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

LT, lolz @ when DH leaves home, hahaha! :)

Well, it's all fitted in the van, so that's a relief. DH drives it to the UK tomorrow, overnights twice on the ferry, poor man, then back Wednesday morning. We then all fly Thursday. Would have preferred to all just drive over, but he could not hire a van one-way.

Oops, hit send too soon.

Going to have a really good spell of selling stuff once we get back to the UK, and really pare down our belongings. I feel weighed down with it all.

LT, really sorry to hear about your father. I hope a mini stroke means it was very mild and no serious effects. Thinking of you.

lentils well done on getting it all packed and in the van. Hope the drive goes well for dh. I do think it is harder to be minimalistic with children...even the idea of having just a few toys out and rotating them means that they need to be stored somewhere in between.

Linzer sorry about your dad. It is hard to be away at such times. When does he have results? Is he home? Hope he is okay.

Thanks also for the information on email accounts. good to know they are not that bad.

I am home again today - can you guess why? Yes, he's asleep as I type. But I have some work I can do from home so off to do that.

Hello! Just another brief one from me to wish lentils and family a smooth move to Scotland! I wish you the very best and hope you will all be very happy there. Dh would move to Scotland ( the further out the better) in a heartbeat, it would be his dream!!

linzer sorry to hear about your dad! I hope it didn't do any lasting damage. My db had a Mini stroke a couple of years ago ( he was 35 or 36 then!!) he doesn't have any lasting damage whatsoever. I don't know if it was because, with him being a medical doctor, he spotted the signs much quicker. Anyway, I hope yiur dad is ok. Horrible to be far away from family when things like that happen

Oh, and platanos how frustrating for you! It's one of the reasons why I seriously doubt I will be able to get back to work in the foreseeable future. Every now and then I think ' yes, I can do it' but then it's followed by several sick children, or the usual worry and chaos with ds1& ds2...

lentils that has come round so fast! Have a safe trip to Scotland and I hope you have fun setting up your new home there.
Are you doing anything special to say goodbye to Germany/ hello Scotland?
Also what sort of things will you be selling when you get back to the uk? Apart from big bits of furniture (bed, wardrobe, dining table chairs etc) we don't have much stuff. I'd love to have more books but also am happy to read things on my kindle now - although I miss reading books I find the kindle much easier to juggle with DS.

Linzer I'm impressed at how much you read, how do you squeeze in reading time? I hope your dad (and mum) are ok and that being a "mini stroke" he doesn't have too many problems.

Platanos sorry your DS is poorly. Sorry if I've cinfused thus with something /someone else but were you taking him for blood tests?

Hello chease and outnumbered :)

Well it's has been consistently gray here for about the last 8 days :( there was a break n the clouds at one point and I think I even saw the sun.... But then the last 2/3 days it has rained. I keep teasing DP because the weather in London is much better and I am sick to the back teeth of Germans saying "oh but I though it rained all the time in England". I should really learn to reply with " yes, and I thought people in Germany only eat wurst, brot und bier"
Or I could stop moaning about the weather

DS is well and growing and wriggling around. He can almost roll back to front and back again. He can also almost roll both ways.... I'm pretty sure if he figures that out he will be wriggling far and wide!
He will be 5 months on Saturday. He isn't really interested in food yet so I'm not planning weaning just yet....

We are off to France on Friday.... But the weather there isn't looking too great at the mo

Linzer sorry to hear about your dad. My dh worked in stroke research in Berlin and as outnumbered says´with her db, the quicker the symptoms are recognised the better the chances are. They were trying to find ways of recognising the symptoms even sooner than a mini stroke but so far there's no big break through.

Bon voyage Lentil I bet you're exhausted and will be looking forward to it all being over and done with.

Platanos hope your ds is OK. It must be a worry for you.

I think I have a virus, headache and aching limbs and dh is in Japan all week at his conference. Luckily my dc are old enough to let me sleep it out so I'll be heading back to bed after lunch.

linzer sorry to hear about your dad. I hope there are no lasting effects and that he and the rest of your family get some reassurance soon.

platanos food allergies are so strange, aren't they? I get a tickly feeling in my lips and a swelling feeling in my throat when I eat apples or hazelnuts, and quite a lot of other summer fruit and some nuts make my throat feel sore. I found a table on the allergy uk website that grouped related allergies and I definitely have the birch-apple allergy, but there were things listed like peas and beans that I have never noticed being allergic to. I think the ampunt of allergen varies depending on how fresh things are as well - I can eat apples straight from the tree and for a month or two afterwards, but rarely find any in the supermarket that I can eat (not that I try them very often).

lentils good luck with the move!

