Maximilian

Most of you will know that I am playing football once a week every Saturday. It is called ‘Little Kickers’. We all have football jerseys and learn skills which go far beyond just kicking a ball. We learn colours and counting, a bit of patience and discipline, a sense of team play together with a healthy sense of competitive spirit. I am quite happy with my performance, but I don’t think I will become a footballer. I prefer to carry the ball instead of kicking it. Maybe I should consider rugby or handball.

As far as playing with lego stones is concerned I have definitely turned from destroyer to constructor. I am building skyscrappers of more than 20 floors with a proper foundation. I am also getting quite good in putting puzzles together with a little bit of help from Maman.

I got another toy: a wooden set of tracks and trains. It is great fun to put together the tracks with train stations, bridges and crossings. And it is eqally funny to move the trains around while maintaining the highest safety standards for both passengers and cargo.

I have received so many nice compliments about my facial expressions. So I thought it is worth putting some funny faces on my blog.

I like to get out of town on the weekends. This time I went to Windsor. It is a convenient trip by train about 1 hour outside of Central London. Windsor itself is a charming little town with one famous attraction: Windsor Castle, home to the Kings and Queens of England and later Great Britain for more than 1,000 years. That makes it the longest permanently inhabited castle anywhere in the world at any time, apparently.

But we did not only go there for the castle. Papa was racing a half marathon in preparation for his Frankfurt marathon in a few weeks. He did quite well and finished 72nd out of more than 5,000 runners. I was cheering at him on the course and as he raced towards the finish line. After the race Papa was hungry and we went to one of my famous places: Wagamama for a yaki udon and a raw juice. I even started to use the chopsticks.

Maman and Papa went to the wedding of Anna and Manfred which took place in the beautiful wine regions of the Wachau and the Kamptal. While my parents enjoyed the celebration I stayed back in Vienna with my cousins Alessia and Chiara and Tante Nicki and Onkel Markus. We had a great weekend. Alessia has a lot of toys and I enjoyed playing in the kitchen and with the marbles. But then we went into the nearby Prater, a huge park with a great playground. And on the next day we returned to the Wurstlprater, a kind of permanent year-round fancy fair. The prater is a kind of children’s paradise. I also enjoyed bath time with Alessia.

But most intimidating of all were the slides. You can see what a brave young little man I am. I may not look quite as brave in the middle of the act, but I can tell you I was proud of my accomplishments.

I am sure this thought crossed your mind already – and yes it is true. I have famous ancestry in my blood. My great-great-grandfather was a general: General Brassine of the Belgian army. There are some unconfirmed rumours he faught the Austrians in some war. Luckily these days are over.

In honour of my great-great-grandfather, Jean-Pierre extended his annual summer fest and invited all decendants of General Brassine. This must have been the biggest Brassine family reunion in living memory – and I am not talking about my living memory. There were well above 100 of us, representing all branches of the family and 5 generations from as far as Australia, the US, France, the UK (not just me) and of course Belgium. It was fantastic.

I spent a great two week holiday in Knokke at the Belgian coast. The first week I was there without my parents. Mamy, Tata and Tonton looked after me so well while my parents celebrated the Olympic Games. Maman joined for the second week and Papa came both weekends.

You already know from my previous blogs that I love the water. Even the chill of the North Sea at about 18 degrees did not hold me back to take my daily plunge – on occassions my parents forced me to leave the water when my lips turned blue. I equally enjoyed playing in the sand, with the other kids on the beach and building fortresses against the high tides.

And they also have really nice ice cream. However, I did not stop there. Mamy prepared a lot of good fish as always and I had my first moules as well – but I still did not get to eat the frites

Best of all, I got my own field hockey stick from Xavier and Thierry . It is a real one made out of carbon fiber. I am starting to train already. So maybe I will be competing at the Olympic Games myself one day

This is just a short post to provide a few recent (and not so recent) photos of me and my friends. We have also been to the London zoo which is quite a remarkable place.

Ever since I was born I was looking forward to the Games and now they have finally arrived. London was well prepared, the transport infrastructure worked well, the Olympic Park and numerous other venues were beautifully presented, an army of friendly volunteers helped with everything from getting in and out of the venues, security checks or where to find the next pint.

My parents had secured quite a lot of tickets and they did not forget me. On the opening weekend, we explored both the Belgian House in Temple and the Austrian House at Tower Hill.  I went to see the female marathon race which passed by Tower Bridge and then the highlight. I went to the Olympic Park on what will forever be know as the “Super Saturday”. We started with a nice Pub lunch in close-by Victoria Park. From there we walked into the Olympic Park, soaked in the atmosphere and saw diving in the acquatic centre. The atmosphere in the stadium was great, I was dancing to the music and cheered the divers.

It is incredible how quickly it was all over and I wonder if I will be lucky enough to see Olympic games in my home town ever again in my life. Maybe Austria gets some Winter Games one day.

I went on my summer holiday to Opa and Oma. Normally we always go on the first weekend in August for the Villacher Kirchtag. But this year is London 2012 and I did not want to miss any of the Olympic action. So I convinced my parents to leave a few weeks earlier in mid July.

It was a great decision. The weather has been very good for some time, lake Ossiach was nicely heated to 26 degrees. So we spent a lot of time on the lake because I just loved it so much. I swam until my lips turned blue, but I also enjoy throwing stones from the beach into the lake or build fortifications on beach.

The lake is a great place to meet family and friends. Alessia and Chiara with their parents, Mamy, Tata Iza and Tonton Fred were all there as well. But nobody stayed in the water as long as I did. I also met Ella, Manu and Joerg where I enjoyed the BBQ as much as the pool. And then I met Ella, Toria and Alex for an Italian Jause.

Austria is always a place for culinary delights. I did not miss any of the usual suspects including Kasnudeln, Brettljause and I was particularly delighted with Krapfen (for the lack of a proper translation the Austrian version of doughnuts).

We also explored the less and more distant surroundings like the Magic Forest narrating a huge number of popular fairy tales or the newly re-opened spa in Villach.

Eleven one-and-a-half year olds together with their 22 parents all went to a fairy tale medieval castle located two hours away from Bordeaux close to the town of Perigueux. But don’t be mistaken: we did not miss any of the modern day luxuries including the swimming pool, tennis courts, a games room with table football, billiard and TV to watch the Euro 2012.

I don’t even know where to start. There was so much activity and fun with all my friends. And I understand the fun did not stop for our parents after we had all gone to bed. We visited near-by market towns and historic abbeys. We watched a dog in live action sniffing for summer truffels and obviously we did not miss to taste the truffles. Our parents sampled local wine and cheese. We also explored the vast lands around the castle by foot.

It also happened to be my Papa’s birthday this week. His present was swimming trunks which matched my own. He was very happy with that (thanks Maman and Tata Iza for the inspiration).

I could go on forever, but let me stop here and show you some pictures. I hope we do a similar holiday again next year. I had so much fun.