A wonderful surprise from Finland

Ok, I am terrible behind the actual happenings on the blog. We are really busy at work and the evenings fly by so quickly.
Anyway. Last week we found a cute little package in the mailbox, in it Matilda's birthday present from our friend Maaret from Finland.

She has sewn the dress by herself and the fabric is so cute and the colours so vivid and bright, it is just wonderful. It fits Matilda absolutely PERFECTLY. Many thanks, Maaret.

Unfortunately, Matilda is of different opinion:

14.10. Key madnes

Getting up in the morning, bringing the kids to the Nanny and then sitting for half an hour in the morning rush hour traffic jam starts to become a routine. Anytime now we might even switch of the navigator to find our way through Remscheid. Could there be a more durcheinandergewürfelte Stadt in Germany?

One thing that doesn’t seem to get routine is how to open doors at the University.

Probably any expat going to Finland, or at least the german ones, can relate to the feeling, that Finnish doors are kind of locked the wrong way. And they are opened by “locking” them. At the end, I thought I got a hang on the trick and the doors unopenable to me were only a mere few anymore. One might think that now, back in Germany the doors would finally open conveniently to me. But no. First I got so much used to “locking” the door, when opening them, that I seriously have to concentrate on which way to turn the key.  Secondly, the doors at the University are from before the middle ages and require a certain amount of fine-feeling to open them. You kind of pull the lock out a bit with the key before turning them. So, we are back at standing in front of the door, swearing and sweetening…

We got a card for the local library and borrowed some books and DvD’s. They do have a nice collection and it is fun to read all the contemporary German belletristic books. Unfortunately the kids section is only one box of books, but that will be enough, too.

13.10.2013 Lukas Markt

We were just in time in Moselkern to visit the annual fair "Lukas Markt" in Mayen.
By coincidence we met Feli there, too. What a fun we had!
Helena found courage to go to the large karussel as soon as Feli wanted to go there and Matilda had such a good time at the meremaid track. So cute.

12.10.2013 Matildas Birthday

We celebrated Matilda’s Birthday at Grandma and Grandpa. At the same day the dolls I ordered for the girls from my uncle’s money arrived, so we had a huge pile of presents for Matilda. There were so many postcards and packages also from Finland arriving, I almost had tears in my eyes about how many were thinking about our little girl. Thank you all so much, aunts and uncles, mummi and vaari, friends and all *kiss*

11.10.2013 Toten Hosen Konzert Düsseldorf

Yes, we were there. One meter in front of the stage, in the absolute center part. I have been like 1.5 meters away from Campino!!!!
Three supporting acts, actually quite cool ones. Check out LaBrassBanda, never seen them before but pretty fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoVeqZle9UI
and of course the broilers. Great show guys!

And yes, I was there before, I knew what to expect. But what DID happened, I DID NOT EXPECT:
After waiting 5 h in front of the stage, after three supporting acts, the concert not even one third gone, the realization hit me:
I am standing here, my hair pulled in one direction, my body into the other direction, I twice almost lost my shoes and I feel down three times. My face deep into the sweaty armpit of the giant in front of me. He stinks from the sweat of the last hours, I stink of the sweat of the last hours, every one around me too. The oxygen content of the air has dropped to about one percent. I can actually glimps a sight at Campino only in the rare moments where all the mass of people bends in such a way, that all the heads in front of me are of of my sight and the music rarely even touches my ear.
What am I doing here?
If I stand only 5 meters more behind, I could actually even breath, I would be able to SEE the stage, and listen to the music. Why should I let me push and pull around?
And with that I left my place for which I was fighting the better part of the day to meet up with Teemu again and to follow the concert from a distance.
I think I am getting old...

No pictures from that evening, no more ballast then EC-card and Identity card to a Hosen Concert ;-)

06.10.2013 lazy Sunday life

I cannot remember most of the day as Sunday is my catch-up on sleep day for the rest of the week. After lunch I curled up into the bed and woke up only after my friend Anna stopped by for a visit: Time to make cakepops! Good we tried this out before little ones' birthday next week, when I am planning to offer these. Still needs some practicing...

There was a circus in town, but we only went to the the camels standing outdoors. There was a babycamel, too.

And of course, I needed an update on Annas latest knitting project. She is quite a wool-sock pro!

Me… still on my last winters’ project, a cardigan for Matilda. Better gotta hurry or she grows out of it before it is done.

I am quite excited about tomorrow. If everything goes well with the Nanny, we’ll have our first full day at work J

05.10.2013 Roadrip to Cologne, visiting relatives

Today we visited my aunt and uncle in Cologne. We haven’t met in quite a while and it was a pleasure to see them again. It is also great to visit there, as my aunt is seriously the best cook in the world and she always offers plenty of food...

This trip also gave as opportunity to test the loading capacity of our new-to-us car. We managed to squeeze a table and three chairs we borrowed into the car and finished the road trip with two stops at two supermarkets. At Real and good old Aldi. We still don’t have internet connection but the webstick version should be opened today.

Update list concerning furniture: 

2 Airbeds to sleep on

3 chairs, 1 table

2 small lockers from Ikea and a table to put laptop on

 Also, my uncle gave each of the kids a generous amount of money to buy some extra toys, as we were of course not able to bring so much toys to Germany.