I could be wrong, but this is what I think I saw.

And so we're back! I have to say that was one of the best trips back to Scotland that we've had. The flight was great and I was able to take a lot less stuff in my bag for the kids now I have an iPad. Much as I don't want the kids to get too into playing games on computers and so on, it made a two hour flight much easier and pass quicker for them. I had downloaded books and activities for them, such as colouring book apps, drawing apps, Lego apps, and a bunch of phonics and maths apps that Orla really enjoys.

Once in Scotland we had 6 days of shopping to do, which had I been child-free I could probably have done in a day! It was great fun though, and this time back felt different again to the other times. I had forgotten a little how different the weather is. I expected it to be a bit colder, even with my mum saying things like "oh no, it's roasting here!" when it was just over 20 degrees C in Scotland, but over 30 in Berlin. So, I did pack a couple of jumpers, and rain jackets, but I forgot the whole four seasons in one day thing. Even though you might set out on a walk with bright blue skies, it can be pouring with rain ten minutes later. I must have been caught out ooh, maybe 6 days in a row.

But the other things I noticed were the people. Wow! This time round the obesity crisis was really clear to me. Perhaps because of the stark contrast with Berliners, who are generally very slim and tall, but I was taken aback by the percentage of people of nearly all age groups who were seriously overweight. And it's not that hard to see why. Aside from the junkies (of which there seems to be a lot in Ayr), you can see alcoholism and poverty on the faces of a lot of people. It's not a pretty sight.

Talking to my sister-in-law, she told me how with a lot of product deals on at the supermarkets, these are the options that people are going for. Why would you buy a pack of chicken breasts when there are ready meals on offer that are far cheaper to feed your family. And the supermarkets do seem so full of ready made products. Admittedly when I was in, it was quite briefly, but my eye was caught by the increased number of products for kids. Things like packs of Tilda rice for kids - the kind that you can just bung in the microwave for a couple of minutes. But why is it for kids? What has it got in it that makes it more appealing for kids than normal rice?

Outside one supermarket I saw a billboard advert for Weetabix baked with Golden Syrup. I couldn't believe it. Why does anyone need that product? And how is this helping the obesity crisis? Of course it's all about money. I know that. And I know that while the government (presumably) is still harping on about the weight of the nation, and the growing pressure this puts on the health and thus the NHS, they don't seem to be doing very much to stop it from getting worse. Because the government could clamp down on all of this, but there must be too much money at stake.

Is this UK industry now?: the diet industry; the food industry; dealing with the effects of poor diet industry? Not to mention the advertising industry. And I guess there's a lot of tax in amongst all that lot. I'm starting to wonder if Ryanair were just saying out loud with their "fat tax" what the government is thinking. (or doing). The stark contrast to Germany even hit me when I was clothes shopping in Debenhams. Standing at the till, I had Orla pestering me with "Can you get me that? Can I try those?" and right beside me was a big stand with these 'grab bags' of chocolate! Why do you need to have food on sale literally everywhere you go? Putting all this temptation in people's paths is not helping anyone.

The 'High Street' itself is not in much better shape. Presumably Ayr High Street is not much different from most around the country. There have been a lot of closures due to the recession, and beyond the mainstays of M&S, Debenhams, and so on, the majority of shops seem to be really cheap clothing shops, and £1 shops. And everyone loves the £1 shops. As my sister-in-law said, "Why would you pay 60p for 1 bar of chocolate when you can get a pack of 3 for £1 in the £1 shops?". And she's right. Because it doesn't make sense. And people have got used to this sense of things being a £ being good value, and according to her the supermarkets have used this to their advantage too, and there are a lot of deals where things are now priced at the £1 price point. After all, "It's only £1!"

But oh! Forgive me! I'm not my usual self. I'm not that into politics and to be honest I don't know all the in's and out's of the situation nor can I even claim to have the smallest clue as to what the current government is actually doing to tackle Britain's problems, all you're getting here are my impressions from what I've seen. And, of course I am not immune to the whole thing too. I shopped like a mad woman when I was there. I couldn't believe the amazing prices I saw everywhere, and even things that my mum thought were expensive, I thought were brilliant value compared to here in Germany.

