How to keep daddy dancing

Hi all you babies out there who read our blog,

I have a great tip for keeping dad on his toes. He has this drink that he likes to drink called "Red Bull" which apparently puts hairs on his chest - I haven't found any yet - but it tastes quite good and once you have a sip, it's like, well, not sure really, but definitely like something good and afterwards you have energy and don't need sleep.




Oh, and another thing, I was in the swimming pool the other - it was great - but the water wasn't really deep, so I couldn't do any lenghts, maybe next time. Check out my swimming partner, quite the beer stomach don't you think? He could even give dad competition.

So as you can see on this picture, I have quite the competive spirit. I have even been trying out my new SI stick. It's never too early to start training dad says (although he never trains anymore), so I got Oma to help me with my punching technique - quite the look don't you think!










Now, I also wanted to show off my new gear from Aunty Claire. Thanks, it's great and nice and cool on hot summer days. Well I'm off, have a nice evening, I have to finish before Mom and Dad come back from taking the dog for a walk :)

Hanna.

Sporty Talk

Hi,

For those of you interested in my Sporty opinions and doings on, check out sportgathers.blogspot.com! If you want to become a contributer, then just send me an email and I'll add your name to the list!

Greets,
Richard.

Family matters

Well, we headed out to Karnten on Monday of last week for a little family visit / reunion with our German side of the family. I must say the weather was very nice, the accomodation (thanks Oma and Opa Müller) was great and it was very relaxing at the swimming area. Aisha caused a big stir, not by being the only dog, but by being the nightmare from Hell for the kid's of Elizabeth and Ingo (Julia and Felix) - it was a real shame as we then had to keep her chained up the whole time - which is not great for her or me :(

Additionally we had some bad news about poor old Michelle, who is thankfully recovering now and back at work - we are very relieved to hear that she is back up and about. I guess that was very distracting for me and I wasn't very good company on Tuesday - sorry to all! We did have a great walk on an old castle though - it was fantastic - enjoyed by us all.

Last week also saw a concerted effort on my part to finding a new job, which resulted in one interview yesterday and many ideas about jobs over the next few months. The interview yesterday went really well, and the job seems to be fixed, we are just waiting on the go-ahead from the local organisations that are providing the grant that would be paying for me :) I hope it comes through soon though as I would prefer a permenant situation. I'm rather looking forward to working with this company (www.meditrainment.com) as I believe that we could really work well together, and the company could grow in the next few years. Unfortunately the job is in Innsbruck and although I can do most of the work from home, I will need to be there quite often so a bit of travel will be required and maybe a move sometime in the future - we will have to see what that brings.

So now you have my news - up to date,
Keep in touch,
Richard.

P.S: I have updated Mike's website - his business is going really well (way to go Mike) - please feel free to check out the website and offer comments or ideas to make it better.

www.2waytravel.com

Carrots are for bunnies, not babies!

"What, lunch is ready?"

Can you believe it, I was lying peacefully on my play blanket when Dad came to get me for "Lunch". Up until now lunch (well eating in general) had been a fairly straight forward exercise for me I must admit, so I was looking forward to grabbing hold of that soft pink thing that Mom carries round with her, and giving it a good old suck. In fact as I was actually really hungry, I was even doing a bit of a slobber, which of course, is nothing unusual, but today I had to wait extra long.

Everybody seemed so excited, the camera was out and Mom was running around like a manic, saying something about hot / cold and using microwaves (hmm, another word I need to find out about). This did strike me as a bit odd, as normally Mom is doing the holding (not Dad), and she is always sitting, so I wasn't in a panic, but I was getting a bit worried. I didn't like the way things were unfolding. Additionally, I was getting even more hungry.

"What the heck ???????"

And then it happened - imagine my surprise when "bang" Dad stuck some funny weird tasting goo in my mouth! Well I never! What a cheek. Being of course a well brought up girl, I thought it best to swallow before protesting my ill treatment, but as soon as I had swallowed, and got my mouth open to protest, Dad whacked in another lot of goo. It was very undignified, but I felt I needed to say something soon, so hoping to get the jump on him, I just spat it out, got ready to protest again, and bang, there was another lot of goo in my mouth.

Hanna : No more, pleaseeeeeee

Dad : Just one more spoon

Mom : What a mess.

I was beside myself, well actually, Mom was beside me and taken photo's, so I couldn't talk to her about it, Opa was laughing and not much help, Dad had this weird concentrated look on his face and wasn't listening, not even Aisha seemed to be concerned, actually she seemed quite interested in what was going on. So I had one option, and I used it - scream - high volume - long time.

"Waaaaaaaaaaa"

It took five times of goo before I could get a word out, and then Dad seemed to relent, gave me a bit of the clean up with the gob wiper and handed me to Mom (thank the stars) and I was mercifully given the pink thing to suck on - which I did with huge gulps.

In the meantime I have found out that the goo is carrots (who cares - still tastes horrible) and now I have to have at least 10 (spoonfuls) of this stuff before I get offered the pink thing. If I had a choice, I'd take the pink thing any day :)

So love to you all, my fingers are tired, it's way past my bedtime, and surprise surprise - I'm hungry,
Hanna.

Back home

Well, since a couple of days we are back home from our holiday in Sweden. We had gread 2 1/2 weeks - and are back relaxed and recovered and ready for new challanges.

We decided on quite short notice that we would go on holiday - we had time, the weather seemed to be great all over Europe and we wanted to see friends again, that we haven't seen for a long time. The decision on where to go was quite easy, as we always love to go back to Sweden. We didn't have an exact plan on where to go and no real time scedule - we wanted to be on the road for 2 - 3 weeks, camp and see a couple of old friends. So we packed our camping kit, Hanna and her pram and of course Aisha into the car (which was packed to the top) and left on Monday the 24th of July.

