Streupflicht und Schneeschaufel

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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.

She's meant to be German under 12 champion at hip hop or something like that..or was she 2nd, always off school to go to these dance things and is picked up in car every day full of costumes, feathers and hats! Dd honestly gets on with all types of girls, suppose that's positive atleast!

One of her other friends is like some sort of gang leaders dd, come sto school in leather jacket, cool baggy jeans and a cowboy hat, looks really tough and hits the boys if they come and bother the 'gang'.Dd also gets on with the class brain box who has straight A's!

There are some interesting girls in your dd's class, admylin! I think it's great that she's getting on so well with them. It says a lot for her and I think it would stand her in good stead if she has to start again in the UK.

What a mixed bunch of friends she has, Admylin. I agree that it is great that she gets on with so many different types of girls.

We started doing jigsaws an hour ago to make sure all the bits are here before I put them into the shelf. I rearranged the playroom yesterday and binned LOADS of stuff. If there are bits missing from the jigsaws then they are going in the bin too.

DD has lost interest and no wonder. The JS is from age 8yo and she is only 6.5yo. I wish folk would look properly at the game before buying it. This time it was not my mil, she bought a 100 piece JS for DD about 2 years ago, tiny tiny pieces, a picture of two cats with a flowery border. Of course the border is hellish to do as it is all the same. I guess that it was suitable for about age 8yo and she was only 5yo at the time.

I emailed DH and he said to try the JS for 3yo. Ha bloody ha.

Friends bought the dc 1000 peice Ravensburger jigsaws and we took ages (weeks) to finish one, the other one never got finished , it was too hard even for me!

Finished the 8yo jigsaw at last. Am leaving the other one till tomorrow. I am all jigsawed out.

Lol. I used to spend hours doing jigsaws as a child. Developed quite a knack for it. Never get round to it these days and the dc are not interested in doing the really big ones yet.

Lindt - I think trendy girls like Esprit stuff. If she likes doing her hair and dressing up would she like a nice little costume jewellery set or something (i.e. matching necklace and bracelet or something).

Think I will miss the bakers and the cakes a great deal and all the seasonal decorations - the way everyone gets so into all the different things like Easter eggs hanging from the trees, etc.

Anyway - thanks to everyone who helped out with the sale of my kitchen! Turns out the new tenant came along this evening with the cold hard cash so no worries after all. Even offered to buy the light fittings but we told him no to worry, we would leave them for him. Not going to start charging 10euros for them when we can't really take them with us.

Walls are starting to look quite bare now - took down pictures and curtains to fill holes today. Just hope everything fits in the truck now!!!

I got a good idea from someone on MN to get the girl a disposable camera and photo album which dd also thought was a good idea so we'll go and get that after school. Might see a nice little picture frame, depends how much they all add up to! In Berlin average spending on friends birthdays was up to 20 Euro which I found to be quite high - especially if you have a dd who gets constant invites!

Where is your dh staying TheGabster? If you empty the house now? Does he still have to paint? Will you be going to family first? How exciting, wish it was us. Don't leave us though, you can keep coming and giving us support still!

Admylin
Good idea with the camera. I find 20eu quite a lot, we were used to 10 - 15eu for gifts.

Spent most of the morning at the Office de la Population getting a bit of paper for the Familienkasse. They gave us it in French, I hope the German beamter are ok with that, otherwise we will have to get it translated. That is the first lot of Kindergeld.

The DC have a friend here and I have just heard DD saying that they have to tidy the playroom as the go along, "Otherwise Mama will be awful awful mad because she tidyed the playroom just the other day."

Same here, mmelindt, I think 10 euro is enough too but somehow all seemed to give such extravagent gifts in Berlin. One boy gave ds a full set autorennbahn thing for his birthday. I saw it a couple of days later in Karstadt for 35 euro (reduced, but still) and with dd it was polly pocket sets that her friends all wished for.

