Es herbstelt schon! Autumn in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria or anyone who just wants to chat/ask a question about living in or visiting this part of the world - all welcome.

Previous thread here.

Woolly - I read an article a while back (probably in the Guardian) about traditional Norwegian parenting which said that adults in that society would consistently correct children's behaviour gently, ie. children were assumed not to know better and were therefore not being "naughty", but needed to be told/shown by any adult present when their behaviour was not what would be expected from an adult

I like that attitude, partly because it's less likely to result in confrontation with another parent (as mrtumbles says, if the child is behaving like that at age 4-5 without the parent reacting, then who knows how they might take you saying something to them), but also because it makes me feel that it's acceptable and necessary to correct other people's children.

Ambling - thanks for the tips about Vegan for Fun/Fit. I remembered that Müller have quite a large book section, so I'm going to go there and to the bookshop today while dd is at Turnen and see if they have either of the books. I bought River Cottage Veg every day for £5 while in the UK over Xmas, so I really don't need any more new cookery books, but hey.

I have a question about swimming lessons. Have any of anyone's dc successfully learnt to swim under age 5? Dd loves going to the pool and can do doggy paddle very slowly with armbands on and will blow bubbles (while trying to keep her eyes out of the water). I was going to sign her up for lessons starting in March (she will be 5 in May) and a couple of friends wanted to do the same so the kids would know someone else in the class, but one friend has now signed her ds up for lessons starting this weekend in a group that is possibly less old-school in approach. Wwyd?

FrauEnglish DD wasn't quite 4.5 when she learnt (she snuck in as her friend's mum arranged a course for a group of 4 of them, the official minimum age was 4.5) - she did the course and got her SeePferdchen at the end (unlike the friend, who the teacher said wasn't ready by the end of the course - oops!). However DS1 took the same course at 5 and still couldn't really swim by the end, took another "gentler" course after that and it still didn't click, then we left it and he finally put everything together for himself, but he was almost 6 by then...

Perfectly possible at 4 I think, but don't be disappointed if he doesn't get it ... DD was much smaller at 4.5 than DS1, so in some ways he should have been physically more capable, but I think at the initial stage it is more psychological than physical.

*She

Mrtumbles - thanks. I've just asked dd, who said she wants to learn to swim when she's my age and doesn't seem keen to start lessons on Sunday, so maybe I'll leave it until March. I don't really mind too much if the course is successful or not in teaching her to swim, but I would hate for it to scare her out of her love of the pool. I spoke to another mum at kiga today whose dd I am trying to encourage dd to be friends with (because dd will be moving into her class after the summer and because I like the parents). She wants to sign her dd up for lessons in March, so we could probably get both into the same group.

Do children make a leap at some point of deciding they want to learn things? Dd joins in things without complaining and seems to enjoy them, but hasn't shown any passion for anything or nagged to do anything yet.

FrauEnglisch My three were all different. It's only now, at 7, that DS is actually starting to want to do things - he's just started fencing and also wants me to sign him up for electric guitar lessons next year. DD1 was never too bothered about afterschool activities, although like your DD went without complaining, while DD2 has always been quite vocal about what she wants to do. She was desperate to do ballet at 2 and I remember her crying hysterically because she was under 3 so wasn't allowed to join DD1 in her class - and I also remember her crying hysterically because she didn't want to go to recorder lessons any more.

Talking of hysterical crying, I had to take DS for two jabs this afternoon. I'd put Emla on his arms beforehand and told him it shouldn't hurt much, which seemed to calm him down a little beforehand, but once the doctor got the needles out he started screaming and trying to run away. He had them done in the end, but I can see it's definitely too soon for any kind of desensitization therapy for his allergies!

Woolly I think you dealt with the situation perfectly; I'd like to think I'd have behaved in exactly the same way - although I may well have ended up just muttering PA comments in English about badly behaved children while giving evil looks to the mother.

Ambling We gave DD2 a Kindle for Christmas and I set up her own Amazon account - unlike mine, registered to our address here - as she wanted to read books in German that aren't available in the UK store. However, she's just had an e-mail from Amazon saying they've noticed that she downloaded a book in a different country from the one in which she's registered (a sample chapter she downloaded when we were back in the UK over Christmas) and we need to fax proof that she's a resident of a German speaking country! DH e-mailed them to say she'd downloaded the book on holiday but they still want proof that she's a resident of Mannheim. (DH's e-mail address must still be linked to our old address there.)

