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!

phew, just got in from work, did 40 hours in 4 days.
Our local international school is being obliging about letting us be external candidates. I am hoping that she'll do french next year, and science, english and possibly latin the following year.

It is cambridge, so the same standard as GCSEs, I should imagine.

I asked DH about how you can tell the difference between aluminium and steel rims; his not-very-helpful answer was that they look different, but it's hard to explain how. Oh, and if they're rusty (like mine) then they're steel; steel rims are also magnetic...

Picked up my car from the garage this morning without having any of the repairs done that would be needed for it to pass its Austrian MOT. They would have come to 1200 euros and with my car only being worth around 1000 euros, it makes more sense to look for a new one. At least I'm still allowed to drive this one until the end of July, which gives us a few months to look (and save up).

thank you so much, aberita! I will go and hold a magnet to my rims
How very annoying about the TuV. I hope you find something nice before July.

I did think of suggesting you get your magnet out! I'd be quite happy with another Polo but can see that we do need a bigger family car - but if it's shorter (i.e. easier to park) than DH's Passat, I'm having it!

Oh, and is it you they're looking for here, nighbynight?

Hi everyone, how did the Easter Feiertage go then?

I was good and only ate some chocolate covered brazil nuts. The dc got some eggs and they were saying that loads of dc in their classes get presents as well as eggs. We never did, we got chocolate eggs to last us for 6 weeks and new clothes. Some dc were getting play station type things, TVs and stuff like that.

Did you manage your wheels nighbynight? Still haven't sorted ours out. Must get an appointment.

It's the same in Austria, admylin - Easter isn't quite on a par with Christmas presents-wise, but it's getting there. I wish we'd never started with the DC (I blame it all on DH and my ILs ), although maybe we'll be able to start cutting down now that DD1 has found out the Osterhase doesn't actually exist.

Anyway, the DC are back at school and Kiga now so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet again. Had a bit of a panic this morning as I suddenly remembered I'd signed up to take the Gesunde Jause in for DD2's group in April and had the sinking feeling it might be tomorrow. Very relieved to discover I'm not taking it until next Thursday as I'd have had no time to go shopping today (work and English lesson this morning, and piano lessons and DD2's friend over to play this afternoon).

It's aberita btw - I decided to name change to something a bit more Austrian!

Hi, good name! My dc used to love Linzer Torte!

Had to google gesunde jauser. Never heard it before. Good idea though. What are you taking?

I've been trying to get on top of things today, dust everywhere and kitchen is a mess again. Oh well, I've got meat pasties in the oven so atleast I've done something. I want to spring clean but I know/hope we might be moving soon so I don't see the point but then again things are getting piled up everywhere.

Yes, Jause is one of the many Austrian words I'd never heard of before I met DH. I thought my German was fairly fluent, and then I went to Austria and couldn't understand a word my future ILs were saying... The Kiga gives us a list of suggestions for the Gesunde Jause - bread, butter, milk, yogurt, fruit, veg etc - so I'll have to go shopping for that this weekend. I've already taken it twice this year (with two DC at Kiga), but with only 20 or so children per group it's not enough to cover every Thursday.

I don't think I'd be very motivated to clean if I knew we'd be moving soon. Declutter yes, so there'd be less to pack, but cleaning no. Not that I ever feel very motivated to clean anyway! How's the flat hunting going, admylin?

Flat hunting - not good. Went to look at a place the other day but it was no good. Not even a balcony (forgot to ask before making appointment) and the owner said 50 people had applied for it

We've got a coule of Makler looking for us too but no news there yet. I suppose I'll place an ad again this weekend. Any ideas for wording? Up to now I've put Akademiker, langfristig and ab sofort in the ads.

Oh admylin - thats rubbish that the flat hunting isnt going so good - there must be a flat out there for you and yours!

Linzertorte - like the new name! what is "Jause" - i really dont know these funny austrian words!

we dont do the buying big presents things for easter altho IL's bought all 3 dc a non choc present and then were surprised that we hadnt! really love hiding those wee choc eggs round the house and garden for the dc to find! even dd loves it even tho she's old enough to tell me there is no Oster Hase!!!

