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

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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

Morning,

The DC are back at school for their only five-day week this month; as nice as it is to have all these short weeks, I wish they could be spread throughout the year a bit better. Hope everyone had a good weekend and Mother's Day; we went out for breakfast for Mother's Day, then to the Landesmuseum (I'd wanted to go to a Weinerlebniswelt, but the DC weren't as keen - the museum was interesting too, though!).

platanos Yes, I think soft play would have been closed on Thursday so it probably all worked out for the best in the end! We'll be at my ILs next Sunday, but how would Monday be for you? Glad DS is better; is he back at Kiga now?

Nutella Hope you're having a lovely time in Dresden! I haven't been there for 22 years (an ex-boyfriend of mine was at university there), so it's probably all changed since then - the Frauenkirche was still rubble back then, for example. Doesn't Jenny know Dresden? (Although a bit late now, of course.)

outnumbered Hope your neck is better now. Yes, DH gets all the Zwickeltage (as he calls them - think it might be oberösterreichisch) off; in theory, he has to work a couple of minutes extra a day to do so but in practice he does lots of overtime anyway. It's just a shame he doesn't get those extra Tuesdays off that schools seem to like to tack on to bank holiday Mondays (next week for example, after the Pfingstmontag bank holiday).

Lentil Am with you on liking minimalism but also liking nice things! Not an ideal combination, is it? It took me years before I started going to the hairdresser's regularly here and I still can't really do "hairdresser talk" - I can never remember what frizzy is in German, for example (something I often need when I'm talking about my hair!).
Hope you and outnumbered enjoy your meet-up tomorrow.

Antique The DVD arrived on Friday, thank you - am really looking forward to watching it! We're thinking about trying Hyposensibilisierung for DS's allergies, but he's terrified of injections at the moment so the paed agreed it would be best to wait for a few years - he does say sometimes that he'll have the injections so that we can get a dog but I think it would be more for his dust allergy than his cat allergy.

Hi all! No time to post. Will try to post tonight.

lentils what will we do if it rains or it's really cold? Also, any idea where we could meet. I dont know F at ll, but I'll be coming from the uni hospital. I don't have loads of time so would prefer somewhere not too far/ easyish to find, parking nearby. Too much to ask for? We should swap mobile numbers perhaps via PM perhaps.

Waves to everyone!!!

Outnumbered good luck at the meeting and hope you and Lentil find somewhere nice to meet.

Linzer back to school here too - both dc were up and ready before I even got out of bed today! Won't last!

platanos hope ds is fully recovered and you got some sun at the weekend. Yes, I got shoes for ds thank goodness and now only need to look for wandersocken and turnschuhe, die nass werden durfen.

Antique how is the hay fever? I'm right in th emiddle of mine, asthma every day. I used to get the nose/eye reactions but now I just get asthma. It's a pain, wheezing like an old chain smoker every night.

Those of you with kindles: ds's kindle for his birthday arrives this week. Can I get him some amazon.de eBooks and later some on anazon.co.uk? I understood so far that I have to register it to an account but will it swap between accounts and if so how often? Has anyone figured that out yet? His gran was thinking of putting him some money on amazon.co.uk but if he can't swap between accounts then he'll have to stick to one I suppose.

Argh just had a phone call to say that my appt for tomorrow has been cancelled. Sorry lentils no idea when my new appt will be, but if you are still around d then, I'd love to meet up.

Am very annoyed about this as we were almost finished with the parent interview thing. And apparently it won't even be with the same doctor, so if the new one will be writing the report at the end, then there is o way he/she will be ble to paint a realistic picture without having seen me and ds2 at the first appointment. angry

even

outnubered Oh no, how frustrating. What a shame too that your meet-up has had to be postponed; hopefully you'll still be able to meet up with Lentil before she leaves.

admylin My Kindle was automatically registered to my address here as I bought it from Amazon.de, but I was able to switch to the UK Kindle store quite easily - you just need an address in the UK (I used my parents'). I'm not too sure how often you can switch between accounts, though, as I don't plan on changing back to the German Kindle store. When I was looking into it, I read about someone who would switch to the Spanish store whenever he wanted a Spanish book and then switched back, so it's obviously doable; I don't know whether it would be flagged up in the system if you kept changing countries of residence or whether Amazon has more important things to worry about.

