Who's the German?

There are some things that still surprise me when going between my country of living and that of origin.

• At supermarkets, you need to weigh the produce yourself. I'm so used to the untrusting way of the Tesco that I keep forgetting.
• At the breakfast table, in a restaurant etc, there is often no option of tap water. In fact nobody drinks it. At all. It's the land of Sprudel (carbonated water), which comes in glass bottles. We don't like carbonated water, in fact, my tonsillitis throat doesn't like any type of carbonated drink, so just as well we brought our refillable bottles. The restaurant owner wasn't happy, because it's really really rude not to order bottled water (carbonated) with your meal.
• People take condensed milk in their coffee. The oddity of this is striking. I don't think I know another country that does this, although borderland Belgium also offers condensed milk and no normal milk. On the plus, the coffee itself is good. And there's my favourite incarnation of coffee, the Latte Macchiato, which is painfully missed in the UK.
• As a consequence of the above, many places do not have plain milk available, the drink of choice for the kids, and the stuff I, unlike most of my compatriots, put in my tea.
• When you ask for tea, you are presented with a choice of about 50 teas, only one of which is what is commonly referred to as "tea" in the UK. Even my description of "black tea" (which used to work) rendered a Blackberry flavoured black tea.
• Right before left. I totally get why my beloved doesn't get it. It is rather hard to get, really, The UK traffic system is much more intuitive, and I have to actively remind myself so as not to cause an accident.
• People are so in you face direct. I mean, I've known this for a while, and I know that I've been described likewise. But but but, I'd never dare to moan to a stranger or complain in the right on fashion that I overhear on a constant basis and that makes me blush just for hearing it. On the good side, I found it rather sweet that the hotel staff shared her rather horrid day with me with absolutely no intention of implying that I was part of making it a hard day.
• Homeopathic medicine. I'm not a great fan of "alternative" medicine because in my mind it either is medicine (i.e. has a proven clinical effect) or it isn't. I'm happy to take plant based products of course, but that stuff they gave me for my throat is most clearly absolutely not doing anything and the price tag for this placebo was rather high. It would also be nice to tell me it was homeopathic before I bought it so that I could make an informed choice and say no thanks.
• Paracetamol however is the devil incarnate here and will kill you for sure, and I've already overdosed and just waiting for my liver to pack it in. But of course, I'm not allowed any other painkillers because, shock horror, I'm breastfeeding (for a total of 10 minutes a day only, surely I can have something to help me through the day???? Something that's a real medicine???? Please????)
• German school satchels (that term doesn't actually cut it, they are called "Ranzen" and are square boxes on a child's back, usually obscuring most of the body mass of a first year child) are even bigger now than they were in my day. My notion that it would be nice to totally label my child the odd German one out for the sake of satisfying my sentimentality came to a sudden halt at the price tag of, wait till you hear, Euro 150. For a school bag. Yes, it's well made, branded and lasts for the full 4 years of German primary school, but come on, that's still 30 quid a year?! And of course British kids don't have to carry all their school books and exercise jotters around with them so there's no bloody point anyway to Cubling having one of them. "But I want to look like a German school girl so that everyone sees I'm German!" She protests, and I'm not sure if I should be happy or deeply concerned by this sudden portrayal of German patriotism, kindled by what I'm sure is usually better known as consumerism.

Clearly, I've become a stranger here.

A perfect day for Kite Flying

A windy autumn day. A trip to the Ruhrpott to meet my wonderful friends and let our children get to know each other. A kite. A field between two rivers. A kite that may lift you up in the strong wind and whish above your head. A kite that crashes into a tree and has to be freed by a brave 10 year old supergirl. More tree climbing. Homebaked cake to finish off an a day full of adventure. 

Couldn't help but wonder if today will be one of those days that will be referred to as "I remember when I was a little girl, when we flew the kite in Schwerte..."

Bottom picture by Cubling.

We're not good with languages, or are we?

Every language teacher knows that motivation is key to language learning. It works on so many levels - why do we want to learn a language, how strong is our need for being able to speak the language?

If I got a pound for every time I heard someone in the UK say "we're not good with languages in the UK it's a shame, isn't it" I'd be rich. You see, it's simply not true. There is no country or nationality that is "not good" with languages. We're all pretty much the same on average and can learn second, third or seventh languages. The only thing that makes a difference in success in language learning is motivation.

In the UK, the general motivation for learning languages is low. This is not shameful at all, it's a fact. The main trade partner is the USA. English is the language of the world, of the internet, it's the lingua franca in many countries. It's a fact of life that you can get by speaking English only, so there's no real motivation to learn another language. On top of that, there is limited exposure to other languages, this being an island surrounded by water not other countries.