Hi to admylin, nutellla, outnumbered and anyone else I've missed.

Linzer I hope your dad is on the road to recovery. It must have been a shock.

admylin Sorry to hear you´re feeling ill. I think this terrible weather isn´t helping. The practice has been bursting at the seems all day today.
When does ds go away on his trip? Hopefully not for a couple of weeks, so the ground has a chance to dry out.

Nutella I hope you have a great time in France - how long are you going for?

Lentils I hope you have a safe journey back to Scotland.

Planatos Your poor ds - he really has had a bad run of illnesses. Hopefully he´ll be feeling better soon.

We´ve had 48 hours of continuous heavy rain here. We even lit a fire yesterday as it was so cold. Dh is off to Greece with some friends at the weekend. He goes every year and I usually don´t mind, but this year I´m feeling a bit as the weather here is so rubbish.

Aw, out, come out to Scotland then! :)

admylin, take it easy and get well soon. I'm feeling rather tired, I think it's more the stress of getting packed, moved, selling some stuff before we go, getting DS out and about whilst having to schedule collection times for people who've bought stuff. Wasted lots of hours waiting in for people who are late, or postpone and don't tell me until I've been stuck in a few hours. Grr. I need to be free!

platanos, you are right, it's the toys that take up so much room! And then you need storage. DS is currently left with one small ball, one small car, some bubbles, and the iPad. He seems perfectly happy!
Hope your little one is ok soon.

Nutella, just selling stuff like clothes we don't need. I had a crazy thing for coats - I used to have a few coats for every type of weather. Light rain, heavy rain, mild, mild but windy, warm, snowy, cold but not freezing, various evenings out - smart, smart casual, snazzy, jackets for weddings, ones that only suit a particular outfit, various body warmers/gilets - you get the gist. So, I have some coats to offload. I will try and get down to maybe six! Still feels excessive.
I have about 20 bikinis too. Oh dear. More gym gear than I need now.
Several pairs of jeans - smart, casual, clubby, summery, wintery.
Various duvet sets.
It all accumulates, and I really want out of it!
Various gifts that I've been too polite to regift in case a givee ever asks where is such and such! But no more! I am done with stuff! :)

Not really doing anything special to mark our departure/arrival. Life is one big celebration anyway, right?! :)

Bon voyage to you for France!

Thanks, I'm sure we will have a lovely time. Hupa we are gone for two weeks in total. We isn't take a little trip down to Bilbao while we are there... We shall see , what the weather is like, how much we feel like doing and how the weather is!
Also I have finally got around to putting up a pic of Nuttelachen on my profile page for those that would like a look :)

*we might take a little trip to Bilbao....

Have a lovely time in France, Nutella! I've just had a peek at the picture and Nutellachen is gorgeous - such a cute smile :)

hupa I hope the rain has let up. It's nice and sunny here today but forecast to rain again non-stop for the next week or so.

Hope you feel better soon, admylin!

Ooh you're on the home stretch now, Lentils. Hope it all goes smoothly from here.

platanos Ge well soon to your DS! Poor thing.

So sorry to hear about your dad, Linzer. when does he get the test results back? I hope they find what caused it and that there are no lasting side effects. I have my fingers crossed for him.

I had a really weird old lady encounter at the weekend. I nipped into town to pick up a few bits and took the bus home as DH needed the car. As I was waiting to get on the bus, there was an old lady behind me waiting to get on, who started trying to shove me out of the way with her shoulder so she could get on, but there were still people getting off the bus so I couldn't move out the way, and she wouldn't have been able to get on anyway until they had finished. So she just kept on knocking me really hard with her shoulder and when I stood firm and refused to be pushed over or let her push past me, she made a few really loud, narky comments, and moan about me to her husband all the way home!! How odd! Pushing in is bad enough, trying to push someone over to push in is even worse, but then being rude to that person as if they were the one in the wrong is just bizarre. There are some strange people around. Of course I couldn't think of a suitable comment to make back at the time, as is always the way

Antique Well done for standing your ground! I've had exactly the same experience with an old couple in Germany. They probably think us young ones should step aside and let them on first (oh well, atleast we're still classe da syoung in their eyes). With me, the old lady pulled me back by the straps of my bag as I had one foot on the step of the bus already and complained and tutted loudly too. Luckily I didn't understand a word she said.

