Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub - a German and Austrian autumn thread

[AntiqueMuppet]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Previous thread here

Nutella, I've not looked for EcoBalls here, I brought mine over, with new stony things which are still going.

admylin, Lush stuff contains SLSes, worth reading up on and deciding if you want to still use it.
Sante and Lavera are two toiletry companies whose products we use, paraben/SLS-free, and labelled vegan (not all of Lavera stuff is vegan, but they do clearly state which products are). Oh, and Alviana. Available in Alnatura, and maybe DM.
Make up, I use Beauty Without Cruelty or Arbonne, though the latter is a pita to buy as you have to buy from a rep, it's not in stores.

Morning!

linzer - I'm happy for you to pass the DVD's onto nutella but is it cheeky to ask for some the next time you've got a bundle? I do watch some things on Filmon but I'm often exhausted by 10pm and thats when most of the good stuff starts. But we're still working thro a box set at the moment so I'm more than happy to miss this bundle of DVD's. Your a star for passing them on - think its funny that the DVDs do a whole tour of Germany after they come to me. Did you get all your work done? I agree with admylin - I'd struggle to be awake at midnight working.

nutella - Had heard that discussion that studies have shown that cloth nappies were no more environmentally friendly than disposables but had wondered who funded the research? We used disposables for all 3 dc despite investigating cloth nappies thoroughly before dc1 came along. By the time dc 2 & 3 came along, I struggled to keep up with the washing as it was never mind adding nappies to it.
After the large flour conversation on FB - I dont have SR flour here. I just use normal plain flour and add British baking powder if I'm making a British recipe and Backpulver if its a German one. I keep badgering dh that we need to have a trip in the car to the UK and think SR flour might be one of the things I bring back.

hupa - glad you had a good holiday.

jenny - dont worry about your ds2 - I'm sure he'll be fine.

admylin - your ds has a size 44 shoe?!?!?! Thats bigger than my dh. But I can see that happening to my ds1 - he's in a 39 already and he's only 8! Good luck with these job applications for your dh - do ysou ever get any feedback from the ones he doesnt get?

To add to the mat leave conversation - my FIL is in Hong Kong covering a woman's mat leave - they got there in the middle of August and she hadnt had her baby yet and she was supposed to be back at work full time in the middle of October so the baby would only have been 5 or 6 weeks old. How does that help mum or baby? But she told the school the other week that she couldnt come back so early as she was having problems establishing feeding (no surprise) so my FIL is working till the middle of November now - I'll be impressed if my IL's come back before Christmas.

Need to tell the funny story from ds2 - he came home from school yesterday and said that him and 3 other dc from his class had been taken to the "clownzimmer". Well some of you probably remember how much trouble I had with him in kiga so my instant thought was "what have you done??". He's a changed child since starting school - there hasnt been a hint of trouble in 6 weeks but it was still my first thought. Turned out its just called the Clownzimmer cause its got a clown on the door - he'd been taken there to see what level his reading was at! So it went from panic as to whether he'd been naughty to being proud cause the teacher has noticed he can read a bit. He was so chuffed that he had been given extra reading homework - think the whole issue at kiga was boredom altho not sure how I could have changed that.

Off to skype with a friend now before the window man comes to measure our window that we're having replaced. Have a fun day .

Well, I did finish my work... only for some more to arrive a couple of hours later. It's actually fairly interesting for once - lesson plans and worksheets for primary school children - and Jenny has been a great help with school-related American English (I had no idea what an exercise book is called in the US, for example). It's very handy to know someone who's familiar with both American English and German.

at the Clownzimmer Ploom - you must have been very relieved, not to mention proud. It's amazing what a difference starting school can make, isn't it? DS loves school and is far happier than when he was at KiGa, and DH said he was exactly the same.

I'm happy to send the DVDs on to whoever wants them - they'll be a bit out of order as I've lent a few to a friend in Graz, but I don't think it matters for most of the programmes. Would it be easiest to send them to you admylin, so that we keep to the same order? (Providing you'd like some more.)

Witches I was amazed to get a shower gel in last month's Glossybox that was both paraben-free and not tested on animals - very progessive for here! But then I looked more closely and saw that it was made in the UK.

