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!

hello all. holidays over, all v quiet now, except dd puking aall night so she's with me today. So far no vom.

Am on diet (sigh) not my normal thing at all but have birthday coming up and want to be back to normal, that date at least gives me a goal.

ds passed his schulspiel and is angemeldet!

Glad to hear DD is feeling better admylin. More sleep is something I could definitely do with too, I'm finding it such a struggle to get up in the mornings and am exhausted in the evenings. I tried to work yesterday evening but by the time the DC were all in bed I was just too tired and couldn't concentrate. When DH got in yesterday, he said he'd put the DC to bed and tidy up - but as usual he ended up doing some school work with DD1 (practising for an Ansage they have on Friday) so the other two were running around while I was trying to work... I gave up and ended up putting them to bed myself.

Yes, you do end up paying a lot of insurance if you have two cars - up until my car started falling apart, insurance was about the only expense I had. I drive so little (only short distances round town, really) that I only need to fill up with petrol, or rather diesel, every few months.

Have just remembered I still haven't bought any bread for the Gesunde Jause tomorrow so will have to call at the baker's on my way to the English lesson before they run out. Just looking at the poem the teacher wants me to read with the children today - all about rain, which is what we've had non-stop for the past few days. It includes such useful phrases as "I hope I am water-proof."

ernest - so glad your ds is angemeldet!!! that must be a weight off your shoulders!

linzertorte - having little kids is just exhausting!! i totally sympathise! and my dh has gone off to a conference for 3 days so i am so feeling your exhaustion!! but i dont mind him being away - we're not often apart in the evenings so i like having a few eves to myself!!

will see what i'm like by fri!! exhausted prob!!

Hope your DD is feeling better soon, ernest - sorry, I didn't see your post when I posted before. Good news about the Schulspiel, anyway; you must be very relieved.

canella - I must admit I secretly look forward to the evenings to myself I get when DH is away! I don't mind him going away during the week as he's hardly around to help out with the children then in any case; in fact, I make more of an effort to put them to bed earlier when he's away. Hope you get on OK this week anyway. DH is off to Warsaw for a couple of days next week and Berlin a week or two that, so I have some evening me-time to look forward to then!

Glad to hear I'm not the only one feeling exhausted at the moment. Although I know I have it far easier than a lot of other people... A friend of DS' also has two sisters but both younger (I still think of DS as my baby!) and I've just found out that his mother is bringing them up single-handedly with no family nearby (they're 1, 2 and just turned 4). She said today she's working as a cleaner at the moment (she's a trained teacher) as it's the only job where she can take the two youngest ones with her... and there was I complaining about falling asleep over the computer in the evening - and I do at least get the mornings to myself.

Yes, that's good news that your ds is angemeldet ernest. How are the others doing? Did you find a secondary school for your ds1 yet?

Well, took the car in yesterday and the diagnosis is that the air bag something or other in the passenger seat is defect and a new seat costs 800 euro. Also something to do with a sensor for the ABS function needs changed also costing 150. Just paid 90 odd to get the wheels and oil changed so adding it all up we could have paid for a half a little second hand car!

Flat we looked at yesterday was no good, Durchgangszimmer again and very run down. Found one to view on Wednesday but it won't be free until August. Still something else might come up.

Both dc were out with friends yesterday until after 6pm but by the time I got the kitchen tidied and the ironing finished I only had about haf an hour to relax. Typical!

so my dh is stuck in athens at his conference!! frankfurt airport is now closed!!! i know i should rationally think how happy i am that he is not in a plane that might crash because the engines fail but it doesnt change the fact that i am still home alone with 3 kids!! and he's on an all expenses paid trip and its a nice city!and my MIL has been in hospital the last few days so cant even go there for help!!

just needed a big moan - off to count my blessings!

Oh no canella, I hope he gets home soon. I would feel exactly the same as you - I really resent it if DH isn't around at the weekend - even though the fact that he gets home safely is most important of course. DH is supposed to be flying to Warsaw next Wednesday; I was saying to a friend earlier today that I'd be quite happy for his trip to be cancelled, my only worry is that he'll be stuck in Poland!

Is it a medical conference canella? Dh is going to Athens sometime to present his work to a neurology conference but he doesn't fancy it for some reason.

I'd love to go with him. Went to the Acropolis and to Delphi when I was younger but too young to appreciate the amazingness of it all.

Canella - what a nightmare. Have you had any more updates about when he might be able to get back? At least the weather´s meant to be good this weekend, so hopefully you can get out and about. Mind you I´d still be completely fed up if I was you.

