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!

Oops, sorry, meant to say Ploom - I still think of you as Canella!

ploom people are always talking about agnus castus on the conception board and I've considered taking it to try to sort my cycles out, but I didn't want to self-medicate in case I make things worse. As far as I know, it should balance oestrogen and progesterone levels (reduce oestrogen, increase progesterone) which should result in a longer second half of the cycle and a lighter period (either that or the complete opposite if I've got it mixed up ).

We reached an agreement with our neighbours to buy the strip of land with the wall on from them. The sale hasn't actually gone through yet, but if that's the end of it we'll be relieved if not quite happy. They want to plant a big hedge on top of the wall so they don't have to look at our house, that suits us just fine . Fortunately we are on good terms with all the other neighbours and there are/will be several children around DD's age living nearby.

I am getting very excited about moving in, but I'm not sure we can say that everything is going to be perfect. There are compromises to be made when you build as well, mainly down to cost, but also to some extent practicality. Our architect has really focussed on using long-lasting materials and has been amazing at bullying contractors into redoing bits that don't reach his extremely high standards, but he has also to some extent bullied us into making decisions to match what he wants /thinks is best. So, for example, we're getting a steel staircase with commercial grade vinyl on the treads, which will probably look great and still look like new in 10 years, but (after agreeing to that staircase) I saw a wooden staircase at someone's house which would have made me a little bit happy every time I went up or down it. (Our architect would point out how much more slippery it would be, or how often it would need to be revarnished, or some disadvantage that wouldn't even occur to me as a layperson, but still.) Of course there are lots of things in our house that will make me happy - the pantry, the big kitchen, the enormous living room window. I just don't feel that we've turned some fantastical dream house into reality, but I don't suppose that anyone (other than multi-millionaires) does that.

Sorry about the fine Linzer. Some people are just busy bodies.

I have tiles on my worktops which is great for putting pans down but not for rolling out pastry. The grouting bit always looks dirty too!

Sorry about the Apotheke bill too Ploom. I think I may have taken Agnus Castus at one point when I had really horrendous periods, but that was a while ago. I think my gynae recommended it.

Have you managed any more sleep thatis? I have had one nap in the afternoon since S was born as the other two don't sleep and I'm never without them in the afternoons! I am sure it will all get better in a couple of months or so (fingers x'd). I also feel exhausted but it is sunny now and that always makes me feel a bit better.

Your house looks stunning silken, but I am sure you will always find something that you decide looks a bit better in someone else's house occasionally. To me, a show home with almost nothing in it (no toys, paperwork, clutter etc) looks amazing, no matter how small, large, luxurious. Just clean!

Hope you all have wonderful weekends.

Ploom I took anti-malaria tablets for a few months and was lucky enough not to suffer any side effects. A work colleague from the country we were travelling to told us not to bother as we were unlikely to get bitten and even more unlikely to catch malaria, but as it turned out the mozzies there loved me (even though they leave me alone in Europe) and a few days later his mumm caught malaria, even though she had lived in the country all her life and in theory had a natural immunity. I think there are different strains and the strain found in Africa is a little more serious than in South America (where I was).
I think I would err on the side of caution, but I'm sure there are arguments for both sides. (My 'evidence' being entirely anecdotal anyway :) )

Silken Thanks for the tips! I threw a few chunks of broccoli in the steamer while I was doing the carrots after reading your post & am glad I did - he wasn't bothered by the carrots at all but loved the broccoli and gummed it to death.
Good luck with the move - I'm excited for you too!

Linzer Grr at the busybody! Some people really have nothing to do with their time. I think you should head down their with a garden chair, a notebook & pen and a camera. Maybe even a packed lunch & a flask of coffee. If you're going to catch a few others, you might as well do it properly
Did all the children turn up for English?

hupa Have you found a kitchen you like? It was 20°c and bright sunshine here yesterday, so am guessing it was similar where you are. Did you have a nice day out in the end?

