from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

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

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

Ah, but Suedonim, I loved your DD's description, she seemed so completely unphased by the whole thing.

We saw a fantastic pumpkin the other day, I really wish I had my camera on me.

I did have my camera with me but was too embarrassed to take a photo in the Hypermarche on Saturday when we were looking at a stall of useless ornaments. You know the kind of things I mean, twee little houses and fairies. One ornament was definatly not twee, a naked firefighter who was using his helmet to hide his attributes. Only he was not holding the helmet in his hands I am too frightened to google to see if I can find one online.

Suedonim, your DD's post was excellent. I am glad I wasn't there to witness it!

MmeT at the fireman!

Apparently, dd didn't actually see the body, as it was surrounded by so many people. Just dh had that dubious pleasure, though he's always seeing bodies on his way to/from work.

FOOC Auckland

Last week has been a whirlwind of Ag Day activities. Ag Day/Calf club/Agricultural Day is an annual event where rural/semi-rural school children hand raise an animal (kid, calf, pig, chicken or lamb - this year ducks were also added) for a 14 week period for the grand event. It's our main annual fundraiser and muggins here drew the short straw running the cafe on the day. So last week was spent cooking and preparing both for the cafe and in the classroom with the children's activities. The ds's had kid goats - ds2 in the pre-school section. They have to answer questions about breed, age, feeding, care etc...present well groomed goats, 'call' their goat (a parent is at one end of a ring the child at the other and the idea is that the animal runs full pelt towards the child who casually slips on it's leash) and leading - most entertaining - weaving through posts along a straight stretch stopping half way to count slowly to 5 then around another post, over a log halting at the end until you are asked to leave the ring. As you can imagine over 100 animals with children, it was pandamonium. A calf bolted into the goat ring when ds1 was 'parading', couldn't work out how to get out and was stampeding until one of the mum's wrestled it to a halt then led it out, ds1 was concentrating so hard he barely noticed. Chickens and ducks were petrified half to death pooping everwhere including on children during the perching section - it's only the hardened children who perch their chickens on heads not arms or shoulders . Most animals do not 'perform' on the day and there are tears galore from upset children. Ds won 2nd and 3rd for his goat and was most put out not to get a first this year!

In addition they have to create either a floral display or minature garden (depending on age), an animal from fruit and/or vegetables and complete a sewing assignment. Ds1 had to sew a banner entitled kiwiana, the older children made dolls. All are judged and ribbons awarded. The overall ribbon winners in different categories go on to win trophies.

And the fundraising part - an old fashioned fair, lucky ducks (hoop the duck), balloon darts, a water slide, inflatable slide, bucking bronco, preserve stalls, horse and cart rides, bric a brac and cake stalls etc etc....all manned by overly keen parents who of course run the best stall! competition is high - of course the cafe was the best!!!

The day ends with a grand auction of donated goods; trail bike, bbq, hedge strimmer, wine and heaps more. By the time I got home my feet were pulsating, the boys exhausted and as dirty as and as for the goats, they were very quiet that evening.

And for our sins we have done it all again today for 'group day' where 9 local schools all compete against each other with the grand finale being a parade with your school banner and animals.

Thank God that's over again for this year is all I can say!

I love the idea of Ag Day, it sounds like a hoot.

Ag day sounds fantastic! NOT something I can imagine any school here putting on (little Pedro might get his clothes dirty, and little Ana´s ribbon might fall out... )

FOOC Galicia

Another weekend, another set of wildlife spotted. This time it was marine life.

Dh and I headed out into the Ria de Vigo in his newly renovated and painted bote. If I translated this as speed boat you'd get the wrong idea. It's a 5m open boat with a 15hp engine on the back. Nicely painted in blue (Spanish procrastination means that this was supposed to be finished in June to use over the summer, and was finally launched the last weekend of September ).

The ria was teeming with sailing dinghys as there was a race on. Also, a few boats were idling about 200m away. What was this? Ahh, dolphins! A large pod was making its way up the ria, diving into waves and wakes and generally entertaining the onlookers. There is something special about seeing dolphins in the wild. We stayed and watched for a while, but they were not playing, and I was reluctant to disturb them if they were hunting, so we left them to it.

