I went to the DIY supermarket at the weekend to buy a set of metal shelves for our cellar.  The shelves, along with their metal supports, were packaged into polythene as a set.  The whole thing was quite a weight to carry, so I made a direct line for the checkout…

Now normally this would not be a problem.  I avoid people that might be in my way, and those that see me coming with such a heavy item would probably make way for me anyway.  But not this week.  Just as I was reached the checkout a young lady stepped out in front of me… and stopped!  Although she didn’t want to go actually to the checkout, she stood in front of it and blocked my way.

I gave here a look that said “this is heavy”, to which she looked at what I was carrying and said “you could put it down!”, and then continued to hold a conversation with someone else.

I was so speechless, that I didn’t even think to reply with “you could get out of my way” or something similar.  I was just amazed at how blunt she was.

Which leads me nicely on to write about a new site where my wife started blogging today.  On AllThingsBritish.net she is doing the exact opposite of what I blog about here - namely writing about British topics in German.  Today, by co-incidence, she has written about how difficult it is in some British shops to know which way to join a queue.

Later this week she will also start blogging about words that have, at some time or other, caused us confusion or at least led to a topical discussion on EnglishWordsExplained.

So if you can understand German then please take a look at the new sites and give her some feedback!

A Flatrate is a method of paying for telephone calls or for internet usage.

Generally a flatrate will mean that all calls to a particular network or destination are included in a fixed monthly price. Similarly, all internet usage may be included in that price.

Some flatrates do, however, have restrictions on them such as a maximum amount of minutes or Gigabytes that can be used in any one month.

Generally a combined telephone and internet flatrate will cost between 30EUR and 50EUR, although if you are only staying in Germany short-term then you should check the conditions carefully as most providers will want you to take out a 2-year contract.

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file | Comment in the forum

Subscribe to the podcast | Listen by telephone

I have been puzzled for a long time by some walls in the woods near our flat.

The bricks used make me think they are from the 1930s, and they are built in a row like the pillars of a road bridge - but to my knowledge no road has ever gone through these woods.

When I took some photos of them the other day I spotted that one of them has a metal spike on it with something that looks like an old-fashioned television aerial. Did telegraph wires used to connect to it?

The walls can even be seen on the aerial view in Google Maps.

Can anyone tell me what this used to be?