Christmas

What a lovely Christmas shared with Delphine's parents and her brother, wife and two small children. On Christmas Eve we found that the lake at the local park was frozen and we all went for a skate.

There is also a short clip of Mattéo's school play (where our little boy had the title role of the "Jolly Christmas Postman") and of the children waiting for permission to go into the living room to see the tree and presents. PLEASE CLICK ON THE "PLAY" BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM LEFT OF EACH OF THE TWO CLIPS.

Christmas day itself was of course very exciting . We had a tasty full roast lunch and a fun board game in the afternoon.
The perfect day came to a perfect end with a very spectacular visit to the Munich winter circus.

October and November

Ooops we skipped a month - but now we'll try to catch up. A circus pitched tent near our house in Munich so we had lots of fun visiting the animals and watching the tent being erected.

After revisiting the Oktoberfest, again we found ourselves in Austria to take part in the apple festival in our local town of Haiming - not only apples but also gigantic pumpkins.

Grandad joined us in Austria on his way back to France from Venice. Back in Munich he joined us to celebrate St Martins day with a traditional roast goose.

Late in November, the European Patent Office celebrated its 30th birthday in great style. Almost 4000 people enjoyed a super night at the Munich Convention Centre.

Other news is that Alister is currently preparing for the German fishing license (an exam will take place in March) which also involves a practical session at a local trout farm. Delphine is getting quite busy with painting (oil and watercolour). Mattéo continues enjoying school (he prefers numbers to letters) as well as playing football and expressing a great interest in Dad's fish activities. Juliette is getting very excited about Christmas and sings and dances all the time.

London revisited, A Kiwi at the Oktoberfest and "Tirol" joins the Family

At the beginning of the month, we joined in the local village Tirolean festivities to celebrate the return of the livestock from the pastures - the Almabtrieb. This was particularly nice because it was not at all touristic, just local farmers and families and our friend Meinhard was working at the bar! Click here and you can see a short film of the lederhosen slapping dance. A little calf was also born during our stay.

In mid September Alister spent a very enjoyable long weekend in London, revisiting his old department at Imperial College, seeing old friends and walking along a very lively South Bank with Marielaure.

Uncle Roger timed his visit to Munich perfectly during his European tour, coinciding with the opening weekend of the Oktoberfest. For the first time, we watched the festival procession from the comfort of a grandstand - well needed for the two hour event! We were all very happy to see Roger again and the children were particularly excited and could understand, from experience, the magnitude of his trip from New Zealand.

The weekend after Roger's departure for Simon and Jane in Devon, guess what, we returned to our hut in Austria and came home with a special ball of fluff called "Tirol", specially selected from the kittens playing in the barn. Click here to see a short film.

Apart from that in general:
Alister's shoulder is repairing well, started some gentle swimming. Work is returning to normal.
Delphine continues to improve the house furnishings and keeps track of the children's busy schedules.
Mattéo enjoys school and is starting to recognise some words. Swimming like a fish and starting pottery next week (after soccer and cricket practice during the weekend).
Juliette is very chatty and has a busy social life with her little friends. She enjoys her dancing and music classes.

Mattéo's first day at school

Mattéo could not hide his excitement these last few days. At last he started today at the english section of the primary school of the European school in Munich .


It is traditional in Germany for children to make their own Schultute ("school bags") which are cornet shaped, and their parents fill them with school gadgets, gifts and sweets.

Alister took a few hours off the physiotherapy to be with Delphine and Mattéo. It was also an opportunity to meet the teacher (Miss Cronin) who you can see on one of the photos below. She is new to the school, having just come from an international school in Milan, and she seems very nice indeed.

Mattéo was thrilled to see some of his old friends from the Kindergarten and spent an enjoyable day in his new classroom, listening to a story told by Miss Cronin.




There are also a couple of photos of Mattéo's new bed (which he also helped to put together). Alister got some kind help from Christian and Olivier who could reach the parts that Alister still cannot reach!

Getting back to normal life

These first two photos show the scene of the accident - Alister slipped on the muddy and (at the time) waterlogged puddle and skidded on his shoulder until where the black bag is placed. It is sure that this was the spot because the remains of the cycling glasses were found at the side of the track!!


Meanwhile we have returned to our hut in the mountains and made a great discovery - the local swimming pool complex is simply spectacular. Set in a forest and surrounded by mountains - the modern pools are sure to be frequently visited in future. Alister enjoyed a dip in the water, but his arm movement is still much too limited to actually swim. Meanwhile, back at the hut we had a lovely time. Mattéo particularly was happy to jump on the tractor and disappear into the (very steep!) fields with Meinhard (the farmer/lumberjack), he also learnt about scrumping apples in the nearby orchards, and made kilos of apple puré using his M'amie's recipe and her also spent a lot of time jumping on and collecting grasshoppers in the fields. Just right for a little boy of 6!!

Juliette enjoyed following her brother about and spent a lot of time trying to find the farm kittens.

Souvenirs of the beach in France

At last Delphine, Mattéo and Juliette have returned to a very happy Alister - even more so because Alister's mother came along for the ride!!

Here are a few snaps of their 5 weeks on the Atlantic coast in France, also with the cousins, Victoire, Capucine, Sixtine and Cyprien as well as grandmère, grandpère, tantes Erika and Monique, Delphine cousins etc, etc.

On the mend and on the beach

Yes, Alister is slowly on the mend andDelphine and the children are spending a few weeks on the Atlantic Coast in France.

But Alister hasn’t been alone for the whole time; his dad came over [as he usually does in the summer] to enjoy Bavaria and the Alps, help out at home [like cooking, tying shoelaces, trimming the garden, etc], and of course provide some company.

Delphine’s mother took the train to Munich in mid July and we all spent a weekend at our little house in Austria. It was a little uncomfortable for Alister and his shoulder but we all had a lot of fun. Then Delphine and the mother shared the driving back to France just before Juliette’s birthday.

Alister and has been written off sick for quite a long time and decided to go back to Austria with dad and a large pile of documents to prepare for a complex meeting in August. With beautiful weather, they took a long day trip over a spectacular mountain passes into a lovely area of northern Italy.

It seems that Delphine and the children are having fun, reliving some fun times from New Zealand by body boarding and fishing off the coast. Hopefully some pictures will soon be available for this blog.

Alister chaired his big meeting over two full days earlier this week, it was pretty tough going especially with the painful shoulder, and is pleased to be back with a reduced workload during his convalescence.

Needless to say he is really looking forward to being reunited with Delphine Mattéo Juliette as well as his mother on 17 August!

As far as the shoulder is concerned, Alister is still not allowed to use it actively and still spends an hour a day strapped into his "physio chair" - next medical check is in a few days.

That’s all for now! For the first time, this blog has been written using my voice alone [no hands!] Speech recognition software is pretty advanced but still can be frustrating!