I have started a new blog.
Couldn't exactly keep the same title could I?!

So the next chapter in our lives can be found at:

The Princess in Germany

Bye Bye SA. Again

We had a fun farewell bash on Saturday. About 30 people came and it lasted till 1am - we managed to finish most of our booze which was the plan.
My mum is up for these last 2 weeks and was VERY helpful all afternoon and evening while Benedikt and I did the all important circulating. She ran around after Nico who entertained everyone with his bike riding skills and dj'ing and whisked him off at the apporporiate time for his bath and bed time. He does love his Gaga to bits
My sister also came to stay for the weekend and was like a magic fairy. She cleaned our house from top to bottom before the party (our maid is not great. At all) and hid all the junk that had been lying around. Wow, I am going to miss having my family around. I can't believe how helpful they are!

The party getting started. Loads of cycling friends came, plus school friends, our cousins and some of Benedikt's work colleagues

With my life long friend, Leanne, and her little boy. Going to miss her!

So Benedikt left last night for Germany. Boohoo. We will miss Daddy! But our house in Munich is not ready yet so it would be pointless for Nico and I to go over now already. We leave next week and probably only have to stay one or 2 days at Benedikt's sister's house before our newly built lovely house is ready. We CAN'T WAIT to move in and get settled. This living in limbo has been driving us crazy of late.
So this week I am getting work done, packing the air freight boxes, selling stuff, cancelling policies, sorting out the dogs and seeing friends for the last time etc etc!

Collin (my bro in law) took some of our furniture back with him at 5am the morning after our party!

So ja, now its time to leave South Africa and start our next chapter. I am really really excited. Daunted also because of the teeny language issue, but mostly excited. I think Germany is an amazing country and will be ideal for an outdoor family like ours.
So I guess my next blog entry will be in 2 weeks or so, once we have unpacked and are connected to the net. Will have to decide what to do about this blog address as it don't fit no more :)

Mauritius

So seeing as there were no burnt body parts this time round, we managed to go on our postponed holiday to Mauritius! Oh, poor us :) We stayed at a beachcomber hotel - Le Victoria - in the north of the island in between Grand Baie and Port Louis. We did the whole all-inclusive package holiday thing - something Benedikt and I are not usually keen on... (we hate being tourists) but boy did we enjoy it! It was a week of being lazy and waited upon.

Our excursion on day 2:

On a catamaran! We were driven to the east side of the island where we boarded a cat.... manned by 4 very cool dudes playing their rasta and dance music all day for us!	There was just enough wind to sail for a stretch. It was good fun being on the boat. Nico loved it of course
We ventured out of the hotel just the once - after that we decided it was easier and more relaxing to stay put! Sitting in a tourist bus for hours is not fun with a toddler	Nico loved the 'tampoline' in the middle and amused our fellow touri by jumping up and down all day on it
We were taken on a smaller boat to this puny waterfall.. which was pretty and all, but its funny what they make into a tourist attraction	They dropped us off on 'Île aux Cerfs' which our hotel guide had called 'Paradise Island' (SriLankan accent) for the afternoon. Which would have been very pleasant if it wasn't along with 5000 other tourists!
All in all it was a great day. We drank Rum Coca (French accent this time) and basked in the sun and marveled at the beautiful blue ocean.	We also got some snorkeling done... but the coral was half dead and disappearing. The Kenyan coast has set VERY high standards for us

Our room was big and spacious:

Family bath and shower time before supper at 7pm. Fun fun fun	Two handsome fellas! (Trust Nico to like those lucky packet sunglasses)
Taking over our bed. And having a lie in	Our sea view

The glorious beach:

Alot of the water activities were included. Bonus	(Extreme)Paddling with dad. Another water based activity that Nico enjoyed
So glad we took his crocodile. He was the envy of all the other kids. And we forced him to share it!	Dad doing some swimming training. We both actually swam a lot in the sea -at least 1km per day. Was so easy and enjoyable in the flat water
John Lennon? Stevie Wonder? He loved those darn glasses	We spent hour building dams and sand castles and moats and and and
Photo shoot time to capture the beautiful sunset. And beautiful subjects of course	Cute little guy isn't he?
The happy Schneiders on holiday. (I do believe Benedikt and I were each about 3 or 4 pims down by this stage!)	The photo taken after this one is not pretty :)

We also went on the pedal boats a few times which were a novelty. And we went on the glass bottom boat on our last morning. Nico now loves boats of course

The unbelievable pool:

The pool blew my mind. It was just amazing. As you walk into the hotel you just see the huge expanse of a perfect and huge infinity pool with the beach and sea behind it. This is it taken from the beach side. It was just so well designed	We would spend the morning on the beach and the afternoon by the pool. Nico loved this shallow section cos he could stand.
Nico is so good at holding on around your neck while you swim. And boy did he love spending all this time with his dad	His jumping in is still pretty feeble. We need to work on that
Cool photo taken by moi	He got thrown and spun around a lot this holiday!
Oh, the endless games	Just so unpleasant huh?

