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!

Happy Easter, everyone!

nohun it sounds like you've coped remarkably well with the move. There's no way I would be ready if a removal company turned up a day earlier than I was expecting . Don't worry about coming on here to moan about the culture shock - we've all been through it and understand the mixed emotions involved. Plus I would guess that the prospect of having to share a washing machine with 21 other families would horrify anyone!

ploom hope your DD is having a fantastic time. I know at least 5 South Africans who have survived to adulthood - it can't be as dangerous as we might irrationally think from a distance!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the long weekend. [busmile]

Morning! Happy Easter!

nohun - our removals people also turned up a day early. Remember much panic! Cant believe in 2012 you have to share a washing machine! I'd be in a hurry to move to a new flat if it was me.
But I agree with silken - feel free to moan away on here - thats what we're here for.

admylin - hope the party went well.

Thanks for the hand holding - I have needed it. She's having a fantastic time (as I knew she would!). She's been good at texting & even phoned twice but then yesterday - nothing!! We'd agreed she'd text every evening so went to bed in a proper stress last night. They'd gone to Swaziland so rationally I hoped the mob phone reception was poor but irrationally - well my mind was in overdrive.
So left it till 10am today then phoned the lodge they were staying at & they had just checked out. Was crying with relief that she was ok. Think this makes me sound like some nutter - i've been calm most of the time just the sudden lack of texts made me panic.
Will be glad to have her back next Sunday!

Oh and dh took my stitches out this morning - and the freckle wasnt cancerous! Glad thats all over.

[busmile] Hoppy Easter! [busmile]

Thanks, silken. Well, I do love to be ready and organised, better to do it soon then relax, than relax then panic with last-minute rushing, is one of my mottos!
Ploom, what is with the early removal van! A whole day! Crazy! Glad you coped!
Glad your DD is having a great time, and that she is checking in with you, what a good girl!
Very good result that your freckle was fine!

Culture shock, feel fine really, it's not that different to the UK, though I guess I am a bit self-contained in many ways. Have noticed they don't pick up after their dogs here, there is dog muck everywhere, gross.
We are watching German TV, hoping some of the language sinks in!

Have seen a lovely apartment online, close to DH's work, reasonable price, so really hoping it hasn't gone by the time we can see it. And it has a washing machine, hurrah! Fingers crossed (or thumbs pressed!) [busmile] it's available. I think we'll just take it straight away if it is, maybe even if DH sees it without me!

Happy Easter!

No Hun boo at sharing a washing machine with so many, sounds rubbish, I can't keep up with launry as it is with 3 DC, would have no hope in your situation! Hope the new flat you've heard about is available and works out.

Ploom Glad your dd is having fun and staying in touch, I'm sure we'd all be on the same emotional roller coster as you if we had a young dc away on a trip like that though!

After spending Easter day at the in-laws I took my older 2 (age 4 and 6) to see a Bavarian dialect romantic comedy play last night! It wasn't quite what I intended as the style and location of the poster up at KiGa led me to expect a children's play - but although they were the youngest there they absolutely loved it! I on the other hand only understood about 25% of the dialogue due to the dialect (though the story was easy enough to follow I didn't get most of the jokes). The kids got invited to sit at the front for the second half so they could see better, and left me sitting on my own like a lemon lol. They also got invited back stage! DS1 (4) was laughing rather loud and replied to the main character at the end of a monologue (blush) but luckily this seemed to make him popular rather than otherwise and there was much laughter and slapping of thighs from the audience, and the invitations in the interval followed! A rather odd experience, though in a good way...