Compare this to my childhood. We had TV from Belgium in French and Flemish. Pop music in English. I listened to BFBS because near us were a good few British army bases and I thought British radio was the best thing since sliced bread. My best friend was Spanish, and there was an Italian, Turkish and Polish girl in my class. I grew up only 100 km away from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. We went on holiday to Spain and Yugoslavia (Croatia now). Languages were everywhere.

So, my motivation to learn languages was high. The motivation in the UK to learn additional languages is low. I knew the theory. My daughter is the reality: Surrounded by media in English, people in English and with a mum who loves English and now speaks it more fluently than German, why on earth should she be motivated to learn/speak German? She knows that mummy speaks English too, so there's really no need to speak German. There's a need to understand mummy, so that works well. But speak? You must be kidding.

Hence I came up with a 10 point plan. And the idea of a longish trip to Germany without Mr Cartside.
Interestingly, Cubling started speaking fluent German as soon as we arrived in Germany. Just not to me. It was hilarious, after 4 years of hard work, she was giving me the cold shoulder linguistically. She spoke German to Opa, his partner, all my friends and all German children and blissfully lapsed back into English when she met E., another bilingual child who lives near London (and who incidentally understands German perfectly but doesn't speak it). Need I say that they bonded instantly although they'd not met before?

Upon our return, Cubling told me that I now need to speak English because all around us people speak English too. How observant. How true. How impossible to argue with.

Yet we've made a breakthrough. Cubling now realises that German is useful and that there are people who do not speak English too (like mummy). That there are children who speak German (I still remember the lightbulb moment when she watched a German TV programme and she saw children speaking German - before, all our TV time had been German animation).

And, amazingly, she now speaks much more German to me than before. She no longer rejects it and is much more compliant repeating sentences in German when she gets carried away speaking English. I've even heard her role playing with dolls in German.

Creating real motivation and needs to speak the minority language is crucial, and I think this is particularly the case if you live in an English speaking country because children will pick up that English is such an important and useful language. It is always hard supporting the minority language, but it's even harder in an English speaking country.

German, in Cubling's mind, is still "the other" language, which becomes apparent when she refers to children who are bilingual as "German" even if they are French, Lithuanian, or Urdu speakers. Yet she also shows a definite interest in other languages, asking me if I speak them and wanting to learn a few phrases. This in itself is to be celebrated, this early curiosity and interest in languages if nothing else.

There is something else though: The two weeks in Germany have renewed my motivation to continue with our bilingual home. Nothing compares to all of a sudden hear your child speak the minority language almost perfectly. I'm one proud mama.

A trip in words and pictures

We went to Germany for almost two weeks. Just the girls. It was an adventure. It was full on German immersion. And wasn't I surprised to hear my big girl speak fluent German to everyone? She kept it a big secret, but yes, she can speak German!

We came downs with a cough bug one at a time, Cubling first, needing emergency hospital admission (it turned out to be nothing serious, but I'm not taking any chances anymore), Snowflake next, keeping me awake two nights listening to her every breath, then me and finally Opa.

We went to the zoo. Cubling couldn't believe that we went to see real live animals, rather than the usual stuffed ones in the "Museum" (aka Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum).

We went to the woods.
We played on swing parks, the street, with water, sand and cherry blossom leaves (how well they attach to the buggy wheels after a rainshower!).

We visited lots of people, saw new babies for the first time.
Snowflake was scared by a hippo opening its jaw.

Cubling was scared of a shy tiger.
E's daddy was scared of a pile of giant cockroaches.
I was scared of the fairground ride I went on with Cubling.

We picked daisies and blew dandelion clocks
We saw a 5 day old elephant baby.

Cubling met lots of German kids and one English-German girl who she instantly bonded with big time.

We watched the Schuetzenfest parade.
We went to the fair.
We went up an old windmill in Zons (note to self: I really should update the English Wikipedia entry).

Cubling went on her first pony ride.
We ate a lot of ice cream, and Broetchen with egg.
We were hot a lot and got dirty feet from running barefoot.

Snowflake rolled a lot across floors and refused to eat any food.
We saw lots of flowers, leaves, ants and even wasps (one may have stung Cubling).
Cubling asked the pilot not to bump and he complied AND showed her the cockpit.
And the best part of the trip was running into daddy's arms upon our return.

How Germany says no to nuclear power

Hurray, the anti-nuclear lobby says.
Thing is, in a country where there are lots of people, energy is in high demand (after all, every household seems to have an electric toothbrush and a fancy 500 quid coffee maker amongst rather a lot of other electrical gadgetry), and at least one quarter of that energy is provided by nuclear power, the big question must be: How will the energy need be met?

