Die Kaffeestube - German and Austrian cyber Kaffee und Kuchen

[admylin]

Kaffeeklatsch for anyone in a German speaking country or interested in German, Kommt herein und setz euch!

Morning all! We're finally reconnected. I'm so annoyed with the phone company - they have written to tell us that they are obliged to let Schufa (the credit rating people) know - even though it was their mistake. If we end up with more problems because of them I will be even more annoyed. Grr!

On a much more positive note - DS started crawling last week! (Cue a sudden burst of emergency hoovering & mopping.) It's more a commando crawl & he looks like a little rabbit shuffling across the room. Once we realised he could do it we started tying to entice him with toys, but he wasn't interested - 30 seconds later he was zooming across the room in excitement just to bite my toes. Very strange child! He seems happy enough though :)

Hope everyone is well!
Glad the move went well, silken; Hope it's just a phase your DS is going through, Linzer; Enjoy your shopping while the boys bowl, admylin; Glad you've found a flat, Nohun.

Gator what happended with the connection? Why should they let Schufa know? Glad it's sorted though and great that ds is getting more and more mobile!

I'm on tea break! Fed up as I moved the corner bench in the kitchen to clean and found mold on the wall. Have sprayed bleach on it and hope it dries and clears.

admylin They haven't sent us a bill or a warning, final demand or anything since January. We've been chasing them and chasing them and nothing until they just cut us off with no warning. We've called them so many times and they just say that the bills have been sent and blame it on the post office and say that they will send another and that we don't need to worry etc. V. unimpressed. All our other mail has been arriving no problem, just 4 months worth of phone bills and Mahnungen.
We are at the end of our contract with them anyway so we're looking around for another provider. If we hadn't chased or just hadn't been paying or something like that then fair enough, but we have. We've even tried to pay over the phone but they don't do that and reassured us we would have no problems.

Do you have some nice biscuits to have with your cup of tea? DS is napping so I'm off on a biscuit hunt.

It was obviously their fault but difficult to fight about especially in German! Don't they do online Rechnungen?

No biccies, trying to be careful after all the cream cakes and chocolates that dd produces! Better get some tidying up done, every room is in a mess. When does this happen, I tidy, turn my back and the next time I look it's messed up again.

I have homemade muffins....

I give up on housework today

well should hide puter
so I stop moaning ...

Just a quickie (ooer!!) - I posted DVD's to you yesterday admylin - hope they arrive safely - there was quite a few of them!

Gator that is incredibly frustrating and annoying about Telecom! Woo hoo on the crawling though!

Silken yay for moving in and well done on speedy unpacking! Glad your DD likes her room!

Linzer I think the KiGa resistance sounds like a totally normal phase and nothing to actually worry about or dwell on if he is happy and wanting to stay when you pick him up! DS1 has had those phases too and I expect will again. After all as adults we all do things we don't feel like and would like to get out of, but actually quite enjoy when we force ourselves - for a lot of people going to work comes into that category, or even getting out of bed :o!

DS2 is walking 95% of the time now :o Am I weird in that I love the toddler phase far more than the baby phase, I feel happier already, and though he isn't sleeping through exactly and still has the odd terrible night, he is getting to 4am before the first wake up more and more nights now. He even had a go on his balance bike yesterday - he has grown and can reach the ground if he has his sandals on lol! He needs me to hold the seat or handle bars but he loves it, and tantrums when he has to stop due to the fact my back is killing me . He's really too young at not quite 13 months but I couldn't resist letting him have a go :o He has about 12 words now too, do love this age :)

Got to teach tonight, poo, but last one til September! Classic example of feeling the same way about work that Linzer's son does about KiGA!

Linzer, I thought only school was obligatory, not KiGa? Hope your DS is ok, I personally think they are so so young to do stuff they don't want to do.

Ploom, thanks for the XXXL info, will check it out. Hope you have a lovely time back in the UK. We need to plan a trip back soon to sort out some stuff with our apartment there, don't know what is happening with the neighbour's planning permission, which we have to wait for information on before we progress our building work. All such a lot of faff!

admylin, the new apartment is in the same town we are already in, so not really closer to DH's work, though it is less of a walk for him to the train station, so he'll get a few extra minutes each side.
Happy Birthday to your DS, 14, wow! He will probably prefer money I guess, to buy what he wants rather than what his mum chooses!

