What the ?????

What the ?????

It happened again! Last year I noticed in September (I think). But this year, it came faster even though I noticed it later (October)... It's dark out. At 18:53...

I'm home alone and started grumbling internally about the "sudden" temperature drop in the apartment ~ as one might expect when the sun hides. Well, hide it did! My latest internal grumbling (3 minutes ago) was (no, not hunger) but: who closed the shutters this early??? Well, nobody did... it's just that time of year.

Time flies and here we are, already facing another winter in Frankfurt.

The other day I was walking past (and through) some shops. Many are preparing for Christmas already! Forget Halloween, that's not too popular here. Fortunately though, there are some harvest season decorations but they share space with the Christmas stuff. Actually, more like the Christmas stuff reserves a small corner for brown, orange and yellow decorations.

So considering time is flying, I guess it's okay to skip October, it's almost over already and I seem to have missed it just as the shops did.

Bump

Bump-addy-bump-bump! Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a kicker!

28 weeks + 5 days:

Zoom Zoom!!

After several months of dealership visits, test drives and research it’s official: we’ve found our new (previously loved) car! A couple of weeks ago we found a great car and scheduled a test drive for 3.5 business days after we saw it. The day before our test drive we were told that it had been sold. Apparently, you can only reserve a car for 24 hours. We of course didn’t know this, lost our first choice and were told to “choose another car”. Admittedly, we underestimated the demand for used cars... Our second choice was too far behind the first to really be valid so we restarted our search and found something in a town 2 hours away.

In the meantime, we learned that car salesmen in Germany are on salary so there is little incentive for them to sell a car. So if the purchaser is not proactive, not to worry, another one will come along. And they do. There seems to be a great resale market for cars here. So really, nothing to loose from the salesman’s perspective.

We also discovered that this salary based system means the price listed for a used car is pretty fair. It is intended to attract the most buyers from the onset (to be fair to all interested). If there is demand ~ and of course with these prices there is... then the salesmen have an easy time of it and allow very little negotiation from the listed price.

Bottom line, we got a great 2 year old Audi A4 with 7,000kms on it, owned by an Audi employee. “Mr.Audi” we were told... We essentially got 30% off a brand new car and it includes all our necessities and even several items from our “wish list”. It is a much better deal than our previous “first choice” and we were even able to negotiate the price down a bit and to include a brand new infant car seat in the deal. Score!! So everyone is happy.

One small tip: if you have to rent a car, drive 2 hours and are a waddling pregnant couple, chances are the salesman knows you’re interested in the car. None the less, we have no regrets.

Over the next week we are working on the financials, insurance, the license plate logistics, possible deal for winter tires and the delivery (rather, pick-up) of the vehicle. Yippee!!!

Baby Logistics - Wowza!

Does everybody go through all this stuff??? Although we feel special, I don't think we're all that different from anyone else.

We have been BUSY!!! The 1st and part of the 2nd trimester were filled with questions, research and analysis... Now that I'm entering the 3rd trimester although I feel much more confident and relaxed about things, I'm guessing the "busy" will continue like this forever!

Although there are still a number of items on our "to do" list, most recently, we've made some significant progress and have committed to a number of items:

- We've placed the order for our furniture and paid the deposit. Now we wait until mid-December for the delivery and installation. In the meantime, the hunt is on for linens...

- We've resolved the "Layette" for the first 3 months and are partially into the next 3. Beyond that, we're waiting.

We're still hemming and hawwing about the vehicles:

- The stroller: we are considering completing our research in Belgium where they carry the iCandy, one of the finalists in a short list of contenders...

- We haven't committed to a car yet, but we have a test drive for a "previously loved" Audi this week.

We're in the process of sorting international requirements, insurance coverage, Hospital research and Midwife interviews. It looks like we'll choose between 2 hospitals. One of which has 1 Midwife and another that has about 20. You can guess which way I'm leaning. Unfortunately, about 10 are immediately ruled out due to one reason or another and I've called about another 6. So far, one telephone number failed, 1 speaks no English, 1 is unwilling, another is booked up (already). Another speaks English but is difficult to pin down to even see if she's up for it and the last, is sooo totally willing and we've set-up an interview. She barely speaks English but is so friendly, I thought I'd try. But ultimately, she's probably not the first choice if I can find an English speaker. We'll see though.

That's the update for now!