Month: May 2018

Uta’s Diary

 

I just love my early morning walks in Lakelands Park. I usually walk just across the grassy soccer fields.

I am always so happy when I get up very early in the morning and see the sun gradually coming up.

When we have an outing, it usually takes me quite some time to get ready, even though I don’t normally bother about any make-up. I think the most time is taken up just packing my boobs into some bra. It is such a strenuous job! Peter takes less than half the time to get ready for going out.

We feel that our weeks are very, very busy these days. And getting busier by the minute! Apart from doctor’s appointments and shopping trips there are now Tai Chi classes on Monday, Yoga classes on Tuesday, and I continue to go to the slow movement exercise classes for seniors on Thursdays. On Friday I continue to have a games afternoon with my friends.

Today I missed out on my seniors’ class. I felt I needed a break. Watching the German news in the morning we found out that it is a holiday today in Germany: It is the Thursday ten days before Pentecost Sunday. This Thursday is a public holiday in Germany as well as so called Fathers’ Day. On this day all fathers in Germany are bound to have a day out on their own without wives or kids! This is tradition. This day out is very much enjoyed by the fathers.

Peter and I pretended we have a ‘holiday’ today too, enjoying it with a lovely glass of chilled white wine for lunch. At around 2,30 pm we expect our daughter Monika to come for a visit together with her grandson Carter, who is now a very enjoyable one and a half.

 

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We went with Carter to the Playground at Lakelands Park when they came for a visit two weeks ago.

Uta’s Diary

 

 

 

Sunday before Mother’s Day 2018

We left at 10,30 for a 50 km drive to Berry. On the way we had to drive through Albion Park Rail. This delayed us somewhat for there was an airshow on at the Illawarra Regional Airport. Lots of people had already parked all over the area, and quite a few people were still arriving looking for more parking spots quite some distance away and then walking to where the action was. We saw heaps and heaps of cars and hundreds and hundreds of walkers!

https://www.wingsoverillawarra.com.au/page/flying-program

 

 

https://www.wingsoverillawarra.com.au/page/location

“Illawarra Regional Airport is located adjacent to the Princes Highway at Albion Park Rail in NSW, approximately 20kms south of Wollongong City Centre and 100kms south of Sydney City Centre.”

Once we made it through Albion Park Rail on the Princes Highway, we had a good run further south to Berry.

We had no idea that in Berry was a show on too. I looked it up now, it was the

NATIONAL MOTORING HERITAGE DAY AT BERRY SHOWGROUND

https://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/south-coast/jervis-bay-and-shoalhaven/berry/events/national-motoring-heritage-day-berry

I have never seen as many people and cars in the vicinity of Berry. But we were lucky. Peter found a very convenient parking spot near here:

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We had some lovely ice-cream and were sitting outside with it. We only had to walk a little bit further to find a beautiful outside cafe and there was no problem at all to get a table. The coffee we ordered was very good. The weather was just perfect:  Sunshine the whole time and no wind whatsoever.

At  the French Bakery across the road Peter bought a cinnamon scroll and a baguette. Then we drove back home, where we warmed the cinnamon scroll up in the oven and then had it at a table in our backyard with a cup of tea.

The whole outing took us only 2  and a half hours.

 

 

What our Place looks like after the Removal of some very large Junk Furniture

Yesterday we had a few larger items plus some smaller ones removed by a junk removal company. The items were so old that they could not have been given to charity. So we had to pay for their removal. We did this gladly. We were very happy that some very friendly young men were willing to transport them away in their huge truck.

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Our 40 year old bed with the 24 year old mattress is gone. We have another bed and another mattress now!

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The two very large, very old seats are gone. Now there’s room for something else;

Big sugar and the ‘big flaw’ in Australia’s federal health programs Four Corners By Michael Brissenden Updated Mon at 7:19pm

 

The following is from the updated Four Corners program:

“Australia is now one of the fattest nations on Earth.

Sixty per cent of us are overweight or obese, and by 2025 that figure will rise to 80 per cent.

Despite this, Australia still has no national obesity strategy.

What we do have are two key federal programs — the Healthy Food Partnership to encourage healthy eating, and the Health Star rating, a front-of-pack labelling system.

But the rules for these two initiatives have been set by committees made up of government and public health advocates, as well as food industry representatives.

According to one insider who spoke to Four Corners, “the reality is that industry is … making most of the policy”, and public health advocates are only included “so we can have the least-worst solution”.

Companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Unilever, Nestle and Kelloggs have a seat at the table setting the policies that shape consumption of their own sugar-laced products.

As Australia’s obesity and diabetes rates continue to soar, public health advocates have told Four Corners the industry has been obstructing and delaying policy outcomes that would lead to better health.