Bienchen I just can't get the translation of Bärlauch to stick in my head; I'm sure I must look it up once a month! I think it's because it's fairly common here but I've never come across wild garlic in the UK.

We have a shop very similar to Alnatura, which stocks a good range of skincare products but no make-up and it's all ???. The only place I can think of here to buy make-up is the Body Shop, but I find it expensive enough in the UK and it's even more so here. I did get a couple of things from there for my birthday though, which was a nice treat.

Right, must get back to work... I have the feeling that coffee will be needed before too long.

Morning.
Linzer at the moment our dvd player and the one in my PC are on strike so until they are fixed/replaced I can't watch dvds - well, I could on the laptops but the dc wouldn't be too pleased about my choice of viewing! If nutella wants them she should maybe make the most of her last few weeks of actually having time to watch!
The job we're waiting for in Canada is in Montreal at McGill University. I would quite like being in the French speaking part of Canada and the uni is an English speaking one so OK for dh.

ploom The only feeback dh gets from the Absagen is that so many applied or that he's highly qualified but they got applications from even more highly qualified people etc. I know these good jobs are getting hundreds of applications.
Yep, size 44 in Addidas and Puma shoes and size 43 in his other winter shoes so I'd say he's between the two sizes! I think he's reached his end size though (surely?)! Dd is inbetween a 38 and 39 and has been for a year so I'm expecting that to change sometime soon.

witches I've found the Alverde stuff in DM shop atleast claims to use all natural stuff and not to use animal testing. They say only their shampoo with honey isn't vegan! Dd is only starting to show an interest in make-up since a few months ago so she wants to try their make-up brand and atleast it's affordable for her.
Rossmann has the Alterra brand that is safe if it has a green sunflower seed on the packaging. Anyway, that's where we're going to start at the weekend and get some shampoo and shower gel atleast.

Must go and wake dd as she's going swimming with her friend so she wants to have breakfast and have time to digest before she goes!

Morning!
Wanted to go out walking this morning but its pouring down outside and now I cant get motivated to get out my dressing gown .

admylin - thats frustrating about the jobs. I imagine your dh is ridiculously highly qualified in his field so what kind of further qualifications have the other candidates got? Is it also about published research? I really feel for him and you too as its so unsettling to not know where you're going to be living in the future - I remember this feeling so clearly when dh was looking for jobs in the UK. Have got everything crossed that a great post comes up soon.

linzer - think of all the nice things you can buy with all that hard earned pay . Have you got any nice plans for the Nationalfeiertag today? So glad your ds has settled in well at school - its going to me a much better year for all of us .

I got talking to a woman when I was at handball with the boys yesterday - her dh was from somewhere in Africa and they loved all things british and we had a right nice chat about things we miss. She recommended this website for ordering British food etc and it seems a little bit more reasonable than the other websites I've looked at it in the past. The products always seems expensive but as I said to dh its not as expensive as a weekend in the UK! So I ordered some bits - cant wait for that parcel to come .

Meant to ask you all yesterday - I took dd to the KFO on Wednesday and she was complaining that a bit of her gum was sore. The KFO looked at it and said it was an Afte?!?!?! I presumed he meant a mouth ulcer but I cannot find this word in any dictionary so I'm still none the wiser. Does anyone know which word he meant?

Morning!
Wanted to go out walking this morning but its pouring down outside and now I cant get motivated to get out my dressing gown .

admylin - thats frustrating about the jobs. I imagine your dh is ridiculously highly qualified in his field so what kind of further qualifications have the other candidates got? Is it also about published research? I really feel for him and you too as its so unsettling to not know where you're going to be living in the future - I remember this feeling so clearly when dh was looking for jobs in the UK. Have got everything crossed that a great post comes up soon.

linzer - think of all the nice things you can buy with all that hard earned pay . Have you got any nice plans for the Nationalfeiertag today? So glad your ds has settled in well at school - its going to me a much better year for all of us .

I got talking to a woman when I was at handball with the boys yesterday - her dh was from somewhere in Africa and they loved all things british and we had a right nice chat about things we miss. She recommended this website for ordering British food etc and it seems a little bit more reasonable than the other websites I've looked at it in the past. The products always seems expensive but as I said to dh its not as expensive as a weekend in the UK! So I ordered some bits - cant wait for that parcel to come .

