from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

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

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

Anyone in Bangkok now?

bbc news All flights have been cancelled and demonstrators say the airport will stay shut until the government resigns.

Teafortwo
Thanks for that, have replied on the thread. It might be good for DD, she is coming along well with her reading and writing learning but it is slow as she is being taught in French. I think if I were to push it at home then she would be writing already, but she has so much other stuff to cope with so I am lettign it slide a bit.

FOOC Geneva Switzerland

The big news from the Lindt family is that we are getting a puppy

We will tell the kids tonight when DH gets home from his business trip, they are going to FLIP. Then we will prepare everything over the weekend, and hopefully decide on a name before picking her up on Monday or Tuesday. (pic on profile if you want to look)

The one thing that made the decision easier to get a dog was that here in Switzerland (and in Germany too) you can take a dog pretty much everywhere, especially a small one. Most shops let you take dogs inside, as do many restaurants. You see the ladies who lunch in Geneva with their Gucci dog bags, with a shivering Chihuahua decked out in the finest of leather collars and cashmere pullovers.

I went shopping with a friend of mine in Düsseldorf (the fashion centre of Germany so filled with chic women with matching dogs). She has a lovely Westie and we were looking for a new dog collar. The collars started at 90euros and the sky was the limit. They had dog bowls for 2500euros and baskets for 5000euros. I had to struggle not to burst out laughing when my friend's doggy tried on a collar and the sales woman said, "Oh, it suits her, it brings out the colour of her eyes"

You have permission to punch me if I start warbling such nonsense about our (as yet nameless) dog.

Oh, and I forgot my best dog story about Düsseldorf.

I was walking down the Königsallee (the smartest street in town) with DD when she started to whisper, "Mama, look!". Walking towards us was a woman, dressed to the nines with a little yorkshire terrier in her arms. The dog wore a little jacket, the obligatory bow in it's hair and a pair of star shaped sunglasses

DD was entranced

lol Mme Lindt .

You see quite a lot of dogs dressed to the nines here, in little quilted jackets or raincoats. Also hair bands or clips to keep their hair out of their eyes. It makes me laugh!

Your puppy looks gorgeous, and your kids are going to be SOoooo over the moon.

Your puppy is ADORABLE

Reverse culture - shock update FOOC London

Is it just me, or does the UK seem to be a completely miserabilist place to be at the moment? And are you getting this vibe from where you are?

Today announced that MFI is going into administration, as is Woolworths. Now the former, while I feel for staff is not a huge loss, but WOOLIES! Bloody hell, probably the last shop in existence that I remember from childhood that hasn't changed its spots entirely a la Tesco, and really so handy for random buys.

Before I went on maternity-leave, I was a bit yadda-yadda about the death of the high street, but seeing it happen seemingly on fast-forward at the moment is all rather horrible.

I live in what was an up-and-coming bit of London, but sense it may tip the other way for a while. If Woolies goes, sure as hell the twat-ola upmarket gift shops are next.

The British media is so not helping either. A free press is obviously important, but I am sensing a bit of a free-for-all with bad news economic melt-down tales of woe at the moment and think journalists should get a grip and be a bit more responsible. Years of reporting on celebrity clap-trap have clearly damaged people's sense of decency and proportion.

The contrast with Toronto is utterly phenomenal.

Sorry bit of a downer, but if you're living in an optimistic part of the world: cherish it (and tell me where it is...)

FOOC Langley, BC, Canada

Not much optimism here at the mo either MrsSprat. Weather lots like England though! Was just in Toronto for five days and froze my ass off. Snowstorm the day we landed, winter wonderland like I never see it here. Overnight temps plummeted, to minus 12 the next day. Tried to take BabyJ out for a walk in his buggy, he looked at me like a dog that doesn't want to go out in the rain. We made it half a block before I gave up and we went back inside to unthaw.
Still got that yen for Timmie's coffee? Offer's still open

Fooc Paris

Sunday afternoon. My daughter had fallen asleep and because I wished to take a turn of the room I lay her slumbering toddler body upon her Father?s lap. He seemed deeply moved by her infant form and held her head gently as if she were newly born. She woke sleepily smiled and breathed ?mmm baby? and then fell more deeply this time into her childhood dreams.

I began to wonder about these dreams. I concluded that our children?s dreams are off limits to us so we know the pain they feel when we refuse them a touch of a knife or a little play with the best china ? when we deny access to our adult lives. It is payback!

