Being busy, meeting friends

Lots of first encounters for Rita´s baby (= Paul) in the last few days! At first, we had our friends from "LoonyFritz" in LowerAustria with us, then my cousin Judith came to see Paul for the first time - she found him alright, too, I guess. As you can see, Sabine and her girls, Mia and Ina, had a good time with our little man and, the girls loved watching Rita nursing our cutie. Well, they´ll end up doing that too, at one point...
Then Mathias showed that he was as skillful holding boys as girls - well done, my friend.
On Friday, cousin Judith took some time off work to come and see Paul; great of you to pass by, J., lovely to see you - and I hope you´ll pop in again soon.
Then we went to Niederranna and spent a day at grandad Hubert´s, and on Sunday we went to meet the whole Wöss family for lunch and then went to my parents´ place - for a walk.
There´s granny Herta doing her best to pacify Paul!
All in all, we had an eventful and pretty cool weekend - by the way, it was Rita and my 8th anniversary - oh, and Happy birthday, Reiter! ;-)

Everyday life in Leonfeldnerstrasse 83, Linz, Austria

Hi guys, today I want to give you a little input about our daily life here in Linz - at first, we have to get Paul to bed - sometimes that can be a bit tricky, as he goes through a nightly routine of flatulence -and most of the time we have to give him a medicine called "Antiflat" ;-).

We always try to go for a walk early in the morning, when it is still relatively cool out - and then we go for another one in the evening, when the air is chilled already - sometimes, Paulie still goes berserque - it´s good fun to have him out in the park - he enjoys that.

When we get home (from our first walk, obviously), I hang up the washing and make sure everything´s dry and clean so Rita can do the ironing perfectly. Well, and while we are working away Paul enjoys himself in his bed... that´s it, really... it´s perfect, we´re loving it...!

You´ll get some info about how we play with Paul in the next blog entry - keep coming! ;-)
ERF

Happy birthday Mum

At my mum´s birthday party, there were the "Badgers", Uncle Franz, Christoph, André (village priest), my great grand auntie Maridl and Rita and my family (Paul) - we had a bbq and then chilled in the sun or inside - some of us found it too hot on the terrace... just some impressions of the peaceful afternoon in Oberkappel... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUM!

More visitors

In the last few days there have been a lot of visitors, so Paul, Rita and I were quite busy and did not have a lot of time to put posts online. This morning, while Rita and Paul were taking their well deserved nap after another night with too little sleep, I decided to upload some stuff again. There were more visitors to our house, as stated above: Doris, Lilly and Dominik, who came to see Paul and brought some lovely cake along and wanted to get to know Paul a little better, and Karin and Linda. The reasons for their coming was Linda´s birthday a few days ago (Happy birthday!) and an interview Karin had in Salzburg the following day. It was lovely to have them here and Paul was well pleased - as you can see! ;-)

Dominik, Doris and Lilly

Doris with Paul, a sceptical Lilly observing them!

Karin, a future midwife? Well, Paul likes being with her anyways - good sign, Paulie, just as long as you do not start playing with your toes, Auntie Karin does not like that at all!!! ;-)

ERF

First visitors

Alright? This time I would like to show to you the first visitors Paul had in the first week of being home in his flat. David from France, living in Brussels, came to see Paul, Rita and me last weekend - he was meant to be staying at ours but, thank god, Julia (on the first picture with her lovely daughter Hannah), our mutual friend, managed to squeeze him in her in-laws place nearby - it would have been crazy to have him around. Not because he´s a loony, no, he is fantastic. But we still need a lot of time to get to know Paul and understand him fully.
Thanks Julia, again, by the way!
Linda, Rita´s sis, seems to comprehend his needs entirely, however. Look at how relaxed Paul is when sleeping in her arms! ;-)
ERF

Before and after pictures

Two pics I would like to show to you guys today.
The first one obviously shows little Paul a few days BEFORE he left his Mom´s save womb and decided to bless us with his appearance on Earth. The second one clearly shows that he´s not entirely happy about his choice all the time - especially when being cleaned, he is not a happy bunny at all most of the time.
However, Rita and I are getting better at that, and sooner or later he´ll accept that there was no way he could have stayed inside...
ERF

Little Paul is a curious fellow!