After a few speed tests (got it up to 20 knots which was exhilarating) we tied up for lunch on a mussel raft. These floating rafts are to be found in all the rias. They are square, made of big trunks of wood lashed together to make a grid. From the grid, ropes hang down into the water, on which mussels are grown commercially.

Looking into the clear water we were surprised to see millions of what can only be described as jelly worms. On closer inspection (with a bucket and a stick) they seemed to be little eggs joined together in 10s or 20s. When one was lifted up, it broke into small cells. I've since been informed that these are jelly fish eggs, so we'll have to watch out next summer when we swim.

Fooc North Yorkshire

I havent fooc'd for a while as RL has been getting in the way, but reading all your wonderful tales of Autumn made me want to write about our day out on Sunday.

DS2 is 26 months now and so able to do a little bit of walking rather than the backpack or the buggy (TBH he is far too heavy for the backpack and we have given it away), so we decided to go to Falling Foss, a local beck and waterfall, which we havent been to for more than 10 years.

So we all wrap up warm with our fleeses and walking boots on and get into the car. I have the honour of driving and we set off in the general direction, only to get lost on the North York Moors at a place called little beck. We can hear the waterfall, but can nopt find the turn off to the car park and DH has me doing three point turns (23 point really) on a 1 in 3 gradient road. We eventually find our way there and all pile out of the car to the wonderful sound of falling water and rustling leaves.

DS1 comments that the leaves look like brown rain when the wind blows and it is a wonderful site to watch the two of them merrily skip and jump in the piles of brown adn crispy leaves.

There is an old house at the bottom of the beck, which was derilict the last time we visited and some eneterprising couple have turned it in to a home and tea room.

We spend a couple of hours walking the trails and then decided we were all starving so headed off to Whitby for fish and chips from the magpie cafe takeaway, which we ate on the habour wall watching the fishing boats come and go. I challenge you to find a better place and better food - the eye watering smell of malt vinigar of freshly cooked to order cod and fat chips with heinz ketchup and tartar sauce. There wasnt a single chip left for the seagulls, which were watching us watch them

We then decided that we needed to walk off our magnificent meal so set off for a walk around Whitby, stopping to get cola cubes and sherbert dib dabs from the old fashioned sweet shop. We walked up to the abbey and left the boys run free, before returning to the car, for the scienic journey home, along the costal road this time.

We all got in shattered for all that sea air, to have warm baths and early beds.

Themadhouse has posted!!! Hurray!!!

OK - pot of tea made, choccy buscuits on plate, nolstalgic music in background.... lavender oil burning.... teafortwo starts to read... her eyes go all blurry with tears... oh see that is my lovely little country - it is simply too too lovely!!!! Booo hooo!!!

• To be honest I love all the foocs posts but, does everyone else find, isn't there something very special about the Blighty ones???

Teafortwo scrolls back - Ooooohlaaa (seriously I have started using this French exclamation - the cool version of ohlala when surprised... I can't stop!!!)! What a lot of posts last night!!!! DD don't you think it is your nap time, darling!!!

LOL Teafortwo, I must admit I felt a bit homesick when I read TMH's post.

We have just figured out why the fireplace was not drawing well so I am am having a trial fire today. Most Swiss houses have an open fireplace and we are all of a flutter, never having had one before. It is very pretty.

Paris fooc

DD fell asleep and it gave me a chance to catch up. What can I say - what an excellent read! Of course nearly cried at themadhouse's descrition of fish and chips!

To be honest... I enjoyed it all bar one thing - Dooneygirl telling us about her DS having a febrile seizure. That is not enjoyable that is bleeerrrdy scary!

Dooneygirl - It must have been awful and you must be still feeling a bit shaky now. You really are not making a fuss. DrTeafortwo prescribes for you - rest, a glass of wine and someone-else to cook the dinner - you must be feeling like you need a bit of tlc too. I know I would need it! Big kisses from Paris to your ds! Look after him and look after you. xxx

I have just posted this on the thread about comps. It had been confusing me why the completely wonderful posts on this thread had been ignored by MNHQ and why when I invited a couple of mumsnet workers to be foocs they didn't join in! But I think I have cracked it!

"OH MY GOODNESS - It has just clicked in my mush of brain cells mummy head why the foocs have never been acknowledged by MNHQ!!!

