Lieber Frühling, komm doch bald. A new Kaffeeklatsch thread for Spring - living in Austria and Germany

[Ploom]

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

Thanks ploom hope you and your boys are on the recovery route. Have they got school holidays too?

nutella I hope it's not flu. You're probably exhausted and your body is going on strike. Is your dh working long hours or can you get yourself off to bed early when he comes in? That's if baby nut is happy with a bottle.

I just got back from a trip into town with dd, all motivated to get her some spring/summer gear but we have come back with 2 vest tops and some instant couscous so not much luck! We'll have to go again.

No the dc are off next week and the week after so think ds1 will end up with 3 weeks off!

Don't know about your ds's school but alteast here they usually just waste time the week before a holiday so maybe he won't miss much anyway!
Are they eating much with their sore throats?
Ds has absoloutly nothing to do for school the next couple of weeks and poor dd has about 4 subjects to work on and a test to prepare for (dreaded German grammar)!

ploom hope your boys recover too and hope that the rest of you don't get it. Thanks for the new thread!

nutella fingers crossed it is not flu. Those are not the symptoms I had. have as much rest as little one allows.

admylin I smiled at the varied nature of your shopping. But I guess that will not see dd through the spring or summer. The herbal tea is a mix of Frauenmantel, Himbeerblätter and Ringelblume. You might want to check if it is okay for her to take. I take it all the time...Hope the holidays go well. It has only just dawned on me that I will have to think of something for dd next year, for the Semesterferien and the Easter holidays. Oh dear.

hupa enjoy your trip back. I am also jealous. Hope the weather and driving conditions are good for you. how long will your trip be?

outnumbered good luck with the job hunt. Hope the week has gone okay for you. I was going to say I am happier with a job outside the home than not, but the realisation that as from next year I have another 2 weeks of holidays to cover makes me want to rethink that one.

linzer are you at war with your neighbour? Or has it all blown over? and did ds get his friendship book filled in?

mrtumbles what age are the people in your class? How many evenings do you teach?I also want a dd with a hole in her foot.

I went back to work yesterday. I still have a cold but nothing like last week. The dc were actually quite good. DD1 said I am always nicer when I am ill (charming!).

I have a question. I want to improve my writing skills. I don't want to become a bestselling novelist or anything, but just improve my writing for my job. Do any of you have any idea of courses or books? I was wondering if doing a proofreading or copy-editing course would be the thing for me. I don't have much time, or money, to invest though. Has anyone done anything similar?

off to scratch the wart...eek. I keep forgetting to buy that plaster. Tomorrow. waves to everyone else!

Morning!

Thanks for the new thread Ploom, very apt title! For once, it actually looks nice and sunny outside today but it's no doubt bitterly cold. Hope your DS is on the mend now and the rest of you didn't come down with anything in the end.

admylin Hope the holidays are going well so far - apart from your DD having all that work to do. Everything always seems to come at once; DD1 has a maths Schularbeit today and then a biology test on Friday. DH has been helping her with the maths and I've been doing biology, but there's just so much to learn - I'm sure I never had a biology test that difficult at her age.

platanos No on both counts - things have blown over with the neighbour, thank goodness, and DS was too shy to ask the tree cutter in the end!
Re the writing skills, I'm not sure how much help a proofreading course would be; depending on the course, you would - I assume - learn about the correct use of punctuation, etc. but often proofreading is more about spotting mistakes (and it's assumed you already have the basic grammatical/writing knowledge). I'm trying to think of the name of a book that was recommended where I last worked - one of my colleagues did a course held by one of the co-authors, which she said was very good. I'll have a proper look for it later!

DH is at a seminar for the next three days so, despite the fact that he'll only be five minutes down the road, we won't see him till Friday afternoon. It seems like a waste of (the company's) money to pay for a room for him there, but apparently they all have to stay overnight as es gehört dazu and everyone would be rushing off home otherwise.

Ploom Thanks for starting the new thread. I hope your dss are on the road to recovery.

