The Clarkes in Munich

Visit to UK

2009-04-26T16:30:00.009+02:00

Ski Season

2009-03-18T20:45:00.015+01:00

New Year 2009

2009-01-04T19:36:00.009+01:00

After our drive back to Munich via the beautiful town of Freiburg, where we spent a night, we rested quickly before meeting up with friends nearby for a New Year's dinner. Mattéo and Juliette as well as several other children joined in the fun and watched the private firework displays until the early hours. Mattéo was also put to work as a very elegant snacks waiter.
A bit bleary eyed, we set off, on 1 January, for our Hutte in Tirol for three days. The conditions were chilly, but very sunny. We managed to get used to the heating regime needed in the Hutte (all wood burning heaters) and most importantly we got to know our local ski resort : Kuhtai.

It was quickly clear that neither Mattéo nor Juliette had lost any of their enthusiasm for skiing. Before long, we found Mattéo skiing backwards down a red run, giving Juliette encouragement and a few tips!!

We got home on the Sunday evening and entertained Floppy with the children's racing track.

Happy Christmas

2008-12-25T21:02:00.010+01:00

A lovely Christmas spent in France, mainly near Paris with Erika and Emmanuel and partly in the Loire valley to see Alister's parents.

A visit to the Cirque d'Hiver and a walk along the window displays in on Christmas Eve and then an exciting Christmas Day with all 7 cousins, plus uncles aunts and grandparents.

Birthday Boy

2008-12-06T21:47:00.010+01:00

Eight friends for an eighth birthday. Mattéo had a collective present from his friends - a remote controlled "jet" plane. Its first two test flights were fine and the third flight went so well that a large part of the rest of the day was spent by Alister retrieving it (successfully) from a tree!!

Mattéo's M'amie was happy to be part of the party and our dear friend Rene treated us to a lovely magic show at the end.

Autumn

2008-12-01T21:05:00.017+01:00

The first snow of the season coincided with a trip to Heidi's Hutte - lots of fun in the deep and powdery snow and then some board games in the warm living room.

The highlight of our autumn was a visit to Renato and family in the eternal city - Rome. Lovely to see our friends and exciting for Mattéo and Juliette to discover so many things.

Summer 2008

2008-10-11T14:26:00.019+02:00

Sunshine and jazz, happy walks and fun in the water.

We spent the summer in France after the week in Hardelot. Delphine and the children enjoyed the beach near Pornic on the Atlantic coast.

Alister found the children in Angers at his mother's house and spent a very enjoyable week at the Jazz workshop of the Angers music conservatory.

When we returned to Munich, Juliette started with her new english language kindergarten at the European School.

Of course we continued visiting the hut in Tirol and were able to help out more physically with the haymaking.

Kitten Korner

2008-07-22T21:20:00.010+02:00

Early in the morning of 27 June 2008, Tirol gave birth to three healthy kittens, named immediately by the children Lily (black) and Flip and Flop (both stripey).

Here is a selection of photos and films:

Holiday in Northern France

2008-07-22T20:36:00.012+02:00

We spent a very nice week along with Alister's family (Maman, Dad and Marielaure)in a small seaside town called Hardelot - which is near Le Touquet, towards Calais.

The beaches are quite special - soft fine sand and a tide that retreats a long way to give plenty of flat area to do all sorts of beach activities, especially "Char à Voile" (land sailing). Delphine and Alister had an introductory session in a very unpleasant Force 6 wind with rain and hail and later in the week went for a proper sail up and down the beach, splashing through puddles and chasing seagulls.

The weather was generally bad - but we did have three beautiful days and we made the most of those days by visiting the beach. It is almost always windy there, which is why it is quite a popular sea activity centre (kite surfing, land sailing). We did some fun kite flying, Mattéo went body boarding and "skimming", Juliette tried some gentle body boarding, Alister and Marielaure went body boarding and surf kayaking (Marielaure had brought her kayak over from UK) and Delphine played on the beach with the children.

At the end of the week, Alister returned with his mother to Munich , and Delphine took the children to the Atlantic coast to stay at the family seaside home.

May and June

2008-06-09T21:14:00.013+02:00

Swing and hurling

2008-04-26T17:20:00.015+02:00

A short blog with some pictures and film of the Rene Walden Big Band concert in Ebersberg on 25 March 2008. Alister played tenor sax with a short solo during Senor Blues (Horace Silver) and was delighted to have about 20 friends in the audience. Click on the newspaper clip above and you may indeed decypher a rather too flattering report of my contribution to the concert.

