2013 ist schon da! A new Kaffeeklatsch thread for the New Year - living in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

All welcome - whether you're living in Germany or Austria, have questions about life in those countries or just want to chat.

Previous thread here.

outnumbered and at pooing sandpaper.... You're right though, that must hurt! Oh dear, that's going to keep me chuckling for a while.

linzer yes it was homemade; I also like to knit spaghetti and on Sundays I heard cats. I have not got the faintest idea how one would make a suppository ... Not that I think most people would

Oh, I've just remembered a story about my older brother; apparently when we were small we used to disappear off under the racks of clothes in places like M&S and this particular brother would always return with a sweet he had found (Obviously without a wrapper and covered in hair & dust & whatever) he would pick off a few bits of dirt and then merrily eat it. Wonder if it's a boy thing.

Linzer we bought them when DS's problems were really bad but u couldn't bear the thought of poking something up his bum. It seemed like he had enough to deal with. But seeing him in pain again and knowing that I had no way of making it better I decided it was time to try it out.

outnumbered the oil was recommended to us but we didn't buy it because his Nabelschnur was still attached... I can't think of the English word ... So we couldn't use the oil.

We're off to a friends for dinner (walking distance) for their birthday... See what DS makes of it hopefully the little walk will help him sleep and we can enjoy the evening. Oh how things have changed, we now think that 20:00 is a late time to start celebrating

OK, not the most sensible question I've ever asked. I don't even have the excuse of having started on the wine yet.

I confess to not having read all the thread (naught me and not very german of course....but I'm rebelling) anyhoo - happened to notice in this week's flyers that both Rossmann and Netto have samsung smart phones on offer.... if you're still looking.

Oh and thankfully it's warming up somewhat here (NRW between Dus and Essen) we have a green garden again for the first time in weeks!!

Hello we had a lovely evening. we just went to the cafe/restaurant/ bar type of place down the road, but walked the long way which was nice. It's just so nice being out and about without whingey little ones! as horrible as that sounds.

nutella Nabelschnur is umbilical cord, isnt it? all of ours lots theirs before they were 1 week old!

linzer again. I was picturing nutella using cumin seeds on her poor ds!

mrtumble yes, three weeks is a long time isnt it. and everyone around me keeps saying ''Erholen Sie sich schön'....and I am preparing myself for the most stressful of times what with ds2 and his difficulties adapting to change etc. But maybe that's just me being pessimistic. I do hope, of course, that it will be nice and that I do get to chill out a bit too.

anyway, I have had 2 large glasses of wine and am feeling rather tired. Thank goodness it's my turn for a lie in tomorrow!!

Afternoon! Sorry to just butt in out of nowhere, I just wanted to say hello, I didn't even realise there was a Living Overseas board on here and am very excited to find a Germany bit :) I live near Frankfurt, I've been here for almost 3 years, I'm 34 and am 8 weeks pregnant.

Happy Sunday to you all :)

Hello bingedy
I think whatwould is near Frankfurt but I haven't seen her on here for a bit I'm near Hannover. Congratulations on your pregnancy. Is it your first?
My DS is six weeks old. And I found the medical care here pretty awesome hope you're having a good experience so far.

Linzer you could have easily used wine as an excuse, we woukdnt have known ... can I say though, that I'm glad you have professed a lack of Bastel abilities and therefore I assume we are safe from you experimenting with homemade suppositories?

DS did not enjoy the party last night he was ok but wouldn't settle so in the end we came home fairly early but he slept well... Perhaps he wore himself out crying

Nutella I won't take that to mean my posts usually read like I've been on the wine. Definitely no experimenting with suppositories here, you'll be glad to hear - even if I did find a few intriguing recipes on the Internet yesterday (one involved wrapping cumin and various other ingredients in greasy wool )!

bingeddy Hello and welcome to the thread. Is your DP/DH German? Antique isn't too far from Frankfurt either (could do with a map Weissdorn to see exactly how far, as I am of course incapable of googling ).

outnumbered Glad you enjoyed your evening - hope you had a nice lie-in too.

doradoo It was me looking at Samsung phones, but sadly (for shopping purposes, at any rate) I'm in Austria and we don't have either of the shops you mentioned.

Quiet day here today; the DC had friends over this morning and are now all at the neighbours'. I've spent most of the day so far working; talking of which, must get back to it...

Hello!!
The joy of half term has curtailed all my MN time - looking forward to 7.25am tomorrow when they are all out the house for a few hours. We had a fun week though including a nice day out with cheaspicks on Friday.

linzer - glad your phone is on the way. I have that way of writing texts on my samsung phone that you described where you just run your finger from letter to letter. It is a really easy way to text - its called Swype.

antique - that does sound like your FIL is perhaps having some dementia like problems if he wasnt always that bad. But think keeping you and your ds away from him at the moment is a good idea - can you speak to your MIL about it?

mrtumbles - did you enjoy your time away? Did you get the heating fixed?

nutella - have never heard of cumin suppositries - you learn something new every day!

