Photos

Here a link to some photos taken last weekend at the orienteering (taken by Edith)! Thanks a lot Edith - they are great as usual!

Orienteering Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to go to another orienteering weekend and find out how unfit we really are. We chose the Salzburg Championships as they were held in a particular beautiful part of Austria. The start-/finish-area of the relay and individual race was situated almost half way up Austria highest mountain (Großglockner) at about 1.400m above sea. As you can imagine that involved lots and lots of climb in 2 days of 0rienteering. But the scenery and the weather made up for it and we had a wonderful time. Richard was very proud to become 2nd in the relay (the main category - he was lucky as a whole lot of teams got disqualified). Edith and I were also 2nd behind the top-team consisting of an ex-worldchampion (and now mummy of a 2 year old) and another unfit orienteering mum. I like to mention the ex-world champion because it makes our result look much better ...Even though we had to climb up a ski slope at the individual race it was great fun and demanding orienteering.
The only thing that got me worried on the weekend was that Hanna refused to do the kids string course ... :-)

Have a great week!
Christine

Summer 2009

The last 8 weeks just flew past. Here you can find a few impressions.

The highlights of this summer were definitely the visit of Michael and Lisa in August, although 3/4 of the family were lying sick in bed on one day or the other during their stay.
And of course the visit of Claire, Michelle and Matthew. It was great to meet our nephew (4 months old now) and catch up with Claire and Michelle.Exciting for us was also Hanna's start in Kindergarten last Monday. She loves it, especially as she already knows lots of other children there.

It is very obvious that autumn is coming, besides the fact that the last few days have been rainy, the trees are changing their leaves' colour and start to loose them. I love this time of the year and also look forward to the new school year.

Have a great day!
Christine

TraTra

... is probably the most spoken word by Marc at the moment. Can you guess what it means? I will help: he talks about a tractor. Marc loves tractors and there are lots of tractors where we live. So life is pretty exciting for the little guy. Finally, only after he started to talk about "tractors", he learnt to say Mama. His 3 other words (where we actually understand the meaning) are Aisha, which he uses for all animals, Hanna and Dada (daddy).

One week ago Marc's dream came true and he was actually allowed to sit on a tractor.Have a great day!
Christine

Finally ... a sign of life

... I won't say much about our long absence of the blog, because I don't have any spectecular excuses :-)We are back now. One of the reasons being is that my school/work year is coming to an end and therefore I have more time for the pc and the internet. I put up a couple of photos on our online album where you are able to see what we have been up to.
Recenty we spent a weekend in the very western part of Austria, right on the border to Switzerland for an orienteering event. It has been a long time for Richard and me, but although we are both very unfit we had a great time. The kids loved it as well so I think we can slowly start increasing our o-weekends again. I miss them. However with kids they tend to be even more tiring than without ;-). The orienteering competitions were national races for both Austria and Switzerland. It was great to compete agains a bigger (and more competitive) croud than we are used to.

As I already mentioned the school year will end in 10 days and then there is a long break for me which I am immensely looking forward to. I will try and collect strenght for the upcoming terms. Next week I will go to Vienna with one of my classes. Richard is on kids duty for 2 days and 1 night while I will try and keep 28 teenagers (15 year olds) under control ;-).

Have a great day!
Christine

Finally ... Capetown ...

Yes, finally tomorrow the day for me and Marc will arrive to leave wintery Austria and fly to Capetown. Richard and Hanna are already enjoying the sun, swimming in the pool and playing on the beach! Richard got sunburnt on his back. He claims it is Hanna's fault - she was supposed to cream his back but instead felt very arty and made handprints with suntan cream. As a result, you can see white handprints on red background on Richard's back :-).

I can't wait and I wish I would be able to beam us down there in less than 1 second instead of sitting in the plane for 12 hours!