Had a bit of a stressful easter weekend - dd's Nintendo DS went missing. We were having lunch on easter sat with ILs and ds2 was playing with it and its never been seen since! we have turned every room in the house upside down in a really methodical way and its nowhere to be seen! wondered if the ILs had taken it with them but they claim its not in their bags. ONly other possibility is that its been stolen - the front door was open for a while but we live in this quiet wee place - the only other people who were at the door were the kids from the Catholic youth raising money. Really dont want to think that one of them stole it while I went to find my purse. DD is obviously gutted - she loves playing with it and goes to her wee friend where they play together against each other! its liek some kind of mystery tho - wonder where it is!!!

admylin - how about something like "Akademiker suchen ab sofort helle 3-Zimmer-Wohnung [or however many rooms] mit Terrasse/Balkon/Garten in ruhiger Lage" [or whatever kind of location you're looking for]. Sorry to hear it's not going too well at the moment; I hope one of the Makler comes up with something for you soon.

canella - Jause is basically the Austrian word for snack, although it can also mean a cold evening meal (like Abendbrot in Germany, I think). Have just consulted DH and he says that farmers always have their Jause in the morning and that you can also have a Kaffeejause in the afternoon. Oh, and there's also the verb jausnen... I felt like I was having to relearn German when I first moved here!
Hope your DD's Nintendo turns up soon; it would be awful to think that it had been stolen.

DS showed his true Austrian colours today by insisting he's going to wear tights to Kiga tomorrow. Apparently his best friend is still wearing them despite the spring-like temperatures. And not only have I not managed to persuade DD1 to ditch her hat in the mornings, she's still wearing her thick winter coat. DD2 is my only hope.

Yes, I've already got something along those lines, I placed an ad yesterday and I added the hospital name where dh works. The Makler are being very quiet, you'd think they'd atleast mail me or phone to say they are looking.

A place is on offer (to rent) so waiting for a Besichtigung.

Well done at getting your dc to wrap up the german/Austrian way. My 2 never would and always refused hats. Only thing I can get them to wear is gloves if there's snow and dd will wear a scarf (ds never) and they wear leggings in winter in minus degrees.

Grr, the shoes I ordered from Amazon (Reeboks) should be a 39 and it says 39 inside the shoe but I tried them on (I take 40) and they're too big for me. Ds will have to wait again for shoes.

Did the nintendo turn up canella? An expensive thing to replace isn't it. Ds dropped his first one and the corner fell off. Lucky for him we were going to Texas soon after so he got a new one over there, quite a bit cheaper.

Having 'one of those' days today.

Since I got up I seem to be running on the spot and everything is going wrong.

My fridge (which I hate anyway) was flooded this morning under the veg tray so I had to empty it out, dry it and defrost the freezer section. My kitchen is tiny so it looked as if a bomb had dropped.

That made me late making lunch, then had to get ds to his friends house so dh drove home from work, we took him back to work then dropped ds off and went for a quick dash around a packed Edeka - cost a fortune, they are too tempting those big shops.

On way home some warning lights wouldn't go off in car, drove us home but still a mystery as to what or why they are on for.

Got back to find i had forgotten to switch off the curry that was cooking for tea so it was frazzled so had to start over again and do some thrown together concoction.

Now, after my first cup of tea today, have to go and collect ds and probably dh later as it's started to pour down. When I look around the flat nothing is tidy and I don't seem to have sat down all day so how can it be such a mess???

It sounds like you've had quite a day, admylin. Hope you're relaxing with a large glass of wine now! It's wine time here, and we had curry tonight as well. I started translating the Indian restaurant's website this afternoon and got cravings for Indian food. Luckily we still had some of the extra portions they made for us in the freezer so I didn't have to do any cooking.

I went shopping for the Gesunde Jause this morning, foolishly deciding - along with half of Niederösterreich, it seemed - to try out the big new Interspar that has just opened up. Not only was it packed, they only have six tills and there must have been at least 10 people (all with full trolleys) in each queue. Never again!

Otherwise, had a fairly quiet afternoon as both DD1 and DD2 were out at friends' and DH took DS out for part of the afternoon too. I decluttered a few of the children's toys but they have far too many so it didn't seem to make much impact. I also wonder how the house constantly gets into such a mess - I occasionally have a blitz but it never stays tidy for more than about five minutes. Minimalism is the way to go, I think - not really compatible with three under 9s, though.

Hi!

Looks like everyone is really busy. I'm STILL camped out on the couch feeling horrible. Dh was on holiday during Easter break and he took care of all the cooking and cleaning as well as he could, bless his heart. He's been back at work since Monday and I've managed all right, but I have absolutely no energy.

the nintendo DS turned up today!! on of my ds's had hidden it in the under-bed drawer that has the sheets in it! little shit monkey!! but very grateful it turned up!

westvan - sorry you still feel poorly! when do you go to the doc? its never easy being poorly with kids around - no real rest!

