from our own correspondent

[teafortwo]

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

New thread...

to be created below!

Enjoy!

Who do we have in Japan? Maybe you could help this MN with a question about nappy cream.

MmeT - I did reply to her earlier today (this morning, Japan-time) actually, on a different Long Haul thread - she posted under about 5 topics! Hope she has seen it, and that her baby's rash is better.
Thanks for the heads-up!

Ok, thanks Rose, did not notice that. I guess she has found something then. The latest advice was egg white (if she can get her hands on an egg, you do have eggs over there, don't you?)

Yup, loads of eggs, and quite cheap - although no free-range.

Update: Ds's passport has escaped from the embassy and is atttemting to hitch a lift on the 4pm flight to Aberdeen. Ds may have to go to the courier co depot to collect it but even if he can't leave tomorrow, he should be able to come Fri.

Yippee another UK fooc and double yippe to the returning passport

Between Yoho and Madhouse, I am feeling a wee bit homesick, something that does not happen very often. I managed to find Hobnobs in our Manor supermarket today (fabulous poncey food hall) so will wallow in it with a cup of tetley and some biscuits.

Toronto

Well, homesick expats, the Sprats have departed from Toronto after our 6 month stint. So you have won yourself another occasional UK FOOC. Although, I must say, it feels, strangely, a little inhibiting to post from the UK, for me at least. Must try to get over it. We're not expected to represent all aspects of UK life, just as I didn't for Canada, Ontario, Toronto, or even my little bit of it.

So, thought I'd say goodbye to Toronto with a list of famous Torontons. There might be some surprises. There are so many closet-Canadians!

Will Arnett - actor
Margaret Atwood - novelist
Neve Campbell - actress
John Candy - comic actor
Jim Carrey - comic actor
Hayden Christensen - actor
David Cronenberg - film director
Robertson Davies - writer
Atom Egoyan - film director
Linda Evangelista - model
Frank Gehry - architect
Malcolm Gladwell, writer (Tipping Point, Blink!)
Glenn Gould - pianist
Phil Hartman - comic actor
Naomi Klein - writer on social/economic issues (No Logo)
Eugene Levy - comic actor
Martha and the Muffins - musicians
Joni Mitchell - musician
Colin Mochrie - comedian
Mike Myers - actor
Alannah Myles - singer
Michael Ondaatje - writer (The English Patient)
Sean Paul - reggae artist
Mary Pickford - actress, co-founder of United Artists
Jason Priestley - actor (Beverly Hills 90210)
Keanu Reeves - actor (The Matrix)
Robbie Robertson - musician
Martin Short - actor
Joe Shuster - creator of Superman
Neil Young - rock musician

Ds has his passport - he's just called to say he has it in his sticky, (not so) little mitt. Talk about cutting it fine, he's flying in less than 10 hours time.

MrsSprat, Bon Voyage and do stay on FOOC. I'm impreseed by the list of Torontans!

B*gger, I knew I needed to buy something else.

LOL @ german weather forecasting

Feeling just a tad homesick after Yoho's post.

Hooray for the passport

Nothing much to report from the Windy City

We spent the afternoon running through the 'winter garden' in the park. I have no idea why they named it that. They just ripped up the old turf, put grass seed down, laid some concrete paths and sculpted a few small hills. DS decided we would go 'climbing up the moutains' which, given that Chicago is apparently flatter than a pancake and that DS is 3, these tiny mounds could appear almost mountain like. Anyway, we spent a while running up and down said hillocks and through the leaves. Was lovely. I have been lurking on the Geocaching thread and found one near me. We might have a look for one tomorrow.

Glad they managed to get the passport.

OREGON

Ladybugs. Just ladybugs. At DS' school today, they were all over. I was standing talking to his teacher, and had 7 of them crawling on me. There were so many you could see them swarming by the trees, and we were standing quite a a ways away.

We're going through Indian summer right now (warm weather after the 1st frost of fall) and I guess they come down off the hills to the valley floor where it is warmer. We're not even a mile away from where his school is, and don't get anything like she has. The kids were going crazy trying to catch them, as there was literally nowhere you could be that didn't have some flying or landing on you or something else.

It is beautiful. There's frost on the ground in the mornings, but the sun is out all day. It was 71 here today, or 21.66666 for all you non-US people.

FOOC SWITZERLAND

I was pondering globalisation today when I was in the Coop supermarket. Or rather, if a large part of the marketing trade is simply travelling around other countries and copying letting oneself be inspired by the goods on offer there. It is something that I have noticed before, a particularly good product that is sold for a while in UK suddenly appears, slightly altered on the shelves of a German supermarket. We noticed oaty biscuits called "Hobbits" in Germany a while back.