Have a great day!
Christine

Carneval

Since about 1 week before Christmas Hanna was looking forward to the Carneval season. Carneval is quite a big thing in Austria. You dress up and go out to partys. Already the children love to dress as a princess, cowboy, clown or whatever they can imagine. Until a day before the Children's carneval party here in Henndorf Hanna wanted to dress up as a Monster. It took me quite a bit of persuation - in the end she dressed as cat. Marc was dressed as a pirate - he didn't have much of a choice! They both had a wonderful time on the party!

Tomorrow is the next big day - Richard and Hanna are leaving for Capetown for a looong holiday. Marc and I will follow on the 8th. I can't wait. I am imensely looking forward to the warm weather and the off-work-time and to Michelle and George's wedding.

We will keep you up to date!
Have a great day!
Christine

THE Christmas Letter

Well, the time has flown by and now it's 2009! Happy New Year everyone :) I thought I would just post our annual letter on the blog for those of you who I might have left out by mistake - sorry!

Enjoy!

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Christmas 2008

This time last year we (Richard, Christine and Hanna) started to get ready for our 3 week holiday in Cape Town over Christmas and New Year. One year later we (Richard, Christine, Hanna and Marc) are getting ready for family visits over Christmas. The year has just flown past. So many things happened and changed our lives. But let’s start by looking back over the year.

As we said, we were very much looking forward to our long Christmas break in Cape Town. As we hadn’t been in South Africa over Christmas for 9 years, we decided it was time again. Christine was pregnant with Marc, Richard was working hard, trying to settle down in his new job as a financial consultant and Hanna was busy growing and exploring the world. The long break was needed desperately and that was also the “motto” of the trip: Do as little as possible and enjoy the free time.

We saw friends and family and enjoyed the warm african sun (some of the time – it also rained quite a bit) but before long it was time to go back. It was also the first time that Hanna had flown (long haul) and that alone with Daddy, so this was an experience for all concerned as well. She took to it like a duck to water and as we are going back to sunny SA for Richard’s sister’s wedding in February, she hasn’t stopped talking about it. She packs her bag once a day at the moment (which is very stressful for Mommy). She will also be doing the trip alone with Daddy again, and we will see if his nerves are strong enough to handle it yet again.

Back in Austria Christine was struggling through her last weeks of teaching before going on maternity leave and preparing everything for the arrival of Marc. Richard was back at work and constantly doing courses in order to get his qualifications as quickly as possible. Hanna’s second birthday passed without a hitch, with the exception that a two year old is big enough to open her own presents and make the related mess. She had a great time with her friends and you can see the pictures on our website. All was still relatively quiet until....

Marc was born on the 8th of April. In comparison to the “Hanna ordeal”, Marc’s birth was extremely easy for us both as Christine had a caesarean at exactly 9h15 on the day in question. No stress, no fuss, no problem. Right from the beginning he was a very pleasant and cheerful baby – of course he still had has his moments – but we all do, don’t we. Hanna and Marc could not have been more different babies. For one Marc wasn’t a screamer in the first 3 to 4 months, and he was much bigger. He was wearing kit that Hanna only put on after 6 months. And boy can he eat, 3 times faster than Hanna and twice as much. He suffered from stomach ache a lot (as do most babies) but once we got past that it was plain sailing. Marc also does everything faster than Hanna – he had 6 teeth within 6 months and is already crawling and trying to stand. Unfortunately neither of the kids has learnt how to sleep, and so we still have mainly sleepless nights.

Life with two children is definitely another step up on the stress factor level. Soon we were asking ourselves how it could have been possible that only one child made us struggle. Marc has developed well and Hanna has been trying to get used to having a brother – which was and still is not the easiest thing for her. Unfortunately we had a slight wobble when Marc had to go for a small operation when he was 6 weeks old. We were both worried sick but thankfully, everything went very well and Christine was even able to go on a one week holiday to Italy with the kids and friends a week later, while Richard was working like a Trojan at home.