So off to look for her and DH's Meldezettel now... I'm glad Amazon UK aren't quite as picky; I've never had a problem buying Kindle books from them.

platanos Meant to say before that yes, I think Goodreads does post the books you've read to FB as a default setting but I switched it off.

FrauEnglisch my ds was nearly 8 when he got his Seepferdchen at a private course, the same course dd went on just traumatised her, along with the teacher at school shouting at her to jump in and making her cry so she didn't get her Seepferdchen until she was 10. In ds's course there were two 4 and 5 year olds who managed well and enjoyed their whole time in the water. If your dd loves the pool so much and she can go to the course with her friend then she'll probably have a great time.

WoolyI'd have handled it exactly the way you did at the playground. Hopefully it didn't bother your ds too much. I remember ds getting pushed a few times at English playgroup and then not wanting to go back. He must have been around 2 as I had few month old dd with me so I wasn't near him to step in.

MrTumbles Munich prices always scared me into never encouraging dh to apply for jobs there although he has seen a few offers. I'd never want to live out in the sticks again and we'd never pay that much rent to live in the city. So many landlords must be laughing all the way to the bank down there it's crazy. What are public transport prices like? We live on the edge of Hannover city and a monthly ticket is around 53€ for dh and we get to travel on weekends and after 7pm as a family with it.

Linzer that sounds like a good idea to set the dc up with their own accound (and dh's credit card!) as ds was complaining that his kindle had my name on it when he logged in! Has your dd enjoyed reading on her kindle? I might get dd one of the basic ones or even better, give her mine and I could upgrade to one with a light of some sort as I find it a pain that I need to clip a light on to read.

Dd has decided to change cheerleading club. The group she trains with has alot of much older girls over 20, working already and they don't want anything to do with the younger ones and the trainer who is 24 doesn't even call dd by her name, she shouts 'Hey du da..' when she wants her to do something!

Ds starts work experience on Monday. I have to check what sort of travel card to get him for the next two weeks as he'll have a bus and tram journey. Not sure how much money I should give him. He doesn't know if he'll be going to a cantine/mensa (work is attached to the university), maybe for coffee. I'm so out of touch and dh takes his packed lunch and gets his coffee for 1€ at the work cantine! Does 10€ sound enough to start with?

Ambling - what is your ds going to be doing on work experience? My experience of theatre canteens is also that a coffee costs about 1€ and I think a main meal is always under 4€ (I never eat them as they're always meat-based). Those are non-profit prices of course, and Ossie workplaces, but I would have thought that 10€ would be ample - he can always get a couple of Schnitte or a Bockwurst if he can't afford more. I would have said that no German worker would be happy with forking out 50€/week for lunches at work, but after our discussion of Munich house prices I have to concede that I'm probably not qualified to judge!

Linzer - I hope dd is like your ds and starts asking to do afterschool activities at some point. I most particularly want her to choose an instrument to learn, rather than me just signing her up for piano lessons when I can't repress my tiger mother instincts any longer.

Out of interest, how many books did you manage last year? I challenged myself to read 100 this year because it's a round number and because I think I probably manage more than one a week, but I've no real idea whether that's realistic for me. I don't want to put myself under imagined pressure to race through any book that I might want to savour, either.

FrauEnglisch I read 137 books last year, but that includes the ones I read at bedtime to the children (chapter books; I didn't count anything that could be read in one sitting) so the true figure is probably more like 100. I ended up challenging myself to read 150 and did get a little stressed towards the end of the year whenever I logged onto Goodreads and it told me I was 7/8/9 etc. books behind schedule! I didn't find it made me rush my reading, though; it just encouraged me to find more time for it and to pick up a book rather than logging onto MN, say.

Ambling IIRC I only used to pay a couple of euros for lunch at the canteen when I worked in Germany, but that was years ago now so probably not much help! Most canteens in this part of the world (not speaking from huge experience, admittedly) seem to be quite well subsidised/cheap, though; I don't think DH pays a huge amount more than I used to.

DD2 loves her Kindle and is now reading it legitimately again. I bought her a case with a light attached, which I found very handy when we were travelling back from the UK; I borrowed the light to read my "conventional" book as my Kindle was broken. I was very impressed with Amazon's service - phoned them up at about 5pm and my replacement Kindle was with me at 11am the next day (luckily I still had a month left on the guarantee).

We had an extra parents' evening last night to meet DD2's new teacher. She's very young and it's her first job, but she seems very competent. She made all the parents in their forties laugh when she described herself as "nicht ganz taufrisch" as she swapped to teaching halfway through her studies - she's 26! One of the mothers was talking afterwards about starting Gymnasium and realised she'd done so before the teacher was even born.

wow, so nowadays 26 is no longer considered young?!?!

