Der Weihnachtsmarkt: Glühwein und Waffeln und Lebkuchen

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Hope I typed that right, have lead in my boots this morning. Had a great weekend with lots of Glühwein and Weinschorlen and Nikoläuser.
Didn't get back from a Christmas party till 8 last night and too late to make the Kranz. I usually start decorating on Dec 1st so will do that with d after school and then light a candle tonight.
We're in the UK as well for C'mas but I still do decorations, put the tree baubles in glass vases so even they get an outing.
I love white fairy lights, put some all over the place and in the evenings leave the lamps off and light downstairs with fairy lights alone.

The tree lighting on Saturday was great fun, friends of ours were there and their 13 yr old d took mine to the fire & waited 15 mins in the crowds for Nikolaus while I was plied with Glühwein.
Think my ideal Christmas is Advent here and C'mas day in the UK, then back here for Sylvester. So this year should be good.
Mind you when we're here we have roast beef on the 25th, or goose. Think if I served Truthahn, h would clobber me with it.

Taipo have mailed you.
Have only one school meeting this week but a stack of reports to write. It is very good for my rusty brain but v hard work getting into. Feel rather fragile this morning, housework beckons and all I want is a bucket of tea and an aspirin

I was just thinking back to my first day in Berlin. I was wandering aimlessly round the park at Schloss Charlottenburg when this woman came up and asked if I was English. "You look so English" she said and I wondered whether this was a good thing or not and in what way I was looking so English. Anyway she gave me her phone number and address, asked if I'd like to meet for breakfast. She ended up coming with me to the polizeiliche Anmeldung and all sorts of things like that, getting my driving license changed and the numberplates for the car. She was great. I met a lot of people like that.

Maybe I don't need to feel that close to people, I like my private sphere so I suppose I don't feel loneliness as keenly as more emotional people would.

I must admit, the German friends I do have, are very good friends. Funnily quite a fe wof them are East-german. I didn't click with many southerners. As you say, the daily situation of how people behave outside, in shops, tram etc is what can be very hard to cope with.

Hi all. I really enjoyed my German class last night, so was feeling optomistic about today. Ha

Took ds to Kindergarten. Mum of little girl (someone help me understand why they have 5 year olds and 2 year olds in the same class???) andyway the girl said to her mum "ernestthebavarian's ds hits" "ernestthebavarian's ds hits". Not he hits me. I've already spoken to the erzieherin & he tends to play fight with his male, big, friend. So mum goes off on one in the crowded corridor telling him off in English, then in German, to make sure that everyone understood fully then she was going on to me about him hitting and I just told her I'm sure the erzieherin has everything under control.

I was so pissed off with her for having a go at ds (standing right over him, he's smaller than her 2 yr old ffs) and having a go at me, going on and on and on in the crowded corridor. I'm also pissed off with myself for not standing up to her better. I really want to ring her and have a go at her, as I won't see her at pick up.

I don't know if feeling this down is as straightforward as the expat settling in thing. I do really like Munich. I still think it's a great city. But I haven't got any friends or neighbours. I think where we are living is wrong - it makes the sense of isolation a lot worse. Haven't found a family centre. Dunno if there is one here. It's not like I miss UK. I haven't got any place to go 'back' to.

Zzzen, you sound very lucky. Maybe I just smell then or something, but I barely get a hello out of KG mumns, never mind people falling over themselves to give me their number. And after this morning's performance, I doubt anyone will give me a second glace, scummy english mother with hooligan boy who hits little girls.

oh don't get me wrong Ernest. There were days (many many days) I thought I must be like a red flag to a bull and people seemed to seek me out in order to have a go. ike those days someone rams a supermarket trolley into your leg and then glares at you as if to say, what the hell is your leg doing there in the way of my trolley!

I didn't have it happen at kiga, school with other dp. Think you were just very unlucky this morning. Bet something else had already got her riled and then she just let it all out on you and your ds.

Hate people having a go at little kids.

One lady in our town overhead me talking to DS1 back in the Summer. She asked me whether I was English. I said yes, and she told me to go home.

That's not nice.

I agree that we need to cheer up a bit!!

Ernest - what a horrible start to your day! My DD bites other children so I often grovel around the creche in a flurry of "sorrys". However I haven't met anyone yet who held me personally accountable for the bites, and would be severely annoyed if anyone did.

Interesting hearing about making friends over here. When I first came to Germany I gave myself three years to settle in and get to know people, reasoning that it had never taken more than two years in a new city before. Now I've been here for over six years and still don't have any "close" friends. It could be me (I'm quite reserved), but I've lived in four different cities (two in the UK, one in CH, one in France) and always managed fine.

here in Munich I used to consider a particular German girl as a very good friend, until I realised that she had a sort of limit on how personal she would be. She didn't mention that she got married until a couple of months after the event, and couldn't reveal that she was pregnant until over four months in. This made me feel uncomfortable wittering on about more personal aspects of my life, and the friendship has stagnated.

I still feel that my best friends are in CH and the UK, which is ridiculous!

I think that this is a peculiar German thing. To find it acceptable to tell a child off. Very rude when you were standing there and it was not even clear if she had her facts right.

I have found that the area of Germany in which you live is very important when it comes to making friends. Unterfranken was ok, Hannover was terrible (sorry admylin) nrw was great. I have heard that Munich area is difficult, unless you live in a Neubaugebiet with lots of "zugezogene"

The mixed age class worked well in my DC's Kita. The older kids kept an eye on the younger ones when they started. It also makes it much easier when the year starts as they don't have 15 - 20 new kids all missing mummy and needing attention.

Daphne walked most of the way up from school today at last consenting to walk on the leash.

