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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:
westvan · 18/02/2009 10:49

So sorry to hear about your gran, admylin! I hope you'll be able to attend the funeral. I think the airlines offer "bereavement fares" that reduce the ticket price a bit.

admylin · 18/02/2009 11:21

Thanks everyone. Still waiting to hear from home. My gran was nearly 100.

Thegabster, the time seems to have flown past. Can't believe you've already got a date! How did you manage to find the house? Did you read this thread about living in UK? Bet you'll be even more glad you're moving after it!

TheGabster · 18/02/2009 13:19

Oh Ad - so sorry to hear you news. Do know how you feel - my granded died after I had been out here a few years and all my aunties seem to be dropping at the moment and I have missed all the funerals (am a horrible non-member of family). It's just one of those things. Westvan's "bereavement fares" sound like they need a thorough checking out to me.

[sympathetic emoticon]

taipo · 18/02/2009 14:41

I'm so sorry to hear about your gran, admylin. I really hope that you can make it to the funeral.

I think there are some really cheap fares out there atm. Although it pains me to promote Ryanair in any way, I have heard that they are doing free flights on some routes until the end of April. Don't know if they fly from near you though.

TheGabster · 18/02/2009 19:55

Thanks for the thread link Ad - very good reading (for me that is).

Found the house on rightmove website in the end. Packed my parents and brother off to see a few houses for me and parents recommended it in the end. Good location and not bad condition and they even checked out the fish & chip shop in the village for me!!! LOL

MmeLindt · 18/02/2009 20:06

Ooh, Ernest, I found a fab application today. Wunderradio. You can get radio stations from all over the world on your iPhone. I have BBC radio and german stations, not to mention some childrens stations.

Admylin
Have you any news?

admylin · 18/02/2009 21:09

I heard from home and the funeral will be on Friday. No way I can make it and I can't believe it could be organised so quickly.

Now I should try and find some words to send by email and my sister or mum will put it in a card for me.

H lost his father the year before I met him and he'd just been over to India to visit him 6 months before he died so he couldn't even be there for his own father's burial. That's it for me though, no way am I ever moving to Australia or the US. I'm only moving nearer to home from now on.

ErnestTheBavarian · 19/02/2009 08:13

blimey ad, just seen this so sorry. I agree, I'd never go to Australia or USA, and I'm not even close to my family. When mil was suffering with cancer and in ITU it was horrendous being so far away.

So sorry you can't get there in time. What's dh said about it? Was she your maternal or paternal grandmoher? How are your parents?

MmeL, that is 1 thing I never use my iPhone for - listening to music. I love shazam though, didn't think I'd use it but I have a few times & it does impress! Got TONS of games (the boys play with). Reckon the baby monitor will be great, esp on holiday next week. Oh, and got speakeasy, a voice recorder for memos etc, that's good, except I keep forgetting to use it

admylin · 19/02/2009 09:16

She was maternal grandmother ernest. No grandparents left now.

Just found out from my uncle that he can trace the family back as far as 1777 - we've been looking at family trees for ds's history lessons. Doing the research I found out about one name in our family that no one knew for sure where it came from. My great great great grandfather (paternal) had a double surname and I managed to find a really small scottish village which has the same name and that's the area part of our family came from. The name wa sthen passed down as a sort of middle name to male dc only and my grandfather was teh last one to have it. Showed it to the dc and we'll definately try and go there next time we go back, lovely sandy coves and coastal walks around the village too.

Ds has just got himself an mp3 player. Do any of you know the best way to get music on to it? We tried one website but the downloads were so slow or is that normal? We have high speed internet but it was still slow.

MmeLindt · 19/02/2009 09:42

Don't know about mp3 Admylin, I use iTunes to put music on my iPhone and it is reasonably quick.

Ernest
What is Shazoo? Do I need it?

I took the dog down to the woods today, just for a change. I normally go through the vineyards. Of course, I got completely lost, ended up somewhere in France bogged down in mud and leaping over streams. Poor dog had to swim through the stream and it was freeeezing. We walked over 2 hours and we were both freezing by the time we got home.

Dog is now curled up in front of the heating. I am on my second cup of tea.

Where has Fink got to?

ErnestTheBavarian · 19/02/2009 09:50

Did you have your passport with you?! Sounds fun

Shazam recognises music, so if you hear a song, or ad with music on and you think ooh what's that, you just point your phone at it and it tells you what it is. Not life changing, but it is cool and I've used it a few times. Watching Mr Bean on holiday and wondering what's that song, used to listen to it in my yoof, then ta da, had the answer on trusty phone dh wanted it, but surprised how much I've used it.

ad, dunno about mp3 player - alos an iPod house using iTunes which is v. quick

admylin · 19/02/2009 09:54

He really wanted an iPod to be honest but he was using his Christmas money and he couldn't quite bring himself to spend too much! He ended up with a 30 Euro deal on Amazon.de

admylin · 19/02/2009 09:56

Mmelindt I used to get lost in Berlin when I went for walks at first. It's such a relief when you do get back on the correct path isn't it! I had a big tall chimney from an old DDR factory that was in our direction and that saved me a few times ...don't panick, look for the chimney!

MmeLindt · 19/02/2009 10:11

I looked for the Jura mountain range

I did not have my passport with me but since the borders that I passed were just wooden footbridges, there were no nasty customs police waiting to lock me up.

Will have a look at the Shazum, is that the right name? Can't be bothered to scroll up and down.