Got through a "night" without a night feed for the first time last night too - just decided I can't be feeding DC3 at night any more - he'll be 1 in 2 weeks - he woke up as much as usual but I took him into bed (though DH doesn't like it, but I've had enough all round tbh and didn't want the mattress on the floor which leaves me with back ache, or to get up 337 times to sit with him on the chair by his cot) and covered myself tightly in the duvet between DC3 and me to prevent him getting ideas about milk, and cuddled him when he woke, and there was less crying than there has been in the past when I've tried denying him milk. Still we only lasted 11.30pm-5.30am, which is just barely "the night" for a baby, but it's a start and I'm going to stick with it otherwise I'll crack - DC3 barely sleeps at night and is very full on all day too, clingy to me if he isn't escaping and doing something dangerous (I have never known a baby climb like him, he can scale the ladder to the playground slide easily when I let him and constantly climbs furniture indoors) or pulling things out of cupboards or destroying whatever the elder 2 are doing. I need to be getting longer stretches of sleep soon to keep things in perspective!

Mine's a little climber too, Thatis. DH built him a climbing wall to try and channel him away from the shelves, but still, he climbs anywhere and everywhere. We encourage it, maybe he'll be a rock climbing champ or a pro parkour hero! :) He's also a milk guzzler, though I don't have other DC to look after, so it's easy. Although I'd LIKE other DC, and I think maybe BFing DS is preventing us getting PG yet. But he's teething, and I am pleased he is so comforted by BFing.

Love the story of your four year old taking part in the play!

Hi all, haven't had time to post for a while as I was ill for a few days after we got back from Vienna. I don't have much time to catch up now either, as we're having a mini MN Austrian meet-up this morning - platanos and coco are coming over - and I need to get DD1 and DS up and dressed and pick up DD2 from her friend's beforehand.

Glad you've arrived in Germany OK NoHun and that your DD is having a good time Ploom. Will be back later to catch up properly with everyone!

Morning all.

Have a nice mini meet-up Linzer!

NoHun welcome to Germany! Hope everything goes smoothly and you get the flat near dh's work place. You have my sympathy with the washing machine and no oven (also lived for ages in a flat like that) but when you get your own back you really apreciate it!

ploom bet you're counting down to Sunday now and thank goodness you had the itinerary so you knew where to call when she forgot.

thatis what a nice thing to happen to your dc at the theatre! They sound really confident and I bet they won't forget that day.

Our Easter was boring as I knew it would be, nothing planned and dh working. Off to Ikea as soon as dd emerges. I seem to have broken or chipped so many bowls and glasses in the past few months. When we had 6 guests over recently I was runnig out of glasses!

Can people from German speaking Switzerland join in this too?

The more the merrier bugster!! Welcome!

Enjoy your meet up linzer and tell them to get their bums back to this thread!! Its been too long! Did you have a good time with your dh? Rubbish that you were poorly after tho.

Our Easter Sunday and Monday were also a bit boring Admylin - did you have rubbish weather too? Enjoy Ikea - we went last week and ended up spending over 300 euros!! But all on stuff we really needed.

thatis - how did last night go? I'm sure it'll take a few nights but hopefully he'll soon get the hang of it and realise there's nothing worth waking up for. Love the story of your other ds nearly being part of the play.
My ds2 was/is a climber too! he could climb out his cot before he was 18 months while in a sleeping bag! It still astonishes me how climby he is - was at the top of a 5m climbing wall at the weekend in probably less than 1 minute! But that doesnt make your life (or nohun's any easier at the moment.

We went to Munich from Thurs to Sunday to see BIL, SIL and their very PFB who is now 7 months. The baby isnt allowed to sit (even tho she can) until she can get into sitting from lying on her own! Otherwise the baby's spine will get damaged . Well all mine must have back problems as they all sat before 6 months. Absolutely no BLW and smooth purees at all time as the baby will choke! Wanted to scream - she'll choke because you're feeding her lying down not cause of the food! The baby must be fed away from other people other wise she gets distracted so every bottle/spoon of puree was given in the baby's bedroom!!! Can you tell I had to bite my tongue for 2 days. The weather was shocking and the flat was definitely not set up for boys with cabin fever (much tutting from BIL and telling the boys to sit down constantly!!) so we went outside even tho it was raining. Ended up at BMW world on saturday - that was great fun and free too. And there was a Wii week on so my boys loved it. But wont be in a hurry to go back to my BIL's until my dc are at least 18!

