**German Chat**everyone welcome* - macht es euch gemütlich

[ZZZen]

reden wir weiter...

i thought men DID have babies these days?!

My VHS did a morning intensive course but it didn't fit in with kindergarten hours. Some VHS's have a creche some days and others not. I ended up taking private lessons from a teacher who normally teaches English as fremdsprache and we talk about what we want to learn and at our own pace and now we are very good friends.

Well consider me a hypocrite! All my talk of herbs and last night I fell into a crate of beer and couldn|t crawl back out!

I hada baptism today which was the usual suspects / inlaws but funnily enuff very nice. I got to chat about food to two goregous women who know loads / I am a total amateur in cookery and I|m bored of my own food at the mo.

I|ve had a horrible headache all day and am only just getting better. great food, intelligent German chatting (but not understanding all of it) helped.

So much to catch up on. We´ve been in England for 2 weeks and had a great time. We had surprisingly good weather, the dc even braved the sea.

Admylin - welcome back! I´ve so many questions. What didn´t you like about England? Are your dc looking forward to coming back? Will they go back to the schools they were in before?

Ernest - I ususally hate Super RTL, but they do show Art Attack and another programme called Die Endeckerzone which the dc really enjoy. Watch out for the last one or they might wnt to try out the experiments and end up with baking powder exploding all over the kitchen.
Did you have any luck with your appeal against the fine?

manina - very impressed with your gardening efforts. We´ve only got black currants and blackberries in our garden. We´re going to attempt blackcurrant jam this week.

glad you had a good time in the UK hupa - even better that the weather was good!!
i want admylin to answer all your questions too but i'm sure she's busy getting settled in!

manina - hope your hangover got better yest - maybe stay away from those beer crates next weekend!!!!!!

well our weather here is shit at the mo - it rained nearly all day yest - kids were surprisingly well behaved for a rainy day!! hope the weather improves as the week goes on!!

its the start of a busy week for us - its my birthday on fri (will be 35 - depressed that i'm no longer in my early 30's!!!), our wedding anniv on sun and dd's birthday on tues!!

going with another family to playmobil land on sat to celebrate it all!! but still need to get a lot organised this week - can you buy birthday cakes in supermarkets here like in england or am i being a disgrace in not making it myself?

Back again, I have had hardly any time to MN as DH was home all last week and now my parents are here. They are going out to Evian tomorrow so I have planned an hour of TV for the DC and an hour of MN for me. Might even take the pc out into the garden and let them go in the pool.

I learnt at the VHS and found it was a good way of learnign. It really does depend on the teacher though, some of them were fab and some were rather less fab.

The wedding was great, will pop a photo on my profile for the nosy amongst you. We had a fantastic day, there were loads of DC so we hardly even noticed they were there. My SIL had organised a babysitter for the evening, and a magician for during the speeches. The DC dropped off to sleep during the dance (about 10.30pm) in the playroom next to the function suite and the babysitter was there to keep an eye on them. We popped them into bed when the wedding fininshed and they hardly even wakened.

We have been hard at work since we got back, doing the tourist bit. Looking forward to a day at home tomorrow then have an appt for a haircut and colour on Thursday. Got to make the most of my parents' babysitting skills.

I'm one of the nosiest nosy ones ML. Please put a photo up. By the way, I love your photos, they're great. Especially the scary mutant flowers! Also love the one of your dad in his PINT t-shirt and ds in the Half-Pint one. So cute!!

Your sister planned well, didn't she? The playroom and babysitter, the magician and so on. They're really good ideas.

Can't think of anything much re German children's tv. Dd didn't ever watch anything other than Tanzalarm at 9ish I think if she was off sick and Willi will es wissen (which I quite like too). They have some goofy lanky character called Willi going round finding out how things work. I find him quite sweet. I seem to rmember someting called the Mitmachmühle but I found it a bit naff. Kika have a website so you can find out there what's on when. Don't know what might appeal to your older boy ernest

Hi Everyone! We are all returning it seems!

We had a great time at the Kinderhotel-have added review and thoroughly recommend it. Legoland was also good-though abit overpriced- we all prefer Playmobil Land. All the driving (Germany/Austria/Scotland) was easy thanks to a portable DVD player! We did however have a nasty car sickness incident about 2 hours into our first journey and DS has been rather traumatised by the suppositories he was prescribed!

Good to see everyone is doing fine and welcome back Admylin. I love it here and dread being posted back to UK.

Canella, I do German courses through the VHS and ours have not yet got next year's timetable on the internet-supposed to be up tomorrow. I second going in to talk to them. They were very helpful to me and gave me a test so they knew where I should start. Hope you enjoy Playmobil Land and Happy Birthday.

DH, who just got back from Iraq in May is now in Kenya on Exercise for next 7 weeks. I really did not think I would ever say this but I am so grateful Kindergarten have such short holidays! 3 weeks is nicely manageable!
Of course the other plus point is having nothing to do in the evening but Mumsnet !

