Endlich Fruehlingszeit in the German Corner

[admylin]

'All welcome, Austria & Switzerland & any German-speaking Leute too'

Thank goodness it's over at long last! That was a long winter. Welcome Spring!

Yes we do (end of June) and the report cards will be handed out on the last day but the teachers have been telling the dc their marks - dd said the German teacher went to sit outside the classroom door and they went one by one out into the corridor to be told their grade!

I think atleast next 3 weeks should count though but they both insist no , that's it.

Haven#t even thought about the move really. I'm ignoring it (still!) but regarding decluttering, it's never ending. I have decluttered so many times over the past few years with all our moves and we still have too much stuff. I dream of a totally minimalistic household with no mess but it'll never be.

Well, I had a pleasant birthday except for the fact that our waterbed matress sprung a leak the night before and we had to drain all the water out and order a new mattress. Grrr! Admylin - I made a chocolate pound cake, a lemon roll and an apricot cranberry cake that turned out sort of weirdly. It all got eaten, though. :-)

Only three more weeks until we leave and I am NOT ready but I suppose it doesn't really matter. Just throw a bunch of stuff in a suitcase and take off. The boys are excited about seeing their four cousins - we haven't even met the littlest one yet.

Thediaryofanobody - Hi! They've changed the "Stichtag", to September 30 in Bavaria so any child that is 6 before that date has to start school. I doubt there's any way around it and you'd definitely need to register yourselves.

Oh yes, and we have been decluttering since the Pfingstferiend and managed to throw tons of stuff away. I've got a terrible dust allergy now but it's my own fault for not not dusting regularly.

Westvan DD birthday is November, would that mean we get to wait till the next school year?

I'll try to clarify for you on Mon if no one knows here, but my ds has Nov birthday and he will start in Set like I said, 2 months before he turns 7 which ts ideal for us.

All back together again. Dh was wincing in pain at the noise levels. I was delighted to see them and just wanted to stroke and cuddle, but they've reached the age where that's not allowed. In fact less than a minute after arriving home ds1 had a couple of friends calling round for him and he was off for a couple of hours. Can't believe I'm already thinking 'make the most of them while they're small, it goes so quickly'.

Have to make a final kitchen decision - we're having granite work tops. Have opted for an induction hob with frame, but would love a flächenbündiger one. He's put me off one as they're harder to replace (and we have just had to replace a 4/5 yr old hob and much micro millimeter measuring went on, so I know how fraught it can be, and that was with an 'easier to replace' framed one). Anyway, the framed hob doesn't have a timer, so do I stick with ugly frame and no timer, or go for beautiful flush hob with timer, but have potential hassle when have to change. Oh and flush one is about 250 more. Sigh. I guess I know the answer.

We're thinking of getting a caravan. Friends have got one (static) and we were talking of getting one, then thought well, a normal caravan we could go whereever we wanted. Has anyone got any caravan experience?

wow your up early ernest!! glad you got back home but understand those pesky kids not being as excited as you were!!

no help on your kitchen question - you sound like your right into the nitty gritty details now!!

never been in a caravan in my life! not my thing!

about the school thing diary - westvan is right - the cut off date is 30th september. so if you're child is born in oct,nov or dec they can go to school if you really think their ready or you can do what ernest and i have done and waited till the next year when they are nearly 7.

but to contradict what westvan said - there are quite a few kids here with august and september birthdays whose parents have decided to keep them back till the next year so there is some flexibility in the system.

Hi, was going to say morning everyone but it's abit late for that! We got to sleep in until 10am then slowly sorted abit of proof reading and breakfast and suddenly half the day is over as usual!

Ernest I always remember a friend coming to visit when my 2 were 1 and 2 years old and hers were 7 and 9 and I thought they were great, so selbstständig and helpful and she said give your 2 as many cuddles as you can now because you'll miss them later and they only get less odorable with age!

I thought she was mad - couldn't wait to be done with messy kitchen floor after each meal, nappies, crying and never having a free hand! Now I know how right she was as I do miss those days when you could just get hold of them and hug them! I'm just about allowed to give ds a half-hug or more like a pat on the shoulder now! Thank goodness dd is still the type to come for a cuddle.

Hi thank you everyone on the school info.
So it looks like we'll make it until she's just before 7 until we must send her to school. Thats great news that will give us 2 years which will be enough for us.I'm now going to go ahead and start to work out how, where and when of moving.

First problem it to convince DH he wants to live in an apartment, houses seem so expensive to rent.
Second telling my parents eek their not going to be happy.

