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 MY GOODNESS - BD - I was at La Defense yesterday too. Did you see a ginger two year old screaming to go on the train on the manège well the one next to her saying "No" was me!!!!

Ha ha ha!!!!

To be fair the horse in Till shoe shop is British !!! So the smiling balloon lady in there told me, anyway!

Puteaux is very nice to live in. It is that age old problem though - we live in a postage stamp apartment with bugs. You either have a nice town or a nice house. I wonder how rich you need to be to have both? Or, indeed if both truly exist!

at the coincidence of t4t and BD being at the same place yesterday! Small world.

FOOC Bosnia

This time I have a little snapshot of a average morning in a Bosnian town for you.

7.30 DS and I walked downhill through the fields, fog, and frost (yes, already!!) to nursery school. We found some blueberries that the foragers had missed so that was a pleasant top-up for him after breakfast (I was on my way to have blood taken so couldn't eat ). At the bottom of the hill we got adopted by three stray puppies who snapped at DS' heels all the way to school. Cute for about two minutes, annoying after that!

9.00 The sun came back! And people re-appeared and stopped town looking like a ghost town. Bosnians are chicken fussy about the cold and huddle around a fire as soon as the temperature drops below 15 degrees. Makes you wonder how the big strong men managed it in the trenches over the winters in the last war!

9.15 I treated myself to a haircut. This happens only every 6 months because I am a stingy cow so it was nice to catch up with my hairdresser after not seeing him around for a while. His daughter used to go to DS' nursery school but has now started 'proper' school and we never bump in to him these days. So the haircut itself took maybe 20 minutes and the rest of the time was coffee and fag breaks for him and his assistant: a coffee before cutting of course, then a chat about what I want, then another fag because he's just had coffee, then another coffee while my hair got washed, the haircut, then a fag break for him while my hair was dried, and then I had to sit with him while he had another coffee. A true Bosnian time zone, with coffee and cigarettes being the priority! Note that Ramadan is only half measures at the hairdresser's - he has given up the booze, but coffee? and cigarettes? Pah!

10.15 My search for maternity clothes continued... with no success. I'd been told that the top floor of an old department store had some, but no, they only stocked laminate wardrobes and dining sets .

11.00 On my way to buy satsumas, the first of the season, a young-ish chap approached me and explained in a loud jolly voice what a good lad he is and that today he had left his money behind and only needed 1km for something... Very unusual to see begging here (unless it is from gypsies) but even so, there was something not quite ok about the scene (I think he wanted to buy another beer... either that of the fasting had addled his brain after two weeks!!) so I walked on. From inside the shop I then heard a most typically Bosnian exchange as he asked an sweet old lady for money too. She promptly told him to F... Off and stop pestering people . The F Word is so much a part of normal vocabulary here that even toddlers can be heard using it and nobody flinches! It clearly isn't as strong as the English version but it still takes some getting used to!

Just had to add my 'Finds of the Day' to my last post. I love finding funny and odd brand names when I'm out shopping so was thrilled today to find:

Quickie Croissants

and

Lucky Cow Feta Cheese

and

PiPi Mini Sausages

Made my day! But they still haven't topped my number one favourites: Super Dickman and Mini Dickman chocolates

Oooh, I remember mini Dickmans, we used to get those in Germany. In France you can get Zit ice lollies...
Tfor2 perhaps I should meet you for coffee next time I'm coming to La Défense!
WandP, don't get me started on the small world thing...studying in Germany I met someone who was at school with my (now) DH...and once on holiday in Bilbao I bumped into someone from work in the Guggenheim. Isn't that all part of the six degrees of separation theory?
Loved the haircut with fag breaks. My hairdresser is scary

There used to be a brand of cereal in France, chocolate things like Coco Pops, called Plopsies.
I kid you not. I have a photo somewhere of me on my year abroad with a packet of Plopsies and a very silly smile!

In Spain there is a brand of bread called Bimbo which is so ubiquitous that pan bimbo is now the generic name for sliced plastic bread.

Not food stuffs, but near us here in Düsseldorf there are 2 motorway exits leading to the fabulously named towns Titz and Wanken

Oz and NZ a brand of nuts called Nobby's Nuts with the lovely advertising campaign 'nibble nobby's nuts' with song etc...

MmeLindt am PMSL at the motorway exits

I've just decided that I must save up for a mobile phone with a camera again so that I can take sneaky pics of my favourite brands.

A good summer one is Bumm ice cream lollies, and this summer they released the Big Bumm (a bigger and better Bumm)

PMSL

In Kenya we have Toss washing powder and an insecticide spray called Doom.

In Hong Kong, there is a chain of women's clothing shops called Wanko. But my favourite for general oddity is the hair salon in Tsim Sha Tsui called Hair Potato.

I have been telling my husband for years that when we get a place with a garden, we're going to get a rabbit and call it Hair Potato.

Here in Provence someone opened a grungy, paramilitary-style clothes shop called STank. Made me chuckle every time I passed it.
It only stayed open for around 6 months.

