In my diary post one week ago I wrote the following:
“I always had this opinion when in a family with several children both father and mother have outside well paying jobs, the wife’s salary should in the first place be used to employ some home help. Why else would a woman want to have an outside job if it did not pay enough for some home help? Now, I would very much like my readers’ thoughts on this. Please, do not hesitate to make a comment, when you do not agree with my opinion on this.”
Now, is there anyone, please, who would like to comment on it?
I reckon our age care system here in Australia in a lot of cases seems to be quite good. So when we desperately need more constant care subsidised, we can probably get it. At the moment I am just happy that Peter and I can both stay at home, even though we are not entitled yet to ’emergency’ home help.
Staying at home there are so many things that we can still enjoy: Music, reading, writing, playing games, watching TV! Also, we try to stay active as much as possible. Looking after personal hygiene, walking in the open air, shopping for essentials, doing the most necessary housework and gardening. But it usually does not take long and we are so exhausted that we need a rest. This means each day we can do only a very limited amount of work. That means, every day we have to cut back on something that we would have liked to have done. If we decide to do something, something else that might be just as important, cannot be done that day. Every day we seem to have a bit less time. How is that possible? The question is, what is really most important to us to be able to do?
Last weekend we had quite a few visitors because it was Peter’s birthday. The visitors came in stages: First two visitors for lunch. Later on when the first visitors had left, five adults and two children arrived for evening celebrations when it was already dark, and we had to stay inside. (Otherwise we could have spent time in our backyard where there is a bit more room and fresh air!)
Off and on Peter experienced some bad pain and had to lie down for a while until he could join the visitors again. Peter feels his pain is manageable when he can have a rest as soon as there is some pain coming. Most visitors came on Saturday, the 16th. The following day, on Sunday, we had two more visitors in the afternoon just for coffee/tea and cake. All our visitors were family members. Some of them we had not seen for quite a while. Because of the Coronavirus restrictions we took care not to hug anyone, and we also tried to keep some distance at all times. This is definitely rather difficult. I am sure, everyone in this kind of situation would have the same feelings how difficult it is.
I cannot believe one week has gone already after this rather hectic weekend of Peter’s birthday. In the meantime we found out our very old car is leaking some oil. We have to decide now whether it is worth it to get a major repair done to this 16 year old car! We can only hope that the car does not need a major repair. Last Thursday Peter booked the car in for its regular service. The booking is for Monday. So probably tomorrow we’ll find out what can be done to the oil leak.
Corona crisis: How are pandemics, environmental degradation and climate change related?
This subject how environmental degradation and climate change can have something to do with pandemics interests me very much. I looked up two apparently very knowledgeable people on this subject. While referring to these people in my previous post, I am looking forward trying to check out what they may have to say in future on this subject!
Yesterday, on Friday, the 22nd of May, Peter was contacted by the doctors at the hospital. They wanted to know, whether he was still alright. It was just a phone consultation, but Dr. Nasser asked Peter whether he could come to the hospital for a consultation in three months time, and Peter said yes. So an appointment was made for a Friday in August.
A couple of days ago, on Thursday, we had an outing to Warrawong. After not having been there for a few months, I was quite thrilled to see a shopping centre full of people. But I was absolutely careful not to come too close to anyone. There were ten seatings available at the Emporium Cafe. We were lucky that two seats became available when we arrived at the cafe for a bit of lunch. We were offered the two vacant seats at two tables that were pushed together. Peter sat at one end, I did sit at the other end well away from Peter! We had flat white coffees (oh, what a treat after not having coffees like this for so many months!) I could only eat half of my delicious vegetarian pizza, but I was allowed to take the rest home.
Peter made an appointment to take our car to Warrawong for a service this coming Monday. The car is losing some oil. So first of all the car gets the regular service on Monday, and then Peter expects to be told what can be done about the oil leak! Peter is kind of expecting he may have to take the car to Warrawong very soon again then for a hopefully not too major a repair. The oil leak is really a bit worrying at the moment, even though it looks like we are losing only a little bit of oil. But of course it has to be checked.
