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 Spain to Manchester

We've been back for nearly 3 months now, and it's just flown by. I've finally unpacked the last (bloody) box, and we're gradually reacquainting ourselves with details we'd missed or forgotten, and finding new things to show ds.

This week it was conkers and drizzle. There were no horse chestnut trees in Murcia, so the overnight appearance of a road full of shiny brown treasures outside his school was almost too much for him. Daddy has provided conker collection and preparation lessons, and today I have been solemnly requested to go to the post office and buy a ball of string. If anyone in this little bit of South Manchester is wondering why there is a perfectly good, robust chestnut tree in their road but an apparent lack of conkers I'm really sorry, they're all in my hallway.

Spain doesn't do drizzle. Black clouds swoop in, the contents of a swimming pool are upturned on your head, then the sun shines once more. At least that's how it is in Murcia! Further north I think the weather is a bit less prone to sudden mood swings. But this morning we walked to school and I suddenly realised I was getting wet. I was walking through a large misty cloud of water droplets, barely heavy enough to be actually falling, and certainly not going in the right direction to be caught by a brolly! So now I remember why a brolly won't do the job by itself, and I'm off to Decathlon this afternoon (afterI've bought the string, obviously) to buy the three of us some ridiculous floaty waterproofs. If I can find a bright yellow sou'wester I might get one for ds as if he's going to be managing drizzle he might need to look cute while doing so.

I've finished waffling so I'm off for my 3rd cup of tea and good solid english digestive biscuit

Hi Kitbit, maybe we are neighbours?

Lovely post t42, about the turtles. Made me well up

I am aware that I have posted about the German reunification some time ago but this clip never fails to move me. Foreign Minister Genscher at the German Embassy in Prague, September 30th 1999

In the previous weeks 4500 East Germans had entered the grounds of the Embassy in the hope of being allowed to travel to West Germany

This was the moment when the East Germans were told that "Wir sind zu Ihnen gekommen, um Ihnen mitzuteilen, dass heute Ihre Ausreise..."

Translation:
"We have come to you to tell you that today, your departure..." (rest is drowned in cheers)

20 years ago today the first East Germans arrived in GDR.

Just a few short weeks later, the wall fell.

gorionine maybe we are! The heap is still growing, the conker window is just about over so we're finding some really big ones at the moment!

ds has had some ups and downs about missing Spain and of course missing his friends, but this morning he stood on the doorstep swathed from head to toe in vests, hats, scarves, gloves and woolly lined jackets and peered out at the murky drizzle before declaring "You know Mummy, I think I DO like it here."

Hurray!!!!

FOOC Greater Manchester

It has been very quiet arround here.(both RL and thread!)

I am having my first experience of finding a good secondary school for one of my dcs! (I can only hope irt will be easier the next times arround!)

DD1 quite bright and always had "above average" reports. We decided to give a go to grammar schools in the county (next borough to ours still has the grammar school system so most of them are free but there is fierce competition to get in). She sat two entrance exam (11+).

I had no idea that it would be so hard. As I do not know the system I just assumed that sats and 11+ where just the same thing with a different name. OMG the shock when we started doing papers ,two weeks before the test, no tutoring as I wanted to see exactly where DD1 was and get in or not according to her own merits, not because she has been drilled (nothing wrong with tutoring BTW, just a way to give myself a good concience as we would not have been able to afford tutoring.) Almost half the math subject had not been touched at all in school and she spend two weeks having math for breakfast lunch and dinner with DH.

She failed the first exam (we were expecting it) surprisingly enough not on her math and succeded in the second one. But... It does not garanty her a place in that school as it is (even after selection) still oversubscibed. I cannot help but thinking it was a very tough process for a limited gain as we are not in catchment area and the chances of her getting a place are not great.

There is two other more local high schools, one with a fantastic reputation but none of us liked it (Dh, DD, myself) when we visited and another one with a lower reputatio that we were very impressed with somehow.