Due to Marc’s birth we didn’t plan anything for the summer holidays, so we decided on short notice to go and visit family in the UK for a week. As usual the Gathercole sisters (and their partners) looked after us in stunning fashion and we had a wonderful time away from the stress that we call home. It was super to see everybody again, and we will hopefully be able to visit again in 2009 to examine and check out the new cousin after (he / she) has arrived in May. That was the most exciting bit of family news for us in autumn, firstly that Claire and Gavin were expecting their first little buddle of joy, and secondly that Michelle and George were going to tie the knot (get married) and that we would be able to make the wedding after a long and complicated time table arrangement for Christine.

The rest of the summer Christine and the kids spent on the lakeside with friends, Richard was building up a stock of customers and passing one exam after the other, to gain his full qualification as a consultant. It was very stressful for him (and thus also for the family) as he was constantly away on training camps / seminars or courses. However he has mastered the situation with extreme luck and has passed all exams so far and should be finished his full qualification by the beginning of 2009. He has managed it in under a year, which is the shortest time possible, and has also seen quite a lot of success in the company, being one of the performers in 2008.

For Christine, the beginning of September was stressful as she went back to teaching accounting half-time. While she works, Hanna and Marc are at day-care (or with Oma or Daddy), which they both love. She is enjoying her work very much, but it is far more stressful than she planned. However as the kids get older it is becoming easier.

Sporty wise we have done absolutely nothing this year. Finally in autumn we did a couple of orienteering events again and are both trying to get fitter, but it is an extremely long road for us both. Unfortunately Richard’s bone infection has not been removed and a third operation is necessary but due to the painful process of the whole thing he has decided to keep pushing it out until a more convenient time. Richard continues to train one or two athletes however and is still a little involved that way. Thankfully Hanna has also grown to love all things sporty and we are very active in a number of kiddie groups and sporty events. She loves climbing up things or swinging on ropes. However her favourite exercise is running which she does as often as she can (and she is quite quick these days).

Every now and then we also go and visit the “Saturday Morning Stories” at the English Centre in Salzburg. This is mainly to get Hanna in touch with other english speaking children (and hence her english speaking ability) and also because it is a great free time activity. Unfortunately, although she understands english perfectly she still prefers to converse absolutely in german. Hopefully that will change over time. Other than that she seems not to display a great artistic talent but does love to draw and paint. Maybe maths and science will be her strong points.

And now we have reached Xmas 2008. As stated before we are currently preparing for the whole family to come and visit (except brother Mike) and are looking forward to this immensely. We are hoping that we will have a white Christmas this year, but as many of you are aware the climate has other plans for us at the moment and we are having a December that reminds us of April. Even some of the flowers have started to bloom again. Go figure.

We hope that this letter finds you all well and enjoying life and getting ready for a great time over Christmas. We wish you and your families all a Merry Christmas and Happy New year and a very prosperous and healthy 2009. We will look forward to crossing paths with as many of you as possible in 2009.

God bless and with much love from the family Gathercole!

P.S: Don’t forget our blog (http://eurogathers.blogspot.com) where you can also find a link to our online photo album. Both Christine and Richard can also be found on Facebook.

What to do ...

... when it is 12 degrees below 0 outside? Easy question: push your little brother in a toy box 'round the flat.

Christmas and New Year come and gone

Times have been very busy here, as we had Richard's family here for a visit over Christmas. We all had a wonderful time and, I hope, so did our guests! The only disappointment was the absence of snow!

Granny and Grandpa arrived on the 18th. The following days we took easy as both kids were quite sick.
After the arrival of the rest of the family on the 22nd it was all about getting ready for Christmas. The evening of the 24th, that's when the Austrian celebrate Christmas, was great. We celebrated at my parents house with the usual croud. All visitors added we were 20 people. We were a bit worried beforehand, however it worked out wonderful and was a really nice, festive evening and Christmas celebration. My personal highlight was Hanna's eyes when she saw the Christmas tree and the litt candles while George was playing "Jingle Bells" on the piano! Thanks George - that was a perfect moment!

