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Living overseas

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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 · 04/03/2009 10:55

I am feeling rather decadent at the moment, esconced on the sofa with my dog while the gardeners work.

Did I tell you that I received an email from the building management company saying

"Spring is coming and it is time to trim your bushes and to clean the gutters."

DH's company is really good to us, such attention to detail. Bush trimming in spring!

hupa · 04/03/2009 10:56

Hope you´re feeling better

admylin · 04/03/2009 11:13

I wish they'd come and cut the bushes infront of my living room window. The buds are coming and when the leaves are on I will just have awall of green bushes right up to the top of the windows.

Guess I won't have to buy blinds for summer if they leave them. In Berlin we had a tree in front of the house and in summer the living room was dark even though we were on 3rd floor.

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 11:16

hi hupa

To be truly decadent though you must also be eating chocolates ML. Can that be arranged? Your dog sounds really sweet.

GardenerS sounds quite impressive, like you have a whole group of them at work on your estate!

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 11:23

Oh, not with my funny tummy today, Zzzen. Probably just as well.

There were 2 gardeners. They have cleaned the gutters and done some chopping down of stuff. I asked them about what to do with the grass, it is more moss than grass.

DH's company arranges for them to come twice a year. AIBU to wish that they would also get them to cut the grass? Poor DH is going to have to start doing that soon.

admylin · 04/03/2009 11:24

I've just made a beef curry and basmati rice in advance for tonight but I'm so fed up with curry. I dream of having a UK style chinese take away sometimes! The chinese food isn't the same here, why don't they use water chestnuts in Germany?

TheGabster · 04/03/2009 11:29

THANK YOU ALL TONNES! Have copied something now into word and will sort it later. Phew, you lot are FABULOUS!

And would love to stay on here when I go back. Thanks for the invite - was not sure if it was taboo or not

Indeed, Lindt - was so shocked when he said on the phone he was "interested" I let rip (would say it was a bad day but they are all pretty stressful at the moment) - said he has to say for sure he is taking the kitchen or it is getting ripped out and sold this weekend. Hence why he is coming round tonight. Did try to get the Mackler (sp?) involved but she flat refused.

Never mind, we are getting there. Just have to de-register the caravan and a few letters to close down utilities and things and things are sorted (this end, in any case).

Am v. excited about flying next week as means I am going to be home for my mum's 70th birthday - first time I have seen her on her birthday for 8 years .

TheGabster · 04/03/2009 11:31

Sorry you are feeling poorly Lindt.

Hupa - we have booked Pickfords but are packing ourselves. Not too much left now. Would you believe they were about half the price of the German firm we wanted to use? Well, I suppose you would as you have all lived here a time now.

ilovespinach · 04/03/2009 11:46

Stuttgart is good I really like the city (both DH and I are from smallish rubbish towms in England so it's like a palace in comaparison). As for the Schwabisch mentality, I have to admit I live in a bit of a bubble - all friends etc are English/Irish. The only time I come into contact with Germans really is at DS1's kindergarten or at the Drs etc. Must try and change that!!!!

Hope everything goes OK with you Gabster - if I read everything right, you're going back to England. Where abouts are you heading?

All the talk about crisps (mmm), chocolate (mmmmm) and curry (mmmmmmmm - we have the most fantastic curry place around the corner from us) reminds me I have to go to the gym tonight (boooo). Wednesday is one of my alloted nights for going to the gym - going to be a bit tough as I haven't been for 2 weeks. Am trying very hard not to eat the ChocoSticks I have just emptied into the treat jar.

Hope everyone has a good day.Nice and bright here in Stuttgart - think it will tip it down for the next couple of days though just in time for the inlaws to visit.

Ooohhh before I forget - DS1's kindergarten are asking for empty egg shells. Does anyone know how to get the egg out without breaking much of the shell? Or are smashed up eggs OK????

Off for a lovely cuppa now

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 11:51

you are in for a fun time spinach! Well I remember blowing out those eggs for them to paint at kiga at Eastertime.