As I walked away from my little family, heavy with thought, a woman leaned towards my husband. ?If I were a painter?? She pointed directly at him ?that is what I would paint. In the Murillo style.?

Where could they have been? I hear you ask to be feeling so dreamy, at peace with life each other and complete strangers?

Well, we were in the Grand Palais and specifically at the ?Picasso et les maîtres? exhibition. The room was filled with incredibly inspiring and raw thoughts and feelings expressed on canvas, paper or to my daughter?s delight in magnificent sculptures too. And the people? The room was filled with people but the people were also full! Their stomachs were filled with butterflies and mouths filled with stammers both conditions induced by the art ? they were full with awareness that they were experiencing greatness full greatness!

The works were breath-taking pieces. The curators had carefully and painstakingly negotiated with galleries across this planet to be able to display an outstanding collection of masterpieces with an unusual and enlightening twist. You see, the purpose of the exhibition, was to show the works that inspired Picasso?s art. So each room was filled with paintings from Greco to Manet and Zurbaran to Van Gogh and with these Picasso?s responses to the artists work. The exhibition illustrated perfectly how Picasso respectfully used these paintings as a starting point to develop something in the same vein or alternatively he identified what they hadn?t done and instead did this ? he painted what was not there!

I left the glass fairytale palace into the dark night illuminated with the blue flashing lights of three fire engines and white christmas decorations shimmering in the trees. The puddles reflected the scene. I was feeling a little more learned and a lot more human. In a hedonistic frenzy the three of us headed for a café - pure Parisian style! As we sipped cold Chablis on that equally cold damp night and laughed at our daughter tackling a hot chocolate topped with cream I thought about that infamous question - ?What is art??. I had always thought of good art as something that is not necessarily terribly original and not necessarily technical genius but something that hits you in the heart and stomach making you feel, really feel, alive, real and deeply at one in someway with humanity. So? I wondered? what is something that is completely original, technically brilliant AND makes us feel more human and real? This, I smile this is great art; and I feel so deeply lucky to have seen it and of course to have the foocs to be able to re-live it all for!

Mme Lindt, just had a peep at the puppy . What a cutie! Jacksmama, thanks, but I'm a bit of a wierdo, I like buying cups of coffee in shops, but I never make it at home. Now, if Timbits were feasible for export - that would be a different matter...!

Timbits, for those who don't know, are tiny round doughnut balls, which are supposedly the middle bits punched out of ring-doughnuts from Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons. You buy in batches, they come in loads of different flavours and are deeply unhealthy, but when did that stop anyone?

I have just seen the news of Mumbai. My God, it is terrible. We don't have a FOOC in India, do we? Anyone with friends or relatives over there, my thoughts are with you.

I think today everyones heart will all be in Mumbai.

My husband phoned his work colleugues/friends in Puna (about 3hrs out of Mumbai)to find out how they, their families and friends are. They said it is all very confused and messy - no-one knows what has really happened or what is actually happening. Very frightening.

Truly awful isn't it? I did quite a bit of travelling in India a couple of years ago and stayed in the Taj. I can't even begin to think how frightening it must have been for those involved.

The old bit of the hotel which seems to have born the brunt of the fires is a real rabbit warren, hopefully this will have given some of the guests and staff a good chance to get out or hide themselves away safely.

I think our FOOC is down in the South.

FOOC in cold & rainy Monaco:

Today was cold, gray, and rainy in Monaco - one of the few times in a year when we get bad weather. Half the kids in DD's nursery were off sick, and there were several accidents on the streets - not many people are used to driving in the rain.

There is the Gastronomy Fair in Monaco these days. Small producers from around France and Italy come together and sell their produce. Various kinds of cheese, foie gras, tapenade (olive paste), marmelades, and my personal favourite, 'artisanale' chocolate and truffle oil! Everything tastes incredibly good, and yet this stuff is impossible to get in supermarkets. "Why?", I asked one of the sellers, and he said "Because supermarkets ask for most of our profit, and the only producers who can survive their conditions are the big brands".

We are eating bread, cheese, hard-boiled eggs & saucisson for dinner tonight, topped with truffle oil. And then I intend to take an entire bar of nougatine chocolate to the sofa, and won't even feel any guilt - I'm 14 weeks pregnant and the baby needs it, so there

Has anyone heard from Stuffit or 4GoToIndia? Mumbai is very very sad.

Shock at Sue's robbery and the outcome. Seems juts a tad OTT. at Sibble's beach story too. Congrats on citizenship.

