Coming of blog.....

Yes, can you believe it, Daddy finally decided to let me write my own blog. Woohoo, I'm going to enjoy this. Now I can tell everybody that they are "blöd" (stupid - Ed) or "doof" or "blöd and doof" while screaming "Ich mag es nicht" (I don't like it - Ed) every few minutes. Aaaahhhh the life is good.

So a little about myself - I'm Marc, the youngest, but I'm also the cleverest, smartest, handsomest and of course BEST BEHAVED (not! - Ed) of the Eurogathers. I've been around for almost 3,5 years now - Dad is always amazed that I've made it so far. Apparently Mom and Dad think I'm some sort of terrorist and seem quite surprized that somebody hasn't done me in yet - I think they mostly mean Hanna, or maybe Simon, quite possibly Oma and Opa, on the other hand Dad and Mom, the neighbours as well (would you believe) and some of my friends - well actually most of my friends to be honest. But the rest - well they love me.......especially ....... well.... especially the rest!

What else you might ask? I can run and ride and swim already. Drawing holds a lot of fun for me. I like to play with my cars and read daddies car magazine from cover to cover every month. Guns and shooting belong to my favourite pastimes. So generally I'm just a bundle of raw energy bouncing off the walls. Oh yes, and I slobber about 500 litres a day....

And now that I've finally got my own login, expect to hear from me on a more regular basis,
Have a nice day,
Marc.

Bored ... ?

Some might think that on a long break from work one might get bored, certainly not me. The kids, maybe ... They are on their 5th week away from kindergarten and showing some withdrawal symptoms. Hanna and Marc certainly fight a bit more than usual. Yesterday morning I left them alone in the flat for 10 minutes while taking Aisha for a walk. When leaving I wasn't quite sure if I would see them both alive when I came back. However when I got back they were the best of friends, very proud of the fact that they managed on their own with Hanna helping Marc going to the bathroom. Maybe they should be left alone more often ;-).

So what are we doing to keep ourselves busy? Whenever the weather allows it, we are at the lake. If not, we still try and go outside as much as we can. On Wednesday I took the kids for a hike in "our mountains". We walked for almost 2 hours without one word of complaint and made it almost to the very top of the "Stoawandl". Which I figure is quite impressive for a 3 and 5 year old. When the weather is horrible unusual measures have to be taken, like going to Ikea so that the kids can get rid of some energy playing in the Ikea "kindergarten".

As for me I have been ticking off a few things on my "to-do-list" over the last couple of weeks, which have been mainly boring household chores. Other than that I have been trying to get fit again. It looks like we will start at the Austrian Relay Championships at the middle of September, we being Andrea, Lucie and I - and we are all mother to 2 kids. In the late 90's and early 2000's, before we all started to have kids, we won more than a couple of Relay Championships. Now that we are all a bit older and less fit we will try and challenge the younger, fitter girls. I am looking forward to that ... Let's see what we can do!

Keep well!

A sad day today….

….as I left Zurich, knowing that it would be my last departure for a while.  It has been an exceptional 13 weeks since I started out and I’ve gained some really good friends in those far away mountains of Switzerland. The work was fun, it was challenging and in the end I was able to achieve the goal I set out to reach when I started.

So to all my friends and colleagues in Zurich, thanks for a great time. I wish you well in the next few weeks as your (no longer mine) deadline gets closer and that you all achieve that goal that we set out to achieve earlier this year. Good luck.

Of course I’m getting out of Switzerland at exactly the right time, as the franc finally starts to lose its strength against the euro. It was a long time coming to be honest, but judging by the number of companies that are starting to get difficulties it’s not a second to soon. Hopefully I can come back later and buy myself that watch I always wanted – with some chocolate of course.

Other than that I’m looking forward to some family time over this weekend (it’s a long one as Monday is a public holiday) and also to having some time to get on my bike and into the mountains for the last few weeks of summer. An old friend of mine is coming to visit on Saturday, and we will also be meeting up with the Gasselsbergers for a braai at some stage.

Only bummer is that I need to go to work tomorrow – oh well – I’ll just have to grin and bear it.
Wishing you all a enjoyable day,
Richard.

bollocks.....

Unfortunately things have made a bit of a change since last week (or last time I posted)! Due to savings on the part of Credit Suisse my contract has been terminated end of next week, so I have only this week left in Switzerland - sob sob! I don't think it is a permanent decision but it's always the same when you are a consultant. You're the last in (to rescue the mess others have made) and the first out (cause you cost more than the people who made the mess) so I guess it's to be expected.