PIL have offered to take DS for the night and send DH and I to a 5 course meal and wine tasting evening, with a night in a hotel so we don't have to drive home, which is really sweet of them, but the thought of leaving DS overnight (well, for any period of time really) is making me a bit tearful and a little mardy. Just had a big 'no-one is taking my baby away from me' rant at poor DH. Think I need to calm down and toughen up a little!
Slowly slowly.

Linzer 'head down there' Gah!

jenny thanks for saying the house looks stunning. I'm extremely happy about how it looks on the outside, but just getting cold feet occasionally about moving in. I think it's partly because I'm miles away from achieving that clutter-free, clean state in our flat and will just have more space not to clean in the new place. I'm not complaining, though. I know how lucky we are.

gator glad the broccoli went down well. I've got a great picture of DD at six months fighting with DH over a piece of broccoli - if I get a moment I'll put it on FB.

Morning all. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Linzer sorry to hear about your bad luck. I also got a fine this weekend but luckily it was only 5?. Wonder who is reporting - is there a camera outside school?

ploom did your dd's arm hurt for long? Wow, expensive tablets too - but worth taking them along with plenty of mosquito cream/spray and cortisone incase of bites and allergies. We weren't bothered by them last time in Dhaka but the poor dc were bitten all over.

silken One of our best baby photos was the first time ds tried a strawberry, you can see the bliss in his eyes! Good luck with the packing and sorting.

Gator did you come around to leaving your ds? I was just like that and couldn't leave ds. Nice offer from your PIL though!

Dd had decided to keep going to hockey so we got her a field hockey stick - she's also going to the easter training camp as they've put the price down to 30? instead of 90? (too many people cancelled at that price). Ds is signed up for a table tennis intensive training 4 evenings in the Easter holidays so they both have something planned and we just have to survive the boredom of the bank holidays.

Morning!

Gator I'm with you, I haven't left any of my babies over night under about 18 months old by choice (though I had to leave ds1 with dh for 1 night at 4 months old as I was kept in hospital overnight with bronchitis). I wouldn't be able to enjoy a night away leaving such a young child, but would go out for a meal nearer home (and use the hotel money for a taxi if you both want a couple of glasses of wine, don't suppose you're planning on getting so drunk you could't take care of your baby!) I am cynical and would assume it is more about the grandparents wanting him to themselves, but perhaps I should give people more credit!

Silken how exciting about the new house, its a lot of people's dream to self build isn't it, and it looks lovely, but I'd share your anxiety about keeping it all sparkly and minimalist with a small child and hopefully more coming along in the future!

Linzer argh how annoying that a busy body reported you and you got fined!

admylin glad they reduced the price of hockey camp and dd is still willing to give it a go, it would be a pity if she felt pushed out for reasons that are nothing to do with the hockey!

Ploom oouch at the price of the meds, but I agree, malaria is not something worth taking a risk with.

We had a lovely sunny weekend, during which ds1 finally decided to try riding the 20 inch bike he got for Christmas (he's admired it as "cool" up til now, but he can't quite reach the floor so refused to try to ride it and stuck with the 14 inch he learnt to ride when he was 2.9! DD is quite confident on her same size but different colour scheme bike, but she is that crucial 4cm or so taller! Something must have clicked at the weekend though and he started riding it setting off from the front step and half crashing into our fence to stop, and by the end of the afternoon he'd mastered a technique of starting and stopping with a bit of a running hop/ jump! Hopefully he'll grow a few cm over summer and be able to get one foot down without the gymnastics!

It's raining now though, boo hiss... I have been to Aldi then tried to make dd a half birthday cake (half a cake, a tradition I foolishly started 3 years ago) as she is 6 1/2 today, but I've ended up with a bit of a botch job as the baby wouldn't nap and was attached to my leg moaning... of course he is asleep on my lap now, and the washing which is my next chore remains overflowing and unattended...