You take a needle and make a whole on opposite ends of the egg. You also try to gentle widen the whole a bit with the needle by moving it around the hole you have made. Gently though, because they crack apart before you know it.

Then the real fun begins, you blow into one hole and the goey egg comes out the other. I did it over the sink. It's a bit yuck so I never made a whole heap of them. Send them to kiga in an egg box with the dc's name on the box.

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 11:52

oops you make a hole obviously not a whole

TheGabster · 04/03/2009 12:00

Oooh - English chinese food - crispy duck and pancakes and chilli beef are the things I miss the most.

Sounds like good eggy fun IloveSpinach!

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 12:00

You have to make a tiny hole in both ends of the egg (with a skewer if you have one) and blow the egg out.

Use eggs at room temperature so that the yolks are not so difficult to blow through the hole (you can poke the skewer into the egg to break the yolk, that makes it easier too)

Do it on a day that you can make pancakes or something.

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 12:02

skewer huh? Never tried that. Not in fact intending to ever try the performance any more.

That's right a German mum told me you have to dig the needle in and break up the yolk a bit. It's a bit of a vile procedure but there is no getting out of it. Some people hard-boil eggs and use those instead but if they are hanging around the kiga for 2 weeks before they get painted, well....

Also, don't use extra cheapo eggs, the shells crack too easily. Get normal ones that you would buy for baking/cooking.

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 12:04

You can tell the kiga mums, they are the ones in a scrum at the egg counter trying to get white eggs.

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 12:05

oh yeah forgot that too. They have to be WHITE for painting and they will be running low atm

Actually I love all that traditional celebration type stuff but the blowing eggs is really yuck, isn't it?

ZZZen · 04/03/2009 12:08

Some mums are really good at this kind of thing. I had one just round the corner from me who had 3 dc at kiga and she gave them a box of 12 each to paint. I think my dd never had more than 3 or 4 because that was all I could be bothered doing.

hupa · 04/03/2009 12:09

Blowing out eggs is so revolting. That´s dh´s job now, after I was nearly sick the first time I tried doing it.

theGabster- nearly half price is brilliant - I suppose the exchange rate is really working in your favour now.

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 12:14

We got our neighbours DH to blow out the eggs, he was very good at it. I don't mind doing it but it is a bit of a faff. Don't know if they do that here.

Bum. Just realised that the gardners are off with the shrubs from the garden, I oculd have used them for a Easter tree.

TheGabster · 04/03/2009 12:34

Cor, everyone's dead chatty today! Feel left out with the eggs now. Plus of course there won't be any of that thing in the UK when I move back. I know there are lots of things I will miss about Germany but did not think that would be one of them!!! LOL

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 13:04

Ah, Gabs. You will be on here soon, reminiscing about all the things you are missing and we will be sending you parcels with... What? Erdnussflips? You might get them in Aldi or Lidl. What will you miss?

admylin · 04/03/2009 13:21

Dd is invited to the 3rd birthday party from her class mate. I've run out of ideas what to get. The first girl reads alot so I got her a book, the 2nd girl is babyish abit and still into princess/fairy sort of things (not really dd's type) so I got her a big set of beads to make stuff with, but this girl is more the trendy 'bit older' type, dances hiphop in a group, is quite spoilt so has top new clothes, never seen her in the same jacket yet, hair always in different styles, curls, straight, plaits, big floppy bunches, etc etc. What should I get her? Any ideas? I know one of her other friends is giving her a Gutschein from C and A's.

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 13:30

What about some smart hair accessories from H&M? Do you have an Accessorise in Hannover? They had one in Düsseldorf.

IMO, girls cannot have enough hair slides and bobbles.

admylin · 04/03/2009 13:34

I thought of that but then I've seen her photos from the hiphop competitions and she must have a personal hairdresser at home and all the imaginable hair accesories that exist. She sometimes sleeps with her hair in rags and comes to school with big ringlets!

If I can't think of anything I might just get her some head bands/bobbles.

MmeLindt · 04/03/2009 13:49

Sounds like a high maintenence girl