from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

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

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

FOOC Monaco

Well, summer is officially over in the French riviera. Tuesday, we were having lunch on the beach in t-shirts. Today there was wind, rain, and we were in winter jackets.

diddy - DD was born in the summer in Monaco, and air conditioning was on full blast in ever room of the hospital. I got told off by nurses for dressing her "too warm"

FOOC West Coast Canada (FOOC WCC - is that too many letters??)
Was going to post something banal about autumn rain and wind storms ruining trick or treating tonight but read Nigeria's post and was gobsmacked by visual of cartload of corpses... feel I must slink away and think of something more interesting to say but cannot think of WHAT... may just lurk for a while and read posts about seriously interesting other parts of the world... my world is very safe and boring in comparison and that is just fine!!!!

FOOC Paris

WELCOME Jacksmama - we love the quainter side of life too. For example - My knees turn to jelly everytime qs mentions jam making!!! Please feel free to tell us about the rain and winds and trick or treating!!!

So are we staring the thread where mums with one child (by choice or circumstance or whatever) can talk about daft things like daisy's boys' trousers?
Or perhaps we should start a thread where we can just talk about daft things regardless of how many children we have... so everyone feels included... wait, ermmm.. that's mumsnet isn't it? Hee hee...
Just had the funniest phone call from a future FOOC and had to share. Phone rings. It's my friend who lives in Michigan. (DD born in July, similar birth to my DS... so we frequently moan to each other about attendant complications and sequelae --- this is how I stumbled upon mumsnet orginally.) Michigan tells me "I just bit my tongue right through!!! It's bleeding and hurts like a mad bastard!!!" Ermmmm... and you're calling me because....?? "Because I just needed to share with someone and I knew you'd be home!" My immediate answer: "You should join mumsnet!!" LOL. The remainder of the conversation was somewhat unintelligible because of swollen tongue and us laughing like loons but she did find the site and was in the process of signing up, so look out for FOOC Michigan, aka kittycattygabriellasmum. She may post to tell us all about her bleeding tongue... because someone's always home on mumsnet!!

at the lorry load of corpses.

FOOC Geneva Switzerland
Heavy showers, 2°C

Can I request that FOOCers give a short weather report at the beginning of their posts? I am strangely fascinated by the weather. Or perhaps not so strange, we Brits do seem a bit weather obsessed.

The weather here in Geneva was miserable for a couple of days, rain rain rain. Luckily for the trick or treaters it stopped this afternoon but was still very cold. We decided to stay at home, the trick or treaters do need somewhere to go after all.

Here, in true Swiss fashion, Halloween was organised within an inch of it's life. We were given a letter explaining the two options, which some MNetters were kind enough to translate. Two days later we were given a list of the children who were going trick or treating and which houses they were to visit.

I would guess we had about 60 kids here, much more than I was expecting, and we actually ran out of sweets, I had to go and beg for some from our neighbours.

I reckon that most of the school was involved, there are only 95 kids in the school.

FOOC WCC
Weather in Langley, British Columbia (BC), Canada: rain. Rain!!! Pissing down rain!!!! 13 degrees C (I don't think I have the little circle symbol for degrees on my keyboard).
It's 2 pm and it's going to piss down rain all day. Trick or treaters will get soaked!! Grrr.

Hi Jacksmama,

welcome to the FOOCers, and thanks for the detailed weather report

That is what we have had all bloody week. Rainrainrain. At least there is plenty snow on the hills now. Or I assume there is as we cannot see them for the clouds.

FOOC Langley, BC, Canada
Weather still pissy, 10 degrees and raining. Stopped raining in time for trick or treating though - which was NOT a great success because when I answered the door holding DS (8 1/2 months) and he saw scary masks, he WAILED and was inconsolable... we gave it up after an hour because it clearly freaked him out to see dressed up lttle goblins and fairies, even from the safety of across the room on DH's lap... so turned off lights, went downstairs and watched new Indiana Jones DVD.
Questions for all FOOCs:
how long have you lived where you're now living (and where are you now?), what do you like about where you live and what do you not like? How did you come to live there?
Will answer my own questions shortly - am at work and must start seeing patients (have kept several waiting because on MN lately --- it is truly addictive to chat with mums all over the world!!)