So it'll be no surprise if my next post is all about the contents of the big box we're expecting to turn up later today. I know, I'm weak. There are even some of those grab bags of chocolate in there....

The rain in Berlin falls mainly on the graffiti-covered buildings

This morning I took Orla for her U8 check. I was a little early and decided to take a look at the second hand toyshop across the road from the doctors and ended up dragging a balance bike into the doctors as well. The U8 is basically a development check for 4 year olds. The usual things: eyesight, hearing, speech, height, weight, head circumference, counting, building towers, and drawing, and copying shapes.

She did outstandingly well, and I say this not only because for once she wasn't totally bottom of the scale in both height and weight. Incidentally I thought this was particularly fantastic as compared to the average German we are all slightly lacking in the height department. So small are we that poor, poor, teeny-tiny Stevie (5'8") can't get jeans to fit because the legs are all too long here.

So after excelling in the height test, she also did magnificently in the hearing test, which came as a complete surprise to me as she seems deaf to any of my requests or instructions. Anyway, she managed to do the test in German. She had to listen to a recording and as they mentioned various items she had to point to them on a chart. She also did the speech test in German where she had to say the names of about 25 things in German. There were about 2 things she wasn't sure about - Hammer/eh... Hammer, and Roof/Dach, but I thought her vocabulary was pretty top notch. I noticed that she said "Deine..." in front of everything (your...) and likes to add an occasional 'e' to the end of words. Not a bad rule of thumb if in doubt with German words.

Anyway, our lovely Doctor thinks she has a problem with her enunciation, and has recommended that I take her to a speech therapist. He thought I could wait until September, but as September is when she starts school, I thought it might be better to give it a go before then, rather than have it interfere with the start of school. When I told him this, he did the German/American thing, and argued with me that no, she wasn't starting school in September. I have had this argument with so many Germans and Americans, that this time I just agreed with him. Because of course I'm wrong and have enrolled her in school just for her to turn up on the first day and be told she's 2 years too early. Actually that's the kind of thing I am well known for myself, so normally I'd say they might have a point, but on this occasion, yes, it's true, she is exceedingly young, but that's how they do it in England.

I'm not particularly fussed over the speech therapy thing. I don't really think she has a problem. She just sounds a little unclear at times but it's more because it's still a baby-ish voice and I imagine it'll resolve itself in time. But as we'll get it paid for through our health insurance then I don't see any reason not to give it a go, and maybe improve her speech before she starts school. It certainly won't do any harm.

At the end of all the tests she got given her usual Gummi Bear and this time she also got given a little clasp for her hair. I'm sure in the UK she'd be getting another little pile of books (via Bookstart), so considering we'll probably be billed for the clasp, it feels like we're being short-changed. I think the Bookstart scheme is excellent in the UK and I always looked forward to the kids getting a free little pile of books.

Anyway, I shall book her in for a little speech therapy in April and see how it goes.

Aspartame, you were my first love

In the days when we bulk bought

My love affair with aspartame started when I was just 11 years old. It was the summertime, the perfect time to enjoy a nice warm can of 1Cal. 1Cal as I recall was one of the first brands of 'diet' drinks. It came in very few flavours, those I can't remember. Anyway, this was around the time when I became diabetic. When eventually I discovered (though probably not much later, but in child years it seemed an age) you could get Diet Coke, and much later, Diet Irn-Bru (Scotland's other national drink, as they say) it revolutionised my world.


Diet Coke according to the UK website was first introduced into the UK in 1983, and nowadays apparently "more females drink Diet Coke every day than any other soft drink brand". I certainly fit into that category.

Some 20+ years later, I have at last listened to my mother's incessant nagging that she's sure aspartame isn't good for me and I have stopped. Totally and utterly. I stopped the Diet Irn Bru addiction a while back due to the lack of availabilty in Germany. But the Diet Coke habit did continue.

In actual fact it wasn't my mother's nagging that has made me stop, but an email that I got from a friend that made me actually think and consider that there was a possibility that aspartame was affecting my health. This email looked totally like one of those typical spam emails that you get with about 4 different font sizes used, and usually I wouldn't have read it. But I did, and there was the usual thing about how this guy's sister was practically at deaths door, could no longer walk, etc, etc, and suddenly he remembered an email from a friend he had got about aspartame poisoning and he told her to stop drinking diet drinks. So blah, blah, blah it goes on and then it starts listing some symptoms. Oh because in this email it says that the aspartame breaks down in your body into formaldehyde etc, etc, and goes on to say that it can present problems in a person that may seem an awful lot like lupus or MS.

