Der Herbst ist da - wir wollen aber kein Regenwetter: Life in Germany cont/d

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Too lazy to scroll through the other long one.

Here for Obst und Blaetter - guess what d came home from school singing yesterday?

All welcome, Austria & Switzerland & any German-speaking Leute too

She's just beautiful, isn't she? How sweet. Has to be Margo I think. Or is she Daphne already?

good luck jobwise ML, dunno if I'd feel up to it right after the move but it would make life nice and sociable I think teaching English within the company.

Hey Lindt. Love the puppy - good luck. Glad you are getting one as you have been hedging for it for ages.

I like Skye by the way!

Cool about the job.

Only one more week 'till we find out about the redundancy for DH too. Can't wait.

Admylin - how are you feeling today?

Determined not going to get dragged into MN today as going to try and have nap whilst DS is asleep as so wasted from the sleep month week from hell. Will check in later.

byyyyeee

I have said that I am not contemplating starting work until March at the earliest, and it would be parttime. I could pretty much decide my own hours.

If the companies are still paying for language lessons, I know that DH's company are cutting back on non-essentials at the moment

If nothing else, it gets my CV seen by a professional and I get the training for interview techniques, that will be handy for later I guess.

Schlaf Gut, Gabster!

Wow - that is one gorgeous dog Mme Lidt. You´re dc are going to be so thrilled when you tell them the news. Margo and Daphne are my favourites, but no doubt your dc will want to have a say, oder?

The help with the CV and interview techniques sounds great. Don´t forget the lovely photo you need to attach (or maybe that´s just Germany).

We´ve had so much snow here, it´s been great. The dc have had so much fun and it should stay around for a good few days yet.

I am not sure whether to tell them on Wednesday when DH comes home or just wait till next week and bring the doggy home. :-))

Actually, thinking about it, it might be best to get the dog on Monday or Tuesday so it has a couple of quiet days to get used to the house before the schools are off on Wednesday.

I don't know if I am jealous of your snow or not, Hupa. I would be fed up of snow after about 2 days I think. It would keep the DC happy though.

We have lots of snow on the hills, but none down here so close to the lake.

Done a lot of cleaning this afternoon and am feeling rather virtuous.

Must get the house sorted before the puppy arrives as I will be spending a lot of my time next week with her.

So excited for you Lindt!!! Yes, a few quiet days without kids sounds a good idea. Little thing is bound to get over-excited by the kids and pee all the time!!!

Well I got 10m sleep - stupid DH rang me to check what he was buying at the supermarket . Typisch.

Xmas markets start at the weekend ladies!! Can't wait to get my deccies out and see what I need. How are your Xmas preps going Admylin?

Zzen - am I right in thinking that you used to live out here but have now re-patriated/moved to UK?

Very exciting news about the puppy, MmeLindt.

I did loads of cleaning on Sunday before the babysitter arrived and felt very virtuous and pleased with an almost spotless (I never quite achieve completely spotless however hard I try) house. Two days later and it's almost back to the usual tip.

Evening out on Sunday was nice though and we both agreed we should go out more often.

Looking forward to Xmas markets opening. Dd is singing in the school choir on Thursday for the opening of our local one.

DH just sent me an email and then phoned me from the Christmas market in Birmingham. They were playing our tune

Highland Cathedral on bagpipes, we were piped out of the church to that music.

He was eating Bratwurst (really great apparently) and drinking Glühwein and was very excited.

Taipo
I know what you mean, I tidied up and cleaned today and 1 hour after the kids came home it was mess again. Clothes and toys everywhere. Big tidy up session tomorrow as they are home from school.

I was exhausted yesterday, you know when you never seem to sit down all day. I decided on muffins for ds to take to school so me and dd started them after school , one round of chocolate ones and one round of vanilla. The first round done, then had homework to supervise. Ds arrived from Förderunterricht and had to do aload of work on tenses. He still hasn't got it 100% but my old Deutsch für Ausländer book helped abit. Then made the second round of muffins, made tea then looked around the flat to see it all looked a mess.

We are a book and paper loving family and we have piles of papers all over the place. It's actually quite good that we don't have a printer anymore or I would just print more stuff.

I'm feeling abit better - trying to find atleast an hour a day to laugh with the dc atleast, we had seriously stopped having any fun just stress work and more stress and worry.

I want a puppy too - will have to start being nicer to h and get him talked round.

Sounds good Admylin, and the muffins sound yummy too.

I hardly slept last night, I felt ill the whole night. I was not actually sick but just felt like it.