We wanted to make the 23:00 ferry in Rostock (Germany) to cross over to Trelleborg in Sweden and as we didn't know what it would be like for Hanna to spend the whole day in her car seat, we left early in the morning. We made it to Rostock with bags of time, booked onto the ferry and cooked our first meal on the camping stove. The ferry arrived in Trelleborg at 6 o'clock in the morning and as both of us hadn't sleept very much or very well, we decided to drive a bit and then look for a nice campsite along the way before heading on to Stockholm.

The next day we went on to Stockholm where we stayed with Ann, Eric and Miia in Järfälla. It was wonderful to see them again. We went into the citycentre and Richard visited his most favourite book store - a SciFi bookstore with a great selection of only english books. Ann and I left him there for 1 hour hoping he wouldn't spend too much money. We also did a bit of orienteering and Richard had nerverecking 30 minutes of looking after Hanna and a screaming Miia while I and Ann went for a run :-).
We left Ann and Eric on Friday and went on to visit family friends in Täby, which is also a small village close to Stockholm. Gunilla, Hakan and Lotta made us very welcome and invited us to stay for one night, which we gladly took on. That evening was a terrible thunderstorm and we have to admit we were quite glad that we didn't have to spend the night in a tent. Next afternoon we moved on and found a really nice campsite in Sala. We stayed there for 2 nights, taking things very easy - we enjoyed the nice summer weather, swimming and having a barbecue. After that we went on to Borlange, where we met up with Ulf and Carina, who are old orienteering friends. Of course Richard went out to do some orienteering training, however we also did some sightseeing. On Wednesday we were on the road again - we went on to Leksand, Mora and Orsa and after seeing bears, wolfs and lynxs at the bearpark we decided it was time to slowly start our trip back.We spent a couple more days on campsites here and there and then went to watch the TioMila for juniors where also a couple of Austrian junior teams took part. The TioMila is a relay orienteering competition which starts late in the evening and ends early in the morning! Weird orienteerers I know ... :-) The Austrians did quite well, however it was quite sad that one of the teams was disqualified because one competitor missed out one of the controls.

Our last stop in Swede was just north of Malmö on a campsite right on the sea and beach - very special and different to what we were used to. Until then all campsites we stayed on where situated on a lake and close to a forest. To give our last day in Sweden a swedish touch we cooked swedish meatballs for dinner - delicious!
Next day we crossed the bridge over the sea to Denmark and went as fast as we could through Denmark to Kiel in Germany where we visited Christian and Beate and their 2 kids Konrad and Annika. Annika is only 3 days older than Hanna - so those two had a chance to exchange their experiences so far with their parents :-).

After 2 weeks and a bit our holiday was coming to an end and we left Kiel on Tuesday morning and made it back home just in time to watch the men's 10.000m final at the European Athletic Championships!

We want to thank all of our friends in Sweden and Germany for making us so welcome and therefore we have to tell you that we will definitely be back at some stage in the future :-)!

Have a great day!
Christine

In Sweden on holiday...

We are camping in Sweden, more to follow later....
Richard.

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

Long time, no ...

Yes, it has been a long time since we posted photos or stories on our blog. Sorry - however to our excuse we have Hanna, who always keeps us on our feet and if she doesn't we are all fast asleep :-).

Lots of things have been going on in the last couple of weeks. First of all, Claire, Gavin, Michelle and George came to visit us. We had a great time, although it was very short, and Hanna certainly enjoyed to be the centre of attention for 3 days! She wasn't crying at all on this weekend as there was always somebody to pick her up and hold her in his / her arms. She also enjoyed sitting around the table with us, although she wasn't allowed to tast any food, beer or wine :-).

Around that time I also tried out what it was like to run again. I was a bit scared of what it would
be like, but in the end was surprised that I actually managed to jog for 30 minutes without any problems. Okay, it was VERY slow, however I never had to stop or walk. We also went to an orienteering event in the south of Austria, where I won the 2nd day in my category (W21 Short ;-)) and maybe even would have won the 1st day if I wouldn't have been 8 minutes too late for my start :-). Unfortunately there were no babysitters around when I needed them :-).

Last weekend Richard organised a road running event in a nearby village together with the tourism board of that village. The event was a great success. In total there were over 200 kids taking part in the kids-relay and over 110 adults in the main event. The weather was great and most of the runners enjoyed the hilly course!

That was in short what we have been up to in the last couple of weeks!

Have a great day!
Christine

Rest in Peace Nik!

On the 10th of April 2006, our good friend and running companion Nik Kain was tragically killed in a skiing accident. I knew him as a loving and caring husband to Astrid, a doting and energetic father to his two young boys, a reliable and companionable partner to our running club and a good and compasionate friend to Christine and myself. He will be sorely missed by us all.

Our deepest sympathies go to his family, friends and colleagues. Our thoughts have been with Astrid, Martin and Constantine constantly this week.

Nic, god bless you and keep you close to him.

You will be remembered.

Happy Easter!

As we are leaving on a short holiday tomorrow morning, we wanted to wish you all Happy Easter! We hope you have a great weekend in sunny weather!

We are heading south to Trentino (northern Italy). Our orienteering club has a partnership with a club there. Every year either the Italians or us organise a training camp together. Richard is looking forward to orienteering in great terrain and I am looking forward to italian food, cappuccino, walks with Hanna and hopefully some sun!

Have a great day!
Christine

A hard session...

This post is mainly for the athlete's out there :)

I headed to the track today in the pouring rain to do some 1500m intervals, with a 90s break. I wasn't feeling so great but I just wanted to get some more speed work done. After warming up with a 6:15 then 6:10 and 6:05 I was hoping to break the 6 min barrier for the remaining 5. Things were looking up with a 5:56 followed by a 5:54. Then things started to happen - a 5:48 followed by a 5:37 and I finshed off with a 5:24.

So that was the training - not bad, just I can't seem to put it together during a race. After some serious thought I think I might have to give the Salzburg Marathon a skip, the last 4 weeks I have only managed an average of 30 km - not really enough for a marathon - later in the year maybe!

