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Living overseas

Whether you're considering emigrating or an expat abroad, you'll find likeminds on this forum.

Original poster

Streupflicht und Schneeschaufel

699 replies

finknottle · 05/01/2009 12:45

Thanks Gabster for the inspiration for the thread!

Add your resolutions here & I can slip alongside and pretend I'll make some too.
Still too fragile - my sleep patterns go haywire when I'm home, stay up till 1 or 2am, then awake at 5am (6 here, usual flipping school time) then I come back & keep crashing on the sofa at 10pm and wake up at 4 bright & breezy.

We have snow, very pretty and h is off till Weds so am pushing him out for Streupflicht, bartered it for a fry-up with real English bacon, hmmmmmm.
Forecast is for -12C to -14C tonight - and when the children go back to school on Thursday. Yikes.

OP posts:
MmeLindt · 30/01/2009 17:25

I would have a house in Scotland, one somewhere warmer (perhaps even Geneva, it is lovely here) and maybe one in US.

There have been a few stories about people who have gone through their lottery winnings in a few years. You do wonder how they manage that but I guess it must be easier than it seems. Bet they find out who their real friends are.

Deb
Which area of UK would you be moving back to, if you were to move back?

We would move to UK if DH's company offered him something there, but the chances are pretty low and it would probably be in the Midlands so I am not that keen anyway. Might as well be in Geneva if my family have to hop on a plane anyway.

DebInAustria · 30/01/2009 22:09

MMeL - we'd be going back to North Yorkshire.

ZZZen · 31/01/2009 15:28

I like Yorkshire. That should be good Deb.

admylin · 31/01/2009 18:33

I'd love Yorkshire too! Good luck with the sale for your hotel, next time you see a thread on here about someone dreaming of getting out of UK you should ask them if they fancy it!

hupa · 31/01/2009 20:15

Oh well no lottery win for me, not even a single number.

We´re off to Lanzarote tomorrow for a week. I tell you, if I had won I wouldn´t be catching a flight at 5am, I´d be booking a private plane to leave at a civilised time. The forecast for the first couple of days is rain, but at least it should be warmer than here. It said tonight on the tv that tomorrow will be -4C, but the windchill will make it feel like -20C.

MmeLindt - I have to say if the choice was between the midlands and Geneva it would be Geneva every time. I grew up in the midlands and although there are some lovely places I think other parts of the uk have a lot more to offer.

MmeLindt · 31/01/2009 21:04

Hupa
Have a good holiday. You reminded me of my Mum who when on holiday in Germany a couple of years ago had really bad weather. Her comment "Well, at least it was warm rain" cracked me up. Very British comment that.

We were in Gstaad today, very posh. Lots of wealthy Russians in their fur coats. DH sprung for an hour-long sleigh ride, to the delight of the DC. It was great fun but cold. We were snuggled up under the blanket to keep warm.

MmeLindt · 01/02/2009 09:32

I forgot to tell you what DS said yesterday. We were passing this skilift area and the huge Gondel that goes up 1000m and DD said that she had "Höhenangst". DS said, "Ich hab kein Höhenangst, ich habe Runterangst"

ZZZen · 01/02/2009 11:44

Runterangst! LOL how sweet

Have a nice break Hupa, -20 sounds absolutely obscene, doesn't it? Horrific. Hope you have nice weather. I agree these flight times are awful, particularly with dc when you need to wake them at 3 in the morning to catch a flight. Private plane for me too, definitely, mine will have a big comfortable BED in it.

taipo · 01/02/2009 12:27

No lotto win for me either. Oh well, maybe next time.....

Hope you have a good holiday, hupa.

I am really fed up with the cold weather now. The only good thing is that the muddy path near us which the dc use to go to and from school and bring half of it inside on their shoes, has been frozen solid for almost a month so our hall floor has needed a lot less cleaning.

lol at Runterangst.

admylin · 01/02/2009 12:43

We woke up to snow too today. Hmm, thought we wouldn't be getting anymore and Spring would be starting soon!

admylin · 02/02/2009 09:19

Do your dc also sleep as long as mine? Can't get my 2 up before 9am when they are on holiday! They've just finished breakfast and then they don't want lunch at a reasonable time.....I'm just in a nagging mood really aren't I? I should let them chill.

ZZZen · 02/02/2009 09:39

no, unfortunately not admylin. Was out dancing till 2ish yesterday so I could have done with a lie-in.

She wanted to show me what the tooth fairy had brought. (Luckily I had something in stock!)

admylin · 02/02/2009 09:44

I shattered all beliefs in the tooth fairy when I forgot to go in one night to swap the tooth for the cash and poor ds got up for breakfast and I quickly shoved the money under his pillow while he was in the kitchen and told him to look again, he surely can't have searched properly - he just said mum you're being ridiculous, I know you just went in there and did that. From then on he wouldn't believe in anything, easter rabbit, father christmas, tooth fairy all an evil lie by adults

ZZZen · 02/02/2009 09:48

ha ha ha
In our house the tooth fairy forgot to come TWO days in a row!