Linzer thanks, that's good to know. It'll be on my .de account then for now and we'll see what he wants to put on it later. I've found some great books on th eGerman site to get him going anyway.

outnumbered what a shame about the meeting and hope the new doctor has enough info to help properly. I remember dd's dyslexia report was written up by a different doctor to the one who'd been with her for the 5 or 6 interviews and tests but I presume they had made alot of notes.

Meant to ask Nutella would you be interested in a student in the evenings? Dh has a colleague (doctor) who wants to improve her English and I've tried to help her but I'm VERY useless at explaining grammar. She stopped coming to me a while back as she was too busy and wants to start again. If she calls would you be interested? She used to come to the house in the evenings for an hour once a week and I only charged her 15? as I was so ashamed of my lack in teaching skills but she was willing to pay more. We did alot of converstaion and improving a medical research talk that she had to give at a conference.

When is the big move, lentil? Are you all packed and prepared? Do you have somewhere to live sorted out in Scotland?

outnumbered Sorry to hear your appointment was cancelled. Way a nightmare. I hope it doesn't complicate things too much and that the new doctor can still write the report with the help of the old doctor so that things are as realistic as possible. Fingers crossed. Let me know when you get the date for your new appointment and if you think you'll be available for a coffee afterwards I'll try and keep it free (all depending on whether I can get the car that day.)

Nutella How was Dresden? I've never been but I've heard it's a beautiful city.

Linzer Enjoy the DVDs! My brother just posted a picture of a 'winebulance' on my Facebook page. It's not quite a Weinerlebniswelt but it might make you smile - I'll send it to you...

admylin I'm drugged up to the eyeballs so my hayfever is a bit better, thank you :) I normally just get a sore throat and a blocked nose but it was closer to flu this year. Apparently lots of people are suffering more than normal this year because of the long winter. Asthma sounds even worse though, you poor thing. Do you have anything for it or do you just have to wait it out? It's raining here at the moment so it's not as heftig as last week. Hope it's nice and wet and pollen-free for you this week too.
I think you can get any books for the Kindle that you want from amazon.co.uk from amazon.de too (I've never had a problem finding the ones I want) although I imagine they might be a little more expensive.

My parents mentioned last night that they might come and visit for my 'round' birthday this year, which I'm quite excited about. I've been hinting for a while that they should try and come over but they've been very non-committal about it so far. Fingers crossed! It feels like they're missing out on so much with DS, especially now he's really starting to talk and learning new words every day. 'Nein' is, of course, still the favourite word butcher does sometimes switch to 'no' just for a bit of variety when telling me off, little monkey

Hello to everyone I haven't namechecked!

outnumbered How infuriating. I hope you get a new appointment soon.

admylin I´m another one who is terrible at explaining English grammar.
Our neighbour is thinking of getting a dyslexia diagnosis for his son. He´s now in the 8. Klasse and really struggling. Who was your first port of call when you set about getting the diagnosis for your dd?

Linzer I´m really enjoying all there Feiertage, but like you say, it would be better if they were spread out a bit more evenly.

For those of you with hayfever, dh has a lot of patients who have really been helped by Desensibilisierung. The only problem is remembering to start the treatment earlier enough - by the time Autumn comes around, the symptons have disappeared.

I´ve forgotten who asked, but ds had a great time on his Klassenfahrt. He manged to bring back a Zecke on his neck, but I managed to remove it myself and I keep checking the area, but it looks fine.

Shame not to meet outnumbered, and how frustrating for you re the delayed meeting. Grrr.

We haven't really started packing much, just getting rid of stuff, and selling the big items. The only big items for the van are the mattress and the big screen tv. Hurrah. And the pram and highchair, I suppose they re biggish!
We will be staying with PIL to start with. They've only seen DS for long weekends every few months, so going to cram in some time, I think DS will like it! They sure will. :) They have an empty home in the Outer Hebrides so we can use that too if we start to feel a bit cramped.

