December Days with Martin

As I said we spent some time with Martin in Melbourne. But Martin also spent some time with us in Dapto. He arrived at our place right on time for our wedding anniversary. Christmas Eve we spent with him and Caroline and Matthew at the place of Monika and Mark.

Monika as well as Roxy with one month old Baby Carter came to see us for afternoon coffee the day of our wedding anniversary. Caroline and Matthew had moved to suitable accommodation in inner Sydney the weekend before, but were back in time for the anniversary.

We were only ten people at our Anniversary Lunch in Wollongong (including Baby Carter). Some working people in our family were glad when we suggested instead of taking time of work for the anniversary lunch, we could all together have some anniversary celebrations on Christmas Eve. Monika and Mark were happy to have these celebrations at the back of their house.

Usually the whole family would turn up at our place for Christmas Eve celebrations. This had always been the tradition in our family. In a way I was glad, that we did not have to have it this time at our place. It was the first year that we also did not bother to have a Christmas tree.

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This is the sort of health food that Caroline likes to prepare

Martin travelled with Peter and me to Melbourne. We left very early in the morning of the 27th of December. Peter drove up Macquarie Pass. (He knows this Pass very well!) After a stop at Moss Vale, Martin took over the driving. It was very good that Martin could take over a lot of the driving to Melbourne, but Peter drove part of the way too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Matthew bought this Cognac. I quite liked a little bit of it.

Some more Photos from Saturday, the 10th of December 2016

From this terrace at Wollongong Hospital one gets a good view to Mt Keira

This is where the terrace is. There’s some outside seating too.

Most of the time when we were visiting Peter on that Saturday we were allowed to stay with him. When we had to leave him for a while, we would spend a bit of time out here on that terrace. We also went inside for a cup of coffee. The hospital also has a chapel, which is a quiet and peaceful room. But it was not open on a Saturday. However there was a bit of seating outside the chapel which we found to be pretty good.

The last month of 2016

dscn2610 — This is part of Wollongong Hospital. I took this picture on Sat. 10th of Dec 2016

dscn2606 — On Friday, 9th Dec, Peter had been admitted to the hospital. We were allowed to accompany him to this Holding Bay before he went to the operating theatre.

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The 9th of Dec was Caroline’s birthday. Since we were not allowed to see Peter for some time, we took the chance to all go out for some lunch in Wollongong, sort of like a birthday lunch for Caroline.

Soon after lunch we went back to the hospital and found out that Peter was doing all right. The procedure had been going as well as expected. (In the meantime we found out that Peter has to undergo the same procedure another time in a few months.)

The following day, Saturday, Caroline and I went to visit Peter in hospital. This was the day when Caroline had some major problems driving our car. With the help of Matthew the car ended up in the repair shop. Monika was still on leave and could help us to pick it up again after it was fixed the following week.

Late on Sunday morning Peter was allowed to go home. I had been waiting with Caroline and Matthew in the ward in his room. We were all very happy, that he was allowed to leave the hospital already on Sunday. Since our car had ended up at the repair shop, it was up to Matthew to drive all of us back home in that very small and very old good Proton. Matthew thought, there was nothing to it. Within a few minutes he had us safely in our home. Peter’s recovery did not take long. The main thing was, that he had to drink lots of water all the time (he still does!) and go to the toilet frequently.

In the meantime we have had our anniversary: We have been married for 60 years now! Someone took a picture of us in 1956 a few months before our wedding. However, we do have no wedding pictures! We thought they would cost a bit too much money.

img_20170106_0001 — Uta and Peter in 1956

We do have a few pictures of our 60th Wedding Anniversary. I am going to publish them in another post.

On the 21st of November our daughter Monika became a grandmother for the third time. Her daughter Roxy delivered in Wollongong Hospital a beautiful boy, named Carter Scott, a son to Roxy and Scott.
He is a cousin to Lucas and Alexander.

Stopping at Goulburn

From Gundagai we travelled on the Hume Highway towards Goulburn.

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We stopped at Belmore Park in Goulburn:

We always love to have a toilet break there when we travel past Goulburn along the Hume Highway. Opposite the park in Montague Street is the Courthouse and the Roses Cafe:

http://www.therosescafe.com.au/about.html

Peter took pictures of the courthouse. Then we went to the Roses Cafe for some tea and fruit salad.

Our next stop was Robertson where we bought some pies at the pie-shop to take home. One hour after that we arrived home in Dapto. It was still early afternoon of Tuesday, the 3rd of January 2017. We had left home for Melbourne on the 27th of December 2016. It was good to be back home. First of all we had to open all the windows in our house and put some ceiling fans on because the air felt rather humid.

We had had a very good time on Monday, the 2nd of January, with our grandson Tristan and his family. And it had been great that we could spend some time with our son Martin, getting to know a bit more about Melbourne again and celebrate the arrival of the New Year in Melbourne. It is summer in Australia. So we had had some pretty hot days in Melbourne, and strangely enough, also quite a bit of rain!

