General Update

Sorry I haven't been updating that much recently. The cold we caught in Munich really hung around for a long time. G's mom (he says I should write "mum", but this is my blog, so I will use my terminology, thank you very much) is away right now, visiting Wales and Ireland, so fortunately she's avoided us and our illness for the most part.

Lena had her second set of shots this past Thursday. They affected her more this time than the first. She was pretty grouchy all of Thursday and Friday but seemed better today. I showed the nurse the information I found about the Meningitis vaccine and Pneumococcal vaccine not to be given at the same time. She read it and just said that she hadn't experienced anyone having problems getting both at the same time. Good to know that in her vast clinical research, it's okay. I'm still not going to get them at the same time and will bring Lena to get the Pneumococcal in 2 weeks, so they won't be given at the same time.

In other news, we are house-hunting. We've decided we're going to try and buy something rather than rent. If housing prices continue to rise at their current rate; after 2 years we'll be better off owning rather than having rented that entire time. Of course, there's no guarantees that prices will go up, but as the Germans say, "No risk, no fun". Not that losing a big chunk of money on declining house prices would be fun, hahaha, no. We're looking mainly in Maidenhead, because as much as we like Cookham, it's too expensive for what we want. On average, for a 3 bedroom place, it's about 50 000 to 100 000 pounds more than buying in Maidenhead. That's a big lot of money for the luxury of village life. Heck, for that kind of money, we can get a taxi to take us down to Cookham and back every time we want to visit. And we could drink very expensive cognac on each trip too. So it's likely Maidenhead for us, unless someone out there really wants us to stay in Cookham and makes us an offer we can't refuse. (no horse heads in beds, please)

We've looked at around 10 places so far. We looked at this amount so that we had a base to know what the standards are. Being new to the country, nevermind the area, we needed to get that base so we would know when there was something good at a good price. Now that we have that base, we can now start to be a bit discerning and actually start choosing. Stay tuned for more on the topic in the future.

Finally, does anyone know where I can buy plain vinegar in England? Not malt vinegar, not pickling vinegar, not white wine vinegar, not red wine vinegar, not cider vinegar, not balsamic vinegar. Just plain vinegar. I want it for cleaning around the house and helping with the laundry and for the life of me, I haven't found it in any shop. My kingdom for some vinegar!

Silly little camera

I bought a little video camera to take videos of Lena. A couple you have seen, as I put them up on the web. Unfortunately you won't see any more for a while, as it seems the cheap little video cam really was cheap and crap. Vivitar is the manufacturer, and it's a Vivitar DVR-510. Basically, it won't turn on. Even with fresh batteries. What a piece of junk! Now if I was back in Germany, I would just send it back to the guy who sold it to me and demand my money back. Because in Germany, all goods sold automatically are guaranteed for 2 years. What was this, 2 months maybe? Now, if it turns out that it's simply the brand-new Duracell Plus batteries that I bought which are at fault, I'll take it all back.

Hmm, upon fiddling a bit with it here beside me, it seems that it might not be totally broken after all. It seems it turns on about 20 seconds after pressing the button. And about another 15 seconds after that, the screen lights up to enable you to actually do something. Well, that makes me happier than I was 10 minutes ago, but it's still going to be annoying if it takes half a minute to get the thing to working level. Okay Vivitar, I won't plot to destroy you and your factory just yet, but you had best start making slightly higher quality goods...

Things Missed

We had a great little trip to Munich. Lena was a trooper, not making much of a fuss no matter what situation we put her in. Whether it was being mauled/hugged/kissed by two older pre-school boys, staying up waaaaay past her bedtime or getting her to sit through an entire concert of music, she hardly cried at all. I will post some pictures and a longer post once I shake the cold I took back as a souvenir.

Being back made me realise there are a few things that I do really miss about Munich/Germany.

• I mentioned this a bit before. Saying hello, aka "Grüß Gott" when I walk into a shop. And also having the shopkeeper or cashier wish me a nice weekend as I walk out of the shop. It's just the same as the "Have a nice day" that some people find superficial, but hey, it's still better than being wished a car accident to befall you.
• I miss having a bakery on every other corner with lovely little pastries to buy.
• I miss really good public transport. We haven't had the need for it so much here, since we don't know so many people. But in Munich we travelled a lot with trains and trams and buses and it was easy, even with the stroller.