Meant to ask you all yesterday - I took dd to the KFO on Wednesday and she was complaining that a bit of her gum was sore. The KFO looked at it and said it was an Afte?!?!?! I presumed he meant a mouth ulcer but I cannot find this word in any dictionary so I'm still none the wiser. Does anyone know which word he meant?

What happened there? The site was offline the first time I tried to post!

Morning all!

Just a very quick post as we're off to Bratislava this morning - I'll catch up properly later when I'm back on the computer for work (can't get away with spending too much time on MN with DH around!).

Ploom He probably meant Aphthe, which is just a mouth ulcer. Very annoying things, though; DS was complaining of one recently.

DH has just got back from the baker's, so must go... they'd already sold out of a lot of things (no bread left at all) at 9 am!

Have a great shopping trip linzer tell us what you got (shopping deprived)!

Hope the ulcer is better soon ploom. Could the KFO give her anything for it? Which stage of the treatment is your dd at at the moment?

I still haven't quite understood what my 2 are getting. I know they're having a piece fixed across the top of their mouth to push the teeth back and then the fixed ones along the top and bottom teeth. The KFO also managed to sell me some sort of plastic bit that stops the top teeth catching on the bottom brace but I have a feeling it's not really needed as the Krankenkasse doesn't pay for it.

The main thing that is stopping dh getting a job is research money. If he managed to get some funding in his name and even better some funding that he could take with him to a new job then he'd be welcomed with open arms but at the moment he has so much work to do for students and his 2 bosses that he has only submitted 2 funding grant applications and those would be tied to this place anyway. Still, would be good if he could prove he is capable of getting funding.

Good website! what did you indulge in? I'm tempted by the marmite, haven't had any for ages.

Hope you have a fab shopping day linzer - you wont be needing that website (and the shipping to Austria from it is 13.50 ). Thanks for the mouth ulcer word - would never have thought it'd be spelt like that.

admylin - the KFO just put some Salbe on it and I put some bonjella on it at home. She's still wearing her brace at night at the moment and there is no discussion thankfully about changing it to a fixed one. I think her teeth look great already but we'll still keep going! I understand how frustrating it is to keep going and not know the plan but trust the KFO - he'll have a plan! Annoying tho when you end up paying for things that the krankenkasse doesnt.

I bought some bars of dairymilk, some fruit pastilles for dd that I might keep hidden till christmas, some baking powder, gravy granules and a bottle of robinsons squash. Think I paid just over 20 euros which seemed ok since there was a few of some of the things. We dont have any trips to the UK planned this year or any visitors so I needed a fix of chocolate .

I wonder why they don't have squash in Germany? That's always one of the things I buy when I go to an English shop or order online. I have bought from the food from home website in the past).

A few English sweets are also part of Chritmas pressies in this house too!

ploom Thanks for the link to the website. I´ll have a browse when I´ve got a minute.

Linzer Have a great time shopping. You can come and make us all jealous with your M&S buys later.
I thought of you on our flight back from Turkey. The airline obviously hadn´t used a native speaker to translate their in-flight magazine. I tried to read an article about amnesia, but gave up after the first couple of paragraphs as the English was so awful.

admylin we´re about to start on the KFO with ds. His mouth is really too small for his adult teeth to come through. Unfortunately the KFO who everybody reccomends is retiring at the end of the year, so we need to find a new one. No point starting a treatment with someone who won´t be able to continue.

We´re of to Dachau to visit my brother this weekend. His twins are now 5 months old and I haven´t seen them for a few months, so I should see a few changes. Snow is forecast for Saturday, so I´ve had dig out our gloves, hats and scarves. I´m hoping we can have a relaxing weekend inside - I don´t fancy venturing out in the cold.

OMG - its actually snowing! The rain went to sleet an hour ago but its now full on snow. I'm so shocked - last Saturday I was watching ds2 play football without a jacket on so I dont feel ready for snow! I dont even have my winter tyres on the car - oh no!

