leise rieselt der Schnee - for all those lovely people in Germany and Austria or whoever wants to join us!

[Canella]

a new wintery thread in honour of Hupa's first snow of the season!

Morning. Lovely day and my headache has just stopped too!

Canella, did you get your car fixed? Have you had your pupil again for English? Agree that is one of the problems with these trips, some dc need more sleep and others can't settle and won't stop talking! I'm expecting an exhausted ds tomorrow. He's in a room with a rather excitable chatter box boy! To top it all, ds has abit of OCD and he can't relax if he's got a messy pile of clothes on the floor in his room and his desk has to be totally cleared before he goes to bed so he'll be stressed about having spent a week in a messy room!

Dh just found out what all that business is asking him to get a Bescheinigung about his PhD. The big boss wants to employ him with a permenant contract but there are some time limits for the position and he has to have 6 years work/postdoc experience before. So now we have to get all his contracts and prove how long he has been working since the PhD. If he hasn't had enough experience then he'll only get a 2 year contract, but theoretically after that he would be able to take the permenant position (if one is available). Fingers crossed!

Have painted all the chipped door frames this morning and half a door (one side) and have now given up. Save some for another day.

Ooh, just thought about tallpoppies. Wonder if her baby has arrived!

Banana, hope you have a lovely weekend (is it Karneval?) enjoy breaking the good news! My sister broke the news one Christmas, she and her dh handed out the gifts then they said and we've got another gift but you can't have it until August!

tallpoppies - good luck for today!

ernest - could you get a landscape gardner in just to give you some ideas. Friends of ours did this last year and found it really useful. They had vague ideas about what they wanted, but the gardener was able to give them really good advice about which areas of the garden would work best for which plants etc.

Dd is going away with the school for a couple of nights in the middle of June. She´s already so excited about it that she can´t get to sleep at night. God knows what state she´ll be in by the time we get to June.

admylin - don´t envy you with the painting. We´re meant to be painting our spare room at the weekend, but if the weather stays good it would be a shame to spend the time indoors painting.

Dh´s sister lives in Köln and has taken a few days holiday so she can celebrate Karneval without having to worry about a hangover at work the next day.

That's a good idea hupa, it would be well worth it to get a landscape gardner in ernest. I don't know how you manage all the organising that you have to do (and have already done), think I'd have gone into breakdown long ago.

morning!!
agree admylin - its is a gorgeous day!! sounds like your son will be exhausted tomorrow!! but hope he's had a fab time! good on you for doing the painting - i washed all the downstairs windows but got bored and havent done the top ones yet!! i find you have to be in the right mood for big jobs like those!
got the car fixed - cost 660?!!! dh wasnt in the best mood that day! Done the English lesson twice but he was ill last week (and i didnt feel great either) so he's coming back tomorrow! his spoken english is ok but he has no idea how to spell words - think he needs to read a bit in english to help himself!

bananamad - oh its a fab time telling people that your pregnant!! esp grandparents! its such an exciting time! when are you due?

hupa - your SIL has gone Fasching mad!!! I've sent the boys off dressed up this morning to kiga - but with thermal long johns on underneath - it might be fasching but its still cold!!!

It's still freezing here and no sign of spring. I was wondering what all the Christmas decorations were doing at the baker's this morning until I realised they must be for Fasching. The two tinsel-covered snowmen definitely seemed more appropriate for Christmas than Fasching, though.

Ouch at ?660 Canella. I had to get my brakes repaired last year and it cost well over ?500 - and then the car gave up the ghost entirely a few months later.

Good news about the headache, admylin. Hope your DS won't be too exhausted tomorrow, but at least he'll have the weekend to recover. I'm sure he'll have had a great time though; it's definitely a lovely area (DH spent a couple of months in Clausthal-Zellerfeld when he was doing his PhD).

hupa The Austrians are more likely to overindulge in Faschingskrapfen than alcohol - or maybe we just live in a very sedate area!

ooh admylin, that sounds really really good about the permanent position. Especially as you have said before that you would like to stay put. How long has he been working do you reckon? It must be so hard to bring up a family going from contract to contract, I really hope this works for you!

Banana- enjoy sharing the news! And the ice creams you will need for extra calcium, don´t forget one for the baby and one for you! As Linzer said, it is freeeeeting here today, can´t imagine sitting in the park.

bebe - sorry to hear about sickness and sciatica. I had it in all three pregnancies and the only thing that sorted it was a certain stretch. Hope you find a little pulling truck, sounds like a fun thing to have.

We managed to have a good time last night, thanks. DD was much better than the last few times. We had spoken about it and I think she had learnt that we were going to go out whatever the fuss. She had a few tears (that is okay) but then the babysitter sat with her for a while and chatted before dd went off to sleep. DD said they are now friends. Phew.