We are now in the long wait (until March) to hear about which school she will be attending.

When I ws a child in Switzerland, there was not gap as marked between a school to another. We used to go to the the nearest high school nearest to our home and would have exactly the same chance as the people from the neighbouring towns in later life. Here I hear things like "do not send you DCs there it is full of chavs!" or " they have good ofsted reports because they start with cbhildren with very low grades and manage to pull them up to a decent level but if your child is ok in school they will get bored and get bad marks..." " Did you like THAT shool? REALLY???"

I am so scared to make the wrong decision, or that the wrong decision will be made for me.

How is it where you all are? how much imput do you have into which high school your Dc go/will go?

Over to you T42

• thanks - after a stressful afternoon shopping for gloves we have to go and collect dd's best friend for a sleepover - why did I agree to such a thing??? - I will post and read your post too when I have fully recovered a moment to think. ... ouch my head already!

I 'bumped into' gorionine on another thread and she called me over here...

To be honest it is difficult to write about Paris right now with her various shades of grey when my heart is in a little village in rural Suffolk. My mind is imagining continuations of various family sagas played out in bobble hats against an orange bonfire glow.

I always miss Guy Fawkes Night with a passion. The village my family live in has such a lovely show on the green near my parent's place. There is along with the musthave massive bonfire that the men excitedly build and fireworks the same said men excitedly let off; a Guy competition, sparklers, hot potatoes and a bar where warm alcohol recipes get their first outing since last Christmas. I like the inclusive ritual of it. The village green is filled with many new faces from increasingly various corners of the World, old friends, a new rumour (she's pregnant, he's Gay, I saw teafortwo snogging a boy on a motorbike (that was not true grrr)and so on and so on) and there is always a shrill of excited children?s voices. Some of whom are Great Grandchildren and Grandchildren of people I once knew but who now rest past the pub and turn right, in the church's yard.

I remember how we used to go along as cynical teens snurk and say "Are we celebrating Guy being a rebel or the English burning him?? It was only the year I had experienced walking through London a week after my then boyfriend now husband texted me ?They bombed our station?, that I realised starring into the flickering flames on the Green; that we are celebrating neither of these things. He didn't succeed is what mattered. Democracy and the UK were left to evolve. Really what Guy Fawkes night is today, is a coy British National night, wrapped up in oddness (telling a story about burning a bloke and burning massive homemade dolls of him is quite weird if you think about it hard enough) and a bit of suffering (brrr - cold hands and sore toes I shall not be missing)...

Anyway with that I better go and sort out how to make these firework gouter cakes that I have promised my daughter on Thursday and search for a good website that tells the tale for her in a not too gory way... any ideas are very welcome!

Hey Tfor2, I know of at least two Guy Fawkes nights in Paris region - one at Maisons Lafitte, one at the athletics club in Meudon. You can still go and see fireworks if you want to...
I can't take my kids because DD is terrified of loud noises and DS too little, so I miss it too. I spent many of my formative years (age 10ish to 18ish) in Kenilworth where the bonfire celebrations were always held at the huge ruined Norman castle. Seeing them in a field has never had quite the same glamour.
DH misses it too - he's from near Lewes!!

P.S. Sorry to hear Paris is so grey. We are a riot of colour here with the sycamores out the back window being shades of yellow through orange to a sort of dark pinky red, and the forest beyond being dappled dark green through brown. All of the birds have their breeding plumage, so even the great tits look glamorous, and the jays are a feast of pink and blue flashes as they fly around picking up bugs from the leaf litter.

Oh thanks a million billion times BD. Actually I am quite sleepy after spending the day becoming an Aunt via internet, phone and text and just want to sleeeeeeep now!!!!!!!!!!!

I will defo keep it in mind for next year.