ErnestTheBavarian · 19/02/2009 10:12

shazam

oh, and dh delighted with rubiks cube solver. spent all night on it when I got it

TheGabster · 19/02/2009 12:04

Mme - well done on finding your way home. Have mental picture of poor little dogging struggling through freezer river ... and then curled up at home. Ahhhhhh

Ad - kewl family history stuff. Keep meaning to look up mine as apparently related to Spencer out of Marks and Spencers. Must look into it - could be rich beneficiary without even realising!!!! (although probably more likely debts at the moment I suspect)

hupa · 19/02/2009 12:34

admylin - sorry to hear your news. It´s really hard when you´re away at times like these. When my dad had cancer it was really hard - a couple of weeks in England caring for him and then back here for a week or 2 and then back again. We were fortunate that we could afford to do it otherwise it would have been awful.

MmeLindt glad you found you´re way back. I got horribly lost once in the car when I first moved here and had no map in the car. Instead of the 10 minutes I needed it took over 90 minutes to get home.

MmeLindt · 19/02/2009 12:52

In the car I am even worse. I used to get so lost in NRW as there are just so many autobahns. It is really confusing. Thank God for sat navs.

We don't really need it that much here for getting in and out of town, but it is handy if we are looking for a particular address. Geneva is actually quite small and I am beginning to know my way around the suburbs.

MmeLindt · 20/02/2009 21:06

Admylin
I was just looking a website for 2nd hand items here in Geneva (looking for a cross trainer) and I thought of you with your printer. Have you bought one yet? I found this website, perhaps there is something on there for you.

ZZZen · 21/02/2009 09:33

Never thought of getting a printer second-hand but why not? I use ours quite a lot tbh. I suppose it isn't really necessary but it is nice to have, I print out recipes and long emails because I find them easier to read on paper than on the screen. Also print out worksheets for maths and various educational things along the way.

In fact I print out far more than I need to.

You don't need anything fancy. I'd try media Markt or some place like that.

Actually the universities occasionally sell off their old pcs, maybe they sell off their printers too after a while. Maybe dh could ask about that admylin?

admylin · 21/02/2009 10:29

Lol ZZZen about h asking at uni! He's the reason I have to get one. He can't be bothered with having to go to the other office (a couple of buildings away) to print on an evening if I've sent him anything during the day. I need stuff for ds mostly now as they have to produce extra work and show that they have done research. I also need work sheets for dd and as you say I would like to print stuff for myself but I usually don't bother.

I think I have to go and look in a few shops like Media Markt and co as I'm not sure how big it's going to be if I order it. I was looking at one and it turned out to be one of those massive office ones when I looked at the cm size!

Sad day yesetrday as my gran was buried and I couldn't be there. After school I bought the dc a Garfield dvd and loads of crisps and a bag of sweets and curled myself up under a blanket

Original poster
finknottle · 21/02/2009 11:00

Morgen Streupflichter,

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, admylin. You do seem to be having a rough time of it lately.

I've been madly busy with school stuff lately, loads of parent gov activity and also teaching one morning a week. Am v rusty. They're rather demanding 5.Klässler.

Seems to come in waves, either nothing or then weeks like these, 3 or 4 appts tagsüber and 3 evenings. I was in the school every day this week doing one thing or another. Good for me though, have noticed my German's come on a lot and though I still mail h stuff to proofread before sending it out, I make fewer mistakes. Don't quite have the confidence to trust my instincts yet though.

Enjoying it all tbh, but the week flies by. The boys seem to be in constant motion in and out, am v glad they can go and come alone without my being taxi driver. I don't want to see less of friends either and have joined a book club. Don't see much of h but he's completely stressed out at work and better left alone. Has done him & the children good though that he does supper and bedtime with them more as I'm often out. Easy to let it happen that I always do it.

How come some of you had hols? We've had nowt but do have Mon & Tues off for carnival.

S2 has joined the scouts. Wish I'd thought of it earlier, loads of his friends are scouts too. The girl who does it is the daughter of someone I know and she does great activities with them. They don't seem to do badge-earning stuff as I'd imagined but loads of group things. Girls can join too. D can't wait till she's 7 to join. It's done his confidence good, he goes off proudly in his shirt - took me the best part of an hour to sew on the badges. It's all "Rudel" and "Guter Jagd" and "Ritter von etwas", must find out more tbh.

Good noooooos re school, heading over now to Thread of Doom...

OP posts:
MmeLindt · 21/02/2009 19:36

Admylin
Don't tell anyone but (((hugs))). Most un-MNetty of me but I think you need some. Yesterday must have been hard on you.

Fink
I was a brownie and guide because I was not allowed to be a scout. Finally became a Venture Scout at 15yo. I loved it. My family were very involved in scouting when we were young. It was good fun, lots of outdoorsy activities and meeting new people.

I have bought a used cross trainer today. It will be delivered on Tuesday. I am looking forward to doing some exersize in the comfort of my own home. No more sweaty gyms.

MmeLindt · 22/02/2009 06:28

Morning all!

I am feeling rather smug this morning as I wait for the bread to finish baking. I got a strange urge to bake my own bread this week and started the dough off last night so we could have fresh rolls this morning. I hope they turn out ok.

Otherwise, today is full of getting things ready for our guests who are arriving tomorrow. Old friends from Wü, really nice uncomplicated guests. The best kind.

Hmmm, the bread smells yummy. Anyone want to come to Geneva for breakfast?

admylin · 22/02/2009 08:46

Morning. Well done mmelindt, fresh bread in the morning is lovely. My 2 dc love warm bread. I am not the early bird type so we sometimes have home baked bread in the evening!

I treated myself to some English cheese yesterday so we'll be having toast, baguette (bought) and cheese on the breakfast table. As it is - it's quarter to 10 and my dc are still in bed! H has gone into his lab already.