Frühlingserwachen - spring finally seems to have arrived in Germany and Austria...

[LinzerTorte]

... or at least I hope so.

For everyone in Germany and Austria, and anyone else who would like to chat!

Canella So glad to hear your heart problem seems to have sorted itself - good thing you have been refereed for further tests though!

Are Aldi doing in line skates now then? I must try and get there and have a look - do they do size 28 I wonder? I know last year I saw Aldi was doing them but not little enough, but obviously her feet were smaller then!

Bananamad yep, c-section booked for a week today - this time next week baby should be out - hate the 24 hours immediately after a c-section, so, so, so uncomfortable, dependent, embarrassing, wired to bed with catheter - yuck, yuck, but it will be worth it after that bit is over! :)
Neighbour's kids were here a bit today but they had a family party (their DD is 6 today) so no dumping the kids on me - their slightly older cousins were very badly behaved in the playground between our 2 houses though, throwing sand in younger children's faces and destroying their sand creations, nasty kids! The worst one was driven out by a couple of the older children after he threw sand in DD's face - glad her bigger friends stood up to him, while I ran out and grabbed DD and carried her in to wash the sand out of her eyes (running then carrying a 5 year old whilst 9 months pregnant is not the easiest thing), she was howling and her eyes were totally bloodshot.

Linzer glad you had enough pizza! -Hope all 5 sleep well for you and you don't have any tears or fights to deal with!

Hope you get to the bottom of your heart trouble canella, your dh can check you over agian when he gets home can he?

You're amazing linzer, maybe deep down you always wanted to be a kindergärtnerin! Hope they all sleep for you OK tonight.

Had a nice morning in town with dd - coffee and shopping. She got a new school bag, 2 tops and some jogging trousers. Tomorrow it's ds's turn to go and get sports trainers and some t-shirts.

2and1, sounds typical - I remember the playground sand pits - hated them and I'm so glad my dc have grown out of them. There's always one who spoils the sandcastles or throws sand. Worst memory was when 2 year old ds toddled over to me and placed a sand coated cat poo in my hand that he'd proudly dug up!

BananaMed, lol at your mumsnet dream! I've also had one in the past! The Bangladeshi party was good and they loved the cakes. I made cupcakes with butter icing and decorated with little sweets and a carrot cake with marzipan carrots on the icing. The host forgot to tell me - the colours are red and white on that day so all the women had red and white saris on and all their finest gold jewellry. I was totally plain in a black top! NOt that telling me would have helped as I don't think I own a red top and definately not a sari!

thanks again for the kind wishes! admylin - nothing dh could do if he listened to my heart once the A Fibrillation stops - it just sounds like a normal heart then, But he is going to phone the Chefarzt at the local cardiac hospital and see if he'll see me. Doubt they'll find any reason for it - they didnt before but its worth getting it all checked out.

Glad you had a good girly morning with your dd admylin - these easter holidays are an expensive business! we've also been clothes shopping and to mcdonalds and then today was more money at the hairdressers! but her hair looks nice!

2and1 - hope the next few days are a bit more peaceful for you! not sure the doctor would recommend carrying a 5 year old but needs must i suppose! i bought the inline skates a couple of weeks ago in aldi but they might have some left if you had a look. I've seen them in a few catalogues recently.

oh canella- got a bit of a fright reading your post and had to skim quickly and relaxed when i saw all was okay in the end. How strange and frightening for you. Really glad all is okay.

Most impressed at the number of children you have round at yours Linzer and 2and1. Hope you also get a bit of a rest though!

who was asking about in-line skates? I would also get cheap ones. DD2 has some that can be adjusted from sizes 32-35 (I think) and they do the job, unless you want them to be professional in-line skaters, if such a thing exists. Tchibo sometimes do them, so might be worth waiting?

Good to hear you are all enjoying the holidays. Isn´t the weather fantastic?!?! Bad time to start an office job.

After 3 days, work is great. Really nice colleagues, atmosphere is relaxed and my work is nicely defined so I can get on with it. Only downside: no MN time, which I miss! And I have a headache at the end of the day from hearing and talking German all the time. But it will be good for my German and luckily I write in English.

I must rush to get the dc and go for a walk in the sunshine!

2and1 Ooh how exciting! I'll wish you good luck now as I'll be away from the end of this week. All the best for the C-section and I bet you can't wait to 'meet' the baby for the first time :)

Admylin Those cakes sound lovely - any left over?! ( hopeful )

Bananas I'm glad to hear the job is going well! Doesn't a relaxed atmosphere and nice colleagues make such a difference.