I miss all these things, but I still don't think it was as tough a move as it might have been. I think I was right when I talked about it before, that because both the move and the baby came more or less at the same time, it wasn't as difficult a change as if only one had come along at a time. For example, if we didn't have a baby and moved here, we would often be at a loss of what to do on weekend nights. That's far less an issue with a baby. If we had had Lena in Munich, most of our friends, who are for the most part single or at least childless, would still be doing their thing like watching the rugby six nations in a smoky busy pub. And we couldn't take part in that either. So in a way, doing both at once is easier. The people we are meeting now tend to be in the same life situation as us, new parents, and so are in the position to do the same things as us too. Going over to someone's house for dinner is pretty exciting, as compared to how going to a restaurant or a club used to be the thing of excitement.

Re-expatriation

We are gambling on Lena's passport arriving tomorrow. If it does, we are off to Munich on Friday for a few days to visit all our friends there and of course show off our lovely daughter. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the passport arrives!!

EDIT: Less than an hour after posting this, the passport arrived. Thanks for all your finger crossing, and if you are in Munich, hopefully see you this weekend.

Hanging Out

My mother-in-law is here for the next little while, so my posting might be erratic for a week or two. Or I might find I have more time than I thought and be able to post lots. Either way, here's a little video of Lena and I hanging out together on the bed. All my videos are a bit dark because the video camera doesn't do well in anything but the brightest light, my apologies. The volume is okay at least, you can hear Lena talking with me.

The Long Walk

On Thursday I met up with some of the women with from our NCT class to go for a walk. We met right next to Windsor Castle and walked The Long Walk, a path in Windsor Great Park. It was an absolutely great day, very sunny but not too hot with a slight breeze. Two weeks earlier we were going to do the walk but the weather wasn't so good. They had hummed and hawed about going, but decided not to; I didn't even go to Windsor because I thought it might not happen. So for this time, we decided we would go walking, no matter the conditions. Because it was so nice this first time, I think it was encouraging for us to do it again. The Long Walk was created/built way back in 1680, so we are unlikely to be the first new mothers to have walked it, but we were pretty proud of ourselves for having done it. It's around 5 miles long round-trip, although a lot of information I read about it says it's 6 miles long. I measured it using this handy little tool and it was 5 miles, or just over 8 kilometers. It's absolutely dead straight and the path is in good condition, so it's ideal for strollers. Here's a little picture of us at the turn-around point, which is at the top of a hill. If you squint, you can see Windsor Castle behind us.

Name that Tune

Today I took Lena to a Bookstart meeting at the local library. Bookstart is a program in England to promote a love of reading from a young age. They have a little pack of baby books they give you and an application form for the library too. The books are free, so if nothing else, I think it's nice to get a couple of age-appropriate books for your child to read with them.

The kids ranged in age from about 2 to 6 months, so Lena was the youngest. It was nice to see a different mix of ages though, to get a feeling of what the little ones can do at different ages. Of course, two minutes before we arrived, Lena fell asleep. So I was left on my own with the other parents and children to sing along.

I knew most of the songs, but what was interesting was that the tune was different for a few songs. Head & Shoulders, Knees and Toes had a totally different tune, Baa Baa Black Sheep was slightly different at points too. Also, there were small differences in the words, which threw me off as well. Funny to think that such easy children's songs, that are made easy to sing and remember, could still vary as much as they do.

Lunar Eclipse

There's a total eclipse of the moon happening tonight and we are lucky enough to have clear skies for it. Here are some pictures; I'll be updating it as it happens.

Another House Construction rant

I talked before about how I couldn't understand why English houses are built so flush to the ground. Well, I have another construction "feature" to complain about. Why can't they build awnings on the houses? Whenever there's the slightest bit of wind, the windows are totally covered in rain. The doors, never mind the windows, have water spots on it. We have to be careful not to leave any of the windows open when it's raining, otherwise it can get inside very easily. There's a very small alcove in front of the front door, but it doesn't stop the rain and certainly offers no cover when trying to unlock the door. It's like it's there just to remind you that there are no awnings and to tease you about the fact.

Warnings!

Both of these signs can be found in Cookham village. They scream "Look out! There are criminals about!" to me. And yet, I don't get the feeling that Cookham suffers that much crime. Yes, I've read that some cars have been broken into for laptops, satellite navigation systems or mobile phones; but it's not like it's a huge number of vehicles.

So why the very visible signs all over the place? I would think that it's only common sense not to leave valuables out on display. Why do the police have to tell us? Is that their way of passing the buck back when someone reports a car break-in? A sort-of "we told you so"?

