Sommer, Strand und Sonne - life in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria, and for anyone else who would like to chat.

Is there anything like Basispauschalierung in Germany? I basically deduct 12% of my income for miscellaneous work-related expenses, which means I don't have to keep a record of them.

The state of the house is getting me down at the moment and I don't know when I'm going to have time to pack; it's impossible to get much done with the DC around. DD2 has a friend over and they're disappeared off upstairs, but DD1 and DS seem to be incapable of entertaining themselves and have spent far too long on the computer this morning (they're watching a Mr Bean cartoon on YouTube atm). I tried playing a game with DS, but he lost interest halfway through. At least the sun has finally come out so they've agreed to go outside and play once Mr Bean has finished. Think I might take my coffee and book outside too; it's not going to get the house tidy, but at least I won't have to look at the mess any longer. Did you get any good books on Amazon in the end, admylin?

Just butting in as this is a Naughty post from work!

Thought this "Ikea Kloppe" was funny (esp the how to use bit):

www.pommes-schranke.com/index.php/2011/06/15/kloppe/

Off to Ikea to get one! anyone else want one?

Perfect summer holiday item!

Lol platanos - could def. do with one of those here today. I could hear the girls screaming at each other while I was in the shower this morning, while DS sat on the stairs and observed that "they're streiting die ganze Zeit". (Am hoping that our trip back to the UK will encourage him to use slightly less German when he's talking to me!)

I like streiting! My 2 are at each other aswell, ds is bored and won't go and do anything except pass comments about anything and everything that his sister does. She shouts at hime, he says he's badly done by and so it goes on.

Car is sorted - man picked it up today and gave me cash. Any other costs will be refunded according to the lawyer but later. He was helpful after all today and nice to hold a 200? and a few 100? notes for once!

Next job to erledige, I need a new bank card as the magnetic strip thing on the back of mine has stopped working. Keep having to go and get cash to pay in shops as the machines won't accept the card. Thank goodness it still works at the Geldautomat.

I like erledigen too - not that it's a word the DC use when they're speaking English or German. Austrians seem to find it highly amusing when the DC use German words in their English sentences; they can be a bit lazy at times.

Have just been to try out the new cable I bought for my iPod so that I can listen to it in the car, but I was a bit disappointed to find I can ony listen to music, not to podcasts (unless I've missed something). Radio 4 Friday night comedy podcasts help to make long journeys go a bit more quickly, but putting them onto CD takes a while.

I've splashed out on a sonic electric toothbrush, which the hygienist recommended last week, and that arrived today as well. Hope it's worth the price!

I've seen those tooth brushes Linzer. Very nice! Not the cheapest of toothbrush, dh has one similar by Braun and it really bugs me when I have to buy new brushes to go on it, I think over 15? for a couple of them.

Both dc have stopped streiting and gone in their rooms, one is on laptop, the other on Nintendo but I give in and am enjoying the peace.

I have to have a new EC card sent with new pin, that's tragic as it took me ages to learn the one I have now. Spoke to a delightful girl on the Bank hotline, things are changing in Germany, they are starting to think about customer service and such like.

Hello, have been lurking but not posting lately. It sounds like you're all having busy summer holidays! We're not suffering with the heatwave but it is usually between 24 - 32 celsius so not too hot. We went camping at the weekend and S slept till 6 in the morning! It was great to see the dcs wandering through the woods finding caterpillars with the other kids. Luckily we brought just enough water as there was none at the site!

Gutting about the podcasts Linzer. I love wallowing in the bath listening to Kermode and Mayo, or Woman's Hour if I'm feeling worthy. Dh and I try to listen to the Friday night one whenever we can. Which is not often at the moment as he is often working till past midnight.

I thought I used to live on the S2 in Munich! I looked it up and it turns out that Fasangarten in on the S5. I must have it totally confused in my mind but then it was 1995!

Good news about the car admylin.

Have given S his first pear and babyrice. Not too sure he was overly impressed but he is over 24 weeks now so he might be ready....

Hope you all have a lovely end of the week.

Can't believe your DS is on solids already, Jenny - time flies! I started all my three on babyrice and pear too; at least you can get a good range of healthy babyfood in the USA (I did try making my own for a while but DD1 was such a poor eater that I found it too frustrating to have reject my lovingly prepared purees). I was quite surprised to see things like jars of chocolate Brei (chocolate! for 6 month olds!) when we moved to Austria. They're obviously getting the children ready for all the sweets that will be pressed on them everywhere they go when they're older.

admylin It's a shame they won't let you change your PIN like you can at a lot of banks in the UK. Good to hear about the hotline too. After reading recent threads about dragon-like receptionists and Indian call centres, it made me feel quite glad to be living in Austria.