Got to do some housework now. Might warm me up. It is cold here today.

ok, so tghe general consensus is shut up and cheer up. ok

nah let it all out. I don't mind people telling dd off (in principle) but only if they do it in a kind caring manner so that she feels they like her but are correcting her behaviour. That would be OK.

Otherwise they'd have to deal with me. It hasn't happened much thank goodness. Do rmember once when she was in year 1 being at a playground after school. She was playing with a couple of other schoolkids and a man came with his dd. He told dd and the other kids off, they were not to play on the castle thing because his dd was up there and only about 1 1/2 and they should get off because she was small. They weren't bothering/restricting her in any way. He was just a jerk.

The mums were all unhappy about it. He then went over to my dd and gave her a real nasty look and said "I told you get away from here, my dd is playing here and she is small." I can tell you I gave him what for but I wasn't nasty, just said you are not to speak to my dd, if there is anything you want to tell her, tell me and I will deal with it but keep away from her. He went ballistic screaming and ranting but I didn't give in. In the end he was so furious that he couldn't scream me down, he stalked off still screaming and screeching right the way down to the endof the street. Weirdo. You get some severe cases like that. If he had spoken nicely to the dc I would have let it be but not the way he did it. Usually though, I would just leave.

Zzzen
What a weirdo. Poor little girl, having a parent like that.

I spoke sharply to an elderly Swiss man recently when he shouted at the DC. They were notrsally misbehaving, just being a bit boisterous. He shouted at them and scared them. I laughed afterwards as I sounded very British and formal. I think I said something like "my children do not understand French, and if you have a problem with their behaviour then kindly direct your comments to me" or something equally snotty. LOL I don't normally speak like that.

I am so tired am typing one-handedly while other arm props head. I can only say "Glühwein" and finding that ü was an effort.
Will post tomorrow.
H kept me awake half the sodding night talking in his sleep (mostly expletives) and woke up expecting sympathy for a sore knee, wtf? I am grumpily tired.
Sympathy there was none.

We were at the switching on of the lights in the village today. There was Vin Chaud and goodies and lots of kids. They blocked the road so the kids could play. They had a great time.

We met Daphne's two brothers. All the DC surrounded us and the poor doggies had to put up with dozens of hands petting them.

Lots of people spoke to me. Mainly asking about the dog but it was good to meet some locals.

Hi everyone.

Do you get the scary Krampus accompanying St Nikolaus in Germany? I have posted some photos on profile of our evening at a friends. She is a close friend but she's Greek rather than Austrian.

Ernset sorry to hear bout your bad start to the day at KG.

Krampus didn't come with St Nikolaus at the Kindergarten. Thank god, because I think you would have heard DS1's screaming for miles!

Our neighbours had him round last night though, and I could see the children were all terrified!

Ernest - what a pile of poo! Some people Germans really do not know the meaning of the word tact. My friend kept getting accosted in the supermarket by busy bodies saying thinks like "your are not holding your baby correctly" or "he is crying, you should feed him immediately" etc.

Re: the hairdresser, by the way, in theory I would ring and complain. But, I know, in real life I would simply not user her again as I hate confrontation (although 50 for cut and colour is still really cheap). I can recommend one in town if you want.

I know you live near Riem but what is the name of your actual town/village? Are you considered Munich "Stadt" or "Gemeinde". I found all the local centres etc by going onto my village website (just the name of the village then dot de). Just a suggestion.

P.S. sorry for lack of posting - have had horrible 24hr tummy thing. Not nice when having to change nappies. DS had it Thursday, I had it yesterday and .... yes, DH has it today. What fun. Managed to drink a glass of water for breakfast and keep it down, so have just risked some toast and clear soup. Don't think I will be going to that farewell Greek dinner for my friend this evening after all.

Happy 2nd advent Sunday everyone. We're in the middle of baking Plätzchen and I'm just checking if my Christmas name worked!

Hi, I can't keep up with the amount of snow falling here, I spent ages this morning clearing it and it's about 20cms deep again.

Not my cup of tea! I bet you won't miss snow for years once you've moved back to UK!

HI all, nice Christmassy names up already I see!

Never heard of this Krampus character before, is this some Bavarian/Austrian regional thing?

Lindt - saw this and thought of you!

Lol, I've sent the link to the dog carrying bag already too! We saw a little dog in a coat recently and the dc said ahh, poor little thing!

Oh, well done girls! I have ordered the bag (don't laugh) as I have been carrying her in my hadbag and the straps are not long enough. We went for a long walk yesterday and my arm was killing me after 20 mins. She still cannot walk far and we normally walk ip and down to school, a journey of around 1.8 km one way.

AND I found out that tschibo have a CH website. Hooray!

I was feeling a bit down today and that has cheered me up.

Do you ever have days where you feel you are on a big hamster wheel of housework and chores and you just want to get off?

Lindt - hope you get off your hamster wheel today, I often have that feeling. I wrote a list of everything we need to do before 1st guest of the season next week and it's scary, really scary. So I'd better go and do something off the list!

Wow, you're on mn early! I once saw a woman walking along quite fast, with one of those tiny fluffy dogs and it's little legs were going as fast as it could and it was nearly being dragged along, better to carry them sometimes.

I'm mad at dog owners today - brought poo in on my shoe and had to clean and wash my floors when I did not have that activity on my plan today! I walked home the country path way and as my neighbour says, as long as her dog does 'it' in the bushes she leaves it as there are no bins for miles along the forest edge so she would have to carry it with her. Anyway, some owners let tehir dogs go on the edge of the path which then gets autumn leaves on top of it and muggins like me tread in it.

I'm beauftragt to get a Christmas present for h's student who is leaving soon. Hate doing that. Do you have to get secretary present or does your h do that? Actually he has another assistant who he should get something for but as long as he didn't put her on the list I'll leave it to him.