LT, I just don't like going to the hairdressers. I hate the chitchat, I'd rather not talk, but then I feel rude, and obliged to talk. There should be a service that advertises hairdressers who don't want to listen to idle chit chat either! And I hardly ever walk away with a cut I am happy with, they usually chop off too much. Though I am really considering going quite short now, though maybe I will wait til I am 40 next year and do it then.

hupa I went to a child psychologist, had to wait a few months for an appointment then we had a first meeting to discuss what our problems were then dd had to go for 5 appointments to do all the different tests (spelling, reading, dictation, IQ test etc), then an evaluation meeting. They then wrote the report for the Jugendamt (costs 40 or 50?) to see if they would pay for therapy. We had one appointment there too to meet with the Judendamt who then took 2 weeks to decide yes or no. Took ages but was very much worth it. Good luck to your neighbour.

Antique yes, wet here today so less pollen. I have an inhaler to take but I'm taking it to the maximum (and sometimes over) at the moment so not good. We should remind each other to try the Desensibilisierung before it comes round again next year!

Ds just had his first brace taken off - next one goes on in a weeks time so he's going to enjoy having his mouth back for a week. First thing he said was that it's great to not have wires sticking into his skin!

It was the 12th of March that I said I wouldn't vegangelise on here for a month, and I've done two months! :)
So I am gently offering a suggestion for the hayfever sufferers that giving up dairy has a dramatic effect for many people, who notice their symptoms disappear or at least drastically reduce. Feel free to ignore or experiment! :)

admylin Thanks for the info. We´re going out with them to a Spargel-Buffet at the weekend, so I´ll pass it on then.

We´ve got torrential rain here at the moment. Dd is meant to be going on a Walderlebnistag tomorrow. I think they might be wading through mud at this rate.

Lentil The hairdresser I go to always offers a pile of trashy magazines to read as soon as you sit down. I´ve found that as long as I look engrossed in an article they don´t bother to make small talk. The only problem is if I really do become engrossed in something, I don´t notice that they´ve suddenly started to chop too much off or blow dry it so that I have "big" hair.

:) hupa. Yeah, I just feel rude ignoring them though!

Lentil I have the same problem. My last hairdresser was great as she didn't seem that interested in chatting, and I'd get my Kindle out as soon as I sat down. But then she went on maternity leave and the one I have now is really chatty, so I feel quite rude if I get my book out - I usually have it lying on the shelf in front of me, but can't pluck up the courage to pick it up and start reading. She's lovely otherwise and I really like the way she does my hair so I don't want to change, but I miss having that time to read!

hupa Hope the weather has improved for your DD's Walderlebnistag; we had torrential rain yesterday evening and last night too, but it's lovely and sunny today.

admylin It's great that the Jugendamt will pay for therapy. They only do so here for hardship cases; mind you, at ?65 an hour I think we'll be a hardship case by the end of the year.

Antique How exciting about your parents' possible visit. Mine haven't been over for nearly seven years and are also very non-committal whenever we invite them, but I can see it's not the easiest journey when you're in your seventies (it can often take the best part of 24 hours). I'm still waiting desperately for the winebulance, btw.

Yes, I think most English-language books are available on Amazon.de too, but are just much more expensive. With the odd exception, I haven't spent much more than a pound on any Kindle books so far. I've just finished reading Winter in Madrid, which I splashed out a couple of pounds on, but it was definitely worth it in the end (although it took me quite a while to get into it).

outnumbered sorry to hear about your appointment! Hope it all gets sorted out for you quickly. And good luck with the competitive dryness! It sounds like a really good idea.

admylin I'll pm you about the student. I think I'm interested...
I hope DS enjoys his birthday and kindle - when is it his birthday?
Do you have everything you need for the camping trip? (Other than shoes - someone mentioned a shop near the opera house called "Al bundy" that does cheap shoes, but I haven't been there so I don't know exactly what they have but I think it's on Georgstr)

Linzer your comment about amazon having better things to do made me smile.

