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

927 replies

AntiqueMuppet · 26/09/2012 09:27

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

Previous thread here

OP posts:
itsMYNutella · 07/11/2012 15:02

Managed to post this on the wrong thread Blush but very funny!

Just to clarify - single sex showers!!! Not mixed showers. Although mixed sauna is ok .... Mind you I don't wear my contacts or glasses while in the sauna I only put my glasses on at the sauna when walking around - looking people in the eye only - or reading...

Linzer When online shopping first came up my oldest brother signed himself up as a Captain, since no-one was ever going to check. His wife only found out when they rang wanting to speak to "Captain Bob" (not real name :) ) and she was rather Confused and of course took the piss out of him after he came clean.

itsMYNutella · 07/11/2012 15:04
  • of course if you have a real title or letters after your name that you have earned it is not the same as my brother thinking it hilarious to sign up as a captain. Don't mean to cause anyone offence or take away the hard work you've put in to achieve the letters, titles etc.
admylin · 07/11/2012 15:06

Speaking of saunas and showers where do you all hang your towels if you don't wash them after every shower/bath? I've told the dc that it's not on chucking their towels in the wash every day but now I need to get some sort of system as I have a pile of towels thrown over the side of the bath tub.

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 15:18

Erm, on the towel rail admylin :o

Waves at NotaCaptinNutella

LinzerTorte · 07/11/2012 15:26

admylin The DC all have bathrobes, which hang on a couple of pegs in the bathroom, and DH and I put our bath towels over the side of the bath (although theoretically one of the towels could hang on the hook on the back of the bathroom door). We have a towel rail next to the washbasin, but that only has room for one handtowel (well, two handtowels one behind the other, but no room for bathtowels). I'd love a heated towel rail, but there's just no room in our bathroom.

Nutella Now there's an idea... leave my contacts out, I won't recognise anyone and that means they won't recognise me!

I have no idea what I was on about in my penultimate post, saying I'd never had a communal shower in my life and then immediately talking about the communal showers we'd had in PE! In my defence, I've never been to a sauna in my life so have no idea just how communal the showers are there. Grin

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 15:37

Oh we have high up towel rails on the side of the shower cubicle, next to the bath, for bath towels, and separate hand towel ones by the basins. No bath robes live in the dressing room, they live on wardrobe doors... Towel rails aren't heated (that would be nice) but now I see we are quite well provided with them! Nothing lives on the side of the bath, except the bath mat if I've just washed the floor...

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 15:38

Oops no bathrobes live in the bathroom, don't know where dressing room came in...

admylin · 07/11/2012 15:40

Yes we've got a towel rail next to the washbasin with room for 2 small towels like yours linzer and a wooden towel rail/stand thing with room for 3 small towels. Think I need to get a few door hooks.
I had a heated towel rail in Berlin it was great (and big).
You must have a huge towel rail for all 5 of you to fit your bath and hand towels on english or are they on top of each other?

admylin · 07/11/2012 15:42

x-posts! Yes I've seen those rails for side of shower cubicles. That'd be perfect but we only have a bath tub with shower curtain across so no where to hang it or it could hand on the back of the bathroom door. That's what I need.

LinzerTorte · 07/11/2012 16:11

I've never seen those kinds of towel rails - we really need a better solution, but I just have the feeling they wouldn't work in our bathroom. Do you need to have a square shower cubicle for them?

admylin · 07/11/2012 17:17

I thought maybe something like this and it does fit on a door as well as a shower but having looked at my door it opens too close to the wall so wouldn't fit. I'll have to get some Türhaken maybe.

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 17:23

We have a square shower cubicle, I imagine you'd be able to get towel rails for a curved one somewhere but it might be quite a specialist thing rather than bog standard DIY store purchase.

Linzer DD has just written a short inbox message for your DD, I know they haven't written since February so no worries if she doesn't want to write, DD just suddenly out of the blue asked to write to her penfriend so I couldn't see why not and just wanted to mention it is there, in case you don't get a notification.

platanos · 07/11/2012 17:28

barging in...help! 2 dds have been playing the recorder for the past 25 mins. Ouch, my poor ears Grin. where are those earplugs?

rushing out to make dinner and give ds his shower....w

e have these from ikea just perched on the shower cubicle sides

www.ikea.com/at/de/catalog/products/90208963/ which might fit over/ on the inside of your bathroom doors? (didn't fit our door that is why just perched on shower cubicle)

waves to all....