Afternoon all,

Hi bugster, of course you're welcome to join. Whereabouts in Switzerland are you?

Your SIL and BIL sound very like mine, Ploom - I'm sure the term PFB must have been invented with them in mind. Sounded like a good idea to escape to BMW world!

admylin That sounds familiar - I managed to break a plate just this morning. Will have to look on eBay to see if I can get any more.

NoHun BFing seems to be a very effective contraceptive if you actually want more children (I relied on it for about 1.5 years with both DDs).

Thatis Glad that the sleeping is starting to improve. Your youngest sounds like mine - either clingy or into absolutely everything (the more unsuitable, the better).

Jenny It'll be our 20th anniversary next year, so not that either!

We had a lovely time in Vienna - cafes, Indian restaurants, films in English (with the added bonus of no subtitles to distract me), shopping, more cafes, 80s nights (one dire, one quite good), gait analysis (I realise this isn't very exciting to anyone who doesn't run, but it was to me) and yet more cafes. Unfortunately I started to come down with something on our last day and wasn't feeling great over Easter either - at first I put it down to too many late nights and too much wine, but when I developed a temperature and shivering too, I realised it was a bit more than a hangover. Am feeling much better now, anyway.

My ILs aren't in DH's good books at the moment. They were all supposed to be coming to DD2's first communion in two weeks' time, but MIL told us last weekend that she isn't well enough to come. (Fair enough; she does have a lot of problems with her health.) And then this weekend, she informed DH that none of them would be coming. SIL has suddenly realised she has Matura (Abitur) exams the following week (she's a teacher), as does her DD, and her DS has a test to revise for. FIL, in the meantime, has bumped his head on the garage door. To say that DH was annoyed was an understatement - they have form for this kind of thing (SIL + BIL did the same before our wedding).

On a more positive note, we had a lovely time with platanos and coco this morning. The DC (who hadn't met before) were all very quiet to start with but ended up getting on really well, and the girls loved keeping coco's DS amused. Unfortunately I forgot to remind them that they need to keep up the Austrian side on the thread - although it looks like coco may be returning to England in the summer anyway.

Thanks for the sympathy, admylin. :)

Welcome, bugster.

Ploom, hope you enjoyed seeing your niece anyway. Hope BIL ends up with a busy daughter and is run ragged! You can't expect children to sit still and quietly all weekend, unless that is their nature. Maybe they were just tired! :)

Linzer, it's not meant to be reliable though, is it! And I am hoping it isn't. It is so hard getting DS to cut back, and I am desperate to get pg again soon, but reluctant to stop his feeds. Periods are back and regular, so really, I should be pg by now. I think we may make more of an effort to wean him off if I am not pg this cycle. Don't know though, it's hard.

Glad you had a lovely time in Vienna, well, apart from the poorly bit.
Sorry the ILs aren't coming to your DD's first communion, hope you can still have a nice time.

Well, our stuff arrived this morning, so it's been nice to have a few more clothes than what little we packed for the flight. And the Easter Eggs I had bought. Will try not to unpack too much as hopefully we will move again soon. Though DH thinks the apartment we saw online is too good to be true, so not getting our hopes up.

Happy belated Easter!

Nohun Welcome to Hessen! Sorry you've arrived to such awful weather. Hopefully it will get better soon. Fingers crossed you get the flat near your DH's work.

Ploom Hearing about your BIL & SIL makes me feel so much less PFB! DS is the same age and is happiest when I plonk him down in a sitting position so he can play with his toys. I'm far too lazy for purees too so it's BLW all the way here. Like Nohun said, maybe they'll end up with a really active daughter & then they will calm down a bit.
When is your DD back? I bet she's having an amazing time & that you can't wait to see her.

Linzer It sounds like you had a lovely time in Vienna! I hope you're feeling better now. Sorry to hear you are having IL trouble too.

Hi bugster!

admylin Did you get anything nice in Ikea?

DH is doing bedtime & there is some awful sounding screaming coming forom the bedroom so I had best go and investigate!