So to all of you running the 2 oceans on the weekend - lots of luck - don't break any legs!
Richard.

First win of 2006

Saturday was the first OL that I have done since last year October, and although this OL was on a different continent, the weather conditions were great (and similar) and the pace was fast (same as then). We had the first Salzburg cup this weekend, which consisted of 10 km of hard running over soggy fields and even soggier (is that a word?) forests. The course was nice, more about running than orienteering, but it was good to get out there and strech my legs for the first time in 2006.

As I'm getting old, I get to run in the Veteran Catagory these days, were the competition is somewhat thinner than in the elite, but we still get to run the same course. So although I get run in my own age group I can compare myself against the other top athletes. I was quite pleasantly surprised actually - only 7 minutes behind Tobias was a good result and he only caught me towards the end of the course. The other guys in my class don't really train so much (excepting for Leo) so I cannot really compare with them and thus it's nice to run elite courses.

So first time out in 2006, first win (100 % ratio) - I bet you that record lasts at least until next weekend, when we have our next event. Naja, one win a year is OK! Last year Michael Schmacher only won once!

I am posting the map here for those of you who would like to see it. I was wearing normal running shoes (not OL shoes) and lost time at control 5 and 6 because it was just too slippery. Additionally I made small mistakes at control 2 and 7. I think the route choice between 4 and 5 could have been better, but other than that I was satisfied! Total distance about 12 km, time 55 min!

So keep well all,
god bless,
Richard.

Just call me Hanna Schumacher

Yes, as you can see, I'm nicely wrapped up in my new woolen Jacket from Aunty Michelle and socks from Granny, and strapped into my 3 point safety system (just like that Schumacher guy that dad keeps talking about) so nothing can happen to me. Mom said though that that's unlike to happen because dad drives soooo slowly these days, apparently not at all like he used to drive :)

Anyway, except for that odd thing that keeps hurting me in the middle (read stomach :ed) I'm doing fine and getting bigger and bigger. Mom is always complaining that I never stop eating, and that she's running empty? I don't understand much, just as long as I get my milk I'm a happy camper!

So I just wanted to thank you all for looking at these photo's of me (what are photo's), I don't know why you'ld want to do something like that, but dad keeps saying something about cute and then flashing something at me and then saying "oh this one is for the blog" - go figure - he's a funny guy!

I better stop banging on dad's keyboard now, if he finds out I've been using his computer he'll be banana's - what are banana's anyway?

Bye,
baby Hanna.

It's a whale...

No, not really - it is just Hanna growing up fast (thank God for keeping her healthy) Yup we went to the Doctor and Hanna is a massive 3150 grams now, that is almost 50 % more than she was at her lightest. That is a huge stone from our heart, we are so glad to see that she is finally picking up some weight and doing well. To that end she has been sucking on Christine's breast like a champion, but as I said before this is causing bad stomach problems.

I would rather have a whale and no sleep, than a beanstalk and lots of sleep! Keep well all,
Love from us!

The speed wobble

Well, Sunday saw me running the Austrian 10 km raod championships. The weather was OK, the course was flat (5m height difference over the whole lap), there was a bit of a cold wind blowing but it wasn't gale force :) All in All - no excuses!

I was planning to run a sub 40 minute time, which I felt was OK bearing the situation. As is usual I started conservately, running the first KM in 3'53 and the second in 3'55. Not bad I thought, lets just try and keep this up! The 3rd and 4th km also went well and where passed in 3'53 and 3'57, so I was running exactly as I planned, just 5 sec a KM faster. KM 5 was s bit faster at 3'53 and km6 and 7 were both around the 3'57 mark. At this stage I was getting ready for the last lap (of 4) and was running with a young lady I know from orienteering.

And then the combined effect of the previous quick Km's hit me, and the speed wobble set in. The fact that I had only slept about 3 hours in 3 days also probably played a small part as well, but be that as it may I slipped over the 4 minute barrier (4'02 to be exact) and then that traitor Arthur (who I had been pulling through) decided to make his move as well - when I was at my weakest - he made a dash for home (with 2 km still to go) - I was finished, washed up, dead as a doornob (add your own expression here)!

The good news was that I could still see Arthur, and we were catching up on Frank and Heidi (i.e. we were going to lap them)! I stuck to my guns, but the legs were gone. The next km slipped passed in 4'08 (can you believe that) and I was into the last KM. Passing Frank helped me as they gave me some support and for a brief 250 m it looked like I was catching Arthur again. Unfortunately, that was the extend of my recovery, and I slumped back, finishing the last KM in 4'04, giving me a time of 39'36 (Arthur ended up with a 39'12)!

Man, I was buggered. Well at least a got my time, but I must admit, I have seldom been ssssoooo physically finished after a race. I guess the lack of sleep hits you harder than you think, but I'll keep at it and see what the Salzburg Marathon (or half) brings.

So until next time!

Calm before the storm

Looking at this picture (taken last night at 11 pm) you think what a cute, sweet, lovely baby - which of course - she is! Man can she scream though. The last few days have been bad tummy days, which means lots of complaining and in baby speak that means "screaming your head off". So last night we got little to no sleep :( but I'm getting used to it now and I can almost hear past it. Certainly I didn't hear her last night in the beginning - it was only when Christine got up that I woke up, but once awake, there was little or no sleep to be had for the rest of the night!

I hope you are all sleeping OK :)

Man, is Richi a fat, slow slob or.....

Hi, another weekend come and gone! Hanna has just had her 3rd birthweek and is gaining weight daily, which is great! Unfortunately she is turning into a screamer / moaner, which means we are getting very little sleep, and are starting to feel the effects of it. Hopefully her stomach problems will quieten down a little bit over the next few days, and we will get a little more rest.