So here's the thing with me. Over the past few months every morning I wake up and I get out of bed and my feet are really stiff and I feel like I am near enough hobbling about until they ease off. I've also had some stiffness in my fingers since I think about January last year, which I put down to carrying really heavy shopping baskets daily in Tesco.

Anyway, these sort of symptoms are sort of (I wouldn't say directly) mentioned in this email, so I thought 'rather than worrying when I've got too much time to think, that I've got arthritis, I might actually stop my intake of aspartame and see if there's any difference'. So I have stopped, and haven't had any Diet Coke for 3 days and already I am not getting the stiff feet thing in the morning, nor in my fingers. Isn't that odd?

I have to say, I did drink a massive amount of Diet Coke. It wouldn't be unusual for me to drink 2 litres nearly a day. So I am going to stay off it (though I have to say I am missing it terribly) and see how it goes. But I am completely surprised by the change in how my feet feel in the morning. I'm also wondering whether now I'm not topping myself up with formaldehyde on a daily basis whether I suddenly start aging dramatically. I'll do an update in a few months and see how it's going.

Eye spy something beginning with Aaaaaahhhh!!

check out that pupil dilation!

I had my proper eye clinic appointment this morning. I was meant to go when I arrived here as I had seen my own opthalmic surgeon the day before we moved here and he suspected that I might need some additional laser surgery. It has taken me 6 months to actually see a doctor. At first I went to find a GP and I got that crazy woman doctor that loved clowns. She seemed to be reluctant to refer me to anyone and as I didn't know the system here very well I just didn't really do anything about it. Eventually on my second or third time seeing her she told me that I could just go to any clinic and get it done, saying there was even one on the corner.

At that point I realised that she probably didn't know what she was talking about as the 'clinic' on the corner turned out to be more or less an opticians who also carried out laser vision correction surgery - not the same thing at all. The thought of letting some Saturday boy loose on my eyes doesn't really appeal.

Then I changed doctor (GP) and at the same time found myself a diabetes consultant. I asked my diabetes consultant for a name/recommendation and she gave me a card for a woman who she said was understanding (for those with phobias) and would be qualified to do my laser surgery. I made an appointment with her and then looked up her website. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? I found out that this doctor practised cosmetic eye surgery and acupuncture. Yes, quite. I do have massive bags under my eyes that need seeing to, but once again, not quite what I was really after.

Throughout all this I was having lots of appointments where I kept having problems with not having my passport with me, or my health insurance company wasn't being recognised as a proper health insurance company and of course the language barrier was a little troublesome. With my phobia I like to know exactly what is going to be happening to my eyes and I like to be able to ask to administer my own eye drops, and I generally like to explain that I am not mental, I just don't like people near my eyes and that I find it all quite difficult. So there was a bit of me that really wanted to delay the appointment until I could scream "Woah, what do you think you're doing to me???" in German.

So, I ended up going on the Toytown website and found a recommendation for a doctor at the eye clinic in the Red Cross hospital. So today was the day, and I managed to answer nearly all the questions in German despite being a nervous wreck. I assumed my German would go out the window when I felt so nervous, but I think I did ok. Luckily I recognised most of the equipment so I knew what tests were being done, and the words for 'vitrectomy' and 'retinopathy' seem practically identical.

The doctor when I eventually saw him spoke very good English (though when I made the appointment my number one concern was more that he was a specialist in the area that I needed him to be a specialist and not his language skills), and he had a really lovely manner and was very gentle around my eyes. The good news for me is that I got away today without needing to get anything done. The bad news is that I have a new problem at the back of my right eye where I have some liquid pooling that if it gets worse would require me to have a drug injected into my eye every 8 weeks. I go back in 3 months to see how the situation is, but as long as I take good care of my diabetes and watch my blood pressure then it should be no worse. I will be accepting donations of high strength valium and diazapam in the event that eye injections become necessary.