Yes, the expensive replacement heads are the downside of these toothbrushes; I have the Philips one and I think the replacement brushes are even more expensive than Braun's. But as long as it helps my teeth stay white and sparkly (well, unstained), I can put up with the expense!

No streiting yet this morning as the DC are all still asleep. I got up at 6 am to go for a run before DH went to work so am now enjoying the peace and quiet, although should probably get on with a few things while I have the chance.

Ernst the job I was talking about is in Petershausen - is that the right or the wrong end of the S2 for you? No need to register as self employed or do any tax paperwork for the Grundschule job, it is just on a ?400 basis so you pay no tax or NI if that is the only job you do, but it would get complicated if you combined it with more than teaching 1-2 courses for VHS.

Jenny I thought your baby was not much older than mine but I must have got mixed up as Henry is only just 3 months and you are already weaning! I just do baby led weaning so availability of baby food is not a worry, though I did give DS1 some (plain) brei or baby porridge at breakfast and sometimes some roughly pureed steamed veg or mashed banana as well as the finger food at other meals as he was a greedy one - dd was 100% baby led (by which I mean finger food til she could feed herself with cutlery) and I really hope Henry will be happy with that as it is much easier all 'round, and she is a very adventurous eater (ds1 is pretty good too but not as excited by trying quite "out there" foods like whole baby octopus and the like, as dd is), which may be total co-incidence or may be related!

Camping trip sounds fun but I think a site with no water would be a step further than I'd deliberately take!

Big kids are at Kindergarten and baby is asleep - just opened laptop while I fed him but managed to put him down so should get on now. I have a grand plan to clear out one of the 2 rooms we use for storage in the basement and make it into a room the kids can be wild in on bad weather days and in winter, and for ds's birthday party in case the weather is bad then. I want to totally empty it and put some mini football goals in, the tiny 1 person trampoline, the mini slide and a ball pool (paddling pool filled with ball pool balls). We already have a craft room in the basement where the kids can paint etc. but think it would be lovely to have somewhere they can burn off energy, esp ds1 who is a football made nearly 4 year old "Wilde Kerle" atm!

admylin forgot to say, glad you've got the car sold, hope the money gets sorted too very quickly, how rubbish that something not your fault gave you so much stress!

5more BLW didn't "exist" when the DDs were born (at least, the phrase hadn't been coined and everyone I knew fed their babies purees and babyrice) and I'd never heard of it when DS was born, either - in fact, I hadn't heard of it until I joined MN (by which time DS was well past the weaning stage). The nearest thing to it when DD1 was little was finger foods and weaning did get much easier once she started eating those.

Have never heard of it here and have no idea what it would be called in German - although I've just been doing some googling and have come across Baby-gesteuerte Beikosteinführung "oder einfacher gesagt Fingerfood" (no!), Beikost nach Bedarf (hmm) and Babygeführtes Abstillen (no again!).

Although on reflection, I suppose Beikost nach Bedarf isn't too bad. BLW does seem to be used quite a lot in German as well.

Streiting has now started here and I feel a headache coming on. It's raining but I think I need to get them all out of the house - had a phone call from the bookshop yesterday to say that DD1's maths Ferienheft has arrived, so we could go and pick that up and have a browse. DD2 had a book voucher for her birthday but I can see a tantrum coming on as DS has already spent all his pocket money.

Just got back from shopping and picking up a couple of books for dd. She's turning into a book worm which is great!

We have 3 weeks left - just checked flights to UK as we thought we'd maybe go after all for a week. Can't seem to get any flightsfor my and 2 dc for under 1100?. Is it my bad memory or did we used to fly over for between 3 and 400?? What have your flights cost you Linzer for your UK trip?

We used to fly with Easy Jet from Berlin to Liverpool and it was dead cheap. Have also had HLX cheap flights from south Germany but can't find any bargains now.

Dd did BLW herself. She was breast fed only until 6 months then she refused any food from a spoon from my hand and would only feed herself while watching her brother (then aged 2) eating! I just left her to it, made a right mess but she was happy.