Nutella I hope you´re feeling better this morning. Dh has said there are a few really nasty viruses around this winter. Whereas people might usually feel ill for a few days, it´s taking 2-3 weeks before they feel an impovement at the moment.

admylin Sorry the shopping trip wasn´t successful. I´m hoping to stock up while we´re in England. I´ll probably end up buying loads for the dc and come back empty handed myself.
The route we take is basically Dortmund, Duisburg, Eindhoven, Antwerp, Gent, Calais - it´s more or less one straight motorway, so not many chances to get lost. It usually takes 6.5 -7 hours from here to Calais, then 1.5 hours with the ferry and then another hour or so to London. We usually do the whole trip in one go, but this time are staying overnight in Calais, because we can´t set off until Friday afternoon. I think as it´s Friday, plus the start of the school holidays in many areas we could well spend a lot of time sitting in traffic jams.

planatos I´m glad that you´re starting to feel better. I´m sorry I can´t help with the writing - what type of writing do you use in your job?

Linzer That´s really annoying about your dh having to stay overnight. Obviously the company has more money than sense.

I think I better stop now or this will turn into an essay.

Thanks for the shiny new thread Ploom, hope your house full of illness is getting healthier?

Plantanos the people I teach are aged between 17 and 82, approximately ;) I just offer adult evening courses - I'm running an A1 "false beginners" course atm, and a B1 course, which I have been teaching since A1, some have left and some new people have joined, but the core of the group has been the same since Sept 2011, and they are on their 5th semester as a group now. The 82 year old lady is in that group. The youngest ones are at Beruf Schule and don't do English at school any more but want or need it for work. Most people are in their 30s and 40s but you always get quite a few pensioners who want English for travel or just want to keep their minds active.

I have DD home today, there is something going on with her, I really don't know what to do, she claims to be ill when she isn't, usually I make her go to school anyway and she comes home perfectly happy, but sometimes (like this morning) she really does seem ill, but then she isn't... The obvious assumption is that she must be worried about something, but as she won't say what, and constantly going on about it seems a bad idea in case it plants worries or makes her feel compelled to invent some, I am somewhat at the end of my resources for working out what to do... DH says we should just be strict about only letting her stay home if she has a fever, and I guess I am going to have to do that, though I am sure it is possible to feel genuinely ill without a high temp

Thanks, Ploom.

Is that Principal Vegangelist position still open, plats? :) Though I am not mentioning the V word until mid-April, as promised!
Glad you are feeling better.

LT, maybe you can go stay in the hotel too! :)

MrT, hope your DD is ok.

Thanks for the new thread Ploom I really hope that spring is around the corner, I have definitely had enough of winter! It seems to go on sooo long here.

admylin I hope future shopping trips are more successful, but shopping for summer clothes while there is still snow/ ice on the ground (I saw some yesterday on my way to the dr) probably isn't easy :)

Linzer that does seem a bit OTT to make people stay in a hotel. DP had a room booked for him while he was working at the Cebit (although the hotel was probably further away than where we live) and the only realised he didn't need it on I think the second or third day. Perhaps if the hotel has a nice pool or something you could take advantage of it like Lentil suggested.

MrT that is a pity that something is making DD so unhappy at school - is Wednesday maths day? Is it usually the same day each week?

Thank you all for all the well wishes! i am feeling much better today. Dr said there are a lot of "Margen Darm" things doing the rounds at the moment. Fortunately DP can work from home and look after little man just bringing him to me for feeds. But, well it's another fun day of Chamomile tea, rehydration salts and Zwieback - I thought I had managed half a giant banana yesterday but it didn't stay that way for long

Oh the dr was rather unhelpful - she can't give me any of the good stuff because I'm breast feeding and because DS is a tiny baby I can't really get that much rest.... Geee thanks doc, I feel better already! Obviously all I wanted was to be told the bleedin obvious
The dr did also ask what I think of Hannover... I said it was ok and she went on about how the people in Hannover can be a bit miserable and moan a fair bit... Very strange Dr's appointment...

Nutella sounds like you found a nice doctor who takes abit of time with patients! With mine I never get a single comment or word, he just looks/prods abit then puts comments in his computer and prints a prescription if needed. No frills!
Hope you feel better soon.

Linzer what a waste of money from dh's company! Although, I wish dh worked somewhere like that as we're still sitting on the cost of the up-coming Japan trip and won't get it back until the end of May leaving it really late for me to use it on some sort of trip for summer (haven't decided what yet).

Hupa sounds like a good route especially as it's basically a straight road all the way. I'd be tempted to try it if I wasn't so worried about the wrong side driving in the UK! Hope you don't get caught in traffic for too long.

tumbles my dd had days like your dd at primary in Berlin, I never got to the bottom of it really. Maybe it was just all round stress or maths, no idea. I used to let her have a day off if she complained of tummy ache but most days I would try and get her to have breakfast and a drink to see if she felt better and she often did by ten to eight when we had to set off to school (8:15 start). Hope you can get to the bottom of it.

platanos thanks for the tea tip. Did you get a wart plaster? I remember having one frozen off as a dc but no scraping or fancy plasters involved, although the freezing did hurt so maybe they don't do it the same nowadays.