Linzer- what happened to your kindle? good you still had a month left on the guarantee. I keep wondering whether to get a light for mine. Though recently I seem to be reading lots of old fashioned books. Has DD2 got a new teacher for her last semester at Volkschule then?

Ambling-no real help, but I am sure 10€ is enough. Our canteen is not subsidised, but the most expensive meal (meat and with soup as starters) is €6,90 which I find quite expensive for what it is. I can get a vegan meal for under 5€ - they make a vegan meal once a week or I can have a combination of side dishes. Hope your ds enjoys it! Are the Vegan for Fit recipes very soya based? (We don't eat soya due to intolerances).

FrauEnglisch- my dc are also different, and depending on the year will ask to do different things. On swimming - can you put her down for a short course and see how it goes? I think if she goes with a friend, she will be probably be fine. Our neighour's dd On musical instruments, the girls did 3 years recorder (eek) to learn the basics - this was at school, with their friends and a nice teacher - and then chose an instrument.

woolly- I think you were right to step in gently and firmly.

I have found some of you on Goodreads! (I couldn't find you woolly). And I used FB to find other people on there. I think, and hope, I have disabled the link now. I am not setting myself any goals, I just like to keep a record of what I read. But I am doing the Magic Square (reading lots of different types of books) it seems like. I realised I read NO poetry at all, for example.

Our dishwasher broke the week before christmas, I emailed the landlady and she has still not responded. It is not rude to email again, is it? It's unclear who is responsible for it - it was in the house when we moved in, it is mentioned in our contract but that does not say who is responsible for it.

Also, dd2 got a document which we need to enroll her in secondary school. The typed version says "Muttersprache: Deutsch" and her teacher has crossed it out and put "Englisch". I don't think it makes much of a difference really, but dd2 hardly speaks English. I am wondering whether to change it...Dh and I had thought about what "muttersprache" actually means in this context. Is this the language the mother speaks, the child's first language or the child's strongest language? I feel it is the latter, but clearly the teacher felt otherwise. I am tempted to cross it out, or I might ask what they use this information for when we go to the secondary school to sign her up.

Must go, Saturday morning homework troubles....have a good weekend!

Sorry, i just read that through after posting and noticed an incomplete sentence which is meant to say: Our neighour's daughter learnt to swim before she was 5 but she went every week since she was about 2.

platanos I think I would have left the Muttersprache deutsch on the form just to not give the school the chance to say they'll struggle because they're not German and also because I know that their bilingualism isn't even seen as a positive thing in this school system (it would be positive in the UK - or it would have been back in my day).

how did the weekend homework go? I spent years trying to train my 2 to get their homework done and out of the way for the weekend and now that they're in charge they both leave it until the last minute on Sunday night! Oh well, their choice.
Yes, the Vegan for Fit recipes are quite soya based. Hope you get your dish washer fixed or replaced soon.

Linzer which light did you get dd? Can you link it? I'm also impressed with Amazon's service. dd's new phone had a problem with the charger and they sent a new one. The new one was also faulty (charger and phone freezing for no reason) and now they're refunding us so this week we're taking her to buy one, probably to Saturn as it's a 5 minute drive away. Anyway, the Sony Xperia L was a lovely phone but we had bad luck with 2 of them so we might talk her into getting something else.

FrauEnglsich ds is at the Institut für Mikroelektronische Systeme. He's there now on his first day. He was up and ready far too early this morning, slightly nervous but really looking forward to it. He's got a full 2 weeks to do so I hope he enjoys it. Some of his class mates ended up with placements that weren't really their first choice so he was lucky. One boy has to do 2 weeks at a florist shop including extremely early starts to go and buy the flowers at the market.

Ambling DD2 has this case for her Kindle (but bought on Amazon UK for about half the price), although I've noticed that you can also buy the light separately here - is that similar to the light that you have? Hope your DS enjoyed the first day of his placement; do they go on work experience every year?

platanos The bottom third of my Kindle froze; even when I switched it off, the screensaver still didn't go away. I'm also doing the Magic Square and never read any poetry either, but I do have three books of poetry on my shelf (two of which I did for A level and haven't read since), so I'll probably reread one of those.

Yes, DD2 has got a new teacher for the last six months of primary school; her old teacher didn't even stay until the end of the semester, although at least she made sure that they'd done all the first semester's Schularbeiten before she left.