FOOC in Monaco

It's panic in Monte-Carlo. 12 classes have been shut in various schools over the last couple of days because of swine flu infection of their pupils. To understand why this is a big deal, you need to know that there are only a handful of schools in our tiny principality. DD (4) went to school this morning but we quickly regretted it, once we learned at lunchtime that a kid in her class had SF and her teacher didn't come to school because she was ill. Normally we go up to their classes to get our kids. Today they were brought down to the gate. I told headmistress that I wasn't going to bring her back after lunch, but couldn't get her bag from upstairs because they wouldn't let me inside the school

As of last Friday, DD and DH have received invitations for SF vaccine. I haven't. (Clearly the expendable member of our family ) DS (almost 6 months) will be called when a vaccine without adjuvants is available next month.

In our favour, the weather is still quite mild here. This afternoon I took DD down to the beach to ride her scooter, and we were both in long sleeved shirts.

FOOC in Monaco

It's panic in Monte-Carlo. 12 classes have been shut in various schools over the last couple of days because of swine flu infection of their pupils. To understand why this is a big deal, you need to know that there are only a handful of schools in our tiny principality. DD (4) went to school this morning but we quickly regretted it, once we learned at lunchtime that a kid in her class had SF and her teacher didn't come to school because she was ill. Normally we go up to their classes to get our kids. Today they were brought down to the gate. I told headmistress that I wasn't going to bring her back after lunch, but couldn't get her bag from upstairs because they wouldn't let me inside the school

As of last Friday, DD and DH have received invitations for SF vaccine. I haven't. (Clearly the expendable member of our family ) DS (almost 6 months) will be called when a vaccine without adjuvants is available next month.

In our favour, the weather is still quite mild here. This afternoon I took DD down to the beach to ride her scooter, and we were both in long sleeved shirts.

Hello FOOCs - long time no see

Just to say that we have a new addition - ds was born on 21st November. Birth announcement here for any interested. We're both doing fine, and looking forward to finding interesting things to fooc about with him now.

FOOC - Gran Canaria

Firstly - congratulations Cies and welcome to Pablo. I had both my boys here. DS1 was an emergency c-section and not an experience I would ever want to go through again. DS2 was natural, no pain relief & in the 5 years between having DS1 and DS2 the maternity hospital has really moved on. The one here now has a couple of pools if you want to try a water birth and they are very much into doing things as naturally as possible. There were also a lot of male midwives when I had DS2 although they weren't allowed at the business end of things

Well I haven't posted on here for ages as we have been alternating between the D&V bug and the flu virus. Everyone over here has gone completely hysterical over "Gripe A" (swine flu) and as soon as anyone coughs or sneezes they're practically locked away!! At the school where myself and DH work and DS1 attends the students have been dropping like flies. DS1 is in Year 3 and at the beginning of the week 12 of his class were absent. As you can imagine, the teacher in charge of getting the Primary Christmas Concert rehearsed is a bit stressed as she never knows from one day to the next how many students she'll have.

The weather is also very strange at the moment. Today is gloriously sunny but it is quite cool. However, recently we've been experiencing all the seasons in a day, it's very bizarre. I'm sure this also doesn't help with all the bugs going round.

I'm also at that stage in the year when I've suddenly realised that Christmas is only 4 weeks away and panic is setting in in a big way Fortunately we have already managed to do some of the kids present shopping so only a little bit more to do. We ordered some of our food for Christmas dinner as well yesterday as we're cooking for us and our friends and their children. I'm really looking forward to it. What's everyone else planning?

FOOC Argentina

Not much happening here ... the government has proposed a universal child benefit for those who are unemployed or working in the informal economy ... not much news since about the implementation, but probably the most important change recently.

But I was mostly coming here to ask about the melamine (in this right) in baby milk in China again. There was a FOOC post about this last year I think? and it was on BBC world again this morning that two people had been found guilty and sentenced to the death penalty (sorry to raise such a horrid topic) - I was just wondering whether there was more news about this from our own correspondent in China, as I remembered the report from before.

FOOC Nigeria (but currently in Scotland!)