Nutella very of your trip. I used to live in the south west of France near the border with the Basque Country. It's lovely there. Will you be near the coast too?

Lentil wow, your ds realyl does have alot of clothes! More jackets than I own anyway! Good luck with selling it all and come back and see us on here now and then once you're settled.

hupa this rain is terrible isn't it? Nor surprised you're abit jealous of dh in Greece. I'm wishing we could be doing the sights on Tokyo with dh right now too. THat's a thought, I hadn't had about the wet ground for ds's trip. Atleast he's got waterprrof trousers, raincoat and waterprrog shoes. He'll get some use out of the trousers as I was thinking it'd be a waste of money as he'd never wear them again.
He goes in 2 weeks. His eating is getting better as he's found a technique to eat using the side of his mouth and only putting small bits of food in.

cheas I've never heard of those allergy tables, will have to look them up. I used to be able to eat nuts and apples but now I can't eat either without feeling really sick. I can eat cooked apples though with no problems, can you?

Been to the doctors as I was worried about the pain in my legs and the constant headache but she just gave me a stronger asthma spray and told me to rest so I've slept all morning and am going back to sleep now. She told me to take paracetamol rather than asprin or ibuprofen.

admylin hope you feel better soon. Glad you got some medicine from the dr. Are your dc looking after you? Good that ds has found a way to eat - how is the pain? Do you think he can go on his trip?

cheas it is funny how allergies work, I am just beginning to grasp that there are no hard and fast rules. But it is difficult because the kindergarten needs those strict rules. I shall experiment at home.

antique very strange indeed. I experienced strange old woman behaviour at the post office recently. I was the only one standing in the queue (they have re-vamped the whole post office and it is now very clear where the queue should be) and a woman comes up and stands a few feet ahead of me, and a bit to the side. I glare, she notices.
she offended: "are you in the queue?" (as if I just stood around in post offices for the fun of it)
me polite: "yes"
she rude and annoyed at me: "well then stand in it!!!!"
I shuffle forward. But I was with the children I turned my head to talk to them and she slipped ahead. She stood between where the queue should be (marked by a thick black line) and the counter. I glared but she ignored me. And she was served first. I said nothing but was both puzzled and annoyed.

lentils I can see why you can get rid of stuff....20 bikinis? I think you need to move somewhere warm and sunny where that is the only think you wear. And leave the coats behind . have a good trip!

hupa I hope the weather improves near you too! We also put the heating back on. Have you got anything nice planned for yourself while your dh is away?

nutella enjoy your holiday! Donostia is also very beautiful too. Hope the rain stays away. Yes, dr told us to get blood tests, but I have to pick up some piece of paper (with what the blood should be tested for) tomorrow and it has to be a temperature of over 38.5 which ds has not got at the moment.

outnumbered it is tricky with work and children. But luckily dds are hardly ever ill, it is just ds.

DS is better today, thanks. Back to Kindergarten tomorrow. Then Thursday and Friday are off here. He is sitting next to writing his name...in mirror image. Well, that will ensure he gets to stay in the Vorschulklasse....off to encourage more of the same .

platanos Good to hear your DS is better. It's the same here; the DDs are virtually never ill, only ever DS. Fortunately it's not too often as it's just impossible to get any work done when he's at home. Am still searching for a palatable milk replacement for coffee, btw - I tried rice milk yesterday and, if anything, it was worse than soya milk. DH has suggested I give up coffee entirely (he no longer drinks it during the week). I have almond milk to try next...

admylin Hope you're feeling better today. Is your DS starting to find the brace any more comfortable?

Antique Well done for standing firm; I tend to push someone back when that happens to me in a passive-aggressive kind of way as I can never think of a suitable retort either!