Here is my theory - We have these amazingly human posts about such things as life in China during the baby milk crisis, ex-Yugoslavian Mothers living in the same village to people who have killed their families and an African PTA revolt. These posts are completely overwhelming stories explaining what it is like to be alive in this world and therefore; I thought, surely of interest to the people who make life happen in this world - parents and therefore as a consequence MNers?

However, I feel after reading this (the comp thead) it is to do with this balance between ?head? and ?heart?. Like offering us comps, you see... giving the foocs a little push perhaps would not be good commercially. For example a cute joke about a johnson and johnson product is going to get you more nods from big money companies than someone panicking about getting safe milk for her baby.

Ok? Fine? we all have to make our crust! I just feel a bit daft for waving the foocs flag all over mn thinking somehow if everyone liked us we would get a deserved quote of the week, a spot on the weekly letters or mentioned in the talk roundup!!! At the end of the day our foocs thread is probably a bit like the ones where everyone starts swearing ? one MNHQ would rather forget about!!!

This has been an education for me ? I shall from now on quietly get on with foocing and try not to embarrass MNHQ by mentioning it too much on other threads - like this one... whoops!!!! Ha ha ha - ok that resolution starts from after I post send!!! "

See I think - Commercially we don't fit the criteria for reporting back what we are doing here. Anyway, I don't think it matters much! We are all having fun so lets carry on. But it just explains why we aren't picked up on. Nothing to do with the quality of our posts it is all to do with the £££ opportunities.

It is much less confusing when you realise that, hey?

Teafortwo hangs around to see if justinemumsnet posts Oh she has look....

"No, no, no we love the foocs; and are considering publishing an edited version as a book. However, your really boring posts going on and on about Paris this Paris that(yawn yawn - yeah, yeah, whatever T42!!!) is what stops us!!!" Ha ha ha - ok I get it now!!!! and there's me thinking the reasons were really deep and dark!!!!!

Rant over... teafortwo whizzes off on the metro to find a nice bookshop with a coffee shop nearby to hang out in on this cold, grey, and rainy Paris day!

FOOC Southern India...

The rains have arrived in Tamil Nadu. We have had heavy downpours for the past 4 days. It is the sort of rain that stops everything and everyone. The drains are swollen to bursting and rivers appear from nowhere. THe best thing of all is that the temperature has dropped from a very sticky 35-36 to a much more manageable 27-28. The downside is schools are closed (at almost no notice) and the excuse for everything (no power, not turning up for work, whatever...) is the rain. In fact after the rain stops everything returns to normal remarkably quickly, so I'm not quite sure why the schools feel the need to close - at least in urban areas. Oh, the other downside is that washing suddenly seems to take ages to dry!

FOOC Paris West 'Burbs

4gotoindia, I was about to complain about how wet it has been here, but of course compared to Indian monsoon that's nothing! The town that I live in is on a hill descending down to the Seine. From several vantage points you get a clear view over the whole of Paris (Paris is in a large bowl, geographically speaking) and today I was looking at the streaks of grey and white across the sky, like layers built up with a huge paintbrush, with La Defense, Tour Montparnasse stretching up into it. Usually you can see Sacre Coeur - it's so white that it glistens in the sunshine, but today you couldn't pick it out. This evening there was something really comforting about closing the shutters - battening down the hatches - and shutting away the cold outside for the lovely warmth of my appartment.

TMH, making me hungry with your talk of fish and chips!

Weather at the weekend was gorgeous. DH was working, so DD, DS and I went into the forest where they were having an annual rubbish clearing event. We were all issued with plastic bags and gloves and went off into the woods and picked up rubbish. Admittedly, with DS in a buggy we didn't get very much, but basically we had a nice walk in the forest, then got to go and have "gouter" at school afterwards.

If any of you want to guess where I live...a famous French actor was buried here last week. He was only 37, the son of an even more famous French actor. His funeral was presided over by all sorts of French TV personalities, and no less than M. le Président's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Admittedly, I wasn't even aware he lived here, and didn't know about it until after it happened, but it does explain why my residence was so quiet on Saturday morning!

