For he is a jolly good fellow ...

Last weekend we went to London for a long weekend. The reason for that was that John, Richard's dad, was celebrating his 70th birthday. We left on Wednesday evening and were a bit unfortunate as our plane was 3 hours late! We arrived at London Stansted at 1:30 in the morning and then still had to drive to Sutton in the south of London, where Claire and her husband Gavin live. Poor Claire had to wait for us and was a bit miffed not to get very much sleep on her first day off since weeks! Richard and I didn't mind too much, as young parents we are used to not sleeping long hours at the moment :-). Despite a few worries Hanna was great on the flight. Well, I have to point out, that it was already her sleeping time and therefore she fell asleep at Salzburg Airport and only woke up for her "midnight snack" at 4 o'clock, when we were already at Clair & Gavins house.

On Thursday, John's actual birthday, we had a very nice family dinner - delicous salad for starters, roast lamb for main course and an Austrian Chocolate Birthday cake for desert!
Friday we spent visiting family and Michelle invited us for dinner at her flat! Saturday was the day of the big party. Claire and Michelle did a great organisational job - they invited 35 friends a family members from all over Europe. The weather cleared up exactly at the right time, so the garden party was in no danger and we were actually glad that Clair's friend brought a big tent, which we had to use as sun protection! The spit braii lunch was wonderful and the chocolate mouse will probably always be remembered! Not only Richard and I had a great time, also Hanna enjoyed herself enormously. She was passed around, I only had her, when it was time to feed and although I was trying hard, she didn't want to sleep the whole afternoon. In the evening she was buggered and had a good night sleep!
Unfortunately we had to fly back already on Sunday afternoon. We had a great time and we are sorry that it was so short - well, time always passes very fast when you enjoy yourself!
Thanks again to everybody who made that weekend such a great one! Hope to see you all again very soon!

In the last couple of days I was quite busy as Hanna was pretty bored spending her days only with us 2 :-)!

Have a great day!
Christine

Change in Lifestyle

I guess as a man gets older he needs to try new things as often as possible. Tried the own business thing, and obviously it didn't work out quite as I planned. I am still trying, however my focus has shifted now, and whereas before Christine and I could scrap by on what she earned, what I earned and our savings, once Hanna came along things have changed. The meager income I was eeking out of the WSI business was just not enough when you have 4 mouths to feed and so I started looking around in a change of job. Nothing really concrete mind you, just checking the papers and doing a bit of surfing every now and then.

So if you leave things to handle themselves, something is always bound to pop up! And so it was that I arrived home rather late from lectures (teaching english, not University) on Thursday 18th of May and sat down in front of the computer to check my mails, when my a old friend of Chris called on Skype! He had an opportunity that he wanted me to check out and could I meet him for lunch the next day - sure no problem for me I say!

I met him for lunch on Friday where he explained what his company (Research Studios Austria) was doing, and offered me a position doing something I have been doing at WSI, only this time with a stable income. I wasn't really sure but he dragged me back to the office to have a meeting with the boss. And the boss was as good as Chris's word - the job was mine if I wanted it. Catch was that I had to start on the 1st of June. I said I would think about it over the weekend.

We had the follow up meeting on Monday, where I agreed to start on the 1st June, but only 50 % job as I still had to finish many Berlitz Lectures and didn't want to leave them in a tight spot. Anyway, once I said "Yes" the ball hit full momentum. Such as, the boss phoned then Wednesday 24th and asked if I could fly to Kuwait on Friday the 26th - hhmmm, this was moving fast and would be seriously inconvenient as Mom was arriving Friday, Lucie and Thomas were getting married on Sat and the Austrian Mountain Racing Championships were on Sunday, were I was running as part of our team!

Although seriously inconvenient, but wanting to impress, Christine and I decided that I should go, and so I spent Fri and Sat in Kuwait, and many hours in the plane and airport. After that I have been working there in a part time capacity, although I am doing very many hours - even with the lectures from Berlitz.

So that is the story about how I got into RSA. I expect that it will be a excellent job, quite similar to Consol, with lots of travel around the world. Not quite sure how I will fit this in with having a new baby, but we will just have to try it and see. Next week I'm off to Kuwait again, and I'll try to drop in a post before then.

huh - what's this doing here in Salzburg ...

Hi,

really long time, no post - sorry things have been hectic for a while, but I'm finally getting life a bit sorted and have found the time to put out a quick post. I'll be posting some more information about what I have been up to soon, but here is a funny story for you!

I have been helping a friend with his computer setup since the beginning of the year. Like myself, he is an avid runner, and because he found himself with some free time during the first half of this year, and I hadn't stopped talking about how great the 2 Oceans was as a race - he decided to give it a bash and traveled to SA during Easter to take part.

Needless to say he had a really great time, cut very short (unfortunately) by the untimely death of Nic (much more unfortunately) and did a great time of around 4hrs 40 min on the minimum of training - I was most impressed.

And here comes the strange part, I go to his place to install some new software, and look at what I find as one of his favourite pictures.....
What the heck..... 3 buddies all in the same picture (Dion, can you please send this link to Stefan and Roger) - And it's a really good picture too! Where's the cart Dion?

Man, small world!
oh well, keep healthy,
Richard.

Photos

Finally some photos from last weekend:

Alison doing a great grandma job bathing Hanna.

Hanna having a sleep on mummy's lap.

The Gathercoles going for a walk - no sun, long pants, however no rain :-)

Grandmas and Grandpas

Finally, this last week Hanna got to meet her South African grandparents. Alison flew in on the 26th of May and John on the 1st of June and they stayed with us until the 6th of June. I must say it was great to have grandparents around 24/7 - didn't matter whether I quickly went for a walk with Aisha or was cooking supper - there was always somebody to look after Hanna. She certainly enjoyed their company and thanked them with lots of smiles! Unfortunately the weather was terrible in the last 2 weeks so we were bound to be lazy and to shop :-). However we used the few hours were it actually didn't rain for outdoor activities :-):
John and Richard ran a 10km road race on the 4th of June. The course was very flat and runs along the river Salzach. John ran a new PB and Richard lost the internal competition between the 2 Müller sisters' boyfriend / husband ;-). If you are interested in detailed results have a look at http://www.lac-salzburg.at/dult06.htm.
On Monday, which was a public holiday here in Austria, we went to an open air museum to look at farms and craftsmen. We enjoyed walking through the park and looking at the 200 - 300 year old buildings. Have a closer look at http://www.freilichtmuseum.com/index.php?sitelang=en.

Well, that was it for now!
Hope you have a great day!
Christine