Mine's just gone to Gibraltar for three weeks and of course, it's raining here!

gosh they're away a lot, aren't they? Seems a bit odd that you're based in Germany and your dh's are in Iraq and Kenya and Gibralter etc a lot of the time. Just as well you like being where you are Trockodile!

So is it canella's birthday today?!

ah no just seen on Friday.

I'd prefer Germany to Iraq

That's it, school's finished for seven weeks and the DCs have already had three fights and poured juice on the sofa...

Back from the beach, and just in time as it has started to rain. I settled myself on the terrace with my laptop and a cup of tea but had to come inside. At least it is a bit cooler today.

DS is outside in the rain covering up his bike with tea towels.

Scootergirl
Don't you just love the school holidays? My two are arguing all the time.

They have already had 3 weeks of Granny and are always less obedient afterwards, they get used to getting allowed more. I will have to plan lots for next week once Granny goes home so that they are kept busy.

MmeLindt - I'm one of the nosey ones, so hurry up and post a picture!

DD had her first impfung yesterday; no fever but slept the whole day between feeds. I got so much done.

Trock - which kinderhotel was it again? I've sent off for a brochure. Cos of DH's job, summer holidays are out of the question but we're thinking about skiing and a looking for a resort that will teach a five year old and me. Why is your DH in Kenya? Surely all the time in Iraq was exercise enough?!

Am gearing up for party time; DS's birthday next week and after umming and ahhing about whether I've got the umph to throw a party, I thought I'd give it go. How stressy can it be? It's only kids...

dd never had any trouble with her vaccinations , thank goodness but apart from that she was practically non stop sick till she was 3 IIRC. This is mainly why I didn't have a number 2

Have been falling off a skateboard a lot this morning. How do people do this? I am hoping it will help when I try surfing. I quite fancy surfing (just scared stiff of SHARKS) because everywhere there is decent surfing, there seem to be bl* sharks.

oh my god how much noise can builders make
the building site over the road is shaking the house

we went to a really good kinderhotel in Carintha

just a bit of a pain that ds he came down with chickenpox when we got back so we already four weeks into time off

insanity is looming

oooh, chickenpox. My sympathies, Alice. One of the reasons that my DC are vaccinated against that is the memory of having it myself as a child. I was miserable.

Will pop a photo on now for the nosy bunch.

Oo, great photos MmeLindt. You look lovely in them.

Surfing sounds exciting ZZZen. Watched Pur Plus the other day with dc and it was about sharks, about how harmless (mostly) they are. Still wouldn't like to come face to face with one though.

Frosch, I say that to myself before every birthday party, that this time it won't be that bad - but it always is I think the key is to be really well organised with games and stuff but that's not really my thing and dh is no better.

Please don't mention birthday parties, I am already feeling guilty for not having had one for either DC this year. I will have to at some point but I keep putting it off. Roll on the years where you give them cinema tickets for themselves and 2 friends and a tenner for popcorn and cokes.

love the photos mmelindt - love seeing your DH in a kilt!!! and you look gorgeous too!!

its dd's birthday next week but she just asked could she have 3 friends round for pizza!! that was a def yes from me - sounds easy enough!!!

It's more like 3 tenners these days mmelindt! I'm at that stage already! In UK just 3 of us went to see the new Harry Potter film and it cost over 20 with popcorn! Still, I'm so happy that they don't need parties anymore.

There is a new trend in UK that I couldn't get over. Even 13 year olds get mega parties with own disco, limousine to drive up in and party dresses like I have never seen. Another trend is school proms like in the US with full write ups in the local papers. Dresses and cars and tiaras included.

I find dc's birthday parties a real grind. On the day I suppose they're not that bad, it's thinking about them that stresses you out.

These days I always have some organised thing with someone else doing something with them for a lot of the time like an entertainer of some type or some kind of science museum or Steinwart get-up so that kills as much time as possible some time and keeps them occupied. I also don't bother baking fancy Thomas the Tank-Engine and moon rocket cakes these days. Still dread it though. Dh invariably gets ill too.

Are the school proms so bad then? I just hope we don't adopt the voting for the home-coming queen and king thing with the popularity drive build-up and all the rest of it. That really makes me cringe. Just so odd to me, not having been brought up with it. And why home-coming anyway, what's that about?

DH is never around for birthday parties, he does plan it well.

Urgh at the thought of prom nights. I know that one of the neighbours DC had their first communion recently and Mum phoned, scandalized at the sight of a limo turning up to pick up the family to go to the church.

you look great in those photos ML. Why do you go on about losing weight sometimes? I think you look just right. I also like seeing your German dh in a kilt. He carries it off well, doesn't he?

The prom stuff looked very over the top to me and no sign of credit crunch (apart from For Sale signs outside every 4th hose) when you see the limos driving around. Someone has a good business going there anyway!

Thought I'd got away from swine flu hysteria when I left UK but just read the local newspapaer and it says there are the more cases of it in Hannover than Hamburg, Stuttgart and Berlin together.