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A beautiful Day

It was great to see Baby Lucas on Mothers Day!

We saw ten family members, including Baby Lucas, for lunch on Mothers Day. Baby Lucas got all the attention. He is a little darling. Everyone loves him so much. He was surrounded by three aunties, one great-aunt, one uncle, one grandma, one great-grandma (that’s me!), one great grandpa, and of course his proud parents.

We went to our favourite Thai/Chinese Restaurant. The place was packed full for Mothers Day. However daughter Monika had booked a large table for us ahead of time. All of us were very comfortably sitting around a large round table. For Lucas a Baby chair was provided. He sat in his chair only to have a drink and a banana. I was surprised how well he was able to eat the banana out of his hand!

We all had plenty to eat for lunch. I always love rice and vegetables with a spicy Thai sauce and Chinese tea. As entree we all had some spring-rolls. For afternoon coffee and cake the family came to our place. I liked all this very much. My daughters gave me some beautiful gifts for my skin and for smelling nice! My son rang me from Melbourne later on in the evening. For afternoon coffee one son-in-law did bring along his mother as well as the mother of his deceased wife. The conversation around the table was quite animated. The other son-in-law arrived a bit later from Sydney after he had seen his mother. Ebony, the mother of Lucas, went after lunch with Baby Lucas to see her mother and therefore did not come to our place for coffee.

Everyone loved the cheese-cake that Peter had baked for Mothers Day. It was great to see so many family members in the one day. I feel blessed that Mothers Day had been made so special for me. And I greatly enjoyed seeing daughter Monika surrounded by all her five children plus Lucas, her first and so far only grandchild.

Daughter Caroline stayed with Matthew overnight at our place. We are always very happy when they can make the time to stay overnight. Caroline spoiled us by cooking an excellent supper and breakfast in the morning. After breakfast Peter took them to the train-station. They apologized that they couldn’t stay a bit longer but they have a busy week ahead of them.

I greatly enjoyed the breakfast that Caroline cooked for us.

Tags: Baby great grandson, Cheese-cake, family, Mothers Day

Comments 16 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

Diary Update

11 May

This picture was taken by me five weeks ago as we had just returned from buying the Saturday paper. Today is Saturday again which means paper buying day! I love it when both Peter and I can walk together to the Newsagent’s shop which is close by at little shopping center.

Last Wednesday we saw a French film with English subtitles. The film is called AMOUR. We had seen this film once before a few months ago. It was shown in Berlin with no subtitles but in German. As I remember it the synchronisation from French into German had been done very well which was a relief. Usually I prefer to see a film in the original just with subtitles. So now we had the chance to listen to it in French. Both Peter and I agreed that it was great to see the film a second time.

This French film shows a couple in Paris in their eighties. Both are retired music teachers. They have a daughter who is also a musician and travels a lot with her English husband. She comes to see her parents in Paris only occasionally. The mother has a severe stroke, is hospitalised. Some time later she’s supposed to go into a hospice. She needs constant care. She begs her husband to take her home to care for her there. And this is what he does! He takes on to care for his wife who is very disabled. The film shows how the husband who is very elderly himself, takes on the task to look after his wife. It gets more difficult for him as her health deteriorates more and more. Despite some outside help this poor man is at breaking point in the end. Out of love for his wife he perseveres. The daughter urges him to give the ailing mother into a hospice. But the father doesn’t give up. He says he promised his wife to look after her at home. This is a very slow moving wonderfully acted film. Both Peter and I liked it a lot.

The husband is played by JEAN-LOUIS TRINTIGNANT, the wife by EMMANUELLE RIVA, the daughter by ISABELLE HUPPERT.

So this was our Wednesday adventure. While we were watching the movie, our car did get a big service. Luckily apart from the service nothing else needed to be done to get the car re-registered. On Thursday, while I was at my exercise class, Peter fixed up insurance and registration for the car. Last Monday he had to fork out a lot of money for the dentist in Sydney. It was a very expensive week for Peter but he’s glad everything is behind him now. From now on we can relax and enjoy Mothers’ Day and Peter’s birthday.

On Monday, when Peter had his dental appointment, I went with Peter to Sydney to keep him company. Unfortunately we weren’t able to see David for his birthday as we had promised. I wrote him a card saying we’d see him as soon as possible.

Yesterday, Friday, we had a good time in the afternoon. We played Scrabble and Rummy at my place. Next week we are going to play at Irene’s place again. Peter had afternoon coffee with us. Marion who had an operation recently, is doing fine. Erika is overseas for the time being. So only three of us played instead of four. The ladies were very impressed that Peter had baked some apple turnovers for afternoon coffee. Isn’t he a dear! For Mothers’ Day he wants to bake a cheese cake.

P.S. Peter just pointed out to me that in English it’s called ‘dubbing’, when a new soundtrack is added to a film. In German it is called ‘synchronisation’. This film with French actors was actually a French/German co-production.
And there is something else I can add here: From 4 June – 20 July 2013 the SYDNEYTHEATRE.COM.AU is going to show a play called “THE MAIDS”. The housemaids are played by Cate Blanchett and French screen star ISABELLE HUPPERT. It says the housemaids fantasise about killing their mistress! You may recognise that ISABELLE HUPPERT is the actress who plays the daughter in the movie AMOUR.
Our daughter sees theater productions on a regular basis. Maybe we should ask her whether she would be interested in seeing ‘The Maids’ with us. Oh, what a bombshell!

