Die Kaffeestube Teil 2 - virtual Kaffeeklatsch in Germany and Austria

[cheaspicks]

Chat for those living in a German-speaking country, or anyone else who is interested.

Or is it hummus? I never know how to spell it!

Well done on the cake, Ploom! I always freeze my MIL's cakes for when we have visitors, although they're generally without fruit; I did freeze an apple cake I made once and it was a bit dry when I defrosted it, although the actual apple was OK.

The 80s weren't kind to me either. I was trying desperately to have straight hair while everyone else was having perms. I finally embraced having curly hair and grew it long when I left school and it looked much better, but I'd never been allowed to have it long before.

admylin When I did the Shred, I bought some weights like these from Amazon; it's a shame I can't pass them on to you as I doubt I'll use them again. You could buy a whole set at Argos for about the same price, but it was hardly practical to carry them back!

Cake Those sticky passport photos are great for friendship books (maybe you'll get asked to fill in a few?! DS asked his kindergarten teachers), but useless once they get past that stage. The DDs sometimes swap them with friends so that they can fill in their photo folder (there are spaces for about 30 passport photos), but we have more and more of them left over every year.

cheas I think we've had to turn down almost very wedding invite we've received in the last decade as we were either abroad and/or the children were too small for it to be practical to go. Annoyingly, now that we'd actually be able to go, everyone already seems to be married.

DH is much better today but decided he'd better stay at home again (actually, he was told to by one of the secretaries who used to be a nurse). He's gone to the doctor's to get a medical certificate as he's been off for three days now and has just texted to say it's very busy so he'll be a while, which means I can MN in peace.

Cake I've mentioned this on the thread before, but I was completely put off quark by the fact that I had to spread it all over myself when I had mastitis/blocked ducts while bfing. It's quite effective but I can't stand the smell now!

admylin I love hummus too (think there are a few different ways of spelling it!) but never get round to making it, although I bought some chickpeas ages ago intending to. You could get about 20 different varieties in the USA but I've never seen it here either.

That sounds like a good tip Linzer, I'll bear that in mind once DC arrives!

I'm so pleased I might have finally found a use for Quark! :)

I didnt know that was a use for quark linzer but I can totally understand why you were put off it. Glad your dh is on the mend - having men hanging round in the day really upsets good MNetting time!

cake - I agree totally about your assessment of Germans. I have absolutely no idea what Quark really is and have lived my whole life quite happily without it but all Germans love it. And dh chunners on in the car about dutch drivers everytime we go on holiday. He also says they all have caravans . Nothing like a bit of bad stereotyping in the car to keep him entertained.

Which quark should I have used for my Blechkuchen?? I bought the 40% fat one since I didnt like the sound of Magerquark but what was the right one??

The cake looks yum, ploom. you can definitely freeze it, MIL only ever makes that kind of cake and freezes leftovers every time.

I have used Sahnesteif before (it's not scary, really), but although it helps stiffen the cream, the result is still not as heavy as whipped double cream. Iirc double cream is 60% fat (or was it 45%)? Schlagsahne is max. 35% and Schmand is about 10%.

I wish I had little sticky pics of myself - I end up filling in far too many kiga friendship books .

If Wikipedia is right, quark appears to be a basic cheese made from soured milk, ie. just warmed until the curds separate and then strained. I still don't know which you should use for baking, though, ploom.

Ploom my German friend told me that in Germany, if you fail your driving test 3 times you get issued with yellow plates (ie Dutch ones)

Cake I'd never realised the Dutch drivers have a bad reputation (although you see them everywhere, I hadn't particularly noticed their bad driving).

Ploom I'm not an expert baker, to put it mildly, but I don't think you can go wrong with 40% quark - lower-fat versions of some foods don't always seem to work as well when you're baking/cooking.

Am just about to write out a comprehensible version of DD1's timetable to stick on the fridge. Why oh why oh why does every school-related term have to be abbreviated? I can't work out much more than what D, M and E are so need to find her list of subjects to decipher the rest. I'm particularly intrigued by what Rrk could be - aha, have just realised it could be Religion römisch-katholisch - and BSPM/K (think the first half must be Bewegung und Sport, which they had at primary school).

The stationery list is next to useless; it's full of short words that could be very easily fitted into the boxes in the timetable! Which of GS and GW is Geschichte and which is Geographie? (Am sure DH will know.) And surely it would be just as quick to write Turnen as it would be to write BSPM/K (my latest theory is Bewegung und Sport Mädchen und Knaben, although I've never heard the word Knaben used before).

I asked DH for you Linzer but he has no idea! Says its all different today...

