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?

spring is sprung....I'm in the garden....

Teafortwo
Thanks for that post, you reminded me of a lovely book that I would like to order for DD. Her art teacher has it, Linnea in Monet's Garden. Do you know it? DD would love to go to Paris and see the museum, just like Linnea did in the book. We saw a couple of Monets in the art gallery here in Düsseldorf recently and she sat with her book and just looked at the water lilies for ages.

ok gardening jobs done...Teafortwo the Monet experience with your daughter moved me and I am inspired. There are many artists living here on the Kapiti coast which isn't surprising considering the natural beauty which surrounds us. In my local town is a gallery, I have never set foot inside...this afternoon I shall take my son there for the first time, it may not be quite L'orangerie avec Monet but when in Rome....by the way I have just emailed your link to my Brother and sister in law who are on a European tour with their 9 and 11 year old girls, they will be in Paris in a couple of weeks. Thankyou.

kjaysmum - I promise I will send you a list of everything a 9 and 11 year old should do and see in Paris. How long are they in the city for?

Mooching in Montreal: Surviving Bear Attacks

We made it both to the campsite and back. And sadly, or gladly, no bears! We did see chipmunks however, very noisy, tiny little things, chasing all around the place. We didn't stay anywhere near Lake Champlain unfortunately. It was only an hour out of Montreal in a small place called St-Antoine-something-Abbe. And unlike the lovely manicured lawns of english campgrounds we were in a foresty part complete with uneven ground, tree roots, stones in circle for fire type plot. It was at the back of a static caravan park which was so big it needed golf carts to get around. Many of the owners had their own. We saw a couple tricked out, one as a mercedes, another as a jeep (I'm sure I saw a gun rack) and another pimped up complete with chrome rims. On the plus side, the tent went well, I'll have to order the canopy for it next.

It was nice to get out of the city for a break. DH burned his lip on the fork while roasting marshmallows and DS learnt to walk on uneven ground. He got so filthy each day I just put him back in the same clothes the next to save washing. And we have many itching bumps and lumps to deal with.

DS has now officially started daycare, and I am officially employed again. It's a bit dejavu. I'm sitting one row over from last time I was in this office (3yrs ago), and on day 2 it feels like I haven't been away. The brain is a bit rusty and I'm exhausted by days end, but am enjoying being back in the thick of it. Only trouble is, everyone is talking about the different projects and where they are (Saudi, Malaysia, Vancouver, Algeria and others) and I need to strap myself to my desk to prevent itchy feet syndrome sneaking in. We are enjoying it here a lot so hope to stay awhile and have another expat at work who has gone through PR and is happy to give us some pointers, so that is a good thing. I've met up with workmates I first worked with on a project in NZ 13years ago, which was my first with this company, it is really great to catch up with them. None of them look any older. One very debonnair (is that the word I'm looking for, and how do I spell it?) Quebecois gent told me, how could anyone forget a woman such as you, and I was a slip of a thing back then, and very quiet. It is quite unnerving, everyone remembers my name, first AND last, I struggle to come up with a first, and have to whisper to someone else who is that, before it clicks.

Well, must get back to watching the new season of Bones, 2hrs set in LondonTown. DH is excited, I will try to be

So glad you are back safely, brownsuga

Teafortwo, how old is your DD? I'd like to take DS to the Art Institute again. Last time we went he was just over 2. We walked into the Monet room which was packed but silent and DS gasped, "Wowwwww" Was lovely.

Oh nice posts everyone. Coincidently, we had an artistic dimension to our weekend too. We went out to the village of Kleinberg, north of Toronto which is home to the McMichael Collection. A lovely gallery in a peaceful woodland setting, with First Nation sculptures in the grounds and nature trails.

Inside, the exhibits include Inuit and First Nation art and the best collection of The Canadian Group of Seven painters. I'd never heard of this movement before coming to Canada; but in a nutshell, their mission was to capture the beauty of the 'unpaintable' Canadian landscape and boost Canadian national pride and love of the landscape, in the WW1 and after era.

This quote sums it up beautifully, and I love the sentiment too:
"We had commenced our great adventure. We lived in a continuous blaze of enthusiasm. We were at times very serious and concerned, at other times hilarious and carefree. Above all, we loved this country and loved exploring and painting it."