Just popping in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

My news is nothing to do with 9ja at all. The big scoop is that dh and I are now grandparents! Ds1's wife had a baby boy on 7th December. Despite dil being a scant size 8, the baby weighed in at a whopping 8lb 10oz and is already up to 9lb 7oz!! Sadly, with ds1 living in Los Angeles we haven't been able to get over to see the new arrival yet but that'll be the plan for 2010.

Best wishes to you all,

Sue

Have just discovered this FOOC thread but see it has gone very quiet recently - has swine flu taken such a toll?

I'm in Egypt with my 3-mo multicultural DD (DH is Egyptian-Kurdish-British and we work in aid/social and cultural development). Although I'm occasionally homesick, I'm very happy that our LO will get a varied perspective of life, as well as being bilingual.

I see there are MN-ers as far away from the UK as Argentina, Nigeria, and NZ, as well as Europe.

How far afield and off the beaten track do we MN-ers get? From A(fghanistan) to Z(ambia)?

yes! me too, just found it. please come back everybody.

FOOC Somewhere in South London

Another vote to keep this thread alive, I heart you guys. Many congratulations on the birth of your grandson, Suedonim.

Well done to CairoLucy for reminding me and others of this thread. Am posting from my bed on my phone at the monent to get this back on my Threads I Am On but will try to return tomorrow with news of life in Geneva.

A bien tot

!!!!

Hello everyone!!!

Happy 2010 xxx

FOOC Syria

weather: sunny with scattered clouds about 15 degrees c. (which apparently is v. weird for this time of year. i know this because the farmer across the road waved his arms and shouted at me for 10 mins yesterday and my driver translated with one sentance ....he says this weather strange for this time of year).

am terribly dissapointed we havent had snow because i was really looking forward to watching my dogs experience it for the first time. and DD of course. but the dogs would have been a riot. especially since they view rain with horror. they were 'brought up' in dubai and so have no concept of weather that isnt hot, hotter or insane.

i am waiting for the driver to arrive (he is like, my major domo. no one speaks english, and my arabic is appaling, so he is my right hand man) to corral the 3 men wondering around outside with a fuel tanker. they are supposed to be topping up my fuel for my heating system but i cant communicate with them (although funnily enough, they have managed to communicate to me that they want tea now with no problems). after that, am going off to do some grocery shopping.

hoepfully DD will have woken up from her nap so she can come along. one of the nicest things about living here is everyone LOVES kids. serioulsy. only downside, now DD thinks that she is the mistress of the universe. still, i suppose she has plenty of time to discover she isnt.....

signing off from sunny (and now quite windy) syria.

Fooc in Galicia

Happy New Year Foocs! Or as they say in Spain ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Weather: rainy, mild, grey

One day to go before Reyes - when the three wise men arrive bearing gifts for everyone. They parade into town, throwing sweets to the thronging crowds and letting children sit on their knees and ask for presents. Then tomorrow night we all leave a shoe or slipper out in the living room and hope to find it filled with sweets and presents on the morning of the 6th. If we've been bad, we'll get coal instead.

Having a 6wo baby at this time of year is great fun, but it does mean that we have left it very late to buy presents, hence I had planned to go shopping at lunchtime when it should have been a bit quieter. However the reality of newborn life means that ds is feeding again after two explosive poos involving full wardrobe changes and I am going to have to brave the shops at the busiest time

FOOC in Manchester

Hi everyone, haven't been in for a while!

It's nearly 12 months since we left Spain, and it's flown. ds has nearly completed his first year at school here, and we have seen all four seasons.

Southern Spain has 2 seasons with short transitions in between: winter and summer, obviously, and in April there's Spring (about 4 weeks) and in October "second spring" in which all the flowers regrow, the fields become green again and everything flourishes now that the harsh scorching sun has lost its full power. I'd missed having 4 defined seasons, and experiencing them again this year has been fantastic.

ds has clung onto his birth roots too, and has been supporting Spain the world cup - I have to admire his choice.

x