, tucks it under her arm and wanders away hoping no one is bored by her history lesson ]

I spent a couple of weeks over one Christmas visiting my SIL who was teaching English in Japan ( she is a Japanese teacher here) and on two occasions was living in Japan. The one place I wanted to see was Hiroshima. It was amazing. The Peace Park should be a must visit - like I believe Auschwitz should be a must visit for every person in the world.

It was very emotional. I could not believe how quiet it was even though it was in the middle of a town/city. The museum was incredible. I just wandered for almost a whole day around the park and taking in and reflecting on the terrible inhumanity that we visit upon each other in the name of right or truth or might.

Cote - some of them went for adventure too, see the world, kick some butt - for the pay even.

So many to never return.

Cote - my great great uncle Percy was evacuated to a hospital ship and died a couple of days later from his wounds. He was buried at sea and his name is on the Lone Pine Memorial.

nine dragons it is my understanding that the Japanese did terrible things to the Chinese and Koreans during the war??