The weekend saw Aisha and me taking part in our first 10 KM for quire some time (see picture for Richi's fat layer). My plan was to run a 40 minute time and until about 7 km I was right on track! However at this stage my running partner packed it in :( - even taking her off the lead had no effect, after 50 meteres she was 30 behind. So a quick stop and then we continued on at about 5 minute pace. Still I ended up with a 42 high time, which was (due to the circumstances) not bad. On Sunday I am taking part in the Austrian Championships in 10 km on the road. I'll try for a sub-40 min then. This time there will be no Aisha :)

Other than that we had a fairly relaxed weekend. Visited with Omi and Opi on Sunday and generally tried to relax and catch up on some sleep (no chance). The snow has finally started to melt around here, and today we have perfect weather (20 +) and blue skies. I'll be heading off to the track later for some 400m intervals! Might as well use the oppertunity while you have it.

The new English teaching work is going well! My work load continues to increase and this week I have some 20 lectures. I expect that by the end of April I'll be doing about 40 to 50 a week! This should bring in some income and keep us going for a while!

Anyway, hope you are all well,
All the very best from the 4 of us!

Ah, a bath - what fun!

Today we decided that Hanna needed a bath - she has one about every 3 or 4 days. It's something she actually seems to enjoy quite a lot. It's only after you take her out of the water that she starts screaming her head off! Enjoy the photo's......

























And here are some of her sleeping in our bed :)

Hanna starts her running career

Well, finally it has happened - Hanna hast started her athletics career. Some would say she's a bit young, and some would indicate that we are starting her late :) - but all career's must start somewhere and somehow and so yesterday Hanna began her long trip towards stardom by being a spectator at a Cross Country race!

We, the Euro Gathers, went to watch the Austrian Cross Country championships on Sunday. It was lovely weather, a bit of chilly wind but otherwise it was nice and sunny. It was our first outing together and both Christine and I enjoyed it very much. We KNOW Aisha had a good time, we are just not so sure about Hanna. She seemed quiet most of the time and didn't complain to loudly, so we are just going to assume it!

Christian (the lad I train) had a really good run, moving up the field to finish eventually 11th overall. This is a marked improvement on his results since 2003 and he is still the youngest in his Category. Hopefully next year he will improve some more! The course was OK, just a bit flat for my liking, but it had one or two interesting obstacles to make the course more challenging. I guess the mud added to the race character, and it was good to see the athletes with power coming through towards the end of the races.

I hope that I will be able to run next year!
Anyway, hope you are all well,
Richard.

Hanna comes home

Well, on Sunday we finally brought our little bundle of joy home. Hanna accepted her first drive in the car with no problems, but Dad had to stop at least once to check that everything was OK :) (It was - she was just quietly enjoying her trip). The neighbour's had set up some balloons and posters to welcome her home which was really nice of them - she was made very welcome from the start.

Since then she has been keeping us on our toes. She sleeps in the bed with us still and will do this for a few more months probably. According to the doctors this is quite OK, and is not spoiling her. Rather at her age (and size) it's helping her adjust to the world outside. She is mostly a cheerful baby with lots of arm and leg movement, but when she stretches her head out she looks a bit like ET! The rest of the time she just looks like Yoda, especially when she scrunches her face up :)

Eating happens frequently with small pauses between, during the day it could be as often as every 2 to 3 hours but thank goodness over night it's generally only once or twice - I guess this might change later. Anyway here are some of the latest pictures, I'm setting up a Hanna picture page where you can look at the pictures in better quality, but until then you can find them here.

Proud Parents and Hanna.














Hanna in all her Glory!















Very proud grandparents with screamy Hanna.



















Hanna close up and personal.

The story behind Hanna or "How my life got turned upside down"

It started out just like any day! We got up quite early to wish Alex and Eva a nice skiing holiday - they had been staying with us overnight on their way to Saalbach - and had a relatively early breakfast. Christine mentioned that she was feeling some discomfort in her stomach - but was not sure what it was, and it didn't seem to be painful.

We knew today was Champs day, so we had stuff to do, additionally it has been snowing like crazy all night, so there was masses of snow to be moved. To top it off, we were visited by the police, who ordered us to move our car as it was blocking the snow plow. As I had already spoken to the snowmobile driver, I didn't see what the problem was, but the policeman was not very polite or caring and I had to go out and move the car as well.

All in all, 3 hours of snow shoveling is not conducive to good Cross Country results – be warned! During all this Christine continued to have these strange stomach twinges and we were just a little concerned, but it wasn’t really hurting, so we continued on with the day. We went off to the cross country, where just about everybody and their dog (well there was only one dog there – Aisha) was asking when we were expected and how it was going. Afterwards it was quite a funny feeling to think back to Saturday, isn’t it wonderful how life just….. well …… changes :)

After getting home from the Cross Country, Christine now realized that the stomach cramps were definitely getting harder and coming faster, so I got the old pen and paper out and started to record the cramps and the length between them. We were not worried, after all we still had three weeks to go. However, they were getting more painful, but Christine wasn’t complaining – she made dinner, I had a shower, we ate but by now I was concerned. If it had been up to Christine we probably would have just carried out wondering what was going on – she just wasn’t having this baby now! I wasn’t so sure, so I phoned Gitte, got Christine to phone the birth course instructor.

Gitte said that we should go to the hospital, Irene said that Christine should have a bath, but I had noticed that the “cramps” were coming at regular 5 minute intervals, that soon dropped to 4 minutes. So at 10 pm I packed Christine into the car we headed off to the hospital.

On arriving we were still not really concerned – the cramps were not painful and we STILL had three weeks to go. The nurse hooked Christine up to the machine that informed us that the baby was doing well, and that the cramps (as we expected) were just pre-cramps to prepare Christine. At this stage she said that I should leave Christine in the hospital for the night, go home and come back tomorrow. No problem. Just before leaving Christine said she needed to go to the toilet so I got the nurse and we started to help her.

