Ploom So sorry to hear about your friend's sister. 
I remember you mentioning your friend before. It's even more heartbreaking when there are young children involved.
I can definitely recommend holiday camps if your DC can be persuaded; mine all really enjoyed the ones they went to and it did make the nine weeks pass more quickly. Was just talking to a friend about how quickly the holidays went, but I know that wouldn't have been the case if I'd been stuck at home with the DC for the entire time (or even half the time; one or two weeks at home with nothing planned is enough for all of us, I think!).
admylin The DC were surprisingly awake this morning here too; they were up and ready to go by 7.30 am and I had to tell them to take their shoes back off! We'll need to leave the house by 7.30 at the latest from tomorrow, however; DD1 possibly slightly earlier as her new school starts at 7.45 am.
I don't actually mind going to DD1's and DS's parents' evenings as I don't really know too much about either the NMS or the Vorschule, so hopefully it will be vaguely interesting! I did almost die of boredom at the DDs' parents' evenings last year, however, when I had to sit through virtually the same thing twice and the teachers could really just have handed round the sheet they'd printed out and asked if there were any questions instead of explaining each point in mind-numbing detail.
cheas Well done on the phone calls; I always feel a real sense of achievement afterwards!
Cake Glad you're feeling better. I feel the same about Austria being behind the UK - although I think we're probably around a decade behind Germany in lots of ways, so it's more like 30-40 years behind the UK here. 
Nutella Hope the appointment goes well this afternoon. How frustrating about the flat-hunting. I'm sure there must be good landlords out there, but we've had bad experiences both in London (didn't get our deposit back - or maybe we had to carry on paying rent, I can't remember exactly - as the estate agents didn't find another tenant to move in after us 
) and here (lost our ?5000 deposit when landlord went bankrupt).
School seemed to go OK this morning for everyone, but it's early days so hard to say too much; DD1 was only in school for half an hour and we were with DS the whole time. The real test will come when we have to leave him on his own, from tomorrow. Only five of the other children from DD1's class were at church and we were the only parents (from her class) there; she went off with the teacher to school afterwards and made her own way back home.