FOOC Auckland

Weather report - spring here in the city of 4 seasons. One minute bucketing it down. We have a tin roof so when it rains hard you can't hear the tele, hold a conversation or at times hear yourself think. Took some getting used to. Intermittently it's scorching sunshine. Spring and Autumn here tend to be the season for layered clothing. Fleeces, t-shirt, vest tops. On - off-on-off After Labour Day Holiday which fell last weekend all children must wear hats to school and pre-schools on account of the intense sun. Day 1 of the hat wearing I had to drive ds's fleece to school on account of it being freezing but the kids were all playing in the playground with their sun hats on! Compulsory hat wearing runs through til after the Easter holiday. No hat, no play!! school chant.

ANyway reason for post. Mustn't be English and get side tracked by the weather

This weekend was a mishmash/frenzy of festivities. Friday obviously halloween but the local churches with growing intensity for the past few years have staged a war against the evil and darkness of Halloween and held 'light parties'. No Halloween costumes allowed, fairies, superheros and glow sticks, disco and cup cakes. We live rural so don't get trick or treated. I usually take the ds's to friends who live urban and trick and treat together. tbh for me it's all a bit too American (sorry all American on here). I grew up with Guy Fawkes, bonfire night, making guys - standing on street corners begging for money wtih my guy which seems to have taken backseat to obnoxious cute kids dressed in costumes badgering for treats . So I was most excited this year that thanks to the government calling the election for 7th November (more on that later) and teh local A&P show (more on that later too) on the 7th and 8th at the show grounds Fireworks night was bougth forward to the 31st. The choice of what to do was almost too much for ds1 so I made an exec decision and we went to the fireworks. Old fashoined fair with overpriced rides, candy floss, chips and the scouts with a sausage sizzle. The local firebrigade were on hand not only in case the massive, roaring fire got out of hand but to sell raffle tickets for a wheelbarrow full of meat! Thousands of people armed with picnics, blankets, seats, food, wine etc congregating for hours in anticipation of the fireworks which were finally let of with much spendour lighting the night sky. The only thing missing - classical music (I do miss the Kenwood concerts).

ANd for any old farts like me on here tonight dh and I are off to Auckland Zoo to see Paul Young and Tony Hadley. More picnics. Fingers crossed the rain holds off and I'm under strict instructions from the ds's to take a photo of the newly born tiger cubs before the concert starts

Jacksmama - in brief: I've lived here 6 years. I love our lifestyle, opportunity. Fantastic life for kids etc....I hate the distance from home, miss family and friends, old buildings, London, Europe......... I married a kiwi who imported me

Fooc Paris...

Hey, that Jacksmama - she don't 'arf arrsk lots of questions, hey???

I have lived in France for just under three years. Sometimes it feels like three million years and other times just three seconds.

I like lots of things about living on the outskirts of Paris! Probably my favourite thing is the freedom and liberty I feel living outside the confinements of my own culture. I can really, within reason, live as I please and the people around me don't judge or think me 'weird'. You see so many things I do are quite odd to them anyway just by being English that they can't see what is different and what is just me being English!

What I dislike? Customer service, how difficult I am finding it to learn French and how everyone else manages to find this harmony of fashion and chic classic style while I can rarely find matching socks!

How did I arrive here? Well.. I was having a delicious four year Eurostar romance. We had been spending weekends and holidays together but hadn't moved to each others countries because we were both quite career minded. I thought I couldn't have children and had explained this fully to DP who was disappointed - "I would love to have a child with you one day." but he understood. So it was the most wonderful surprise we have ever had when I discovered I was pregnant!

We had to set up our family home somewhere and as fast as possible... so I moved out of my home, left my job and walked through DPs apartment door on April fools day with a backpack full of clothes and a belly filled with dd!

The plan was we spent our first two years here then looked into moving to the UK... but I really love it here...My life has become this wonderful adventure filled with love, friends, an interesting and not too pressured job that I fit around my life rather than fit my life around, a wonderful city and a daughter who is both French and English! I really can't go back now - this is my life - no - let me rephrase that - this is our lives! Infact we are having such a blast that in July we confirmed our family life together by popping over to London with our dd and a couple of friends and reader, I married him!

OREGON

I've lived within 10 miles of here all my life, with the exception of 4 years when we moved about 250 miles south of here. We came back 2 years ago, as MIL had cancer, and we moved back to take care of her before she died.