Britain has lots of these warnings. On the radio there are regular community announcements telling you to be careful of all sorts of things. People coming to your door and offering services or telling you to not put boxes of expensive Christmas presents out for the paper recycling collection too early or in one piece (in that criminals could scope out what you got and decide if your home is worth breaking into). There's a couple such ads on TV right now too. One has a couple showing a would-be burglar around their house, showing how their burglar alarm doesn't work, how their valuables are out on display, how flimsy their back door is, etc etc. The other has a guy in a bar showing the would-be thief his new flashy mobile phone and telling him he'll just leave it on the table while he goes to the toilet so he has a good opportunity to take it.

Coming from Germany, where this type of ad or warning isn't common, I don't know quite what to think. So rather than letting myself get worked up by an ad, I went and read the EU crime and safety survey. Actually, I didn't read all 118 pages of the report, I read the press release summaries for the UK and Germany and skimmed through some of the points in the report.

All in all, the UK does have a higher crime rate than Germany. In fact, the UK has the second highest level for theft from cars out of the 18 countries measured. Only Estonia is higher. Germany in contrast, has the second lowest rate. But that isn't quite as dramatic as it sounds. Germany's rate for theft from cars is just under 2% and the UK's is 6%. So four more out of every 100 cars will be broken into. I admit, I don't want our car to be one of those extra 4 (or the first 2 either), but I'm not sure it justifies the warning signs. I think having signs like that just creates an atmosphere of fear. Perhaps others think differently...

Friendly Smiling Post

Just a nice little video to start your week off.

Shots

Lena had her first set of shots yesterday. Well, I say set, but in actual fact it was only one. She got the 5-in-1 shot, which protects against Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Polio and Hib (that's Haemophilus influenzae type B) but I decided to put off the one that protects against Pneumococcal variants. Why? Because next month, she gets a booster for the 5-in-1 and her first shot for Meningitis C. Then at 4 months, she gets boosters for both of these, and a booster for Pneumococcal. But when I read the information sheet for the Meningitis vaccine, it says directly on it the following: "Concomitant use of Menjugate Kit with pneumococal conjugate vaccines should only be consider if medically important and not on a routine basis". Translation: the meningitis C vaccine and pneumococcal vaccine shouldn't be given at the same time unless there's a good medical reason for it. Why? Because they haven't studied what might happen if they are given together like they have with the 5-in-1. Yet here in Britain it is standard procedure to give them both at the same time! I shake my head in wonder; does anyone read the packaging other than me? I'll arrange for her to get it in the next week or two, without any other shot with it.

I went last week and asked for a copy of the packaging so I could read up on the inoculations. When you get a pack of aspirin from the pharmacist, they tell you to read the packaging and follow the instructions carefully. But for giving your child a shot, you just go without any instructions into the nurse's room and let them stick stuff in them. What's ironic is that for the 5-in-1 vaccine, there is a leaflet for parents. It says on it in big letters "READ ALL OF THIS LEAFLET CAREFULLY BEFORE YOUR CHILD RECEIVES THIS VACCINE." When I went for the shot, the leaflet was nowhere to be seen. It certainly wasn't offered to me (and the nurse didn't know that I already had a copy). I bet 1 in 100 parents reads the thing before the shot is given. Talk about blind trust in the system.

I don't know if the all vaccines that kids get here is the same as what they get in other parts of the world; it's been too long since my own shots were given and there's probably a few different ones out there anyways. If you want to compare though, here is a concise list of what children are offered. I say offered, because all the inoculations are voluntary.

For the most part, I'm in favour of vaccination. But I'm also in favour of knowing what is going on. I don't think enough information is imparted to parents on this issue, I had to be very pro-active to get it.

Anyways, enough ranting. Lena was very brave yesterday. I could barely stand to watch - I'm fine getting needles myself but I didn't want to see her getting it. But she gave one little cry and then it was all over. No fever, no fussiness or any other side effect last night. I can only hope they all go so well.

A course in the castle

Lena and I are taking a baby massage course. There are 4 lessons and we've been twice so far. She really enjoys getting her legs massaged, but wasn't so keen on her belly being massaged. It's a little group of us and 5 other mothers & babies. I'm going to the class because I like the idea of doing baby massage - I mean, who doesn't like a massage? But I'm going to this course all the way in Windsor rather than something closer because it has an extra interesting feature - it takes place inside Windsor Castle.