To be honest, this high flying Swiss Franc is slowly choking the Swiss! Just about every company in Switzerland is complaining about lack of sales and people missing their payments. And so it is also with the bank. They have decided to cut 2000 jobs before the end of the year, and that's quite a cut to be honest. I'll be looking around for other contracts to be sure, but I'll relish the time at home with the family towards the end of August, and I hope that the weather will be good.

Other high priority news is that Marc is "FINALLY" using the potty on a regular basis and has stopped causing huge lakes in our living room. His superman suit is getting bigger and bigger in his eyes. AND. Hanna has started swimming without swim wings - YAY! So all good in the Eurogathers household for the moment! Nobody is sick, and Christine has even found a way to start running on a regular basis again.....

From my side I have not been running this week unfortunately but have managed to give my new Kindle a good whirl. So far I'm very happy. For reading it is absolutely perfect - could not be better (and this is the number 1 reason why I bought it). You can read it in any light, even very little light and there is no reflection so you can read it outside perfectly as well. What I'm not so impressed with is the Amazon offer. It is overly expensive and extremely limited here in Europe, the 3G is EXTREMELY slow and the handling is not what I would call intuitive. So for anything other than reading it is really not an option! In that respect I'm very disappointed - before long I'll be looking for ways to jippo the thing......

And that is my news in a nutshell, hope you guys are all well,
R.

Christine with the kids says hi :)

I did it - I finally did it......

Yup - I spent over € 200 on a book! A book! Can you believe it......

Some friends of mine have been ranting about this book for a while, and my sister swears by it, so I finally took the plunge and bought a ......

Yes......

You guessed it ......

..... a Kindle!

Loaded with my first book (better be good Mr Martin)!

Excellent stuff. Pity that it's a niche market for old Mr. Amazon! I fear I'll be spending quite a few of my hard earned francs there in the next few years.

The Golden City

This year I wanted to give Christine something special for her birthday and I though a romantic weekend for 2 in a city of her choice would be a good idea. She loved it and decided on Prague, a city she has wanted to visit for a while.

Using the opportunity that my folks were here and I had leave I decided that this weekend (just passed) would be perfect timing and as the grand parents were willing and able I thought I would organise it. It is also our 14th year since we met and this is our 10th year of marriage so it was a special occasion.

I booked us into an upmarket hotel in the centre of Prague, with swimming pool and good traffic connections. Brilliant idea as we were able to leave the car in the garage (after all this is the Czech republic) and walk or take the trams to where ever we wanted to go. Unfortunately we had left the camera at home so we were walking around using Christine’s IPhone as our camera – and this was clearly not going to work, so in addition to looking over the old city we also started to look for a new camera.

Actually I should fill in some basic background information first. We have been thinking about buying a proper Digital SLR camera for some time, because our camera doesn’t really take very good pictures. And we want a camera that can also take video’s. So we thought we would see what we could find in Prague, hoping it would be cheaper than in Austria.

The old city of Prague is a beautiful and not “horribly” overcrowded city (like many other capital cities in Europe). It was very pleasant for us to walk around, even if the weather was not perfect on Friday. We walked the length and breadth of the old city even getting as far as the Jewish quarter (famous for its graveyard and ridiculous prices). We didn’t go in, as we didn’t feel it was worth paying the massive entry fee just to look at some dead people. One thing about tourist cities, they make their money through tourists, and boy must you pay through the nose for just about everything.

We looked at some of the old towers in and around the old city and also the Karlsbridge where the tourists (yes we are also tourists) became unbearable. At this stage we headed back to our hotel, via a camera shop we had seen earlier, for a much needed swim and some R&R and we even managed to catch the last 30 minutes of “le tour” – oh yes, and we did buy a camera at the shop, one that I have been wanting for a while (Canon EOS 550D). Slightly more expensive than buying it over the internet, but we were able to use it immediately – so all good.

On Saturday we headed up to the fort immediately via tram and stopped at a little cafe for breakfast (unfortunately a bit of a let-down) before getting up to the fort. Here again I was struck by the sheer amount of tourists. People really do only go where it is well known. We often went down side streets, finding to our delight smaller more interesting shops and cheaper more Czechish restaurants. Their loss is our gain I say but we did have to see the fort and Prague from the hill so the traipse up the hill, tourists and all, was well worth it.

After this we wandered down to the river and along its shores for a few hours, also a very interesting and beautiful experience. We then strolled over the Karlsbridge on our “roundabout” way back to the hotel. By this stage we were both footsore and weary so we didn’t want do anything more this day, except head off to our favourite restaurant for a final evening meal in Prague.