FOOC in Chicago

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. It's a strange day for us as it means nothing to me but I always want to acknoweldge it as it is part of DS's culture and heritage. So, for the first time ever, we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was great - marching bands, horses, cowboys and, of course, the enormous balloons (Popeye, Cookie Monster etc). They are 3 or 4 storeys high which works well in places like NYC. However, here, we have an elevated rail system (the El) around the central business district and the balloons didn't fit under them. As the teams approached the El tracks, they would lower their balloons so they were almost lying down but not quite touching the ground and they would limbo under the tracks before being raised at the other side amidst huge cheers from the crowds.

It was quite chilly so we managed to grab some hot chocolate before heading over to friends for a Thanksgiving Feast. Traditional food includes:

Turkey
Mashed Potato
Sweet Potatoes (with marshmallow on top)
Stuffing (but very different to Paxo)
Gravy
Green Bean Casserole (traditionally made with tinned mushroom soup and canned fried onions)
Rolls

and then an array of desserts: pumkpin pie, sweet potato pie, pecan pie but we had cheescake, pumpkin bread and gingerbread men.

Paris FOOC

CoteDAzur - CONGRATULATIONS CONGRATULATIONS CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

Now... you do know that we want to hear all about pre-natal care, post-natal care and giving birth in Monaco!!!!!????!!!!

FOOC in Monaco

Monaco has 30,000 official residents and one would assume the maternity service in our only hospital would be fairly quiet, but they accept anyone who wants the glory of giving birth in Monaco, so the maternity is full of women who come in from Nice, Cannes, and even Italy.

Unfortunately, the personnel in the Princesse Grace Hospital of Monaco are not necessarily the most qualified professionals available. Monegasque nationals have priority (as with all state employment here) and since there are only 6,000 of them, the only five that are midwives, for example, will be on the payroll. Same for nurses, doctors, etc.

Still, we are lucky to have one of the best ultrasound doctors in the world, Dr Benoit. In this video, he is talking about how to determine the sex of a fetus at 12 weeks. Do take a look at the the part starting at 03:50, where it shows how the identical genital parts at 11 weeks become girl or boy genitals in following weeks.

Anyway, he did my 12 week scan. All good, and... it's a boy!

FOOC in Monaco (cont. on prenatal care)

During pregnancy, we are followed by obstetricians in Monaco (as in France) - monthly visits, monthly blood tests (of toxoplasmosis, anemia, etc). The minute you send the "attestation de grossesse" to social security, certifying your pregnancy, all expenses are paid for by the state - 12 week abnormality scan including nuchal test, 5 month and 8 month scans, all doctor's visits, AND all other medical expenses, no matter how unrelated to your pregnancy they may be.

One thing that really gets on my nerve is the French obsession with weight gain during pregnancy. I recently got told off for putting on 1 kg (ONE!) in the first trimester . Doctor also told me not to take prenatal vitamins, as he says they make bigger babies and he knows I'd rather not have a bigger baby than DD, who was born 4 kg 10 gr.

P.S.: Thank you, teafortwo Did you give birth in Paris? Does any of this sound familiar?

FOOC Paris

CoteDAzur my little girl was born in a hospital in Suresnes - a town that is on a small hill looking across Paris. We called my hospital room "The Penthouse" because the view from my hospital room window was amazing!

My SIL was born in Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco. My MIL has a letter from Princess Grace congratulating her on the birth of her new baby girl. Maybe you will get a letter too?

My DH was born in one of these cars t2frx2.online.fr/ on a roadside in France. Rather unsuprisingly my MIL has no precious letter to congratulate her on his birth!!!

Regarding maternity care in France... I can't compare your experiences to France yet as I had the first 3 months just with a UK midwife. Then I had the second 4 months with both a midwife in France and another one in the UK and the last month just under French care.

The UK one was all coming to my house, check ups on the sofa, cups of teas, smiles and quite keen on the whole home birth stuff.

The French one was all meetings in her scary office at the hospital, the concept that there are many ways to give birth but we think this way is best and the other ways are all stupid, "take your clothes off now", do this amazingly huge list of medical tests and because your British you are bound to have toxoplasmosis so lets all panic about that! - It sounds frightening but actually, for me, her complete confidence in "our way" was reassuring to me - a first time Mum.

The funniest time was when I was seeing both midwives because they were both quite dismissive of the other ones notes (The French keep loads of very serious notes, diagrams and annotated pictures compared to the British thin book and cute piccies). They also had different expectations for our development and the birth!