The next days we spent eating, drinking and doing the tourist thing - a horse carriage ride in the old city of Salzburg. A real first time for me - and I have been living in the area ever since I was born :-) - and another highlight of this week.

Richard's brother Michael stayed on until the 31st. Finally things got less hectic and we enjoyed a few quiet days. On one of these days we drove to the Postalm in search for some snow. We found it. The weather was amazing and there was about 50cm of snow. Enough for skiing. Hanna tried out her new skies. We wanted her to get used to them. Even while skiing inbetween my skiis, it was difficult for her to keep the balance - the skiis literally "ran" away from her :-). Well she is still young - there is hope :-). Finally it started snowing here in Henndorf, so I hope there will be lots of opportunities for "training"!
On Tuesday Richard, Michael and a couple of friends went go-karting. After a short introduction and training periode, they all competed in a race. Richards' comment: "I had forgotten how much hard work go-karting was!" Well, considering that he has never done anything like that since I know him (and that is over 11 years now) - no wonder he has forgotten - it has been a while :-).

The 31st we spent celebrating Richard's birthday, running the annual "Silvesterlauf" in Seekirchen and celebrating the New Year at home with our kids and friends. As we had a "bad" night the night before - we didn't see very much of the new year before we fell into bed!

In this spirit, we wish you all a Happy New Year! May it be a great and exciting one for all of you!
Richard, Christine, Hanna & Marc

P.S.: Photos can be found online.

Absence

Due to lack of excitement in our live :-), we have been absent on the blog for quite a while. I created a new web album, to see what keeps us on our feet!Have a great week!
Christine

No time for blogging

...Because we are having an absolutely marvelous autumn here in Austria, I have no time for posting any blogs. We are spending almost every free minute outside - during the week on the playground and on the weekend we have been doing quite a bit more hiking. Which is great, don't get me wrong - however housework and preperations for school have to be done in the evening after the kids have gone to bed and posting blogs is being postponed and postponed.

Next to spending time on the playground or in the mountains, Richard and I ran a mixed-fun-relay. It was great fun. We were both surprised with the outcome - Richard was, I think, a bit surprised how slow he was (for 4,2 km). I, on the other hand, was surprised that I could run relatively fast (19:30) - well, if you consider that I have hardly done any running since 3 years. I miss regular running, I would love to run more often - unfortuately it just doesn't work out. I will keep trying and maybe some day ...

Well, I won't bore you any longer.
Have a nice week!
Christine

King of the castle

As I am almost 6 months now, I thought it was about time to post a blog. Mmmhhh, what can I tell you about. Well, I have had a great life so far - mummy always jumps when I open my mouth ... Daddy is a bit of a harder nut - he also tries to convince mum to let me scream every now and then - fortunately he wasn't very succesful so far :-)

I have got a big sister, Hanna. To be precise, at the moment she is a bit bigger than I am but I am trying very hard to catch up with her - weight-wise I am doing great - I only have to gain 4 more kilos!

I am sure you would like to know what I am doing the whole day. I like to sleep, preferable in the morning, that's when I am most tired - it's all that screaming during the night - it tires me out ... . Also mornings are boring because Hanna is at daycare. Once Hanna is back, life is getting a bit more exciting here, I like pulling her hair - if mummy brings me close to her - which is quite often, I already told you I just have to open my mouth and she jumps ... If I don't pull her hair, I like to pull her pullover or T-shirt or nibble on her books. Nibble, that reminds me of my toes, yeahh I don't know if you guys know that you have toes on the end of each leg - very interesting things - found them the other day and they are great things to bite, nibble and play with!

Other than that I can tell you that I don't like lying still - definitely being still is only for when I am asleep. I like to jump around (with mummy's help) and roll myself from the back to the tummy and back. Soon I will be rolling through the flat - man, I am looking forward to that!