I worked for a large Japanese company for 4 months and because of the atmosphere, colleagues, management etc it was hell on earth! I hated it so much I ended up ill and didn't even stick it out until the end of the Probezeit - I realised whilst I was there how much I had taken my previous company for granted as it was the complete opposite. Bit of a random story, just wanted to illustrate the difference the atmosphere & the colleagues can make!

I may not get on tomorrow as I haven't even started packing, picked up my holiday money or anything sensible like that yet so I'll wish everyone a very happy Easter now! I hope the weather stays as lovely as it is at the moment and that you all get to relax, enjoy the sunshine and stuff yourselves silly with chocolate.

Just wanted to quickly say thanks for the Aldi in-line skates tip! Got the last pair of size 29-23 there today while DD was at a birthday party and have put them away to be her "present from the baby". Looked in several sports and toy shops first and the prices ranged from ?60-100, whereas the Aldi ones were ?29.99 - yay! They are quite pretty too :) Technically she is a shoe size 28 but I am sure the 29-32 will be fine! Tried the Tschebo shop in town before Aldi but was told they won't be doing them again this year.
Thanks again!

Oh, Canella that sounds so scary. I hope you get some answers and it doesn't happen again.

I haven't had chance to catch up with the rest of the thread but just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Easter. Here's to lovely egg-hunting and travelling weather!

Someone mentioned Tschibo

Did anyone play the wedding guest game? Mine is Lady Olive Dusty-Anzio and dh's is Lord Cecil Prickle-Maddox! Silly but it made me smile!

Sorry, forgot to say good luck for the birth 2and1 - I'm sure it will be an amazing experience. Enjoy all those lovely newborn snuggles - it goes so fast!

Mine should be Olive too Jenny, but my grandmother hated her name and changed it to Olivia - much more suitable for a royal wedding guest! I have a choice of street names, but I think my preferred name is Lady Olivia Suki-Garth (def. sounds better than Suki-Erw!).

2and1 I thought of you today when two of the neighbours' children turned up just as we were having lunch (partly my fault for deciding we should eat outside), although they didn't stay very long as they left early afternoon to go to their grandparents'. Glad you managed to find some inline skates; I bought adjustable icing skates from Hofer (as Aldi is called in Austria) in the winter and the quality seems fine.

Banana If you get to check MN before you go, hope you have a wonderful trip!

bananas Glad to hear the new job is going well. I'm sure you'll get used to hearing/speaking German all day really quickly and, like you said, it will definitely be good for your German. Not ideal weather for starting a new job though, is it?

Canella Sounds like you had a lovely day with your DD - which reminds me that I really need to take DD2 to the hairdresser's as she can hardly see through her fringe.

admylin Coffee and shopping sounds like a good way to spend a morning. Not sure if I could interest DD1 in either though, unfortunately.

It feels like we've had a constant stream of visiting children since Monday afternoon (the DC have also had friends to stay all three nights this week), but I finally got a few hours off this afternoon when DD2 and DS were at a friend's. I spent all afternoon outside in the garden reading and enjoying the sunshine, and it was bliss! DD1 is staying at my ILs at the moment; we're going to pick her up on Saturday morning on our way to the Kinderhotel.

Loving being back in the UK but it's been gogogogo since we got here and i swear i haven't breathed yet; even tho today i was supposed to have easy day i still ended up running all over the place....hips and pelvis driving me nuts. 13 hour drive was killer (but only the last 4hrs really) and it's ruined me again we're taking 2 days to come back; Ben's going to call in on tues and tell them it was just not possible to get back because of me

scan went really well, had a lovely newly qualified scanner lady (what are they actually called?) she said, usually it 20 or 30 min, but I'll scan you and then just get my supervisor in and redo/check things, so it might be 40-45 is that ok? (it was) the scan was super thorough from what i could tell and she showed us all the bits and commented how big and healthy the baby seemed ... and we saw 3 lines -so we're 80% sure it's a girl

Good to hear the scan went well bebe, hope you enjoy the rest of your stay and have a good trip back, take you're time.

Lovely weather here, I'm ill with asthma. Have to go to the doc on tuesday when everything opens again. I'm like an old lady as I can't walk at normal speed as I can't get enough air. It's just this awful pollen - absoloutly everywhere, all the cars are covered in it.

You all have lovely in-laws taking one of the dc for a few days. I bet they had a great time canella and linzer. Hope everyone is having a nice break.

Great news about the scan bebe! They're always so exciting!
Sorry about the asthma admylin and hope the pollen goes away soon. Our weather is just beginning to improve. We had snow on the ground again Thursday but it's lovely and sunny today. It's a shame they are no bank holidays here but the dcs are enjoying their Easter egg hunts. [busmile]

Happy Easter everyone!