Hope the snow doesn't interfere with the trip to Dachau Ploom. Our snow started this week too and we haven't changed our tyres yet. I always worry about dh cycling in the snow, especially when everyone has summer tyres on. Hope the ulcer is better soon.

Your dh deserves much better luck admylin. I hope it changes soon and he gets something great where you would all enjoy living.

of M&S. I ordered some stuff knickers to be delivered to my dps' local store which they brought out with them. Much cheaper than being delivered here!

Speaking of vegetarian, I made a lovely tomato and aubergine curry last night with dh's veg from the garden. Will have to roast up a load more tomatoes that are ripening on the dining room table and freeze them!

Hope you all have a lovely Friday evening and weekend!

Oooh Dachau Hupa - we're only half an hour's drive from there! I shall wave at you (maybe a bit away far for that) :o Have fun indoors with the twins :)

We have loads of snow - about 15 cm or so and still falling gently. I think its lovely :) I do get sick of it by February, especially having to scrape the car and shovel and grit the pavement, but the first snow of the year is always exciting and beautiful, and it beats fog and rain hands down :) My 2 bigger kids love snow and have been asking since their birthdays at the end of September when it's going to snow, they love to sledge and build snowmen etc and get so excited. They aren't here though :( They are at Oma and Opa's - they go for a night or two most school holidays - Oma and Opa live too far away to go there much in term time and the children only stay over in the holidays party becasue they love to and for the grandparents to spend some time with them, and partly so I can catch up on jobs - mainly cleaning which I find so hard with a toddler with me 24/7; this is the 3rd time DC3 has stayed over night but he waved and called "Bye-bye Tchuß" totally happily in Oma's arms... I so need the couple of full night's sleep as it's so rare for the littlest to sleep through, and even when he does he is always up by 5.30am, but it's a bit sad missing seeing him playing in the snow for the first time - he was too little last year (I sat him on a sledge on flat ground and on the snow in his snowsuit for a little explore and picture but he was only 6 months old this time last year). I am making good use of the child free time cleaning and sorting, so cake and Nutella I should finally have boxes packed for you by the end of tomorrow I hope (I know cake is on a MN break but sometimes people on breaks lurk :o )

Hope you had fun in Bratislava Linzer and glad your DS is so happy at school - we're keeping Ds1 out til he's nearly 7 (September 30th is the cut off here and his birthday is late Sept) he likes Kindergarten now so I have to hope he still will next year... Of course now the decision is made Kindergarten keep informing me how much he has grown up over the summer holiday, how he is now very mature etc (he isn't at home :o) ... oh well, I still think it'S right for him...

Ooops got to post before my laptop dies as got a low battery warning and this is too long already - waves at everyone else!!

Hope everyone has had a good weekend and not too many disruptions caused by snow. We had a sprinkling this morning; it's all melted now, but more is forecast for tomorrow. You have a much higher snow tolerance threshold than me, English; it doesn't take me more than a day to two before I get thoroughly fed up with it! It's fine when you're at home and the children enjoy playing out in it, but is a real pain when you have to go anywhere not within walking distance (or even when you do walk, as the cleared pavements are often very slippery). We don't have our winter tyres on yet either, Ploom; DH made an appointment for 2nd November a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully we won't have too much snow before then. He initially told me I wouldn't be allowed to drive if it does snow, but then changed his mind and decided that it's OK before the start of November.

English I'm sure you've made the right decision; I think it's far better to keep a child back a year, even if you run the slight risk that they might be bored at KiGa, than to risk them starting before they're quite ready. We haven't regretted keeping DS back for an instant and I think boys especially benefit from a later starting date.

Jenny I'm wondering how much longer I'll be able to carry on cycling for; I probably won't risk it in the snow, at any rate. Your curry sounded delicious; we're having (takeaway) curry here tonight and finally have naan again after our trip to M&S.

hupa Hope you had a good trip to Dachau; your brother's twins must be getting to a nice age now.
I can never stop myself comparing translations; we went to the Technisches Museum today and some of the information was really well translated, while some of it was just awful! I always think it would be interesting to translate an in-flight magazine; Lufthansa's is usually quite well translated IIRC.

admylin I thought about you when I was looking at the squash in M&S; we didn't buy any, though (just a bottle of sherry drinks-wise!). We also bought hot cross buns (DH will eat them at any time of year!), some herbs and spices, biscuits, tea, naan, some Christmas crackers and an autumnal wreath for our front door. Plus some household stuff and clothes at Tesco; I can usually find clothes I like - for both myself and the DC - there, whereas I really struggle in Austria (and it's much cheaper at Tesco too).