The DC were great this morning when I told them that I was ill. They tucked me in and gave me kisses then came downstairs where they played (and watched Arielle) and then they set the table.

The table was full of mismatched cutlery, dishes from several different tea sets, two sugar bowls, a baking bowl and a cake tin.

I was just thinking have you got half term but it's the Wednesday off isn't it? Do they haveto go to school on Saturday morning? How is the French going?

Do you find people friendlier in Geneva area than back in Germany?

My h's boss also offered a teaching part time job to me next year but I can't imagine myself doing it. Too many brain cells have gone to sleep and I have never done teaching before. Although would be good to get a job through Beziehungen as my CV is a waste of paper!

Look mmelindt, just the thing for you !

Would you be teaching adults then, Admylin? I would go for it if I were you, it is very easy. You just have to look up the grammar etc before you go (or afterwards if you cannot answer the question). My adult classes were a piece of cake, and good fun too. They were conversation classes so it is just having a chat in English with the odd translation/grammar query.

DD just said, "Merci, beaucoup Mama"

She got a midterm report yesterday, I must go and get it and translate what the teacher wrote.

Their idea is - the hospital doctors from Germany don't speak such good English and alot of them are getting involved in research at MHH, they need extra help with the language as research is all in English and publications etc too. I'd rather be in charge of proof reading their work. I would have no idea where to start teaching as I wouldn't have set books or anything to use. A friend told me Volkshochschule teaching is dead easy becaus eyou have a set book and you just work through it with the pupils.

You could buy a set of books such as the ones that the VHS use. It really is not difficult. I find that they much prefer a native speaker who has to look up the rules of grammar than a German who knows all the grammar but cannot speak fluently.

You would earn more teaching than proofreading, I guess.

Absolutely - Lindt is right. As long as you plan stuff, they much prefer native speakers (IME). But don't worry about buying stuff for now. The school should provide any books you need for lessons and (IME) most Germans love to buy books themselves too. If not, you can get stuff online for free. Try www.onestopenglish.co.uk. Plus I have LOOOOOOAAAAAADS of materials you could use for Business English and exams etc (especially Oxford ones) as this was my main area for years.

4 days until I found out if we are re-patriating. I wonder what I will miss about Germany? Any suggestions what I should stock up on to take back with me?

We have guests coming for the weekend and I have just emailed them to bring some Putenleberwurst for DS.

Leberwurst. Yes. Bum - have to go and buy some now you have said that. Stupid diet.

Oh, and just found this looking for a present for my mum and dad for Xmas and thought of you Lindt.

Hmm, not sure I get the puppy training pads. Surely the point is to get the dog to go outside and not wee in the house?

MmeLindt, puppy is gorgeous, the children will be sooooo happy for ages.
I am not jealous , wait till you put a shoe on and find it full of pee

I think you CAN train them to use it in the house and then gradually move it a foot or so every day or so or something, then out the door, and to wherever you want them to go in the garden. That kind of thing. Then you have a "safe" place for them to do it in the house too if you have to go out and leave them at home. Suppose it is more geared around UK as you can't take your dog with you everywhere you go.

The other option is to take them out every hour and wait until they do it, then praise like hell. Then you go to bed with the spare groundsheets from your tent covering your floor and make sure you put the light on if you get up in the dark. That's what we did.

Morning everyone. Full of cold here and coughing as if I've been smoking for 30 years.

When do you break the news to your dc mmelindt? Thegabster, how do you arrange to take your dog back to UK if it all works out? By the way you must be the only wife on MN who hasn''t had a breakdown and gone to bits by the news that her dh might be redundant!

Going to our first Christmas event this afternoon - dd's school Christmas bazaar. The teachers and pupils have organized everything and at the end they are going to decorate a huge Christmas tree in the entrance hall which is a lovely big room with high cielings and arches and if a dc brings a decoration from home they get to go up one by one and put it on the tree, sweet. Still, hope there will be Glühwein for me and sausages or waffles for sale for the dc so I don't have to make tea later!

Morning ad, hope you enjoy the Christmas bazaar, the first Glühwein always marks the start of C'mas for me.
Did you see my thread about mince pies? I think I'm badly sleep deprived, I can almost taste a mince pie when I try hard enough
And I am so flipping stupid. I knew this was a madly busy week so what possessed me to agree to s2 having 2 friends come home from school with him and stay till tomorrow? I will have to give them lunch and supper and do something proper instead of sending the boys to the youth club for pizza and making cheese on toast for me, h and d.
And I suppose I shouldn't hit the gin bottle at 4pm

God, now I want cheese on toast and I haven't got time to make any.