Morning all,

Just waiting for some work to come through but it's a huge file that's taking ages to download, so have a bit of time to catch up with the thread beforehand. Hope everyone had a good weekend. We had a spur-of-the-moment barbecue with some of the neighbours on Friday night, which was good although I didn't realise quite how much I'd had to drink until we had to negotiate the slope over the garden back to our house - and I fell over. Twice. Am really hoping none of the neighbours saw, but they were all looking in the right direction... DH was certainly embarrassed by me, at any rate! I also went out for a meal with a couple of friends on Saturday night, but managed to restrain myself alcohol-wise and so got home without incident.

I found out that it's most likely to have been the policeman who reported me. I thought that Anonymverfügung meant it was an anonymous report, but according to a friend (whose DH has also been caught out there), the anonym bit refers to the fact that they don't actually know who's driving the car. I'm surprised the policeman could see I was the wrong side of the sign and was keeping an eye on him the whole time (I didn't see him writing anything down), but it's the most plausible explanation.

To cap it all, I managed to reverse the car into the wall in front of our house on Friday afternoon. The parking sensors helpfully didn't start beeping until I'd actually hit the wall. DH inspected the damage and decided it would cost around ?1000 to repair but, as it's only cosmetic damage, we probably won't bother.

admylin It's good that your DC will have something to do in the Easter holidays. DH will be taking the end of the Karwoche off work so that we can go to my ILs, but I haven't got anything planned for the rest of the time.

Gator It's really nice of your ILs to offer to take your DS, but I can fully understand you not wanting to. I can't remember exactly when I first left the DC overnight with my ILs, but I also felt quite tearful - and they would have been quite a bit older as none of them slept through until they were well over a year.

Jenny Hope you're still enjoying some sunshine there - the sun has disappeared again here (probably a good thing, as I always feel tempted to sit outside in the garden reading when the weather's nice!). Sunshine always improves my mood too, and hopefully your DS will start sleeping more as he gets older anyway.

silken Your house sounds fantastic. Friends of ours are building a house at the moment and are incredibly stressed by it, but it sounds like it's going to be amazing when it's finished. Our house was half-built when we bought it so we were able to have quite a say in a number of decisions (we decided on an extra room in the cellar, divided the top floor into more rooms, plus made all the decisions about flooring, where to have the electric sockets, etc.) and I found that stressful and time-consuming enough.

Morning all!

Thatis DD has also been riding her (balance) bike this weekend. There's no way she would be able to use a 14" bike though - I've mentioned before that she's short for her age, I think. Can your DS do that thing of standing up on the pedals just before he stops so he ends up standing over the crossbar instead of having his bottom on the seat? It's something I had to learn to do when I borrowed an enormous bike from a housemate once after I fell off at some trafficlights.

Proud mummy alert! DD was finally bribed persuaded into pooing on her potty this morning . We ditched the night-time nappy at her request last week, so hopefully this means the end of buying nappies!

X-posted with, and now lol at Linzer falling over drunk!

I can only imagine how stressful building a house is: we are getting the loft done here, and I am stressed about that, and work hasn't even started! But it will be worth it, when you see what they go through on Grand Designs, and then what they get at the end, it's usually always worth it!

Love baby weaning photos! We have one of DS trying satsuma, must have been a sharp-tasting one, his face is hilarious! :-)

Gator, there's no rush. I have no intention of leaving my DS overnight any time soon. He is still BFed so I have an easy excuse! :)

We are looking into balance bikes now, thank you for your input on Fb (I haven't named you here in case it outs you!). It's a beautiful day today, maybe we will get out to the shops to have a proper look at some bikes. I think he'd do well on a scooter too, we have seen a lovely one, it's not a Micro though, which seems to be the brand of choice.

DH has finished his old job, he has two weeks off before he starts his new one in Frankfurt. Still got some packing and sorting to do, got to sell the car, get rid of some big household items, but progress is being made.

Not had a chance to post for a few days and no time today as Silken and I are meeting up this morning! Promise not to gossip about you all too much .