The gallery is brilliantly designed and surrounded by dense pine trees. There are big picture windows with translucent blinds in most of the rooms and the views through the trees are comparable with the art. Sadly we arrived shortly before closing time, so I had to scurry around with the buggy more than I would have liked. I have to confess that I went in the wrong way, so saw the history of the Group of Seven backwards [hapless philistine emoticon], but that was kind of interesting too.

Brownsuga - I love BONES. I started reading her books and loved them so when the series finally made it to TV - Even though I have to stay up waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy past my bedtime I will watch it. Quite like the bit of eye candy although think I am getting a little old as some of them I think - nah just boys but agent Booth - different thing entirely. Your camping trip sounds fabulous - that is our plans for the future - taking the dds camping - off road into state forest and national parks.

Now I have indulged and dragged the thread down a bit - but not quite into hello kitty vibrators - Pic is a must ninedragons teafortwo that sounds fab!! I think I would 'wow' too.

Oh wow, this thread is massive! Have been trying to catch up - especially since noticing a reference to hello kitty vibrators - Japan, surely? I remember finding hello kitty sanitary towels in Lawson's there. Please give me a clue where the original post is, I've been looking for a while now!

Anyway, I'm actually checking in from northern Thailand at the moment. Very northern Thailand. In fact, if you went any further north or any further west you'd be in Burma instead. So we're really worlds away from Bangkok and the state of emergency, but of course people have strong opinions about what's going on. Thai people are pretty funny about politics and foreigners though; if they think there's any chance you'll disagree with them, they'll a) tailor their views to match what they think yours are, or b)just avoid/ change the subject - this being the polite thing to do. After a number of years, I've learnt to just listen and not offer opinions, it's the only way to find out what people actually think. It doesn't come naturally, believe me.

So, the political situation in Thailand has a very long backstory, which I'm going to drastically oversimplify or I'll be here all day.

Good things about Thaksin:

1. 30 baht cards: every person who qualifies gets a card that entitles them to almost free healthcare - they pay 30 baht for a trip to the hospital and any prescriptions (30 baht is about $1US). Some things are excepted - you would still need to pay something towards the costs of an operation in a 'public' hospital - but much better than the previous non-system.
2. Very strong rhetoric about helping the rural poor, who have never been paid any attention by politicians before. (Actual policies have had much more mixed results)
3. He put into place policies enabling all children in Thailand to access education up to university level (not for free, though), where previously if you held a hilltribe card rather than full Thai citizenship, you were only entitled to education up to a certain level.

Bad things about Thaksin:

1. the War on Drugs - about 2500 people were killed rather than be arrested and tried on drugs charges. One of the most notorious cases was a guy who mistakenly ended up on the police's blacklist when he actually ran an addiction treatment centre. He was shot in the back of the head while with his girlfriend and young son.
2. the situation in the South of Thailand - more dead people and stronger anti- government sentiments in the south resulted from absolutely inept policies for dealing with the situation there.
3. Corruption on a truly massive scale.

Now, looking at the bad things column: my northern, rural Thai colleagues say

1. they deserved it, you can't put drug dealers in jail, it doesn't work, and accidents are a shame but not Thaksin's fault.
2. Muslims are terrorists and they're 'against Thailand' (therefore it doesn't matter what happens to them)
3. Is it better to have a leader who does good things for the country and takes money, or a leader who is honest and can't do anything for the country? If Thaksin took more money than anyone else, it's because he's cleverer/ stronger than them.

Which, in my Thai colleagues' minds anyway, leaves us with only good things about Thaksin. Therefore, if Thaksin can?t stand for election, who better than his good friend Samak?

Needless to say, I have issues with the reasoning.

On the other hand, the protesters in Bangkok have possibly the most ironic name in politics: a People?s Alliance for Democracy with no support from the people, whose suggestion for a ?democratic? political system is to appoint 70% of parliament. It?s Orwellian.

Actually, I don?t need to pretend to have no opinion any more, it?s so messed up I?m at a loss to say who?s worse.

mangolassi - v.interesting post. Thanks for giving us an insight into the situation over there.
About the Helly Kitty vibrators....ninedragons in Shanghai happened to mention them in the same vein as blueberry-flavoured crips...Just Wrong!
I am sure they are of Japanese origin - although I have never seen them (can't say I have ever looked, mind you )

Checking in from south of Tokyo, we too had "back to school" this week - although it is middle of the school year (school year is from April to March). Kids get quite a lot of homework over the summer holidays, to keep them ticking over, and then often have tests the first or second day back...