FOOC Ibadan, Nigeria

Suedonim, I have just read your post about the conservation centre in Lagos. It is DS's birthday coming up soon and we have promised him a trip to the Big Smoke of Lagos (Ibadan has little to offer in terms of shopping and entertainment opportunities!) with the Shoprite Mall in mind for gift choosing and buying. Combining this with a trip to the conservation centre would be good - whereabouts is it please? How long should we allow for the visit? Cheers

brisbane

been a busy week with after school meetings regarding dd1's schooling. Been trapped in a thread about down syndrome - my dd1 was born with ds and we basically knew before she was born.

Anyway swimming, playgroup and school all done for two weeks - Sept school holidays and then the last term leading up to end of school year and Christmas.

Dh has taken the first week off and so we will do things with the dds - probably take them to the zoo and on little outings. Second week probably con my mum in to accompanying us. Hope to get to the Gold Coast to visit my brother and sil. My sil is pretty famous - here in Qld firefighters (male) have for years done a calendar which raised funds for the burns unit at the local children's hospital.

here

Well this year the female firefighters decided to do a calendar and raise funds for breast cancer awareness and research. My SIL started as a firefighter when there were only 8 in the whole of QLD. She is now one of about 27. She actually is also a rescue worker and is an international rescuer. Her bags were packed ready to go to China should the need arise. Very proud of her. I am sure I have shared about her before. The dds love her and their uncle and love going to the beach so a great time is always had.

beach here They live two very short blocks from here.

Not much else except preparing for a big birthday. I shall be the big 4-0 next wednesday. We are heading to a local dam and park for bbq breakfast and then dh and I are off to dinner and a show.

breakfast here

here for a show

Can't believe two of our fooc - ers were in the same place on the same day!!

oh we have lucky cow cheese spread here too.

Wellies
We have Bumm ice cream and Dickmann sausages. You just reminded me of the sausages that I saw in the supermarket last summer, 3 Willies Original German Currywurst

We bought them for my brother when he visited but he was strangely reluctant to try them.

suedonim, I have just discovered there is a SueDonym Is she an impostor? Who is impersonating who?

at Eidsvolds beach and bbq.

I was on the Downs thread, but it was just going round in circles so havent been back. It is quite difficult to have a discussion about something like SN or Downs. All very well in theory, but quite different when you are directly affected.

We had quite a shock the other day there, DD was off school (Nits arrrgh!) and the other school children came home full of a story about a criminal who was chased over the school playground by the police. The versions ranged from a guy with a knife, policemen shooting a guy, a dead body being found in the stream behind the school. All very terrifying for the parents and we live in a small town so the gossip news was spreading like wildfire.

Today (2 days after the incident) we got a letter from the school head teacher to say that a young man had had an argument with his father, ran out of the house, at which point the father phoned the police. The police set off in pursuit of the guy, chased him across the school playground then lost him. The spent some time scouring the grounds around the school.

The guy did not have a weapon although there have been reports of a warning shot fired (no idea if this was a figment of someones overworked imagination). The children were not allowed out at playtime until the police were satisfied that there was no danger for the children.

It does make me think though, about the safety of the school playground. It is used as a short cut through the village by many villagers, noone thinks anything of it. This would be unthinkable in UK, but here is completely normal.

Even though there have been incidents in schools here (the most shocking one was on 26th April 2002 when a young man ran amok in a school in Erfurt, killing 17 school pupils and staff) there was never a tightening of security in the schools. I wonder why.

mme lindt - our schools now have a lockdown procedure which is practiced as a security measure.

There is a special alarm that sounds and the children are to crouch down under their desks or in the store cupboard ( dd1's room has a huge store cupboard). Doors locked. They stay there until the all clear sounds. They are to be silent.

It has only been used once beyond practice at a local school not far from here - guy wandering the grounds with a gun.

notices madame is not over the turning 40 though!!

Oh today is a balmy 24 - think it is higher than that already. Our summer storm season is due to start earlier than usual in the next week or so. Great - probably this week as dh has time off and so will be able to go out for storm damage mop up. He belongs to the SES

here one of their areas is to help with storm damage and clean up. He has already done a few. Although I guess I can be pleased he is not allowed to do roof work yet as he is not 'accredited!!' Yes he does have a sexy gross orange uniform.

better idea about SES

They also do things like search for missing people - would be called out in times of natural disasters eg cyclones, earth quakes etc. All sorts of interesting things.

School playground security is one thing that really worries me here. Schools (private and state run) tend to have open playgrounds that anyone can walk through. And often use public parks for PE or recess. Coming as a teacher from the UK, where we had doors locked all day and the playground fenced off and secured, it terrified me. When I taught in Connecticut, the children (5 - 7 yr olds) would often watch the prostitutes on the corner or talk with the crack heads who would wait for the 'ice cream van' to pull up. It was horrible. Yet parents paid $10,000+ to send their children there.

That is surprising, Cali.

DS' nursery has no security system but they do lock the doors after everyone has been dropped off. My guess is that this is to actually keep the kids in, not keep the baddies out!