Thanks teafortwo. I AM being quite OTT right now, I'm afraid. Fortunately DH is being very understanding, and DS is quite into having his temperature taken right now. DH isn't getting home in time to make dinner, but he did on Saturday, and he's giving me foot rubs, which I think I like even more than having dinner made, TBH.

dooneygirl - it is very scary. I'm a fair bit older than my sister who had febrile convulsions as a child and can remember it vividly.

Madhouse - Whitby - dh took me on our first date there all the way from London - I thought we were going local!!!

dooneygirl - You can't be OTT when something as scary as that happens! Don't beat yourself up for caring. That is your job as a Mum! Just make sure you are getting looked after too.

NOW.... urmmm...please... No-one bother reading my ramblings about why I thought we don't get mentioned on mn. I just read the thread about the miscarriage article in the times. Why don't we get mentioned? - Simple answer - mn has bigger fish to fry. I much prefer to think of mn being too busy seriously campaigning for womans rights than ignoring us for commercial reasons - and tbh - I bet that is the truth!

Now T42 reassembles her slightly embarrassed self and promises to do some proper foocing from Paris soon.

Not really a FOOC report, more a p*ssed-off rant. Ds2 is supposed to be visiting us in Nigeria on Thursday but he hasn't received his passport and visa back from the Nigerian embassy in London. They've allegedly been going to release it at 5pm on Fri/Mon/Tues but there's been no show. The guy who signs the visas went out at lunchtime today and never came back, hence no visa. Our last hope is that the company dealing with it for ds2 can persuade the embassy of the urgency of releasing by 2pm tomorrow in order to get it couriered up to Scotland so ds has it ready for his 6.15am flight Thurs. But we're not hopeful. You'd have thought Nigeria would be quite keen to have tourists to their country but apparently not....

If ds has to cancel Thursday's flight he/we'll lose quite a lot of money. He could possibly rebook, if he ever sees his passport again, but KLM doesn't accept credit cards on flights to/from Nigeria (I wonder why not!!!) and only issues the tickets when the money shows up in their accounts. Ds might be able to pay in cash at the airport, that's the only way he can get a last-minute ticket. I feel like crying.

Oh Suedonim, how upsetting and frustrating. Fingers crossed...

(quiet drool at the Fish and Chips)

FOOC in Japan
We had our local autumn festival over the weekend - "Matsuri" festivals are BIG in Japan, usually connected to the local Shinto shrine. The main event is the parade of the portable shrine (mikoshi) which is carried round the festival site (either through the town, or round the park). The carriers wear traditional "happi" coats and shorts, and one or two of them stand on "roof" of the shrine shouting encouragement to the people carrying the heavy wooden mini-building!
The autumn festival is a bit like a harvest festival, with stalls selling fruit and veg.At this time of year, the seasonal goods are things like persimmon, tangerines, sweet potato, pumpkin, and Japanese pears.
There are all the usual food stalls, selling familiar things like candy floss, toffee apples and hot dogs....and then others selling typical Japanese fare, such as grilled Squid-on-a-Stick, octopus dumplings (takoyaki), fried noodles, and sweet bean soup. There are events such as karaoke, magic shows and dance performances. My DD does jazz dance and gave a great performance of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with her jazz dance class. My DS was off playing with his friends at the various tombola and darts stalls where the prizes usually consist of toy guns There are goldfish stalls, where you have to scoop the fish out of the water yourself, using a paper net! This means it often breaks before you actually get the fish! There are experts who have a knack of scooping goldfish out the water without tearing the net. These fish are, unfortunately, usually very weak and often diseased so I don't let my DCs do this anymore. Having said that, our pet goldfish, Mikan (tangerine in Japanese!) DID come from a festival a few years ago. She is obviously a hardy specimen.
One area of the festival is dedicated to community welfare projects, so you can learn first aid, or take a lesson in sign language or braille. Another area is a huge fleamarket (a carboot sale without the cars). These are very popular in Japan at the moment...we lived through the last credit crunch 10 years ago, and everyone has shifted down a gear over the past decade.
Everyone goes to the festivals, they are real community events, and great fun too!

Dooneygirl, sorry forgot to mention that I hope your DS is now OK. I remember watching my nephew have a febrile convulsion. It was very scary. I think panicking about our kids is just what we do!
Suedonim, fingers crossed for you!