Thank god it's over for now. I am shattered with the stress of it all.

25% - part one

From here...

...to here.

ONE WHOLE Q U A R T E R OF THE WAY...

We have completed our first 6 months in Berlin. In some ways it seems to have flown by, where did the good weather suddenly go? Yet, in other ways, it seems so long ago that we lived in Derby. Looking back on the past 6 months, I think I would sum it up by saying that I really like it here, but I'm not exactly sure why. As my life is so much harder here.

Getting the negative out of the way: I HATE THE MEDICAL SYSTEM HERE!

I am 100% sure that they have great doctors here (and also 100% sure that they have some lousy ones too, like that weird clown-loving GP that I saw first), but I really would like to just see one GP, and not have to find my own specialists, and it is probably much better to have a paediatrician, but to be honest, I find it easier to just drag us all to the doctor together and get us all over-innoculated at once.

Oh that's right. Should you decide to move abroad with your children, I'd advise you to make sure that their red books are completely up to date with all their information and innoculations. I had just assumed they were, and even if they weren't I never really realised that it would really matter. Not that it does. Just that Orla has now just had an extra polio injection than the rest of the European population.

We've only just got a letter from Price Waterhouse advising us about forms we need to fill out that will make the whole health insurance annoyance easier. Instead of me having to take my passport, and nearly every other item of ID with me along with my private insurance card and my European Health Insurance Card every time I either need a repeat prescription or need to see a doctor; get them all photocopied (every single time!); see the doctor; get billed; go to the bank to pay the bill; give the bill to Stevie to claim back through the insurance company; then wrangle with the insurance company that it is something that is covered. This will all change (supposedly). We will be issued with new cards which the receptionist will swipe and hopefully that will be that. We'll wait and see. Call me cynical, but I can't quite believe I won't be showing them 3 cards, my passport, and all my ID, etc etc.

What do I like about being here? APART FROM THE CHOCOLATE...

Well, the chocolate is good, and I never knew how much love I could feel for Choko Liebniz. I know you can get them in the UK, but with so much (ahem..) choice in British supermarkets, I never gave them a second glance.

But what I really like about here is that there is so much to do. Hell, if I wasn't filling my days dropping off kids, picking up kids, learning German, seeing doctors, and arguing with the Commerzbank, I think I'd be having a great time. We generally fill our weekends with something new and different to do. At home I think we just got into a routine and we did go places with the kids a lot but it's less enticing when you have an hours drive in front of you to get to a zoo, compared with a 10 minute walk, or the closest aquarium is in Birmingham, and the closest dinosaur is in London. Here, it feels like we have everything on our doorstep, and that is the best thing about living in a capital city. In the summer it was great because we went out every evening when Stevie got home from work and we went places and saw things and ate out and generally had fun in some really nice weather.

I feel like we packed in quite a lot of sightseeing and activities over the summer and I still have a big list of things that I HAVE to do next summer. Our plans over the winter are to see the museums and galleries, though I am sure there must be some ban in place for taking toddlers.

Suddenly I'm not feeling quite so 'chatty'

"We'd just like a word with you..."
A word? A word? I wonder if that means I only need to get down to my underwear???

Remember this? My last visit to the doctor, where I had been told I could go for a prescription, and then once I got there was told I couldn't and had to find another doctor and blah, blah, blah... rain... late for German,...etc, etc, and eventually came away with an appointment on (not the) 19th for a "chat with the doctor"?

So it was today. Not the 19th, and so I didn't miss anymore German I made the appointment for the afternoon, balancing up the missing of more German with the having to take the kids with me. I figured that with the kids with me, the appointment would be kept quite short as they make it plain that long appointments do not fit in with their lifestyle. And anyway, the appointment was for 4:45 so it would be post-nap (for Hamish) and hopefully they would not be tired and utterly horrible.

But then Stevie offered to come home early so I could go on my own. So I did, and just as well, as I didn't get home until 7pm so the kids would have lost the plot.