Tags: car, dentist, film, husband, wife

Comments 13 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

4 May

I think my poor husband has enough for a while of me always editing and uploading pictures for new blogs. I finally managed to put a stop to inserting pictures about our recent trips, the trips when we went about in this rental car. I am happy now that the task is finished even though it was great fun doing it. Writing about where we had been and what we had experienced is really good for refreshing memories. And to look at all the pictures really does help to remember more and more.

Yes, Peter for sure doesn’t like me to spend too much time with the computer. He always urges me to do something else. Ah well, I think we’ve been doing a few other things recently besides spending time with the computer. And for beginning of next week three more trips are planned: Two to Sydney and one to Warrawong. But more about this some other time.

Wishing now everyone a very good weekend!

Tags: memories, Pictures, Trips

Comments 21 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Memories, Old Age

A town called Hay

4 May

We had come from Gundagai along the Hume Highway. After a little while we turned into Sturt Highway where we went past Wagga Wagga. Then we reached Narrandera for our overnight stop. The next morning we were on our way along Sturt Highway towards the town of Hay. Before we left Narrandera we had to make sure that we ended on the right Highway, for we noticed all of a sudden that our motel had actually been on the Newell Highway and not on the Sturt Highway. There was a beutifully situated Information Centre on our way out where we found some toilets or should I say some facilities?

Arriving in the town of Hay.

This building in Hay is still being occupied by a bank as far a we could tell.

It was such a beautiful morning with a clear blue sky. We sat outside this shop were we were being served a nice cup of tea..

Above the shop counter it said: “Bringing the tastes of an outback experience to you.” So this was an outback experience. They also wanted us to enjoy

a long paddock experience whatever this is!

We thought this balustrade looked magnificent.

Just a street scene

And here some displays in a shop window:

So it looks like that Hay is just a few years older than NARRANDERA!

Before we left Hay we had some gelato in a place that was crowded with seniors. It looks like a lot of retirees live in Hay. They told us more and more come because properties are still very affordable if you compare it with what you have to fork out for a place in a coastal town. They have just opened a hospital in Hay that is especially geared towards the needs of elderly people. But if you need an operation you have to be transferred to another town. This hospital in Hay doesn’t cater for operations.

Tags: Australia, Country Town, Highways, New South Wales, The Outback

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

NARRANDERA

4 May

We were in Narrandera on the 10th of April. So we missed out on the big celebrations. However it was quite interesting to have a look at this 150 year old outback New South Wales town where we stayed overnight in a motel.

This bakery opened at 7 in the morning. We had a lovely breakfast there.

These stood for sale in front the Chemist Shop.

This Toy Shop reminds me of old Times.

This is the motel where we stayed for one night.

I guess the motel has been named after this monstrous tree.

Now, these roots tell you something about the size of the tree.

Peter ponders this section where obviously a branch was cut off that had been obstructing the neighbour’s drive-way.

This motel is situated right at Newell Highway. Till 2 am there was a constant stream of trucks going along this highway. I would wake every couple of hours as I heard the roar of the trucks. But I always went straight away back to sleep because I still was very tired.
When I woke at 4 am there were no more trucks. But I had enough rested by then. Peter had even woken up before me and had taken this picture:

Peter claimed he had never heard any trucks. So he slept well from about 9 pm to 4 am. After a good breakfast soon after 7 am at the NARRANDERA BAKERY we were on our way again heading towards the town of HAY.

Tags: Australia's Outback, Fig Tree, Narrandera, New South Wales

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

Dog on the Tuckerbox

1 May

The Dog on the Tuckerbox is an Australian historical monument and tourist attraction, located at Snake Gully, five miles (8 km) from Gundagai, New South Wales.

After our breakfast stop at Moss Vale ‘The Dog on the Tuckerbox’ five miles from Gundagai was our next stop.

At this FRESH FOOD CAFE we bought some local produce, for instance prune jam and honey.

Along the Hume Highway we had seen a few windmills.

Tags: Gundagai, New South Wales, Windmills

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

Our Rental Car

1 May

How wonderful it was to have this rental car for a period of twelve days! What did we do with it? On the pick-up day, Tuesday 9th April, we travelled in it around locally. The following day we started our big trip through the outback of New South Wales and from there into the state of Victoria, where we first stayed at Mildura and then we travelled on to Melbourne.

On Wednesday, 10th April, we started before sunrise. We went up Macquarie Pass. Macquarie Pass is an 8 kilometre long section of the Illawarra Highway passing through Macquarie Pass National Park. It was opened in 1898. It is a very winding steep road through this beautiful National Park. Peter knows this section well for he travelled up and down this path every day when he worked at Robertson Station which is at the top of the escarpment. We went through Robertson on the way to Moss Vale. Moss Vale was our first stop. We had a lovely breakfast up there on that Wednesday morning.

