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 Monaco

It is warm and sunny here on the Cote d'Azur. In the sun, all you need is a t-shirt. There were a quite impressive number of people in their bathing suits on the beach over the weekend and many others were there to have lunch and watch the kids run around.

The beach in Monaco is small, like everything else in this minuscule principality of 1.9 km sq. Still, every weekend, about a million Italians and quite a few French flock in, to spend time on this tiny beach. (We are only 15 minutes from the Italian border and Ventimiglia, the first Italian town on the other side.)

Some come for the glamour effect (So we hear. It is lost on those of us who live here) but others come because it is brilliant for children. There are several playground installations in the middle of the beach, like this pirate boat with a slide on one side and rope stairs going up to the top. Kids love them.

One restaurant on the beach also has a largish play area for children, including three bouncy castles of various sizes, a little 'house', a slide, and a table with coloring books and pencils. Especially given the French/Monegasque habit of closing down everything on Sundays, the Larvotto beach is heaven for families with small children like us.

It is pouring rain today in Geneva, very dreary and driech.

We have put the DCs names down for school dinners and were asked if they have any allergies. When I mentioned that DD has a nut allergy (she gets a skin rash, thankfully no breathing difficulties) the teacher said that we have to get a note from the doctor. It seems that telling them is not enough, they need to have it in writing. Switzerland is rather fond of buerocracy, as far as I can tell. We are still waiting for our residents permits to arrive, without which I cannot open a bank account, get a mobile phone and all sorts of other things.

Monaco is a five hour drive from Geneva. Or about an hour by plane iirc

We were on the beach again today but with jackets this time as it was overcast and windy - first day of what passes for winter here.

Oh the Swiss are incredibly organized, bureaucratic, and set in their ways. Most wouldn't know the word 'flexibility'. Have you noticed yet how the streets are completely empty after about 8 pm? It's spooky!

Hmm, five hours, perhaps a bit far to drive down for a cappuccino on the beach

Here is something that we have been talking about this week, next years summer holiday. We have to go to Scotland for a week or so as my DB is getting married, but the rest of the time we are going to spend here in Geneva, France and neighbouring Italy. We will go for a couple of days here and there and really discover the area. Why go on holiday somewhere when we are in an area where others go on holiday.

What about the other FOOCers? Do you holiday elsewhere or discover your new surroundings?

The FOOCers in exotic locations: Does the novelty wear off eventually and you feel like a week back in UK for some rain and fog?

Fooc - N Yorkshire

Not really a fooc really, but we are having a dreadful time in chez Mad with a tummy bug passing it about to one and another and also the clocks went back AND to top it all our heating is caput, so I decided to have a good read and dream of what it would be like to be where you are.

Anyway, I dont know if the clock thing is a purley European thing, but with little ones it can be a nightmare, my two are 3.8 years old and 28 months now and try telling them that they need to spend an hour extra in bed. What is so strange is that it is now nearly dark and our regular afternoon trip to the park is going to have to be pulled forward. We have just had a hail storm and me and DS1 are curled up (me still in my PJ's) watching the chipmonls in the conservatory (the only place we have independant heating). DH who has a couple of days off (cue me being ill) has taken DS2 to get treats for being good and letting mummy sleep all morning (infact most of the day, I actually got up at 3pm)

DS1 changes from Afternoon Preschool to mornings after Christmas along with the older children, as he is being somewhat challenging at the minute, will very little patients for other children who are slower than him. It is so strange he wants to learn, they want him to play, I want him to be happy. I am hoping that between us all we can find a happy medium. Briochedoree this whole learning thing is hard enough at home, I can not imagine the heartache of doing it in another language. I am so please that you are proud of your Little one.

Anyway, please regale me with tales of sun and heat.

Oh and just a little mention of Halloween, which seems to be taking over the place. My two HATE all the scary masks etc that are about, what is wrong with just mkaing a night of it, instead of a week of it. Anyway rant over.

Electrian just called and will be with us by 6pm - oh I am dreaming of a hot bath and a warm house to get out into. (I know we are lucky by some standards), but my two went to bed in layers and bhot water bottles last night (Flat Franks we called then - suasage dog covers)

Paris FOOC

WOW - what a lot of posts... I don't know where to start in commenting on them!!!

OK, I am going to try -

Finknottle - St Martins sounds very very lovely indeed! Very snuggling and cozy just what a November night needs!!! The French tip their hats to halloween but basically nothing is celebrated around now and it makes me miss Bonfire night quite badly! I have a friend who is German maybe I will suggest to her that we create own celebration that somehow is a combination of the two and also includes dinner so it is a bit Frenchy as well!!!

eidsvold - WOW WOW WOW!!!! Congratulations on your dds success!!!! You must be so proud of her!!!! Don't forget to be very proud of yourself too. To have made such a brilliant achieve - she must have a pretty brilliant Mum behind her!!!