Antique when's your birthday? I turned 30 last year () and my little brother and his girlfriend met us in Berlin & it was a surprise for me. It was fantastic. I told DP he couldn't have organised anything better for me.
They were also the first people I told (apart from my mum, but that was in the phone) that I was pregnant.

I really enjoy going to the hairdresser. I could talk the hind legs off of a donkey but I also like to sit quietly and be pampered. Unless I have something specific to talk about. My current hairdresser is really lovely - which reminds me I need a haircut!

Dresden was lovely. Fantastic weather, nice hotel (thank you DP's work), nice town and very lovely scenery. I will bore you all about it once I have put DS into bed. He is currently asleep on me.

Good morning all.

Dresden was lovely and I saw loads. The weather was really fantastic. Not too hot, just nice warm sunny weather. DS was very well behaved (even on a 2 hour bus tour) and I carried him most of the time. I paid 22? for a two day tourist ticket thing. It included a hop on hop off bus tour and some guided tours. I actually ended up with two tours where it was just me and a very informative guide :) definitely worth visiting a city during the week .

Definitely one to recommend. Lots of interesting things and rebuilding projects still going on. I would happily go back for another couple of days, I didn't get in the Frauenkirche and I didn't make it round the dairy either so I would at least like to do those.

I was pleased DS also did ok sleeping in the hotel. We havent travelled with him anywhere overnight before so it w a little adventure for all of us. The first night I think he was worn out from so many new things; but he woke (also in the night as usual for a couple of feeds) just before 7 (which is unlike him). The second night he seemed more unsettled but slept well once we got him off to sleep. Then last night he seemed relieved to be home. I wonder what will happen at bedtime tonight...

Nutella sounds like you had a great trip! Phew, great that you might be interested in the student! I'll message you with details!
Ds's birthday is on the 22nd but he's got a physics exam that day and the day before he gets his braces fixed on so won't be in a very good mood. We're doiong the unthinkable and celebrating at the weekend when he can still eat and is free from revision and physics!
Yes, so far I've got everything on the list except the fleece liner for the sleeping bag but I'm still waiting to find out from one of the more experienced parents if that's optional as his sleeping bag is good for 4° and upwards. Surely in June that should be OK?

Linzer that's alot of money isn't it for the dyslexia training. It is worth it if it has as much success as with dd but still takes a big chunk out of your monthly budget.
I'm going to open the kindle today and compare prices of eBooks. If the books I wanted are cheaper on the UK site then I might as well start on that site. Luckily is doesn't bother ds which language he reads in so English books are OK for him. Dd started the 2nd Hunger Games book in English but decided she'd rather have it in German and has borrowed a German copy from a friend.

hupa hope it's not too wet for your dd's trip. Has she got her wellie boots on?

Have just checked the prices for the 4 or 5 books I wanted to put on the kindle for ds and some of them are even cheaper on the .de site
They're all in English and most of them are classics. I've never experienced something or anything being cheaper in Germany than in the UK (OK, except food...but otherwise nothing).

A lot of the classics are free on the Kindle, admylin. what did you put on there for your DS. [nosey]

Glad to hear you enjoyed Dresden, Nutella. Did your DS go down ok inn the evening once you were home? My birthday isn't until the summer but a friend has a 30th coming up at the end of this month and it's got me a bit excited about mine already

hupa I know what you mean about getting too distracted and ending up with the dreaded big hair!

I can't complain about my hairdresser! He is English (I didn't go out looking for an English hairdresser, I just sort of ended up with him when my last hairdresser moved to Italy) and is always full of scandalous gossip about people I don't know, which is entertaining enough to pass the gimme. He's also the first hairdresser I've ever had who understands curly hair and isn't obsessed with straightening it and cutting it in a style that only works straight. This is why I've always ended up wearing my hair straight a lot of the time, even though I'd much rather leave it curly.