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit is a German virologist and Professor of Arbovirology at the University of Hamburg. Schmidt-Chanasit is also the Deputy Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus and Haemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. Wikipedia
“The destruction of intact ecosystems and climate change play a crucial role in the spread of new viral diseases such as Sars-CoV-2.An interview with tropical medicine specialist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit about the origin of the virus and the fight against pandemics. . . “
I am not going to copy this interview here, but I am very interested in this discussion how pandemics are related to environmental degradation and climate change.
Here you can find out more about this interview: It is written out in English!
Noel Harrison sings the Oscar winning classic, the Windmills of Your Mind, from the Thomas Crown Affair film.
Listen To My Radio : http://myradiostream.com/radiomethexis The windmills of your mind : Alison Moyet (Michel Jean Legrand) Video : scenes from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) Music and video, are property and copyright of it’s owners Lyrics are provided for educational purposes only
The guy with the glass of beer in front of him, is my brother Bodo who died recently.
When you go to the original post you can see Bodo with Aki and Bernd (nicknamed Stummel), me (his sister Uta) and Ina, the wife of Aki. Peter took the pictures. It was Bodos birthday, the 9th of June 2010 (ten years ago!) Peter and I were on a visit to Berlin at the time. 2016 we were on another visit to Berlin. This is when I saw Bodo again on his birthday!
Uta and Peter in Berlin June 2016 We are about to have breakfast at the Wolke on our first day in Berlin.
We left home on the 2nd of June and arrived in Berlin on the 4th of June. We are going to depart again in a little over two weeks. Time goes quickly – I took already some 300 pictures!
So far we’ve been out and about every day. Today I chose to stay in our apartment on my own while the others went to Neukoeln. For tonight we have tickets for the Komische Oper. They show The Magic Flute in a modern version.
I started yesterday morning with looking at some of my drafts and I decided it was about time that I should get rid of all the drafts that I did not need anymore. The first draft I looked at I wanted to publish rather than seeing it ending in ‘trash’. I love Di Morrissey’s books and am very impressed that she is able to write a comprehensive well researched novel every year. She wrote already 27 novels. I believe most of these are bestsellers. Here is what I found in Wikipedia:
“Di Morrissey AM is one of the most successful novelists of Australia with 27 best-selling novels and five children’s books published. Wikipedia”
And I referred to this video in yesterday’s diary:
“Jennifer Byrne presents an interview with Bryce Courtenay, Lee Child, Di Morrissey, and Matthew Riley.”
I always liked to watch and listen to the Jennifer Byrne interviews. Bryce Courtnenay’s books I used to be very familiar with over many years. I still own some of his books. Wouldn’t I like to read again and again these books: Maybe, maybe one of these days when due to the Coronavirus I am going to have lots of spare time, I am going to read, read, read!
Further on yesterday I published this item about how migrant workers had to clean up university students’ mess. So what I had observed about the life of cleaners during my long life, this is what I really had wanted to write about.
In my following diary posts I mentioned about the help that my family used to be able to afford. Some people were actually honorary helpers, like Tante Mietze who for many years lived with Peter’s family and tirelessly did all sorts of work for the family right into very old age. She was a real jewel and all the family still hold her in high esteem many years after her death.
I guess that most people cannot afford hired help any more these days, is partly because cleaners and all sorts of workers can these days demand higher wages. If for instance people employ migrant workers and try to underpay them, it is said they are being used as ‘slave’ labour.
I always had this opinion when in a family with several children both father and mother have outside well paying jobs, the wife’s salary should in the first place be used to employ some home help. Why else would a woman want to have an outside job if it did not pay enough for some home help? Now, I would very much like my readers’ thoughts on this. Please, do not hesitate to make a comment, when you do not agree with my opinion on this.
Another topic would be how do families cope these days with separation or divorce of parents, and how do wives fare then if they do not have a well paying job.
Uta and Peter in Berlin June 2016