Southwest Germany

I check the weather forecast online in my local paper. When I forget it means that because I listen to Radio 4's Today Programme I know the forecast for the south of England, Scotland and all points east, west and inbetween much better than what'll happen here...

We have - local weather

• regional
• Germany as a whole

and

• Bio-Wetter = how the weather will affect you physically.

Today's reads thus:

Sensitivity to the weather will be much more noticeable than in the past few days as pressure climbs to 1025. Early today many people will complain of headaches and pains in the joints. Concentration will be far below normal and tonight's sleep will be far from optimal.

If you're ever stuck for a conversation opener try, "I have a headache, it must be the air pressure..." and you're away. Unfortunately I can't use it as I just start laughing

Suedonim
How frustrating for you all. Any news on the passport?

T42
FOOC is your baby, so you are quite right in wanting to show the thread off.

Finknottle
LOL at the Biowetter, that always made me laugh. And the "Kreislaufbeschwerden" which I suppose translates as problems with the circulatory system. Many Germans seem to suffer from this mysterious condition that has something to do with low blood pressure (I think) and feeling a bit woozy. One often mentioned cure for Kreislaufbeschwerden is a glass of Sekt (sparkling wine) in the morning which is no bad thing. One the Kreislauf is angekurbelt or cranked up, then you are set for the rest of the day.

A less enjoyable method of getting your Kreislauf stimulated is Wechselduschen, hot/cold showers and Kneippbäder. A Kneippbad is something that was made popular by Sebastian Kneipp. As far as I can make out, the idea is to stand in a bath of water ánd stamp your feet. This gets your blood whizzing around your body and you feel fit and well. I found this article about Kneippbäder at motorway service stations.

I am resisting moaning about the rain and the school holidays after reading 4gotoIndia's post.

LoL at Finknottle and MmeT, I remember when I was in Germany (as a student) one of my friends always kept a bottle of sekt in the fridge in case of Kreislaufstörung.
The other thing I remember taking away from Germany (I lived in Aachen where it rains A LOT) is "es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter nur ungerechte Kleidung" (there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing).

LOL at the German weather forecast . I do think it has some truth to it though - some days the kids come into my classes SO hyper it's unbearable. And it usually rains the day after. Falling pressure...

Here in Spain it's very rare to get a long range or even medium range weather forecast. So, we can find out what's happening now, and for the rest of the day, and a very brief look at tomorrow, but if you want any more then you have to search the net, cos the TV won't give it to you. I suppose that way they avoid making mistakes...

I have been following the FOOC since it started and have found it completely fascinating.

Having also just enjoyed TheMadHouse's Yorkshire post (an area am familiar with as it is where dh is from) I hope no one will mind if I join in as another not-so-foreign-correspondent

Reporting from: North Devon

We live in a very rural area, surrounded by farmland but just a couple of miles away (as the crow flies) from the coast. I feel extremely lucky to live here as it is a beautiful part of the country, and autumn is my favourite time of year.

The leaves are changing colour with a vengeance, and each morning, if we?re lucky, as we turn out of our driveway (sounds very grand ? in reality a very bumpy cart track!) the sun catches the tops of the trees so they seem to be lit up from the inside ? they glow vivid red and gold and orange. We pass a valley on the way to school, and often it is wreathed in mist. I keep reminding myself to take my camera, as the combination of the light, the colours and the ghostly mist make a terrific picture ? although in reality my photography probably couldn?t do it justice.

As we?re so close to the sea, we often wake up to find ourselves completely engulfed in sea-mist. It is so thick it feels like being inside a cloud, and really seems that you could reach out and grab a handful ? which ds & dd often try to do

One of my favourite parts of the drive to and from school is along a lane lined with ancient, heavily coppiced trees. The treetops meet in the middle, so it is like driving through a leafy tunnel. In summer the leaves are so thick it?s extremely dark, with just patches of greenish light showing through. As the leaves fall, the tunnel gets lighter, but the light is hazy and golden. Whatever time of day/year it is, driving past the lines of knobbly, bulbous tree trunks surrounded by shadows gives the whole lane an otherworldly feel. Frodo and Sam would have been quite at home tramping along this lane, and I think Peter Jackson missed a trick .

I shall sign off there before I write too much of an epic, but hope to join you all again soon, if you?ll have me