Getting my head around German vowels

I've been displacing from resuming learning German by trying to get my head around the non-English sounds I have trouble with.

I had difficulty getting my head around [ç] (the "ch" in ich) when curious_reader first tried to explain it to me a decade ago, but then it became easy when I learned that it also existed in English as an allophone of /h/ in words like "hew" and "huge".^*

* I hadn't even realised /h/ had any allophones in English until then. Likewise, it wasn't until I learned about them that I realised /l/ and /p/ do, which makes me wonder whether Biblical Hebrew speakers were aware of the sound differences between the letters בגד כפ״ת and the versions with דָגֵשִׁים (centre dots), which differences were allophonic in Biblical Hebrew but today either lost or phonemic (i.e. either version could appear in a particular context, e.g. פ vs. פּ in קוּף and קֶטְשׁוּפּ).

I've been struggling also with the long A in German; the sound in Vater. IPA transcriptions revealed it's not the front vowel [æː] (the long version of the sound in English "cat", which doesn't exist in standard English, but which I am familiar with nonetheless), nor the back vowel [ɑː] as in English "father", but [aː], which is somewhere in between.

Like quarter-tones in Arabic music, this falls between the categories I am conditioned to hear: I can perceive it fine, but remembering it and reproducing it is another matter! Again, though, Wikipedia came to the rescue, when I studied the page on English phonology and discovered the sound did exist in English, as the first half of the diphthong [aɪ], as in "price". So the key to getting my head around it is to say "price" really slowly, so I can hear what I'm saying, then only pronounce the first half. :o)

Unfortunately, though, there's only so far English will get me. I still can't pronounce the long "e" in my girlfriend's name, and listening to me trying to get the difference between the [œ] that Wikipedia says one should use for short /ö/ and the [øː] for long /ö/, or the [ʏ] or [yː] for short and long /ü/ is like listening to a giggle stick...

Disposing of my possessions

As you know, I shall be emigrating to Berlin shortly. For many of the more fungible of my possessions without sentimental value, it does not make sense for me to shlep ship them there. If anyone wants anything listed below, please let me know. I've provided as-new prices; many of the items are sufficiently used that they will no longer be worth that, others will (e.g. the bookcases). I'm not going to hold anyone to any price, but it would be nice to get some remuneration for my possessions, given that I'm going to have buy new ones at the far end, and do not currently have an income.

Furniture

• £190 extending circular dining-room table, surface somewhat stained, scored and etched (tip: don't leave past-their-expiry date batteries on a wooden surface!)
• 5 4 × £11 folding chairs, each equipped (if I haven't lost any) with a Blenda chair cover (all in need of dry-cleaning!)
• 3 other folding chairs of unknown provenance (no one admits to lending them to me!)
• 3 × £55 Billy bookcases (These are coming with me now)
• 1 bookcase/storage cupboard which came with the flat
• Monopod pedestal

In addition, I haven't quite decided whether to get rid of the following:

• Revolution Courier Race bicycle, this year's model is £349, plus mudguards, which seem to be £30+. Nine years old and heavily used; various parts have been replaced. I need to research whether it's remotely cost-effective to ship this to Berlin. It is, so it will be.
• Track bike pump, £15
• Succah: This was a real labour of love, and I would be sad to leave it behind, but it might not make financial sense to bring with. It's put together to a design by my_torah and his father (which I'm sure he'd be happy for me to pass on), and consists of the following separable components:
  • 40-odd × 8' bamboo poles (Homebase offers ten for £5.49). Some of them are no longer quite straight. These will definitely not be coming with me!
  • 6'×32' light hessian wrap, with strings attached for tying to the roof
  • Cable ties
  • Tree tefillin Rubberloc tree ties, £12 in 2010
  • Matting to act as סְכַךְ
  All together it came to about... £80, I think, in 2008, which was considerably cheaper than any of the prefab ones you can get Golders Green.
This is also coming with me now.

Cutlery and crockery

• 5 × cheap and cheerful wine glasses (The nice ones are going with me!)
• Set of 4 matching tall glasses; set of 5 matching tall glasses (plus 1 unmatched one).
• Various cutlery, pots, pans; including kosher le-Pesach ones, amongst which two very large pots useful for kashering the rest in before Pesach.

Kitchen

• Hinari food processor. Some bits of this have broken; it doesn't seem possible to get replacements firsthand any longer (and for me secondhand parts are out on kashrus grounds), but it's still good for chopping and blending things.
• Electric whisk
• Electric urn This can come with me

Kitchen and white goods

I expect the following white goods which I got since I moved in will stay here (along with the poor but serviceable condition chairs and armchairs, which I shall leave for the next owner to probably throw out):

• Whirlpool 60l IIRC A-rated upright freezer
• Matsui washing machine, was £224 inc. delivery and installation when I got it

I'm sure there'll be other things I haven't thought of here. (And indeed, there are a number I can think of that I doubt anyone is interested in, e.g. a pair of somewhat clapped-out loudspeakers (I find they still sound reasonable with treble boost applied), or my crockery, much of which is chipped.) I might update this list as I think of further examples.