Here are first three as yet unpublished photos from the Cliffhanger Cafe, where we had been the previous day. I mentioned this cafe in another blog already. It was actually this cafe where we had scones with lovely fresh cream!

The following pictures were taken during our breakfast at Moss Vale. There’s also one picture of Moss Vale Station. The train from Sydney stops there on its way to Melbourne! We took all the other pictures in the vicinity of the station.

Just arrived at Moss Vale

On the way to have breakfast

Inside IL PRANZO

One of the rooms at IL PRANZO

A beautiful restaurant near Moss Vale Station

An old Telephone Booth

And an old Letter Box

Tags: Macquarie Pass, Moss Vale, Railway Station, Rental Car

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

Travelling around in the Illawarra

1 May

Today is already the first of May. There are still some more pictures of last month I wish to publish. Right now I am going to publish some photos we took on Tuesday, the 9th of April, the day when we picked up our rental car in Wollongong. At Austinmer Beach we stopped for a cup of coffee.

This is the place where we had coffee right opposite the beach.

This is Peter at Austinmer Beach

There’s a Swimming Pool at Austinmer Beach.

I found a seat to sit down and relax.

And here I am being photographed with a happy young woman from China!

This young woman had come with a whole lot of other people from a tourist bus that stopped near the beach just for a few minutes. This friendly young woman asked Peter to take some pictures of her. And she also wanted to be photographed together with me!

After this interlude we drove further up north. There is this little beach that we can always see from the train on the way to Sydney. We stopped briefly near that little beach and then we went up to Bald Hill where we could see this little beach from the top and we could also see the Sea Cliff Bridge.

This is near that little beach where we had just stopped the car.

From Bald Hill we had a great look at the little beach.

The Sea Cliff Bridge as seen from Bald Hill

On that Tuesday we also went from Bald Hill up the escarpment to Bulli Lookout where we had something to eat at the Cliffhanger Cafe.
All these places are in our area. We were back home in the afternoon and started getting ready for our big trip away from home. We were away from home for ten nights (eleven days). Peter saw to it that we could have a rest after every two hours of driving. This rental car was pretty new and more powerful than our small thirteen year old car that Peter usually drives. I was glad that we hired this rental car for our big trip. It made for much better longer distance driving. I am afraid we took an awful lot of pictures during our trip. So there are still some more to come in my next posts!

Tags: Beaches, The Illawarra Coast, Tourists

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age

On the Calder Highway to Melbourne

30 Apr

As I said in the previous post we left Mildura before sunrise and were soon on the Calder Highway heading towards Melbourne. This was on Saturday, 13th April 2013.

As the sun showed itself above the horizon we had already left Mildura well behind. Melbourne here we come!

After a couple of hours this sign caught our attention.

We parked our car.

Looking forward to getting coffee and a piece of the famous vanilla slice.

This break after two hours driving is quite welcome!

We are about to go inside for our coffee and vanilla slice when we notice . . .

. . . this sign next door. Anyone for a meat pie? No, thanks, not this morning. We stick with coffee and cake for now.

You can really get a good feed at malleedeli.

We are quite happy with our decision. The vanilla slice turns out to be just heavenly! No wonder it has become famous.

Apparently truckies can get a good feed here and they can rest in the Truckies Lounge.

After this nice coffee break we keep going. Melbourne is getting closer. 442 km to go.

We drive through rather desolate country.

We pass Mt Wycheproof.

And then we reach the LIZARD ROADHOUSE. Looks good for another break.

We buy cold drinks, Hamburger and Hot Chips. And we eat some of our own food as well.

And on we go. We pass Melbourne Airport in the early afternoon and soon after reach Essendon where Martin, our son, is very happy to see us. He is surprised that we made it in such good time. Yes, we had a good run. No problems whatsoever. Martin straight away offers us tea and something to eat. In the evening he is going to drive to the airport to pick up daughter Lauren who’s on school holidays and going to stay with her Dad for one week.

Peter and I are very glad we’ll be able to stay with our son and granddaughter Lauren for one week. We haven’t seen Lauren for more than a year except for photos on facebook. She looks very beautiful. Soon she’s going to be fifteen. She’s our youngest granddaughter. But then we also have great-grandchildren already. Two of them we are going to see during our stay in Melbourne. The plan is, that we are going to see them on the following day, a Sunday. We are very much looking forward to this. We know that Lauren is also looking forward to see her two little nieces.

P.S. In another post I mentioned already our visit to Warburton where we saw Tristan, our grandson, his wife Stephanie and their two little daughters, our great-granddaughters. Today’s post about our trip from Mildura to Melbourne is an afterthought because I hadn’t published yet the pictures from that trip and I thought it would be nice to be able to share them. I really enjoyed this trip because everything went so smoothly and the trip didn’t take too long. When we travelled back home a week later from Melbourne to Dapto everything went smoothly too but that trip of course took much longer because it was a greater distance we had to cover within one day.

Tags: Calder Highway., coffee breaks, Essendon, granddaughter, great-granddaughters, Melbourne, son, Sunrise, Travelling by car