Today dd has plans to start her school work (when she gets up) and ds is either going to the shops for me (proably not) or learning a new recipe for simple pasta with broccoli and garlic for a change! Japanese fancy dishes are OK but I think he needs to master some basics too!

admylin When did your DC start having lie-ins? DD1 is 11 and still up by 8 am at the latest at weekends (often nearer to 7 am). With any luck they'll all take after me and be morning people; I remember often getting up at 8 at the weekend when I was at university, when I really liked having the house to myself!

Nutella Ooh, I've just translated something CeBIT-related! (That was the text in which principal evangelist came up.) Sorry to hear the doctor wasn't able to help much; it must have been particularly frustrating after you'd dragged yourself all the way there. Hope you're feeling better soon, anyway.

Lentil Must have missed you not mentioning the V word - are you giving it up for Lent?

MrTumbles I have the same problem with DS sometimes and it's very difficult to know what to do. Insisting that DC can only stay home if they stay in bed, for example, (which I've seen mentioned on MN) isn't always very practical, either - at our school/KiGa, you're supposed to keep them at home for an extra day after they've had a temperature, which I did with DS a week or two back, but there was no way he was ill enough to stay in bed all day. The time before that he had headlice and I could hardly banish him to bed then either!

admylin its good in a way to hear your DD was similar as she isn't any more... Linzer I did try saying she could only stay home if she stayed in bed, but at 8.30am she crept down, when I was reading to DS2, saying she was scared upstairs on her own (she has always been a bit weirdly hyper-social and hated being alone even when she can hear people in other parts of the house - until she was 6 she wouldn't even go upstairs alone to fetch something she wanted and always took DS1 with her ) she sat quietly at first, then offered to take over reading to DS2, and has been playing with him ever since - she quite plainly isn't ill at all, she's being a horsey for him now crawling about with him on her back now :)

Maybe I could just accept her having random days off and be one of those super dodgy rough round the edges mums who keeps her older children home to entertain the little ones so she can MN ... I was going to go to the gym today though DS loves the creche there and sometimes that is all that motivates me to go (I love it that I can leave him for just an hour and a half, peep in at him through the glass whenever I want, and they'd call me over the tanoy if he needed me, there are also usually only 3 or 4 children in there, and in term time very rarely any over 3, so its a really low stress - for both of us - way for him to be away from me a bit with little tots his age rather than kids the age of DD and DS1 and their friends, and immersed in German). Obviously I couldn't take an "ill" school age child though...

Thanks for the good wishes for DD Lentils - how's Frankfurt? You don't tell us much general day to day trivia, I think you should tell us an anecdote :o unrelated to veganism though please :o ... :)

Get well soon Nutella - sorry the doc was no use other than for a chat you probably weren't in the mood for! I had a rather odd paediatrician apt with Ds2 in the same vein recently, where she told me that I should get my older 2 to do more around the house, and shouldn't let my MIL tell me to leave DS2 to cry (which my MIL doesn't do - in fact he sleeps in her bed when he stays at thiers) ... Maybe good advice but kind of unprompted and not very medical :o

Oops DD has stopped entertaining DS2 and he is requesting my hand to lead me somewhere (he has taken up demanding I go on magical mystery tours recently). I also need to sort the kitchen for DS1's half birthday celebration after KiGa - oh yes :o

I'm back quickly just to say Linzer DD has been asking about your DD2 writing, did she see the last message? I know they go through phases of writing/ not writing, my DD is usually the worst one for it. I suggested to my DD that she just write a quick note to say hello rather than wait, but DD is worried your DD2 will think she is "silly" if she writes when it isn't her turn :o

MrTumbles Both DD2 and I thought she'd replied to your last message - but I'll check, maybe she didn't or maybe it didn't send properly - and she's been asking for weeks when your DD is going to write next! I keep telling her that maybe she doesn't realise it's her turn and that DD2 should write a quick note to her anyway, but like your DD I think she feels a bit silly about doing so! If all else fails, I'll tell her that her last message didn't get through and she needs to write again. (Obviously, if it is her turn to write anyway, I'll tell her that!)