Well, it's back to coal, oil and imported nuclear power (from France most likely). The latter is a joke, as if it mattered if a plant here or 100 miles further west blew up. And a return to coal and oil makes me shake my head because of the short-sightedness of such an approach. I'm not a fan of nuclear power, but I'm less of a fan of power provided through fossil fuels.

At the same time, local pressure groups are demonstrating against power lines, pylons and wind energy, and call for the scientists to come up with something that doesn't need these features of our energy hunger. "You scientists are meant to be clever, just come up with an alternative, will you." (Someone really said this, I'm not making this up).

Shit, I'm glad I'll be out of here again tomorrow. It all rather does my head in.

The whole debate about not wanting nuclear power, and not wanting renewables at one's doorstep (I'm sure nobody wants a coal plant on their door step either) of course ignores the elephant in the room. Everybody is great at complaining and demanding, nobody actually questions their own energy consumption. There are endless discussions about the price of energy, taxation of petrol (still less than in the UK incidentally) yet as far as I can tell, very little reassessing of why on earth we all need our electric toothbrush, expresso machine, estate car, and the computer on all day. And that's just the obvious stuff. I'm sure energy consumption in the business sector could make an even bigger difference if consideration was given to what is necessary and what isn't. We can't have it all: cheap energy and no nuclear, no coal power stations and no wind power. It's an equasion that simply doesn't work.

And really, my coffee maker and milk foamer work a treat without any power other than that of my hand, and I'm pretty good at brushing my teeth too. Even though admittedly, I have to work on the "leaving the computer on all day" bit. Therefore, if you don't want nuclear or other power stations, or pylons or windmills, why not try using less energy instead of protesting without having alternatives?

Little Miss Blether is sick

The sun is shining, my nose is running. It must be spring in Germany.
Although I'm used to travelling at this time of the year, once again I forgot:
-antihistamines and inhaler, so I'm sneezing and coughing away
-sun hats for the kids, meaning that I have to buy them to add to their collection of sun hats bought in Germany
-suitable clothes for 20 degrees plus, because I simply can't imagine it could ever be so warm in April that my Scottish summer clothes are too thick. They are.

To start off our holiday, Cubling took sick. Since Snowflake fell ill with Meningitis and I didn't suspect anything seriously wrong with her at the time, waiting a full hour before phoning NHS24 and talking them into her not needing an ambulance (how wrong was I), seeing Cubling with a distant stare and unresponsiveness triggered me to call an ambulance.

Of course it was a bit hasty (though to be fair, the emergency doctor recommended transfer to the hospital, so it wasn't just my call) and she turned out to be fine. Well, relatively.
At the hospital I could see those looks implying she's mad that mum to take her here for a bit of an infection, until she did the collapsing, not responding, staring and rolling eye thing again and discharge was postponed for another hour. See, told you so.

Then they managed to mislay the European Health Card between ambulance and hospital, and I still don't have it back. So I may be faced with a private treatment bill, which, considering the ambulance turned up with 5 people, surely will be hefty.

Cubling was very sick for two days, greyfaced, feverish, sicky, no appetite, coughing and above all quiet. Little Miss Blether gone all quiet, something must be very very wrong I tell you. Loving mum that I am, I met up with a friend and plonked her on a chair at a restaurant. She stayed there all the time and friend and I had a really long chat. How unusual, how wonderous.


Main thing of course is that she is well again, though now Snowflake has the coughs again, after a week of a break. Little Miss Worry that I am, I've had two nights of almost no sleep listening to her every breath, holding her up so she can breathe a tad more easily.

And then there's the issue of getting about to see people, but that's another story altogether...

And off we go

The bags are packed (I think).
Tomorrow morning, I'll go on an epic journey to my place of birth.
With 2 kids, one buggy, one car seat and two large bags that somehow pass as handluggage.
To take a taxi, a train, get a lift, catch a plane and get another lift at the other side (though Snowflake may impose her will to not travel by car in the dark yet again).

Without Mr Cartside.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage. I guess I've got a mouth to ask for help, that should come in handy.

I can also foresee a tantrum by Cubling because I've removed the items she sneakily keeps putting into the case. She won't be happy, but I'm simply not going to take a box of a magnetic fairy dressing up game. There are limits. She may though wear the flowery girly skirt that her auntie got her for her birthday even though it's not exactly perfect travel attire.

And off we go...

6 step plan to boost the minority language

I have a cunning plan. I've told Cubling that Snowflake only understands German. Couple that with me spending more time with Cubling (in theory, I'm sure we'll get there in time, at the moment she's rather neglected when she's at home with me and Snowflake), this surely must, no will, lead to an explosion of her minority language.