Well, apparently GS is Geschichte and GW is Geographie. They just seem to add on random Ws (for Wissen), E (for Erziehung) and U (for Unterricht). However, even DH has no idea what ET/WE is (WE is definitely Werken and DD1 thinks that ET might be Informatik, although goodness knows why). PC, which sounds like it should be Informatik, is apparently physics. I asked DH what the C stands for - Chemie. But they don't start chemistry until the 2nd or 3rd year.

linzer that sounds beyond complicated!! Is ET maybe Ethik?? Those sport letters are beyond ridiculous - surely SP would have been enough. Does your dd know??

I've just been to get the last of ds2's school stuff - think I said before he needs a yellow Tafelstift - I went to our local town the other week (where the school is & they said they would order a box in. Have asked in lots of other shops in the meanwhile and nowhere has them. Went to the local shop today & she said "sorry we're not ordering them in - you'll just need to buy a set that has yellow in." -grrrrrr - the set is €4.99 and I already have the other colours he needs. Why dont they organise that the local shops have whats required before school starts - are the teachers on comission with the companies who make the sets?? Just grrrrr!

I'll throw my hat in the ring... is ET - Elektronisch Technik? But then it would make more sense if it were a lesson about wiring a plug

Ploom I don't mind quark... but I haven't tried all the variations... Although I am tempted... there is one that appears to be cottage cheese. I would have to do it over a week or so though so I don't forget what is what :o so not sure it's a realistic idea
As for the pens it sounds like a real headache!!

Ploom I feel your pain wrt the stationery shopping; it can be such a frustrating and expensive business, can't it?. I've just dragged DH along to the stationery shop as I was sure I'd end up buying the wrong thing otherwise (the DC stayed at the neighbours'). On the plus side, it wasn't actually too busy. On the minus side, they'd either sold out of quite a few things or didn't have them in the first place (no Tusche or Federkiel, as I'd suspected). Despite the fact that, other than a box of crayons, we didn't buy anything that cost more than about ?2.50, we still ended up spending well over ?70. I was particularly annoyed because I know we have a 10% voucher for the shop somewhere but I just can't lay my hands on it.

Nutella Yes, I did wonder whether it might be something ending in Technik as DD1 seems to think it's IT (and they're definitely doing IT, which doesn't appear in their timetable otherwise). I've seen cottage cheese here - called Hüttenkäse - but haven't had any for years; it reminds me of being on diets!

Ploom They have a subject called Soziales Lernen, which I assume is similar to Ethik so I don't think it's that. But DH has confirmed that I was right about BSPM/K.

Cottage cheese can also be Königsfrischkäse iirc...

Hmmm the search for a hebamme has just turned ugly... I have two appointments next week and wanted a third to balance it out. The third I have just spoken to and she basically told me off for "Hebamme-hopping"... because I want to meet more than 1 I gather this is somehow frowned upon because the Krankenkasse only pays the first one that applies for the payment. I said that if she sent me a bill I'd be happy to pay, I work freelance and have no problem paying someone for the work they do ( secretly hoping they aren't mega expensive) but no, no chance. If I cancel the other two appointments and meet her then thats ok.

Honestly I'm searching for someone who can explain a lot of technical medical stuff to me in English (if necessary) and who isn't rude I can get along with. Am I really in the wrong to not put all my eggs in one basket? I feel like customer service in Germany is entirely lacking and that this is just another example of that!

hmph, rant over!

Hi Nutella

You're not alone, here's an excerpt from an article I wrote about my pregnancy/birth experience in Berlin:

"Midwifery is very popular in Germany (all natural births ? without complications ? are delivered by midwives, even in hospitals) & a certain number of before/after birth ?home visits? are even covered by healthcare. Unless you?re completely clueless about babies, I personally don?t really think a home visiting midwife is necessary, more so if you?re planning on having C-section (as I did). However, at my (German) husband?s insistence I did actually try to get a midwife. Out of the 20+ that I contacted (through German & English e-mails & messages) only 2 got back to me ? informing me that they were not accepting new clients ? nice. Getting a midwife is also a rather complicated process as German law only allows you to have a midwife who is registered to work in your area & not all midwives registered to work in your area will be registered to work in the hospital where you wish to give birth, etc, etc, etc?"

full article: awesomesauceasshattery.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/knocked-up-in-germany/

I also find customer service to be a completely foreign concept in Germany, a friendly smile & pleasant manner are met with sour faces & downright rude comments in our area, it makes me feel like my geeky high school self all over again...and bedside manner? It just doesn't exist....sigh...ok, my rant is over now...

