Forget me nots...

 

Please close the gate - the 'necklace of conkers' Amelia made in Autumn left behind for someone to find..

As we are preparing to fly home soon I just wanted to note down a few things that have been part of our stay here, small insignificant things, but nevertheless things I want to remember…

The Mercedes in the school courtyard appeared just after Christmas and remained until just before Easter.  It was green, with GB plates and by February was the only car buried in snow as it hadn’t moved for weeks.  In this case at home the police would be notified and a big orange sign placed on the car to let the general public know that the car had been reported.  An email from the school office was circulated to all the parents asking if anyone knew who the car belonged to, but that was it.  Some poor British soul could have been missing up on the mountain and no-one even bothered to investigate!  We had a parents evening in April and I was asked if it belonged to my Dad.  I wish! I replied!  We did briefly consider stealing it and actually hatched up a few plans but it wasn’t to be, for as mysteriously as it arrived, it disappeared, and that was the last anyone ever saw of it!

In Perth everyone complains about the amount of junk mail they receive and most people plaster a great big threatening ‘NO JUNK MAIL’ sign onto the front of their post boxes.  If you think you’ve got it bad there, you should see this lot!  This must be the junk mail capital of Europe!  In our tiny little silver letter box, 3 times a week, every week, we find crammed in a huge pile of mini magazines from all the shops in town.  Actually for me it’s been quite good, as I was able to ‘shop’ without being hassled by shop assistants who I couldn’t understand!

 

 

Noah's favourite bin, the 'green bin'

Everything here must be recycled.  You must separate all of your paper, glass, plastic etc and then take it once a week to the recycling place in the village and put it all into the massive container in which it belongs.   First you have to find out what goes where by learning to read the German signs as things that you think would go in the paper container actually go into the carton container, and coloured glass must be separated from normal glass, and so on.  There is a big container for old clothes and a smaller container for old shoes.  You’re not allowed to put them together and they must be in the correct bags or you can’t put them in.  Plus, it’s only open on Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons, not too convenient if you’re working or going away on holiday, as you get a huge build up of it in your house, as we always did.  Food leftovers must be taken to the ‘green bin’ which for us was down the stairs and out the front next to the old man’s garden.  The green bin is a metre and a half tall, and in winter was covered by a metre of snow, and there was so much snow underfoot that the lid was ground level, and you had to bend down to empty your food scraps.  Normal rubbish goes in the black bin, this is a normal wheely bin only teeny tiny, which is kept down the stairs and outside in the ‘shed’, and it was only collected fortnightly.  A problem if you forgot (it happens) or away on holidays.  Not very interesting, but I wanted to add it because it was a ‘right rigmarole!!’

You wouldn’t think it but there are so many weird and creepy bugs here, I’ve never seen so many species of bug!  And flies!  I thought Australia was bad.  But the really crap thing is they don’t have fly screens, so everything with six legs gets in.  That’s why we had three fly swats in the house, and Noah became an expert with it (p.s you can’t buy fly spray).  Also, I’ve lived in Australia for 25 years and never seen a snake except on the news.  Here I’ve seen two.  One big black water snake in a lake on the top of a mountain, and one little brown one on the track while I was hiking with my friend!

 

Park between the lines people!

Drivers here are very courteous.  Someone will always let you in.  There is no confusion on the roundabouts and people stay in the slow lane unless overtaking.  I’ve never seen an incident of ‘road rage’ or of anyone driving up someone else’s backside!  And hardly ever heard anyone beep their horn.  But their parking is atrocious!!  The white lines are there for a reason people!!  They are called parking bays, and you are supposed to park within them!  Not half your car in one and half in the other, not across them sideways, not ‘just a bit much over one line so no-one else can fit in next to you because the car in the space but one has done the same’!  Honestly, it’s ridiculous!  And the worst bit of it is, one afternoon I arrived home and parked my car outside the apartment in the only space available, next to a German holiday maker, at quite an awkward angle, but I had no choice as I was aligned with the cars on either side of the free space.  I came out the next morning to find mine the only car left, everyone else had gone to work, which left my car looking like I’d parked at a ridiculous angle by choice, and an A4 size note on the windscreen, telling me off, telling me to learn to drive, complete with a diagram of ‘how not to park’ and ‘how to park correctly’.  All in German of course.  Are you serious?  Have you not looked around EVERYWHERE and noticed how badly EVERYONE here parks!  And the one time I park ‘out of order’ you leave a condescending note on my windscreen?  And it wasn’t even my fault!  Needless to say I was livid, and by golly if I could have written up a quick note in reply I would have, but I had no paper or pen, and I didn’t know how to write what I wanted to write in German anyway!!  Maciek had a good laugh out of it at least!

 

Keep off the grass in 4 languages!

Keeping off the grass.  When you see photos of Austria all you notice is vast acres of lush green meadows.  Well that’s what we noticed, and we imagined the kids being able to run to their hearts content.  And have you noticed, because we didn’t, that you never do see kids running to their hearts content in those pictures?  That’s because you’re not allowed on it.  It belongs to the farmers.  The growing of grass during summer to be cut and collected into hay bales for the cows to munch on during winter is very important business.  And you could be shot at for trampling on it.  Of course in winter you can wander wherever you like.  But that’s no good because you sink to your shoulders in the snow!

 

 

Our little friend

And finally, to the little deer who first made an appearance on the misty morning of Good Friday, wandering out of the woods below our balcony and meandering across the field, and who has been a regular since, we will miss you!!

Milly and Noah's leaving party at KG and Milly's birthday all in one!