Have a lovely time Ploom and silken. I'm hoping to meet up with platanos over Easter as we just didn't get round to gossiping about you all last time.

Good luck with all the packing, Nohun. Balance bikes are great - DD2 and DS were able to progress from them to a normal bike with very little effort and at a much earlier age than DD1, who never had one.

silken and ploom I hope you have a great time this morning.

Thanks again for all the advice about kitchens. We did plan to start looking at the weekend, but the weather was so good that we went geocaching instead. I have been doing lots of research on the internet which has only confused me even more.

Gator I know exactly how you feel. Dh´s sister did the same for us when dd was a bit older than your ds. I really had my reservations, but in the end had a lovely time. I think it helped that we were only 40 minutes away and knew we could get back quickly if there were any problems.

Linzer I´ve got such a funny picture of you in my head, stumbling through the garden on Friday night. How annoying about the car. If it´s any consolation I managed to scrape the wing of my last car the first time I parked it in the garage.

Much as I´m enjoying the sun, we´re meant to be going skiing at Easter and at this rate there won´t be any snow left.

Have a lovely time, Ploom & silken!

admylin It's good that your DD could continue with hockey in the end as it sounded like she was enjoying it. It would have been a shame if she had had to stop for the 'wrong' reasons.

silken Yay for your DD! Fingers crossed she keeps going with the potty. Just think of all the nice things you'll be able to buy for your shiny new house with the money you'll save on nappies!

Linzer Cosmetic damage doesn't count as damage... I once managed to scrape the entire side of the car along the side of my parents' house trying to reverse off their weirdly angled driveway, then just as I was clear of the house, I managed to reverse over my mum's flowers & back straight into a lamp post. This all happened within about 60 seconds and I had a full family audience the whole time. I still cringe at the memory
(Disclaimer: I had only just passed my test & haven't scratched the car since. Although I'm still terrible at reversing. I just can't cope with backwards for some reason.)
I had to laugh at the mental picture of you stumbling through the garden with your embarrassed DH!

Nohun Ooh not long to go! Are you excited?

hupa Fingers crossed for snow at Easter.

We're moving onto avocado & banana today for lunch. I whooped with excitement yesterday when I discovered a few lumps of sweet potato in DS' nappy. Then was massively embarrassed that I had cheered because of a nappy.

Afternoon!
Fab time had by us this morning eating chocolate easter rabbits (that were probably designed for dc) and not much gossiping about MN! And it was an even better meet up because I got ds2 his schulranzen . It was nearly half price and then had 15% off so dh will be pleased with the bargain. Its a lightweight one thats quite slim so its perfect for little ds2. And he likes it. Very successful morning.

linzer - I also LOL at the thought of you falling up the drive drunk! respect. I've not been that drunk in a very long time. about the car tho.

gator - love the weaning stage. But think you're way more excited than I was about poo. Bananas and avocados are such a great first foods but they make me feel a bit yuck when they've been mushed in little baby hands for a while.

hupa - hope there's still snow for you. What do the snow reports say?

admylin - glad your dd is continuing with hockey - just hope the narky emails from the annoying mother stop.

nohun - are you all moving over at the same time?

thatis - loved the FB photos of your ds1 on his bike - he looked so proud of himself.

silken - the gross book was a huge hit with the boys but they are both beyond freaked out by the tongue!! Its way too life like. We musnt leave it so long before we meet up again - maybe a BBQ in April if the weather stays nice.

Glad the meet-up went well, Ploom - and good news on the school bag too.

Gator I found myself getting ridiculously excited when DD1 started solids (although it didn't last long as she was never very interested in eating - only DD2 was, and none of them are big eaters now). Can you get sweet potato there then? I kept wanting to introduce things like parsnips and turnip etc. and getting frustrated by the fact that I couldn't find them here.

hupa I managed to knock a large chunk of my wing mirror off when I was reversing out of a multistorey car park - but that was my old car, so it didn't matter so much. I had been trying to take more care with our new car...