At this stage two things happened, first Christine’s water broke and secondly I realized that I would be a Dad before the end of the night. The going home plan was scrapped, Christine was wheeled into the birthing room, and the long wait started. So essentially Christine had been in labour since 6 o’clock in the morning, we just hadn’t realized it.

At this stage there was still no real pain for Christine (unusual) but the cramps were getting harder and were beginning to cause some pain. As we knew, Hanna was still lying head up, but every thing was looking good and Christine decided to have a normal birth. For this she would get a spinal pain killer that would help to relax her muscles, and dampen the pain.

And so the final stretch started – she expanded to 10 cm very quickly and by 5 am we thought that we would soon be parents. Christine was in some discomfit now and the cramps were getting stronger as was the pain. This was end station though. The next two hours Hanna didn’t move any further down. At 7 am the doctor made the decision to operate and then it went super fast.

Suddenly the room was filled with people running round and shouting, bells sounding, a bed was rushed in and Christine was moved onto it and wheeled downstairs to the operating room. I was dragged out kicking and screaming, but they wouldn’t let me stay anymore. Christine was given a full anaesthetic and was put under the knife.

3 minutes later I heard my first scream from Hanna and about 5 minutes after that I had her in my arms. She was so small and wrapped in tinfoil, I didn’t know what the nurse was pointing at until I had her in my hands. She was peaceful and sleepy and I didn’t hear a peep out of her. I carried her into the birthing room were she was cleaned up, measured and dressed. I was mesmorised. She was so small, but a real runner – her legs were longer than the rest of her put together :) So very cute, and although I’m convinced that most babies look very similar at the beginning, due to her size and lack of baby fat, I was able to tell that this was Christine’s daughter. She has her mothers facial features without a doubt.

So at 7:03 Sunday morning the 5th March I became a father. The well wishers have been fantastic, our friends and family a regular pillar of strenght – without Leo and Gitte I would have been lost (and of course Edith) – thank you, you were wonderful. Thank you to all of you who have sent us emails, SMS’s and cards. If anybody wants to send flowers, then please do so to our home address (which I am sure most of you have). I will endeavour to answer as many as possible.

Chrstine will be back on Sunday it seems (and I hope), and we are looking forward to this with immense pride, pleasure and antisipation. I wish you all a fantastic weekend, mine will certainly be great!

Love to you all,
Richard.

Hanna is here!

Most of you will know this by now, however if I happened to miss you, my humblist appologies - it was certainingly not intentional.

Hanna weighed in at a smallish 2300 g, was all of 47 cm long (and most of that was legs) and ended up being 3 weeks and 2 days early. She was just perfect - all fingers, toes and whatever else you could expect on a baby was there.

She has subsequently droped to just under 2200 g, but is slowly starting to eat properly and put on some weight! I will send the links to Hanna photo's on this blog later this weekend.

I wish you all a great one as well.
Richard.

Salzburg Championships in "Running in the Slush!"

Well, it has been a long time since I actually posted anything on the blog, and now I have piles of information...so you will all have lots to read :)

Saturday the 4th of March saw two great things happen, the first was (we did not realise it) that Christine went into labour at around 6 am Saturday morning, and spent the entire day complaining about a funny feeling in her stomach. As we were not really sure what that could be, and also as Hanna was only due in three weeks, we really didn't think about it and continued the day as normal.

The second was the running of the Salzburg Cross Country championships! It was run on snow and ice which made running almost impossible and very slippery. I entered the long race myself, in the hope that my winter training regime of LSD would carry the day - no such luck - I was last but for three others :( I did however quite enjoy the run and I had a major disadvantage. In true Gathercole style I decided to run the course without spikes (i.e. just normal shoes!) Boy was that a mistake. I recon I was losing about 20 s a lap, and I got tired much quicker.

However the rest of the boys were good! Christian won his class, and Felix was 5th in his class (despite being sick). My results paled in comparision for what was about to happen!

I'll post some photies later!
R.

Game over

The last 2 weeks were packed with following the Winter Olympics. As the Austrians didn't only get media attention because of their results, there were lots of press conferences and interviews to be watched as well.

Well, lets start with the good part: These Games were the most successful Winter Olympics for Austria ever. In total the Austrian team won 23 medals of which 9 are Gold. A very good result - it was great to watch the competitions!

On the other hand, the Austrians, or at least part of the Austrian team, didn't get into the good books of international media and the IOC. A raid was done in the accomodation of the biathlon and cross country skiing team and several "items" were found. Additionaly some of the sportmen and trainers reacted in a way, that made the whole situation even more suspicious. I was very disappointed by the whole situation. I find it especially sad for those who succeded, as there will always be a big qestion mark behind their medal. Being an Austrian I have to state that those who are under suspicion, didn't enter any further competitions and also didn't win any medals before the raid was done. However, where there is smoke there is fire - so I believe that some of them are not as innocent as they are trying to make us believe. On the other hand, as a commentator on Eurosport pointed out, one has to assume that not only the Austrians are trying to "push the boundries" of Anti Doping regulations.

Well, that is my view on the Olympic Games. I really enjoyed watching the competitions and I even watched a few sports that I haven't followed at all so far - like curling (yesss ;-)) or speed skating.

And with the end of the Winter Olympics is seems that winter is finally coming to an end as well. Although we still have lots of snow, one can feel that spring is on it's way. Temperatures are around freezing point and one can hear birds singing! Even I look forward to warmer temperatures and the sun by now ...

Keep well and have a good day!
Christine

Winter Olympics

Being on maternity leave is a great thing, especially at the moment. The Winter Olympics started this weekend and I have time to follow it on TV. The Austrians have a big team, well for a small country like Austria, with about 80 sportmen and women. Of course the alpine skiing team has most members. However we also have very good teams in ski jumping, nordic combination, cross country skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh and snowboarding. The first two days have been quite good for Austria: we already won a silver medal in nordic combination and another silver medal in downhill skiing. We had hoped for a gold in the downhill, but a Frenchmen was better. Richard is suffering ... :-)

We will have to see what the next days and weeks bring. I set up a TV watching scedule - so the days are full with skiing, biathlon and cross country skiing (on the sofa).