Linzer- we went to the Rathauskeller last night. It is expensive but there is a lovely room in there and visitors to Vienna never fail to be impresssed. But rubbish if you are a vegetarian. Other places we have been to have been Plachutta (wanted to know what the fuss was about). This fish restaurant comes recommended, Dalmos in Lerchenfelderstrasse 88-90, 1080. I have never been but dh likes it. Apart from those places we have been to Stomach, Seegasse 1090, (it´s a bit run down, I liked the food, dh did not but some of his colleagues have said that is their favourite restaurant in Vienna). And that is it really, one of the reasons I want a job is so that dh and I can go out a bit more! Hope your ds gets some results you can trust.

canella- that is a lot of money. That is 66 hours of English lessons at your current rate...time to raise the price?!?

gosh, I had about 2 glasses of wine and went to sleep 2 hours later than usual and my head is all fuzzy today. I shall stick with the Austiran krapfen rather than the German alcohol, I think.

Linzer - god i hope my car doesnt give up the ghost!! its only 6 yrs old! and as much as i secretly would love a brand new car there really isnt anything wrong with it!! i've been overly "zufrieden" with it!

Bananas - glad you had a good night out and that your dd behaved herself! hope your mini hangover got better!

Dh has installed some app on my ipod that means i can listen to the music and see all the photos that are on our hard drive! i'm amazed at how clever that is - saves me transferring every cd we have on to the ipod! but i have absolutely no idea how that works - i'm such a technophobe! but happily listening to take that this morning while doing the ironing! it must have kept me going since the basket is now empty!! happy days!

hi all. Ouch Canella! I daren't go to the garage as it always ends up costing loads. There's always things going wrong with my car now. Windscreen washer stopped working, door handle broke, sat nav intermittent. If I complain dh says I'm spoilt. Maybe I am, but it's ok for him, swanning around in his problem free BMW and me, something different wrong with it every 5 minutes.

A landscape gardener is just what we need but I can't get one for love nor money. I phoned loads of companies who just weren't interested. And our gardening company we have to use is crap.

Hope tallpoppies doing ok.

Meeting with the school re ds1 English went really well. Very pleased with how it went. Just have to hope the things we discussed actually happen.

I would love to go to Linz one day. Spent a holiday in Steyregg near Linz. Was a wonderful wonderful holiday. Glad you managed to go out without too much drama.

Sorry canella, I didn't mean to imply that your car will give up the ghost now too! Mine was about 12 years old and definitely on its last legs, but I was quite sad to see it go off to the scrap heap.

Thanks for the recommendations, bananas. The Rathauskeller does sound nice; I just had a look at the menu and saw they have Krautfleckerl, but then remembered that they're quite likely to have bacon in them. Most Austrian restaurants are a bit rubbish for vegetarians but some are more accommodating than others. DH is quite keen to try out an Indian restaurant but I'm worried that it might not live up to the one we go to in Linz and that we'll be disappointed.

It's still not definite that we'll be able to arrange for all three DC to stay overnight with friends anyway, so I need to work on that first! DH would really like to know by tonight so that he can book a table somewhere and also so that he'll know to take the train into work tomorrow.

I just posted a thread about Konstanz before I noticed this one. Do any mners live in or near Konstanz?

Sorry!! I'm no use - i had to google it to see where it was!!

I've been there, but it was ages ago now - lovely place (and area) from what I remember. I don't think there's anyone on this thread near Konstanz, but I could be mistaken as a few new people have joined recently.

Teddy, I live in Hannover now but know Konstanz as I used to live down that way. It's a lovely place - nice old part of the town, cobbled streets and little bars etc, near to Switzerland for trips, mountaineering, sailing etc. Are you moving there?

I'm 3 hours away from Konstanz, so not too near (surprised it's that far, would've guessed 1.5 hours).

Why you ask?

Teddy, just had visitors who are spending a year there. They love it, but are late 60s and at some centre linked to the university. They were saying the town is great, the public transport is too, were talking about some island full of rare plants and trees and the wonderful nature in general. And how they could just walk to Switzerland. We nearly moved there ages ago and visited it. It is a nice place and area. We looked into housing and cost of living at the time - it all seemed quite reasonable (coming from the SE of the UK) but I really can´t remember the details so not much use on the practicalities.