Right, I've just checked, and it is indeed DD2's turn to write. I'm so sorry - please apologise to your DD from us, as DD2 didn't realise it was her turn. She won't be home from school until around 2pm today, but I'll get her to write asap after she comes home (she'll probably want to anyway, considering how often she's been pestering me about your DD recently ).

Linzer, it was past the start of Lent, otherwise that would have been a good spell. But no, I was told I was a bit vegangelisty on here, so I said I'd not mention the V word for a month! :)

Get well soon, Nutella.

Tumbles, well, we are fine, thank you, DS is wonderful and a happy little scamp. DH is doing well at work, though feeling some frustrations with certain managerial egos there who hamper productivity and creativity, same story in many workplaces, I know (certainly was where I worked pre-DC).
I was never ever very good at anecdotes. Plus I am trying to lessen my online time. Um, hm. Weeks go by so fast. We do toddler classes, meet little friends, go to the park, swimming, same same! I was hoping we'd do more weekend trips, but factoring in car hire and one night in a hotel, and we're already at ?400ish. I feel like I've done Frankfurt. It's fine, but it doesn't have the vibe of our last home (Wimbledon, London. That really felt like home to me.) Work is still held up on our property there, which is thoroughly depressing, as we could be earning on renting it out. But we have to wait for next door's planning permission before we can get ours sorted, as what we have done depends on what they get permission for. If they get what they want, we should hopefully get an extra room, which would be worth the wait in the long term, but it is a gamble, and in the meantime, I am feeling hacked off. Just want to get it sorted.
There, that was a ramble! Told you I wasn't good at anecdotes. :) It wasn't even really an anecdote, was it! :)

lentil about the weekend trips, I noticed that Deutsche Bahn sometimes has some cool weekend offers that might interest you although train and 2 nights in Berlin adds up to around 300? so still not cheap. Anyway, you might find some where that you fancy here
I never went for them as I can never figure out how it would work with my 2 teens and the fact that they won't touch each other with a barge pole let alone share a sofa bed in a hotel room - so we'd need 2 rooms which pushes up the price.

Linzer you asked about when the dc started staying in bed so long.

Well, they've never been early morning people!
They started sleeping longer when they were about 11 years old though. Before that dd would get up at 8am on weekends and watch kids TV until I got up and ds stayed in bed until 9am. I guess that's just their inner clocks and they suffer alot getting up at 6:30 for school!

Thanks, admylin. :) @ not touching each other with a barge pole! :)

Ooh, I have an anecdote! :)
We have calendar blocks, same as this: www.jedicreations.com/images/games-puzzles/new/educational-puzzles-wholesale-exporter-manufacturer-CALENDAR-LARGE-SV401893_c.jpg. I am often a bit rubbish about remembering to change it every morning. This morning, it was on 11. Yes, I am slack! :) DS knows his numbers perfectly well, points at the 11 and says '20!'!!! It's the 20th today. Weird or what!

Just a quick message to MrTumbles - DD2 has been out all afternoon, so I've only just showed her your DD's message that she still needs to reply to. She's absolutely convinced that she's already replied (and I do remember her saying fairly recently that her favourite animal is a rabbit!) and is now having a temper tantrum, so I'm working on calming her down... message to follow shortly, I hope!

Good evening! Dh has been on a business trip since yesterday and I am knackered, which is why have been a bit absent...again...

lentils I have to be honest, I never liked Frankfurt much. But then, I like picture perfect little cities like Lüneburg. Have you ever ventured to Marburg? All my three brothers went to uni there, and as I am quite close to them I spent a fair amount of time there whenever I was in Germany. I couldn't live in Marburg, but its gorgeous for a visit!

ploom I hope you are all better now?

hupa ages ago you asked me if my dad still goes back to Kassel from time o time. We haven't really been back since my granddad died ( I was 14) and my grandma moved to Timmendorfer Strand. His parents were the only reason he still went there before. My dad's favorite aunt lived in Eschwege and we used to go there regularly too.

mrtumbles I don't know what to suggest about your dd. it's difficult. Ds1 and ds2 refuse to go to kiga regularly. But I always make them, unless they really are ill. This morning ds1 ran away when his kiga bus arrived and I had to go and get him from out the garden. But then I know their behavior had to do with their asd, and the worst thing I could do is to let them feel like they can decide when do to what.

jenny haven't heard from you in a while. How are you? Did you have the appt for your ds?

platanos big hugs to you. I bet you are all high on adrenalin tonight!