What got me were the subtle differences - For example - "What??? she told you no alcohol - Ha ha ha!" "No internal examinations yet? Ha ha ha!" (French midwife laughing at British notes) "What she wants you to do a diabeties test - ha ha ha!" "Epidurals are 'routine' ha ha ha!"(British midwife laughing at French notes)

Oh well - I look forward to hearing more info about how you and your little boy are coming along.

Next big question... Will you go for a British, French or Italian name....????

Congratulations, CoteDazur! I hope the pg goes well.

Mumbai is dreadful, isn't it? I've been there briefly about 10yrs ago and dh has been to the Taj with his work. I feel so sorry for them.

FOOC Nigeria

Toxoplasmosis is a subject that arose amongst expats in Lagos this week. Apparently a number of children in one of dh's company's compounds have come down with toxoplasmosis. They are thought to have caught it from the sand in the children's play area. The issue was raised at one of the regular company update meetings, with HR telling the gathering that the disease was thought to have come from people's pet dogs and cats and to please dogs were on leads and all pets regularly wormed.

Cue howls of outrage from the various pet owners that the HR person dared to imply that they neglected their animals by feeding them Fruit Shoots not worming them and allowing them to roam. One man said his cats were house cats and hadn't been outdoors for ten years (at which point I thought 'Well, they must have cabin fever!'). And then what about the feral cats that roamed around and couldn't the recently replaced sand have contained the eggs already? All in all, it was alleged it was totally unfair to blame people's beloved pets. Funniest of all was the HR person's reaction. As a Nigerian she was completely bemused as to the passion and emotion the subject evoked in the expats and she looked dumbfounded. Calm was restored and she scuttled off saying she would take everyone's comments back to the office and get back to us. Poor woman.

A ps to the robbery story. It seems the thief got off lightly. I learned from a friend who lived in the Delta area that there robbers were often tied up to trees, spread-eagled, and officers would use them for target practise until they died.

FOOC in Monaco

Just a quick note to say that it HAILED in Monaco today

DD (3) has never seen anything come down from the sky except (very rarely) rain, and she couldn't understand what it was. I showed her the ice in the freezer and said rain came down as ice when it is very cold. She was a bit and told DH that mummy is making up stories again

fooc nairobi

Congratulations Cote d'Azure, my dsis is also 14 weeks pregnant May babies are the best.

We have the most amazing astral phenomenon tonight. The moon is in a crescent shape at the bottom with Venus and Jupiter alongside it making a smiling face. It is so awesome that I woke dd up to show her. She solemnly declared that neither Jupiter nor Venus were stars and that Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system after Earth. She then promptly went back to bed and fell straight asleep again

Did any of you other Southern Hemisphere types get to see it too?

FOOC Galicia

Many congratulations CoteDAzur .

The big news from this neck of the woods is that it snowed! It rarely gets below freezing here, as we are right on the Atlantic, but this Saturday night the snow level was down to 400m! The Galiñeiro (a range of hills above the city of Vigo) was dusted in snow, and children flocked to make rather poor looking snowmen and throw a few ice/snow balls at each other.

Further inland, where they are more used to these phenomena, and where the weather is rather more severe, there were schools closed, roads blocked and villages isolated because of the wintery cold snap.

It's just beginning to feel Christmassy - street decorations are going up, but aren't yet lit, and shops are gearing up for trade.

However, Advent really isn't a big deal here. More on this in future posts, but because the Spanish welcome the Three Wise Men on January 6th, and only then receive their presents, there isn't such a tradition of getting hyper-excited about 25th December. In fact, as Advent Calendars have become more known here due to films etc, shops have started selling them, but people don't start opening doors until 13th Dec (24 days before 5th January, or La noche de Reyes).

Fooc - North Yorkshire

It is snowing, so much so that DH started out to work at 6.45 this morning and turned back. It is a really wet snow, not the type for snowmen and will probley turn to slush this afternoon.

They boys are very excited and love the snow in spades, but both me and DS2 have a virus and feel pants.

Congratualtions cote - a fooc baby - how cool

FOOC Nigeria

Weather report - categorically NOT snowing.

Following up on the terrible story about the child-witches in Nigeria, it seems action has been taken and arrests made. This scathing article also appeared in the local press.

Elsewhere, much mirth has been had at Coca Cola's expense. They have a festive advertising campaign, depicting Santa hugging a bottle of Coke and giving a V for Victory sign. Unfortunately, Santa's hand is facing the wrong way so in effect Coca Cola is giving us all a festive f*ck off.