Oooh - great idea with the Camera - will remember that one. And thanks, I would love to lurk a bit longer!

DS and I are flying next week, and H is staying with the dog, painting and stacking everything ready for the movers. They come on the 18th. H will sleep in the caravan for a night or two in the garden (LOL) to make good any damage the movers do and get the dog jabbed ready, then hand the keys back and drive up north. Have just booked his ferry crossing and am looking for a campsite for him for the night before the ferry.

We planned it all out the other night, but now I realise I have stupidly booked his ferry for mothers' day! Oh well.

You sound like a great team and you're so chilled sounding! I was nearly having a breakdown before every one of my moves! Maybe because I didn't have my h to support me, he just carried on working every move we've done.

I think I reached meltdown yesterday and was this horrible shouty person the whole morning. But I took DS to the family centre in the afternoon and managed to get an hour of peace and quiet and a coffee and cake and feel renewed now!

(Although feeling dead guilty now am MNing instead of cracking on)

Coffee and cake always good!

I would miss the large selection of salami and cold meats that are on offer here and maybe the bakery stuff but I find the bread in UK has improved alot since I left. Last time I was home they had a good range of different bread (with seeds, whole flour etc). Are you getting your dh to bring a load of favourites with him when he follows?

I usually cope quite well in the run up to a move and then have a meltdown or several in the months afterwards.

Stuff I would miss:

bread
spaetzle
sauerkraut
Weizenbier
good German white wine
Zuckerrübensyrup
Flammkuchen

loads of stuff really

I am fine when moving. Tbh, it is a lot of work but I enjoy it. Don't tell DH I said that.

A friend recently mentioned about moving so often, and how lucky DH was that I was willing to move with him and was a bit shocked when I said that I am just as keen to move as DH. I certainly don't feel like a "trailing spouse" wafting along in his wake, bitter and unhappy.

Where is he going to be camping then, Gabster? Have you found something?

Oooh taipo, do you really like Sauerkraut? Must try it one day but when ever I smell it I think yuk! I love rotkraut.

In schwabenland they had Schupfnudeln with Sauerkraut at the fairs and festivals sold on the street. Just the smell is abit off putting!

I like Spaetzle but not Rotkohl, Grünkohl or Sauerkraut. Dd won't eat any of that either, although she is used to kiga/school meals and generally likes German food. She never took to Griesbrei either come to think of it.

I think Gabs should set up an egg blowing society when she gets to the UK. Everyone has Flammkuchen and Weizenbier to recover from the experience afterwards.

Might be a good business idea to import some typical German specialities and open a German style beer garden back in UK!

Biergärten are a nice set-up. I think that would work quite well, weather permitting.

Don't know about importing Sauerkraut and that type of thing really. NOt sure there would be a huge demand but nowadays with German supermarket chains everywhere, you can generally get most of those items.

Might just work in the sunny south eh?
No point up in the north where I'm from as it rains too much although there are more and more street cafes even in my home town for summer.

This summer is going to be so busy for the holiday season as credit crunch predictions go - people will be holidaying at home.

well (some) people would probably sit outdoors even if it was pelting down so long as there was some kind of tarpaulin cover. But if you get strong wind and driving rain a lot of the time , I don't think a Biergarten is the way to go. There are some very nice and relaxed places like that in Germany though and it is not as if much of Germany had great weather.

There was a German market in Scotland last time I visited my mum. It was quite popular, although the prices were shocking. I almost bought leberwurst for DS as he misses it but it was something like £8 for a small wurst.

I think that a real German biergarten would be good, although probably you would be better with a Bierhalle (like the Hofbrauhaus) with an outdoor area. There is a nice Biergarten/Restaurant in Würzburg with trees and benches inside a hall. You get the beergarten atmosphere without the rain. They built around a tree! Have a look here

A hofbrau in UK would be great. Must find some great business idea and convince h that I would be better off working back home!

Any good at matsh mmelindt? Studying for dd's maths test is driving me mad!