What did you decide to do about the Muttersprache? I asked DH in case there was some strange Austrian connotation that means they take Mutter literally but he said no, it's your strongest language. It would be slightly more understandable if they had two native English-speaking parents but considering that your DC speak fluent German, have a German parent and are going to school here (and I think speak more German at home than English?), it seems like a bit of a strange thing for the teacher to do. I usually write Deutsch/Englisch, and would probably be quite annoyed if a teacher crossed Deutsch out as it would imply that their German isn't native speaker level (although maybe that's just me being hypersensitive) - I'm assuming she knows your DH is German?

Off to the paediatrician now as I forgot DS's Mutter-Kind-Pass last week and need to have his vaccinations nachgetragen plus also need an Überweisung for DD1, who's being retested by the psychologist this week. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference the auditory skills training she's had over the past year has made; she's definitely improved, but how much of that is down to the training is difficult to say.

A very belated Happy New Year to everyone. We were away skiing last week and the dc only went back to school yesterday, so it´s great to finally have time to mumsnet again.

planatos Like Linzer, I would probably write Deutsch/Englisch on the form as that represents the languages spoken at home.

Ambling How did ds get on yesterday? Was he still keen to go in today?

Linzer It´s interesting what you say about dd1´s improvement and how much is due to the training and how much would have happened anyway. Ds has been having speech therapy for 5 years and is obviously much easier to understand, but I do wonder how much is due to the therapy and how much would have happened in any case.

I´v only had a chance to read the last couple of posts, so I´ll catch up now before ds comes home.

platanos I think the teacher is mixed up about the meaning of Muttersprache. I can't think that it's particularly necessary for the school to know that your dd may speak English with you/at home if she's a native German speaker. It's surely more to do with identifying which children may struggle due to language issues. But as you say, it probably doesn't matter too much on the form (although I would change it back personally) as you will have a chance to tell someone at some point that your dd is perfectly fluent.

Do any of you regularly eat porridge? It's not something my parents ever gave us growing up, but I've bought some almond milk and wanted to try it for a bit of breakfast variety. I just don't know what I need to add to it to make it tasty -applesause? fresh fruit? brown sugar?

Linzer great that your dd1 has improved so much. It's probably a combination of therapy, dd1's effort and time. Do you feel she's matured alot too? My dd has matured alot in recent months and the strops and moods are getting better too.
Thanks for the link. I think I'll get that light to try as mine is useless!
No the work experience isn't every year but they have had a Zukunftstag every year (formerly know as GirlsDay but due to that being unfair to boys they all go on it now) from year 5 but this 2 week thing is part of the curriculum and Politik und Wirtschaft lessons in year 10.

FrauEnglisch yes I eat porridge made with half almond or rice milk and water. I like it plain but sometimes add a chopped banana or sprinkle some cinnamon on. I've just seen a tip online the soya or oat milk with added vanilla that you can buy is nice in coffee so I might try that but it would make nice porridge I think too.

Hupa welcome back! When did school go back where you are? We're on the countdown to the end of the first half year, just a couple of weeks to go.

Ds was very happy with his first day at 'work'. He has 3 other Praktikanten with him and the people are very nice. They all went to the university mensa and he got a hot meal for 3.20€. He spent some time in a library and has a few Arbeitsblätter but nothing he doesn't understand (his biggest worry).

Ambling That's useful to know about the milk; I've tried coffee with soya milk and didn't like it, but maybe the vanilla makes a difference. I've also read that a can of coconut milk mixed with a teaspoon of vanilla essence tastes good as a dairy alternative in coffee, which is another one I keep meaning to try out.

FrauEnglisch I haven't eaten porridge for years (I always used to have it with All-Bran and an unhealthy amount of brown sugar), but I do use rolled oats in my muesli base and add fresh fruit such as bananas and blueberries.
I finally managed to get DS to eat breakfast this morning (he's not a big breakfast eater and hasn't had breakfast on a school day for about a week now) by telling him he could add brown sugar to his porridge. I gave him a little dish of sugar to prevent him adding the amount I used to add and one of blueberries; to my amazement, he only added about a teaspoon of the sugar (he has a very sweet tooth) and ate all the porridge.

hupa Sounds like you get a nice long Christmas holiday; it feels like the DC have been back at school for weeks (although it's only their second week) and they only broke up just before Christmas.
DH (who helps DD1 with her school work much more than I do) doesn't think that the therapy is helping all that much, so I'm not sure whether we'll carry on with it after she's been reassessed. The money is a factor too; we pay €65 for 50 minutes and for that amount, I want to be pretty sure that it's making a difference!