So, now that I'm on maternity leave, this is my plan to increase her active use of German, which is not just lagging behind English by miles, but also not developing much (while she surprises us every day with new words and constructions in English):

1. Monday mornings we will meet up with the mums and kids from the German Kinderclub.
We are lucky to have a German parent group and it's a great opportunity that we can now attend. I even changed nursery times so we could accommodate it. Initially, I had my doubts about the effectiveness - the club isn't very structured and mums chat while kids play (and if you let Cubling just play by herself, she'll speak English). There is some singing at the end, sometimes some craft activity organised by a parent, other than that, there is a real temptation to spend the two hours just chatting to other mums. However, I've noticed that even if I don't make a massive effort to engage with Cubling and the other children during the two hours (though I generally try to spend at least half the time engaging with Cubling), she will still use more German just after the club. So somehow, it's working.

2. I'll insist that Cubling speaks German only to Snowflake. So far so good, though there's a bit of disappointment that Snowflake doesn't speak back.

3. This is the hard bit. I'm trying to insist more on Cubling speaking German to me, and not respond if she speaks English. It's hard because she always speaks English to me, and even when making an effort, her idea of effort is still to only say nouns and verbs in German. In practice this means that after every sentence I mirror the same sentence in German and ask her to repeat. I hate doing this. She's ok with it, and she's at least not yet reluctant to do this. It's a strategy I can only use when on my own with her, it just doesn't work when in English speaking company.

4. Try to make friends with a couple of German parents. Our best German friends (well, German/Canadian to be precise) have moved away so if I'm lazy, Cubling will not have much opportunity to hear German from adults or children other than myself and the TV. I loathe how contrived this sounds, and is, to go out there in the search of friends so that my child is exposed to German more often. I'm not going to do well on this one, I'm not one who makes friends easily in the best circumstances, nevermind with alternate motives. At the same time, I've not socialised much in the last few years due to lack of time, so it's hight time anyway to rekindle some connections and friendships.

5. This is another difficult decision. Cubling will stop attending the outdoor kindergarten for the months that I'm on maternity leave. Instead, we'll join a group of parents and toddlers who go outdoors on the same day of the week. The reason for this is that it gives me an extra day of interaction with Cubling and while none of the other parents speak German, I hope that we can still combine some outdoor play with more exposure to German.

6. When Cubling plays by herself (which she now does) and I'm in the room, I interject and try to switch her imaginative play to German (she chatters non-stop when playing, all in English of course). This is what I did with the Spanish boy I taught German as an au-pair, he was 4 then, and after 6 months his German did improve significantly this way (to be fair, I can't take full credit as he also attended a German pre-school).

Some things we're doing already: all TV Cubling watches are German language DVDs, and obviously my bedtime reading is in German always. Our plan where we'd have an hour where the whole house speaks German only hasn't happened, our days are just too unpredictable with a newborn around and different nursery times each day.

Little pleasures that reduce me to hysterical laughter

There was much hilarity in our hotel room last night. Going back a bit, for a good while I played with the idea of becoming a translator/interpreter. But it was quite a hard job to get into, what with lots of people having the same language pair and my reluctance to do yet another qualification on top of my endless studies. So I tried to set up my own little business but never got the clients to make it worthwhile. I tried, did the business plan and realised that I'd be better off financially with another career, probably enjoy that other career more, and wouldn't have to do the marketing which is not something I particularly enjoy. And no, I never thought I wasn't good enough especially when we had to have an interpreter at our wedding (in case hubby didn't understand what he was letting himself in for this was a requirement) and I cringed rather a lot during the ceremony.

I was right about my career choice. I have no regrets.

Just sometimes, I feel that maybe there aren't enough translators about to make sure gross embarrassment is avoided. And I'm generally a helpful person and hate to see people look rather foolish. Here I am, in a German hotel which is part of a well known international chain which I think is American owned. Germany is a country where really everyone has a decent command of English, and I don't see how anyone could work in hospitality without being able to speak English fluently. The information booklet provided by the hotel is both in German and in English. I have a strange feeling they wanted to give me a good laugh and test my pregnancy pelvic floor function when they came up with the English translation. I can't but share some of the highlights - and I'm not sure if I should suggest to them to invest in a trained translator maybe for the benefit of their English speaking guests?
My rates are reasonable by the way.