Back again in Germany. Long trip back (with caravan); will need to take at least 3 days next time. Can't believe what a very good girl Moo was in the car.

Hope you're all well and all is well with you specifically 2&1.
xxx

Welcome back to Germany! How cool to have a caravan! You'll be able to go off at weekends will you?

Dh is fuming, hopping mad. His boss won't pay for him to attend conferences, meetings etc and he refused to go to Canada in June because it would be too much out of his own pocket - just after this one in Hamburg in May. So his boss took his poster and abstract that he'd prepared and put her name as first author (as she is going on her own funding) and now both items have been chosen for a prize.

Just been shopping again today with dd, she's enjoying the clothes shopping and lattes! She got 3 t-shirts. She liked one that cost 39 euro, for one thin little summer t-shirt. I said no and she got 3 for that price and just as nice. We have to go back tomorrow as I got a book for ds and he already has it!

The cheeky mare! That is absolutely shocking. Does he have no comeback with that? Dh usually has to pay for his hotel and hire car etc but claims it back at least.

Glad you had a nice shopping day!

That's awful admylin - it's bad enough that she won't pay for your DH's work trips, but then to claim credit for his work on top of that just isn't on. DH usually makes a profit on business trips as he gets paid a flat rate per day that's intended to cover things like eating out twice a day, but he usually just grabs a sandwich from somewhere or eats out very cheaply.
How's your asthma now?

bebe Glad to hear you had a good trip back and that the scan went well; I remember the three lines from DD2. [cgrin]

jenny We only got one bank holiday here for Easter (Easter Monday) and are missing out on the 1st May too as it's a Sunday, but I can't complain too much as we get quite a lot of holidays otherwise - the summer holidays are far too long for my liking, in fact..

We had a lovely time at the Kinderhotel over Easter; the hotel organised an Easter egg hunt in the grounds, with each child having to find their own basket. The weather wasn't great, especially on the second day, but at least there was plenty to do in the hotel.

I've finally decided to do something about my lack of exercise and general level of fitness (non-existent) so have decided to have a go at Couch to 5k. Have just ordered some running gear from Tchibo (I thought I'd missed out as they had it a month or two ago, but it's in the online sale) so now all I need are some trainers; I haven't owned any since the pair I had at school!

Well done Linzer on the fitness programme! Does the 5k mean kilo? You'll have to watch you don't fade away as you look very slim anyway!

Jenny, is the weather any better? Didn't you get any bank holidays over Easter? Germany seems to have too many bank holidays. I was talking to someone at the Bengali new year party who was saying he thinks their holidays should also be bank holidays here as there are so many foreigners who've been here for over 20 years. He thinks Muslim and Jewish holidays should be counted and maybe even a few Hindu ones! I asked him how he thought that would work for the economy, people would be spending more long weekends off than doing any work then he admitted that we do have rather alot of time off compared to his relatives in the US!

Asthma is still a problem even though we had a short burst of rain, it didn't wash enough pollen away. I'm goingfor a lung test in 2 weeks.

Are you all having tea parties for the wedding tomorrow? My dc are not impressed by the royals at all but I'll put ZDF on when I do the ironing! Actually dd said we could go to the English shop when we pop into town today and maybe get 'some of those little cakes with cherries on top' - I think she means bakewell tarts and then she said do you think it'll be really busy with people buying cakes for the wedding! Somehow I think not..! She's taking her pocket money to get some parma violets.

just a quickie - off to the kitchen shop again in a mo!

bebe - glad all is ok with the baby and you got back ok

admylin - i'd be spitting angry if i was your dh - i'm sure there must be someway to dispute that but its tricky when he want s to work there.

hope 2and1 has had her baby by now - hope it all went well - she'll need to change her MN name!!

All good here - was a lovely easter full of visitors. Weather was amazing until the last 2 days where its rained both evenings. But since it hadnt rained for weeks before that, i'm not complaining - saves me watering the garden!

cant believe my german exam is in 10 days - i've had so little time to study but since all our visitors were German then i suppose that was good practice in itself!

Good luck with the exam Canella - speaking/hearing lots of German will definitely have been good practice. Do you speak English or German to your DH?

admylin 5k is 5 km - the programme is supposed to turn you from a couch potato into someone who can run 5 km at the end of the 9 weeks. I'm so unfit at the moment, it's ridiculous; when I had my Vorsorgeuntersuchung the doctor could tell from the results of my blood tests that I wasn't getting enough exercise, which made me think I really should do something about it. I don't particularly want to lose any weight though (she also told me I should try to put some on), just be a bit more toned!