Weather, I have go go convert American to British, hang on. It is 16 and partly sunny at 2:12 pm, with a few showers this morning. Yesterday was the first day the weather turned. It has mostly been fairly warm and beautifully sunny for several weeks.

I know most MN'ers aren't big on Halloween, usually for the reasons Sibble stated as it is "too American", but I had to share ours.

DD had her party at school on Thursday. DS got to come to that, as his was on Friday, and I was class helper, and DD would get to come to his, so the teacher invited DS, so he would have 2 parties, also. They both had a great time, and got lots of goodie bags stuffed with candy and cheap tat. They love their cheap tat, let me tell you.

Yesterday was DS' party. I helped, but the teacher's old helper turned up, so it was 3 of us to 8 kids. I even dressed up, as I have an emergency costume I bought several years ago for cheap the day after Halloween in case of having a "needing a costume" emergency. It was fun with all the kids.

It was quite rainy and cold in the afternoon, but cleared up nicely right before we went out. The kids only went to about 15 houses, and decided they were done. Then we handed out candy. We handed out almost 150 pieces in about 35 minutes, and could have handed out all of them, but when I got down to my final 10, I just turned the lights off, as there were quite a few groups of 15 or more. People from all around here drive in and Trick or Treat the neighborhood, which is kind of annoying. I'm sure if we had been home the whole time, I would have had about 400 kids at the door. Our street, like every other one I saw, was filled with cars of people who didn't live here, but came to get candy from here.

The nice thing was, everyone who came to the door was incredibly polite. From toddlers to teenagers, they all said thank you. The teenage girls were really sweet to DS, as he wanted to hand out the candy, and when DD got in on the action and was kind of slow about handing out candy, nobody got grabby or upset. Nobody pulls any pranks in the neighborhood. We had several carved pumpkins by the door, and they're still all in original condition, and I noticed today there are lots of very intricately carved pumpkins, and they all survived.

DH wore a costume for the 1st time ever, unbeknown to us, and came home and surprised us. The kids just loved it. They made DH wear it out when we went trick or treating. It was so much fun to see them so excited and thoroughly enjoying themselves the past few days. They've been entertained for several hours today taking out their candy, and smelling it and organizing it into different piles. I never realized what great toys candy made.

have been busy with mundane things like helping out at the school tuckshop - like a cafe ( not dining area) but providing lunch for children to order and buy. Trying to organise a toy drive and sort out kindergarten and grade 1 for next year.

Dd1 had a big moment on Friday - her last ever day at the early childhood special education unit. Over this year she has transitioned from 3days mainstream, 2 days special ed to full time mainstream from next week. For those of you who don't know my dd1 was born with down syndrome and a heart defect. her heart was repaired with 2 open heart surgeries when she was 8 weeks old and she hasn't looked back since. It is a big step off to mainstream as dd1 started attending the special ed unit at a playgroup level - so 4 1/2 years later we said goodbye. I was very teary - there have been and still are fabulous teachers there who do great work with great kids.

Our school year mimics the calendar year and goes from Jan - Dec - with major holiday at the end of the year for summer. So next Jan dd1 will be in year 1 and dd2 starts kindergarten. Dd2 will attend kindergarten three days a week - as a parent you can chose - especially if you are at the top of the waiting list - what days you want them to go. Dd2 needs sheets for the stretcher beds that they use to have a rest on after lunch. SO I have sewn two sheets - one with elastic straps at the corners - bright pink with dinosaurs on it! Then a bag to carry it in - bright pink with spots as well as a cushion as a pillow. It is all labelled and ready to go. We also pay fees for kindergarten. The children attend from around 9 until 2pm.

Now - weather - yesterday sunny 30 degrees.
with the wind getting up in the evening. TOday - cloudy and 26 degrees.

Jacksmama lived in Brisbane for most of my life. Went to Rockhampton for university, spent 5 years teaching in a couple of areas in the state and also spent 4 years living and working in the UK.

Went to the Uk for a holiday and to work - returned home with dh, dd1 and dd2 on the way. Dh is an englishman who loves Australia and has no desire to return to live in England. I loved the village we lived in when dd1 was born.

I actually bought this house with my exhusband but he left with my married best friend about 5 months after we had bought it and moved in. I kept it and am so glad I did. This is a great place to live. I have had this house for 16 years now.

