from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

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

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

Hi again.

I think that swine flu could be very dangerous in any place where access to medicine was difficult. Like all flus, it causes very high temperatures and respiratory problems that can lead to pneumonia. It appears that the first glut of deaths here were mostly because people had not been given medicine. Why? For two principal reasons:

1. You don't immediately panic on getting flu. You take 2 paracetemol and lie down for a while. Until Thursday noone was aware of the danger.
2. Our health service is patchy. Workers get access to the equivalent of the NHS through their employer. Not all employers subscribe, not everyone works etc. This means you are dependent on private doctors. This means you don't go until you feel really ill.

At the minute health care has been stetched in the emergency to offer care to anyone who has any flu symptom. This has meant hospitals in Mexico City are flooded with folk, some of whom are imaging themselves to bb ill, some not. But it has had the effect of reducing death rates and (probably) increasing reports of ill people as once you enter the state system you are automatically registered.

Things could have been much worse if the outbreak had been in the rural south (the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca for example) in villages high in the mountains away from towns and hospitals. I imagine there are places like that in many third world countries; which is why the WHO wants the rich world to help them prepare themselves.

If you live in the UK or equilivent nice rich country with good access to healthcare, swine flu is not about to kill you and is not a cause for immediate panic (despite what the papers are saying). In 1918-20 there were no antiviral drugs and little precuationary measure taken. 45 millon people died world wide. The world and our healthcare systems are much different now. We should keep things in perspective and be glad we live at the beginning of the 21st century and not the start of the 20th.

Also I meant to mention on a lighter note:

One of the worries of the Minister of Health at the moment is trying to stop this disease being named as "Mexican flu". At the nightly press conference he has been giving, he spent almost 15 minutes telling us all that it was probable that the virus originated elsewhere and it was unfair to call it a Mexican disease.

Many conspiracy theories are also doing the rounds. We have local and federal elections in July to replace our state and federal congresses. Some say the crisis has been manufactured by the ruling party in order to ensure the elections are posponed (they aren't doing very well in the polls) and that people take more kindly to them after they have been offered free health care and a free face mask. Others say it is a ploy designed to prevent the unions holding their traditional rallies and marches on 1 May (why I am not sure).

Face masks are being worn by all who can get there hands on them (there are none avoailable over the counter and the army is distributing them on the streets). However, it is hot here (40 oC) and masks a re uncomfortable. So, I keep seing people wearing masks round their necks rather than covering their noses and mouths. Not much use like that I feel. It's rather like the motorcyclists who carry their helment on the panier as to comply with the law that states that helmets must be carried (which in Spanish can also man "worn") at all times.

Long post. Hope I am not boring you all too much

FOOC Auckland

Hi All, very quiet from here too over past few months, life, holidays, returning to work etc etc..........

Great report about swine flu. We have 10 (I think as the official figures vary) confirmed cases here too and a number of suspected cases spanning the length of the North and South Island. The confirmed cases being students from one of the Auckland colleges who returned from a school trip from Mexico at the weekend. Whilst I don't wish to downplay the potential seriousness of the matter, the media in all its forms are having a field day there is no other news either local or international!!! We have even had interviews with quarantined individuals who were on the same flight through their house windows looking rather bewildered.

Being rather a cynic I am half convinced the amount of hype is to get rid of the surplus of Tamiflu we bought in case bird flu arrived on our shores and must now be nearing it's expiry date. Whilst the hysteria here is far from that in Mexico with good reason there is still a certain degree, people with seasonal flu demanding Tamiflu injections, double/treble attendence at Emergency Rooms, GP surgeries etc...Public Health nurses and officials at the airport checking everybody arriving from the States via plane, two were quarantined last night for getting off the plane with a temperature ........

As of yesterday India listed NZ as one of the official places it's citizens should not visit. There is concern about the effect it will have on our already struggling economy (sick time/productivity/health budget) and tourism trade.

As a newscaster said last night though you are damned in this situation if you report or act and damned if you don't.