For South Africa 3 sportmen are starting in the following disciplines: skiing, cross country skiing and skeleton. Coming from a country in which orienteering is very small and it is very unlikely you will ever be at the world's top, I know that the South Africans at the Winter Olympics are lonely fighters. I wish them all the best for their competitions and hope that they will achieve satisfying results for themselves and South Africa!

Now you know what I am up to in the next couple of days ;-)
I wish you all a good start into the new week!
Christine.

Walking on (frozen) water ...

Today was a wonderful, sunny winter day. I decided that on such a beautiful day, one has to go outside - even if it is freezing cold! Aisha and I walked to and on the lake. It was like in a fairy tale: lots of kids and adults on ice skates and playing ice hockey. The local bakery was selling Glühwein and hot food. Edith skated all across the lake to the other side and back. Well, it was just great!

Other than that there is not much to report. I did my weekly swimming "exercise" and we also received Hanna's pram. It's red and looks super fast - just like a Ferrari ;-).

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and of course the coming week!
Christine

Bbbbbrrrrr......it's cold!

(picture taken from our balkony these last few days)

Man, hast it been chilly around here over the last few days. Europe is gripped in a cold weather snap at the moment with some temps in Russia falling to -50 below. Yesterday we had -20 in Henndorf, and that is plenty cold enough.

It's amazing how we change to adapt to this situations. Going out of the house these days is a major exercise in clothes management. First there are the warm socks and thick winter shoes, then jeans, t-shirt, jersey, fleece jacket and winter jacket. Gloves and hat (and mostly scarfs as well). Run to car, jump in and put on the seat heater, and get every thing warm as soon as possible. We seem to be constantly swopping between -10 to -20 and 24 plus (inside), so the moment you get to the other side everything needs to be taken off again :)

Running on the other hand is not that difficult, but decidely more dangerous. I normally have two layers of pants on, a woolly shirt, a goretex jacket, two hats!!! and a pair of gloves. The roads are mostly just ice, so I need to be exceptionally careful where I put my feet as well. Adding to that is the rule that under -10 you should not strain your heart (i.e. no hard training) and should not run when the mercury drops below -15. Means I can only run just after lunch time. It's nice that I haven't had to do any hard training for a while, but I'm raring to go for it once the weather warms up.

Today I was running with Warti and Wolfi, and we ended up running on the lake. It is quite frozen now, but very slippery - makes for good training. The sun was shinning, blue skies, and if it had not been for the -10 indicated on my watch it would have been perfect :) We had a great time though, but in the end stayed out too long in the cold I think - tomorrow will most likely be a rest day.

Other than that the cold tends to keep us on our toes (actually more likely on our bums). I spent an hour scraping ice off our entrance way today, and another hour trying to get the car started and out of the nice parking spot I had dug for it. Battery was dead as a door knob - after destroying two tow lines I finally got the car started by using jumper cables (should have tried that in the beginning) and then had to dig it out before we could go anywhere - good power training though - I try to do a hour every two days or so :)

So my 2 cents on the cold, hope you are all well and warm,
Keep smilling :)
Richard.

New lifestyle

The last couple of weeks my life changed somewhat: I stopped working. I know most of you now think - what a lucky girl - don't worry I know I am ... :-). However, in the beginning it was not so easy to switch from working mode (getting up when the alarm goes off, having a quick bite for breakfast etc ...) into non working mode. I had all this time and of course also want to use it as I knew, once Hanna is here, I won't have much time for myself. So I was in a bit of a conflict of desperately trying to get all those things done and also trying to enjoy life, i.e. getting up late, reading and also sometimes just being lacy :-). I am getting used to the new daily routine and I must say I learned to enjoy it and also learnt how to use all the free time in an efficient but non stressful way.

Next to being lacy, I also have been giving extra lessons to students. I had 2 groups of 18 year old girls, which I was helping preparing for their bookkeeping test and also a 16 year old boy, who was desperately trying to pass this term in English. As my bookkeeping lessons have been a while ago, I had to prepare myself well for the lessons and I have to admit I really enjoyed the preperation and also the teaching part. I am also quite proud that 4 of the 5 girls did well in the test. Also the boy wrote a good enough test and will pass. All this made me think that teaching is actually quite an enjoyable thing to do and now I am thinking about whether to start teaching next September. I will have to think about it carefully and also I am sure it will take me a while to decide. However, I will keep you informed ...

Well, I wish you all a nice week - both at work and in your free time!
Have a great day!
Christine

How the year just goes by.....

Hi,

Hope everybody is well! Isn't it amazing, the first week of 2006 has already whipped past and I sit here wondering what happened to it! I wanted to write a short post about the race on silvester, but never got round to it, but at least I did manage to get the Christmas email out, and now I'll follow up with the race post.

The race on silvester was interesting in two ways! The first is, running with Asiha makes you the target of various unpleasant / pleasant /stupid / pointless remarks, like "can I borrow her for this race", "thats not fair", "gee, I wish I had such a dog", "stop cheating", "can she run fast" - the list is endless. It always tends to aggrevate me no end. Firstly, she is my dog, and she trains with me 10 hours a week, if anybody else whats to run with her, then they can come and pick her up and do the training - there are never any takers. Secondly, none of the people I overtake would be able to keep up with her anyway. Thirdly, after about 2 km's of mad pulling and pushing she runs out of energy and plods along sedately next to me, continually getting slower and slower until it turns into a drag!

I have unfortunately failed to understand this. We can do a three hour long run on Sunday, where she runs around like crazy, goes hunting after deer at back breaking speed, runs circles around me and the training buddies and never seems to get tired, but put her on the lead for 5 km's and after 2 she's plodding and after 4 I'm dragging - go figure!