It's in the home of the woman who leads the course. No, it's not the Queen. I asked on the first day how many people live in the castle who aren't the Royal Family and she said around 200 people. I was amazed it was so much. They live in the castle because her husband sings in the choir at St. George's Chapel. The choir members are always on call and have to return within 24 hours if called back (say for a state funeral) even if on holidays. So that's part of the reason they get accommodation at the castle. The other people who live in the castle are the clergy members, a few military pensioners and the household staff of the castle. So, it's for very specific people, you don't just see an ad for a free apartment listed in the local paper.

The rooms are quite nice, with the high ceilings you would expect in an ancient building. Lena certainly enjoys the space, and I do get a kick out of going into the castle for some reason other than to gawk around. I did enjoy gawking around when we went with my mom on a tour, but it's fun to be part of the fabric of actual day-to-day life inside the walls at Windsor.

Sightseeing in London

On Friday Lena and I headed into town to get a friend to sign for her passport. He works in "the City", which means right in the heart of London. It's where lots of banks and financial companies are located. You can't swing a cat without hitting someone in a suit. Since we were on a mission, it wasn't really sightseeing, but we did walk right past 30 St. Mary Axe. That's the official name of the Swiss Re building, but it's known affectionately as "The Gherkin" to Brits. A gherkin is a small pickle, something I didn't know for the longest time. Probably because I don't like them very much. But I do like the look of this big pickle building, it's quite sleek and cool. I tried to take a couple of shots of Lena in front of it, but it wasn't easy as she was in a carrier attached to me, so the angle was poor. None of them are very good pictures, but all together I think it's a funny little collage of our Friday trip. Note, Lena doesn't always look quite so grumpy and jowly. The angle I took it from, about 15cm from her face causes the extra-thick jawline. Her wondering what the heck that is in front of my face causes the frown of concentration.

To get a Canadian passport, I needed someone to sign as guarantor that Lena is who we say she is. It's a very short list of people who the Canadian government will accept as a guarantor. These are the requirements:

1. Have known you personally for at least two years.
2. Live within the jurisdiction of the passport issuing office and be accessible for verification.
3. Be one of the following:
   Dentist
   Judge
   Practising lawyer
   Magistrate
   Mayor
   Medical doctor
   Notary public
   Police officer
   Signing officer of a bank

Living within the jurisdiction means someone living in England. Considering we just moved here, how am I supposed to have known a mayor for 2 years? There are hoops you can jump through to get away without a guarantor signing for you (they involve a trip to the consulate and paying a substantial amount of money), but fortunately this wasn't necessary. A lovely fellow who I will call James, used to live in Munich and that's where I got to know him a couple of years back. He now works as a notary in London and was very obliging and willing in signing for Lena's passport. He even gave her paperwork his official notary seal, which should impress some bureaucrat along the line. That gets sent off tomorrow (along with her Canadian citizenship forms) and hopefully will get a passport back in 2-3 weeks.

Video Premiere

If everything goes according to plan, below this text there should be a video for you to watch. I bought a cheap video camera off of eBay to record Lena moments. With so much of our family living so far away, I thought they might enjoy more than just still pictures. Of course, our friends and random strangers who come across the blog might enjoy it too.

Forgive the poor quality of film-making, I was still getting used to the camera and wasn't paying enough attention as to where my subject material was in relation to the camera lens. Just click the big play button on the screen and you should be able to see it.

EDIT: Well, I can see the big empty space where the video should be, but it's not showing up nor playing for me. Let me know if you can see it.

Inside every German lives a Policeman

That's the title of an article from The Telegraph. The author talks about how Germans always feel the need to tell you the right way to do things. And she's right, they do do that, for better or worse. But what I found amusing was one of the examples she listed as perhaps "worse behaviour" is one of the things I think is worse here in the UK. She writes:

For anyone visiting Germany for the first time, one of the things that you notice almost immediately is the orderliness of the country. It is striking to see that all cars are parked in the direction of the traffic. Imagine trying to impose such rules in Britain, or even more ridiculous, in Bangkok or Mexico City.

This is one of the more annoying aspects of driving in the UK; the fact that cars are parked in either direction on both sides of the street. The number of times G or myself have turned onto a street and suddenly panicked is countless. We turn the corner and seeing all the cars facing us we both fear that we've turned the wrong way onto a one-way street. The feeling usually only lasts about 10-20 seconds, until we realise we must be on a two way street because there are street signs facing us, but it's pretty upsetting at first. On this point, I really wish the Brits would take a page out of the German book.