I also feel it is my duty to point out that I wasn't falling-down drunk on Friday night, just pleasantly tipsy. However, to get back from our neighbours' garden to our house, you have to negotiate a slope that's tricky enough when you're sober, let alone after several glasses of wine. I should really have gone round the neighbours' house rather than back across the garden, but wasn't quite sober enough to realise this.

Thanks for the extra endorsement of the balance bike, Linzer. I hope we have somewhere great for DS to cycle about when we move.

Gator, yes, very excited. And nervous too, but mainly excited. Looking forward to a change and the challenge, I think it will be good for our little family. Am looking forward to all the adventures! :)

Yum, avocado! DS likes it too. Grubby stuff though! Oh well, it's all good! :)

Ploom, ha at your early Easter chocolate eating! :) I have bought a vegan egg for DS and DH, not sure how easy I'll be able to find any in Germany, and I like to be prepared! I just have to make sure I don't eat them early! Also got DS this The Odd Egg book. Looks so gorgeous, and he loves books. Have also found some German versions of his favourite books, so I think we will order those soon!

Yes, we should all be moving at the same time, though they haven't sent us our flight details yet! I can only think maybe they haven't got the apartment ready or something? Doesn't hugely matter to us, DH can only start when he's there, so up to them!

Linzer, are there no parsnips or turnips at all, or are they just a bit hard to find? Am married to a Scot, I need to be able to make vegan haggis with neeps and tatties!

Am also laughing about the back garden incident! Sorry about the car though.

Glad the meetup went well ploom and silken.

Glad also that your dd is carrying on with her hockey, admylin (did I get that right?)

Good luck with the move nohun. Not long now!

Love it when babies start weaning. Watching their little faces is so much fun! Ds2 likes to go to the cupboard where his snacks are kept and shout yeah, yeah!

Plenty of snow here at the moment. Had to take dh to work again this morning, but it's all melted again. However the ski resort is open till the end of May! I went on Sunday, but didn't have that great a time as I went with people who were much better than me so ended up skiing on my own for quite a while. That was ok except where I was skiing there was noone else there so I was worried about falling then not being found! However I did face a few fears and got through them so not all bad.

Hope everyone is doing well. Dh is coming home early as he is getting a lift so I'd better get on with dinner!

Nohun - have never looked for parsnips since we dont eat them but you can get turnip but only in the late autumn and winter. They really only sell vegetables seasonally here which I quite like. Altho there are Spanish strawberries on sale at the moment but German friends are too suspicious to buy them.

Jenny - feels strange that you've still got snow when I'm sure our winter is vorbei. Hope so - I'm having my summer tyres put back on. The winter ones use so much fuel. Sorry the skiing wasnt as much fun as you'd hoped.

Yeah yeah Linzer - we believe you werent that drunk!! It was the slopes fault.

So garage first this morning, then food shopping then hopefully home in time to maybe spot my FIL on a programme at midday on ARD. He phoned over excited last night but isnt sure he'll be on. He's a tall, bald man - cant say what he does as that would def out me & was hoping the namechange would murky the waters a bit.

ploom glad your meet up went well, and well done on getting the school bag. Which one did your ds like in the end?
Reminds me I must get my tyres changed too - how much did you pay this time? I think it cost 2o? last time.

I wish I was as good as you at finding flight deals. Sat last night trying to book dh a flight to London but every time I thought I found one it was at bad times or too expensive or to the wrong airport! Hmm, now I face a morning of searching again and am also abit fed up that I can't go too.

Jenny definately no snow here anymore, winter is really over. When do yo expect it to warm up abit? My dd thinks USA is great because she loves Ellen and watches her show on youtube everyday after school! Not sure that the show is a reflection on the whole of the US though!

NoHun I have bought turnip here and whenever I see parsnip I buy it but it's not always available. I've seen it mor eoften in north Germany that south. Down in Stuttgart they all laughed at me for wanting to eat turnips as they feed it to their cattle.