Good to hear everybody else's news on here.

FOOC Auckland

Update from breakfast TV. Tamiflu goes on sale over the counter at pharmacies tomorrow. It will be interesting to see the reaction. I will keep you posted.

FOOC GREATER MANCHESTER

Oh, it has all gone quiet again!

The school children are having there SATS next week. I just found out that the entire school is doing tests, not just year 3 and 6 as I always thought it was the case. But, apparently, for the other grades it is just a test for the teachers and parents to see the progress of their child. DS2's teacher gave them the best homework ever to prepare for it: "Go to bed early and drink water at every meal!" I just love her (so does DS ), she is in her first year of teaching and she has absolutely everything that I would expect an exellent experienced teacher to have.

I always found it strange that they do test the children so early in the year as they do not finish the school year until the end of July. I think they should wait for the last two weeks before the end to do the tests so there would not be this feeling of "we have had the tests already so we do not really need to work anymore" that some children will have.

The weather has been really funny for the last few days, it rains 5 min and the next is a beautiful sunshine. DCS and myself spend our time with our noses up to try and spot rainbows, so far unsuccessfully though!.

FOOC somewhere South-West of Paris
Lovely weather here at the moment. I've really started to fall in love with the Yvelines. It's not as picture postcard pretty as much of France but the woods are beautiful in springtime. We currently have bluebells, viper's bugloss (purple), white and yellow deadnettle all flowering in the forest behind the flat and it looks really pretty. I've come to love the little villages around here with their whitewashed walls and painted shutters, currently all overhung with spring blossom and wisteria.
DD went pony-riding this morning and they all went out to the forest. I helped to paint some of the old jumps (they were having a painting weekend, everyone lends a hand to get the club spruced up). It's been a busy week with DD having lots of appointments in Paris after school so she gets pretty tired, and so does DS because he usually gets dragged along too. We've all been glad for all the long weekends in May (out of 5 weekends this year, only one doesn't have a bank holiday attached so we have lots of short weeks in a row. It's great, but DH does have a lot of trouble explaining to his American bosses why his French team aren't going to get much work done in May!)
Anyway, must go now as DS is wailing and doesn't want to settle down for his nap!
Hello and welcome to Catitainahatita!

FOOC Paris (7th)

May is holiday season in France. We get the 1st and the 8th...then this year we have the 21st for Ascencion, which comes with the bonus of the 22nd as schools and businesses 'faire le pont' and let you have an extra long weekend before another long weekend right at the end of the month. It's going to make June feel pretty tough - no free days off!

So yesterday, being another day off school, I discharged my educational duty by dragging charge up to Invalides. As well as being our nearest museum I take the view that if you have a day of school to celebrate VE day then you will know why you get a day off....and it beats watching TV all day which I suspect was his cunning plan.

Usually I love the museum at Les Invalides - you can go from the Middle Ages to Napoleon to the World Wars and General de Gaulle. We did WWI on the 11th of November so yesterday it was WWII. The exhibitions aren't really that child friendly (lots of uniforms in glass cases) but an older child will enjoy the maps, the video footage and the models. There's a lot of information there and I definitely learned a couple of things I didn't know but there did seem to be a conspicuous lack of something which I couldn't quite put my finger on at first. It only came to me at the end - there was no mention of the Holocaust. At all. And I was being very careful because I don't think death camps are the most suitable subject for a 7 year old. I know France isn't the friendliest place for a lot of people but this seemed to me downright anti-semitic.

Tourist note: If you can stick the "vive la France!" attitude which prevails then it's well worth a visit but if tha sort of thing irritates you the outside is very pretty to look at too.

It's a shame the weather isn't as nice as it has been the last few weeks - it's sort of dull and grey now - a sunny day would definitely have made up for working a public holiday!

Paris FOOC

It was my daughter's third birthday so we decided it was about time we organized a party for her.