Nutella Very cute pic of Nutellachen! Hope you have a great time in France and better weather than is forecast. We're off to Budapest tomorrow for the long weekend and rain is forecast for the entire time there too. I almost preferred the weather in London to here as there was rarely any snow in the winter, it didn't get ridiculously hot in the summer and I don't remember it ever raining much either (unlike where my parents live, where it definitely rains far more often than it does here).

Post-DC I didn't have/make much time to read up until a year or two ago, but now read whenever I can - when I'm supervising homework, when we're all out in the garden (it means I can ignore the mess indoors and claim to be supervising the DC at the same time: win-win), on car journeys, while I'm waiting for the hairdresser's to open (although one woman didn't take the hint recently and tried to keep chatting to me - grr); basically, whenever I have a few minutes to spare.

Lentil 20 bikinis? I also have too many coats but find it difficult to get rid of them. I could probably declutter all my trousers though, as I never wear them (have got rid of most, but still keep a couple of pairs just in case).

hupa I would also be very of DH going anywhere warm, even if it was just for work. Fortunately he's only been to Germany recently, and said the weather was just as bad as it is here!

Waves to cheas, outnumbered and anyone else I've missed.

Thanks for all the good wishes about my dad. He seems to be recovering OK, apart from being very tired. I'm not sure when he gets the test results back, but I don't think he's heard anything yet. I suppose I'm mainly worried because my grandmother (my mum's mother) had a mini stroke at about the same age and then a fatal stroke about a year later. My dad's father also had a stroke in his early seventies, which he never really recovered from - he spent the next ten years in a home, unable to walk, talk or do anything for himself. So I already had a lot of negative associations as far as strokes are concerned and am quite worried about my dad having another one. He's on statins and aspirin now, anyway, and the cause is being investigated so there's not a lot more that anyone can do.

linzer good that your dad seems to be recovering. Must have been worrying for you getting the phone call.

platanos hope you managed to catch up on work and ds is healthy now.

Ds is managing with his brace and eating soft food. He has to kind of use the sides of his mouth to chew. I am going to call teh kfo and ask if he could remove the plastic bite thing for the trip atleast.
I'm trying to compose an e-mail to him about dd ( we don't want her to have the bite plate due to speech problems and her selective musism). It's so frustrating writing in German and I feel ashamed that after so many years I still have problems and have no chance of writing fehlerfrei.

admylin Sorry to hear that ds is still having problems? will the kfo remove it for the trip ? And hope you get a positive reply to your letter about dd. Are you feeling better?

linzer Hope the almond milk works out and that you don't need to give up coffee! How was Budapest? I've been thinking about your weather comment, and in spite of I don't know how many days of grey skies and rain, I think I prefer it here than in the UK. Or maybe it is because here we have decent heating and the flat also keeps cool (-ish) in summer. Our house in the UK was drafty and carpets were very hot in summer. Or maybe it is because we live in a big city with a choice of things to do in both cold weather and the heat. I hope all continues to go well with your father, and that he is getting medical treatment.

It has been a loooooong weekend here - with 3 dc and rain! I have managed to read two books - the two Craig Lancaster books about Edward and really enjoyed them. Must go, the dds want to play restaurant.

So we arrived in Scotland safe and sound. Still busy unpacking and decluttering, will take ages, but getting there.
Thanks for all your lovely company over the last 14 months. I'll sign out of this thread as I could barely keep up as it was, and I'm getting ever less time online too. Will keep up with you all on Fb.
Wishing you all the rest of a lovely weekend. xxx

Lentil Glad to hear you've arrived safely. Will miss seeing you on the thread, but it will be good to keep up on FB.

platanos Budapest was great, thanks - it actually reminded me quite a bit of Vienna (the streets, coffee houses, etc.). The weather wasn't brilliant but still better than it was here, from what I've heard, so we managed to do quite a lot of sightseeing. Well done on the book reading btw; despite reading on the journey both to and from Budapest, I didn't even manage to get one finished.

Re the weather, I think so much depends on where you are in the UK. I can't remember getting fed up much with the weather in London (plus like you said about Vienna, there are lots of things to do there in all kinds of weather), but the weather where my parents live (much rainier, windier and cooler) would put me off living there - and there's very little to do there when the weather's bad.

admylin I'm so out of practice with writing German and wonder how I ever managed to write essays in the language. I can manage texts and work-related e-mails OK, but rarely need to write much otherwise - any official letters usually get delegated to DH, I have to admit. Hope you get your DC's brace problems sorted out asap, anyway.