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 17:48

Argh plantanos - I'm so glad to know other mums on here dislike the sound of the recorder, when I mention my strong dislike of the squeaky things IRL most people look at me like this Hmm . I have told DD she is only allowed to practice in a room I am not in, but can play each song to me once once she's got the hang of them :o Does this make me evil or just the opposite of a pushy "musical mummy"? :o

Argh DD has just reminded me I promised to iron her hamma bead creations between dinner and bed... humph. Why couldn't she paint like DS1 did, though actually I didn't check whether he washed the brushes or just left them to dry out in the paint pots, so better do that too... Hmm

hupa · 07/11/2012 17:53

We´ve got something similar to Platanos´s link that fits over our bathroom door for our dressing gowns. Luckily we´ve got one of those electric wall radiators that we hang the towels on.

I´m another one who takes her contact lenses out if I have to go in the sauna. I like to think if I can´t see the other people clearly, they can´t see me. No logic to that at all, but it makes me feel better.

itsMYNutella · 07/11/2012 17:56

admylin we have something similar to platanos on the back of our bathroom door and our dressing gowns hang on it. We also have a rail next to the sink for hand towels and the radiator is where we hang our big towels... sounds like a lot of hanging space for a bathroom you couldn't swing a small cat in....
But I suggest Ikea or Max Bahr - sorry their website is rubbish to navigate so no link...

itsMYNutella · 07/11/2012 18:01

English I tried various instruments as a kid and my parents weren't exactly encouraging - my Dad used to make fun of me playing the violin saying it was squeaky (but my Mum told me it wasn't)... obviously to teach them a lesson I moved onto the Saxophone but that was too loud for everyone and my Mum sold the piano sooooo.... well I'm not a successful musician is the obvious outcome Wink

But I agree that recorders really are squeaky and I can't say I'd be desperate to encourage any sproglets of mine to take it up.

TheEnglishWomanInTheAttic · 07/11/2012 21:12

Nutella I'm kind of coming at music and kids from the opposite direction, as my completely non-musical parents forced my non musical self (and all my sisters) to learn a series of instruments, starting with recorder which I loathed even as a child, with much stressing and shouting and insisting we practice etc. I managed to give up one after another but was not allowed not to play anything, until about the same age as I was allowed to stop going to church; both things achieved mainly by my being even more bloody-minded than them and them choosing to back down rather than allow me to embarrass them :o
I guess there is a tiny part of me that does hope that, by allowing DD to take the lead on learning an instrument, she will be motivated and get really good despite rather than because of me - but please, not at the recorder! :o (I have previously said she can learn guitar or piano once she is 8, as from that age VHS offer affordable lessons in groups of 4 and we have a keyboard that's good enough for a beginner pianist to learn on, and DH can play, and DH has 3 guitars and taught himself to play up to a point, although she might need a 3/4 size one, but no, her friends all do recorder...)

LinzerTorte · 08/11/2012 07:36

English I'm another one with parents who made me go to church (I still get that sinking Sunday morning feeling, even now) and who decided that I learn an instrument - I played several, in fact, but of those the piano definitely wasn't my choice (can't remember about the others). I was distinctly unimpressed when I was told my first piano lesson had been booked, but was never consulted over it. I had lessons for over 10 years in the end but am not too sure even now whether I actually enjoyed it or whether it was just something I did, like another school subject.
I like to think I remind rather than nag the girls to do their practice (DD2 has actually insisted I put a piano practice reminder on my phone) and DD2 at least does seem to enjoy playing. DD1 also said she wanted to carry on having lessons this year, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll continue.

DD2 was very excited to receive your DD's message, btw; I had to stop her replying to the second one last night as it was time for her to go to bed, but it was the first thing she wanted to do this morning!