Meal times:

Pancakes for breakfast! He actually didn't even eat them most mornings. The beauty of a buffet :)	Eating his soggy croissant that he'd dipped in his hot chocolate. hmmmmmm
Our special wedding anniversary night at the seafood restaurant. Note our matching shirts!	Didn't stay clean for long of course

We were SO glad we took the all inclusive package. We would order bottles of wine or champagne and just drink one glass. And use our bottled sparkling water to wash the sand off cos we couldn't be bothered to walk to the tap. The wastage is sacrilegious.
We tried a baby sitter our second night and it was fine, but we decided it was much nicer to have Nico with us for supper each night. That and he LOVED the dance floor after dinner! It was CRAZY HOUR for all the little kids clearly. The disco ball lights and the stage and all the kiddies dancing (badly) together was just too much fun.

On the cat	Ready for swimming training!
Tea time darling	Happiness is
On the flight there. He was so good on both flights. It helped that there were loads of other kids. And that we had the ipad with tons of kiddie apps and movies	Sleeping on the way back to the Mauritius airport. He stayed sleeping in my arms after that for a further hour. All through security and everything. That was a first!

All in all it was a brilliant week. We loved it. And loved the hotel. It was just so well managed, the staff were all so friendly and kiddie orientated, the food and service was excellent and the weather was just perfect - not too hot in the day and cool in the evenings.

Sports Day and Madawhohah

So Nico and Benedikt went off last Saturday morning for a father and son sports day at Nico's school. Apparently Nico was a total wimp and clung to Benedikt's leg instead of joining in all the cool games. Although to be fair he was in the process of getting sick. He is now on anti biotics again. The second time in his little life already! Grrrr.

Benedikt got a Thai massage voucher and TWO cool cards from Nico for Fathers Day. Gampa got pajamas!

I took Malawi for a run, made some milk and did some work while they were out. Exciting stuff! Malawi was staying with us for the 10 days that Boz and Collin were in Namibia for work.

I do think that Nico's immune system is quite strong though. He doesn't get sick that often. He eats good things like chia seeds and goji berries and fresh spinach, orange & ginger juice! I'm happy with his daily diet. Although his appetite is not huge he does eat a good variety of things. He STILL only weighs 10kgs though. Little lighty.

Then we took Nico to the movies for the first time this last weekend. He LOVED it!

We watched Madagasgar 3 with a colleague of Benedikt's, his wife and their cute 1 and a half year old boy.	The movie was in 3D so we all got these COOL glasses to wear. Nico actually kept his on for about 70% of the time. He just got irritated with them cos he couldnt see the popcorn box clearly!
The movie was EXCELLENT. So funny for adults and for kids!	He stood up for most of the movie and was pretty mesmerised by the whole thing. We were amazed that he lasted the whole 1.5 hours!

On a different topic, every week, each member of my immediate family (bro, sis, mum & pops) sends a group email to all of us telling us what they've been up to during the week and what's on for the weekend. Its now called the Weemail apparently (Weekly Wielopolski mail).
My brother is an adventure addict. He is always looking for new ways to explore and experience the world. He currently lives in Troon on the Scottish coast as his posting for these 2 years is as a search and rescue pilot.
These are 2 extracts from 2 of his recent emails:
Sunday I windsurfed from my house to the island you see out the window. About 35 km across fairly open ocean. Was quite fun and still pretty tired from doing it! Legs in tatters, took four hours in the end and got wet inside my drysuit cos I needed to pee. So peed out my special pee zip but then fell off my board and water and wee came to fill my drysuit, no longer dry.
Raced to catch the last ferry back, got on with minutes to spare much to amusements of passengers. Took my pee soaked drysuit off in front of them and made some new friends.
Then got on a train with all my windsurfing kit and about the drunken Neds, even the conductor had to smile. Good adventure. Apart from the final expensive taxi....

And as if that wasn't enough, here is his latest:
Also had an adventure on Friday. I kite surfed to Arran in about 25knots of wind on a big downwinder from my house. About 54km of kiting in hectic conditions with just me out in the open ocean. Was pretty scary and 3:20 of very hard sailing, body is battered and bruised and really sore but it was awesome. Saftey wise i had the coastguard notified, a radio on me, a sat tracker and a raft from work that is tiny but blows up automatically. I also had my mates on duty tracking and they flew out to see me, so there i was about 20 km from Arran, stunning mountain venue island to sail to and my own helo above with mates filming. At one point their downwash collapsed my kite and i wiped out, worried it would not relaunch but luckily all good.

He also makes the papers sometimes and recently him and his crew got an award from an Admiral for one of their amazing rescues in HECTIC weather.
Some photos of him in action at work: We are naturally all SUPER proud of him