The restaurant was great – we had been there on Thursday night already, and had had a great meal, and this evening it was just as good, although it was far too much – I wasn’t able to finish all of it. When I complained to the waiter that the starter wasn’t really small, but more of a main meal, all he said was “This is Czech small” – so I guess I know for future reference. One dish is enough, even if it is a starter….LOL

On Sunday we packed up early and headed out, getting back to Henndorf in time to celebrate Gitte’s birthday and a bang up birthday lunch. I had a great time and I can recommend Prague to anyone wanting to experience a bit of Czech culture.

Granny and Grandpa were here!

Last weekend my parents were here for a visit. They arrived on Friday at Munich where we picked them up after some low flying of our own due to heavy traffic. It’s always good to see them and the kids were extremely happy as well. Hanna had been speaking about nothing else for over a month. Alas we had to keep Aisha in check (due to last year’s war wound on dad), but she was also happy to see mom and Dad.

As usual they were staying at Leo and Gitte’s house (our flat is not really big enough) but we ate mostly at our house. We had 4 great days to be honest and the weather was also very good to us. On Saturday we decided to visit the Konig lake in Germany, and it was a super experience. I’ve never been there myself so it was a real eye opener for me as well. We had an hour long boat trip over the 8 km lake in near perfect conditions and a nice walk and some grub at a guesthouse on the other side (only reachable by boat). We all got a bit sunburnt but it was well worth it.

On Sunday the ladies looked after the kids while Dad, Leo and I went for a cycle. Again gorgeous weather (not even wind) made for an excellent morning followed by a swim in the Wallersee and then a braai that was almost ruined by a summer storm. It was all very exciting at one stage, but we survived it all and had a very pleasant evening together as well.

I had taken the week off work, so on Monday Christine and I did some much needed shopping while Granny and Grandpa looked after the kids. The day was spent at home mostly, just enjoying a bit of “non-active” time. On Tuesday we decided to have a picnic at Mattsee and what an excellent day it turned out to be. The weather was perfect and after an excellent meal, Dad and I took the kids out for a boat ride on one of the many electric boats that you can hire in Mattsee. A pirate boat it was, and even Hanna got to skipper for a while. Mom and Christine had a coffee in the Castle and afterwards the pirates where invited for a huge Ice Cream, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

All in all a good time was had by all and before long Mom and Dad where packed on the train as they headed back to Munich Airport and the long trip home. It was great to see the folks and we wish that the next time they come that they really can come for longer.

News of the day

SO here I sit on my way back from Zurich, looking forward to seeing Christine and the kids. Additional bonus, Mom and Dad Gathercole will be around on the weekend, and it will be really nice to see them again. I'm not sure that we have got lots planed, but the most important thing as that we can spend time together. I'm really looking forward to it.

The job in Zurich is just getting better and better. I'm really liking my colleagues and thoroughly enjoying the challenge of being in IT again. It was just like riding a bike to be honest, I'm already back in full swing. Today I had the real pleasure of working out a software technicality with two top coders while I badgered them with problems. A sort of "techie Jam Session" :) I seriously enjoyed it. Barring any major hiccups, it looks like I will be in Zurich until round about the end of the year, and then I will need to consider my options again. So hold thumbs for me. Currently there are only two drawbacks and that is that I miss the family Mon to Wed, and that I'm living out of a suitcase 3 days a week without proper Internet connections. Bummer - little white ones.....

On the other hand, I am still very involved in the private financial consulting, and I'm enjoying this as well. It’s a great job to be doing, although it's not as financially rewarding as I would hope that it would be. I'm finding that Thursday / Friday in the Salzburg office is currently just about right, and I'm able to keep up with my work, and my customers.

Running has been stagnant since I've hurt my calf (in the other blog) but other than that both the family and I are in full health. In fact Christine is now enjoying a very hard earned vacation and with the weather being so great at the moment in Henndorf, she is constantly at the lake with the kids. Both Hanna and Marc are no longer in day care (as Christine is on leave) and they love that situation. Both are learning to swim, and Marc is also "sort of" trying to become potty trained, otherwise the Kindergarten might not take him. He really doesn't want to and so it is very difficult to get him there.... The fact that Marc is no longer at Veronika's is quite a big change for us as well, as she has been our constant companion with the kids since Hanna was 6 months old, so almost 5 years. She was always excellent with the kids and so we are a little unhappy to see that era past, but we were able to make space for Norbert’s little girl Charlotta, so it all worked out well.

What else can I tell you - not much really. I am at home next week (because of Mom and Dad) and Christine and I will be having a romantic weekend in Prague next week as well. Leo and Gitte have agreed to take the kids and Aisha so we can really lie back, kick off our shoes and have some fun. One other bit of extended family news is that Leo is finally in Pension - I hope that he has a really good time and that it all goes well. We've been teasing him about all the stuff that will need to be done now that he has free time, but I think he will take it easy and see how it develops.