So anyway, the appointment was with the Frauenarzt - that's a gynaecologist/obstetrician and you have to go to one of them if you want contraception or a smear test, or well, a baby. So, I had been wondering what we might possibly have to talk about. Given that I thought I was going to have to take the kids with me I reckoned we could bypass the "Do you want any more kids?" question pretty swiftly, and probably without me having to speak too much German. But what else was there to 'chat' about. I assumed it was going to be something similar to what you get in the UK when you join a new doctors practice and you have to have that appointment where it's a bit like a meet & greet and basically they take a medical history, ask you if you need to see them about anything, and then thank you for coming.

Well, it was like that if you've ever been to one of those 'meet the doctor' appointments and had your chat with absolutely no clothes on. Now that was quite a surprise! The chat started pretty much as soon as I walked into her office and she said "Hello, pleased to meet you, would you like to go behind that screen and take off your clothes?". I thought I'd prepared myself by phoning my GP's office in England earlier today and asking when I'd last had a smear test. I even looked it up in my German dictionary in case I needed to mention that I didn't need one yet in German. That's how prepared I was. But I wasn't prepared to have to say this while actually getting a smear test. Apparently the Germans like to have them once a year even if you have never had any problems.

Then we continued our chat over on the examination bed where I was surprised to get both a breast examination and then an ultrasound to check my uterus, fallopian tubes, and to see if there were any tumours lurking. To add to my delight, unlike in the UK where if you have an ultrasound while pregnant, and you have the awkwardness of craning your neck round while trying to see the screen when really they don't want you to yet, here you get your own screen which hangs at the perfect angle from the ceiling for you to see the fibroids hanging off your uterus should you have any to see. Wouldn't that be nice?

I was then allowed to get my clothes back on, while she introduced the idea of getting Stevie a vasectomy for Christmas. I said it sounded like the perfect stocking filler, but I wasn't sure if Stevie would be too keen. He's never really fancied any of those Boots Gift Experiences, and this would probably have even less appeal for him than a hot air balloon ride.

Then she offered me an IUD for 400 Euros. In a toss-up between that and the lens for my camera that I've got sitting in my Amazon shopping basket, I think I'd prefer the lens to win. So that was that. A surprising evening that'll make me somewhat wary about chatting with Germans in the future.

Tell me something I don't know

Would you like an ice-cream?
No thanks, I'd better not.
Why is that then?
Oh, I have constipation.
The doctor said I shouldn't eat ice-cream.
Would you be allowed some vegetables?
Oh yes, that should be fine.

This is one of many 'two-people-having-a-casual-lunch' dialogues I got to act out today in German class. I also threw myself into the role of #1 woman suffering from diarrhea who can't eat cake, but can manage chocolate.

These situations made me laugh, not just because I couldn't help wondering if this might be typical lunch time chit-chat between friends and colleagues, or even patron and waiter, but because I have noticed that my class has a tendency to play out these dialogues in real life with strangers who happen to come out with random opening lines from previous dialogues we have practised to death. I'm sure the idea is that we could improvise with many other words of our own choosing, but when you've got constipation lodged in your mind it can be very difficult to stray from the script into something more original and perhaps more accurate.

The first time it happened we (as a class) were crossing the road at the end of a tea break and an unsuspecting stranger just happened to feed us the opening line from the #two hitchhikers meet and enjoy a roadside cigarette routine. Imagine their surprise when we all announced that yes, we all had a light, and enquired where they were off to. Luckily, the Korean's are all mad smokers so we didn't look like a complete bunch of crazies, but it was close.

I myself on being asked questions I can truely say I completely understand from start to finish, have been known to answer with unwarranted levels of enthusiasm, over really quite dull questions. Others have reported similar experiences where they have been asked the right questions by waiters. The trouble is when these moments occur we feel completely elated that we are hearing something and understanding it and even have an answer ready, and can respond without stumbling over our grammar and taking 2 minutes to answer. It's a wonderful feeling!

Be thankful for the NHS

Another weekend of visitors over, another week of German class, and another grim visit to the doctor. German class is still quite enjoyable though I wish I could learn more words and sentences with more practical application in my day to day life. Last week we learned how to rent an apartment, talk about our square meterage, and discuss house rules. All fair enough, but we've all been through this process already without being able to speak German. It's just a bit 'shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'.