Guten abend!
Gator hope the screaming stopped quickly! No didn't get anything exciting - new glasses, new bowls for musli/cereal and a shower curtain! Went for breakfast with dd first in the restaurant and had a day dream going round the different bedrooms and living room set ups!

ploom wouldn't you think new parents would love to get some tips from a 3 times over mum with years of experience!? Strange - wonder which book they've got all their ideas from.

Linzer Vienna sounds lovely. What was the hotel like? It's on my wish list of cities to visit when the dc are old enough to stay by themselves!

NoHun glad your stuff arrived safely and good luck with the flat hunting. Is anyone helping you for applying in German? I've heard if you see adverts for flats online it's better to call as often e-mails are ignored.

Hi bugster! I nearly added Switzerland to the title this time, we will have to remember next time we change threads!

Just fancy a glass of but forgot to buy any. I've only got Whisky or Martini in the house but one glass of that and I might as well go straight to bed.

Oh no, admylin - the thought of has kept me going through this afternoon; I'm not sure how I'd cope if there wasn't any in the house! The hotel was lovely but ???; DH wouldn't tell me how much, but breakfast alone would have cost us over ?60 - so needless to say, we went to a coffee house instead. I was very impressed with the service; they would come in when we were out in the afternoon, take off the bedspread and turn the sheets down, put our slippers next to the bed and place a chocolate on the pillow! Oh, and open up the TV cabinet (DH was particularly impressed that they placed the remote control on his side of the bed ).

Gator Have just seen your FB post about your trip back to the UK - when will you be travelling? (Apologies if you posted about it above and I've missed it.)

NoHun No, it's not - which is why we didn't even rely on it for a few months after DS was born! If you're having regular periods again, maybe it's not the breastfeeding - mine never returned properly in between the DC. IIRC (and apols for TMI) I had one short and lightish period after about 15-16 months of bfing both DD1 and DD2 and then got pregnant again within a couple of months.

Good idea not to get your hopes up about the apartment, but I really hope it works out for you or that you find something else suitable soon - sharing a washing machine with that many people really doesn't sound ideal.

Thanks, Gator! It's been nice for the last week, and I quite like a bit of rain to wash the streets and clear the air, so I don't mind the weather at all.

admylin, yes, DH's work are very good and will help where needed. We just find some we like, and tell them, and they take it from there. Though we did contact this swish place directly, so keen were we! They responded saying they were out of the country and would hand the details over to an agent, so we are waiting to hear what this is all about.
Oh no! You've got me concerned now! I hope it happens for us soon, I am not getting any younger!

I've just started a thread here re learning German. Any input welcome, danke!

Have replied on your thread, NoHun. Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you about the TTC thing; I probably made it sound too easy, but if you look at it another way, it took me well over a year to get pregnant with both DC2+3 (17 months without contraception after DD1 was born and 13 months w/o it after DD2). I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it takes an average of six months when you're 30, so it's probably more like a year or more by the time you get to your mid to late 30s.

Good morning

NoHun I´m glad you got here safely and hope it doesn´t take too long to find a new flat.

Linzer It sounds like you had a great time in Vienna and the hotel sounds wonderful.

ploom I´ve a friend here who was very like your SIL and BIL with her first baby. No-one was allowed to talk while she was feeding her dd because she was easily distracted. If her dd wasn´t particularly hungry we sat there in silence for ages because she insisted she finish the bottle even if the baby didn´t really want it. With hindsight I think we were mad to go along with it, but didn´t want to cause trouble at the time.

We had a lovely break in Austria and managed to fit in quite a lot of skiing even though the snow conditions weren´t brilliant. The food in the hotel was really great, so I felt obliged to do a bit of sport to work off the extra calories.

Hupa glad the Austria break was good and that you managed to get some skiing done too!

NoHun that's great if the company are helping. Good luck! It's sort of sad when you give up breast feeding isn't it as you know you can't really go back to it ever ..well until the next baby comes!

Linzer sounds like you were in a lovely hotel. How did the dc enjoy their holiday with friends?