The next day, Alister and Mattéo went to the weekly training for Hurling with the Munich Colmcilles youngsters team.

Spring at last

2008-04-20T20:43:00.025+02:00

The start of Spring has been marked by sadness with the loss of a dear cousin, Jean-Yves - the "senior" member of my generation in the family, and the loss of aunt Sally, of New Zealand.
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During the French school holidays, Delphine's sister Erika and her three daughters, Victoire, Capucine and Sixtine came to visit for two weeks, leaving husband Emmanuel and son Cyprien in France. We had a fun time - with the obligatory trip to our "Heidi's hutte". Here we have found a video about Haiming which is where our Hutte is.

Then, during the German school holidays, we all went to France. We mainly stayed with Erika, and we also made a trip to the Loire valley to visit M'amie (Alister's Mother) and Grandad - who was about to celebrate his 75th birthday!

We then made another (70th) birthday celebration with Delphine's father in a very fine Parisian restaurant "Apicius".

We took the opportuntiy of visiting some sights (see our cryptic photo of the Eiffel Tower) before leaving for a couple of days with Delphine's aunt Monique (and uncle Willem) in Brussels.

A quick and very enjoyable visit to friends John, Irena and baby Lisha in Luxemburg rounded off a very successful Easter break.

Back to work - everything going well for all of us. Mattéo and Juliette enjoy having friends - such as neighbour Simon - in the garden to get on with some serious housing building work.

Finally, just today (writing this Blog) Mattéo and Dad managed to carry out a long wished day out: fishing near Munich. Easier said than done in Germany ... Alister had to follow an extensive course during the winter before passing an exam to get a licence. Anyway the day was very successful - we caught the limit of three Rainbow Trout (48cm, 32cm, 30cm - total weight 2200g)!!

Skiing in Zillertal (Austria)

2008-02-17T16:01:00.009+01:00

This year we returned to our favourite family skiing hotel in the Zillertal, Tirol, Austria ... only about 2 hours drive from home.

Our friends from Munich Jean-Christophe and Stéphanie with their daughter Louise joined us at the hotel for the week. For the first weekend only another family joined us : Rene and Corinne with Lena, Leo and Luis.

This is the fourth time that we have stayed at this hotel and we know the area quite well. One of our regular activities is the sledge ride down a 7.5 km toboggan run at the Hainzeberg. Mattéo and Alister shared a sledge and went down with confidence, hit a large area of sheet ice and left the narrow path and plunged into a steep wooded ravine. Alister tumbled 5 metres down and heavily bruised his left side and heard Mattéo screaming with fright. He had hit a tree further up and had sustained some head injuries - resulting in an alarming amount of blood. We carefully walked down the rest of the route and amazingly flagged down a passing ambulance returning from delivering a patient nearby. We were well looked after and the duty doctor in Zell tidied up the wounds, made a total of about 12 stitches to three cuts on the scalp and took a couple of X-rays for safety. Mattéo was extremely brave and took all the treatment like a very big boy.

Whilst the stitches prevented Mattéo from swimming in the hotel pool, thankfully there was no problem in getting back on the ski slopes and he was soon up on the mountain with a group of 8 youngsters and an instructor, Richard.

Juliette also built upon her previous week of lessons and continued with a small group and an instructor on the slope next to the hotel.

They were each very keen to ski and during the week there were two sets of slalom races (one up on the mountain and one by the hotel). Alister and Delphine of course went to each race and were proud to see Mattéo and Juliette each on the podium receiving a gold medal for first place in their respective group races!!!

As for the adults, we made the most of the fantastic sunny weather and great snow and skied the whole region. The hotels health spa let us relax while the children enjoyed post ski activities with the child minders.

January

2008-02-04T19:51:00.000+01:00

We only had a sprinkle of snow this month, but it was enough to have some fun in the snow. We all went to a small ski slope near Munich and Mattéo showed that he had not lost his skills even after 2 years away from the slopes. A few weeks later, Juliette went skiing every day for a week with her Kindergarten. At the end of the week (whilst poor Mattéo was still at school), Delphine and Alister went to see how she had progressed during her first week. There was a short race for her group of ten girls and Juliette came away with the bronze medal (see the film below).

We also had some nice walks by a local river (Mangfall) and Mattéo continued with his indoor soccer tournaments. He started a new team sport - but we'll talk about that in a later Blog.

Alister was pleased to be able to swim a kilometre of front crawl - another sign that the shoulder is really almost back to normal!!