Our next Stop: “Dog on the Tuckerbox

Tuesday, 3rd of January 2017

Monday evening we had arrived at Holbrook feeling very tired. We stayed in Holbrook in a motel and had a good rest The next morning we got up early and went for breakfast to the Holbrook Bakery.

https://auntyuta.com/2017/01/11/on-the-way-home/

Soon we travelled on along the Hume Highway until we reached the “Dog on the Tuckerbox” near Gundagai. (Tuckerbox means Lunchbox.)

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From Wikipedia about the Unveiling in 1932:

“The monument of the Dog on the Tuckerbox was unveiled in 1932 by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Joe Lyons, on the 103rd anniversary of Australian explorer Charles Sturt’s 1829 crossing of the Riverina’s Murrumbidgee River.

The monument was the creation of Gundagai stonemason Frank Rusconi, another of whose works, the Marble Masterpiece, is on display in town.

Gundagai, 386 kilometres from Sydney, lies along the Hume Highway which runs inland from Sydney to Melbourne.”

“Moses’s poem, Nine Miles from Gundagai, was first published in 1938, several years after the statue’s unveiling. Jack O’Hagan’s song, Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox (5 miles from Gundagai), was published in 1937.”

And now to another link in Wikipedia:

https://janedogs.com/dog-on-the-tuckerbox/

The above link leads to an interesting article about
The Origin of the Pivotal Word ‘Sat’
The Original Writers of the Fable
and the many different versions all ending in:

… for Nobby Jack has broke the yoke,
Poked out the leader’s eye
and the dog shat on the tucker box,
Five miles from Gundagai.

On the Way Home

On Monday, the 2nd of January 20017 we were on the way home. In Holbrooik we found a good Motel to stay there overnight. By the time we arrived there we were very tired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holbrook,_New_South_Wales

The following morning we went to the Holbrook Bakery:for breakfast
http://www.holbrookbakery.com.au/central-bakery.html

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Our next stop was Gundagai.

Brief Stop at Benalla, Victoria

Uta’s Diary, January 2017

After we left Melbourne, Benalla was our first stop. We were on the way to a farmstead near Wangaratta to visit our grandson Tristan and his family.

Peter took the following six pictures during a brief stop at Benalla, Victoria.

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From Wikipedia:
“Weary Dunlop Memorial Located within the Botanical Gardens and clearly visible from Bridge Street is the Weary Dunlop Memorial, a powerful statue depicting two Australian doctors (Dunlop being the standing one) helping a wounded and emaciated comrade. Cast in bronze and over 2 metres high it stands on a granite plinth with the words “compassion, integrity, forgiveness, humility, courage, leadership, friendship” engraved on the granite base. It was created by sculptor Louis Lauman to dramatically depict Dunlop’s work helping wounded and dying POWs. The sculpture was unveiled in 1996. Dunlop was both the commanding officer and surgeon for over 1,000 POWs on the Thai-Burma railway. You can read more about him singular life at http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/dunlop/bio/. The statue at Benalla is much better than the one depicted at the Australian War Memorial. There is also an excellent Visitor Guide available at the Visitor Information Centre. – See more at: http://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/benalla-vic#sthash.owRJLzR1.dpuf”

SHORT LIFE AND DEATH OF A BERLIN REVOLUTION: SPARTATAKUSAUFSTAND

This happened nearly 100 years ago! Can we learn from it?

KREUZBERGED - BERLIN COMPANION

On January 11, 1919 hell breaks loose in front of the building of Vorwärts, a newspaper run by SPD (Social Democratic Party) in Lindenstrasse 3 in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Lindenstrasse in 1929: the tall building of Vorwärts, at No. 3, fourth from the left (photo: Kreuzberg Museum)

The building had been occupied since January 4 by members of several far-left groups, one of them known as Spartakusbund. Only a couple of days before the uprising began, the Spartacists´ League founded by Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin and Karl Liebknecht in response to the Social Democratic Party´s inability (or lack of good will) to represent the working class, took a new name: German Communist Party (KPD).

The occupation of the SPD´s „media centre“ (newspapers at the time had terrific power: they were the most influential source of information and could literally decide the fate of the land) was the last chapter…

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US Special Operations Forces Deploy to 138 Nations, 70 Percent of the World’s Countries

This heading says it all!

The Most Revolutionary Act

Source: Truthout

They could be found on the outskirts of Sirte, Libya, supporting local militia fighters, and in Mukalla, Yemen, backing troops from the United Arab Emirates. At Saakow, a remote outpost in southern Somalia, they assisted local commandos in killing several members of the terror group al-Shabab. Around the cities of Jarabulus and Al-Rai in northern Syria, they partnered with both Turkish soldiers and Syrian militias, while also embedding with Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Across the border in Iraq, still others joined the fight to liberate the city of Mosul. And in Afghanistan, they assisted indigenous forces in various missions, just as they have every year since 2001.

For America, 2016 may have been the year of the commando. In one conflict zone after another across the northern tier of Africa and the Greater Middle East, US Special Operations…

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Sunflowers

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When we returned from Melbourne, these sunflowers greeted us in our backyard.