Sorry - I also had to google Konstanz so I'm afraid I can't help. It looks lovely though... :)

Hello all. Hope you don't mind if join you. We're moving to Vienna from Amsterdam in 8-12 weeks and my mind is whirring with everything that needs to be organised between now and then. I'm British, DH is Austrian and we have a 7 month old DD.
My main questions are about what is possible for childcare. I work 4 days a week and travel with work about 2-4 times a month, DH new job is apparently 50% travel so we need something pretty flexible. We managed here in Holland with the Kindergarden as they're geared up well for it. Not sure if Austria is the same- early/ late drops possible? Are they really used to 7 months babies?- I heard it is more common to stay off work for the first year. Currently not sure if a nanny or au-pair is more realistic and not looking forward to try and find a good one. Would love your ideas if you know what's possible/ where to look. We don't have any major limits on where to live but will probably end up somewhere to the West/ South West of Vienna- we have an old car that has to be garaged so limited chance to find anywhere in the city that would suit.

Hi C4ro and welcome to the thread.

I'm just south of Vienna (in Niederösterreich) - bananas will probably know more about the specifics of kindergarten in Vienna, which I think accommodate working parents better than they do here in NÖ (ours closes for three weeks in the summer - it used to be nine weeks - which I don't think kigas in Vienna do).

Anyway, you can't send your children to kindergarten here until they're 2.5 (it may be 2 in Vienna) - most parents, at least in this area, take the whole 2-3 years of maternity leave. You can drop them off from 7 am and they can stay until 5 pm (although it does vary from kiga to kiga). You really need to look for a Kinderkrippe, which will take children from birth up until they start kiga - more information here, but only in German unfortunately.

I can also recommend the Vienna Babies Club for meeting other people and providing practical information. Just ask if you have any more questions!

The VBC also provides some useful information on its website about childcare for 0-3 year olds in Vienna.

welcome c4ro! i'm no use about Vienna but there are 2 MNetters on this thread who are in Vienna or around it! hopefully they'll be along soon to help you!! Do you have a job that you can do anywhere? The Kindergartens in Germany wouldnt take a baby of 7 months - youngest i've seen was a 2 year old but i'm sure there are lots of possibilities for having an au pair/nanny if you had the space!
An exciting time ahead for you all!!

Well i feel like an evil mother this morning - dd woke up saying she had a headache (she has probs with migraines). so i sent her to get a drink and something to eat but she said it wasnt any better so i told her to back to bed and said she could stay home from school (its the last day before the half term hols!). But she got back up just after 7.30 and i found her in her room happily doing her knitting with music on fairly loudly! made her get dressed - phoned the school to say she'd be a bit late and drove her to school!!! think she thought she could have a nice early start to her hols! but i know it was a bit mean to send her but i felt like if i'd let her stay home today then she might try it again!! in my mind they have to be proper ill to miss school!! was i being evil?

anyway i've cracked on with all my jobs! house is shining ahead of the weekend - its dh's birthday tom!!

Hope you all have a good weekend - hope tallpoppies is doing ok!

Canella, I think I'm abit like you. My dc stay home if they have fever but otherwise I'm strict about them going in. One boy in ds's class told me he stayed off one day because there was a German test and he hadn't revised! Another boy regularily sleeps in so his dad just lets him stay off for the whole day (that's the one who lost his mum).

Just heard from ds, he phoned at 9:30 to say the buses hadn't arrived to pick them up yet so they'd be late. He didn't sound 100% - wobbly voice abit but probably due to exhaustion! Just texted to say another half hour then he'll be back.

Hope tallpoppies and lo are well. xx

C4ro- welcome;but I'm no help I'm afraid.

Trying to stay sane and clean for the last few days. Neither is working. Hope everyone has lovely weekends and get to go out as planned! x

I don't think you were being mean at all Canella - I would have done exactly the same in your situation. I know some parents who would let their DC stay at home if they didn't feel like going to kindergarten, but I think if you start doing that, it's a slippery slope.

Hope your DS gets back OK and isn't too exhausted, admylin.

Hectic day here today - had to take DS to the Lungenfachärztin for his check-up but as usual she was a bit useless (she's also convinced that I have something wrong with my lungs, mainly - I think - because I had a cough and cold last time we were there), so we sneaked out without making a follow-up appointment and will be sticking to the Kinderarzt (the one we found who specialises in coughs and allergies) in future.

The DDs will be out of school in 10 minutes, and after lunch I have to take DD1 to her dyslexia lesson, get the weekly food shopping done, drop DD2 off at a friend's and then rush back home before my English friend gets here! Then need to pick up DS and his friend from gymnastics, take them and DD1 to his friend's where they're staying overnight, and catch the train into Vienna. I already feel quite stressed just thinking about everything I have to fit in this afternoon!

We're trying out an Indian restaurant tonight, but I still like the sound of the Rathauskeller despite the lack of veggie options. DH laughed at me when I said they have Krautfleckerl - he said it would be like going to a British restaurant and having beans on toast.