Linzer I've just heard from someone in ds's class who was getting 4 and sometimes 5 in maths and French and who now gets 2 to 3 in all his tests after attending a Nachhilfe class (Schülerhilfe or Studienkreis) for one and a half hours twice a week. It's a class with 5 or 6 pupils so something like that might be good for dd1 if she has a weak subject rather than the specialist therapy?

I think dd is going to agree to go for some lessons in maths and we might try German as she's just hovering between the 3 and 4 line and of course that usually ends up as a 4 on her report. Her therapy did help alot but there's no way she will be able to catch up on spelling in English and there just isn't the time to invest in learning all the spellings as she has so many other subjects to get through.

Last night she spent ages doing a Bewerbung letter and CV on her laptop as that's the subject they're doing now in German.

Better go to the shops, it's raining and one of my new year resolutions was to use the car less and walk more so I'm going to get my raincoat on and brave it!

linzer & hupa you're being very non-German in your attitude to therapy . You need to adopt the "my daughter had a bruise so I gave her --sugar pills- arnica and the bruise went away, therefore homeopathy works" attitude!

I made porridge this morning and put banana and honey on it. Dd didn't like it and I ate a bowlful but wasn't massively impressed. I guess we're not a family that likes that kind of texture (none of us will eat rice pudding or semolina either). The almond milk is good, though. I might try it with muesli tomorrow. Am also going to try AH's tofu bolognese tomorrow as I found the recipe online. I don't think his recipe books are going to be right for me, though.

Thanks for the thoughts on the Muttersprache incident. The teacher does know dh, and what languages we speak at home - she was the one who suggested that dd2 was not very good at using her imagination to write stories because we also spoke English at home .I have not done anything yet, the enrollment date is in February. I will ask then, but I will change it to either: Deutsch, or Deutsch/Englisch.

Ambling thanks for the information that Vegan for Fit is quite soya based. I will have a look next time I am in the shop, but suspect it is not for us either. Glad your ds is enjoying his work experience. And that food cantine sounds nice and cheap. Has dd got good and understanding teachers? DD1 used to love maths but has gone off it since going to secondary school because of the maths teacher not explaining things well.

Liner hope dd's reassessment goes well. It must be hard to judge whether it would have happened anyway or whether she would be struggling more without it. But it is very expensive, and I would want to see results too. Thanks also for the links - tempted to get a light, though I don't really need one.

hupa -wow, that was a long holiday. Did you have good skiing conditions? Hope you have managed to catch up on mumsnet now!

FrauEnglsich funny you should mention the arnica example. I got told to take it after childbirth by midwives in the UK. And for a long time had some at home, which I would give to dc when they hurt themselves. Much to German dh's amusement. I guess I went native in the UK but not generally into homeopathy. DH and DS have maple syrup on their porridge, with blueberries or raisins or some other fruit. I quite like porridge, but don't eat it for breakfast as I am hungry 20 minutes later...it does not fill me in the same way as muesli does.

I finally got permission to buy a dishwasher, but most annoyed as I haven't had time to get it. I went into a shop in my lunch hour on Monday, but was confused by whether I wanted an "integrierbar" or "vollintegrierbar". The man explaining the difference was rather impatient at first, but he must have felt sorry for me as I explained I had no idea what the difference was, had not built the kitchen myself and they are called different things in English (though I have no idea what they are in English either )....I was tempted to add I was about to pass out as I was on my way to buy some lunch, but his tone changed and I did not need to pull out the whole sob story!

We went to Obertauern, so were high enough to have snow. We have friends who went to lower resorts who skied on not very much snow, in the rain for the first couple of days, so we were really lucky in comparison.

I think Hessen is the only Bundesland that has 3 weeks holiday at Christmas. The dc went back to school on Monday, but now have to work through to Easter without a break. I think it´s 14 weeks and I don´t envy the teachers at all.

planatos I´d have no idea of the difference. Hopefully you´ll get it sorted soon. We visited dh´s aunt and uncle at Silvester and they haven´t got a dishwasher. The novelty of washing up by hand didn´t last long.

Frau English I love Porridge, but only eat it with a bit of sugar. Ds enjoys his with dried cranberries, but any fruit would do. I must admit I do like quite bland food, but would draw the line at semolina.