On a more Germany-positive note: The 50 most liveable cities in the world survey was released & a blogger from Singapore recently interviewed lil' old me about what makes Berlin (#21) liveable:

awesomesauceasshattery.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/berlin-the-21st-most-liveable-city/

She's still looking for people to write about Hamburg (#15), Frankfurt (#20), Munich (#29) and Dusseldorf (#32). If you're interested in answering a few questions about what makes the place you (currently) call home liveable then drop Agy a quick e-mail: [email protected]

whew! that was a long one! I hope I didn't overstep my welcome!

'course not awesome!

Wow I didn't realise how lucky I was! We have a hebamme in the village, very lovely and experienced. We chatted to her but she doesn't do home births. She recommended two different people to us and we picked the one who sounded a bit less "woo" iyswim..... Easy peasy!

awesome I have friends in Düsseldorf if she still needs someone - I'll ask around if anyone has time to answer a few questions.

What an evening we've had in the restaurant! Our (very unreliable and probably now fired) part time assistant chef didn't turn up for work, meaning DH had to do all the prep for a big wedding party tomorrow night himself this afternoon. That then meant we weren't really ready for dinner service - and about 5 tables of people all turned up at the same time. Poor old DH was nearly collapsing.

We then had some (previously known to us) horrid customers in, who complained about everything, very loudly and rudely, called DH names in the middle of the restaurant and demanded their food for free. We said we'd give them half for free, they said no, and as we were inside discussing it they did a runner! DH had to be peeled off the ceiling at this point..... He's going to need a large cold Weizen when he finishes tonight...

Hey Cakebump

Sorry to hear about your staff & customer troubles...sounds like an extremely crappy start to the weekend! Can you refuse entry to patrons who are known to be Arschlochs?

It would be fab' if you could pass along the liveable cities info to you Düsseldorf connection...

...and if anyone else is interested in writing about one of the "Liveable Cities" in Germany: Hamburg (#15), Frankfurt (#20), Munich (#29) or Dusseldorf (#32)

here's the list of questions to answer:

a) What do you think makes your city liveable?
b) Is it mandatory to recycle and be energy efficient at home? Do you have to separate your waste?
c) Is the environment taught at school?
d) Are plastic bags banned?
e) Cycling lanes in your city? Pedestrian-only zones?
f) Is smoking banned in public places?
g) How does the city promote art?

E-mail your answers & a few pics of your city to Agy of the Green Issues blog: [email protected]

www.greenissuessingapore.blogspot.de/2012/09/liveable-city-been-to-berlin.html

Cake Oh no, what an evening! Hope your DH got his large Weizen or two.

Nutella YADNBU - I felt like customer service was virtually non-existent when we lived in Germany. Sounds like you can strike that one midwife off your list, anyway.

Hi awesome.

DD1's parents' evening was actually quite informative so worth paying for the babysitter so that we could both go. I ended up taking the minutes (thankfully, it only involved signing a few bits of paper) as DH, in what I can only assume must have been a moment of madness, volunteered first to take the minutes and then to be Elternvertreter, and couldn't do both as there was a conflict of interests.

I was also quite impressed with the teacher, who said she'd been keeping an eye on DD1 as she's very quiet and the kind of child who's likely to be "attacked", although she seems quite happy in the class so far. I wish my teachers had done the same when I was at school.

awesome that couple are now "Lokalverbot" definitely!

And DH got his three Weizen... Never try to separate a German man and his beer, especially on a stressful Friday night! :)

Linzer it sounds like your DD's teacher is on the ball.

I've got a lovely day planned nipping over to Holland to meet a friend. I actually met her on MN when I was ttc. She's flogging me a load of her old baby bits. People are lovely (mostly!).

Have a sunny Saturday everyone...

Oh cake that sounded like way too much stress for a friday night. But your Saturday sounds like fun - MNetters are a lovely bunch I think.

awesome - dont think my wee village (pop'n 345) can be added to best places to live in (even tho I think its a fab place to live). There is no public transport, no shops, no cycling lanes but we do seperate our waste .

linzer - glad the parents eve went well - the teacher sounds on the ball. Does she have your dd for other subjects or is she just the form teacher? Did the babysitter work out ok?

nutella - finding a midwife sounds like a nightmare. I had all my dc in the UK so i'm no help - sorry.

We're having a lazy Saturday so far. Dh bought a home theatre system for the living room & i can imagine that he'll spend a lot of today fiddling with that. But tomorrow we're finally using our Groupon voucher to go to Schloss Thurn - its a mini theme park about an hour from us. Got a family ticket for nearly half price incl a 20€ voucher towards food. Most of the time I just delete those Groupon emails but sometimes there's a good deal.

Have a good weekend