Caulifrau - At the weekend I had a lovely night out with work colleagues. Due to the nature of my work they are all English Mother-tongue BUT come from all over the World. A Trinidadian explained to me that it is illegal for Gay men to make love in her country. I was completely amazed!!! WHAT??? In 2008???? Then the Americans started talking about the different state laws and again I was shocked!!!! Next I read your report and was completely overwhelmed again. I suppose living on the outskirts of the city of Paris where whether people are gay or not is just part of life (e.g our Mayor is openly Gay en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Delano%C3%AB) I had thought of homophobia as something only for the history books!!! How wrong I was - pass me my VOTE NO ON 8 badge Peeerrllleeeaaaase!!!!!

Themadhouse - I hope you and your lot get well soon!!!

I wanted to post a little true story... but this post is getting too long so I will put it in another one later!!!

I have heating - yippee. although the electricican stated that is not the electrics its the plummbing (although he tightened all the connections and all is OK at the present) - Touches lots of wood.

The house is so cold - it will take all night to warm up

Paris Fooc

On route to our Metro stop there is an Old Polish Man who sits beside a tall building because he doesn't have a home. At night he has a centre he goes to, to sleep and eat, but during the day he seems to love sitting there looking a bit discheivelled and watching the World go by! Seriously, it fascinates me how little he appears to have and how happy he is!

He is a real character - weathered cheeks, kind eyes and a friendly face. He obviously has no problem with drink or drugs and I often wonder how such a positive character could end up so poor - you'd think he would make it in life just through having such a positive attitude.

Anyway, dd and I are very Anglo-saxon in appearance and we are quickly noticed and remembered around here. Due to his old clothes and always sitting in the same place he is quickly noticed too. Since I noticed him and he noticed me we have been saying "Bonjour" and "ca va?" for over two years now! Him with his bad Polish accent me with my bad English one.

Recently dd has discovered the word 'friend' in French and English and now greets him "Bonjour mon ami!".

He loves this! A couple of days ago she ran upto him to say hello my friend again and he started to fiddle in his backpack, DD is slightly obsessed by Dora the Explorer at the moment so this was exciting enough for her, but to add to the excitement he explained to her that he was looking for a present for her....

and out of his backpack he pulled and proudly presented her with....

A FRUIT SHOOT!!!!

And I thought - I can't wait to tell the foocs about this!!!

The End

• True story!!!!

Madhouse - we have summer time or daylight savings as they call it BUT not in all of Australia. The rest of the east coast have it - ie NSW, Victoria BUT not here in QLd. IT is quite funny for my brother who lives right on the qld border but an hour behind 2 minutes walk away - very strange.

There is all sorts of pushes to get it here in Qld BUT a lot of the rural areas are not for it - we did have a referendum and it lost. There is also a move for the south east qld - here in our little corner to have summer time and put clocks forward and leave the rest of the state to it.

Can be confusing over the summer.

info here

tea for two - that is lovely.

That must be so confusing. We were watching a program with DS1 on time the other evening and it was explaining why we all go by GMT and not local time and not sundials as it would be at least 5 mins out over the UK.

I have never thought of it in the context of such a large country as Aus.

Foocing is quite enlightening.

Tea I loved your story - what makes you standout bytheway?

Anyway must try and get some sleep, have come down for warm milk, but it is nice having a toasty house again.

madhouse - middle of Aus is 1/2 behind and then Perth is 2 hours behind east coast.

Yes - it is annoying as foxtel ( sky tv) is an hour ahead as the programming is lined up with most of the other states so you have to remember if a show you like watching is on satellite tv you have to tune in an hour earlier.

Teafortwo
That is a lovely story. at the Fruit Shoot. I must look for them in France when I go shopping later. (Don't tell, or I will be banned from MN but my DCs love FS and are allowed then when we are home in Scotland)

DD has a Wackelzahn, a loose tooth. I have not noticed it being such an important rite of passage in UK, but in Germany it is huge. The last year of kindergarten is called Vorschule and the children are named the Wackelzahnkinder. School starts at age 6yo in Germany so it coincides with the first tooth falling out and so it is seen as a sign of being ready to go to school.

DD has been very impatient, some of her kindergarten friends had a Wackelzahn over a year ago. Yesterday she complained about her mouth being sore when she was eating her apple and after some poking around we discovered that she has at last got a Wackelzahn. If you could have seen her face, she was so delighted.

Now she is worrying about it falling out in her sleep

FOOC Germany

Today's Bio-Wetter:

"The influence of the weather remains negative as the low air pressure will induce wide-spread headaches and migraines. Many people will feel lethargic and tired. The ability to concentrate will be significantly affected and many people will be emotionally unbalanced."