Organic snow

The title of this post isn't actually accurate, but it sounded cool to me.

In two previous posts I talked about organic fruit and veg delivery companies. Abel & Cole and Chiltern Organics (mentioned here and here, respectively). Well, I found yet another company that delivers organic produce to our area which is called Eat Organic. I still haven't ordered from any of them, but now that things have settled down a bit, I should. I have ordered from Tescos and ASDA and will have a rant about ASDA in the next few days.

Also, G has updated our website with a post of his own and some very nice pictures of Cookham in the snow. Click the link and check them out!

Comings and Goings

Last Saturday night we drove into London to go to the going-away party of Inessa, a friend of ours. Driving into London itself wasn't too bad, until we got to a junction called Shepherd's Bush Green; at which point, the 10 remaining minutes of our journey took 40. Who could know that Saturday traffic at 6pm could be so heavy? Obviously not country bumpkins like ourselves. Actually, according to the radio traffic report, we hit the only traffic jam in town.

Anyways, we made it eventually to the party. We were the first ones there, as Inessa had said we were welcome to come early as we might have to leave early. We ended up not being the first ones to leave, which impressed me with our and Lena's staying power. Lena again wore her party dress, which 6 weeks after its first outing. I wore a 3/4 length skirt which camouflaged me well with the others at the party. G had said when I bought the skirt, "Now you are becoming British". I didn't know what he meant and he explained that British girls seem to wear that style of skirt a lot. I didn't realise it until I was at the party as saw that he was right, well more than the half the women there were wearing just past knee to 3/4 length skirts. I don't ever recall being at a party in Munich and being able to pick out one specific fashion item that encompassed the majority of the women there. Whether that is because I didn't notice, people (esp expats) in Germany have more individuality or because they don't know the latest styles and therefore don't dress so similarly I couldn't say. I mean, there certainly are fashion trends in Germany, but having the same style and length skirt worn by so many at one occasion is something I would now associate with Brits, no one else. I'll keep paying attention and see if there is more "uniform" dressing to be seen.

The party was fun and it was nice to get out to an event where there was more to talk about than parenting and babies. Not that there's anything wrong with those events, but it's good to be reminded that there's more to life than that.

As I said at the start, it was a going-away party for Inessa. The hostess is moving to Munich to live with her fiance, Brian. Brian is a good friend of ours from Munich which is how we know Inessa. It's a bit of a shame that she is moving, as they were two of the few people we knew here. Brian came over to visit regularly but having Inessa with him in Munich will obviously stop that. Despite them deserting us in our attempt to overtake the island with c'lonials, we wish them the best of luck in Munich. All the best for the forthcoming nuptials too!


It will be interesting to see what cultural differences Inessa notices doing the opposite move to us. Getting used to the differences moving from Britain to Germany should keep her busy for a while. ;-)

Bilingual Baby Speak

I thought I would make a short post about the differences in language between Canada and Australia/Britain. Because for whatever reason, the words Aussies use tend to be more similar to the British word than the Canadian word. I could make this a huge post, going on about roundabouts vs traffic circles or to-MAH-toes vs to-MAY-toes, but there are plenty of sites where you can read about those differences. I'm going to stick to the differences when it comes to refering to baby items. I was a bit surprised when I realised how many different words there are. I shall list them as such. Canadian-Australian/British-and just for fun if I remember it, German. Comments in italics if I feel the need.

• soother - dummy(I never understood why it was called this, but just as posting, came to the realisation it probably is from dumb as in mute. So it mutes the baby. Hah, only took 10 years to figure that one out) - Schnüller
• crib - cot - kinderbett
• stroller - pushchair - kinderwagen
• diaper - nappy - Windel (although the brand name "Pampers" also is common in Germany for diapers in general)
• burp the baby - wind the baby - can't remember in German
• pee - wee - pieseln
• bassinet - Moses basket - never used it in Germany, so I don't know the term

7 words on one topic is quite a few in my opinion. Only in food and car references can I think of more different words per topic. In our house, it's a combination of both, with a slight advantage going to the Canadian version. Whether that's because I'm with Lena more or because I've had more practice using them including my year of au-pairing I can't say. G can speak both Canadian and Australian baby terms, but I caught him by surprise when I for some reason asked him if we had the Schnüller for our trip in the car.

Gratuitous cute photo

I was sorting some of Lena's clothes by size and wanted to see how this hat fit her. It's much too big right now, but it made for a very cute photo. Our own little Cabbage Patch Kid.