So, that’s all for now, enjoy your day,
Richard.

A new week.....

WOT.....

Another week, another blog - can you believe it!

Last week was an interesting one with lots of ups and few downs as well. On the positive side I had a great week in Zürich, and then had a super few days in Salzburg. I was visiting a friend on Friday night and we had some wine so I was a little nervous about driving home. And then I go and get stopped twice :) Once was by a cop who was at an accident, luckily there was no problem there, he just told me where to go and what to do. And then close to home I got "controlled" - papers and drivers license, do you have your warning vest / first aid kit etc. Unfortunately I didn't have everything with me as I used it at the last accident scene (not mine) and forgot to reclaim them from the police at the time, so I made a right confusing picture looking for the stuff. Thus I was told I needed a breath test - wow was I nervous - and then 0.00 (whoopee), obviously I didn't drink as much as I thought.....

Anyways, I'll need to get myself some new kit for the car this week - bahumbug! That was Friday night and on Saturday morning I decided to take Aisha for a quick run and in the process I seem to have ripped my calf muscle something aweful. A few days rest will be needed and I will also need to be careful when running for a while. I might try a VERY short and flat run this evening to see how it is.

Other than that, I'm sitting on the train heading towards Zürich again and rather looking forward to my working week. Life is certainly fun when you're having fun. I wish you all a good week as well - enjoy!

The long awaited update!

Well, it has been awhile since I last posted on our blog. And I’m sure that the large portion of people who read it in the past don’t look here anymore. I’m sorry about that. Having a full family, a job that wasn’t going so well and health problems just lead to the natural conclusion that some things had to give, and the blog was one of them.

To be honest, things have settled down a bit since 2008 when Marc appeared on the scene. Although my job in Salzburg is hard going, I have taken on a second job to help pay the bills so to speak, and find myself travelling to Zurich every week on the train.  I do my best to work during this time, but I also find that I have time to read and reply to correspondence from friends and family as well, and time to spend 30 minutes writing my blog….

To be honest, I’m not really sure how much time I will get but I will try to add to the Eurogathers a little more timeously in the future.

SO…… where are we?

Our last entry was around Sept 09. Since then we have had no additions to the family J All have continued to grow like bean sprouts and Hanna (now 5) and Marc (3) are a constant source of joy to both Christine and I. Hanna will be finishing her 2 year in kindergarten soon, and Marc will be leaving our day – care mother (Veronika) in the summer. We will be sad to see her go as she has been the life saver we have needed on various occasions and has been truly fantastic for both our kids, but they grow up and move on and before you know it they are married and living in another country! Marc will be starting Kindergarten with Hanna then in the fall.

Christine is well, working away at school like a Trojan! She will be starting her 6th year of teaching this coming year and will helping to fill a spot left by Leo (my father-in-law) who has decided to go into Pension. That leaves 2 grandparents close by who will be on pension from the summer. I hope I will be able to handle that *grin*! Aisha as well has been great – with the kids, with the neighbours, with just about everything. Unfortunately she is feeling her age and running is becoming a bit harder for the poor old lady, we have already had one hip problem, and she is definitely favouring her left side. It doesn’t seem to affect her too much, but time will tell.

As for me, well I’ve taken on a slightly rounded shape due to the fact that I hardly run at all anymore. Work has been extremely stressful since around mid-2008, and is finally coming round.  I have been steadily building up my customer base, but it is still not enough to live from so I have taken a second job, working in my first love (IT) for a large bank in Switzerland. I travel to Zurich on Mondays and home on Wednesday and then spend Thursday and Friday in the office in Salzburg. So far (after 2 months) this has been working very well, and I hope it will continue.

As for running well what can I say? Since my Ankle injury in April of 10 I really haven’t been running at all. I’ve slipped up to 85 kg’s since summer last year and am trying to get myself back to jogging occasionally. Added to this, I am still having back troubles (very acute in January through April) and running has “almost” become a chore. After numerous doctors and physios I am finally seeing the end of my back troubles, and one of my new work colleagues drags me out to run every day after work, so maybe I’ll be able to run a bit in Summer – I hope so and I hope to lose a few kgs as well.

So that’s all for now guys, don’t want to spoil you with too much information for the moment, hope to keep up on the writing for a while at least!

Good morning to you all, on a beautiful sunny morning while riding on a train through the magnificent landscape that is the Tyrol valley,

Richard.

P.S: Foto's will follow shortly.

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!

--------------
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.