Bit of a clunky translation, need coffee but still

The got the usual forecast for rain, sun etc. wrong, should be dry and has been pouring with rain for 2 hrs so maybe the Bio-Wetter is wrong too and people will be skipping energetically in the streets concentrating on spreading emotional harmony.

I WANT Bio-Weather in the UK too

joint ache in the north
grumpiness in the east
light to moderate depression over the Highlands
A chance of emotional instability coming in from the west
Anyone with a deadline looming will be pleased that the low air pressure today and resulting drop in concentration levels will give them the perfect excuse for extending it.

Actually I dont want any weather - heating went off last night again
Boiler compmany now coming tomorrow was origionaly Friday, but I lost it and rang the MD of the company who built our house (never expected to get through and did) and he managed to get them in tomorrow.

Cali
that website is strangely fascinating.

Still raining here in Geneva. Off to a Halloween party this afternoon at the American Womens Club. There are a lot of Halloween activities here, almost more as in Germany.

FOOC Galicia

I'm getting a couple of days ahead of myself and am going to post about El Día de los Difuntos, or day of the dead, which is on 1st November. The reason for not giving you an actual report on the actual day is that I will be back in UK for the weekend .

So, the first of November is a public holiday in Spain. Luck (or misfortune) has it that this year it falls on a Saturday, so most people don't get a day off work, although state schools have programmed Friday off for some reason. But the rest of us have to do without.

On this day, people go to the cemetery to visit the graves of their deceased family. They take flowers and plants, and offer prayers etc. It's very common to see huge traffic jams and a parking nightmare around the city's cemeteries, as relatives try to do the rounds of all the cemeteries in order to see all the graves. Florists do a roaring trade in floral arrangements and wreaths.

As with all occasions in the Spanish calendar, there is food connected to this date- the huesos de santos, or saints' bones. I suppose you could describe them as little tubes, made of marzipan, filled with various flavour creams - fruit, chocolate, more almond, cream etc. I have to say I'm not hugely keen on them, which is probably good for my waistline!

Also available (and much more of a temptation for me!) are buñuelos rellenos , which are like little doughnuts, again filled with a variety of creams, jams and sauces.

I can't give you anything like the insiders view of what happens because, (thankfully IMO) Dh's family don't go in for cemetery visiting or going to Mass. So, we just eat the cakes .

Paris FOOC

My daughter has a MASSIVE cough and cold. She is coughing so much she keeps being sick! It is exhausting for her (and me). After three days and nights of hanging around our tiny apartment watching French tv - We both in big big need of a holiday. Luckily we have one booked!!!

It is quite cheap for us to fly to Tunisia from Paris. So we are going to spend next week in Sidi Bou Said on the outskirts of Tunis. I can't wait!!!

photos.linternaute.com/paysville/186083/sidi-bou-said/

A perfect place for recovery and rest... I hope!

I meant - 'We ARE both in big big need of a holiday'

I am so tired!!!! Every post I have made today needed another to correct typos - T42 goes to lay down!!!!!

Teafortwo
Hope your DD is feeling better soon, the holiday is bound to revive you both.

Cies
Interesting, about the 1st November. The Germans are quite big on Allerheiligen too and most families visit the graves of their loved ones. DH's grandparents were buried in Fladungen in the Rhön, about 1 1/2 hours from his hometown so we did not go every year but his parents did. We used to go for a walk around the Hauptfriedhof in Würzburg, them main cemetery in the early evening when it was just getting quiet. It was very beautiful, most graves were decorated and had several candles burning, in little red plastic pots and it was a good place for reflection and rememberence.

My DB lived in Germany for a couple of years and bought some nice red candles for his flat. We had to tell him that it made his flat look like a graveyard.

Talking of graveyards, I was very surprised to hear that in Germany you buy your plot for a set timescale and after that it gets reused. So DH's parents have paid for the next 40 years and after that, if DH or his siblings do not want to use the family grave it gets emptied and used for another family.

FOOC Ibadan, Nigeria

I haven't posted from here for a while, it seems that very little of note happens here day to day. I have been keeping up with the posts though, the same day that Suedonim's daughter in Lagos had the experience of seeing the dead body being carted around, on our way to school we saw a whole truckload full of corpses, neatly lined up but uncovered. The children were very impressed, normally we only see corpses one at a time by the side of the road! Nigeria requires a certain acceptance of such things as normal.
Anyway, I am due to give birth to DC3 in about 3 weeks time here in Ibadan and I wondered whether any foreign correspondents (and I am obviously thinking of those in hotter locations) have any knowledge of the safety of air conditioning and newborns. We have our AC on full blast most of the time but I am concerned that this may not be good for a new baby. I am worried about asthma etc. Any knowledge/tips/advice gratefully received.