In France birthday parties often revolve, not around lunch or tea, but goute. A goute is a snack to keep little ones going until dinner. It usually consists of a pastry such as pain au raison or a pain au chocolat, a drink and perhaps some fruit and is eaten at about 4.30pm.

We decided that my daughter and her fifteen friends with parents (she is quite a socialite) would slowly look around La Ferme du Piqueur in Parc de St Cloud and then goute picnic under a big tree in the (fingers crossed) sun.

www.lafermedupiqueur.fr/La_ferme_du_px.html

It was a lovely feeling of being in the countryside without having to travel too far. The grass was high, buttercups blowing slightly in the wind and the children became fairy and elf-like figures nibbling at apples, dancing with bubbles or climbing trees with the afternoon sun (all the finger crossing paid off) illuminating their hair, skin and clothes. Their eyes were sparkling. Their hearts full.

My Mum offered everyone English style chocolate cakes that were eaten greedily by parents and children alike! My Dad had worried that she had made too many. "Oh no!" I explained "They will get eaten.... French people don't 'pick' at food like people at home."

It was an afternoon of peace and simplicity to balance the hectic business of usual Paris life which was only a twenty minute train ride away but in our minds a life time away from this romantic scene of rural goute picnic bliss.

Paris in Spring sounds magical.

Fooc Galicia

It's been a while since I checked in here, as not much fooc-worth action has taken place. I'm 14 weeks pregnant and so have been sleeping, feeling queasy and sleeping some more when I've had the time.

I can however fooc about ante natal care (so far) in Spain. Everyone is under the care of an OB/GYN, who is located in a specialists outpatient clinic, not the big hospital. You go there for scans (12 wks, 20 wks) and some ante natal appointments (8-12wks, 20 wks, plus more later on). But you also go to a midwife in your own health centre. I read about midwives in UK making home visits and I marvel. Here it's very much you go to them. I know that after the birth there is nothing like the HV system, and to track your baby's weight you go to the pharmacy and weigh them there.

Having said that, my midwife couldn't be more pleasant and down to earth, even if she's rather obsessed with preventing stretchmarks (she gave me 3 samples of different creams).

The ob/gyn care seems a bit gruff and impersonal, and as for the sonographer, distant and professional are probably the nicest words I could use. So it's good in terms of medical needs, but fails in my opinion in personal touches. But I had expected this, so try not to get upset by it.

I'm sure I'll have many more tales to tell, and at some point will get back to some more "proper" foocing, but right now the world seems to have shrunk down to me and my belly!

Cies - congratulaions xxxxxxx

FOOC GREATER MANCHESTER

We have not abandonned the "goute" since we moved here but our neighbours still find our eating habits a bit !

Congratulations Cies I cannot wait to hear more about yours and your bump's news!

FOOC Gran Canaria

Congratulations Cies xxxx I had both my boys here & know exactly what you mean. Whatever you do don't compare the care you'll receive there (no matter how good) to the UK or anywhere else as it doesn't come close. I had great experiences with both my boys because I purposely did not find out what goes on back in the UK. Also, after the shock of having the first by emergency c-section, having DS2 was a walk in the park as he was VBAC and lots of things had changed in the way the maternity hospital deals with things.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack this thread

Anyway, not a lot to report here. We thought that the weather was turning as we had a whole weekend with glorious sunshine - so out came the summer clothes in great anticipation. However, the climate has had other ideas and it's cold, grey and wet again .... when will it ever end??? Although I'm sure you'll find me back here in a month complaining how hot we are

My Library is full of Year 11 students in various states of stress/anxiety as they're on "study leave" as their IGCSE's have started. It's the worst time of year for me .... valium anyone?????

Sorry, just have to say. Cies - I never weighed my babies at the farmacia, I just waited until they had their check-ups with the pediatria. Apologies again.

Congratulations Cies. Another FOOC baby, how exciting. I wonder how Cote is doing.