"You like to get adapter, travel adapter plug or extension cord at the reception"

"Trains to the airport leave from the Munich main station. For a concrete schedule please ask at the reception desk" (I have visions of the ten commandments written in stone)

"You can borrow a bath robe for your sauna visit at the reception desk. We lend you a pledge for this made of beechwood" (sounds interesting, I'm tempted to use the sauna just to see that pledge made of beechwood... Thankfully I checked the German and it's about paying a deposit for the loan of a bath robe - not beeches were harmed in the transaction you'll be glad to know)

"in the case of fire doors and window closed regards immediately see notice, the building at the doors over stairs and escape routes deserted fire extinguishers be in every floor as escape plan" (umph, I hope there won't be a case of fire because I'm not all that sure what to do. Fortunately, "Emergency Exits are marked on the plan suspended on your room door" and you have to "Read the emergency plan in your room at the door" and in no other location!)

"City map: get with pleasure free of cost at the reception" (easy pleasure!)

"You can use the dryer daily from 7am to 10pm be due against."

"We like to send your faxes for you; per page we calculate euros 0, 30"

"Lost and Found will be escrowed at the housekeeping"

"Everybody make an analogous modem attachment extension cord is available on the reception" (Goody)

"Pay TV: You have  Pay TV channels in your room at the disposal. Feels after petition of the room number and push the OK. We charges you Euro 13,90." (hm, a bit touchy feeling before watching more of it???)

"In the restaurant you have also the possibility watching different sports events with our flat TV"

"Our Housekeeping is glad to help you at a ragged button or loose hem"

"You have the possibility in every room of using the Internet free of cost. Open your Internet Explorer which conducts you on the initial page automatically. Select the 'Free' entrance there, please. A problem should be able appear you the hotline: our reception helpful or with pleasure also is it for them contact." (if their English is equally bad, I doubt their helpfulness. It also doesn't help that the page is in German and the word "Free" is not there at all, so even a guessing game will go pear shaped)

Thankfully, if internet access on the room fails, "among us you have the possibility in the lobby of using the Internet free of cost in our business room."

Of course, there is a "questionnaire in each room. Please tell us what you think about us, what you liked particularly or what could be improved". Maybe someone should suggest using a translator? But where would be the fun of a night spent giggling uncontrollably be?

Munich calling

Two spirits, love and hate. I'm misquoting. Yet it's how I feel about travelling this day. I'm getting old or something like that, I mean surely something must be wrong with me. After all I'm the one who caught a serious travel bug aged 15 and couldn't let go, spent all her hard earned pennies laboured away in the dumbest of after school and holiday jobs just to be able to travel and explore the world. Only to declare in tears to hubby and Cubling today that I never ever want to travel again.

I guess it's understandable that I'm a bit on edge about this whole travel business. It once was fun when flights were cheap, you slept on someone's floor (and yes, I've slept on floors of people I didn' t even know) and it was all one big adventure. Nowadays it's an undertaking plus this year I've been caught out with cancelled flights twice. I'm scared of flying and feel that I fly far too often. I long for a week just at some Scottish loch taking it easy and enjoying the Scottish sunshine that can never be too hot.

Maybe it's because all my travel led me to Scotland, and as far as a holiday destination is concerned, it's got all I ever wanted. Maybe I'm just getting set in my ways and don't like the upheaval of travel anymore which was exciting once, and now with a toddler becomes a pain in the bum.
And I guess it doesn't help if you almost miss a flight first thing in the morning, after having been oh so organised.

We did get our flight though. We're in Munich. It's sunny and hot, and there's processions of people on roller blades, bicycle parks of unseen expanse, beer gardens the size of villages and after all the stress of the morning, I have to say that I'm rather taken with the amazing friendliness and helpfulness of the people. Above all, I'll be able to catch up with some very good friends over the next few days, friends whom I haven't seen in far too long because our lives no longer intersect an awful lot geographically. There is a bit of a time warp in Munich this week, with friends now based in Mexico, Cologne, Glasgow and of course Munich coming together. And never having been to Munich before, this was definitely a good enough excuse to explore the Bavarian capital.

I'm so excited to see everyone. I know the time will fly and be too short. But it'll be all worth it. And that's why I was in tears this morning, the panic of seeing it all slip by because of my own stupidity of not getting my directions right and getting stuck in Edinburgh rush hour traffic. All that effort, all that excitement to see some of my best friends only 10 minutes from evaporating into thin air. Gladly, I have a husband whose nerves are of much stronger built than mine.

So hello Munich, glad we made it.

Bilingual Carnival April edition

Thanks to my email letting me down, I've sort of missed the bilingual carnival this month. Just for writing and submitting a contribution, luckily my preferred feed reader is still working (though it had 1000+ posts when I returned from holiday) so at least I can tell you all about this month's edition which is happening at Bilingual For Fun.

