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 gooooooodness!!!! - I can't believe how this thread has developed during my trip to London!

I love the way it flows from poetry to yummy cakey stuff to gritty hard hitting facts and real feelings and thoughts - the best novel I am reading at the moment (it really does feel like a novel catching up on all these pages)!!!

I ave had a good skim but will definately read them all carefully asap... meanwhile time for some sleeeeeeep!!!!

Thank you!!!! I am so proud of our foocs thread!!!!

today another balmy winters day.

Dd2 and 3 and I attended playgroup. For pre school aged children - play, do craft, sing and have morning tea. Parents stay - we bring a plate of food to contribute to the adult morning tea.

Then it was off to assembly/parade at dd1's primary school ( junior school) Our parade always starts with the children standing to sing the national anthem. Dd1 was awarded Student of the week for her class - very exciting( I got all choked up) (for those of you who don't know dd1 has down syndrome and is attending mainstream school!) The youngest three classes then performed a nursery rhyme - dd1's class did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, the other class did London Bridge is falling down, third class did Goosey Goosey Gander. The children did very well.

The older classes did a presentation about Litter and what they were going to do to combat litter.

THen it is home for rest time back to school for pick up.

Then I am off to the P and C Meeting. The P and C ( Parent's and Citizen's) Association is involved in running the school canteen and fundraising for school things, helping with the running of the school. We also employ the lollipop Ladies - school crossing supervisors. I managed to be voted Secretary and so have all the minutes, agendas etc to do. Have never been to a meeting like you had though suedonim

Sorry for the ramble - but that is a bit about life in Aus.

Eidsvold
Well done to your DD, you must be so proud.

Meowmix
Quatar sounds like a difficult place to live.

We are lucky here in Germany, it is quite similar to UK, just a bit more punctual.

Today I have been baking muffins and brownies for DS to take to kindergarten. It was his birthday last month, during the holidays and they are celebrating today. The mothers bake cakes or buy ice cream and the children sit together at Schlusskreis (closing circle) at about 11.30am. The birthday boy or girl gets to help make a crown with their age on it in glitter.

The other children sing Zum Geburtstag Viel Glück and Happy Birthday (which sounds quite funny when German children sing it. More Heppy Boorzday) and they eat cake before lunchtime.

aha aha aha - my daughter sings 'appi birtzdai tu yu!!! Due to hearing French children singing it so much!!!!

Eidsvold, your school P&C sounds great!

Singing 'Happy Birthday' in Nigeria is a long involved process, with many verses.

Crowd:
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear XXXXX
Happy Birthday to you.

Crowd:
How old are you now?
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto

Birthday child:
I am XX years today,
Ditto
Ditto
Ditto

Crowd:
May the Good Lord Bless you,
Ditto
Ditto
May the Good Lord Bless you!!

By which time the candles will have burnt down to the cake thus ensuring lots of tears from Birthday Child who is deprived of the ceremony of blowing them out with a wish.

LOL.

It's an African thing Sue, we have the same problem here, often during the singing some child has found it just too difficult to be that patient and has stuck his finger in the middle of the disgusting store made synthetic icing and ruined the carefully designed layout.

Love the Nigerian b/day.

chachacha - that is so much fun!!!!

However, the African version sounds like an endurance test!!!!

I like the variations on Happy Birthday, will try to teach DD1 as she sings the ordinary Happy Birthday over and over and over... ever since her birthday, two months ago lol

Latest report from South Brittany: In summer, this area tries to turn itself from the French version of Emmerdale, into a mini wannabe Monaco, with a casino, nightclubs and marina full of expensive yatchs. There are zillions of people on holiday and the population grows tenfold, or something. Everywhere gets madly busy, but usually in a nice way because people are happy to be on holiday and are all zen and chilled. Well, most of them are. Some people are grumpy and narky but as they say on Mumsnet, don't judge

I tried to get a weekly shop done at Lidl, and soon wished I hadn't because it was so packed that it was difficult to breathe, let alone walk around the shop. The rising cost of living seems to be a major concern here at the mo, maybe that's why the discount supermarkets are so busy? I can't remember it being this bad last year.

ah well
I don't know if this is an NZ tradition, or jujst our family, but the traditional Happy BIrthday is then followed by;

Happy BIrthdya to you
Happy Birthdya to you
You look like a monkey
And you live in a zoo

and then a rousing chorus of

Why was s/he born so beautiful
Why was s/he born at all
S/he's no bloody use to anyone
S/he's no bloody use at all

somehow I suspect it's just us....