Seeing admylin´s post has reminded me that I went backpacking around Greece with a friend years ago. We had time to kill in Athens before we flew back and went to a big park in the city and got flashed at by 3 different men within half an hour. This is always what springs to mind when I think of Athens rather than the fantastic sights such as the Acropolis.

yeah admylin its a conference about lung cancer all paid for by the drug company!!so i doubt he's out of pocket with reorganising accomodation/flights etc!

no idea when he's back - on the BBC website it shows the ash cloud moving south as today goes on - does that mean tomorrow it keeps going south - like to greece? it could be early next week at this rate before he's home!!

hupa - i'm so glad the weather is nice - i've got some nice plans with a friend and her kids tom and we'll see what sunday brings!

i've never been to athens - maybe i should go another time for the flashing men amazing sights!!

I think I was too young to appreciate Athens when I went, which was on a school history trip years ago. No flashers, but tbh it was so hot I probably wouldn't have noticed! I do associate Frankfurt with flashers though, as I got flashed at on the Zeil for the first time there - twice in fact (same man). Hope you have some good news about your DH's return soon anyway, canella.

DD2 and DS had their photos taken at KiGa today so I've just been having a look at them online - they take 6 or 7 of each child and you can then choose the one you like best (if you remember to do within the time limit; we didn't with DD1 last month...).

Is it really going to get warmer at the weekend? I hope the sun makes it as far as Austria; I'm so fed up of the rain, cold and generally grey weather.

Oh dear, is your dh still stranded canella? Doesn't look good in the news.

Wonder if we'll get some of this volcanic dust on the ground here.

Didn't do much today, dc had school work to do and we went for a walk in the forest. I have got breathing problems abit like asthma which I think must be due to hay fever. I've never found out what sort of pollen I'm alergic to but most Germans we know seem to be able to say 'oh it's the horse chestnut/white hawthorn/type of grass pollen this week so I'll get hay fever'.

my dh is starting his epic journey home today! thankfully the drug company are sorting it out (so he gets no sympathy up to a point!). But he's now on a 3 hour bus journey to the ferry, 18 hours on a ferry to italy, all day tomorrow on a bus to innsbruck, overnight there then however long to get to frankfurt. very grateful to be living in germany at the moment! would be gutted if he had to get back to the UK - thats a lifetime journey from athens!

so feel a wee bit sorry for him cause that sounds like a crap journey to make! but glad he's finally on his way!

been a stressful time without him - his mother has been having some cardiac problems and was discharged from hospital yesterday and she was upset on the phone. she then phoned back 10 mins later to say they'd just heard that my lovely BIL had been knocked over by a car while out jogging yesterday and had just come out of theatre cause he had an open tibia fracture!! ouch!! feel gutted for him cause we'd on spoke on fri eve - he was so excited about training for a half marathon! he's a proper type A personality - was hoping to run faster than his friends! just gutted for him!

surely bad things come in 3's! think we've had our 3!!! thankfully the kids are behaving themselves and the weather is so good! but will be glad to have dh back on tues!

That's great news canella, I'm sure you'll be so relieved to have him back home. It sounds like it's all been happening at once; these kinds of things always come in threes, don't they?! So you must have had your fair share for now... hope things get back to normal soon anyway.

It's very quiet here today; DS is out at a friend's and DH has taken the DDs swimming - partly so I can get on with some work (though I'm not feeling very motivated at the moment - must get off MN!). It was lovely and sunny here yesterday which was great as it meant the children could all play outside (they had two friends over) and the chaos was confined to the garden, but it's back to cool and grey today. I knew it couldn't last...

OMG that's going to take them ages to get home isn't it? They could have put him in a taxi! Will he be missing much work time?

Lovely day here, sunny and blue skys - I was expecting a blanket of ash when we got up this morning. So where is it coming down? well, kitchen is a bomb site again and unfortunately in this good weather the washing is dry so there is an ironing pile again. Off to it...

My mum told me yesterday that she'd heard about someone stuck in Vienna who was going back to the UK by taxi - it was costing something like 1100 euros, which seemed ridiculously cheap considering we usually pay about half that just for the flight itself. They also thought they'd seen some dust coming down there (in Wales), but decided in the end it was probably just haze as the dust is supposed to be invisible.

Hope you're doing some ironing now, admylin - saw you on FB about half an hour ago. Though I can hardly talk, as I'm supposed to be working. You've just reminded me I need to go and get the washing out of the machine though - hopefully not too much ironing to be done here...

Lol, no ironing started yet but I have got a cheese cake in the oven! Before it comes out in 50 minutes I need to clean the mess up in the kitchen (still remains of our Mexican evening feast) and then start the pile of ironing.

I could also have a cup of tea and sit here for a while though...hmm oh no can't be that late already can it?

I've had to log out of FB as it was proving to be too much of a distraction - plus it really seems to slow my computer down, so I was making very slow progress with work. Just have a few more pararaphs to translate and then I need to go and tidy up too. Although I've just noticed that it's lunchtime - where did the morning go?! Everyone else will be back soon and then I'll never get anything done.

Tea vs ironing - DH would probably call it a no-brainer (one of those phrases I hate but that he seems very fond of...)