Politically, our PM (Fukuda) just up and resigned, and they are now trying to decide who should replace him. The frontrunner is Taro Aso, who looks like total sleazebag, has made so many political gaffes, he makes Bush look positively intellectual, and would by all accounts do no good whatsoever for Japan's fragile international image.

On a happier note, we have had some gorgeous weather in our area this week (the rest of Japan has not fared so well, with more flooding - one place had 450mm of rain in 24 hours!)
The cicadas are singing their hearts out in the end-of-summer heat, and the dragonflies are out in force too.

I will have to go for a walk on the beach later to take advantage of the sun.

Shops are very touchy about people taking photos inside - piracy is rampant and if they let anyone take a photo, next thing you know there is a guy with a trestle table on the street selling 5,000 knock-offs of your product.

But here it is: bzzzzzzz. Don't click from an office computer or you will have sirens going off in the IT department and all the nerds will know you are looking at sex toys in your lunch break, and start leering at you in the lift

The ones I saw (actually in the same shop that sells the blue Eiffel Tower models - I think their stock buyer is some kind of genius) are red and pink. They are just nestled innocuously amongst the Hello Kitty pencil cases, hair brushes, underpants, thermometers, number-plate frames and egg timers. How many parents must take their little daughters to the Japanese shop for a treat and have to explain that when they said she could have anything for getting so many stars on her chart, she can have anything except that?

ooh, hello again sakura! I miss Japan sometimes, great Japanese food and very odd interesting western food. Top of my personal list of Things That Should Be Wrong But Actually Aren't: mashed potato pizza. White-carb-tastic

9dragons, I love that it's out of stock! Who's the target market? The mind boggles

Did you try your blueberry crisps yet?

Ok, own up, who ordered the last Hello Kitty vibrator? I noted with interest that they ship to Germany and that a customers who bought that product seemed unusually interested in bed sheets.

There is a pizzeria in our village that has pizza with spaghetti on the menu, and pizza with hollandaise sauce. .

mangolassi
Thanks for the insight into the Thai political crisis. We watched the news yesterday, it all looks quite scary. I bet you are glad to be far away from the fighting.

All this talk of food and art... Makes both my mind and my tummy rumble. The mere thought of a mashed potato pizza, bland meets bland!? I bet it is nothing like the fiery spice pizza we had in India.

A very interesting post from Mangolassi.

I too have been inspired by the art talk. For being such a small town we have two art museums. There is currently an exhibition showing some of Edward Munch's early works, I should take the boys, though it is a little gloomy, I am hoping the childrens art workshop will make up for it.

Interestingly, a number of artists and especially musicians were born here, most have moved to places such as Oslo, New York, London, but come back here for a break now and then. Bel Canto and Bioshpere are possibly the most noted, though they are not mainstream. When listening to them, you can hear nature and the elements, the industrial world, and my mind become as calm as turqouise pack ice. Biosphere is regarded the father of Ambience, and has the most creative musical mind I know Biosphere

Little did I know when I was young, that so many friends would take their passion for music with them throug to adulthood, and not only develop a career but international recognition too.

Having inspiration is one thing. Finding the time to write, and structure thoughts and develop plots and characters something totally different. Turning an idea into a whole story is hard work. My deadline is October 15th. But I am not holding out much hope, as there is a lot of emphasis on economic viability and being mainstream, when you are writing for a potential audience of just 4-5 million people.

Profit is at the forefront of the publishing houses agenda, they have to think about what sells. At least with music, you can seek foreign labels and the world is your oyster if you are talented, with literature, you dont have that option. Sadly, we live in a backward era, and most books are found in kiosk and the writing is the equivalent of a short story in Bella or Take A Break. The genre currently popular here, is Turn of the century Romance, with farmers and landowners, the poor scullery maid falling in love above the stairs so to speak...

Only rarely do you find something new, novel and thought provoking published by a young norwegian writer. And only rarely do you find a norwegian translation of great works, we have to make do with swedish or danish ones.