Admylin - sorry you had such a busy day! hate those kinds of days!!

linzertorte - glad you got a peaceful afternoon yest! our house in the UK was constantly a mess but now we've got a playroom here the mess seems to be contained (most of the time) to there! house looks like a bit of a tip tho at the mo - dh was off all last week and interrupted my very sad housework schedule!! think i need to get out more!

was an exciting weekend for us - ds2 learned to ride his bike!! he's been a whizz for a year on a laufrad but we didnt have a bike small enough for him - he's only 3.8!! but a friend lent us one and i picked it up on fri! by fri eve he could go it a little bit but my tonight he can start on his own and do some really tight turns as well as driving it at speed!! so proud of him!

Good that the nintendo turned up. Ds has been on Big Brain Academy today trying to get his score up. He made me try the test to see how big my brain is and it was tiny - it's all to do with speed though, if I had longer I could do it all!

Westvan, you've been feeling ill for ages now. Hope you can get to the bottom of it and get fit before your big trip in afew months. It'S not long to go is it?!

Wow, well done to your ds for learning to ride his bike so soon. They say those Laufrad are good for getting the idea of balance etc. My 2 were late learners with bikes but they could drive their bobby cars like racing cars!

Linzertorte, minimalism is the way to go - or that's what I think. We've sorted and decluttered so many times in tehe past few years but they can still make a mess with what's left!

That's good news about the nintendo, canella. The problem with children is that they can put things in the last place you'd think of looking. About a year ago, DS decided to hide a couple of 20 pound notes and it took me a day or two to get the hiding place out of him. I'd never have found the money otherwise - he'd taken the cover off one of the speakers and pushed the notes through a hole into the speaker; we had to get a screwdriver out to recover the money!

Wow, very impressed with your DS - my DS is about the same age (4 in July) and nowhere near being able to ride a bike yet. I should probably make sure he gets lots of practice on his Laufrad as soon as it finally warms up (we've had sleet this weekend...) as it really helped DD2.

admylin, I suspect that my DC could also still find plenty to make a mess with, no matter how minimalist the house - although there's still plenty of scope for decluttering. I'm not sure whether the playroom makes things better or worse; it was better initially, but more and more toys are starting to creep downstairs and into the DDs' bedroom especially. I also think it encourages them to have more as they've got more room for it, or rather encourages me to be less ruthless in my decluttering.

westvan, sorry to hear you're still not well; hope you finally start feeling better soon.

Morning everyone. It's gone really cold again here - thought Spring was going to be nice.

I've been good this morning, booked my car in to get the tyres changed and will ask about teh mysterious warning lights. The hand book says go to the dealer for everything so not much help writing such a thick hand book that takes up the whole glove compartment to just tell you to go to the dealer.

Venison stew is cooking and now I have to take dd's lonely gerbil to her in school to hopefully find a gerbil friend amongst the other school gerbils. So one family member more this afternoon maybe. Must remember to switch the stew off before I set off.

You feeling any better Westvan?

I am feeling a bit better today, thanks, admylin. Just kind of weak and I still have this stupid cough. My appt with the gastroenterologist is on Friday and he'll tell me the results of the colon biopsy and since he's also an internist I suppose I can whine to him about my other ailments too. My ankles are kind of swollen and painful and I have no idea if that's related.

But I think in another couple of weeks I'll be right as rain. We leave on June 19 and I have so much to do between now and then. I was planning to clean the house from top to bottom and throw away as much junk as possible because we have just too much of everything. Dh did a lot of garden work during the Easter holidays and swept off the terrace and brought out the garden furniture so we can start enjoying the great outdoors once it gets warm enough.

Good news about the Nintendo DS, canella! That must have been a relief. Our older son lost his expensive school calculator once and we looked high and low and it turned out that one of his classmates had taken it with him by mistake to London when he moved there temporarily with his family. Now if we could only find ds14's history book!

Westvan, dd is joining you in feeling weak today. I had to bring her back from school as she was so sleepy and said she felt 'schlapp' but no headache, stomach ache or fever. Just a few glands seem swollen at the back of her throat and hse has a rash on her cheeks.

Still no news about a flat. A man phoned about meeting us to talk about rent to buy deals. He's probably selling houses, no idea but dh said when he calls back tell him to email a flyer or some info first before we meet him.

I really hope you get some good news on a flat very soon, admylin, that must be so frustrating.

And "Gute Besserung" to dd. Hopefully it's just a little virus that will pass quickly.

Thanks westvan, she's feeling better today. I think she was just exhausted even though she'd had a good nights sleep, her body wanted more (I know mine does, every morning!)

Thinking now we should broaden the area in the search for a house if dh buys a 2nd car. Have to look at the insurance, buying the car wouldn't be a problem but it might not be worth paying double insurance.