Today I found the real deal, Hobnobs in the Coop supermarket in Geneva, just around the corner from the UN building. Presumably they get a lot of expat customers, their biscuit department was certainly well stocked with digestives and hobnobs.

What puzzled me was the fact that the Coops own brand shortbread was more expensive than Walkers. Still, it was the premium brand, Fine Food. Then I had a closer look at the Fine Food range.

Here is a quick Spot-The-Difference Fine Food and Finest

Notice anything? Can you tell where the product development manager of Coop Switzerland went on holiday last year?

Lots of Ladybirds here too, Dooney. DS spends much of his time spotting ladybugs and asking various questions (Where do they come from? Why?) that my zoology degree just didn't cover.

Mme, I'm surprised that the packaging is allowed to be so similar. Being near the UN obviously has advantages!

Someone tell us about St Martins, I'm intrigued now.

No news from Chicago today other than I have cherry and almond cupcakes in the oven because my mum is coming tomorrow with lots of exciting treats Hooray!

We had a ladybird invasion a couple of weeks ago. Every time we opened the windows we had dozens of them in the house. I had to sweep them up with a brush and pan and chuck them over the hedge. On the other side of the hedge at the back of our house is a garden from some lentil-weavery guys, maybe that is why we have so many ladybirds, I am betting that they don't use pesticides.

I will report on St Martin later, but first I have to give you the bizarre update on Jörg Haider, in case you have missed it. The papers are full of speculation, his "close friend and successor" Stefan Petzer broke down and cried during an interview, stating that Haider was his "life partner" and that he is lost without him. The married politician died two weeks ago and this has not been the only scandal.

Haider's family are having another postmortem done as they suspect that he was drugged in the gay bar that he spent a couple of hours in before crashing his VW Phaeton. Nothing do to with the bottle of vodka and the 1.8pr alcohol in his bloodstream then

I will look for some photos of St Martin and get back to you later, we have a doggy walking date with our neighbours dog now

FOOC Germany

St Martin's Day is on the 11th of November. The story is that Martin was a Roman soldier who shared his cloak with a freezing beggar as a result of which he had some sort of epiphany, converted to Christianity and became a monk.
Kindergarten children (up to 6) make little paper lanterns on sticks with lights in them and at dusk on the 11th there's a procession which takes about half an hour through the streets. Every few corners (this is in our village) they stop and sing one of the Martin's songs:

Ich gehe mit meiner Laterne
Und meine Laterne mit mir
Dort oben leuchten die Sterne
Hier unten da leuchten wir
...

Laterne, Laterne,
Sonne, Mond und Sterne.
Brenne auf mein Licht,
aber nur meine liebe Laterne nicht
...

Durch die Strassen auf und nieder
leuchten die Laternen wieder:
rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue,
Lieber Martin, komm und schaue!

I'm not sure what the light/lantern connection is, some say just generally symbolic of light in the darkness. The local fire-brigade block the roads off and a rider on a horse dressed in a cloak leads the procession. Afterwards you go to a large bonfire and drink Gluehwein, often the first of the season and the children eat a Weckmann, a doughy man with raisins for eyes.
Our local bakery does a goose-shaped cake too. Geese are associated with St Martin, partly the season I think but the story goes that the other monks wanted him to be their abbot and in modesty he hid from them in the goose barn (or wherever geese live, a goosery? ) and the geese gave his hiding place away by squawking.
So it's traditional to eat roast goose, dumplings and red cabbage on and around 11th Nov. It's also connected to the old tithing system, many old traditions are bound up together.

It is lovely to see the children all excited holding their lanterns so carefully and a glowing procession singing through the fog and old cobbled streets. Even though today the sticks are no longer wooden but plastic and the lights no longer candles/tea lights but battery-operated bulbs. Older brothers and sisters come along too and pretend to be too old for it all but secretly love running around through the village in the dark with torches.

Just sending you all a ~~~wave~~~ from a v hot Nigeria! Ds2 and I got back ok on Thu evening and now we have dd2's week's half-term holiday to enjoy.

St martins sounds fab.

We have had a busy time here in Aus.

I organised a working bee to makeover the gardens at dd1's prep school area. They now look fab -planted out, tidied up. The children did most of the planting - we just dug holes for them and then did it during school time. The have a vege garden going as well as some herbs. We have a fairy path with cool stepping stones. I am hoping to get some benches for them so they can sit in the garden and enjoy it. We have planted lots of natives and hope to get the birds coming to visit too.