We met up with a developer who lives in our little estate yesterday. He owns the last plot of land a d wants to build one of his houses there. He is planning to use the same interior as in his own house ( which is next door to the plot), which I would describe as 'luxus ausstattung'. Needless to say what he wants forint, we can't pay. Mainly because on top of the price for the house there is another ?400/month of Erbpachtzins. But I had a cunning plan this morning. That developer let shine through that he'd be willing to sell us the Rohbau, and then we would do everything else ourselves. That in mind, I went across the road to our neighbors who own one of the biggest property de eloping companies here (mainly new builds). I asked if they'd be interested in doing the rest of the build, to more realistic specs. I only spoke to the wife, but she said her husband would get back to us on the weekend. So maybe, with a lot of luck, we might be able to afford it after all.

linzer how are you enjoying yourKindle?

admylin did you fin any of those squashy balls?

You probably saw it on fb, but I am sooo excited that I found a holiday let for us in Swansea for the summer. Not only because it means we get to see our good friends, but excited to get back to beautiful South Wales. Hopefully I'll also be able to go to Cardiff a few times a d meet up with friends there. I absolutely love South Wales and if there was work out there for dh we'd probably move.

Alo I am very curious to see whether ds2&3 will start to speak English. Ds2 still doesn't speak any despite understanding everything. Ds3 spoke English to me until he started kiga in October.

Morning,

outnumbered Great news on the holiday let - I saw you were looking, but not that you'd found somewhere. Hope you have good weather for your stay; that's the one thing that would put me off a summer holiday in Wales (although I still go back to see my family, obv.). Having said that, it was amazingly good last August.
Am really enjoying the Kindle, thanks. I still prefer the look and feel of "proper" books, but it's very handy when I'm out and about and you can get some very good bargains on it.

admylin As DD1 only turned 11 a couple of months ago, there's hope for us yet I suppose! It was getting harder to wake the DDs in the morning so I thought we might be heading towards them sleeping longer, but they now both insist on getting up as early as possible during the week - DD1 leaves at 7 am, despite the fact that she only has a 10-15 minute walk to school and it doesn't start until 7.45 am, and DD2 has a tantrum if any of the others are up before her and likes to leave her blinds open so that she can wake up as soon as it's light. (I went in to wake her at 6.30 today and she was already dressed.)

Lentil Do you know how much longer you'll be staying in Frankfurt? Most of the places we've lived in before I was ready to leave after 2-3 years, but am now enjoying being settled in my old age.

MrTumbles I always used to feel like a selfish parent for insisting that the DC (well, DS) had to go to KiGa when I know other parents who would let their DC stay at home if they didn't want to go, but I felt like it would be a slippery slope. I tend to be fairly strict about DS going to school unless he's quite obviously ill (am not at all strict with the DDs as I know they wouldn't ask to stay home unless they really were feeling ill; DD1 has had about two days off sick in five years), but it's very tricky - a couple of times now he's come home and said that his teacher told him he shouldn't have been at school (last time was last week, when he had a cough; he was hardly coughing at all at home, so I was sure that PE was setting it off and wrote a note to the teacher asking him to be excused from PE).
It was much easier at KiGa, when I felt that they "knew" him better; I would tell them that he was complaining about feeling ill (it was always tummy ache) but I wasn't convinced - but they should phone me if he really was ill and I would come up and pick him up (which never happened). The one time I tried the same at school, his teacher told me to take DS back home as he wasn't looking well - of course, as soon as I closed the front door, he announced he was absolutely fine! Not much help to you, I realise, but I know what it's like!

Morning. I've been up since 6.30am with a sore neck (pulled a muscle or something) and look like a zombie due to lack of sleep. Couldn't sleep much last night either.

Linzer there is hope for them sleeping in, I'm sure I read somewhere that teenagers really do need more sleep maybe to cope with the last growing spurts?

outnumbered good news on the summer holiday! Wish we could get something organised but still have to wait abit. How exciting about the house too, hope it works out.

Lentil clever ds! I once looked after a little boy in France and he had taught himself the whole alphabet by watching the French version of Countdown! His mum didn't even know he'd done it as she was always in the kitchen doing dinner when the show was on so you never really know what the little ones pick up just by observing the world around them!

We had quite a few cm of snow yesterday but the sun is out this morning so I'm hoping the drive will be clear before I have to get the car out of the garage.