I paid ?450 for me and the DC to fly from Bratislava to Birmingham with Ryanair (incl. baggage and priority boarding) and ?480 for the five of us to fly from Munich to Manchester with easyjet. We stopped flying from Munich with Lufthansa when flights went up to around ?1000 for all five of us, although I think we "only" paid around ?800 to fly with Lufthansa last summer (when Ryanair's flight times made it virtually impossible for us to fly with them - not that they're much better now, as we won't be landing at Bham until almost midnight).

We've just come back from the bookshop too; DD1 was very excited to get her Ferienheft and has already done the first couple of pages. DD2 has bought herself yet another Magisches Baumhaus book and fortunately I discovered that DS had ?7 left after all, so he bought a book about beavers.

Must go and BBH my hair before friends arrive as it's gone even frizzier since this morning's run in the drizzle. Have just realised the DC are watching Sam Tân (Fireman Sam) in Welsh on YouTube - my dad would be pleased!

Thanks for the price info linzer, I was sure we used to fly for a lot less than 1000?. I'll have to see where Ryanair fly from in this area, maybe they have some cheap flights.

Both my 2dc are reading so can't complain. have started dusting and washing clothes and ironing is waiting so might as well get on with it.

I think dh is going to Berlin tomorrow to talk to his old boss. Also waiting to see if the people here make him a better offer as he's told them he's disgusted at their offer of 9 months extension and that he has a 5 year minimum offer in Berlin.

Linzer - when you book Ryanair do you have lots of hidden extras? Found cheap flights from Bremen but can't figure out how much luggage I'm allowed. Do you book extra luggage or is it included?

Yes, there are quite a lot of extras with Ryanair - the main one is luggage. The hand luggage allowance is fairly generous (10 kg per person) but you have to pay ?20 each way for each piece of checked-in baggage (only 15 kg and they're very strict about it; I think you can now pay a bit more to check in 20 kg). You also have to pay ?12 p.p. to check in online and I always pay for priority boarding (?4 p.p. each way) plus there's an administration fee of ?40. However, the flights can still work out fairly cheap - that's all included in the ?450 I mentioned, which isn't too bad for four passengers. I?ll add a couple more pieces of luggage before we fly back, though (have only paid for one when we fly over), so it will come to just under ?500 altogether.

What is brei actually made of? I was also shocked to see chocolate baby food too! Ds2 is 25 weeks on Saturday 5moreminutes and a pretty big boy, not that they get weighed regularly here. He was quite interested in the finger of toast I gave him yesterday but then I lost confidence as they're not supposed to have gluten till 6 months. He's near as dammit though.

Oh for flights costing 500 for the family! I can't find anything for less than $1000 per person from here. At least when you are flying transatlantic you don't pay extra for luggage.

I don't know where the summer is going though. It is just flying by! DD has a load of tasks she can do to get ready for Kindergarten that she is really excited about. I ought to go out and get her supplies ready for school at some point (they are all community supplies).

Do you want to move back to Berlin admylin? (Love that city!) Does your dh do research in the medical field? Mine works regularly with Osram in Regensburg and I keep half-hoping that he will be offered a job there!

I'm not sure why I have an also and a too in the same sentence. I'm blaming the fact that I fed ds2 at 12.30, 2.30, 4.30, 6 and 7 last night!

Brei covers both cereals (e.g. Reisbrei = babyrice) and purees - anything mashed up, really. American babyfoods seemed to be far healthier than what you can get over here; DD1 used to like the finger foods (those little Gerber sausages in jars and also pasta pick-ups, which the DC used to call pasta hiccups). I know they were probably over-processed and it would have been healthier to give them fresh pasta and veg etc. but they were very convenient and the DC loved them!

That's a lot of feeds Jenny; do you think he's going through a growth spurt? Very tiring for you, at any rate.

DS has got an appointment tomorrow with the paediatrician who specialises in coughs, asthma, allergies, etc. - we'd like to have him allergy tested again as I don't have much confidence in the ENT specialist we saw (or Hustenarzt, as DS calls her).

Thanks Linzer. Good luck with the doctor tomorrow. Dd has her follow up with the Ent today after her tonsillectomy.

Gerber belongs to Nestle btw.

Hope the follow-up goes well tomorrow Jenny; did the op go OK?

I didn't realise Gerber belongs to Nestle - I'm pretty sure it didn't when we were in the USA (10 years ago).