Mrs JC - perhaps it is an antipodean thing - although we don't do it with dd1 as she would get impatient and have a meltdown.

Our variation now includes mummy signing to the family and especially dd1 - happy birthday - including madly trying to finger spell the name of said child.

another balmy winter's day - waiting for the august winds to appear.

Off to buy petrol - today is the day. Our petrol price rises every week - there are expensive days to buy petrol and cheap days. Wednesday morning is the best time to do it. Dh is just gobsmacked and repeatedly tells me that people in the UK would not stand for this.

Aussies - we just get our petrol on the cheap days

THen off to do the grocery shop. We shop at Coles although we also have Aldi, WOolworths ( which is a grocery store here in Aus) Safeway and IGA here in QLD - get different ones in different states also.

reusable bags are the go here - although lots of people still use plastic. I started with making my own in the UK and taking along a soft esky that we had.

Here in AUs for $1 you get a reusable bag or for $2 you get an insulated bag. I have after about three years of weekly shopping had to purchase new chilly bagas. As they pack about three things to a plastic bag I know I have saved thousands of plastic bags.

reusable bags are the go here - although lots of people still use plastic. I started with making my own in the UK and taking along a soft esky that we had.

Here in AUs for $1 you get a reusable bag or for $2 you get an insulated bag. I have after about three years of weekly shopping had to purchase new chilly bagas. As they pack about three things to a plastic bag I know I have saved thousands of plastic bags.

Central California update: most fires have been put out, but slight smoky haze remains over the Sierra. At least we don't feel the earthquakes out here.

Very glad I escaped Ghana before a long-expected earthquake hit. Whaddya think, suedonim, would West African building standards have withstood that 5.nothing earthquake that hit LA last week?

Also very glad Albert has spotted Weetabix in Brazil. It'll cut down on my packing.

For some reason, the choice of jarred baby food in California, or at least in this part, is awful. Anyone else in the US noticed that?

There's some gloopy 'organic' stuff called Earth's Best. It ain't. It's just strange after the UK, where the baby food choices seem to go on for half a kilometer of shelf space. I mostly make my own anyway, but it's nice to have jars if you're going out or travelling or whatever. And of course Gerber is full of salt and sugar. Where's the Organix range when you need it??

We're near Yosemite. They just put out the last big fire a few days ago. We had ash all over the car, the yard furniture, etc. And it was a good 30 miles away.

I don't want to rant overmuch about the baby food thing, as the produce here is amazing. I'm in nectarine heaven. Especially after Ghana, where a finding a wilted cauliflower felt like a lottery win.

Welcome back Cocobear I'm sure Ghana misses you! Are you on a tour of North America before heading off to Brazil? I'm in heaven in Nairobi - there are proper shopping malls for heaven's sake! And lovely street cafes. And huge supermarkets. And no mosquitoes. And UK standard cinemas not sweaty cinemas with no fire escapes and a million people jammed into them. But I miss the Cameroonians and that West African joie de vivre.

MrsJohnCusack - you need to take a photo of that sign and send it to Signspotting. They had an exhibition of lifesize reproductions of these in Stockholm when we were there recently - hilarious.

LunarSea - that site is fantastic!! What a hoot. I have a photo somewhere I took of a sign at the Tekija Dervish House in Blagaj, near Mostar, where they claimed it had been re-constructed by "Ottoman Time-Travellers"...

Great site, Lunar. I will have a proper look later today.

We are off on an adventure today. I have packed a picnic and we are going to cycle to a nearby park. The cycle paths here in this area are pretty good, we are only 30mins from Holland after all. The best part is that it is all flat so very easy for the DCs to cycle longer distances.

LOL at the Happy Birthday variations. I have heard of the African one before, on a CD to teach children English.

dd2 and I are off to the library today. We have a number of libraries within a short distance from us. This is a council library - books, cds,dvds, toy library, computers to access internet or other programs, self service check in and out as well as a separate family history section where they have a number of resources that you can access to help you in your genealogical research.

THe library has all sorts of activities during the school holidays. Term time they have pj time - come in your pjs etc and have story read to you before bedtime. On a Tuesday morning they also have story and activity time.

Then it is off to the shops to do messages ( as dd2 calls them.) Unlike the UK that has the 'high street' we tend to have malls - like bluewater in kent. Our closest one is not as big but it has three grocery stores as well as 2 variety stores - Big W ( kind of walmart like) and Target. Lots of little specialty shops as well as banks and a medical centre.

Another lovely balmy day here again - going to be 21. Very chilly last night 6 degrees!!! Not cold in the grand scheme of things but the drop from 22 to 6 is easily felt.