I need to wave to everyone else - off to spend the evening with dh - the first evening to ourselves this week since we struggle to get dd to go to bed before 10pm any night! Dreading when they are all teenagers - will we ever get any time to ourselves?

Hello, glad the holiday seems to have gone well and hello to new people. Sorry about your FIL antique - don't blame you for not wanting to spend much time with him. Never heard of cumin suppositories either! Currently discussing engines with ds2 who is obsessed with Thomas! Can't remember anything useful so will hopefully be back next week with something useful to say! Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday evening.

Thank you all for advice, we will aim to get some of the neurofen stuff. It is the Mexalen stuff that DH came home with and it tastes very strongly of paracetamol so DD won't touch it.

I quizzed DH a little futher and it seems he didn't directly ask for nice-tasting fever medecine for kids, he specified the Calpol brand and the paracetamol bit- so maybe that is why the pharma didn't mention any other options to him? We had a few paracetamol suppositories left over from teething times to tide us over. She seems to be past the worst now too and hopefully I won't have to collect her early from the childminder this week.

Hope your dd is better soon C4ro

ploom how was getting up for school again this morning? Your dd is still at an age where she wants to sit with you in the evening but doesn't want to go to bed. We had that for a couple of years and have now gone onto the stage where we actualy go to bed before them! Mostly they are in their rooms with skype on in the background or watching their own stuff (dvd or youtube). Took a while to get use dto but now I just go in and say we're both in bed so be quiet and don't leave your lights on all night!

doradoo thanks for the tip about the phones, dh has just given a spare phone of ours to his student who lost his own and is poverty stricken but he might be interested as our old one is a museum piece!

Hope everyone else is fit and healthy! I've just got over a migraine so I feel great!

Nutella thanks for the offer of camping stuff. I will get back to you when we have been given our list at the next meeting (yes, we have to go to another meeting to get that). I might have found a sleeping bag but the rest is still open.
I'm also thinking I will even have to get ds some kind of watch as they will be taking their mobiles off them and nowadays most dc use them for telling the time!

Hi, All
Hope you are well. I have been trying to reduce my online time, sorry for not being around, I struggle to keep up with this thread if I don't log in daily! Anyway, I am still alive! :)

Bing, hi, and welcome. I live in Frankfurt.

Admylin I did the Duke of Edinburgh Award, only wild camping was allowed on Silver and Gold expeditions, definitely no toilets - the Gold one is a 5 day, 5 night expedition but I don't really remember the no toilets being a big issue for some reason, I don't think it's such a huge deal in itself... although the thinking behind the whole thing sounds a bit odd, surely you do things like that to develop a bit of self reliance and enjoy nature and challenge yourself a bit and get time off school, get out from the ever interfering watchful eyes of the grown ups in your life, possibly go to the pub illicitly and meet members of the opposite sex rather than to be driven to the point of exhaustion because it matures you...

DS2 is asleep, in bed, I took him up half an hour ago as he was ridiculously over tired, and he went to sleep almost immediately, which is unheard of atm, I do hope though that he doesn't think he is having a nap and wake in an hour thinking its approximately lunch time...

Ploom yes thanks we had a good time away, though when we got there everything was closed for Fasching Dienstag! Some of the businesses in the town had evidently been closed since Christmas as they had signs up saying things along the lines of happy Christmas to our customers, we'll be back on 26th Feb! Cafes and restaurants were mainly open though, and we wandered around the walls and the old town. Most things opened back up again on Wednesday :o We went out for dinner and plenty of wine both nights but found ourselves out at prime family meal time through habit (luckily we don't mind other people's children and they were all well behaved) and in bed 11pm or so - the same time we would have been on a weekend night at home ... getting old! :o

Which reminds me the VHS semester has started, I thought I had another week, good job DH asked me tonight as I thought I had another week off, but I will be teaching 3 nights a week from tomorrow, I am possibly not really prepared, oops! There was a teachers book I wanted to use for one of the courses and haven't even ordered! I also need some better chalk... :o

Morning! Debating whether a nice walk might help clear my head cold or whether going back to bed is a better plan??

admylin - dd takes the huff when we suggest she should do stuff in her room of an evening. She is fun to have around but every evening till 9.30 or 10 means we get no adult time at all (since I normally go to bed just after 10). She's been ok at getting up this week - its ds2 that I've had to drag the covers off.
The camping trip sounds definitely adventurous & you'd hope that although there's no proper toilets that they made a toilet area - what about when they need to have a poo??

mrtumbles - sounds like you had a nice time away. I'm sure I've been there but it was just before dd was born so I dont remember it too clearly.

Hi lentils - well done on cutting down on online time. Wish I could be so disciplined.