Did your DH get back OK canella? Mine was supposed to be flying to a conference in Warsaw this evening but his flight was cancelled at the last minute (he was already at the gate) and the overnight train was fully booked, so he's catching the train there tomorrow morning instead. He'll also be back a day later than planned as the train on Thursday was also already fully booked. At least his 8 hour journey isn't too bad compared with your DH's but I think he's feeling a bit stressed about it all - he feels like he has to go to the conference though, as it's cost the company quite a bit of money to send him.

What chaos. Wonder if everyone one else will make it to the conference though linzertorte?
Canella's dh will need a week off work to recover from the trip home I think.

Has anyone else started with hay fever yet? Really bad here. Can't complain too much - at least the weather is nice.

SO, what do you do when you find a flat (no, I haven't found one yet) and the bedrooms are all different sizes, how do you decide which person gets the small room? Dd has her pet gerbils so she can't go in a tiny room really as their cages are quite big. So if we can fit our bed in the smallest room we would take it but we have never seen a flat or house with equally sized bedrooms so the problem is going to arise anyway.

Anyway, we view one tonight (both dc bedrooms are small) and I have a number to call this afternoon to view another (but with odd sized bedrooms) and my advert is in the local paper today too.

admylin - you´re so lucky to still have nice weather. We´ve had glorious sunshine for the past few days, but it´s actually snowing outside at the moment. Luckily it´s not settling. I really thought we´d seen the last of winter.
Good luck with the flat hunting. Would ds consider going in the smallest room? Sometimes even though it´s the smallest room it´s often still an o.k. size, so probably best to wait and see what turns up.

Canella - hope your dh is now home. He must be exhausted after all that travelling.

Linzer- I don´t enyy your dh his train trip either. How frustrating to get to the gate before being cancelled.

so dh got back yesterday eve!! he didnt look too bad (actually had a nice sun tan!!) but was a complete grumpy PITA!!! as i said the other day, his mum has been poorly and i told him once the kids are in bed, he needed to phone her! he still hadnt done it by the time i went to bed so i had to text her to apologise that he was too tired to phone her! it was just a disastarous eve - i had been worried about him constantly during his big trip back and kind of thought he'd have been more excited to be home and see all of us! the kids were so excited to have him back and instead he was just tired and grumpy!
he's also obsessively tidy (and i am so not!!) so he was also distracted by that when he came home - he'd not been here for a week and couldnt help himself to put every last thing in the right place! if any of you had come here yesterday before he came home you would say my house was super tidy for the fact i've got 3 kids! but its never tidy enough for him!! he can tidy all day long if he's on his own!
sorry for the big moan - sometimes he just drives me mad! he's had to go straight back to work this morn - wonder how grumpy he'll be when he comes home!

linzer - dont envy ur DH for his big trip either! is he due back today? hope he gets home ok!

admylin - hope one of these flats is the right one for you all!! i think it would be ok if the smallest bedroom was still big enough for your double bed but what about all your wardrobes etc? its tricky unless there's some built in storage!

Sorry for you that your dh was so grumpy canella. He probably didn't realise how much you and teh dc had been looking forward to him getting back safely. Men definately don't think the same way women do.

He must be tired out though and maybe eveing aching if he had to sit on a bus/train for so long. My dh is lucky, his next conference is in Hannover and his boss has booked them all into a hotel anyway and his Athens conference is in September I think.

I know, the wardrobe thing is a pain if we go into a tiny bedroom. However, this living with a minimum of stuff has made me sort out a lot and I could imagine making do with a smallish 2 door wardrobe and then a row of chests of drawers for the rest. The Malm ones from Ikea, maybe 4 or 5 of them all lined might do us.

Sorry to hear your DH's return home wasn't quite how you'd hoped it to be, canella. It's no excuse but I know how exhausted my DH usually is when he comes home from a business trip, and that's without having spent hours on ferries and buses. Mine can also get quite grumpy about the state of the house so I feel your pain! I must admit I like things to be clean and tidy but with 3 not-naturally-tidy under 9s have had to lower my expectations a bit... I hope he was in a better mood this evening, anyway.

How did the viewing go, admylin? It's a tricky one with the bedrooms; we've got the smallest one (not that any of them are very big) but only just managed to fit our wardrobe in it. Maybe even if one room is smaller than another, your DS will still prefer that room - like hupa said, it's probably best to wait and see what the rooms are actually like.

hupa - can't believe you still have snow! The winter finally seems to be coming to an end here, although it's only the last few days that we've actually seen any sun.

Well, I had a text earlier from DH to say he's arrived in Warsaw. I'm not sure why he can't use the return half of his flight ticket but to be honest he'll probably be more rested if he catches the train back on Friday rather than flying home late Thursday.

Had a lovely afternoon with an English friend earlier, but am now feeling a bit fed up (mainly work-related) and the DC have taken much longer than usual to settle as well. The place is a mess and I haven't got the energy to tidy up, but I'm going to have to force myself...