German Corner

[finknottle]

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From Brezeln to Bier

Please don't ask if you join in, everyone is welcome

For discussion of schools see separate thread

am a crap runner, but would love to do a marathon speed-walking. The BVG strike hasn't been that much of a hassle for me as I must walk several km a day (with ds2 strapped to me) as it is.

think you'll have to be our thread Held(in) trockodile Don't teeter off your pedestal now!

What's life like on those army bases? Are they friendly places or do you get cabin fever and want to break out at times?

Berolina, we walk alot too and with this strike I've been walking miles, haven't had time to do much MNing because what would be an hour trip to the shopping street and back on teh Ubahn takes all morning to walk there and back! Do you get a monthly ticket? Expensive isn't it, I was surprised at the price but later found out it's alot cheaper than one of those oyster tickets for London.

I wish I could run too, my neighbour used to run around the small park next to our steet after dropping her dc off but it looked a bit boring going round and round.

Trockodile can I ask you where you get clothes in germany? My mum is a size 18/20 and last time she was in Berlin she thought it would be a good chance to get some clothes but she found the sizes really confusing and what we thought would be 18/20 didn't fit her - she was having to try 2 or 3 German sizes bigger. Do you find that too? In the end she didn't get anything saying it's too depressing knowing you are a size 20 but having to buy 22 or 24.

Thanks for all the compliments I feel very lazy at the moment.

I don't mind Army life -it has its ups and downs like everywhere, but most people are friendly. I try not to get too involved in a clique, rather be generally sociable. I like going to a non army church (although lots of forces do go) as it is a good chance to meet other people/nationalities.

Admylin, don't get a lot of clothes in Germany, mostly I get mail order from Lands End. Ullapopkins (I think its called) is about the only place I buy from and it is ok-some nice stuff and fairly good quality. Some is a bit 'Pat Butcherish' though. And the staff are seriously scary in our local one -I was looking through tights (all different styles and colours) and as I took them out, the Sales Assistant was standing beside me, putting them away [scared emoticon!]

seriously scarey. I hate it when they do that. Like a prison warden. Gives you the creeps, doesn't it? Mind you at least she noticed you were there, sometimes I wonder if I have turned invisible!

Actually sometimes I think the shop assistants believe they have turned invisible. The other day I went to pay for some stationary at the till in the stationary dept in a dept store. There was this sales asst standing behind the till so he looks up at me and says "I'm not here". I said, "yes you are, I can see you very clearly". "No", he says "what I meant is I am not serving". Yes I knew that but they have no sense of humour at all these salespeople, do they? You have to search high and low in that dept store before you find one willing to take your money. They are all "not there". I wonder how they make any money at all, it's an open invitation to theft if you ask me.

Not been here for a few days.

My friend is having a little girl and is very happy.

I know what you mean about the German/UK sizes. I lost weight after DS was born and found it really confusing. At my heaviest I was size 18 - 20. It was really difficult to find clothes that fit and looked good. A lot of the Ulla Popkin clothes are very square, if found that made me look even bigger. lol at Pat Butchery, that is exactly right.

We have just been to Wuppertal Zoo, it was a good day out. DS was a bit upset that the elephant bull was on his own. "Der vermisst sein Mummy and Daddy, der ist soooo traupig". The woman next to him was laughing so much I thought she would fall in the elephant enclosure.

They were exhausted and slept on the way home. They are now watching Mary Poppins on ITV3. Why do they do the strange thing with someone reading the screenplay?

sounds like you had a nice day out ks.

We are off on holiday for 2 weeks, so "see" you all when we get back. Have a nice Easter everyone!

Happy Easter, SSSandy. Have a great holiday.

Morgen

Can somebody please enlighten me? Have they just made car booster seats without backs illegal here? Dh read something, but even he couldn't work out what was actually being said . People seem to be stopping selling them too.

I haven´t seen anything about the car seats, but it could well be true I suppose.

Have any of you got snow today? We´ve got about 1cm and dd was so excited she insisted on wearing her snowsuit to Kindergarten even though it was virtually all gone by the time we got there. Apparently we´re heading for a white Easter which would be great for the kids, but not for me.

No snow in Hessen but it's blardy cold. Rain predicted for the rest of the week.

Mystery about the car seats. It certainly comes to something when my extreemely articulate (to the point of being extreemely annoying ) German dh can't even decipher the prose relating to car seat law!

No snow here either, in fact lovely and sunny.

I don't know about the car seats either, franke. If I find out I'll let you know. I think I have the same dh as you!