DS calling, will have to finish this catch up later!

NoHun They introduced a verpflichtendes Kindergartenjahr for 5 year olds here in Austria a couple of years ago - there are exceptions (if your child goes to a childminder, for example, and you're allowed an extra three weeks' holiday outside the school holidays), but children are generally required to be at KiGa for at least five hours a day at least four days a week.

Thatis Not weird at all - I was never a great fan of the baby stage and found it much easier when they were toddlers. I'm also counting the days until my English teaching is over for this academic year; I taught three lessons today, and only have another two lessons (ever) with DD1's class.

Gator Yay for crawling DS, but grr at the phone company. Very strange that it's only post from them that has gone missing. I don't blame you for looking for another provider; hope you manage to get it sorted out without your credit rating being affected after all.

admylin Sympathies on the never-ending tidying; I have the same problem here. It's a thankless task. of your 29° (although I wouldn't want it to be much hotter). It's cold and rainy here today and isn't forecast to get much better. I've just invited some friends for a barbecue on Saturday as DH was convinced the weather would improve by then, but I should have checked the weather app on my phone first: 19° and rain, which is worse than our last barbecue.

Cinders Hope the abscess is better soon.

Jenny Glad your DH got back safely. It must be very difficult with the culture of long working hours, though. Here, it's usually DH who complains about me spending too long on the computer in the evenings (switching it off usually takes me a good 20 minutes).

Ploom got the DVDs thanks! Anyone else interested in them when I've finished watching?

thatis I agree that the toddler stage is the bst - I loved it too, they're so cute and adorable! Enjoy it while it lasts with your other 3 aswell as at some point when the hormones kick in they turn into aliens teenagers and the cuteness is over!

Linzer hope your weather gets better. Was far too humid here yesterday. 29° is a good temperature in a dry hot country but not here, far too sticky! I remember experiencing dry heat in Isreal for the first time and it was much easier to cope with (maybe dh should apply for a job in Isreal although yesterday he said he was moving to Alaska!)

NoHun I don't think they've started a verpflichtendes Kindergartenjahr like in Austria yet but they're talking about making Kindergarten obligatory, going on about integration and learning to speak German etc. I'd have hated having obligatory kindergarten. Mine went for the minimum time required to keep the place from age 4 and took alot of long holidays and days off! I only sent them to learn German really. You should have that freedom atleast until your ds is 6 then he is Schulpflichtig in Germany.

It was ds's birthday yesterday, he made a small fortune in money presents! Only problem is he's not sure what he wants to spend it on so he'll probably just save it like he has since he was 11, all birthday and Christmas money! He's richer than me!

The weather has improved today, thank goodness - a quite pleasant 20° and, most importantly, dry. Which means my phone lied to me and I wasn't organised enough to get the DC ready in time for us all to cycle this morning. DD1 went off on her own on her scooter anyway, but I drove DD2 and her bike to school so that at least she'll be able to cycle home at lunchtime.

admylin DD2 is a real saver as well; she sometimes tends to panic because she can never find anything she wants to buy when she's just got her pocket money, for example, even though I keep telling her she doesn't have to buy anything and it's much better to save the money (which she usually ends up doing).

I must admit that, after around seven years with at least one child at home full-time, I'm now far too selfish to be bothered by the obligatory KiGa year. It still gives me enough flexibility to take DS out of KiGa on days when the DDs aren't at school (like on the schulautonomer Tag last Friday, for example) or before Christmas (when I have to ask the school for permission), and that's enough for me.

Thatis It sounds like your DS2 is at a really cute age! Hope the teaching went ok and you can enjoy your summer break (from teaching, at least).

Nohun We have a few bits from XXXL as well (dining table, chairs, sofa etc) and they weren't too expensive but seem nice and sturdy. How is the new flat?