Linzer Where have you been getting books so cheaply for your Kindle? Do you order from UK Amazon or have you bypassed Amazon and got them from somewhere else? DH always shrieks when the credit card bill comes in and sees books for almost a tenner.

Lentils That's interesting about the dairy. I was all for giving it a go until I realised that I don't really eat much dairy anyway. I never got around to my vegan week in the end but I'm still planning on trying it. I was thinking of getting a vegan cookbook. Is there one you would recommend?

DS isn't sleeping much at night at the moment, which is knackering. (Apologies for stating the blindingly obvious.) He's having a nap now though so I'm having a coffee and watching The West Wing. Th first series was quite cheap on iTunes and it's turned into a hand housework avoidance tactic!

Speaking of sleep, how is your DS2 sleeping, MrTumbles?

Apologies for the many, many typos. I was far too lazy to proof read before I pressed post.

DS has been at home from school today and just seems to want me to read him one book after another, but thankfully one of the neighbours' DC has just called round and they're all out in the garden now so I can give my voice a rest and have a coffee! I did manage to have one cup this morning, but it's difficult to enjoy it when you have someone asking every 30 seconds how long you're going to be (I'd told him I was having a break from the reading while I was drinking it).

Antique I've switched to the UK Kindle site, mainly because they seem to have more bargains (at least as far as English books are concerned). I usually just search the top 100 paid bestsellers as it often seems to include cheap books; there's not usually much I fancy in the top 100 free books, although I did quite enjoy Blood, Sweat and Tea (written by a London paramedic) and have also downloaded War of the Worlds. I also subscribe to the Daily Deal e-mail (and got a free book for doing so); the books are almost always 99p, although I've only ever bought a couple.

admylin I'm amazed at English-language books being cheaper on the German Kindle site! I was wondering how you managed to compare prices, as it no longer lets me see e-book prices on Amazon.de now that I've switched to the UK site, but have just realised I'd probably be able to do so if I logged out of Amazon.

Nutella Your trip to Dresden sounded fab. How's your DS sleeping now? A friend and I had a guided tour all to ourselves at the Brecht-Haus in Berlin, but I found it a bit awkward and wished I could have thought of more questions to ask!

DD2 wants me to revise music theory with her now - she and DD1 have their exam today - so must go. Waves to all!

Antique I've noticed this vegan book is at the top of the bestseller list here in Germany at the moment 'Vegan for Fit. Die Attila Hildmann 30-Tage-Challenge' - sounds good. Dd wants to do another week too in the summer holidays but first she says she needs a new mixer to make smoothies and she has collected the recipes already. We're looking for one as all I have at the moment is a stick blender!

Most of the classics I put on ds's kindle were slightly cheaper than the same versions on the uk site. Strange. I put On the beach, 1984, Sherlock Holmes collection, a selection of time travel/science fiction books, just to keep him going.

Linzer I noticed that too, why do they not show the prices on the kindle when you browse books? I was looking on the kindle pages on my PC to compare. It does show the price but not in the first list iyswim....anyway, it'll be up to ds now! Hope he doesn't get carried away although dh never really checks his credit card bill, it goes straight in the file when it comes!

admylin Yes, it would be much easier if they showed the prices on the first page when you browse books on the Kindle - it takes much longer to have to click through to the description of the book to find out the price. I can't see normally see Kindle prices on the German site at all (just a message saying this book is not available in your country), but have just logged out of Amazon.de and now it's showing them. I think DH has given up asking me to explain every little payment on the credit card (he checks our bank account online); he would probably only question me if I spent about ?50 or more!

I've also been thinking about trying to eat a more vegan diet, as I feel a bit hypocritical eating so much dairy when I'm a vegetarian. I've also decided to stop, or at least dramatically cut down on, the amount of meat that I'm cooking for the DC. It feels a bit pointless to be a vegetarian but still to be buying and cooking meat - and it also means that my diet is quite poor as I don't bother cooking extra meals for myself (I'll have something like a boiled egg, slice of pizza or beans on toast in the evening). If we all ate a vegetarian dinner every day, I would definitely have a more varied diet.