And they have likened their tactics to those deployed by the tobacco industry . . . . ”

To read on please go to:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-30/big-sugar-and-the-big-flaw-in-australias-health-programs/9707204

And here is a warning sign about not feeding kangaroos in a wild life sanctuary. People should really be taking notice of this:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-02/do-not-feed-the-kangaroos-sign/9716842

Here in this article it says how bad it is for kangaroos to feed them processed food:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-02/agro-kangaroos-addicted-to-carrots-attack-tourists/9716612

And even feeding them carrots in huge amounts can lead to addiction and very bad behaviour by kangaroos where they become very aggressive.

 

 

A few more Pictures from April 2018 in my Diary

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Boiled potatoes, small tomatoes and some salad leaves and in the middle there are yummy braised mushroom pieces and some cottage cheese!
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Peter and I were sitting outside for our meal.
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These shelves have had their day. 

The other day I finally decided I won’t have to use these shelves any more in our bedroom. We are right now in the process of downsizing as much as possible and getting rid of old furniture that clearly has had its day.

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This is what the sky looked like towards the East very early one morning in April.

Dateline Season 2018 Episode 12 — Yemen’s Children Of War – SBS on Demand

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/1213134915838/dateline-yemens-children-of-war

“What happens when three Yemeni kids under constant bombing attacks, are asked to report on the warzone they’re living in? An intimate and horrifying portrait of a community struggling to cope with the violence around them.”

I just watched this program. It is indeed a horrifying warzone. What these Yemen children experience is horrifying beyond belief.

 

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/story/yemens-children-war

 

By

Khadija al-Salami
Airdate:

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 – 21:30

Channel:

SBS

“In Yemen, a child dies every 10 minutes – six children an hour.

For three years Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, has been home to civil war, death and famine. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted between the country’s Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition. Both sides are accused of human rights atrocities and the indiscriminate killing of civilians.

This week on Dateline, we follow three young Yemeni kids as they report on the violence and war around them.

Filming much of the footage on mobile phones, young reporters Rima, 8, Ahmed, 11 and Youssef, 9, record remarkable interviews showing the everyday reality of life for Sana’a’s residents who live under constant airstrikes.

“I don’t like to play war” explains Youssef, “If I survive this war, I want to be a dentist.”

On the outskirts of Sana’a, the young reporters meet an orphan child – just 4 years old – whose entire family has been killed. Amongst the rubble of her home, they find the belongings of her dead mother, father and brothers.

“With their weapons they killed your whole family. And now you no longer have a future,” says Ahmed, crying.

With no end to the war in sight, what does the future hold for Yemen’s children?”

Watch Dateline, Tuesday 9.30pm on SBS.

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/single/1222212675897
The 4-year-old who lost her whole family

Uta’s Diary

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This is a tree in Lakelands Park. I took this picture last Thursday when Peter, Monika, Natasha and little Carter went to the playground of that park. It was past three o’clock in the afternoon. A little later some young soccer players arrived at the park. They practiced on a soccer field near the playground.

Seventeen months old Carter had great fun at the playground. Both Monika and Tash promised they’d come to visit us again next Thursday. If the weather is fine, we all might go to the playground again with little Carter.

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Little Carter with his Grandma Monika and Auntie Tash in April 2018. (The building at the back with new paint!)
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This picture is from Thursday, the 26th of April 2018.

 

DSCN4049Krystal’s birthday was on the 5th of April. She turned 21 this year!! I  looked up what I wrote four years ago on Krystal’s birthday. Here it is:

https://auntyuta.com/2014/04/05/krystals-birthday-today/

It features some pictures what the playground in Lakelands Park looked in 2001.Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stand beside her. Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stands beside her.img185And while I am at it, I copy here what the  bush in front of our house looked like in 2000 and I am going to show what it looks like now 17 years later:This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2OOO. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. It looks very huge now and the gardener trims is every so often otherwise there would not be left enough room for the parking spot at the left of the house. This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2000. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. (After it had been there already for some six years!)  It looks very huge now, and the gardener trims it every so often, otherwise there would not be enough room left for the parking spot left of the house. DSCN4071 This bush looks so much bigger now. Also,   the trees behind have grown enormously! And now back to the playground, what it looks like at present at Eastertime 2018:DSCN4051

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(There’s new paint on this building now!)

DSCN4044 This picture is from  Good Friday, the 30th of March 2018, when I went for an early walk to the playground in Lakelands Park. Some Peter Rabbit Books for the Kids

Another picture taken in Lakelands Park in 2001

In this picture is our daughter Monika with her three daughters, also Peter’s sister Ilse who was at our place in Australia on a visit from Berlin, Germany. Natasha, the eldest daughter of Monika, is next to me on the left.