So while I read through all the fabulous contributions, watch the final election debate, and do some baby baseball tee knitting to keep my emotions level, I'll leave you with a not quite contribution to the bilingual carnival. It's not a proper post, it's not particularly exciting, but I really also want this blog to be a bit of a record of Cubling's life for posterity - and maybe, just maybe, someone finds this mildly interesting. And if not, nevermind.

And by the way, the next bilingual carnival in May will be hosted right here, so please let me have your posts on raising children bilingually to keep up the amazing range of information and experiences that this months carnival has brought together. Email me at blog at cartside.co.uk (email is working again) or cartside at gmail.com.

So here's my bilingual child at just 3 years, after almost a fortnight in Germany:

• We have clear signs of code switching.
• She can now say full sentences in German "Ich moechte kuscheln" (I'd like to cuddle), i.e. personal pronouns now occasionally come out in German (before it was "I want kuscheln")
• She still focusses on noun and verb to indicate which language she speaks in, so the sentence will be English with verbs and nouns generally in German. She does use many adjectives in German, but less so adverbs: "The Suppe ist too heiss!"  "The Suppe ist ein bisschen too heiss"
• Her pronunciation is incredibly clear in both languages.
• She can pronounce English "r" but not the German one.
• She can't pronounce "th"
• She makes up words and loves it
• She really struggles with longer sentences, such as polite questions, leaving out the "can you" at the start in both languages
• She defaults to English with new people but understood quickly who doesn't understand English and switches accordingly
• She loves questions. Why/Warum is added to every conversation and is driving me bonkers. What morgen doing? is the first question of the day. What you do today? Is the one that welcomes us home. She will listen to the answer, attentively even if daddy speaks of nomads, as if she knows exactly what he's talking about.
• She loves role play and telling us what to do in a role play.
• She still maintains some early toddler mispronunciations (t for k which she very consistently did when younger, now she can say both phonemes but will still say tock on the door, which I think is a mix of knock and klopfen)
• She translates into both languages: The volcano broke out (from German "ausbrechen") and You missed the Tasche? (you forgot the bag, derived from you're missing the bag)
• She doesn't seem to understand past tense questions, so when I ask about something she did, she has problems knowing what to say. That's in German, not sure if she has the same difficulty in English.
• She keeps talking about a friendly plastic spider that she meets at both nurseries, and other mysteries.
• She makes up the coolest names for her toys.
• Her mixing of languages makes me mix languages. Maybe I'll end up speaking Cublinglish.
• She can catch a ball (which clearly has nothing at all to do with being bilingual in case you were wondering)

Some moments from our trip

One of the striking differences between Germany and Scotland was that spring had sprung already. Cubling's excitement about this was rather huge.

Nothing beats the garden of older girls who very soon became her new friends - no question she can climb as high, even on tiptoes.

No trip to Germany is complete without a trip to Cologne Zoo...

...and a chocolate ice cream

Cubling loves to hug and so do I - and she loves to hug my bump

A long journey back home thanks to volcanic ash, but the sunset alone made up for it:

And finally, home sweet home (how amazing is that to be sailing underneath the Forth Road Bridge???):

Life without aeroplanes

I really appreciated the comments after my outburst (you didn't get the real thing, just the edited blog version...). Apologies for not responding individually, but the internet connection is still very iffy and takes hours for any activity. I'm still rebooking flights in the hope that the European airspace will be reopened, but to be honest, I don't think that will happen any time soon. So to be safe, we're booked on the next available ferry, which is on Wednesday, getting us home for Thursday. At least a ferry means we can sleep rather than having a non-stop journey on an overcrowded train. It's still a journey I'm not looking forward too, imposing a 600 km round trip to the ferry port on my dad, and a worrysome 20 hour ferry journey with a toddler who does have a habbit of running off (fast and suddenly). It's also costing a lot of money which is rather enfuriating after already paying for a very expensive flight to get here.

At the same time I keep booking onto the scheduled flights home in the hope that the airspace may magically open up again. I don't have much hope of that but it would get me home with much less hassle and above all much earlier. Not without less worry though, I'm still not sure if I worry more about losing Cubling on the ferry or crashing due to volcanic ash aeroplane malfunction.

Cubling on the other hand, keeps telling me "Don't worry Mummy". If only I could stop worrying.

Here's the positives:
- Spring has arrived in Germany, with 20 Celsius, sunshine, ice cream and all that.
- Cubling's German is really coming on
- Having more time to spend with my dad (although I have a feeling he's had enough of spending time with us)
- Knowing that I will be home on Thursday at the very latest.
- Having some time to read a book and knit baby stuff (though why did I bring a pattern with page two missing?????)