Linzer I've spoken to a few other people who have used Vodafone for their landline and internet and not one person had something positive to say, so it looks like we're not the only ones. We only used them as we lived right out in the sticks when we first moved over and they were the only company that serviced our area. Glad the weather has improved! After the humidity yesterday I have jinxed the weather today by putting a dress on, and now thunderstorms are forecast! At least they will clear the air a bit. We had some really impressive storms the other night, but hopefully today they will be nice enough to wait until I have been to the supermarket.

admylin I wouldn't mind a few British dvds to watch if that's ok? What do you have? I'm in total denial that my cute baby will at some point be hormonal and stroppy. I'm in for a massive shock, aren't I :)

I bought a steam mop to make life a bit easier (I HATE mopping!), but DS has decided that chasing the mop around the floor is the most fun thing he could possibly do, so any hope of an easier life have just gone out of the window He does look adorable flapping across the floor to get at it.

We met up with our friends the other day (the slightly strange ones) and this time it was comments about how DS is too young for solid foods etc (he's 8 months!). I think I might just gradually stop seeing them as I really can't be doing with it any more. Ever since about a third of the way through my pregnancy when she fell pregnant too it's been nothing but comments about what I'm doing wrong and everything is 'nicht gut' and it's driving me up the wall. The strange thing is, they contradict themselves constantly too - I mentioned that I had a little beach outfit for DS for when we're in the UK to protect him from the sun, and they thought that was really strange, but then they told me off for not having a parasol for the pushchair as I need to protect him from sunburn! This is the same couple who thought he would end up brain damaged from sleeping through the night so I know I shouldn't let it get to me.

By the way - Real in Wiesbaden now have a British section! It's something ridiculous like ?7 for a small pack of PG Tips but they have Crunchies, Penguins etc too.

Thatis, I am loving the toddler stage too, though I dearly loved the baby stage, it was so easy compared to this stage, chasing him around all the time! I had such an easy baby, now I have a busy toddler who is into everything. He is so cute and charming though, and so much fun. He is fiercely independent, but still super snuggly. Want to bottle this.

admylin, six seems a fair way off, phew!

Gosh, Linzer, tough rules. I hope your little one is doing ok. Give him an extra hug from me!

Gator, I would disengage from those people too. I can't be doing with that kind of nonsense, people who don't enhance my life are out! Life is too short!

We are not in the new flat yet - five and a half weeks to go! I really can't wait, I feel like I am in limbo, mostly not unpacked, living with the mini kitchen, etc. just want to be in. In the meantime, will be busy looking for a sofa, wardrobes, chest of drawers, dining table and chairs. We don't need much, planning to live a life with as few possessions as is comfortable, clutter free - apart from DS's toys and stuff, of which there are plenty. Though now you mention it, I do rather fancy a steam mop!!! :)

NoHun Not as tough as if we were in the UK, though - DS would have to be at school now (he'd probably have started over 1.5 years ago), with a longer school day and shorter holidays, and KiGa is very relaxed in comparison (they only play an don't have to do anything they don't want to). In some ways KiGa is too relaxed considering the adjustment they have to make when they start school, when they're basically expected to sit at a desk and concentrate for four hours. Or rather, school is too rigid and old-fashioned IMO.
Clutter-free sounds good; it's my aim too, although I suspect it will never be feasible!

Gator I have a steam mop in my Lakeland basket, although I can't really justify it as I haven't done any mopping for years.
Sounds like a good idea to gradually cut down on contact with your friends with the rather strange ideas. Life's too short to spend much time with people who drive you mad!

It's pouring with rain here yet again now. At least it meant the hairdresser's was quiet; I've just taken the DDs, as the photographer is coming to school on Friday. Also discovered that my favourite hairdresser has gone on maternity leave for goodness knows how long (she was only 19 weeks and won't be back until she's stopped bfing, apparently - something to do with neurodermatitis). She was the only one who could get my hair looking straight and glossy; I'm devastated!

Well he wouldn't HAVE to be, if you home-schooled, which is at least legal in the UK! :)
I can't sit at a desk and concentrate for one hour, let alone four!

We are doing really well with the clutter-free thing. We dejunked so much before we came here, and both DH and I think we can get rid of even more stuff! I mean, we have barely missed much of what is in the boxes that we haven't unpacked! Am getting more tempted by the steam mop now though! Though DH thinks I could veer into OCD territory, and really, homes can be too clean, can't they, so maybe we'll just let the dirt pile up and I will be the slovenly slattern that I really am fight my inner domestic goddess! :)
I used to have so many clothes, my wardrobes couldn't tidily contain them all, it was an effort to pull anything out. I feel better with my capsule wardrobe now, I really do. I had walls covered end to end in photos, now everything is online, and I just look through my photos that way. Admittedly I haven't yet gotten rid of my CDs, of which there are many, even though DH has copied them all to the computer. They are at the PILs in the garage, I should let him sell them, I guess.