I love Aus - think it is a great place to raise children ( major reason for coming home). We live about 5 minutes walk from dd1's school, relatively quiet neighbourhood, no more than 40 minutes from the beach.

The only downer is that all of dh's family is in the UK - I love my MIL and feel saddened that she has never met dd2 and dd3, also that when she saw dd1 last dd1 was not the amazing 6yo she is now. MIL has not seen how much she has progressed and how far she has come. So it is people rather than places that I miss.

Aaarrrgghh, have had no time to post!! Didn't mean to ask, ask, ask and then run away without telling my story -- promise to catch up later!!

we want pics cali!!!!

St Martins sounds really lovely. What a wonderful fruitshoot story. I love the term "Wackelzahn"

Keep the Bio Wetter reports coming!

FOOC in Chicago

With a very large Mexican poplutaion, we also have the Day of the Dead celebrations, or Dia de los Muertos. You get to drink hot chocolate laced with cinnamon, eat sugar skulls and make a little alter for those you want to remember. But the big day is, of course, Hallowe'en.

As usual, the a 2-block stretch of street in my neighbourhood was closed to traffic and all the houses were decorated with steaming caludrons, spiders that dropped down on your head as you passed by and various skeletons and tombstones. This year there was a very political theme, living in Obama's neck of the woods. Many people wore Obama masks or t-shirts and several houses were decorated with democratic slogans. My favourite tombstone was the:

RIP

GOP [republicans]

2008

We live in hope.

DS dressed as a cow and managed to collect a bucket FULL of candy. People were walking with carrier bags full of the stuff. I have no idea what they do with it - I can't believe anyone can eat the vast quantities they collect. Anyway, Hallowe'en was fun.

My mum has been visiting so we have been doing lots of touristy things too. The day before Hallowe'en we went to the free circus downtown, where acrobats hung above the crowd dangling from a ribbon, men juggled with knives and fire and DS had a whale of a time. This was followed by a subway ride to Chinatown where DS was mesmerised by the live crabs and toads in the shops. I was a bit uncertain as to whether he should see them but I am a strong supporter of knowing where our food comes from and that the animals we see in the fields (well, since I am in the city, we see them at the zoo) are the same as the ones you eat.

With all the Hallowe'en festivities over, we are now thinking about Thanksgiving. But, before that, we have The Election. Everyone is rather nervous.

lol @ someone's always home on Mumsnet!

I am loving the stories of how the FOOCers came to live where they are, well done Jacksmama. Teafortwo, loved your story of your unexpected DD.

FOOC Geneva Switzerland Weather Sunny, 7°C at the moment, but the forecast is showers. Right now it is gorgeous so we are going to walk to school. Eek, better go now or we will be late. Will post later about the weekend.

FOOC Galicia. Weather - 7 deg, cloudy, threatening rain.

I'm back in Spain after an exhilarating weekend in London. The city really was at its best this weekend, and I thought I'd share some of my impressions as a visitor.

First, arriving in Stansted airport, you realise how bossy England can be. It's all "No mobile phones at passport control", "Remove your passport from its cover", "wait here before being called forward", "do not threaten our staff" etc etc. Airports in Portugal and Spain do not seem to feel the need to be so bossy, yet chaos does not prevail. You get the sneaking suspicion that us Brits like being told what to do by figures in authority.

There's nothing like seeing the Houses of Parilament all lit up on a winter's night. We had rather a long look at this as our bus got stuck in traffic going over a bridge. All the tourists on the bus were super impressed, and I have to say I felt rather proud.

I always underestimate how big London is, and how long^ it takes to get anywhere. It took me longer to get from Stansted airport to my friend`s house in Richmond than it did to fly from Porto.

I was over in London for a very special family meal in Gordon Ramsey's at Claridges. We were celebrating 2 things - my sister's 21st birthday, and my brother being declared in remission from the bone cancer that he's been battling for the last year. So BIG celebrations and relief. The meal was exceptional. Just exceptional. My cousin is a chef there, so we were given special treatment and a tour of the kitchen. Just fabulous.

I was VERY excited to be able to see some fireworks. We went to the Battersea park display, which was set to music, varying from Coldplay to some sort of R&B (don't ask me what, I have NO idea) My eyes filled with tears to be watching such beautiful fireworks in UK, with my family, on such a cold (and soggy) night.