Christmas

2007-12-26T11:02:00.001+01:00

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

2007-12-02T15:18:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-03T09:35:00.000+02:00

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

2007-09-04T19:57:00.001+02:00

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

2007-08-27T06:35:00.001+02:00

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

2007-08-19T20:25:00.000+02:00

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

2007-08-05T18:55:00.000+02:00

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!

Wedding in Beirut - Mariage à Beyrouth

2007-06-27T11:33:00.000+02:00

Alister slips up

2007-06-27T11:12:00.000+02:00

This will be quite short since it is being typed only with my left hand.

Early on Saturday 23 June, whilst Delphine was in Beirut and Mattéo and Juliette were staying at a friends house, Alister decided to go for his regular mountain bike ride along the popular bike trails along the Isar (river). After an hour of fun and sweat, Alister mis-read a corner and landed heavily on his shoulder (and head). A passerby helped get the bike up to the road (luckily only 200m away up the bank). A friend came to take care of the bike and an ambulance took Alister to the nearby hospital in Harlaching.

The right shoulder was clearly dislocated, but thankfully no bones were broken and apart from some scratches and scrapes no other injury was sustained.

A short full anaesthetic and the shoulder was back in place but wasn't holding very well so Alister stayed at hospital until Monday for an MRI scan. The doctors detected damage to the muscle.

Alister underwent a three hour operation on the morning of 28 June during which the surgeons refixed two muscles (supra- and infraspinatus) to the top of the humerus with 7 little "staples". The arm will have to remain completely passive for 6 weeks. Alister stayed for almost a week after the op, in order to have the pain controlled and to start mobility exercises with a robot which moves his arm for him!! There were some nice visits during the stay, not least from an excited little Mattéo and Juliette and of course Delphine.

Birthday in Berlin

2007-06-10T19:51:00.000+02:00

Alister's was born on 8 June 1967. With a Bavarian public holiday on Thursday 7 June 2007, the Clarke family decided to head off to one of Alister's favourite cities for the long weekend. Just to make things a bit more fun, we took an overnight train from Munich to the capital with our car in tow behind!!

A visit to the lovely Sanssouci Park upon arrival (7 June) and then dinner in the space age Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz (right in the heart of the city near our hotel).

Alister's birthday itself was spent exploring the city on tour buses and boats. Alister has visited Berlin many times (several times during the East West separation), but for Delphine this was her first encounter. The weather on 8 June was spectacular! A lovely dinner on the elegant Gendarmenmarkt to close a perfect day!

Saturday morning: Delphine attacks the Kufursendamm (main shopping street of the former West Berlin) and Alister, Mattéo and Juliette walk in the Tiergarten and climb up the famous Siegessäule. Two hours drive later we arrive in Dresden. A nice central hotel let us have a relaxing and fun afternoon in the sauna and swimming pool spa whilst summer storms broke overhead. Evening dinner on the old town square.

SundayWalk around the old town,the opera, the banks of the Elbe and the famous cathedral (recently reconstructed following bombardment during the second world war - last time Alister was in Dresden, the cathedral was just a pile of rubble).

After a long drive through the "eastern german countryside", we all arrive at home after a lovely weekend.

May

2007-06-01T17:36:00.001+02:00

Avril - April

2007-04-30T19:11:00.000+02:00

Comme partout en Europe, nous avons eu un temps d'été qui nous a permis surtout de profiter de notre refuge dans les Alpes Tyroliennes, qu'on a surnommé "Heidi's Hutte". Mattéo et Juliette se sentent de plus en plus à l'aise parmi les 15 vaches et 1 cheval dans leur étable. Mattéo balaye la paille sans cesse et est très content d'aider Meinhard (le jeune propriétaire) à donner du lait fraichement trait aux 8 vacheraux. Dans ces dernier quelques jours, 2 petits chatons ont apparus et sont vite devenus les vedettes de nos weekends "fermiers".

As everywhere else in Europe we have had real summer weather which has let us enjoy our Alpine hideout in Tirol, which we have nicknamed "Heidi's Hutte". Mattéo and Juliette feel quite comfortable among the 15 cows and 1 horse in their shed. Mattéo sweeps hay all the time and like to help Meinhard (the young owner) feed the fresh milk to the 8 calves. Just in the last few days, two tiny kittens have appeared and have now become the highlight of the farm weekends.

A la maison, les têtards continuent à grossir et maintenant ils ont quelques nouveaux voisins dans un aquarium. Un nouveauté pour nous tous ... voyons voir combien de temps les 15 petits poissons vont survivre.

