Missus wanted to experience an authentic German Christmas market. Booked a trip to Frankfurt. I should have suspected something amiss as the last time I came to Frankfurt the airport was much closer to the city centre.
Hahn is at least a hundred miles away. It’s nowhere near Frankfurt but motherfucking Ryanair helped label it as Frankfurt-Hahn.
Anyway, nice picturesque bus journey to Frankfurt, bonus was going through Mainz and got to see Lewa arena where a certain Jurgen Klopp is possibly an even bigger legend than he is with us or Dortmund!
4 Likes
I’m still waiting for them to open traditional British markets in Germany where you can buy fake branded sportswear, knock-off electronics and dangerous toys.
8 Likes
3 Likes
Going to a German Christmas market in these parts, Carmel, Indiana. Lots of German immigrants apparently it is very highly rated. Not my sort of thing, at all, but you need a bit of give and take to make a marriage work 
I’ll find some sort of bratwurst and a beer sampling, and that will do me. The crowd and the parking, the ice skating and all the little nutcracker and Christmas ornament shops I can do without!
Managed to steer the timing away from the Liverpool game, so there is that
3 Likes
The real German Christmas market experience is all about getting drunk on Glühwein. It’s kinda shit imo, but gets the job done eventually I guess.
4 Likes
A glühweinkater is hellish!
2 Likes
I am not doing Christmas lunch/dinner at my house this year. I have had enough. I downed tools. I need a rest.
The family were in abit of an awkward situation. Now, my cousin and her lot are doing it.
9 Likes
It always rather annoys me that working class mothers (and it usually is mothers) are expected to stick in a double shift at Christmas when everyone else is sitting bloated in front of the King’s Speech.
Christmas dinner should be frozen pizzas from Aldi at most!
4 Likes
It always used to be at my mum’s place, being the elder in the family. We had to prepare two days in advance and it wasn’t just the English style Christmas food, there was always someone who was vegetarian, or one who only liked fish, or chicken only. Then we would add asian on top that with two curries (one meat and and one vegetarian), kebabs and rice. 
Then, they say they would help in clearing, but they were either busy talking or arguing, watching telly and the kids would be running around and the parents sitting there. Thankfully, the kids are almost grown up, just sulky teenagers now.
Then it would take a good few days clearing up the house. We would be shattered.
5 Likes
I’ll be all on my Tod anyway Maria. I’m going to make sweets and cakes with my grandson after but that’s it.
I used to love all the Xmas preparations when I had young kids at home. Just loved eating, stuffing myself like a pig to almost bursting (it’s just one day of the year). Now a steak and chips with my son sometime during the festive season is enough. Though I do need some chocolate, Toblerone, Terry’s orange chocolate, aftereights, quality streets, … and a Xmas pudding. 
4 Likes
The choccies sound an excellent choice…enjoy..
3 Likes
Don’t encourage me, it’s not good for my health .
1 Like
I got alot of chocolates and biscuits as presents from school. I already opened the cadbury’s twirl.
2 Likes
I’ve been here nearly 30 years now and I can still never quite come to terms with how little of our Christmas standards are part of the American Christmas experience. Mince pies, Christmas cake, twiglets, Christmas crackers are all completely absent from the shops unless you can find one of the specialty import stores. I spent about $200 on amazon on an order that just arrived and its all so small amounts that I think I could make way through it all by myself before half time of this Utd game
4 Likes
Is that the same as a Flake, but without the pornographic advertising campaign?
4 Likes
Its a flake with a thin outer coating of solid chocolate. Its a subtle but surprisingly important difference
Im now wondering if the package of shit my mum sent me includes a box of Cadbury’s heroes (it better had)
3 Likes
I ate the Boost from my youngest son’s Cadbury chocolate bar stocking thingy.
He’s 4. He doesn’t know shit.
Couldn’t do that to the 6-year old. He’s got a memory like a fucking elephant.
10 Likes
I should know this. One of my first jobs was with Cadbury (it was the plant in Moreton) but I think it was after my time. The factory shop was a bit of a bonus although I never generally buy sweets for myself.
1 Like
My dad kind of got into American football when C4 started showing it on Sunday night in the mid 80s. My and my brother were both in primary school at the time and we turned it into a family thing and quickly settled into a pattern of us having bets on the main game of the week. My dad would front us our pocket money for the stake and we’d go double or quits. Yet because of the time difference and it not being a live broadcast he’d already have got the results from teletext so beat us every week for about 2 years straight before we caught on to what was going on.
As a teenager and adult I have always been turned off from betting, finding it a mugs game. Guess the point I making is you now almost certainly given your 4 year old some deep seated boost related pathology that will play out in difficult to guess ways once he gets older
3 Likes