FOOC Geneva

I have not had much time for FOOC recently either, as we have had a glut of visitors. Some welcome (my group of friends from all over Germany) some slightly less welcome (SIL, said through gritted teeth).

We are also in the middle of planning DH's 40th birthday extravaganza. Or rather, I am. DH is just giving orders and firing off emails

The weather was lovely last week but has turned cooler again in the past couple of days. I hope that it improves over the weekend. We set up our pool last week, just a blowup one, but it is big enough for us all to fit in it. I even bought a floating bar for DH.

One thing that we have found difficult to locate here is a swimming baths. There are no end of outdoor pools/beaches for swimming but no municipal baths in our area. We will have to wait for the summer and use the Plage in Geneva. I have heard that the lake is very cold for swimming in, even in summer.

I had to laugh recently when I went to the loo in the town. The city has set up portacabin loos all around the lakeside, which is very handy for all the tourists. I was amused to find that even the graffitti here is Geneva is posh. I took a photo (on my profile) to prove it.

MmeLindt - now that is really posh graffitti Love the sound of your DH's floating bar. Unfortunately our patio isn't big enough for a blow-up pool but some of our friends have them and they're really good, especially for the children.

Yesterday we were sent a "Guide pratique du chien citoyen à Genève" which Babelfish translated as a "handy guide of the dog citizen in Geneva".

This transpire is a map for Daphne to find the perfect pooping place.

Pics of that on profile too.

Oh MmeLindt that is just too much I hope that you will be pointing out all the pooping places to Daphne so she doesn't do it anywhere inappropriate

FOOC Japan

lovely to read what everyone is up to!
hope Cote is fine, and congratulations to Cies.

teafortwo, your DD's birthday party sounded wonderful - here in Japan, we have the equivalent of "goute" - it is called "O-yatsu" in Japanese, and is a snack traditionally eaten at 3pm. It used consist of things like baked sweet potatoes, or rice cakes, or bean soup, but nowadays it is more likely to be cookies, crisps or chocolate...

We have just had a run of holidays here, known as Golden Week, running from April 29th to May 6th. Each day is a commemorative day for something - April 29th was the late Emperor (Showa) Hirohito's birthday so they call it Showa Day, May 3rd is Constitution Day, May 5th is Children's Day.

Everyone was off work, school etc. so everywhere was heaving with people....the roads were packed this year because they lowered the road tolls on the highways so you could drive anywhere in Japan for 1000 yen (about GBP6).

One of the days we braved the crowds in Yokohama to go and see the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the opening of Yokohama port to the world. One of the attractions was "La Machine" - the huge mechanical spider from France, which also was in Liverpool last year, I think. This clip is La Machine at night

It was absolutely amazing - and operated by a team of rather gorgeous, tall Japanese young men

Golden Week is always over so quickly, and so now its back to the normal routine of work and school...

Thanks for all the congratulations

Soph I know what you mean about not finding out what happens in UK hospitals, but it's hard not to with mn and friends. But I now know not to compare, and to take it as I find it here

Paris FOOC in Brittany

We decided to spend a weekend in Brittany to visit my husband's family.

We happened to be there for the pardon of St Yves. This report is of the Catholic procession for St Yves written by a non Catholic - so please excuse and understand any childish naivity in my explanation....

The whole event actually began the day before St Yves day when we decorated my Mother in law's house in yellow flowers and black and yellow flags, like everyone in rue de St Yves and some people from the church set up loud speakers all along the street.

The next day began with us being blasted with a live broadcast from the church of a long lively ceremony in honour of St Yves.

Then thousands of people young and old poured out of the church and into the street. To begin with it seemed messy and hectic.

The most impressive people at first glance were the many men in robes and some just in jeans carrying huge old flags, beautiful grand and fine banners constructed from wonderful golds, purples and reds and others lugging towering silver and brass crosses with suffering Christs attached some even with tinkering bells either side of his desperate and deeply pained face.

