from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

Old thread...
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2423/576865?ts=1222265998268&msgid=12499051

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

Great catching up, thanks to all correspondents.
Many happy returns Teafortwo, Eidsvold and Suedonim.

Yes - happy birthdays ladies.

It's time for another list of correspondents isn't it? However I'm going to 'take this outside', so you can all pipe up and correct the inevitable mistakes I've made in the round-up and we can have a nice clean list on here. Anal? Me? You must have me confused with someone else...

wanna fight about it?. List in progress. Please check.

no - that way if we are not sure or someone forgets to post their location - we can use the other one as a reference.

I always thought that the FOOC thread was going to be like that in honor of Humph thread that I never understood. Instead I find I've missed a totally interesting (and understandable) thread. What a bummer. I guess I'll have to go back and read more.

I really have. Instead of reading all my food blogs, I'm going to slog through as much of the thread as I can. So I'm off to do that.

I just realized I don't have that long before the site goes down though. (Shakes fist at Tech or Yetmoretech or whoever)

They said they were working on it, Dooney. Something about a new server

I have for the first posting on FOOC a bit of juicy insider gossip from the treasury in Canberra... DH is working there at the moment and assures me house prices are going to crash... well call me a cynic but maybe he is right and has talked to someone influential... or is this just a scam on his part to make me wait to buy one ...still if it does happen ..... Yes I know it is allready but really happens then YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!
Failing that bit of juicy behind the headlines new... in Brisbane today it has been brass monkeys.. report said 22 degrees im guesing by the blue shade of DS's feet and hands it was lower than that.
Now off to sleep....

chloe, your husband is probably referring to the global credit crunch which has already resulted in house prices nosediving pretty much everywhere - US, UK, France, Spain, etc.

FOOC Chicago

Turkey Vultures are enormous - they used to soar over the hills in Connecticut. We have little wildlife here in the city but I sat and watched a muskrat in the pond last weekend we have lots of chipmunks. We also have wild turkeys and, apparently, possums and raccoons but I never manage to see them. Not live anyway, there are always tons as roadkill.

My favourite are the fireflies which appear for a couple of weeks in July. They are quite amazing to watch. I want to go to Texas to see the armadillos.

Ahhh yes Cotedazur however reading the Courier mail ( the brissy rag) would lead you to believe that Bribane is going to have immunity to the credit crunch...
Note from my sunny QLD back yard today.. first snake sighted... a bl**dy big black one. Fortunately.. sorry snake lovers... squashed flat in the road...summer is a coming!
\ Oh and a quick bit of bridget jones note to self.. and others... if you intend coming to brisnabe and getting very very sick can i suggest you do it south of the river as I am now gainfully employed and id hate to finish any of you off! so if your heading to a critical care unit just suggest you go south of the muddy brisbane rver or you may get me mopping your brow!
back to my sunny garden for now..

Toronto - Mundane alert!!

Hey on with the reports FOOCs, I'm missing my daily dosage of news from around the world.

I have been basking in a very boring day here. Didn't manage to get myself and DD out until late this afternoon. I normally try and avoid rush-hour for any local mooching around. After all I supposedly have the whole day to do it, so why wait until people are rushing to get home, clogging supermarkets etc. That theory broke down today and I took to the street at 5pm in search of some dinner stuff. Even for that time of day, it was unusually busy and the pavements were clogged up with commuters on foot.

Well, and I did warn you this was mundane and boring: a sizeable part of the city subway system has been shut down this afternoon. Look, look, it's on the news. Apparently an electrical fault at my local stop, but everyone seemed typically super Toronto-chilled about the whole thing, despite the awful traffic and queues for buses.

Sometimes, I do wonder if people here have had a happy-chip installed. Maybe anger-management is a compulsory part of the Canadian curriculum or it might just be all that yoga.

North Yorkshire

Well hello new thread from blighy. It is the middle of the night and DS1 is not well. He has a cold and his chest is playing up, so I thought that I would give him some calcold (calpol with decongestant in it), but it is not pink............. cue screaming three year old insisting this is not calpol and he wants calpol. He has got himself so upset I have to resort to his inhailer to help him breath. So why do they make calpol pink and not the other branded calpol stuff?

The autumn has definatly started here, not that we had much of a summer and my DH is insistant that we do not turn on the heating until October. SO we have got out our throws and are all enjoying curling up under them on a late afternoon and evening. I am even going to buy the boys some thermals (they are on offer in Aldi next week)

We are also contemplating a wood burning stove for the front room,, which should heat downstairs and mean we can leave the heating off a bit more, so that is my mission for the week, to price up one and installation (which is more than the costs of a stove).