I'm off to the spa this morning in Baden Baden and really looking forward to a very relaxing copule of hours.

No snow here either, sunny at the moment but with some showers.

Just had a look at the ADAC website. There has been a change in the law this year, with regard to the car seats. Seats without the Prüfnorm (safety certificate) ECE 44/03 or 44/04 are illegal after April 2008.

I spoke to the nice policeman who gave a talk in the kita recently about car safety. He said that you should keep them in the seats with backs as long as possible as that ensures that the belt sits at the right height. Without the loop at the top to hold the belt, the child could be injured by the belt cutting into their neck.

Also, the seat backs provide protection if you are involved in a crash to the side of the car.

It is not illegal, just not recommended until they are big enough not to need it.

Thanks for that Kindersurpise. Mine are in the ones with the backs, but I have got one without in case I need to give friends a lift.

Where in Hessen are you Franke? I´m near Kassel and it´s been snowing most of the day. It´s the really wet snow, so beautiful big flakes, but the kids were absolutely soaking wet when they came in from playing.

Thanks KS, v helpful. I'm really anti the idea of having a new wider car (no.3 due in May) but I just don't see how it's avoidable with 3 chunky car seats . I just refuse to drive some car-shaped bus now that I'm used to driving and parking a nice little compact car.

Hupa I'm near Frankfurt - I think we have a micro climate all of our own here. It's been mostly sunny today.

Mad weather here today -some snow, some sun,then LOTS of rain!
Busy day for us -went swimming at big leisure pool in Herford (really busy of course with school holidays but good fun), then onto Paderborn where i bought DS STARTRITE shoes! Hurray! Really helpful lady who spent a good 20 mins making sure they were the right size, width etc. I bought 1 pair of light shoes and 1 pair of canvas shoes (pirates-ahh har me hearties!) for 65 euros. Very impresed and can thoroughly recommend her if anyone is near.
We then had a trip to Toys R Us (no buying, just looking for birthday), fish and chips for tea and drive home in the rain. Bed for Ds and me to struggle with washing machine as can't get it open to empty coin trap. AAARGH

@ Startrite shoes.

Sounds good, Trockodile. Might plan a trip to Paderborn with DH sometime. He has to go there every couple of months anyway.

I have just booked tickets for the Beat the Star show in Köln next month. Do you know Schlag den Raab? Same thing but with Vernon Kay. All in English so they are looking for English speakers for the studio audience. Sounds like fun.

Still no snow here and I will be very surprised if we get any. We never get snow here. Good for me, bit disappointing for the DCs.

Kinder -I think eventually she is planning to do 'roadshows' in BFG (British Forces Germany!) so may be over your way. No plans yet though afaik.
Hope you enjoy the show,something different anyway.

Tag!
How are you all enjoying the Easter break? So far today we've played monopoly, painted eggs and now the dc are watching a dvd so I can come on here!

Weather is foul.

Weather foul here too. dh has taken dd out, ds home with me with a streaming cold and temperature, me pregnant and fed up [grumpy]

Hi, another fed up logging in! I hate bank holidays of any sort when you don't have family around. How I would like to be invited to a nice meal at some relatives house every now and then and me not having to do it every day in day out - hope you are all having a better Easter than me! Stayed in bed reading all morning, had late breakfast an dthen did a jigsaw puzzle with the dc then back to bed to read all afternoon, yawn.

I find that hard too, admylin, not having relatives around I mean - it's when I most miss being away from home. We are going to MIL on Sunday/Monday but that will not be relaxing!

Sorry you're not feeling so well, franke. When are you due?

Mid May. I'm not unwell as such, just feeling fed up, full up, heartburn, lack of sleep. I've never enjoyed being pg - it sucks. It makes me v grumpy indeed. BUT I can use it as an excuse to get out of daft family gatherings if I so wish . There's one planned for tomorrow (dh's family) and I always find them ghastly - they all just seem to hate each other, but insist on having these get-togethers without really thinking about whether anyone actually enjoys them. Well, the kids enjoy them I suppose, but I really don't see what's in it for the grown-ups.

Oh dear, listen to me, Mrs Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy, grumpy

You're entitled to feel grumpy if you're pg

Family gatherings with dh's family are a nightmare too. I know what this one will be like: mil will get really stressed except for the few moments when everyone is sitting down to eat the 50 or so cakes she has baked. Bil will make crappy jokes most of which I fail to understand completely anyway and can't be bothered to ask for an explanation. Oh, and dh's niece will sulk and pout the whole way through the proceedings. Can't wait.