At second glance it is the thirty or so wheelchair uses fighting with the cobbles to be there and the very old woman with powder and lipstick dressed in a pale blue classic chanel style suit walking slowly and wobbling with every step completely unaided but with a paramedic in-front and behind her that left me wide mouthed.

Then everything we saw was lost for a moment because the bagpipes started to play and every sense we possessed was shaken by the sound. My daughter began to cry. I closed my eyes. It felt a little like the time I drove my car into a ditch. My whole body felt overwhelmed by the shock of these instruments.

The people, the crosses, the flags, the banner then began to move past the decorated houses all the way along rue de St Yves and towards the neighbouring village in which St Yves was born. As they slowly walked the people were singing to the music still coming through the speakers live from the church organ and choir. Some had what we thought were song sheets but later discovered them to be pamphlets explaining a local political party's political ideas that were being handed out within the procession.
Children proudly carried small black and yellow flags on wooden poles.

Three quarters of the way through the procession was Saint Yves himself - At first it seemed to be simply a brass and glass box with big handles coming out the side to carry it carefully. Yet on closer inspection I realized it contained a yellowish browny skull and below a few extra bones for good measure.

The crowed were natural. Women chatted, men looked dutiful and teenagers tried to look cool as they took St Yves upto his birth place and back to his resting place on a grey Spring morning in May.

On return to the church I imagined someone whispering a wish into where his ear once was. A wish for good year's sleep until next year when everything will be repeated again, as it has been for as long as anyone can remember, for the pardon de St Yves.

FOOC Nigeria

I haven't been here for a-a-a-ages so it's good to 'see' everyone! Congratulations on the junior FOOCers about to join us and sorry to hear you've had a rough time, TMH.

Life in Nigeria continues in its own, mad, fashion. We're settled into our new apartment now. It's nowhere near as big or posh as the last one but is a lot more conveniently situated so going out isn't such a hassle.

I have inadvertantly found myself to be the Chair of an Expat group in Lagos. I took on the job of vice-chair, thinking it was an easy-peasy job, just filling in for the chair when she was away etc. I had no idea she was about to move away and land me in the doo-doo!!! Thank goodness, the rest of the committee is very good and I think we'll be a great team. It was a to my system, I can tell you!

A shocking thing happened to our steward's wife recently. After some family dispute over the woman he wanted to marry, her brother came to their compound, smashed up her car and then tried to murder her. She has been in hiding in another State since, an awful strain as she is now almost 9mths pregnant with her first baby.

The brother is a policeman and this has been a terrible barrier to getting any sort of justice. The police inspector has been demanding money from our steward before he takes any action, money which our steward doesn't have and doesn't want to give anyway, because then they'll ask for even more. Very bravely, I thought, our steward this week called the police and told them he was going to a higher authority if nothing was done. Lo and behold, next day he had a call, asking him to go and see them.

The police were v unpleasant and shouted at him as to why he was persisting so he said
that he had a right to have the case looked at and that he and his wife had a right to live without fear. They have now started some sort of case against the brother and so we're hoping everything will calm down. The likelihood of a prosecution is minute but for the brother to receive a warning is what they're hoping for, in order to make him come to his senses.

It's been dreadful for our steward and the frustration I have felt at not being able to get any sort of justice is unbelievable. It really makes me thankful for Old Blighty, warts and all.

On other side of life, I saw the funniest thing ever today. We were waiting at a traffic lights (Lagos is now festooned with them, v posh, with countdowns, and lots of them run on solar energy!) when a water tanker came alongside us, but going in the opposite direction. An okada (motorbike) rider squeezed in between the two vehicles but he hadn't reckoned on the tanker suddenly stopping. The water inside began slopping about and then a great plume of it overflowed from the open top, dousing the okada driver from head to toe! It was one of those slo-mo moments - we could see the water cascading down while he was sitting on his bike, oblivious of what was approaching.

In one of those don't-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry moments, the MP's' expenses scandal has been a subject of discussion here. Not because of the disgracefulness of their behaviour but because Nigerians are at all the fuss and cannot see why on earth such a matter is newsworthy. 'Everyone knows that's what politicians do.'