Shanghai

Last night I had one of those moments when you realise you've gone native.

There's a practice here known as "chang liang". It means "enjoying the cool of the evening". You take your deckchair out onto the street and sit there chatting to your neighbours and passers-by and having a beer, or you walk your dog or go to the convenience store for an ice cream. All of this is done while you're wearing your pyjamas.

There is a woman who lives in the apartment block next door to us who walks her little Pekingnese every evening in immaculate pyjamas and a full beehive hair-do. What really tickles me is that she has clothes for the dog that she co-ordinates with her pyjamas. They both have seasonal chang liang outfits - during Chinese New Year they both wear gold, and during the Olympics she wore patriotic red pyjamas and the dog wore a little jacket with "Beijing 2008" printed on the back. They are impressively cosmopolitan and it's not just local festivals they acknowledge - last December she had the dog in a Santa outfit.

DH was making a big mess de-frosting the fridge last night and DD was getting grumpy, so I plopped her in the pram and took her out for a walk. It wasn't until I was in the convenience store buying Coke for the morning that I realised that I too was in my pyjamas, and that when I move to Sydney, people will think I am a care-in-the-community mental health patient if I stroll the streets in my night wear.

brisbane no snakes here yet.

Our tawny frogmouth seems to have disappeared - off to someone else's lovely garden.

we have been out gardening this morning and the dds have been running amok in the garden.

We get koalas over the road - vacant lot attached to council depot and small water plant, dd1 has had koalas in the tree outside her classroom. We also get possums - they love our mango tree. Actually - saw a possum in a busy shopping precinct watched it run around cars and then shimmy down a hole that was around a down pipe going through the pavement.

LOL at caliherr!!! Poor man.

oh forgot to add - dh took me out for dinner and a show for my birthday. We went to QPAC - Queensland Performing Arts Complex. On the riverbank - southside.

southbank

We also have our own eye. ( called the brisbane wheel) pods are not as big as London eye ones BUT it looks okay. Dh and I saw it in operation on Wednesday night - we thought we might take the dds one night - works out about $50 for us.

wheel

We saw a british comedian called Bill Bailey.

him

He was pretty funny - I had never come across him before. he clearly had a huge fan base - concert hall was packed. However our enjoyment was dampened a bit by the young lady who sat next to us who almost wet herself everytime the comedian said something. Now some of it was funny - some was very funny - some was okay. But to this young lady it was hysterical - at one point i thought she was going to pass out - she was laughing so hard she had to start gasping for air.

Melbourne

AFL fever here ... all anyone can talk about is the Grand Final of the Aussie Rules Footy which takes place at the MCG tomorrow afternoon. The whole of Melbourne goes CRAZY on Grand Final day. This year it is the first All Victorian final in 8 years so they are going especially bonkers. An estimated 50,000 supporters are expected to turn up in the city today to see the Grand Parade of the two teams (Hawthorn vs. Geelong).
Personally, I don't get it - all I see is an excuse for a punch up. But it is a rather nice sport to watch - it's the arms you see

nah ghosty - it is the tight shorts - they are a tad looser these days but way back when they were very tight.

Like this you mean Eids?

FOOC Auckland NZ

Reporting NRL fever here. The Warriors, NZ's only team in the rugby league and our 'local boys' are playing in the preliminary finals in Sydney. The fever is so great people like me whose only interest to date has been ds1's team, the fact one of the players is a friend's hubby and the corporate box with freebies have started looking earnest and discussing the game potential, cars are driving around town drapped in flags or with flags perched precariously from windows or attached to arials, 'serious' newstalk radio stations are holding Warriors talkbacks alongside the upcoming election and 'hot political' topics. Everywhere you go from school pickup to supermarket queues people are discussing where they are watching the match and who with. Except us............ sadly for DH we will not be watching the match but will be here:

www.thehive.co.nz/2008/sep/auckland-central/peter-urlich-dine-and-dance

Yes Peter Urlich dine and dance at the Langham Hotel ballroom. Booked before Warriors fever hit when he was all loved up after my month trip back home in July. He even also promised to dance .

Go the Vodafone Warriors, Go because Gawd help us if they lose - the whole country will descend into a deep depression not seen since the All Blacks lost in the World Cup!!!

that's more like it ghosty!!!