Schenk ein den Wein - as autumn comes to Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub;
schenk ein den Wein, den holden!
Wir wollen uns den grauen Tag
vergolden, ja vergolden!

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

Always good to have an excuse to open some , and this poem seemed quite appropriate!

I know what you mean about things taking up all afternoon. We went to get ds some new sport shoes (size 43!) yesterday and then to Lidl to get some Christmas cake that dd has been begging for after eating it at her friend's house (Baumkuchen) then she decided she absoloutly needed a hairbrush for her new haircut so I gave in and let her get one, but it took a visit to 3 shops to find the right one. That was the whole afternoon gone.

Then table tennis was on so I drove ds round to save time. In the end dd didn't do any revising either, she has to learn a list of verbs for French.

Linzer, so what did you get in the end for the Jause? I've found a couple of the dvds you mentioned and have a few of the latest ones finished by the way.

Later, I've often found better deals on amazon.co.uk but not so much that the added postage would make it worth it. The most annoying thing for me is the stuff that is miles cheaper but won't deliver to Germany (usually sportswear) but the dc have had some good deals on nintendo games and dvds. Dd has her eye on a hockey stick but they won't deliver here.

5more, what you were saying a few posts back about your British/French friend is abit like dh. He was brought up to speak 3 langauages and then at 16 his college and later university were in English and now he has to use German at work of course and he says he doesn't feel fluent in any language. That's why he insisted that we only speak English to our dc the first few years and then at 4 we let the Kindergarten sort out the German side. Everyone says it's a shame he didn't teach them one of his 3 'mother' languages though.

Later, it must be exhausting. It won't last long until he gets back into a routine I'm sure.

Your husband speaks 5 languages, admylin? That's amazing. It must be frustrating nit feeling fluent in any of them though.

It never occurred to me that some things might not be delivered to Germany. A German friend said if he tries to order things from UK Amazon which are available & no different on German Amazon it won't let him - it automatically redirects him to .de. I've never had that problem either but I set up my Amazon account in the UK so I wonder if that makes a difference.

DS is having a wriggly but cuddly nap on my chest now (he's refusing to be put down again). A nice snuggle always makes things seem better :)

Later Henry is like that too now - he was down to one night waking between 3 and 5.5 months, but it has all gone wrong for no obvious reason now. He has a bad cough and snotty cold now which would account for it, except that the sleep went to pot several weeks before the cold started. I take him up to bed around 6.30pm, he settles OK (usually takes 2 goes - bath, sleeping bag, feed in dimmed light, put him down, 10 mins later he cries, go in and resettle and then he actually goes to sleep - but that is now part of the routine almost). He then sleeps til about 11pm - but after that he wakes 2 hourly at best, usually be wakes at around 11pm, around 2am, then hourly til 5am, after which he won't go back to sleep. Combined with my 4 yo having been ill since Thursday night and only wanting me when he is up half the night I am seriously grumpy and snappy now and my head ache won't go away - 4yo is off KiGa and he and baby seem not to nap at the same time in the day.

Hoping for sleep for both of us soon!

It is the marketplace sellers who usually won't deliver outside the UK - my account was set up in the UK too, but don't think that makes any difference. Amazon themselves will deliver anywhere I think, just not Amazon Marketplace.

I have not prepared my class for this eve, opened laptop to do it but can't concentrate and now baby is squealing in frustration on the carpet (he's into everything now and has already destroyed a magazine of dd's this morning, but he gets cross when he is on his tummy and wants to be sitting, as he can't get from lying to sitting yet) and Ds1 is demanding milk with honey, guess I am going... Oh he is waving hello and bye bye now, as well as clapping and raising hands to be lifted - that's cool (though all of it less so at 5am, his fav show off time...)

I've never had that problem with Amazon either, Later - I can't remember where I set up my account but I have delivery addresses in both countries. There are a few sellers that don't ship via Amazon and won't send outside the UK, though.

Sorry to hear that your routine has been disrupted. Maybe your DS is going through a growth spurt and the increased feeds would have happened anyway? I do know what you mean, though; I would refuse to go and stay at my ILs when the routine was working well as I just didn't want to risk it!

admylin Argh, you've just reminded me that I still haven't bought any bread for the Gesunde Jause - I was going to get some from the baker's on my way back from the school run. Hopefully they'll still have some at lunchtime; otherwise I'll have to go out ridiculously early tomorrow morning so that I can come back home and slice it before KiGa. Apart from cheese, butter (margarine not allowed!), milk and water, I just bought lots of fruit and vegetables - luckily KiGa give us quite a specific list of what and how much of everything to buy.

Thanks for looking for the DVDs btw; I think coco is going to PM you.