Sorry to hear about your hairdresser. A good one is worth holding on to.

Well, I could home school (or rather "home kindergarten") him here too as it's legal in Austria, so I still maintain that the education system is less strict for 5 year olds here than it is in the UK. But don't get me started on what 6 year olds have to go through!

I'm quite good at decluttering my own stuff, but DH insists on keeping much more than I'd like and the DC also have far too much. I only have about 4 or 5 CDs now as virtually all my music is on my iPod, but DH has dozens if not hundreds of CDs - which he never listens to. And then there's all his photographic equipments, boxes and boxes of photos, a ridiculous amount of paperwork (admittedly, you do seem to need to accumulate far more here than you would in the UK), etc. It's got even worse since the DC started school as every single exercise book and text book has to be kept, with each year taking up quite a large box (per child). I dread to think what it's going to be like when they start secondary school. Or when DS is at school too.

Have actually managed to get the DC to bed by 7 pm for the first time in weeks (DH not being around makes it easier) and have said they can read for half an hour, but judging by the noise levels there's not a lot of reading going on. ... Have just been in to check on them; DD1 was actually trying to read, DD2 is already very tired and trying to sleep, so I blame it all on DS (my fault for allowing him to sleep in the same room as the girls, as he gets a bit upset in the evenings when DH is away).

:)

DH is good at decluttering, though he was very good at accumulating in the first place too! :) I was ruthless before we left - went through all our paperwork and binned everything out of date, I even binned several photo albums, taking out a few select favourite photos. Bin bin bin.

Why do all the exercise books have to be kept?

Enjoy the evening to yourself! :)

The thing with paperwork is that I just don't know how long some of it has to be kept. DH recently had to send the pension company proof that he was enrolled at university each semester; luckily (but not surprisingly), he'd kept all fourteen enrolment documents, which must be getting on for 20 years old now. We just don't seem to accumulate the same level of paperwork in the UK (from university, I have my degree certificate and that's it).

The school books don't have to be kept, but DH insists that they are - at least until the children are all at secondary school. I am bowing to his superior knowledge of the Austrian school system, but I shall be ruthless once they've all left Volksschule. Some of the text books that the DDs have used have been the same, and we certainly don't need three copies of each text book. I did secretly declutter DD1's Rückenfit book, thinking it wasn't very important, only to discover that it would actually have been quite useful two years later when DD2 had exactly the same homework to do, which we had to spend quite a while researching.

Linzer I only kept the last couple of years worth of school stuff. I did have year 5 for a while but looked back on it and thought it's so basic that it's not work that they'll have to look back on for Mittlere Reife or Abi so got rid of it. Dd uses ds's books from last year sometimes but just to compare if she's got all th esame facts (usually she has more!)

Ds has a friend who has hoarder parents who have taught him to hoard too.
He has all his old toys however broken and tatty they are and every single drawing he ever did.

He also has all his books since primary and once said to me he's keeping them incase his children need them. I tried to reason with him and asked him if he had time to look through his dad's old school books on top of doing his own school work. He accepted that he wouldn't be very happy if his dad said he should look at them and that the subjects are nothing like what his dad did back then so of no use really, not even for 'research'!

He has 2 huge storage boxes filled with the free gifts from kinder surprise eggs, Macdonalds etc!

admylin If you weren't so far away, I'd wonder whether your DS might be friends with DH's nephew; they must be about the same age. They also have a couple of huge boxes full of Kinder surprise gifts etc.! His father is the worst hoarder ever and makes DH seem quite normal in comparison. He won't throw away empty beer bottles, for example, so the garage is full of them (it's not even a "collection" as such; he just won't get rid of them for some reason). They also used to have boxes full of old baby toys (I expect they still do), which they're probably keeping for the grandchildren; at nearly 50, I can't imagine that SIL is going to have any more children of her own.

Not sure if ds could cope with another hoarder friend! He doesn't like going round to his friend's house but they get on outside and at school! Ds is the opposite - he is so tidy and careful with his stuff. If he has a couple of books out on his desk and a t-shirt on the floor he says he can't sleep because his room is a mess!!