Linzer Ds´s health insurance pays for the speech therapy otherwise I´m not sure we would have perservered for 5 years, or not as intensively if we´d been paying ourselves.

platanos at you going to buy a dishwasher without knowing the difference between integrierbar and vollintegrierbar! (OK, I don't know either.) So which type did you need? And do you understand the maths they do at secondary school here? I have to leave it all to DH but even if I try to help, DD1 tells me she doesn't need me as I don't know what I'm doing!

FrauEnglisch I don't like the texture of porridge either (and still shudder at the thought of semolina and all those other school puddings), hence all the All Bran.

Ambling We had DD1 assessed at a Lerninstitut that sounds like the place you mentioned, but it would have been two hours twice a week and we decided it would just be too much for her (I think she was in the last year of primary at the time) and it wasn't cheap either. She's now getting much better grades than at primary school; she does get the odd 3 or 4 in test, but got all 1s and 2s in her Zeugnis at the end of last year (she was the only one in the class who didn't get any grade lower than a 2). I think maybe it's time for her and our bank account to have a break from the therapy and see how she gets on without it; if her grades then take a dip, we'll obviously reconsider.

I've also stopped using the car for short journeys and it's amazing what a difference it makes to our petrol consumption. DS is still not overly enthusiastic about going to school on his scooter but DD2 complains if we do happen to go in the car, so I can't win either way! DS will be walking home from school on his own for the first time today (I can't pick him up as DD1's appointment is at 12), but will be walking with a friend who's coming to play and who seems to be fairly sensible. I often see two boys walking to school who will just step out into the road without even looking; groups of boys walking together are the worst.

hupa 14 weeks is a long time without a break; we go straight through from the beginning of September to the end of December here with just a couple of bank holidays, which must be almost as long, and the children are exhausted by Christmas.
The psychologist said we could apply to the Jugendamt if we couldn't afford the therapy, but I think the income threshold is quite low so there's no way we'd qualify. We did get DS's speech therapy paid for, but he went for less than a year; it's a shame they don't cover dyslexia therapy as this is DD2's sixth year now.

hupa that is unrelenting at this time of the year. We go from Easter to the summer holidays without a full week's break, but there are bank holdiays to break that up and it is at least Freibadsaison! I'll have to see if it seems worse once dd is at school though (as a freelancer I can cancel or rearrange lessons and we haven't religiously had to stick to school holidays to go away yet).

ambling and linzer good resolution about the car. I have been reading a thread about why obesity is increasing and it made me think that I used to walk to school at dd's age and it probably wasn't any nearer than the kiga is for us. I'm put off a bit by the extra time it would take, though, and we're both struggling to wake up in the mornings when it's so dark. Maybe after the Winterferien in Feb...

platanos interesting that you came across arnica in the UK. I don't know any Brits who think homeopathy is anything other than complete bunkum, but maybe that reflects more on the narrow social strata that my British friends come from - virtually all of them are university graduates who work in the arts or education!

I enjoyed the tofu bolognese yesterday and it was very simple to make. DH and Dd both ate it without complaining as well, so we'll probably do it again. If the other AH recipes are also that straightforward then that's a big plus point - I have one vegan cookbook with delicious recipes, but so many of them involve a list of ingredients which involve "one portion nut-tofu ricotta (see page xxx), one portion tomato sauce (see page yyy)" etc.

There's an article in the newspaper today about how German Standesämter are turning down fewer unusual baby names. Apparently one child was allowed to be called Imperial Purity, nowever Gucci was vetoed .

FrauEnglisch which tofu brand did you use for your bolognese? I've been buying the BioBio Tofu at Netto but the dc are both starting to turn their noses up at it. Maybe I've used it too often! The other day I made a chilli with it, mashed it with a fork then fried it, but maybe not enough, before adding the tomatoes and spices but somehow it all looked quite disgusting even though it tasted good.

Linzer I was quite surprised when we applied for dd's therapy there was no question of income at all. We had to apply with the Jugendamt but no one asked to see any proof of income. They only wante dthe child psychologists report and the dyslexia tests that we did there. How did the reassessment go?
I agree about saving petrol. We used to fill our tank for just over 70€ and last time we ended up putting close to 90€ worth in.

platanos I had to study the meanings of integrierbar and vollintegrierbar recently when our dishwasher broke. We needed vollintegrierbar as we had a panel that matches the kitchen cupboards to stick on the front of the machine. So which did you need in the end?

Dd got a new smartphone atlast. She was fed up without one for a few days but she's ended up with a much better one than she started with, it's got a great camera too.
Ds has started building his first electronic circuit at his Praktikum. He has all next week to finish it and set his programme up on the computer. Complicated stuff but he's enjoying it.