Hi everyone,
today´s update is a short one - there´s not much to tell, really. Paul, Rita and I had a relaxing Sunday morning at home, David came round for lunch and then we took him to the train station, and in the afternoon we went to my sister Kerstin´s place, where Paul´s nephews tried to play with him unsuccessfully - he´s a little too young for that, to be honest.
Working for school now, as tomorrow the new week starts, with a few interesting highlights... grading, some more oral exams, and the big final conference to discuss the students final grades... yeah!
I´ll be in touch again soon,
ERF

Our first trip to the park!

Hello fans! ;-) Well, I hope there are some out there...

Anyways, the day before yesterday, Paul, Rita and I went for our first official walk together. It was quite exciting since new but everything went well... Paul was fast asleep throughout and got some fresh air, Rita did some brave walking and felt a lot better afterwards....
Paul is getting better at nights, and changing nappies is becoming easier, too, as the remains of his umbilical cord have finally come off... that´s a relief.
That´s it from me, I´ll blog again soon, as we have our first official visitor in Linz this weekend. He´s a member of the French European Commission and works in Brussels - you might have guessed - it´s David.
TBC,
ERF

Hommage á Rita

Hi everyone!
I am willing to keep you updated this time - I hope I´ll be able to as I am a little stressed throughout the following couple of weeks. Anyways, this is a wonderful little picture I took yesterday when Rita and Paul had a moment together - she´s amazing, so is Paul - they already are a good team.
The picture below is the stork the boys and Marion put up for us at our flat on Monday night - well nice, that - and they brought some beers as well. Thanks boys, I will return the favour one day!
To be continued soon,
ERF

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU!

Hi everyone, well - in case there is anyone left of my friends checking this page every now and then!
I do apologise a thousand times for not updating this account very often... believe it or not, I am a busy person; however, this is big news - well, actually, it´s quite little news, as this baby, his name is Paul, is not the tallest baby ever born (50cm, 3330gr). Still, he is mine! And Rita´s, of course, who had the pleasure to keep him inside her for quite some time until Pauli wanted out a week early.
Every single witness of this wonderful event is happy and well, and now we are trying to get used to one another... It is brilliant fun though, he is a cute fellow.
Come back here for more news some time soon.
ERF

I am back!

Hello everybody... well, the people who still go online to check my blog every now and then... remember me?

I just wanted to say Hi - I am still alive and kicking (mostly on Sundays, see links for football) and have a lot of information for you guys - but no time today to get it across today.

But, as I will be back from my winter sports week the next Saturday, I will then start posting on my blog a lot more again - it´s a shame I never did in the last year!

So, talk to you soon, folks, hopefully you´re still there!

Ernsti Fischer

Easter is nighing...

Dear all,
as I have been very busy with school and everything, I have not found the time to get in touch with you recently. Sorry about that, rest assured I have thought of yous quite a lot, in case you checked and noticed nothing was going on... there was a lot.
Rita and I went on a holiday in Amsterdam in December

where we did a lot of sight seeing around the beautiful old part of the town and its famous Grachten... and spent a few days in London in February, it was Rita´s first time ever, so again we tried to see as many things as spossible within the short amount of time we had... but it was great!

We did not go on the London Eye, but had a few romantic walks along the Thames; we lived very near Tower Bridge and the Tower, so walked across and past them, naturally,

We had a look around Big Ben as well, of course,

and also took the boat up to Greenwich, the Maritime Museum and the Zero Meridian at the Royal Observatory. It was a fantastic trip, and if you havppen to go to London some time soon, make sure to check out the many different walks offered there. We did the Jack the Ripper Walk, a 90 minute tour around the area of Jack´s famous and brutal killings and that was fabulous, good fun and interesting.