On Friday I phoned my doctor's surgery speaking my very best German and told them I needed a prescription. I'd spoken to the doctor about it before and he had told me that he wasn't sure what it might be called over here, so I did him a favour and Googled it for him, before making the call on Friday. "No problem" they said. "Just come in and pick up your prescripton and make an appointment to have it administered". So I cycled there in the cold and rain this morning with my passport and every other piece of documentation that they would be likely to ask for.

Admittedly, it struck me as odd that you could just ask the receptionist for medication and they would just make you up a prescription with no questions asked, but sure enough I got there and they gave me the prescription. The paper literally brushed my fingertips before she whipped it back off me saying she maybe better just check with the doctor. Grr... She came back and tore it up in front of me and told me that they couldn't give me it and I'd need to go and see another doctor and get the prescription from them.

Already running wildly late for German class, I considered giving up but then realised I'd just have to go through this palava again another day and miss even more German. So off I went to find this other doctor. Did I mention it was raining ? Or that my bum was so wet from the saddle that I looked like I'd wet myself? Eventually found the doctor I needed, though strangely not the one they had recommended who should have been in the same building. Once again I showed my passport, insurance card, European Health card, etc, etc, filled out forms and got myself the prescription printed out. Then they told me I could come for my appointment on the 19th? Did I mention that I needed it this week? My vocabulary does not yet extend far enough to allow me to express feelings of panic, but obviously my facial expressions transcend language barriers. I now have a prescription and can take it with me tomorrow morning, and still have an appointment for the 19th - though for what I really have no clue.

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to that appointment as I don't even know if this doctor will speak any English. Still, as my German is coming on leaps and bounds I will be able to ask her whether she keeps a sledge in her loft and tell her she is not allowed to mount an aerial on the roof. And if all else fails, I guess I can muster up a smile.

10ml Calpol + 5ml Nurofen, in the most delightful way!

Too ill to be bothered with anything

Too ill to eat

Too ill even to sleep

There's something going round, and Hamish has caught it. He's been too ill to go to nursery, which has meant no German school for me in the last 2 days. He's got a high temperature and a cough, and feels like he just needs his mummy.

Were it not for the temperature that I'm throwing the old faithful combo of Calpol and Baby Nurofen at, I would have my doubts that he was really that ill. It's a sort of man-flu thing. See pictures for details.

Cleaning the Berlin Wall...

So where were we?

So the furniture went- the zealous 3 man team were in and out in a couple of hours. They turned up, said "show us round, and tell us what's not to go, and we'll get on with it". So I took the kids away and they had everything packed before lunch. That's including the central heating control box thing, which I need to post back to our new tenant as soon as I get it (I do hope you are having nice weather, and he doesn't actually need to turn the heating on. I am completely unaware of anything that's happening in the UK, weather included, unless it appears on BBC World News- so as far as I'm concerned the only thing to happen in the UK is the French President coming over to visit the BBC for the Charles DeGualle 70th anniversary of his broadcasts while exiled there during the war. Newspapers must be a bit thin since we left then if that's the big story...).

So they packed that and quite possibly some of my recycling. Ah, how relaxed was I? I hadn't even bothered to put the recycling out and we were due to move! I know that they packed the bin, and I am not even 100% sure that it had been emptied. Ok, maybe it's just another tiny sign of my total laziness, I guess we can never know for sure...especially if we stop thinking about it right now.

So the only thing the packers left was a ton of fluff and dust that had been lurking under wardrobes and things, so after a mammoth cleaning session, we left after our 2 days in the hotel and arrived in Berlin. Now according to the quite substantial notes that Rolls-Royce give you, you are meant to arrive and feel like you are on holiday and then after a month or two, this feeling wears off, and you start thinking things like how slow the beauracracy is (compared with home), how nothing is quite as good as home, etc etc. They call it 'hitting the wall'. I hit it on about day 2.

Our temporary accommodation is pretty grim. It's not terrible by any means, it's just souless and of course there's nothing personal. So it's not even like being in a holiday cottage where you have books and ornaments and things. It's just bare. I hate being in it, and so do the kids. Anyway, I also arrived in Germany with some kind of sick bug. I had thought I'd got food poisoning the day before we left from a dodgy pizza in Frankie & Benny's (I must have been terribly excited about the move, because I can't think of any other reason I would choose Hoi Sin Chicken Pizza). Alas, I continued to feel dreadful for most of the first week. On top of that I managed to lose my blood pressure tablets somewhere along the line and that became a wee bit of a nightmare.