I also wish my Dad had spoken his mother tongue (Welsh) to me, but it's too late now. He gave the DC a Welsh course last Christmas and I keep meaning to get it out, but it's just finding the time. DD2 is fascinating by languages and accents, though; I'm sure she'd really enjoy it - she takes after me and she can already recognise German and American accents; I'm always trying to train DH in different accents when we watch British TV; he's quite good at recognising Scottish accents but other than that... We were watching a programme last night and I had to tell him that someone he didn't think was a native speaker of English just had a Welsh accent!

5more that sounds like hell! I'd have hit grumpy & snappy long ago in your situation so you must have the patience of a saint. Things here are nothing in comparison so I'm sending you lots of hot tea & headach pill vibes (if such things exist!)
I discovered another massive, hard, painful lump earlier too but luckily DS has just cleared it otherwise that might have led to an almighty meltdown on my part. (I feel like I'm three years old at the moment!)
The waving & clapping sounds very cute - although maybe not at 5am! DS can now roll onto his side & his favourite time to practise is nappy change time. What is it with random timings?!

Linzer I'd love to learn Welsh! My father is Welsh but doesn't speak it fluently enough to have taught us. I can say things like Good Morning & read some road signs but that's about it.
I'm awful at German accents but have a bit of a thing for the cookery programmes on BR at the moment as the Bavarian accent is so lovely.
I hope you manage to get your bread & don't have a mad, early dash tomorrow.

Later and Linzer. That absolutely wasn't intended as a piss-take of Cinder's posting style, though. I used to write all my e-mails like that. It's surprisingly difficult on an iPad though, as it automatically capitalizes the first letter of every new line.

5more and Later wishing you more sleep soon. DD had a routine like that, sleeping from 7pm until 10-12pm and then waking every two hours after. I wonder now whether I would have got more sleep if I'd done the bedtime routine at my bedtime, but at the time I was just happy to have some baby-free time in the evenings.

admylin I've found the same with Amazon, ordered two books recently from .co.uk and paid £6 postage. So no price saving, but the delivery estimate on .de was six weeks. Lots of electronic goods can't be ordered on .de and delivered to the UK. My dad had a digital camera shipped to me once as it was several hundred pounds cheaper on German Amazon.

Linzer I would love those books, thank you. We're likely to be at my parents' until early Jan, should I pm you their address to save on international postage?

Oh, I'm awful at German/Austrian accents too Later - I can just about tell the difference between them, but that's it. Although I must admit that I also struggle to tell the difference between Bavarians and Austrians sometimes.

I did learn Welsh for a year at school when we first moved to Wales and tried to speak it to my Dad all the time at home, but it's virtually all gone now. I can only remember random phrases such as "But we'll be arriving at Cardiff station soon" and "No access to heavy goods vehicles" (very useful). Btw have you seen the answerphone message road sign? V. funny - will try to find and link to it although I really should be working.

5more I hope you manage to get some more sleep soon; it's so difficult when you have older children who don't nap, or at least not at the same time as the baby.

Just read that about amazon redirecting . I set up accounts on both sites, but that might be because it was so long ago. I use the same log in details, but the accounts have different addresses and payment details saved in them.

x posts, silken - you'd be more than welcome to the books. Yes, if you PM me your parents' address, I can send them to you there; we'll be back in Wales the last week in December, so they should have plenty of time to reach you.

Ooh no, I'm intrigued now - answerphone message road sign?!
I think I can just about tell if an accent is Bavarian/Austrian (but not which) & that's it. DH was very confused when I was chatting away about the Russian woman in BabyWalz - it turned out she was very 'Hessisch'

Silken I use the same log-in for the different Amazons (I've used .ca, .com & .fr in thepast too) & have never had an issue with the redirection. I'd never heard of it until DH's friend mentioned it. I think mine all have the same addresses etc saved but I'm not sure (& am far too lazy to check).

ess this week.

silken - I dont think your pushy if your dd takes an interest in reading. Ds1 had absolutely no interest and used to make a big fight if we did some reading so I just took a step back and now he's at school he's just striding ahead in learning to read in German (think its just more logical than english which suits his brain!). DS2 on the other hand is desperate to learn to read so in lieu of buying ORT books I use the ORT website where there are loads of ebooks. I still have issues with ORT in that they throw in random words with sounds that the dc havent learnt but I suppose thats what will happen when they are free readers. Another poster on here recommended a book called something like "teach your child to read in 100 lessons". Its a bit dull (and a bit american) but it teaches phonics really well.