So I had her write a big poster with an arrow showing the tooth fairy where to go to find the tooth and I wrote it on my hand. Thankfully I didn't forget three days in a row, think that might have been the end of it. She's still a believer

admylin · 02/02/2009 09:55

Good one, it was just too early in the morning for me to react quicker with any sort of excuse or atleast one that sounded true!

ZZZen · 02/02/2009 10:00

Have to take dd to a playdate. Don't much like the mum tbh. Always have to grit my teeth and grin like a lunatic to cover it up. DOn't much like the girl either tbh. Neither does dd but I didn't know how to refuse without being rude. Well hopefully I can just dump dd and leave briskly Don't fancy staying there , it's a non-stop recital of the successes and progresses of her wonderful dd who has her plus moments but on the whole is a right brat

admylin · 02/02/2009 10:23

We're off out to the book shop too, dd wants the 2nd book of Diary of a wimpy kid and ds has just read (in 2 days) Bartimäus which is a series of 3 or 4 books so we're hoping to find part 2.

ZZZen · 02/02/2009 14:32

don't know either of those books admylin. Dd is into Geronimo Stilton these days.

Maybe you'll find something nice for yourself too. Do you have much choice in English books there?

MmeLindt · 02/02/2009 17:18

We were broken into today. I came home to find the door to the terrace wide open and thought that we had forgotten to close it when I saw the marks on it from being forced open.

Nothing was stolen, thankfully. I have to assume that they were disturbed as the new laptop was sitting just 3 steps away from the door. And my camera.

My neighbour said that her door bell was rung about 1pm and when she went to the door there was noone there. Her dog was going wild though so she had a look outside and shouted hallooo, bonjooour.

I think that she frightened them off and they scarpered without taking anything.¨

We only just signed the house insurance certificate last week [phew] so the damage to the door is covered.

The police came and went very quickly, not much to do or say really. They have no chance of catching the gang, they have 20 burglaries a day in the state of Geneva.

Was a bit of a shock. DH coming home early. He wanted to work late, but he said he will come home with his colleague.

ZZZen · 02/02/2009 18:21

That sounds scarey ML. Always think of Switzerland being so safe and somehow sedate but I suppose crime is everywhere.

taipo · 03/02/2009 07:54

Sorry to hear about your break-in ML Even if nothing was taken it's still a horrible thing to happen. I hope you're OK this morning.

I went to the dentist yesterday and was told (again) that I should have my two bottom wisdom teeth taken out at some point. This has been going on for years and I keep putting it off and thinking, well they don't really cause me any trouble apart from getting mildly inflamed every now and again, so why bother. Dentist said though that the older I get the harder they would be to take out so maybe I should just take the plunge and get it over with [wuss emoticon]

admylin · 03/02/2009 08:00

Oh no Mmelindt, that's sounds really scarey. How do you feel today? Did you sleep alright? No idea how high the rate of breaking in is here in Hannover but I do worry as this is the first time we've lived on a ground floor flat. We live in one of the nicer neighbourhoods and the agent said 'nothing ever happens here, it's perfect' but then he wanted to let a flat to us so he would say that.

Im Berlin Mitte we lived in a quiet street and some nights our neighbour on the 2nd floor left his door ajar all night and ours was never locked. The downstairs door was locked but once I forgot my key and sent dd over the side fence of the garden to go in the back door which was always unlocked so she could let me in. So theoretically it would have been easy to break into our building.

admylin · 03/02/2009 08:02

I'm the same taipo, I have 2 on the right side that need taking out but getting the 2 on the left side out was such an ordeal that I am just waiting and hoping they might just go away of their own accord (and a miracle)

taipo · 03/02/2009 08:11

Dentist made it sound very easy but one of the teeth is impacted so I think that could be quite difficult to get out. Also they don't seem to be very hot on pain relief here. Last time I had a filling replaced I was asked if I wanted it numbed first (it is clearly not done as a matter of course here) and then when I said 'er, yes' the injection he gave me didn't totally numb it and I still felt the drilling anyway.

Will have to insist on industrial strength anaesthetic if I do go for an extraction.

admylin · 03/02/2009 08:18

I fin dthat too. I now always say that I'm from UK and I'm used to taking alot of pain killers and need very strong injections! Either they beleive that or they just think OK she's a weakling better give her plenty!

Once I went for an abcess removed above a root on a front tooth so they injected but it wore off before she had finished and she didn't beleive me when I said I was getting the feelings back. It was awful and since then I have a huge phobia about dentists which I never had before.