Then I also was at a ski trip with school in January, the national championship in skiing for schools at the beginning of March and spent a couple of days at a football camp with my team.
I also had a lot of tests at school and a couple at uni, where I do a programme for students to be who need an English preparation for university; and now I am writing this on my new little pc thingy, which I acquired just the other day because the old one is slowly giving up...
Later, I have to correct two exams which I held before the Easter holidays, I´ll do that today and tomorrow, and on Friday, I go skiing with a couple of mates from uni - Achi and Volker, for the ones who remember them!
So, as you can see, life is busy, but please do not hesitate to plan a trip to Europe / Austria again soon, as I would really like to see some of you again some time soon!
All the best,

Ernsti Fi.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Hi just a quick note from Oberkappel.

We wish you all a wonderful time with your friends and family and a very happy Christmas 2008. Enjoy the peace and quiet for as long as it lasts and make sure you value these periods of the year as much as they deserve. Reverence, harmony and happiness cannot be weighed up with anything else - so, hopefully, your momentary lives are full of them!

All the best and a happy new year, 2009 - we´re coming fast!
May the changes happening around the world make it a better place!

Rita and Ernsti Fi.

Breaking bones....

Guess what happened to me on my BIRTHDAY? Well, on my way home from the volleyball course I was teaching at, lost in thought, I had a crash with my bike... when I got up from the road I was like - "Wow, I can move my shoulder, lucky me!"
But when I took a second feel, I realised I had not been so lucky after all - I noticed my right collarbone was facing the wrong way!
So I went to hospital to have an x-ray done - it looked a little like the pic above - was slightly flustered, got a corset at first, which should have moved the bone back where it belonged. But when I had a check up with a second X-ray on Thursday it had not moved as far as the docs had anticipated and, considering my profession and interests, I was advised to have it fixed with surgery... and then it will look a little like this:
So, on Monday next, I will undergo my first real surgery, well, I had my tonsils taken out when I was 8 or so, but I do not think that counts - it´s too far back, I guess!
Anyways, just wanted to give you guys and update on my situation, it´s not that bad, though, sounds worse than it really is - the pain is acceptable, I actually returned to the volleyball camp for Thursday and Friday - did not play, naturally, but was there to assist. And my lovely Rita is there to help me wash my hair and everything, so I´m alright, I reckon, and soon, we´ll be laughing about it.
Alright, gonna go now. If I get the x-rays, I´ll put one in here for you guys, maybe you´re interested? Wish me luck!
ERF

Back from Benenden, into the middle of MAYHEM

Hi there,

Have just come back from 3 wonderful weeks in England, check out www.benenden.at to see more pics like this one, showing Lisa, me and Ellie on our way to Rye Royal,


or that one, showing the whole group of TU 6 at lovely Brighton seaside.

So, having returned from my summer in Benenden could mean that I now have some time to relax and enjoy the last part of the holidays - well, not for me, it doesn't! As soon as I returned on Friday, reality kicked in again - in good ways, though!
First, I was able to play in my team´s second game of the season and we won 2:0, a relativley good performance by me as well as the rest of the team!
Then, on Monday morning, Rita and I started moving flats. So, we got up at 7 and started kicking boxes around - thank god, Mum, Dad and my friend Alexander helped us, so we managed to get ready by something like 6 pm - wouldn't have happened without Christian and Arthur who came to the rescue at the end of the day and helped us with the last truck load.
On Tuesday, we still had to paint the old flat, so up we got at 7 and started working on it - took until 2 when we finally handed over our flat to its new owner - so, now, we still have to organise our new appartment so people can actually see it, open the doors, etc... a lot of work ahead of us still... but good stuff!
And, at the weekend, Rita and I are going to the Südsteiermark with a few mates - that'll be awesome, good relaxing down there! Talk to you again soon!
ERF