The negatives:
- Not having a proper computer to feed my habit or at least catch up on some work
- Being in a toy free flat and having to constantly tell Cubling off that Opa's stuff isn't for playing and that he likes it tidy
- Cubling missing her dad (and me too)
- My hayfever (which always comes on much earlier in Germany)
- Feeling that I'm letting down work yet again and the pressure I'll put on myself to make up for it when I get back

It does bring home how much we depend on airtravel and take it for granted. Imagine a life without it. There may not be much imagining to do, I wouldn't be suprised if this will last for a good while yet. Our next flight (and last for a long while) is booked for May, will it happen?

The Treasures of our Trip

This is what we're bringing back with us from our short trip to Germany, to keep the link glowing for the months to come:

1. transparent crafting paper, a large cheese box, a mermaid instruction booklet and an electric lantern holder

To make a mermaid lantern for Glasgow's St Martin's Day lantern parade. Cubling is big into mermaids (and other less girly stuff, just that the less girly variations the craft shop had on offer didn't resemble combine harvesters, cranes, diggers or tractors) hence the mermaid booklet. She's still too young in my opinion to be trusted with the real thing, i.e. a lantern with a candle in it, so the electric variant has to make do for this year.

2. A hair band.

Nothing too German about that. She just wouldn't leave the shop without it and to be fair, it would help her hair style immensely. If she kept in in for more than two seconds that is.

3. A Brotbrettchen.

That's the flat rectangular with a slice of bread and a cow-shaped cold meet slice on it. It's a wooden board for eating your bread on. Instead of plates, you see. Very German. And they have such fun versions of it, I love them. This one was picked by Cubling as a souvenir.

4. Bernsteinkettchen (amber necklace).

A souvenir for my little niece and her teeth which may bother her. Amber necklaces apparently soothe teething pains. Believe it or scorn it, Midwife Muse tried it a little while ago on her gandchildren and maintains it worked (and she's not German so it must be true).

5. Various CDs and DVDs of German music and cartoon series.

That's me hoping that letting her watch TV in German will magically make her love all things German. To be fair, I can't wait to relive my own childhood by watching Die Sendung mit der Maus and Co. And I'm obviously big time into bribing toddlers.

6. A wooden sewing toy

Given to Cubling by my friend A. The needle is a mouse who eats through food. Cubling loves it, she's such a food addict and loves feeding any real or imaginary person or mouse.

7. Another present from A.: a drawing block, crayons, and a magic pencil with all the colours of the rainbow. The latter is a particular hit, Cubling loves making the colours change and telling me all about it.

8. A nursery rhyme singalong book.

One of those really annoying toys. I really had tried hard for Cubling to pick the autumn teeming book (Herbstwimmelbuch) which was my book of choice. However, she saw this and was not to be separated from it. So we've not got a book that plays 10 different German nursery rhymes, which is going under the name "Big Book" and is compulsory bed and nap time reading material. Did I mention my rotten cold? Imagine the scene, me singing with a sore throat and stuffed nose, 10 nursery rhymes at an impossible pitch for me at the best of times. It may annoy me and everyone in earshot, but Cubling has already started singing along and it certainly is her favourite book at the moment. So much so that I could've left all the other books I took at home.

9. Yarn

I spent my last Euros on 6 balls of Italian made yarn to knit a summer dress for Cubling. It's another F.Pea creation (cowgirl butterfly astronaut vest) and the suggested yarn, being US made, is not available here. I think I've finally found a good replacement.

10. Oops, forgot the scissors. That's because they had to stay as we only had hand luggage. When I went to my beloved craft shop aptly named "Zauberkoerbchen", Cubling wanted them. Then they became her precious. Imagine, my ever energetic, ever moving, ever running, never calm or sitting for any length of time, my one and only spirited girl - there she sat with a pair of scissors and a sheet of paper, cutting into the edge. Ever so carefully not to cut her fingers. For half hours at a time. There is magic in a pair of scissors as Slugs in the Refrigerator has described more eloquently.

And this is the lovely yarn I was knitting with while in Germany: Hachos de Mirasol, a Peruvian and fairly traded yarn which I just adore.

Four Days in October

Cubling and I are currentling visiting Opa (granddad) in Germany. It's a rather short visit, yet I'm trying to cram a lot into these four days, four day out of a total of 16 that Cubling will this year have spent in my country of birth. Our first trip around Easter led to an explosion of her active language capacity in German. All of which has since stagnated. We are at a stage where Cubling's sentences are English, with German nouns and occasionally verbs and adjectives sprinkled in, if I insist. The kind of "I want that Brot nicht!" (I don't want that bread).