It's a month full of five-day weeks here, which is going to take some getting used to after all the short weeks in May! It's not helped by the fact that DH is away in Romania at the end of this week and won't be back until late Friday evening (he normally comes home a little earlier on a Friday). Still, it will be good to have a few more mornings to myself to catch up on everything that I've got behind on.

Morning all. Linzer Budapest is on my list of places I'd like to visit. Did you stay in a nice hotel? How are the dc doing at school now it's all drawing to an end? My 2 are counting down the days now, 3 weeks to go and d dhas already put it in big neon letters in her homework diary!
Are you still doing vegan? Ds's staple food at the moment is vegan, japanese style noodles fried with mushrooms and soya sauce!

Auf Wiedersehen Lentil and good luck with settling in. Enjoy Scotland!

platanos do you live in the centre of Vienna? Where did you live in the UK? No, we're still not 100% with ds's brace BUT - I just rang the kfo and spoke to the dragon at the reception who was all oh no das geht nicht bla bla bla but then I explained how bad the service is at these klassenfahrt places, tough dry food etc so she went to ask the kfo and he's given us an appointment on Thursday afternoon. No idea if he'll really take the bite plate out but atleast he's going to have a look.

I think I'll wait until the week after that to send the mail about dd not getting a bite plate ( it'll save us about 250? too).

admylin The hotel was fab - much more boutique like than the places we usually stay, with three or four rooms for "chilling out", individually designed bedrooms, very friendly, quite central and fairly reasonably priced. The DC break up at the end of June and are already counting down the weeks; it'll also be a relief once DD1 has her last Schularbeit out of the way.

I'm still more vegetarian than vegan as I have a lot of cheese, yogurt, chocolate biscuits and Cadbury's to use up, but have successfully replaced cow's milk with soya milk in my tea! I'm also trying to eat vegan dinners as much as possible. There was a chain of hummus restaurants in Budapest where we had a delicious meal and DS has suddenly decided he loves couscous (after refusing to eat it for months and months), so I thought I should have a go at making falafel and hummus at home again.

Oh, I hate those dragon receptionists - glad you managed to get an appointment after all, though. I've just phoned up the dentist's for an appointment with the hygienist; they didn't have any until the end of July, when we'll be on holiday, and I could see myself having to wait until September. Luckily the receptionist then discovered they had a cancellation on Thursday, so I'll be going then. I hate going and hate not being able to drink anything for a while afterwards, but I know my teeth will look better for it!

Aw thanks, LT. You could always join me on the vegan thread here.

Ooh, admylin, you've made me want Wagamama noodles now! Forgot about them! Delicious.

Linzer it's great when the dc add a new food to their list of likes isn't it? I was very happy when mine recently decided couscous was edible after having refused it so many times. We had it yesterday with red pepper and tofu stir fry and even ds managed it with his brace.

Dd was quite fed up yesterday. She is really good at art but has been given a grade 2 for her final report. Ds also has a 2 in art for some unknown reason as he is very bad at art (although he is very neat and follows instructions for art projects to the word so he gets points for that). Dd was told to start a project over again as they were meant to be doing big 3d letters and she did 'WOW!' but was told to take a different word in German!

Ds goes on his trip on Sunday and we still haven't been told who is going to accompany his class (his class teacher isn't going with them) or what time they set off. The dc asked at school and were told that the information wa son a letter sent out month ago. Obviously no one has that letter any more or the dc wouldn't be asking...roll on 26th of June. I get the feeling that the dc and the teachers have all just had enough and can't be bothered anymore.

Oh, and we just got the letters about paying to borrow the school books for next year, 97? and 99? to be paid by 25th of June!

Hello everyone!

We are having a lovely time but DS has been a bit poorly with baby bronchitis. We took him to the dr yesterday and he sent us straight to Kinesiotherapie and the lady there had time to see him straight away. She started squishing his chest until he cried and them made him cough. Poor little man!
We took him again today and a very attractive man was much more gentle with him. We have one more appointment tomorrow. But DS is definitely better. He has also had diarrhoea since we got here I think there is a tooth coming (he has also got a bit bitey) is it always so much fun travelling with babies?

Admylin we are in Basque Country - near St. John pied a port.