So I hit the wall. I pretty much hated it. I was stressed out because it turned out our Healthcare hadn't been organised and then I had loads of phone calls with people trying to organise doctors and all sorts of stuff. It all sounded promising, especially when 'International SOS' got involved, I don't know, they just sound like they'll do things in a hurry, don't they? Well, they don't. They like to take their time, let things back up in their Frankfurt office and call you 6 or 7 times to ask if you are having a heart attack right now, or would you be ok to pick up a prescription from the chemist you can see from your apartment window. But not yet. Maybe in a day or two. But it all got sorted, and I never had a blood pressure monitor with me, so at least I didn't know whether I was about to have a heart attack.

Mind you, the kids seemed determined to test it out. Second day in the flat and in an attempt to be more relaxed (for my blood pressure) I decided not to be checking on the kids every couple of minutes as I tend to do especially if they are being quiet, and just let them get on with it. So, I walked into this little room that's off the second bedroom (it's like a large wardrobe but has a window) and this was when I discovered that they had coloured in one whole wall with their new crayons. I went mental. They have never done this sort of thing before, so why do they start when we are in rented accommodation with not a cleaning product to our name?

I finally finished cleaning it with a successful combination of Cif and wipes this morning. Hours it has taken me. I didn't imagine I'd be scrubbing walls in my first week here.

So let's get on to the good stuff. The 'relocation service provider' is great. I had a great day last week that was like being on 'Location, location..'. We got picked up by our 'helper' Heidi, and taken to 6 or so apartments where we would get shown round with them and the agent and Heidi would do all the translating and we would say what we liked and what we didn't like and then they would tailor the rest of the properties we saw to meet our needs. It was brilliant fun. I could look at houses every day of the week. It was actually a bit more like Location, location with a bit of Escape to the Country thrown in. It seems as though people in Berlin live in probably far smaller spaces than we do in the UK, and certainly, I think the agents thought it was a bit odd that we were looking for seperate bedrooms for the kids. They also seemed to think it was odd that they were showing us what they considered pretty amazing apartments, and we were sometimes just not fussed about them. So I felt a bit like one of those folk on Escape to the Country who get taken into a kitchen the size of a field and they just casually winge, "It's just not quite big enough for the two of us".

But we found somewhere. Well, we actually found 2 places that we loved, but one isn't available until August, so that ruled it out as I can't bare to stay where we are until then. So we are meant to move in on Tuesday. The moving team arrive at 8am and no doubt will be done by 9:30. I can't wait!!!

Those of you who I have been in touch with since the move will have heard my plaintive cries about there being no Robinson's Apple and Blackcurrant here - or 'purple' as the kids call it. Well, I can reassure you that the crisis is over! We took a wee trip to Kreuzburg this morning to a shop called Broken English. The owner was stood outside smoking when we turned up and laughed as Stevie squealed "Look at the window display!" to which the kids started chorusing "Purple! Purple!". So happy were we that we paid €7.50 for 3 small bottles to tide us over till my friends can start shipping it over in bulk. I never knew it would be so missed. I had also thought that things would have moved on quite substantially in the supermarkets from when I was in Munich 30 years ago. We came here on holiday 2 years in a row and I remember quite clearly the lack of what I assumed were international brands and there only being Paprika crisps. But here we are, and it's the same. How has Kerry Irish Butter managed to break through into this impenetratable marketplace, and why would you not be sick to death of paprika crisps after 30 years?? Seriously, would a little salt and vinegar not enhance life?

(Actually, I found some and they were described as 'Engish Style' and they were quite good, so I will return to them in times of desperate need, and won't be partaking of Broken English's 12 pack of Walkers for €10.50- can you believe that price?).

Right well, I could write loads but it's time to go. Next time I'll tell you about our trip to the zoo. It's amazing. There are bits about Berlin that make you feel like it would be like being in Britain before they thought about Health and Safety. Wait till you see my photos, you'll think I have a great zoom lens on my camera, ha, ha!