So, that's enough for now - have been sitting still far too long ... :-)
Cheers,
Marc

A weekend in the mountains

Our birthday present to mum was a weekend together in the mountains. It was not easy to find a weekend that suited everybody, however we managed - and it turned out to be a great one. We chose Rauris as our destination. Rauris is situated on the edge of the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern. It is still in the district of Salzburg and therefore not far for us to drive.
Richard, Hanna, Marc and me already left on Friday after lunch. The kids had their nap in the car on the way there. When we arrived we went for a walk through downtown Rauris, which didn't take us long :-) and then waited for the rest of the crew to arrive (mum, dad, edith and arthur).
On Saturday we went for a big hike - big, considering our circumstances and the fact that we have to carry 2 children around as well. We did something that we normally wouldn't do (unless in winter to got skiing) and used the cable car to go up the mountain and started a 4 1/2 hours hike over 2 peaks from the cable car station. It was absolutely wonderful and the scenery really stuning. Hanna and Marc had a great time (well, Marc slept almost the whole way) and we had a good excercise.

On Sunday we took it a bit easier. We had a big Sunday breakfast and left a bit later for a walk in the Rauriser Urwald. This is a forest area, which is not "looked after" and therefore very natural. For the orienteerers: it reminded us a lot or skandinavian woods with lots of little boulders and blueberry bushes, little marshes and ponds. We loved it! In the end we walked much further than we had planned. Unfortunately it started to drizzle on our way back, but we could make it back in time to a restaurant before it really started to rain! In our online photo album you can see a few photos of our weekend!

It was a wonderful weekend - all 5 of us enjoyed it immensely! For me it was also the last holiday weekend, as schools started again on Monday. I had to swap my always-ready-to-go swimming bag with my school bag! Although I am sure it will be a hard year - with the 2 kids and a half time teaching job, I look forward to it. It is good to get out and think about other things than nappies, feeding and household stuff :-).

Have a great day!
Christine

Photos from the hiking girl

Have a great day!
Christine

Stoawandl or "Stonewall"

Today we did one of our family excursions. The weather is absolutely fabulous at the moment, however autumn is coming, so we decided agains going to the lake. Instead we went for a hike up the Stoawandl, which is one of the peaks behind Henndorf. I don't dare to call it a mountain - but it is definitely a bit higher than a hill (about 1.000m above sea). The walk is through the forest on little pathes and partly on forest roads. I carried Marc in his Baby Björn (8kg) and Richard was responsible for Hanna (13,5kg). We were hoping that she would walk quite a bit, the rest of the time, well, Richard had to carry her. Hanna actually walked quite a bit on the way up - much further than we thought she would. For those who know the area - she walked until we hit the 2nd forest road. On the way down she got tired and Richard had to carry her most of the time. We all had a really great time and with all that extra weight that had to be carried :-), we also had a good excercise. It was great fun and reminded us of the days when we used to run our Sunday long runs regulary in this forest.

Other than that there is not too much exciting things happending here. Richard painted our passage and did an excellent job. Hanna and I enjoyed a couple of days on the lake and I am trying to go for a run every now and then (I normally manage once or twice a week). On a morning run this week I noticed the first yellow leaves on the fields and realised that autumn has arrived. I really love that time of the year!

Have a great day!
Christine

Sunny days, day trips and 60 + 30 = mum + me = surprise birthday party

Finally the weather changed and all of a sudden our days were filled with spending our (Hanna, Marc and me) afternoons at the lake. Going to the lake is always good - in terms of keeping Hanna busy and satisfied. There are lots of children to play with, a little paddling pool to have fun in and a big sand pit - short: there are lots of things to do and therefore little time to be bored and being difficult. In other words great for mum :-)!

