Wednesday, 7th of February. New Start of Stability Exercise Class

I am looking forward to start the Stability Exercise Class again. The class is at the CITOS club today at 10 AM. After the class we stay for coffee with a bit of nice talking.

I thought yesterday Dapto would have no electricity for most of the day. But the planned outing was cancelled. They are going to do it some other day. It has to do with mantaining the aging power lines.

My deck looks good at the moment for yesterday after the rain I busied myself with sone good sweeping away all that water. I love doing this. It is so relaxing! Of course I do it very slowly. I felt good staying on my own yesterday. Spending a lot of extra time in the kitchen as well as on the computer was good. So, so I managed to write several longer emails to keep in touch with some family members. Among other things a trip to Sydney visiting daughter Caroline and son-in-law Matthew might happen soon as well as a meeting with granddaughter Lauren and her friend Aaron. Actually, I received a very nice email from Lauren yesterday and answered it straight away. I haven’t seen dear Lauren for several years, but hope to meet up with her soon. It is not so easy to keep in touch when everyone is always very busy. There seem to be less and less old people left that I can keep in touch with on a regular basis. So, this is the way it is, that old retired people are getting less and less. Still, most of us do not pass away early. We live longer and longer than ever before.

It is so good to see the younger people being adventurous and keeping themselves very busy. I an happy to stand back now and do a lot of reflecting about old times. So far I still have great memories about my life. When I cannot remember something all that well anymore, I like to look up what I have written about certain incidents and may have published in WordPress. I look and look for a special blog. I seem to remember that I had published a blog with pictures about a lovely outing many years ago. So, why is this blog not there anymore? I take hours wanting to find it. But it is just not there anymore!

Tuesday, the 6th of February

Walking is so good for me!

I am happy that I managed to walk a lot these last few days, well whatever is a lot for me. On Sunday I had this walk to the pool and back. Yesterday, on Monday, I had my homehelp coming in the morning as is usual on any Monday that does not happen to be a Public Holoday. So I had dear Summah with me yesterday. I always enjoy her presence. She is such good company and does so much for me during the three hours she stays with me. Yesterday she dropped me off at 12,30 to get my hair done. I have a hairdresser’s appointment every four weeks now. It is so good to get my hair washed and blowdried by my marvellous hairdresser. Yesterday she did a bit of haircutting again too. Also, there is always a lot of talking going on at the hairdresser’s. I find it is good for me to find opportunities for some talking. So, my lovely hairdresser did a good job again. Her shop is not far away from the Shopping Center at the Dapto Mall. So I could easily walk to the Mall with my rollator to have some lunch at a cafe called the shed. The other day I had looked at a blog of mine that was about ten years old and where I mention a nice meal I had in Berry with Peter, my husband. We always loved a trip to Berry. As a meal that day we both happened to choose Eggs Benedict with lovely crusty rye bred. Yesterday at the shed I daringly went for Eggs Benedict in rememberace of that lovely meal at Berry. To my surprise I did get exceptionelly good Eggs Benedict served. They were as good as the ones that we had in Berry the way I remember it.

Yesterday was an extremely hot and humid day. So, I was happy to stay for many hours in and near the the Shopping Center, doing a lot of walking as well as a bit of shopping. After an exhausting day I took a taxi home. After a lot of sleep, I feel refreshed this morning.

First Monday in February 2024, eating some very good Fish the Day before

Yesterday was a very hot day. So, I went to the Swimming Pool Centre here in Dapto, NSW. Arriving at 11AM, I had a lovely time and stayed at the pools for exactly four hours. I had been walking there with my rollator (walker with wheels). With a few rests on the way it took me quite a while to get there. The place was filled with a lot of children of all ages as well as young adults and of course some older people too. There seemed to be mothers and fathers with babies and toddlers everywhere. Also plenty of lifeguards were keeping an eye on the place, which was a very peaceful place as far as I could tell.