The second interesting point about the race was my pleasant surprize at the relatively (not for Dion standards I mean) good time, considering I had been under the weather Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday. Additionally the number of people I beat, who did a double take when I ran past them :) I always like to do it that way - start slow and get faster! It seems I'm a little fitter than I have been for a while - great!

Other news is that Christine and I took this week more as a holiday - so not much work was done (is it ever?) and now I'm getting ready for those Monday morning blues tomorrow. Naja, got to get the ball rolling! So I hope you all have a great week,

Richard.

Happy New Year!

We actually survived the last week of celebrating christmas, anniversary, Richard's Birthday and new year. Times were hectic but great, however we are now looking forward to quieter times.

Below I post some photos, so that you can also have a bit of an inview of what our last week was like!

Christmas Eve: An Austrian Christmas Tree :-)


Road Race on New Years Eve: Richard taking part and getting a pull by Aisha.


Looking at fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve from our balcony.


Next week we will go back to work and everyday life...

Of course we ...

... wish you all a Happy and Successful New Year,
and all the power to take the necessary steps to make your wishes and dreams come true.

Richard and I are looking forward to all the exciting changes that will take place in our live in the coming year and are sure we will manage all the small and big hurdles that will come with it!

Have a great day!
Christine

Running in the snow....

Well, yesterday Aisha and I went running with a friend in the forest above our house. It has been snowing here constantly since 2 days, which has added nicely to the snow we already have. This is the first time since I have been living here in Austria that we have had a snow covering since the middle of November - and what a covering, it's up to 2m deep in some areas of Salzburg.

As you can see the running conditions are fantastic, knee deep fresh snow, snow flakes falling left, right and center. Poor old Aisha doesn't run throught the snow, she has to jump it's so deep - although she still seems to run after any deer and rabbits (and of course cats) - where she finds the power I just do not know!

Anyway, just wanted to share with you some of the pictures of a wonderful winter landscape and the incredible fun we have by running at the moment. I often wish some of my old training buddies like Dion, Louis, Richard, Karin and others were here to experience it. A 75 minutes deep snow run is like running 2 hours on the beach :)

Christimas greetings coming soon........

About being in the wrong place at the right time....

Yesterday Christine and I had a very nice dinner with friend Frank and his new girlfriend before Frank heads off for 12 weeks skiing as a snowboard instructure in Saalbach.

We headed home about 10pm and while we were driving along the autobahn, coming up to our turnoff at Eugendorf, a young man in a golf cabrio came driving past, looking a little on the drunk side (i.e was all over the road). In any case he was taking the same exit as us and could not have been more than 10 seconds ahead of us, and as we took the exit we drove past his car facing the wrong way up to exit.

I immediately realised that there had been an accident, switched on the hazard lights and reversed up the exit to warm coming drivers. While Christine phoned the police, I jumped put and put up our warning tri-angle at the enterance to the actual exit and ran to the car to see if I could do anything to help - the boy scout in me coming through! However, there was no driver in the car. Another young guy who was next on the scene shouted out that he had found the driver, completely thrown out of the car, lying in half a meter snow about 5 meters away.

I was able to ascertain that he was still alive (thank the lord for small miracles) and tried to make him as comfortable as possible until the rescue crew got there. Luckily we had our dog blanket in the car and so I was at least able to keep the falling snow off him. It was fairly apparent, that although he appeared to have suffered no major injury, he was way under the weather and had obviously had one too many (more than likely many to many) Christmas drinks.

Thankfully a off-duty doctor just happened to be passing by and took over caring for the patient, which was off course a very great relief. I could hear the sirens going off at this stage and shortly after the rescue crew arrived - I was really impressed with the speed. It could really not have been more than 10 minutes since Christine had phoned them, and they were there in full force. The police, the ambulance and the firemen. They were able to remove the injured man and get him into the ambulance in no time at all.

At which stage he mentioned that he was not alone and that he wasn't driving. The police and firemen started a big search up and down the exit. However, as we were there really not more than 10 seconds after the accident, I knew there was nobody else - we would have seen him (if he had tried to run away) or found him if he had been lying in the snow. My only suggestion was that he might be under the car, which led to a frenzy of digging and searching but turned up nothing.

Being as though we were not allowed to leave the accident scene I had a closer look at the car. It was a miracle that the poor driver survived the accident and the acceleration out of the car (the soft roof was ripped off) - had there been passenger, judging from the angle and speed at which he had hit the tree, the passenger would not have survided. Additionally the driver had obviously not been wearing his seatbelt and it's a miracle he survived.

After making our statement, the rescue teams thanked us for our quick thinking and notifing them so quickly, and said we could head home. We drove home contemplating had we been 5 minutes earlier, or had we left Frank's 10 minutes later, we would not have been (at the wrong place) here (the right time) when the accident happened.

I'm just glad we were able to help and that the driver was OK.....As a soon-to-be-father, husband, brother, son it is times like this make me realise how fast it can all go by - to all family and friends, have a great festive season but please DRIVE SAFELY. Look after yourself and God bless you!

Next time I hope to be in the wrong place at the right time again!

Hanna

The news is in - we are the proud almost parents of an almost baby girl, which we plan to call Hanna! The ETA is still around the 26th March, currently weighs about 950 gramms, and is 31 cm long / tall (well actually she's all crunched up at the moment so how the doctors know this I just don't know!). We even got to see some arm and leg movement, and she opened her mouth as well - all very cool - but bodes bad for daddy (open mouth already - not even born!).

On the picture you can see the head, eyes, nose and part of the body, the round bright bit between body and head is the knee, the black hole on the right side is some sort of internal organ. According to the doctor every thing is there, all within normal measurements and there are no problems.

I must congratulate my wonderful wife, who except for a few teary outbursts, has been great. She is having the normal weight that you must have at this stage, does not have any cravings or major mood swings - every thing seems to be going well.....