But I am jaded, after having been told YES, and then find the publishing house changing their minds. I have to blame the era, the industry, and the crap writing of others...

Salute to LitChick who has MADE it.
Cheers!

Aw aw aw - great posts foocs!!! Where do I start in commenting???

Califrau - Am researching 'Under a Tuscan Sun' - looks nice - reminds me a bit of Annie Hawes books - Nice girly girly stuff!!!

www.amazon.co.uk/Extra-Virgin-Amongst-Groves-Liguria/dp/0140294236/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Ninedragons - WHAT???? That is craziness!!!!
I don't know whether to laugh or cry - what a world we live in, hey?

Saku and mangolassi - It is really interesting to hear about the poiltical situation in your countries - sounds very gloomy though!

MrsSprat - what a lovely gallery - sounds quite perfect to me!

Superbunny - My dd is 2yrs and 4 months. So about the same age as your son was moved by Monet too!!! - Interesting hey?

And... sorry if I have missed anyone - there are so many great posts I can't keep up with it all. Anyway, anyway... bye for now and please keep foocing!!!

I am going to have to go into Spooks mode and get a photo, or nobody will believe me (except maybe Sakura).

I went to the Sanrio Superstore today (full of under-occupied 20-something female staff, so good for wearing out DD when she is feeling cranky and in need of attention). There were two life-sized gold plastic dog turds in the window, with cute little cartoon faces on them.

I am not sure Sanrio is going to duplicate the global success of Hello Kitty with a gold-plated dog turd, but if next year it is THE thing in the 5-12-year-old girl demographic, you heard it here first.

I loved the Annie Hawkes books, they made me laugh out loud. The lime!

It is always interesting to read a foreigners view of a country, the little things that irk and fascinate that the locals don't even notice. Bill Bryson is another favourite, his homecoming in America made me laugh. When he wrote that he was unequipped for life as a homeowner in USA as he did not know all the jargon for home ownership, like rawlplugs and insurance terms. That is how I feel sometimes, there is a whole generation of Britishness that I have missed out on. I am a bit more connected now we have UK tv but even that mystifies me. Where are the 18million people who watch Corry? Why are we inundated with bloody soaps?

I think here in Kenya our access to porn politically sensitive websites must be restricted as Hello Kitty refused to reveal its ugly head in a pop up for me There is a simple solution 9dragons - pop into the shop and purchase one. Take a photo and put it on your profile so us less fortunates can also enjoy. Tell your dh a bunch of total strangers, over the internet, from many countries around the world made you do it. I'm sure he will understand

Wow some lovely insights into art. I must take the dc to our RaMoMa museum of modern art and see what their impressions are.

Mangolassi I am quite and slightly depressed at the situation in Thailand as it sounds so similar to many African countries. I did rather hope that the economic would-be tigers of Asia would lead a blazing democratic trail that Africa could emulate in the years to come...

The big news from Kenya this week is that yesterday, outside Nakuru, where the average daily temperature is around 25 degrees, it snowed. It made frontpage news. Until the weather men realised that it wasn't snow at all but rather enormous hail stones. The local people were terrified and thought the sun had crashed, because it was so dark.

Hi all, I felt I must post about pizza from NZ. ANything goes here too..potato topped quite usual, satay chicken and prune common most have some kind of fruit - pizza margarita - rarely! We have learnt to make our own

It's also the run up to agricultural day (Ag day or calf club) at rural and semi rural schools here. CHildren up to the age of 11 have to hand rear either a calf, piglet, kid, chicken or lamb (this year ds1's school has added ducks but that's unusual). They have to be born in a given window mid July to end August. So we are now bottle feeding 2 kids - named Billy and Umuga by the ds's. Ds2 who is 4 is entering the pre-school section. The kids on the day are judged for grooming, the childrens knowledge of their animal and whether/how quickly they come when called from a distance. It is all taken VERY seriously by all.

Born in London and a bit of a novice to country living and animal rearing I nearly killed the lamb the other year. I thought it wasn't feeding and was this close to calling the vet when my friend asked whether I'd cut the end off the feeding teat - derrr . One very hungry lamb. Their tails should be removed by judgung day - I just couldn't bring myself to twist it off but it obliged on cue on the day by it falling off in time in the judging ring.