I haven't got anything planned for the royal wedding tomorrow; I think the wedding itself clashes with the school run and then DD1's dyslexia lesson, which is most inconvenient! I remember being very excited about Charles and Diana getting married when I was the same age as DD1, but she doesn't seem at all interested in the wedding. Mind you, I'm not sure she really knows who the royal family are, so maybe it would be a good opportunity to tell the DC a bit more about them.

Linzer- good luck on the running regime; I've heard a lot of good things about it the couch to 5k. Hate running personally and would rather ride a bike...dh wanted me to bring my bike back, but I told him 1) I could not get my leg over the top tube 2) my bits ached when I sat on the saddle so that's out until after the baby

admylin- sounds like dh needs to have a stern talk with the boss...what does it say in his contract about intellectual rights and such?
Enjoy the shopping.

Yeah for lovely weather! It makes things so much easier I think. We had a great thunderstorm yesterday- Moo kept saying Space Rockets GO! when it thundered.

We are thinking of going away for the weekends...but given I have trouble in the car... but hopefully we can manage to get away all the same.

I'm definitely not a runner (so far!) but I liked the idea of the programme, building up gradually and someone telling me exactly what to do! I'm also hoping to start cycling more now that the weather finally seems to be improving - I really need to cycle/walk more rather than driving everywhere.

Hope you manage to get away for at least a few weekends bebe - do you get carsick or is it just uncomfortable?

think I must have cross posted this morning - sorry!

Linzer - glad you had a good weekend at the kinderhotel. Good on you for taking up running - i've done the couch to 5k before but sadly didnt keep going! when are you going to start it? should we motivate each other - i will start the monday after my german exam so the 9th May but probably can start on week 2. i'd love a running buddy! i need to get fitter too.

admylin- much to my dismay i think i'm going to miss the royal wedding - going to my IL's tomorrow morning but i'm going to record it to watch it later. so no tea party here! but every person i've met recently has mentioned the wedding to me! bet they think i'm an expert since i'm british!! enjoy your bakewell tarts!

Canella, did you get your kitchen all sorted with MIL? It's so nice that you have a good relationship with your in-laws.

Linzer, oh it's 5km! I wonder if the doctor will be able to tell how unfit I am when I go for my lung testing. I hope I don't have to sit on an excersise bike or anything. I must remind dh that he wanted to buy me a bike then I can go off with the dc atleast for some bike rides. Someone gave me a bike but the lights don't work, the tyres still need changing and it's abit rusty. I think by the time the local bike shop fixes it all I'll be half way to a new bike price wise.

Hmm, bebe on the contract I can't find anything about intellectual rights but good idea - I'll have a look, he's employed by Niedersachen so they might have some rules or the hospital maybe.

Just got back from town. Went to the Bagel shop for coffee and then the English shop. Didn't bother with cakes as no one will eat them (except me ) so I said we'll just do sandwiches! In UK I come from a really small town and I just saw that they will even be showing the wedding on the market square for public viewing! A couple of smart hotels are putting on high tea and giving prizes out to anyone who turns up in a wedding dress! Crazy!

It would be great to have a running buddy Canella - I'm definitely up for it if you are. [cgrin] I had a look at the C25k thread but it would be another thread to keep up with and I spend too much time on here as it is. I was planning on starting next Monday, but would be quite happy to wait for you until the 9th. In fact I was wondering about postponing until then anyway, as my running gear probably won't be here until the middle of next week; I really need a running jacket so that I have somewhere to put my iPod! (I've downloaded the first week's podcast of the NHS's C25k plan.)

admylin I had a Lungenfunktionstest (I had to blow into machine and try to blow out five virtual candles) at the Lungenfachärztin and she didn't mention anything about me being unfit then - I'm still intrigued as to how the GP could tell from my blood test.

Just picked up DD2 from school on the bike; I thought she was going to moan about having to walk, but I let her sit on the saddle while I pushed - good exercise for me and she loved it! Off now to pick up DS; he took his balance bike to Kindergarten today so I promised I'd pick him up with the bike as well.

ok thats a deal linzer! I had uploaded the Robert Ullery podcast before but the music is just too weird even for me and i like dance music! will have a look at the nhs one! will you run in the morning while the dc are at school/kiga? thats when i go out. Need to lose my belly before the summer!

Admylin - kitchen isnt sorted but getting there. Dh and i went twice this week to a local place and got a really detailed quote whereas the place i went to with my MIL wasnt so detailed. But she was really good in the shop - she likes to haggle a good bargain. So think dh and I will go back to the one i went to with my MIL and see if he'll do a detailed quote for us. But i think we've realised its going to be an expensive business - doubt there'll be change from 15k?!!!!!!