I think more/higher hooks for our bathroom door will have to be the solution for us too, admylin. We have a curved shower and the room is already so small that there's no room to hang anything up anywhere else - the door opens too close to the shower and the shower is right next to the washbasin, so I don't think towels on the side of the shower would work anyway. I like the look of those hooks platanos, but would you still be able to close the door properly? The other problem I have is that my bath towels are all quite big and, even though the hook on the bathroom door is fairly high up, they would still trail on the floor if I hung them up. I think the only - but hardly practical - solution is to move house to one with a bigger bathroom. Grin

admylin · 08/11/2012 08:06

Thanks for all the towel hanging up tips everyone! I now see I'm not the only one with too many towels and a titchy bathroom so I can stop feeling sorry for myself Smile

My parents never encouraged us to do anything past the school recorder lessons and if I remember rightly I was thrown out of those as I could never remember where to put my fingers over the holes to get the right note. We were sent to ballet lessons and tap dancing but stopped when we got too old to want to go on stage with a short skirt and frilly knickers on.

LinzerTorte · 08/11/2012 08:59

Grin at you being thrown out of recorder lessons, admylin! I did ballet as well, but refused to let my parents come and watch any of the exams (although didn't mind any of the other parents being there). I don't remember my parents being particularly pushy, but looking back I did loads of extra-curricular activities and I'm sure most of them weren't my idea.

DH is off to Germany today but didn't particularly want to go as they've got some kind of surprise arranged for this evening and he was a bit worried about what it might be! No doubt some kind of "fun" team building activity - rather him than me.

admylin · 08/11/2012 09:05

Lol at your dh being scared of the surprise! Tell us what it was when you find out linzer!

My dh probaby wouldn't go into work if they said that they had a surprise! He's refusing to go to the Christmas work do as well as he's so fed up at work.

Everyone got Christmas money with November pay check except him because his contract was renewed at the beginning of this year so he's officially a 'new' Mitarbeiter and you have to be working for over a year to qualify for the bonus. How stupid and bureaucratic is that? Everyone knows he's been here for more than 4 years.

LinzerTorte · 08/11/2012 09:13

Oh, that's just ridiculous admylin - it smacks of them being desperate for an excuse not to give him the Christmas money. Is it an extra month's salary? I don't blame him for not wanting to go to the Christmas do.

The surprise will probably be something really boring now - a surprise meal out for everyone! A surprise tour of the town where they're staying! A surprise trip up a wind turbine! (Not that I'd call that boring; I've seen pictures and it looks seriously scary.)

cheaspicks · 08/11/2012 09:25

Have been reading the recorder/learning instruments discussion with interest. I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope that many children can sustain long-term interest in practising an instrument regularly without a bit of parental pushing/nagging/reminding/bribery. If I look back, I guess my motivation to practise as a child went something like: fun - no pocket money if I don't - love this piece - got new teacher - being nagged - got exam coming up - being nagged - got exam coming up - being nagged - love this piece - got music festival coming up - got exam coming up - being nagged - playing duets is fun - got exam - being nagged - music festival - new teacher - exam coming up - being nagged - fancy boy who plays violin really well - exam coming up - concert coming up - fancy boy who plays horn - exam - concert - fancy boy who plays flute - concert - etc.

So basically you have to nag them until they're old enough to join an orchestra and start having crushes Grin Wink

For the record, most woodwind instruments squeak if you don't cover the keys properly and then blow really hard to overcome the extra resistence produced. It's pretty easy to overblow a recorder anyway, so focussing on blowing gently, or making a "velvety" sound or something might help. Otherwise, nag them to do loads of practise and the teacher should promote them to treble/tenor or even bass recorder soon enough (still remember my neighbour's face when she told me her daughter had her heart set on getting a sopranino recorder!)

LinzerTorte · 08/11/2012 09:58

I definitely agree with what you're saying cheas, it's just that I like to think of myself as encouraging/motivating rather than nagging! My mum used to have to constantly remind/nag me to practice as well (although no stress or shouting as with English), but left me to my own devices as I got older - as a result of which, I've only just stopped having nightmares that it's half an hour before my piano lesson and I've just realised I haven't done any practice all week. Grin But from what you've said, I was obviously learning the wrong instrument - there are far fewer opportuniies for meeting fanciable boys when you're learning the piano. Grin

FWIW (well, from what I remember) I don't think my recorder playing was that bad... I played the treble as well but don't remember giving up the descant entirely even after taking up the treble. Sopraninos look very cute but sadly I was never given the opportunity to play one.

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