Maximilian

A great summer is drawing to an end but – without jumping to far ahead – holidays in more Southernly fields should soon give it a final extension.

This is a very special post for me as it is no. 100.That goes to show what a big boy I have become. This also coincides with a few small milestones. I have finally said goodbye to my sleeping time pull-ups. As a precursor to that I am getting out of my bed and bedroom all by myself to wake up Papa & Maman. And I also wanted to share with you that I am progressing very quickly with my swim training. I got promoted into the Duck-3 class only a few sessions into Duck-2.

As the summer is coming to an end there was still plenty of things going on. One Sunday morning I went to the West End to see the “Tiger Who Came for Tea” in the theatre. The next weekend I went to the Circus with Isobel where I was equally impressed by the trapeze artists and the Strong Man. George and I went to the Tall Ship Festival in Greenwich and we walked all the way from the Cutty Sark to the O2 arena watching numerous majestic vessels sail by. Ethan and Ella introduced me to the gardening club in Southwark Park. But to be honest, Maman’s tomato tree on the terrace is even more impressive. As every year Maman was singing at the Bermondsey Street Festival and I enjoyed myself entertaining the choir members who stopped by for a glass of wine after the event.

August time is Knokke time. Mamy invited me again to join her for a couple of weeks and without hesitation I accepted the offer. I met a new best friend. Her name was Victoire and I spoke a lot of English to her when she understands French and Flamish. But never mind, don’t let language get into the way of a lot of fun.

We built a nice flower shop and offered wonderful flowers up for sale. Tata and Therese handcrafted them and without a shadow of a doubt they were among the most beautiful to be seen up and down the coast. Financial success was coming quick and before long we had earned a full bucket of valuable shells, the currency of the beach.

Equally enjoyable was riding the cuistax, especially on the big piazza in front of Reubens. We also built an enormous sand castle designed to rule the waves but as they so eloquently say in French la mer(e) gagne toujour.

After a refreshing dip into the sea ice cream is really what I need to refuel. You know I like ice cream, especially chocolate, and banana, and strawberry, and also stracciatella. And if it is too rainy for ice cream there is always Belgian waffles…

Big thanks again to Mamy for looking after me so well during those two weeks. I understand Maman and Papa also quite enjoyed themselves in London without me.

All of SE1 relocated again. And we stepped it up again this year. After luxurious stay in French castles and Tuscan villas we went to the Kentish countryside for camping. At least some of us while some others went into rather luxurious tippies readily set up for them. Contrary to the gloomy prediction of some the weather gods were well-disposed towards us. So we enjoyed the great outdoors, cooking on the open fire, playing until well into the night. During the day we got our first lessons in basic survival training in the forest which included baking real bread. My friend George and I together with Tony also went to the sea and even enjoyed the refreshing water and peble beach.

This year we went to Oma and Opa for Easter. It was one of the most traumatic experiences I ever had, but let me tell you more about this later. It all started rather normal and nice. Papa took me and Maman up to “his” waterfall. It was a 60 minutes hike up the woods. It was quite steep and we encountered wild animals like a salamander. It is really dangerous. You are forgiven if you don’t know it. It does not exist in the UK. It looks a bit like a lizard but it is an amphibia and not a reptile (at least according to Papa).

Easter Sunday arrived. After 4o days of fasting I was very glad to dive into a feast of Reindling and meat. I loved the ham, salami, the freshly grated horseradish and even tongue. And then it was time to search for the Easter nest full of presents. The Osterhase (Easter rabbit) was hiding it. Suddenly events unfolded. As I found my nest full of chocolate and presents, Papa and Maman requested I hand in all my dummies in exchange for the Easter nest. I had agreed to such deed in the prior week and combined with the excitement of the moment I did what I had to do. Like a real man I stood up, went to my bedroom, collected all my dummies and handed them over to Papa who put it into a nice bag. Papa handed the bag over to Osterhase who may have passed it on to smaller children more in need of dummies.

As an amazing day drew to a close I realised what I had done. How will I be able to sleep tonight. This is really not fair. But don’t you understand: they are MY dummies…

Spring is slowly arriving and the first rays of proper sunshine are filling our hearts with joy. I tell you the truth – even a half Austrian creature of ice and snow enjoys the arrival of spring. But psst: please keep it to you.

So what do you do when the sun comes out: picnic of course. I really like picnic and I also like barbeque on my terrace.

I have also been to Belgium. Tonton Fred showed me a skateboard, but I showed him what to do with it. Have a look at the video.

Skateboarder