Arghhh tumbles you're not meant to say things like 'possibly go to the pub illicitly and meet members of the opposite sex' to me! OK, they're all 15 and 16 when they go on the trip so some of it could happen.
None of the dc in ds's class want to go on the camping thing and are trying to talk their teacher out of it! The rest of the time will be spent in an old east German castle turned into a guest house. It's also in the middle of no a huge forest and the nearest village has 30 people registered as living there!
Did your ds stay asleep last night?

Hi lentils how are things? Is your ds picking up abit of German?

Woke up to snow again here, wet slushy snow though so hopefully it'll all melt away. Had a mad dash to the Baumarkt half an hour before it closed last night. One of ds's lamps blew the fuse for all the lights in the flat except in the kitchen when I tried to replace the bulb. Left dd sitting in the kitchen with her homework and just made it back to collect ds from table tennis.

Oh admylin thats what I was doing at 15 & 16 - hormones are raging at that age!! But I will be desperately hoping that dd isnt - its a scary thought of them having girlfriends/boyfriends! Does the worry & stress ever end?

Morning all!

I haven´t posted for a while as I had a really horrible virus last week and spent most of the week in bed feeling sorry for myself. I´m finally feeling vaguely human again this week.

admylin I think the camping trip sounds like great fun, but only if it doesn´t rain the whole time. When are they due to go?
Well done for sorting out the lights. At least it happened before the Baumarkt shut - it would have been a real pain to have to wait until today to sort it out.

We also woke up to lots of snow and it´s still snowing heavily now. I must admit I´m done with winter now. I´d rather have snow than rain, but it´s just gone on for too long this year.

Linzer Have you finally found out the answer to the maths question?

Nutella Sorry to hear about the problems with your FIL. I think it´s a very good idea to avoid him for a while. Could your dh ask his mum if she´s noticed any other changes in his behaviour?

Mr.Tumbles I´m glad you enjoyed your trip. Hopefully you came back feeling a bit refreshed.

outnumbered How´s the packing going?

bingeddy welcome to the thread. I´m also in Hessen, but nearer to Kassel than Frankfurt.

Hello to everyone I´ve missed. I must get on, I´ve a mountain of ironing to get through.

ploom they said they give you a shovel to dig a hole if you need a poo! Ds is more worried about getting a mosquito bite on his bum as he's really alergic and there will be loads of them at the time of year (June), and ticks too. We have to sign a paper to say if the teachers or a doctor should remove one if they get bitten.

Good morning! bit of a hectic morning here. I had to get ds2&3 to pre-school by 8.15 this morning, as the 4years+ children are going to the cinema. I am quite impressed that we got there on time, even though I was on my own with the three as dh is still in Zurich.

I think I have packed most things, but there are so many things to organise.
This afternoon I have the babysitter here, so that I can start packing the car. Tomorrow morning will be manic, as there always seem to be so many last minute things that needs to be packed - cuddly toys, CDs, CD player, gro clock (am not going anywhere without the gro clocks!!).

admylin that camping trip sounds like it could be an incedible experience. dh would would have loved to do something like that as a child (and still now). I, personally, have never got on with camping. I need a proper bed, proper toilets and a nice shower every morning. saying that, when I was in Oz I did a 14-day outback tour from Darwin to Adelaide, and we slept in swags for several nights. I was so impressed with myself that I asked someone to take a pic of my asleep in the swag.

hupa lots of nasty viruses going around at the moment. I am glad you are feeling better! Where in HEssen are you? My dad is originally from Kassel, and my three brothers went to uni in Marburg and really liked it there.

right, sorry for a brief post, but really must get going.

haven't been here for absolutely ages, but wanted to pop in and say hello to Admylin.

Hi. How's things? I was in UK a couple of weeks ago and the daffs were already coming out. We've still got bloody snow! Still, went langlauf skiing for 1st time so there are some perks (though my leg muscles might not agree)

Hi ernest I was wondering what you were up to, haven't 'seen' you for ages! Wish we were all abit closer then we could have a or even a !

outnumbered hope the packing is done and you are all organised. I bet the boys are really excited too.

I'm off to smile and nod at the annual general meeting of the table tennis club in half an hour, better show face as the trainers put alot of time and effort into the whole thing!

I remember you ernest - you had bought a flat in the UK I think? I'm not sure what my username was at the time - maybe Canella?? Good to hear from you. We also do langlauf - I'm not very fast though but love how good it is for you.

outnumbered - good luck with all the packing & the travelling tomo. How is your ds1 being about it all?

admylin - viel spaß at your AGM - it sounds like a thrilling way to spend a few hours .

wow, good memory, yes, we got a flat in Brighton. due to family ill health not had as much use as we'd hoped for, but it's great to have it and we go at least every school holidays, so we'll be over for a fortnight at easter.

I am ssuper unfit. I tried langlauf for the 1st time (thursday Friday and Monday. I won't be winning any prizes for style speed or grace, but it was cool to find a winter sport I liked (dh and all dc do Ski Alpin and I'm normally a billy no mates at home, so it was fun going skiing and meeting up for lunch. Could barely lift my legs on Monday night?