So I'm hoping that she'll be getting a lot out of this visit, especially since she does know the difference between the languages now, and that there are different languages. More than the language, I'm also seeping up the culture, feed her sausages and Reibekuchen, buy supplies for making a latern for St Martin's Day, think about creating advent wreaths and calendars which too are different in Germany. I even go as far as planning to cook some German fare on my return, finally get around to organise a local German playgroup.

I'm overwhelmed by possibilities. Possibilities which are facilitated because I live in a big cities where we have some resources for creating networks of German-Scottish families. Time is limited to be fair, but at least we have these options. And we have the lantern parade for St Martin's Day, a German Kinderclub and lots of activities that can foster a sense of having two cultures to draw from. These four days, if not for Cubling, at least for me fill me with refreshed enthusiasm to create a bicultural home for her. I'm full of ideas, full of plans.

And nothing beats my pride at hearing her speak the occasional sentence in German. And my pride to hear her confidently chat up strangers in English. I love English, and I love to hear her to speak English so perfectly. I'm simply awestruck by my bilingual girl, even if her bilingualism is anything but balanced.

To see her play, dance have such fun with my Spanish-German friends' children, who are bilingual in their own way. To see her intuitively connect with them, still mixing languages, but clearly having no trouble communicating at all.

A marvel.

Here's to some lantern making upon my return.

One tired but happy mummy

I have no energy to write any proper blog posts. If I say proper, it means half thought through, the ideas that I have in my head, the stuff that takes a little concentration to complete.
Well, we've had a rare weekend as the nuclear family and made the most of it. No, I didn't clean, shop, garden. When one's time is very limited, priorities have to be right. Ours were to have some rare and precious family time. So the house is in a bit of a state but baby I don't care (hums along).
Instead of cleaning and all the boring stuff, we went to Edinburgh Zoo and Finlaystone Estate/Gardens over the weekend.
I was in London Wednesday to Friday for some work related social media training.
On Wednesday I'll be off to Germany for 4 days.
The following Wednesday, i.e. after 2 days in Glasgow, I'll be in Belfast for the day, again for work. I'm a very tired mummy already, don't ask me what it'll be like 10 days from now after all that travelling.

I'm extremely pleased we managed two sunny glorious autumn days in two fabulous locations. On the train journey to London I managed to knit a pair of mittens and I've managed to catch one of the last places on the online Felt and Stitch holiday which I decided would be my much deserved me time for the next few weeks. I hope having signed up to it will make me take that time, even if not at the specific days the projects are posted (they happen to be Wednesdays, which, for the next two weeks, will be airport days).

My internet connection may be more than iffy, what with my dad's virus infected computer and his stubborn reluctance to buy a new one (which I shall attempt to remedy while there, now there's a mission!) so if this space should be rather quiet, please bear with me. I do have a lot of posts planned and in the pipeline. There'll be a podcasting 101, a video blogging 101, an introduction to Ning, I'm sure I'll not be able to resist blogging about the beauties of Edinburgh Zoo and Finlaystone, and my camera is full of amazing autumn pictures. Have I mentioned already how amazing Acers are? I just can't get enough of them. Oh, and winter knitting. Next on my needles after the mittens shall be the dead fish hat, my current personal favourite hat pattern from A Hat in Time and in 2 week's time, the print run should be making its way out to those who've preordered. If you wish to preorder or buy the ebook, just hop over here.

Oh and sorry that I haven't had time to comment on other blogs, I just about manage to read posts here and there at the moment. Not complaining, just explaining ;)

To entertain you, some classics out of Cubling's mouth:
Tell Opa, which animals did you see in the zoo? "rabbits, dogs".
"I happy fish, mummy grumpy fish" (after telling her off for throwing her milk cup off the table and creating a milk puddle).
"I no want see Tiger anymore" (in the zoo, after we finally found the tiger and she couldn't quite get the parental excitement of him being right up at the glass).
"I want go aeroplane! I fahren Deutschland! Wheee! I fliegen high up sky!" (no, not yet darling, another few days to go - she's been saying this for 3 weeks non stop now)
"I big girl now!" Not sure what makes her think that, she's still not using the potty and is still in the cot, the two things that I consider signs of being a big girl...
Pointing at our neighbour: "What's that?" Mummy: "Who's that." Cubling: "Good morning, Who!"
And she loves Goldilocks, which we also read in a German version. She is the small bear, I'm the middle bear, daddy is the big bear. So far so good. And who's Goldilocks? Her cousin (my nephew). He is very blond to be fair... And he's happy with the casting.

Finally, I'm over the moon that this blog is listed as number 35 of the top 100 of British parenting blogs. I do think that many blogs below Mummy do that! are more deserving of this position and I'm sure in months to come this will be reflected. In the meantime though, it's made my day!!!