So my lack of MN time is due to poorlyness doing the rounds here - today is the first morning I've been home alone since last tues. DD had a stinky cold and now ds2 has it meanwhile ds1 has been coughing for 6 weeks now. It was like a coughing chorus in our house yesterday evening. So they are all sucking "husten bonbons" now that I've found some they all like. Took ds1 to the kinderarzt yesterday about his cough - its just not shifting - just a dry tickly cough but I was also wondering if it was just a bit of a habitual cough. But the kinderarzt told me to try him with some cough lozenge type things for 2 weeks and to go back if its not better.

ds2 was fine at his U9 (its his pre-school assesment at the doctor linzer). Realised it was just to test his physical and speech skills so didnt get an opportunity to discuss his concentration. Think I'll have more time when he has his Gesundheitsamt one in Kiga in a few weeks.

We met up with my IL's at the weekend half way between our houses and I had the worst food I've ever had in my time in Germany. The IL's had picked the place and it was empty but now I know why. I ordered a schnitzel - it was black on the coating and not cooked through properly. It came with some potato wedges (definitely not homecooked) and some of that mixed veg out a frozen bag that had gone slightly grey. Oh it was disgusting! MIL was trying to force me to send it back but I just wanted to get out of there and not have to eat what they sent out the second time. Feel I should name and shame it but only Silken is up that way and might possibly go in. (will message you silken!)

well I've written myself a big list of jobs to do so should crack on. Have only ticked on thing off for the day - must get off MN!

I was just having a look at the Amazon Black Friday offers & came across this delivery information:
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=524836

oh bugger I've just lost the top half of that mammoth post!!!! grrrrrr!! sorry to everyone -will see if I can find it again.

There's an article about it here, Later. Even I could have translated the first sentence of that road sign into Welsh! (See my two random sentences above.)

So has anyone ordered any of the Black Friday deals? I was looking earlier but there was nothing I particularly wanted - although I was quite annoyed to see the Sonicare toothbrush on offer, as I splashed out on one a couple of months ago!

Canella Hope you're all feeling better soon. It's so frustrating when things drag on for weeks as one person catches it after the other. And even more frustrating when you have no time home alone. The restaurant sounds awful - but I don't think we'll be going anywhere near it (unless it's close to Munich airport; can't remember the name of the place where we're staying but it's about 4 km away).

My sentence above should of course have read "No access for heavy goods vehicles" (it's on a sign at the bottom of the lane where my parents used to live).

And while we're on the subject of Welsh, I love .

Right, really must go and get everything ready for today's first English lesson before I pick up the children.

Canella, hope the cough gets better soon. Often had ds with a cough that lasted ages and all you can do is sit it out and keep trying to get warm drinks into them and plenty of rest.

Can you be be allergic to gin anyone? On Friday we had a couple of guests and dh brought gin and a few other drinks. I wa sso ill at the weekend and I can only think it was the 2 gins I drank although the 2nd was a large double poured by dh who doesn't know about meassures.

Hanover is covered in fog today, still can't see past the other side of the road and it's past 11am.

Never heard of being allergic to gin but i'm sure its possible. Not my drink of choice so it would be no hardship to me to give it a miss.

Have seen that sign story on the news linzer - was hilarious!

Ha ha - love the road sign, Linzer!

I have my eye on the Peter Rabbit books for James on Amazon's Black Friday. I even have an alarm set on my phone! This morning is the first time I've looked at Black Friday - it was all the Amazon talk before that put me in a shopping mood :)

Canella Hope you feel better & that you all end up illness-free soon.
That restaurant sounds awful!

Hello people.
I am missing Germany at the moment, so I thought I would mark the thread.

Hello BoffinMum!

Are you German, or have you lived here in the past? Is there a Christmas market near you where you can get a German fix? :)

I am only half German - my mother was from Stuttgart and then the family moved to Munich, although vast numbers of them seem to have died off in the last decade. I am not sure about a Christmas market, I hadn't thought about that.

BoffinMum I've never been to either city but I hear Munich is lovely (I'm in Hessen).
How long have you lived in the UK for?

I have spent far too much money on Amazon today - all the talk of comparing prices made me buy stuff!
My name is Later and I'm an Amazonaholic

Did you get the Peter Rabbit set, Later? I've just had a quick look and can't see anything I want, although I seem to spend so much money on Amazon anyway that it's probably no bad thing. Just had another parcel today and am waiting for another two or three.

Hi BoffinMum, did you grow up in Germany? Do you get to go back very often?

Felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown during the second English lesson today; I just find the children so difficult to control. The 7-8 years I had earlier can play up a little (actually, only the two boys - the girls are all very quiet apart from DD2), but they will at least listen if I tell them to be quiet. The five year olds are a nightmare, though - they'll just go and lie down on the sofa/table when I try to teach them something, if I put anything down in the middle of the circle they'll throw it, I have to keep separating two of them as they're always play fighting, etc. They're fine if they're sitting down at the table colouring in, but I can hardly do that with them for half an hour. Maybe I just need to get them to sit at the table the whole time - I just thought they'd be happier sitting on the floor, and we can then get up and do action songs too, etc.