Ploom I looked at that website and the first thing I saw was Twinings Everyday Tea for ?12.50. But have just looked again and that was for 160 tea bags; 80 tea bags only cost ?2.79 - how does that work?!? You're right, though; it's still much cheaper than a trip back to the UK.

Must go as I've just finished proofreading my translation and now need to go and test DD1 on her English vocab as she has a test tomorrow.

Morning everyone.
We had a lovely time in Dachau and lots of snow. We didn´t actually do very much, but had a great time catching up. The twins were really lovely. They were at that stage of wanting to crawl, but not knowing how to do it, so laying on floor and frantically shaking their legs behind them. If you´ve got babies/children who don´t sleep then don´t read any further or you will be . They go to bed at 8pm and then sleep through until they have to be woken at 8am. I don´t think either of my dc ever achieved that even once.

English Hopefully you enjoyed your weekend and feel a bit more rested. Have you still got snow or has it all melted?

ploom That site has so many lovely things on it. I think I might treat myself to an order before Christmas.

Linzer I think the airline used the same translator for the website. Here is an example.

Jenny I´ve forgotten exactly where abouts you are, but I´m assuming not in an area likely to be affected by the hurricane. I imaginr with that and the election there´s not much else being reported at the moment.

I better go and catch up on all the jobs that I put off doing during the Herbstfereien.

Morning,

I've just finished proofreading the first of my two translations, so can finally allow myself a bit of MNing time.

hupa I see what you mean about the translation! It's frustrating to see how much companies will spend on professional-looking advertising, websites, etc. but don't seem bothered about whether the text is written in decent English (or whatever language).

Glad you enjoyed your weekend. I don't think any of mine slept that long when they were 15 months, let alone 5 months. In fact, they rarely sleep until 8 am even now. DD1 and DS were outside playing in the snow this morning at 6.30 am, having got themselves up, dressed and breakfasted - although I suppose the fact that they get themselves up is key. They don't usually disturb us when they get up at the weekend either; they only come and wake us when they get very hungry, as DH always goes to the baker's at the weekend. Having said that, we could probably send them to the baker's themselves (they've been on their own occasionally); would just have to make sure they have the money etc. ready the night before!

Blimey hupa I'm still 8 weeks ish off popping with my first and I'm already that those twins sleep so long... perhaps they wear each other out ...

English I hope you had a chance to put your feet up and get a good nights sleep!

Linzer and hupa I'm not doing translations - yet- but that link you put up made my eyes hurt trying to read it!

Anyway, I'm just MNing while waiting for the paint to dry :) have given the baby-ecke another coat in parts. Two friends came and helped last week and we got loads done, I was so amazed! Totally thrilled at the help people have given us! The colour is green and I've used a nice fresh pale green for two walls and the other is a darker more apple green. I'm really pleased!

We went to Nüremberg on Friday and had a busy weekend catching up with friends. Even though there was a warning of bad weather (mostly from FIL who knows everything better ) we drove down on Friday and back on Sunday and didn't have any problems! We got a bit soggy in the snow around town on Saturday but it was bearable.
I really enjoyed being there and find it a really pretty, atmospheric place to be. It holds some special memories for DP and I too :o I'm sure I'll always remember my first trip to Germany to meet him. It was just before Christmas, he had got home from New Zealand that week and it felt like we had already waited forever to see each other. Being in Nüremberg, at the Christmas Market and walking up to the castle and looking out at the city in the snow was all really magical...

Ah well... best go and see how my paint is doing :)

Nuttella just PMed you

I find the snow has to be really severe or unexpected to cause problems here, the roads are usually absolutely fine as they are properly treated before the snow falls and ploughed too if necessary. Not had a problem with slippery pavements either as people salt after they shovel (ruins your gloves though, I am not organised enough to have specific salting gloves...)