....but some people have told me, great pregancy, difficult child .... I hope we are the exceptions to this rule :)

So, although I was personally rooting for a wee ladie, I'm very excited non-the-less!

Hope you are all well,

Richard.

P.S: Tomorrow I'll post an interesting experience that happened to Christine and I on the way home from Franks this evening!

Specially for Dion and Richard

To celebrate your birthdays guys, we had a cake on your behalf - hope you both had great birthdays, full of surprizes and joy!


Lots of love from Richard, Christine, blick in eye and Aisha!

More family visits!

Well, at Christmas time it's always about visiting family. I was off to visit Claire this week - a real whisle stop, flying out from Munich at 11h45 Wednesday, getting to Gatwick at 12h45, picked up by Claire, went for a nice lunch in one of her new favourite resturants, went to the hardware shop to get the stuff I would need to hanging up in the house, went back to Claire's place....

Wow, really nice house. 3 stories, nicely laid out and well proportioned - I really liked it! It even has a small garden, but I couldn't find any tools to do some gardening....I'm sure Gavin will get to it soon! Naja, probably not if I know Gavin, but anyway very nice place.

We then had a talk about where everything needs to go, and that brought us to a small dinner, followed by TV as Claire didn't want me to do any banging on the walls due to the next door family being a young one with babies! I woke early on Thursday and spent the morning doing all the handy man work around the house. Quick lunch and then a walk to the shops so that I could get some shopping (had a list from Christine). Wait for the taxi to Gatwick and fly back at 19h00, arriving in Munich at 22h00.

Everything was OK until then, but then I had to drive home in really heavy weather. The wind was blowing hard, and snow was coming, and I was tired! I made it however, back home 40 hours after I left - whew what a quick visit!

So hope you are all well,
Richard.

p.s. Have posted some pictures in the posts of Christine below....check them out!

X-Mas Season

I thought that this blog has to look a bit more christmasy so I posted a picture I found and liked!

Have a great day!
Christine

Family

Last weekend was filled with things you do at christmas time - like seeing family.

On Saturday evening we were invited to celebrate Monika's (my aunt) birthday. She cooked a wonderful asian meal: Thai chicken soup, beef curry with rice and mango panacotta. It was excellent and I couldn't resist helping myself to a second desert ...

RJG: Here's a picture of future Grand Parents with Aisha.....


On Sunday we invited ourselves and visited my uncle, aunt, opa (granddad) and cousins in Mitterkirchen - which is about 1h30min drive west from Henndorf and situated close to Linz. They live on a farm, however they gave up farming a few years ago and now have a camping site on their farm, which is very popular with cyclists, who are riding along the danube between Passau and Vienna.

RJG: Here is a family photo....


Of course I also spent some time doing christmas shopping and drinking (non-alcoholic) Glühwein at Christmas markets.

On Saturday I went swimming - a friend convinced me that swimming was quite a nice sport to do while pregnant and so I decided to give it a try. I only used to swim to cool myself down on hot summer days and until now didn't really like going to indoor swimming pools. However I changed my opinion, as I really enjoyed that Saturday morning in the pool and swimming for 2x 30 minutes (slow speed for pregnant women of course) was good excercise and to be honest I was quite buggered afterwards ... :-)

That's it from me for now!
I wish you all a nice day! Enjoy!
Christine

A long weekend ahead

Tomorrow is a public holiday and I was so bold to take Friday off! Now I am looking forward to a long weekend with some Christmas shopping and baking :-).

Enjoy and have a great day!
Christine

Walking in winter wonderland

Now there is also a short update from me, so that you know what I have been up to. I can not report on doing any cross country races, but since Christmas will be here soon, there are lots of things to do! Last weekend I spent some time decorating our flat. I will post a picture later ...

A few weeks ago, I stopped running completely. With all the snow and ice on the roads it is just a bit too risky and also I didn't feel so comfortable about it any more. The TV program is always very tempting, however to avoid becoming a complete couch potato, I try to go for walks a few times a week. Most of the time, I don't have to go on my own, Aisha is a great companion for walks - as she is always happy to join me! The last 2 weeks we had wonderful snow and walking in this winter wonderland was great anyway.

As you can imagine my belly is getting bigger and bigger, actually has been growing a lot in the last couple of weeks and those maternity pants, that have been quite big are actually fitting now and might even be a bit tight in a few areas :-). I also have been busy organising a cradle, a baby bed and bath and a few other things the little baby will need when it is here. Now I have to look into buying a pram ...

Well, that is it from me for the moment.
Enjoy and have a wonderful day!

The first Cross Country

Well, the first X-country of the season has been run. Tragical as it may sound - it will probably be the only X-Country this year! It's the traditional Weissbach Fackellauf (which means torch run) and is special as it is run in the late afternoon (about 5:30 pm) when it is already dark, and the way is marked by burning torches.

This year at least the torches managed to hold out the entire evening, I have run this race 6 times in the last 9 winters and sometimes we have run completely in the dark... It was nice to see the regular crowd out again, and although my time this year (21:34) was not as good as last year (21:20) I was happy because I wasn't lapped by the winner (same guy both years!) The course is 5,5 km long and is run on a loop of about 1,1 km.

This year we were hampered by black ice, which made the footing very slippery and a lot tougher than normal. As orienteers these sort of conditions are perfect for us and of the 4 classes we entered (Askö Henndorf), we won 2 and had 2 second places - all in all a great result.

As to the rest of the week - well - not really much too add. I have been trying my hardest to get the company up and running correctly but we are hampered at the moment due to a few financial problems that we hadn't foreseen. Christine is been having a boring time at work over the last few weeks so she has been helping me with some chores that I can use to help the company. Keep your fingers crossed, it looks like we might finally be on the right track.

And that is news for this week,
Hope you are all well,
Kind regards from a very chilly Henndorf,
Richard.