In true kiwi style the children are able to choose any animal from the list although there is now a disclaimer at the bottom of the instructions ' could parents please try to ensure the animal is age appropriate' after a 5 year olds calf ( at least twice their size) stampeded on the day during judging with the child still attached to the rope she was holding across the length of the field taking a few other children with it until the local vet quite dramatically and heroically tackled it to the ground around it's neck. And that's Ag Day

Hoping all will go smoothly this year. Can't wait for October 18th.

Ag day sounds fantastic my two would love it, but then they are grandsons to a diary farmer . Can not imagine keeping an aminal in my tiny garden in England though. Do they eat them after?

On the topic of pizza, we stayed with friends in South Africa and they ordered pizza for us all on the evening of our arrival - we had spent the day at the National Botanical Gardens Kirtsenbosch wondering at the plants and also on the speed our guide was driving the golf buggy we were on . It was a chicken and bananna pizza. Sounds really strange but tasted great.

My DS1 starts preschool on Monday, so I have been gathering his uniform together, he has alreasy done a term in the intake group and asked if he could wear the checked dresses the girls had, so we bought him some trousers and polo tops, but as winter is arriving we have added jumpers to his outfit. He is so excited about being back. I am spending my time torn between not wanting him to go as I do enjoy the challenges he brings and then after days like today wanting him to go all day. Every second word has been why and all he has done is fight with his little brother.

On our recent camping trip we visited Alnick castle and the boys were supprised to find all the paintings showed such serious people. DS1 asked why they didnt say cheese.

In general at the beginning of September I suddenly have a need to be outdoors a lot. I suppose it is the ever greyer or blacker sky and the feeling that I should make the most of any good weather to be had.

Today we woke to no rain so it was time to exit our tubble down Paris suburb apartment and head for a walk in the woods that separate us from the chic inner city life of Paris.

When I first moved to this area I spent many an afternoon walking through said woods nodding my head and saying "bonjour" to all the gypsy women who were living there. I thought them rather quaint sitting beside their caravans on deck chairs usually reading or just enjoying the mock countryside while their husbands, perhaps, were at work and their children, perhaps, were at school.

One day I saw one of these women hurridly saying goodbye to a man - a lover? And then making a phone call quite calmly to another, in the middle of the woods in stilletos and a short skirt! It seemed a bit odd! She seemed vonrable and I was a little frightened for her and for myself!

That night at dinner I explained to dh the scene and he laughed at my innocent mind -

"They're not gypsies they are prostitutes - since medieval times that is what those woods have been famous for!"

I stopped sipping my thimble sized glass of red wine.

"BUT - I thought the woods are famous for being beautiful and filled with nice places to go with your family and friends. Proust wrote about them like that not like what I saw!!!"

"They are - we are lucky to live so near them... you just need to learn the nice places and bad places. In general you mustn't go wondering deep in them (like me, girl from the country, had been doing). You have to stay near the roads."

"But the roads are so big and horrible." I complained!

One day, I decided to enter a garden in these woods. It is called the Bagatelle. Imagine a fairytale garden filled with water falls, tame but free peacocks, little summer houses that look as if they were made for a wedding cake, the sweetest smelling roses, a crammed kitchen garden and big ponds so impressed that they hold up their mirrors.

That picture is The Bagatelle.fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_de_Bagatelle.

My daughter and I always have such exceptionally fun adventures (like the famous five) when we are there (and after our awkward misadventure over going too deep into the woods) I must say that we very rarely go anywhere else when we don sensible shoes and I announce to dd - "Come on! We are going to the woods today!"

In case you were wondering - today it was the kitchen garden with every fruit and vegetable so near but so far from bursting with ripeness that we enjoyed the most!

They eat mashed potato pizza in Connecticut. Once you get over the initial it's not bad - very garlicky. But you know you are eating mashed potato on pizza and you know it isn't Right.

MmeLindt, I am going to re-read that Bill Bryson book. I loved it the first time but since my BF and I are having language barrier issues (mainly involving sweets and candy from our childhood) it might be quite helpful.

AG day sounds qonderful!

I have always wandered past the Sanrio store when I've been downtown but next time, I might just have a peek inside. It seems you never know what you will find there...