A very sick Mac - Random Shutdowns

If you are not a computer techie then you better stop reading this now or you will wonder "what on earth is he on about?" :)
I was very happy with my new MacBook until last Wednesday when it suddenly shut down without warning. Since then I have had numerous random shutdowns. I looked the issue up on the mac users discussion board to discover (to my horror) that there appears to be a major hardware problem with the new MacBooks (the topic currently has 18,200 views and 541 posts). Apple havent yet admited that there is a problem but there clearly is and it seems that Apple are still not sure how to fix it.
I rang Apple Support on Friday and they told me to bring it to the Apple Shop in Basel for a repair, but I am reluctant to do that because they appear to be replacing the faulty part (i.e. the logic board) with an identical part. Surely if you do that, then I am going to encounter the same problem again in the coming months?

If you are interested in following the discussion thread then here is the link
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=544012&tstart=0
and if any of you bloggers out there have any advice, please let me know.

Walking in the Swiss mountains with daddy

This past week we took time to go up to the Ankenballen - the rocks we can see from our bedroom window. Joel went all the way to the top with me and to prove it, here is the photo with Kichzimmer in the background. We hope in the coming days to get time to explore more of the area by foot.

A snake in the laundry

Mummy went down to take down her washing tonight and found a snake in the laundry room. When Joel heard about it, he got out of bed and ran down to see it. We had to convince him to let the other children handle it – he didn’t want to let go.

Lots more photos have been added to www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums

Just another sign of life

Hi everyone! This is just another sign of life to let you know that we are all well and really enjoying our time in Kilchzimmer. The teachers are excellent and the subjects are very interesting. There is a lovely atmosphere among the students and staff. We are enjoying getting to know people from many different countries and making new friends.
David and Joel are so at home here. They are really behaving well (most of the time) and also making new friends. They are never bored and always glad to see their bed around 7.00 - 7.30pm. Once they are sleeping we spend the rest of the night in study.
We are continuing to add photographs all the time so be sure to keep revisiting www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums

New photographs available at
www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums
Click on the headings:
- First Days at Kilchzimmer
or
- Discovering the Area

Back to school

Joel has made a full recovery.
The students all arrived at the weekend and have settled in with us to our new home for the next 3 months.
It has been great to renew acquaintances with the staff, most of whom I have not seen for 10 years.
Today was our first day of classes. Our English class has 12 students - from Portugal (2), Netherlands (2), Greece (2), Lithuania (1), Armenia (1), and Norn Iron (4 of us all on the front row). I have the responsibility of making audio recordings of all the classes on computer and I have to clean the main classroom every morning. We all take our turn at the dishes. Two baby-sitters (both great girls from NI) look after the children while we are in class. This gives us great peace of mind to concentrate.
I will be preaching this Sunday morning to the students and staff so please pray that I will be sensitive to time as I have to allow for translation into French and Polish :)
The weather is warm and sunny with the odd thunder storm.
Please pray for our continual adjusting to communal life in Kilchzimmer.

Feeling better

Thanks for your prayers. Joel is feeling much better now although his
glands are still a little swollen. We went to the doctor again this
morning for a check-up and he is happy with the improvement. So we
just have to continue to give Joel the antibiotics for the next few
days.

29 c - this is going to take some getting used too. The Field Council
are leaving today and most of the new students will arrive by tea
time this evening.

Kilchzimmer snap shots

We will be posting some photographs over the coming weeks to the web.
You can view them by clicking on the link below:

www.thecousinsfamily.org/albums/

The Swiss Doctor

Yesterday we decided to take Joel to the doctor. He could see clearly how swollen Joel's glands were and was able to prescribe suitable antibiotics. We will go back again on Saturday morning for a check-up. Praise God that today a marked improvement is observable.
We have medical insurance so hopefully it won't be too complicated to claim back the costs once we get a bill from the doctors.

The sound of cow bells

We arrived at Kilchzimmer (CEF European Headquarters, Switzerland) last night at 10.15pm.
Our journey began on Monday morning when we got the 7.35am sailing from Belfast to Stranraer. We arrived around 8pm at Mark & Heather Steele's home in Rochester (SE England). Mark (who is the brother of my brother-in-law) is Assistant Pastor in Rochester Baptist Church. We spent all day Tuesday with them and left at 7.30am on Wednesday. We then got a boat from Dover to Calais and for the next 9 hours we travelled through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, France (again), Germany and finally Switzerland - arriving just after 10pm.

We are thankful for the Lord's protection on the long journey and for how well the boys behaved. One cause for concern is that Joel has had swollen glands since Monday. He has a temperature, sore head and has been sick a couple of times. We went to see a doctor in England but she was happy that it was only a viral infection and that we should treat him simply with the usual Capol and Nurofen. However, he has still not improved and we are wondering whether we should just be patient or if we should go through the hassle (insurance wise) of seeking medical help in this a non-EU country. Pray that this will not be necessary.

The weather is cooler today than normal and there are light showers (which allows us acclimatize). The meetings of the CEF European Field Council are taking place this week and we will meet with them either today or tomorrow. So we have some time to settle in and get our bearings before the rest of the students arrive on Saturday. Classes begin on Monday morning at 8.30am (rise and shine is at 6.30am !!! )

Thank you again, that you are interested enough in us to take the time to read this and to pray for us. We really appreciate your partnership with us in this way.

Gary (Claudia, Joel and David)