Munich area is very expensive. When are you planing on moving?

We looked for a flat for over 10 months up here in Hannover and had to cut our list of must-haves down otherwise we would never have got a place. We turned fairly affordable and nice big flats down because there was only a shower (no tub) and no garage or small details like one of the dc would have had a box room and the other a normal size room. As it is they will both get small rooms now and we're a floor higher than I wanted to be but we were getting desperate!

Ds's friend's mum is back in the hospital here so she seems to be getting the right treatment. She is very ill though and will not be out for weeks if not months. I had the dad and son round for lunch on Sunday and then took the 2 boys to a festival. Can't help much more but their house really needs a good sorting out. There are piles of dishes and he says he can't work the dish washer but won't let me try or help. Everything will need a deep clean before the dw comes home if she still needs to recover.Rcently he phoned me to ask if he could eat a tin of soup that he found in a cupboard with sell by date 2004

admylin I would hope to move in the next month or two in order to enjoy some of the summer weather.
We will probably leave our house empty (DH will be coming back and fourth and BIL lives near by to pop in regularly) with the idea of selling it at a later date.

Is there a lot of competition for rentals then? I remember most people rent, but I lived in houses that were already owned/rented.

I've heard that there is alot of competion for places. we were always OK because dh has a title and that works wonders in Germany (Dr.) our problem was finding an affordable place. Remember if you want 3 bedrooms you have to look for a 4 room flat (4 Zimmer Wohnung/Haus) and Kalt Miete is just the rent and Warm Miete is sometimes just for rubbish collection, caretaker, garden work etc but sometimes it includes heating and water.

We were asked 100 Euro Nebenkosten in one place but that was just for the stairs to be cleaned, rubbish collected and something else - but no heating or warm water or electricity. That would have been another 200 euro roughly on top of the Kalt Miete. Now we have a place with 250 Nebenkosten but that includes heating and water, cleaner and gardner but we still have to pay electricity on top of that.

wow, so soon. But summer weather Think autumn. I have never seen so much rain in all my life. The winter was really long and tbh I don't like hot weather, so I was looking forward to a nice spring, but it has rained constantly.

Let me know when you arrive, wel'll have to check out the beer garten together. We're still working our way through a huge long list.

I am astonished how expensive Munich is.

hope your ds friend mum continues to improve, ad

How is the kitchen planning going ernest? All done?

Poor dd - she just found out yesterday that she's getting a 2 in art on her report. It's the subject that she absoloutly loves and she was nearly in tears. She has almost always had 1s for her pictures too - except one where she obviously didn't interpret the subject the way the teacher wanted. You hav eto be so careful in art here - the teacher sets a task and it has to be done exactly and everyone the same - no imagination or own interpretation involved.

poor dd. I'm astonished they even do art. Has all seemed rather dry so far. IS was the opposite. Lots of lovely pictures, but not much academic work done. Sigh. Wish there was more of a middle ground.

Kitchen had been all planned till I met an acquaintance in Aldi who talked kitchens and made me think I should move my sink. I wish I had someone to sit down and brainstorm with. It's such a big thing to plan on your own.

hello!! not getting much MN time this week - got a lovely friend and her dd here from the UK. the dd is my dd's best friend from the UK so its been great for all of us. pissed off with the weather tho - its been so hit and miss with the rain!! but we were so lucky yesterday - we chanced going to playmobil land and got lucky - no rain all day! not too cold either! so a great day! but its my ds's sommerfest tom and the forecast is for rain!! GRRRRRR!!

admylin - gutted for your dd but a 2 is still a good mark! think the pressure to get 1's is so high! glad your friend is getting the right treatment - hope for all of you it doesnt take months!

not sure what to do today - roll on fri when i heard summer is supposed to come!

Am very fed up with the car today. Last month it was in for repairs and they changed a tiny part of the ABS brake system (a sensor apparantly) which added up to 170 Euro. Then the boss saw me and said it was actually still under guarantee and that I would only have to pay a part of the bill as they had used new parts not realising in the Werkstatt that it was a guarantee.

Today I got a bill for 150 - reduced by 20 euro - great guarantee. To top it all the hand brake warning light is on again so something else must be wrong with the brakes, and we still have to get the air bag problem sorted (flashing air bag warning lights).

Why are garages such a rip off though? They charged me 30 euro just to read the card in the electronics to find out why the lights were flashing. All they do is stick a lap top with programme for reading the car electronics. Takes minutes.