Special mention must also go to Kew Gardens, where I went for a Sunday morning stroll. After the monotony of eucalyptus and acacia forests here, seeing the autumn tree colours was extra special.

I was sad to leave, but happy to return home to Spain. London was great for a weekend, but I couldn't live there. I have to go and get dressed now for a walk with a friend in the hills - not something I could do if I lived in the big smoke.

Cies
Sounds like a great weekend. I am glad to hear that your brother is doing well, you must all be so relieved.

Well, I have put some photos of our Trunk or Treat on my profile. Yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, we were invited to a Trunk or Treat party at DH's office. We were unsure of what to expect, we had been told to bring sweets for the trick or treating, pumpkins for a best pumpkin competition and decorations for the car.

In typical European fashion, I took some pumpkins and a couple of squashes as decorations, only to be completely outshined by the American colleagues with their halloween lights, fake ghosts and cobwebs. The winning alien pumpkin was fabulous, and certainly deserved to win. There was some controversy over the second pumpkin as it was open at the bottom which many felt was cheating. :-)

There was a parade for the best costume as well, that DD took part in reluctanly because "we are all winners as we have all made an effort"

One of the women was just reading a scary story by torchlight/candlelight when the pizza delivery guy arrived from Domino's Pizza. I had to laugh when a young American boy asked if they had Hamburger Pizza; I was not aware that such a thing existed.

At one point the older girls started telling the kids that they should get together for the Mummy Rap. I was intrigued, thinking that they had rehearsed a song and had to laugh when I realised that it was a Mummy WRAP, the kids were wrapped in loo roll to resemble mummies. DS thought this was great fun, although he did say that he would like to do the game again at home. I will be hiding the loo roll to save us from an Andrex Puppy Situation.

After this the children went around the cars, shouting Trick (or Trunk) or Treat and were given lots of sweets.

All in all, it was a great evening and the candy was (Gott Sei Dank) Swiss - none of Califrau's neon boaksome stuff

just a quick post from late at night Aus.

cloudy but still warm here.

Tomorrow is the day - 'the race that stops a nation' kind of like the grand national. Our spring racing carnival has started down in Melbourne. Those lucky folks get a bank holiday. But it is big deal here - people everywhere do stop to watch the race on tv or listen on radio etc. Big fashion stakes for the ladies. People who never gamble 99.9% of the time will still have a punt on the melbourne cup. Offices will have sweeps where you invest a dollar or two - get given a randomly drawn horse and pray for it to come 1,2 or 3. You then get a proportion of the sweeps money.

People go out to big luncheons etc. Me - I am going to a morning tea - helping out with a morning tea held by the down syndrome association for the parents - usually just mums - who come along for scrummy food - sometimes we do pampering BUT were let down last year and so have lucky door prizes - champagne and yummy food. Unfortunately I need to leave early as dd1 is getting an award on assembly.

It is great to go and watch assembly - seeing children as young as 4 standing up straight and tall singing the national anthem and then listening to the principal, other students and little performances as well as students who receive an award. I always get so choked up when dd1 gets up for an award. So far she has been student of the week and has two other awards for great work. I am not sure what award she is getting tomorrow. She was lucky - usually student of the week is a ribbon they can pin in their clothes BUT the week she got it - they got a goody pack as well. She thought that was very cool.

shall report back as to whether I have been lucky in the sweeps and what award dd1 has received tomorrow or the next day. Very busy at the moment. does not seem to be winding down to the end of the year.

cloudy and 28 here tomorrow.

hopefully someone like ghosty can some along and tell you all about Melbourne on Melbourne cup day!

FOOC - NorthYorkshire

Weather - 9.6 degrees, blue sky and cloud.

It rained all day yesterday, not just drissel, but major rain enough to flood under the railway bridge off our estate. So we spent the weekend baking and watching the GP.

Halloween was not major in TheMadHouse as DS1 is scared of all that stuff and also refuses to dress up at any time It was so wet that we only had 3 hardy trick or treaters and no older children doing terrible things.

We are planning to take the boys to the local council organised fireworks display and bonfire on the stray on Wednesday, which will mean a late night for them, but DS1 is so keen to see them. Also I think it adds some cheer to what is a dower time of the year. The dark nights are drawing in and so it seems is my mood at the moment.

Bio Weather - damp and dingey, making the old bones ache and the dark nights make the headlights dazzle me