Apart from the Olympic Pool there is another quite large pool where the water is not very deep. Young and old took a chance to relax in it. Also there was no problem to stay out of the sun in nice shady partitions and in beauifully kept grass under shady trees. People are very concious these days that they should not expose their skin to the sun for too long.

With a lot of relaxing on that beautiful summer day, I felt actually well enough in the afternoon to walk all the way to CITOS Bowling Club which is very near to where I live. So, I stayed at the club for a lovely dinner: I had braised fish and salad and a glass of wine. Just wonderful! I liked the fish very much. It was the very best of fish.

Yesterday there was no pool entrance fee charged. How amazing, for usually to be admitted to that beautiful pool area does cost quite a lot. Another plus was that the Kiosk was open. I started with having some ice cream. Later on I had some hot chips and a coffee. I also bought a nicely chilled bottle of water. And I had brought a packet of chilled apple juice with me. By the way, at the club I had another coffee. I was very happy that I was able to consume this and that all through the day. I really felt on top of the world. To enjoy food and drink is still one of my top pleasures. However, these days I never do eat too much. I always stop eating when I feel I had enough. My fish for dinner was quite a large piece. It turned out I had no problem eating all of it! It just melted in my mouth and was not too much at all. Together with some nice fresh salad it was really a very good meal for me.

Whenever I moved around with my rollator, or frollicked in the swimming pool, people would caution their children to keep out of my way. And they would always refer to me as ‘lady’. Whenever people would feel they might have obstructed my movements a bit, they would immediately be very appologetic! And there were always people offering help when they noticed that I might need some help.

All around it is really not that bad to be very aged, when people are that kind. I find, all I need to do is be grateful for their kindness.

Sunday Diary

Here in Australia it is nearly 7AM now. So, Good Morning everyone!

Yesterday I was thinking a lot of my dear sister-in-law. Her name is Ilse. She turns 90 this year in May, on the 13th of May that is. I wished I could go and visit her! My husband Peter had his birthday on the 16th of May. So, Peter and his sister Ilse had been just one year and three days apart. Peter and Ilse had always been very close. Peter and I migrated in 1959 from Germany to Australia. Over the years Peter and I went often for visits to Germany and Ilse did visit us several times here in Australia and liked Australia very much. Ilse still lives in Berlin, Germany. Ilse and Peter often talked to each other on the phone right to his end. (Peter passed away in December 2020.)

Two years ago, in May 2022, I had the chance to fly to Berlin for a short visit. It was great that I could see dear Ilse then for her 88th birthday. I wished I could visit her again this year for her birthday!

I could write more now, however I want to restrict myself and stop with writing at this stage to start the day. I wish for everyone to have a good Sunday. See you tomorrow again!

Saturday, the 3rd of February

Here I go. How about writing a post every day? Yes, I want to give it a go. Wish me luck that I can keep it up!

Heute ist ein schöner Tag!

Today is a nice day!

I was sitting outside in a light breeze feeling very content and meditating to my heart’s content. I memorised some things out of different stages of my life. For instance I thought about it how different people may actually see me. I am sure there was a time when a lot of people, mainly women, thought that I was something like a sex-pot. Behind my back they would make snide remarks about me. Anyway, this is how I remember it, that indeed some good loyal friends sometimes opened up to me about it.

Do a lot of people still see me that way now that I am approaching 90? What do you think?

Funny enough I still love to read and talk about sex very openly! It seems to me a lot has changed in sexual matters, especially during the last 20 years or so. For instance, very decent people choose not to get married anymore to have a sexual relationship. Also, more and more committed relationships do not last for very long. A person may have multiple relationships during a lifetime. It is really quite unusual now that a marriage lasts a lifetime for the percentage of divorces is on a steady increase. Partly maybe it has to do with that the average lifespan is more and more on the increase.

And what do you think has women’s liberation to do with it?

And how does it affect the children? In Western society the birthrate is getting very low. Who has still a lot of children?