Upside Down
In the eight weeks since coming home this time, we have, essentially, been sick. Kindergarten has lovingly supplied a stream of bugs and viruses, many of which die Lüdde has… Continue Reading
Ausgepustete Eier
During my first Elternabend (Parent and Teacher Night, and yes I made a fool of myself by mixing up my sentence structure during the ‘hold the ball and introduce yourself’ game)… Continue Reading
Not a Snow Person
This month has been the snowiest I have spent in Deutschland. I think. Apart from a freak showing of snow in December 2010, my first winter spent in Münster for… Continue Reading
Waiting
Phew, it has been cold. It began snowing shortly after we arrived home and for once, it actually stuck. Snow rarely sticks around here because our temps are rarely cold… Continue Reading
Unearthed
Even with the long flight and time it took to settle the kids, even with some truly magnificent toddler meltdowns as we all grappled with time change, climate change, living… Continue Reading
Rhythm (or lack thereof)
Travelling long-haul with small children is quite like childbirth. (I contemplated expanding on that analogy for a while, standing in the bathroom typing so as not to wake the baby… Continue Reading
The Snow Came
It seems our corner of the world submitted to the snow, and after it fell and all was white, it felt right. I don’t like snow at all, but for… Continue Reading
Pa.
Back in the summer, when Mum and Dad were over helping us get settled in the new place, planting trees and watching the kids, Pa took his tumble while trying… Continue Reading
Thread
I’ve not been home in three years. Life, here, has continued apace – another baby, a new house, a new job – and Australia has remained patiently in my heart,… Continue Reading
Deliberately Seeking Beauty
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the months October through May in Germany are spent sneezing, sniffing, coughing, snotting, rasping, wheezing, drinking 800 litres of herbal tea and complaining…. Continue Reading
Here We Are, Where Are We
Germany and I really first got to know each other in autumn. It was a cold and drizzly September when I arrived from a summer in Santorini. I was brown,… Continue Reading
Life in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein
Beach Days
September has been kind, apologising perhaps for the months that preceded her. We have managed to squeeze in a couple of truly glorious beach visits and even just a few… Continue Reading
Autumn Lurking
There is an approaching postal vote in Australia (regarding marriage equality, because no, Australia hasn’t quite been able to gather its shit on that issue). I can’t vote in it,… Continue Reading
A Cup of Tea
I wrote this for a writing course on identity and social issues I took part in a couple of months ago. In the original, the names are printed in full…. Continue Reading
Pubs, Rambles & Rain
I swapped the north of Germany for the north of England last week, in a trip that was the first time I got on a plane by myself in …… Continue Reading
Gardening + Growing
Driving home today, from yet another trip to Ikea, this one sponsored by the need for terracotta pots and to give a bad-tempered child a change of scenery (as opposed… Continue Reading
North Germany, Schleswig-Holstein
Sunday Ausflug: Strawberry Picking
When, a couple of weekends ago, Sunday delivered 26 warm and sunny degrees, we headed north-west to a farm in a village on the other side of the Nord-Ostsee Kanal…. Continue Reading
Landeier
One of the many, varied perks of the parents being in town, is being able to leave the house without a child. It is a luxurious feeling indeed, to sit… Continue Reading
Clusters of Intensely Coloured Years
I have been wondering if homesickness is nostalgia in another guise. When I miss home, home as the place in which I was born, the place which holds most of… Continue Reading
Settling In
It is like we collectively exhaled and out came 37 Ikea Billy shelves and piles of dresses I fit into a decade ago when I wore heels all the time… Continue Reading