Canella, nice to have visitors but a shame about the weather isn't it. Although I try not to complain because I hate it when it gets over 27 degrees in summer, it's just too hot for my northeren blood!

Awful weather here in Austria too - it's pouring with rain at the moment, and the rain is set to continue until Friday. Nicer weather forecast for the weekend, so I hope that applies to Berlin too!

admylin - sorry to hear about the problems with your car; they're such an expensive business aren't they? DH just had to pay well over 1000 euros to get his car through the MOT. Mine would have cost the same but it wasn't worth getting it repaired. We're now scraping together our pennies, or rather cents, for a new (second-hand) one for me - I can carry on driving my old one until the end of July, but I'd prefer to get one sooner rather than later before it falls apart entirely.

canella - hope it stays dry for your Sommerfest tomorrow. Must check to see when ours is; maybe summer will even have arrived by then - even some nice spring weather would be welcome...

Forcast to be nice this weekend. If it is I will take the dc to a lake with a picnic and take ds's friend along too. It'll do them good to splash about and relax abit.

I have to try and sort out the move soon I suppose. I keep ignoring it but I really should start looking for removal people and get the empty boxs from the back of the cellar. Problem is, the empty boxes are at the back and the whole cellar is full of our stuff - so I either have to get it all out to get to the back or write it off as bad luck and buy new Umzugkisten.

I want my car back first though..just told dh it's in the garage and it's no problem to pay it all even without guarantee but I could do with that money for other things at the moment.

Dd needs a new desk, we need a new dining table, a new desk for dh and I as it'll have to go in the living room and the old one is far too big, and we have to buy the laminate for the bedrooms of new flat.

Got car back - 136 euro to change a brake hose. I think I'm being ripped off. To top it all I can't find any information to dsay the used car we drive had a 1 or a 2 year guarantee for the upcoming airbag repairs.

Off to have a very late lunch and then get the cellar sorted out, I hope there aren't any big spiders down there.

Help please, very serious question ladies about sausages:

does anyone know when it is a Wiener Würstchen and when it is a Bockwurst?

Also what the Bock in Bockwurst is?

I was asked today and I have no idea. I thought Wiener and Bockwürste were the same. Also Bock for me is a goat or used in a phrase like "null Bock" but it doesn't mean anything to me as part of a name of a sausage.

AFAIK Wiener Würstchen are frankfurters and Bockwurst are bigger (larger diameter), but I think the same kind of meat is used. No idea what the Bock in Bockwurst is, though - as a vegetarian, I'm not really an expert on sausages...

Just found the answer here:

Die Unterschiede sind eher fein. Eine Bockwurst ist eine Wiener Wurst, die in Schweine- und Rinderdärme anstatt Schafsdärme gefüllt wird - dadurch ist sie dicker. (In einen Rinderdarm geht mehr Füllung herein). Bockwürste werden in Gläsern in Salzlake erhitzt und zumeist in Gläsern angeboten. Aus diesem Grund ist auch relativ schnell klar, was Deutschländer wirklich sind : Bockwürste, denn nur diese werden in Gläsern angeboten, im Gegensatz zu Frankfurtern und Wienern die als lose Ware in den Handel kommen."

I'm very easily distracted when I'm supposed to be working...

a-ha

thanks for that. So Bockwurst if it is in a jar and Wiener if it isn't. Had no idea Wiener are stuffed into bits of sheep and Bockwürste into bits of beef and pork

actually all a bit revolting when you spend much time thinking about it.

not going to spend too long thinking about whats in the wuerstchen!! just about to eat one for lunch!!

admylin - i'm no use as to whether you're being ripped off or not as i'm also useless at the garage! but it is rubbish to have to keep spending so much money!
did you get the kellar sorted - i imagine the spiders were huge!

so my visitors have gone this morn - had a wee cry at the train station - we've had such a lovely week and i miss them so much when they're not here! and my friend is pregnant and i'm going to miss watching her baby grow! but its a good excuse for a trip back to the UK! not been back for a while already! she desp wants me to drive over so i can fill the car with Apfelschorle - it was her dd's fave thing when she was here!! think she'll be campaigning for Aldi UK to sell it!

so glad the weather has turned better - it was a lovely day yesterday for the Sommerfest and i was so proud of my ds's. ds1 even had a speaking part cause one of the other boys was poorly and said all the words nice and clear! brought a tear to my eye!! (too many tears at the mo!!)

hope you all have a nice weekend