Now dd is a different matter...just spent ages picking things up off her floor so I could hoover it.

Crikey, well, I doubt I'd have anything to prove I was at university when I was (did keep the degree certificate!), figure I'd contact them if I needed something like that.

If I have been overly ruthless, I'll have to deal with the consequences! But I feel so much better for having less stuff.

NoHun That's the thing about living in Austria; the whole system is conducive to accumulating paperwork. You can basically come and go as you please when you're at university here and could take a break in between semesters if you want, whereas if you have a British degree certificate, it's a pretty good guarantee that you've been studying for the previous three/four years. As we don't even enrol each semester, just at the start of the degree, we wouldn't even accumulate all this paperwork in the first place.

admylin My SIL's house (or rather, her part of it) is fairly tidy; it's just that they seem unable to throw anything away. We did protest when their boxes (I think we had the Kinder Surprise box for a while, along with a large box full of cuddly toys) started being stored in DH's room, as it made it quite difficult to dust thoroughly (DS's allergy seems to be much more of a problem at my ILs), so they've gone - although who knows if they reappear when we're not there?

Ploom I was talking (well, tweeting) to another expat in Vienna about the article you linked to - about Vienna being a city that loves to grumble - he lives in Vienna and said it was lazy journalism and that the Viennese don't grumble more than people in any other big city. But I do think the Austrians very often don't realise how well off they are and the phrase sudern auf hohem Niveau very often springs to mind when they're complaining. I was reminded of it yesterday evening when a friend told me that another parent we know (an AUA pilot, whose daughter is a friend of DD2's) was complaining about all the changes being made to the salary structure and that he's now going to be 2 million euros worse off! She said she worked out how long it would take her to even earn 2 million euros (several centuries) and had very little sympathy for him.

NoHun don't you feel lighter somehow when you get rid of stuff?! I have moved so many times and really the last 2 times got rid of loads of stuff and have only regretted not having one file of my old French studies (could have helped explain some grammar rule to the dc) but no great loss!

linzer some people don't know how good they've got it! Dh is so fed up with them not increasing his wage in the official way - he gets some sort of Überstundenpauschal that they can cancel when they like so less sure than the correct pay bracket that he should be in for experience and age.

Gator there are lots of DVDs here (from Linzer, then passed on to Ploom and now me!) mostly Apprentice, Location Location and some of the Desperate Houswives series, Junior Doctors, Midsomer Murders. PM me your address if you fancy them and I can send them on to you when I've finished watching!

My dishwasher has died. I am so fed up. We bought the kitchen from the last owners and they did say it was 10 years old but looked in very good condition, solid wood and Markengeräte.

I was out from 3 to 5pm yesterday. Had switched machine on as I left the house. When I came back I could smell a burnt, singed smell and thought it was from outside but when I came to empty the dish washer at about 9pm last night I realised that it was from the machine - also had water in the bottom. I don't think it's worth fixing and now I have the pain of getting rid of it, deciding on buying a new one or not (I'd go for the cheapest as who knows how long we'll be here) and washing by hand from now on.

What a pain about the dishwasher admylin, especially as you don't know whether you'll be there long enough for it to be worth buying a new one. You could perhaps always sell it if you do move, though?

DS has gone into KiGa quite happily the last few days, although I think it was because he was looking forward to something both days: yesterday they went on a trip to the fire station (the Feuerwehrmänner were very lieb, he told me, and they took them a cake) and today is Spielzeugtag so he took his favourite cuddly toy and a book about the Feuerwehr with him.

Now that I've decided to give up teaching English, I'm counting the days until the end of the school year. I'm teaching two classes today and then just one next week as next Tuesday is schulfrei (I'd normally have two groups on a Tuesday) and DD1's teacher only wants me to go in twice more, on the 14th and 21st June. I'm teaching DD2's class today, but am assuming she'll want me to go in on the same days.

DD1's class has so many trips coming up in their last month (a Sagenführung in Vienna, a trip to our Landeshauptstadt, an old Roman settlement, etc.), but at least it means they don't have much time for tests, etc. Originally they were all supposed to do two Referate, at least one of which they had to do on their own, but now it seems that as long as they did the first on their own, they don't have to worry about a second one.