At home, our tadpoles continue to get bigger and now they have new neighbours in an aquarium. This is a new experience for all of us - let's see how long they survive.

Mattéo's class was treated to a day out at the Munich Philharmonic Centre (Gasteig) to join thousands of other youngsters for the annual childrens open day. Alister was quick to volunteer to help look after the 30 children (with some other parents of course). Great fun for everyone and a special demonstration of the gigantic orchestral organ (over 6000 pipes!). The football season has restarted with a junior tournament in a small village east of Munich. Mattéo and his team mates in FC Phoenix have great fun - but they are a long way from winning any cups!!

Juliette has enjoyed playing outside with her friends and she continues to enjoy singing and dancing at every opportunity. She was excited to take two overnight trains to and from Angers over Easter. And she is very enthusiastic about practising on her push bike.

Delphine and Alister have enjoyed the good weather - plenty to do at home and at work

Pâques à Angers

2007-04-06T13:47:00.000+02:00

Premier voyage en train de nuit pour Juliette. Acceuil à Angers par une M'amie très heureuse.

Grandmère et grandpère sont venus de leur maison sur la côte Atlantique pour voir leur petite fille.

And Grandad spent a very nice afternoon on Easter Sunday.

En rentrant, on a pu passer un moment avec Tonton Franck au Gare de l'Est avant de reprendre le train de nuit vers Munich.

Heidi's Hutte

2007-04-05T17:46:00.000+02:00

Quelques photos de notre hutte dans la montagne autrichienne. C'est assez poussiereux, il y beaucoup de toile d'araignées...On a reussi à faire changer les matelats qui dataient des premiers locataires il y a 30 ans...Il y qq travaux de rénovation à faire (peindre le hall et surtt bien dépoussierer). Il n'y a pas de chauffage et dc il caille bien ds les chambres, seul un poêle chauffe le salon et pr la cuisine, on peut cuisiner avec des plaques chauffantes ou avec un autre poêle qui chauffe aussi la pièce.

Bref, c'est le retour au source, comme nos grands parents ont vécu il y plus de 50 ans. Heureusement il y a un radiateur ds la salle de douche qui est relié au chauffage des voisins proprio. Il n'a pas seulement 10 ans les toilettes étaient encore dehors et il n'y avait pas d'eau courante...On a de la chance!

Mais bon le prix est plus que raisonable donc on ne va pas chipouiller sur des détails. On compte y aller au moins une fois par mois et les week-end prolongés. C'est à seulement 180 km mais il faut 2h30 pour traverser la montagne allemande par Garmisch et passer de l'autre côté.

On compte bien que nos amis nous rendront visite, on les fera dormir à côté du poêle dans le salon sur des matelats de fortune.

Il y de superbes promenades ds le coin dont un lac (Piburgersee) à seulement 15 mn de voiture ou l'on peut se baigner et surtout pêcher. Il y plein de truites. Et juste à côté du chalet il y a un cours d'eau qui descend au milieu des arbres, de quoi occuper les enfants.

Back to Munich - Retour à Munich

2007-03-28T21:59:00.000+02:00

Life in Munich continues with even more energy than before our trip to New Zealand.

Nous avons repris la vie à Munich avec plus d'energie qu'avant notre séjour en Nouvelle Zélande.

Mattéo has restarted his football training with FC Phoenix near our home and also his swimming training at Michaelibad where Juliette also likes to join in the splashing. Mattéo also lost his first tooth (after months of wobbling in NZ). Juliette has had a lot of fun with her new dancing group as well as a trip to the zoo with her class.

Mattéo a recommencè de s'entrainer au Foot avec son équipe "Phoenix" (prés de chez nous) ainsi que sa natation au Michaelibad et Juliette aime beaucoup l'accompagner à la piscine. Mattéo a perdu son premier dent (après une longue attente en Nouvelle Zélande).

Alister's work is going as well as usual - a never ending supply of dossiers. He has managed to maintain some of the momentum of the activity in New Zealand by running regularly in the Ostpark, mountain biking and trying to get into a kayak more regularly.

Comme toujours, le travail d'Alister va assez bien - il n'y a pas de manque de dossiers à traiter. Il réussi a continuer le rhythme de Nouvelle Zélande en faisant du jogging dans le parc à côté de la maison, en pratiquant du VTT et de faire plus souvent du kajak.

Delphine has restarted her fitness club visits and keeps busy coordinating the children's (and Alister's) movements.

Delphine s'entraine dans son gym et s'occupe des problèmes logistiques des enfants (et d'Alister).