I also was away for two days with training. I am a new parent supporter for our local down syndrome association. I go and speak with and support parents who have had a little one with down syndrome. It is great - I get to see lots of cute babies and am able to help families. I have met some amazing people. I have done four visits so far this year which I think is great - three girls and a little boy.

Well dh and I are coming up to our wedding anniversary - 7 years married on Monday. And some people said it wouldn't last - in fact one person said to me there would be tears before bedtime Funnily enough - she is no longer with the guy she was living with at the time. I think the fact we basically snuck off to Aus to get married and told very few people in the UK until after the event - and then I was pregnant so soon after us being married - some people thought it must have been a shotgun wedding - yeh like you need to do that in 2001.

Anyhoo - dh and I went out for the first time in ages sans children. We went

here for the Saturday night live show. It was very interesting and surprising to consider how huge the universe is and how little we know about it and how little we are in comparison. We are thinking about taking the dds back to the children's one. I did have a moment when we were spinning into outer space that I thought I would puke!!

Then it was off to Coffee club for a meal and some time to talk alone without the interruptions of everyday life.

The dds were looked after by my aunt - their great aunt. They love her and she adores them. They have a fabulous time together. It is great that they are able to have extended family to spend time with.

We are in the last term of school so I am trying to sort out christmas/end of school year presents for lots of people. I think a batch of rocky road or three is on its way soon. Then our 6 weeks summer holiday and the angst of starting year 1 for dd1 and dd2 is off to kindy. It will just be me and dd3 for three days a week. I can't believe my dd2 is big enough to go to kindy!!!

We have a major milestone in our family this week. Dd1 has been attending a special ed unit from the time we arrived back in Aus - she started at playgroup ( mums and bubs) and then she progressed to the kindy program and then preschool and she is now down to one day a week. This week is her last day ever at the special ed unit. She is going full time at mainstream school. 4 1/2 years of our life has been spent with some contact. I have met some amazing teachers and teacher aides and I feel a little bereft that it is all coming to an end. The teachers there all adore dd1 and they were all saying how sad they were to be seeing her go BUT how great it was that she was going.

I think is a huge post - so better stop now.

here in qld special education units - now called early childhood development units work with children with special needs. You can start when your little one is a baby and you do the playgroup - 2 hours a week. Then when they get to 3 - they stay two mornings a week for a couple of hours - without you. Then it progresses to a couple of afternoons a week and a full day. Dd1 then did two full days mainstream kindy and two full days ecdu.

When it comes to Prep - you can chose a number of variations. prep is the first year of school. So you can do full time prep at the ECDU/special school depending on the location of the ECDU or you can do what we did - started with a 3/2 split - three days in mainstream school, then worked up to a 4/1 split. then full time.

They have therapists attached - physio, ot, speech and the teachers are early childhood special ed trained.

Some children then go on to special school or some move into mainstream depending on what the parents choose.

Eidsvold, well done to your DD1 on going into mainstream school . I had a lovely exp. on Friday when I picked up my DD's workbook after her first term at her new school. She's in her second year at school but she started a new school this year because we moved house. Last year was when we discovered she had SN (severe language disorder...complicated by the fact that she's English MT but at French school) and her school last year did NOTHING to help her. This year she has a LOVELY teacher who was happy to go through DD's work with me and said that "She IS capable of doing things, she just needs more explanation" and told me how much she liked my DD because she's a real sweetie. Made my weekend .

Califrau - the US Christian right scares the hell out of me. My parents live in Tucson which is a tiny democratic outpost in the middle of Republican Arizona (John McCain's state) and they are very scared about the upcoming election. Well done for sticking up for your friends over P8.

Will post more later about our nice day out to the modern art exhibition, but I hear my son waking up!

well for our wonderful anniversary dinner - the dds have a very aussie sausage sizzle dh and I had BBQ. We are finishing off with a curly wurly!! Dh said the other day he had not had one for ages - and they were on special at the supermarket so he got one.

7 years married - who'd have thought it. I only went to england for a chance to live and work elsewhere and travel!! Ended up with dh, dd1 and dd2 on the way when I came home.

At the moment I am busy trying to cross stitch than you cards for dd1 to write in for her teachers as well as christmas cards for end of year presents. I love to cross stitch but at the moment I tend to be so knackered when I get the dds to bed that just sitting on the couch doing nothing is lovely.