Battery running out again and need to get to the shops...

Those sleepy twins will be horrible teens in revenge, whilst my non sleepers will be angelic, just wait and see :o :o (I don't think I have ever deliberately woken a baby in my life and only my 7 year old occasionally sleeps 12 hours - which she didn't start doing til she was 5 or 6 I count sleeping "through" as 7.30pm til 5am, which she did from 2 and DS1 from 10 months, and DS2 still rarely achieves at 18 months!)

evening all.
english how is your back? Are you feeling lost yet without your dc around?
nutella sounds like you had a great time in Nüremberg! Well done on getting the painting done too. Now you can set all the baby stuff up ready and just sit back and wait for the big day!
linzer that's great that your 2 dds get on and just get themselves up and dressed to play out!
hupa we can exchange experiences about the braces when you get your ds started on his! Not sure about where you are but we had to wait months for the first appointment here in Hannover and then months again for the treatment plan. In Berlin we only had a couple of weeks to wait then the treatment just started with no fancy sales talk about what we can pay for to get better/quicker results.
jenny hope you aren't any where near Sandy. Sounds quite scary when they close mega cities down like that.

First vegan day went down well here. It's only dd and I doing it but ds didn't say no to the lunch I made (best mushroom sauce I've ever made too) but dd was a bit fed up at her brother eating freshly toasted brioche at breakfast time and she couldn't find any sweets to buy at the shops!

OMG I have just found out from the neighbour downstairs that a man committed suicide in our cellar 2 weeks ago. The cellar door has a police sticker on it and there's sawdust sprinkled on the floor. She said it was a friend of two young men who live on the 1st floor.

Thanks English!!

admylin that is terribly grissly news to hear! What a sad thing to have happened :( ... but great that vegan day1 went well... I had porridge for breakfast - no idea if oats are vegan - but I find made with water it is quite ok (although I like to soak it for a while before cooking it)... oh and I put a bit of dark chocolate and cocoa powder on it this morning so probably not too vegan friendly... sorry I'm definitely no help :)

I highly recommend Nürnberg (I mixed up the English and German spellings before... oops!) for a weekend visit, loads of cosy cafés, nice restaurants and some decent museums which aren't too pricey (comparatively speaking). At Christmas time, especially when snowy, I find the market is really gemütlich despite the cold and definitely worth the crowds.

DP also had winter tyres put on before driving down so he was a little bit ... I mean pleased with himself :)

Hello all! Glad lovely weekends have been had and the snow has not been a major issue. No, fortunately we are 3000 miles further west than Sandy! We have an issue with wild fires here and the volcano might erupt at some stage but other than snow storms we don't have that kind of extreme weather, fortunately. I hope everyone is ok though.

Our clocks haven't gone back yet so I am only 8 hours behind the rest of you! Ds2 is having a nap so I have a chance to catch up MN for a while before I fetch the others. Hope you have all had a nice evening and a good Tuesday.

Sorry about the suicide, admylin. I read that quite a while before I posted and put it out of my head. Sorry.

Jenny It's good you're not affected by Sandy at all; it all sounds very scary. It's supposed to be passing over the area where we used to live and apparently there are empty shelves at the supermarket because everyone's stocking up.

Nutella I really like Nuremberg, although haven't been for years. We took my parents to the Christmas market there when we were living in Germany, and it wasn't half as crowded as I was expecting it to be.

admylin What an awful thing to have happened, and how sad.

English The snow clearing is obviously more efficient where you are! Not everyone grits the pavements here and, although the snow ploughs are out and about in the early hours and do grit the roads, not all of the smaller roads get cleared as quickly and the roads still get slippery if the snow is still falling. I'm just glad we don't have a pushchair any more as I would end up having to lift it over huge piles of snow at the sides of the road if I wanted to cross the road; there's usually only enough snow cleared for a person without a pushchair to get through! Parking can still be a nightmare though, as you have to negotiate all the snow piled up by the ploughs.
But anyway, all the roads and pavements are clear again today so I'm not complaining too much at the moment.

Back to work now - I'm hoping to have this job finished today so that I can have a "free morning" to catch up on everything I've neglected (washing, tidying, etc.) before the long weekend.