Does anyone have an idea where I should send dh to from Stansted when he lands? I've been asked to book his transport if possible and he has to get to Hounslow which is near Heathrow but the coach company asks me which terminal or part of Heathrow I want him to go to or should I send him to Victoria station? I have no idea about London and where is easiest to get to and from!

Thanks all for the welcome. I live near Basel, just a little way outside in the Zürich dirction, a stone's throw from the Rhine and Germany. Anyone live in Baden-Württemberg? I go to Germany once a week to teach English at a company, also go there sometimes for shopping and just to look around! But don't really know much more of Germany thann the Schwarzwald/ Freiburg. Always keep thinking I'd love to visit Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, also Austria.

What do you like about where you live? Is there anything you've found hRd to adjust to?

Hi bugster I'm not sure if we've got any Baden-Württemberger on here. I used to live in Tübingen when dh was doing his PhD. Hard to adjust to - yes the dialect and the general unfriendliness but have become very thick-skinned over the years so don't even notice it now! It's a great area for visiting Switzerland, France, The Black Forest etc, even Munich is a day trip worth - all not too far!

Lived in Berlin for a while which was interesting and now Hannover which is Ok, abit quiet but dc are at a good school, safe area etc. Dh applying for jobs in Canada, the US and Scotland at the moment but otherwise hope to stay put for dc sake really. Are you in Switzerland for good?

bugster We lived in Mannheim for a few years pre-DC; it had its positive aspects but I agree with admylin about needing to develop a thick skin (which I didn't really manage), although people were generally quite friendly once you got to know them.

We're now close to Vienna and I love it here - lovely area, nice sized town, great quality of life and a much better standard of living than we could afford in the UK, excellent medical care, the people are generally very friendly, a safe area to bring up children, lots to do for families, etc etc. Do you have children?

admylin Sorry, not too sure about getting to Hounslow (although I do remember it's close to Heathrow on the tube). Could your DH get the coach from Stansted to Heathrow and then catch the tube to Hounslow from there? I don't suppose it matters too much which terminal he goes to; 1, 2 and 3 all share a tube station and there are separate ones for terminals 4 and 5.

The DC had a good time with their friends, although DS missed us apparently (well, missed DH!) and cried a few times.

hupa Glad you had a nice time in Austria; good food is always a bonus. Even if you do end up eating too much of it... and Austrian food can be quite heavy.

Thanks Linzer - that's what confused me as I wasn't sure if the terminals were far apart/on different sites so I guess I could send him to terminal 1 and as Heathrow is 10 minutes from where he wants to be he can always get a taxi if he can't manage the tube.

That's true that the health care is great here too - although rather expensive, you do get a good service. NoHun you'll definately enjoy that side of Germany if you need doctors for anything you just go straight to a specialist!

Dh has just had a problem with a student from China. Dh's direct boss agreed for him to come here but forgot to register him as a student so he has no access to student health insurance - poor lad pulled his own tooth out over the bank holiday weekend as he had tooth ache. Dh spent all yesterday trying to get someone to look at it incase he's got an infection/left abit in. Today he will hopefully be registered and get some insurance.

Hello all! Glad you've made it to Germany NoHun and hope you find a new flat without a shared washing machine soon! I gave up bfing yesterday and feel quite sad that my last is quite happy to do without now! (14 months already)

That sounds like a fantastic weekend Linzer! Did you ever get to the bottom of why dh is being romantic, or is he just a top-notch dh?

Hello Bugster. I actually live in America at the moment, but am a German teacher and used to live in Munich and Dresden when I was at/between unis, so the ladies have v kindly allowed me to be an honorary member. They are v welcoming!

Ploom, your BIL and SIL sound nuts! S is my third though, so didn't have time to puree stuff and he just got on with it. I do buy ready-made purees of fruit I wouldn't normally have in the house like mango and peach for his dessert, just to give him a variety, but otherwise he eats what we eat, including the inadvertently hot veg curry the other day, which made him cry!

Glad you all had good/relaxing Easter breaks. There was no holiday here, but we did get a babysitter and had a morning out together for the first time in over a year!