You sound very calm and relaxed about the move, wish I was like that. I should be used to moving now but everytime I get stressed and exhausted. Hope you get your flight dates soon.

Linzer I bet there was Abendtau on the grass and that's why you slipped!!

Quick question - who knows how easy it is to get from Stansted to Heathrow? Dh has to be near heathrow in April but Stansted keeps coming up as destination airport. I guess it'll be expensive to travel from (and back again) as it it quite far from London isn't it?

Morning all,

admylin Yes, Stansted and Heathrow are more or less on opposite sides of London and Stansted is quite a way out but I think there are connecting buses. ... Have just checked and there are hourly buses between the two airports; more info here. I'm sure you're right about the Abendtau btw; the grass was definitely far more slippery than it had been an hour or two earlier.

Ploom Will have to check what's on ARD at midday! We don't get it here, though - I think we're about the only family I know who don't have cable/satellite so we only have two channels (and rarely watch either).

Jenny Can't believe you still have snow - it's lovely and sunny here now, and feels like spring is finally arriving.

NoHun It sounds like they're a bit easier to get hold of in Germany, but I've never seen parsnips, swede, turnips, etc. in the shops here. I really wanted some parsnips for a recipe I made last Christmas and eventually found some at the small open-air market in town, but paid a small fortune for them. I was quite surprised to discover you can get jars of parsnip baby food, but was talking to an Austrian friend about them and she'd never heard of Pastinaken.

I just seem to be stumbling from one embarrassing incident to another at the moment. Yesterday, I tried to pick up DD2's from a friend's flat - only it turned out they'd moved last November! I had a slightly confused conversation over the intercom (I really do hate those things), but decided I must have pressed the wrong doorbell and sneaked in behind a man with a key to the gate. Rang the doorbell at the Stiege (no intercom), ran all the way up to the top floor, rang the bell... only to notice there was a different name on the door. A boy in his late teens/possibly early twenties answered, along with his mother, and told me the family had moved out months before! I felt so embarrassed; I really should have had the presence of mind to check who I was talking to over the intercom. Then again, you'd have thought they could have got round to changing the surname on the doorbell if the new family had moved in four months ago. Grr. I'm only starting to feel slightly less embarrassed now.

Linzer How did you find dd? I would have been panicking! Or did you have a mobile number? I scrape my car quite regularly, only ever on the stone wall at the end of our drive DH despairs... I can also quite easily trip in full public view without a glassof wine to blame, so sympathy on all fronts!

No Hun I have bought turnips and parsnips in Aldi through the winter, but they usually have them in a "soup veg" bundle with some carrots rather than on their own, and as Ploom says, seasonally only, not year round (like most fruit and veg, though you can always buy bananas, and fairly cheaply, so they buck the trend against high airmile fruit and veg).

I am currently missing toddlers again as ds2 was grizzly and now is asleep (on my lap), but I think I've lost our place anyway as I've failed to go since the newest joiners to our Monday group were asked to swap to Wed as Mon was oversubscribed, there has been some reason not to go every week sine - one child or another ill, my parents here etc. and I never got around to phoning the leader to say we did want a place. I wish toddlers was just a casual drop in thing like in the UK - does/ did everyone else have to sign a contract promising to spend 4 hours twice a year cleaning the room and another 4 hours twice a year helping at the table top sales? This is once a week, with mum Mama-Kind group. Losing the place is a pity though as when we went to the Monday group Henry loved the other kids and the novelty of different toys and people, and where we live there isn't much choice of groups. I can't get to an English speaking group at all, this local one was the only reall option:(

Thanks Linzer will save that to show dh as he's flying into Stansted! I couldn't face another morning of searching so just booked it and can now concentrate on getting him a shopping list ready!! Is your dh good at shopping? Mine isn't so I think I need a really detailed list with easy to follow instructions. Arghh, I wish I was going too.

All ds wants his dad to bring him is some branston pickle!

Lol at going to the wrong place! How did you find dd in the end? Were you late?