All posts filed under: Family

Happy Father’s Day wishes to all the special Dads out there

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While it’s just another sunday over here in New Zealand, it’s a special day back home in Europe, at least for all the Dads out there. I’ve just been on the phone with mine (who’s the best, obviously!) and suddenly realized: The older I get the happier it makes me to see my Dad happy. So here’s to all the great Dads out there who are always there when we need them, who cheer us up when we need encouragement, who suffer when we do, who love us, no matter what, who teach us so much about life, to the ones who worry when we are sick, the ones who come along on our adventures, from near or far, re-living every minute – no matter whether in real life or on our blogs . Stay as awesome as you are and hopefully there are times when we kids can give back to you as much as you’re giving to us. Picture above made with love from spirula shells on Karekare’s black sand beach.

The annual Christmas craziness with the L*ckerbauers

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Last Christmas my brother, his girlfriend and me had the brilliant idea to escape the craziness by being absent on the 24th December, the main day of Christmas celebrations in Austria. A plan that didn’t work out because once we came back home on the 25th we realized that the craziness was still around, we could not run from it. On the contrary, the shock was even bigger since we had just arrived from far away. This year we didn’t even try to escape it, the plan was to get used to the family craziness ahead of Christmas, go with the flow and trying to keep it low. And surprisingly it worked out, at least speaking on my behalf. There still were moments of oddness, e.g. our uncle disturbing our aunt’s special violin concert with a bum note on purpose, our grandma opening the wrong present and enjoying her new super-stylish sunglasses that actually belonged to someone else or when my newly wed brother and sister-in-law got a romantic getaway weekend with the hint “to finally …

Welcome to the family, Mrs. Carmen Lackerbauer!

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It’s a big day as my brother Tom got married to his beautiful wife Carmen last night. Congratulations to the newly weds and thanks for letting me join from New Zealand via Skype. Wish I was there in person though, would have loved to be part of the ceremony, see the happy faces & the occasional tear and all the crazy Lackerbauer family action going on. Wishing you two all the best for your future life together. With love from New Zealand, Eva

Flooding in my home town

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I’ve not been particularly active on this blog in the last couple of days – due to a number of reasons. One of them being that I felt it was inappropriate to write about beautiful beach life & sunshine while my hometown is struggling so much with the consequences of severe rain. As most of this blog’s readers are from Austria you probably know the current situation better than me. For all those not from Austria: You might have heard over the news that Austria is flooded these days and everyone’s doing their best to get the situation under control. My thoughts go out to everyone affected by the floods in Europe but of course I am particularly concerned about my hometown Ebensee and what’s going on there. Although my whole family keeps me up to date with pictures, e-mails, descriptions of how severe the situation is it is very hard to imagine what everyone is going through these days. I only wish I was there to help, support my grandparents while they are struggling …

Happy Birthday, big brother!

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One great thing here in New Zealand is that we’re always a bit ahead of time. Being already 29 May down here in Auckland I’m very lucky to be the hopefully first one to congratulate my big brother to his 34th Birthday. (Think I managed just in time before European midnight when probably his adorable girlfriend thinks she’s the lucky first congratulate.) Let me tell you one of two things about my big brother Tom: He indeed is a very big brother – as in terms of very tall (almost two meters!) but also being the greatest big brother one can imagine. I was lucky to grow up with him by my side, him being four and a half years older and always the protective big brother I needed. Whenever I look at pictures from our childhood I often find him hugging me, holding my hand or in any other way making sure I was fine (and looking into the camera). I always looked up to him – not only because of his height but …

Reading messages from my family in Dubai

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My family seems to be big fans of  “Only-open-when-on-aircraft” letters so I faced myself with three of those on my way from Munich to Auckland. Every one of them is great in its very own way: my Dad gave me a USB stick full of pictures of my family, his very own poems and music for the road. From my Mum I got a lovely letter with pressed flowers (Forget-me-nots from our garden) and an image of a great backcountry tour we did last year across Mt Dachstein. And Fred gave me his personal talisman and some very important pieces of advice. One that perfectly sums up the purpose of this trip is this handwritten one: For all my English readers – here’s the translation: “There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely – or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.” – Oscar Wilde Wise words from a wise man. Let’s hope I made the right decision then.

Thanks to my personal taxi drivers

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After a couple of very busy hours with packing and last minute issues I have made it to the airport in time – thanks to these lovely people: my mum and her partner Fred. There were a couple of tears at the gate but only mum insisted it’s just because she also wants to fly out. Right. My tears were real because I will miss you two just like the rest of my family. Thanks for all those good-bye dinners, coffee breaks, help with laundry in the last couple of days. An adorable and loving family makes it loads easier to come home again. Time for take off! Talk to you in 30 hours or so.

Grandpa reading this blog on his iPad – at age 87!

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May I introduce you to the oldest but probably coolest follower of this blog: My grandfather. He got an iPad last Christmas and since then he’s very busy on the web. Every now and then he gets a private lesson and this morning’s session was about “How to order a speed regulator?” (Drehzahlregler) on Amazon. He needs that one for the electric car he built himself – the one that perfectly fits a crate of beer in the back but not grandma. Very clever! Also when it comes to our classes Grandpa is a great student – especially considering his age. He always brings along a note-book full of questions he wants to discuss and is always curious how things work. So after today’s lesson I briefly showed him my blog and guess what – he managed to bookmark it, all by himself. Considering that for him a bookmark is still that old paper thing you put into a real book. Stay as you are Grandpa – we love you!

Happy birthday, Mum!

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Best Mum in the world is turning 60 today, hooray! She doesn’t know yet but for tonight’s massive party with all her friends my brother, his girlfriend and me have prepared a little video. Don’t wanna bore you with the full version but here’s a short version running for approx. 5 minutes. Thanks Mum – for being so awesome!