On one of these really nice and hot summer days Richard took some time off and we decided to go on a day trip. We always wante to see Hallstadt, a celtic village in the Salzkammergut about 70 minutes drive from Henndorf. Hallstadt is very scenic and picturesque and lies inbetween high mountains on the foot of the Dachstein glacier. Therefore the Hallstädtersee, the little lake by the village, is really really cold as the water is coming straigth from the glacier. We left Henndorf at lunch time and had a picnic on a swimming spot with view on the village and the mountains. There we spent quite a while and, except for Hanna, all had a swim - brrrr - it was freezing cold however the perfect refreshment on a hot hot summer day. In the late afternoon we had a stroll through the village, had coffee and ice cream in a littel cafe on the lake and I went to see the famous Bone House.

On Saturday we celebrated mum's 60th birthday, with a big birthday party in a little restaurant directly by the lake. Well, at least I thought it was mum's birthday party. As we arrived there I found out that it was also a surprise party for my 30th birthday, which actually was already a couple of weeks ago. It really was a big surprise. Although Richard and Edith claim that they had almost given it away a couple of times, I had absolutely no idea. It was really nice and I enjoyed myself a lot. We had great food, the location by the lake was absolutely wonderful and we were very lucky with the weather. It had been pouring with rain in the morning but had cleared up in the afternoon! A great surprise! Thanks to everybody - for organising and also for everybody who came to celebrate!

As you can see our days were filled the last couple of weeks! I hope it continues like that - then I always have something to blog! So stay tuned!
Have a great day!
Christine

P.S.: Pictures will follow!

Rainy Days and Early Morning Pyjama Parties

The last week was decidedly rainy here in Henndorf - no July weather in any case! Anybody who has dealt with children before, knows that after a day or two at home with very little to no possibility to run, jump and fall, these little ones get very frustrated and start to drive their parents mad. With Hanna's "Tagesmutter" (daymum) and friends on holiday or sick, we were pretty much on our own to entertain ourselves. In a way that was good, as I started to do a very close research on what was happening for children in and around Salzburg. And that is how I found out about "The English Centre". The Centre offers a whole lot of activities for adults and children - also during summer holidays. The best thing about it is that everything is in English. I was looking for a similar possibility since weeks, as I want Hanna to be exposed to other people - and especially children - talking English. I believe that children learn best from their young fellows. So we have been there twice last week. We went to see the puppet show on Tuesday and to the Saturday Morning Stories. Hanna enjoyed it immensely and I think from now on we will be regular visitors to The English Centre.

This picture was taken at about 6 o'clock in the morning - Hanna's preferred waking up time - and therefore my time (and often Marc's) to start the day. First thing we do so early in the morning is have milk (Hanna) and a cup of tea on the couch and a good morning cuddle!

Have a good and hopefully not too early start into the next week!
Christine

P.S.: The weather is improving ...

Photos Photos

We updated our online photo album.

Here you can see the photos from our trip to London at the beginning of this month.
Here you can see pictures from Andrea and Bernhard's wedding on the 12th of July.

Have a great day!
Christine

London

From the 2nd to the 10th of July we spent in Sutton / London with Richard's sister. We haven't been there for 2 years, so it was really nice to get the vibe of a big city again. It was mainly a family visit, so we spent most of our time with Claire and Michelle, Gavin and George. Besides,the weather didn't allow much more anyway. We didn't even took part in a time trail, because we didn't feel like getting soaked. That's how times change :-) ... Instead we went to the South African store and spent 30 Pounds on South African sweets and snacks ... Another highlight was the visit to the zoo and amusement park. Although we spent a huge amount for the entrance fee we had a really great time and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Hanna was fascinated by the gorillas and loved the "flying elephants"!
We came back last Thursday after a very short night - leaving Claire and Gavin's house at 3 o'clock in the morning to catch our plane at 6. Needless to say that we were all quite exhausted that day. It didn't take long to get us back into our daily routine.

We had a wonderful time and it was great to see everybody!
Thanks to the London crowd!
Have a great day!
Christine