Thanks Suedonim - perfect reading with my morning cup of tea

I liked your Liverpool post, T42. I went to Bradford city centre for the first time ever last year and was most impressed by the beautiful buildings and architecture there. Bradford has such a poor image in the media, yet it's glorious. Such a shame that civic pride has waned and allowed these places to deteriorate. It becomes a vicious circle of decline.

Back to Liverpool, we know a Liverpudlian here in Lagos who came to Naija 30-odd years ago, on a short term contract, and has never left. He's married to a Nigerian woman and they have five grown children. If there can be said to be such a thing, he's a typical Scouser and that seems to meld very well with the Nigerian psyche - they understand each other only too well! His wife has opened two branches of a Nigerian church in Liverpool and regularly trips back and forth to do stuff with them.

Wrt to slavery, I've just read a shocking book called King Leopold's Ghost, about that man's private colony in Africa, which is today's Democratic Republic of Congo. The most appalling things went on, truly shocking (Conrad's Heart of Darkness is based on it) but the campaign against it was spearheaded by a chap called E D Morel. He worked for a Liverpudlian shipping agent and realised something fishy was going on when he saw that rubber and ivory were pouring out of Africa but only arms and ammunition were going in. He then set up the campaign against what was happening, along with Sir Roger Casement, who was later hanged for treason by the British govt - a story I really don't think you could make up!

Sue - I love writing foocs reports but after I have pressed send my reports always suddenly have about a million mistakes that I hadn't noticed before along with too many sentences that go 'clunk' because they don't seem to explain things very well. The Liverpool one is one I was really unhappy about after I had pressed send. It means a lot that you liked it!

Thanks.

I will ask my sister if she knows of any Nigerian churches in Liverpool.... would be funny if she does, hey?

FOOC GREATER MANCHESTER

I always like your posts teafortwo, I am sure I definitely beat you on mistakes and sentences that make no sense!

Your post was fantastic Suedonim, It relly feels like reading things from another world altogether! I wish I could have been there to see the motorbiker being "watered"...

Here, last Week the DCs in school had a very nice week. It was "Everybody writes" week and all the children did little projects in and outside the clasroom and all parents were invited to help and see the work they had done.

In DS3's class (Reception), the children decorated empty bottles and then wrote a message in it for the "word monster" who lives in the schoool woods (there is a bit of woodland in the school grounds and they have a pretend river and two woden briges). the following day the class received a giant letter with the answers from the monster to all the childrens questions.

In DS2's class (year 3) All the children had to pretend to be estate agents for a "forest creatures" agency and wrote a selling speech about a house for the creature of their choice. When the parents came to school they could "visit" the house and let the children know if they would buy it or not.

Year 5, DD1's class, had to choose their favourite line of poetry and write it on the tee pee (also in the woods).

The school was also holding the anual sports day on the same week and was very fortunate as the weather was changing every hour. They just had time to do it all and it started pooring down!

It is now the Whit holiday and the wather has been good to us so far. We have been fishing in Llandudno i-love-llandudno.co.uk/llandudno-photos/trip1/images/4-llandudno-north-shore-little-orme_JPG.jpg in North Wales (did not catch anything!)on Sunday. I almost forgot we have been for a long walk in "Macclesfield forrest" on Saturday images.google.com/images?sm=Mumsnet&vs=www.mumsnet.com&q=Macclesfield%20forrest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&h l=en&tab=wi, we got all the way to the top of a mountain www.walksinthepeakdistrict.co.uk/WalkingImages/DSC00418.JPG(a hill for Swiss me) and had a fantastic view on fields and farms.We are planning to do many more similar walks as the whole family really enjoyed themselves!

I wonder if Cote has had her baby? Was the Monaco GP this week end?

Ps: I am very sorry for the bad links, I have not been able to link properly for the past 2 weeks, anyone had the same problem?