Author: auntyuta

Auntie, Sister. Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Mother and Wife of German Descent I've lived in Australia since 1959 together with my husband Peter. We have four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I started blogging because I wanted to publish some of my childhood memories. I am blogging now also some of my other memories. I like to publish some photos too as well as a little bit of a diary from the present time. Occasionally I publish a story with a bit of fiction in it. Peter, my husband, is publishing some of his stories under berlioz1935.wordpress.com

What does God want me to do?

What does God want me to do?

Last Sunday at Mass I was confronted with the above question. As it happened it was a day when I was in quite a bit of physical pain. The pain didn’t start out to be really bad. I would be all right walking to church, so I thought. But far from it. After walking the distance, which took about twenty-five minutes, the pain was getting quite considerable. I arrived at the church at the last minute. But Father was still standing there shaking hands. He shook my hand too.

I happened to find a seat beside Sister Kevin. I greeted her and sat down. I told myself if I could just rest my knee and concentrate on my breathing, the pain would be bearable. I started reflecting on how God probably wanted to tell me something. Maybe God wanted me to make changes to my life as to correspond better with my aging body. What changes to my life should I make? What sort of changes did God actually want me to do?

I was very moved by the beautiful singing in the church. Both Fr Francis Tran and the Seminarian, Mr Stephen Varney, were singing Mass. Both have such beautiful voices! The church choir sang very well too. Stephen was given the homily that morning. He pointed out that for some people the Priesthood can offer a fulfilling way of life. They may think that it might be too hard to stick to being a priest. Even though for most people it is right to get married, you may think about it that it is also often not easy to stick to being husband and wife. It all depends on what God wants you to do, doesn’t it?

Monday has come and gone, so has Tuesday. Today is Wednesday and the pain is still there. I can cope with it as long as I don’t do too much! I cancelled the walks with my neighbour, Irene. I didn’t even go to the pool on Monday or to the Thai Yoga class on Tuesday. Peter could have driven me to the pool. But I declined.

When Peter suggested on Tuesday, the first of May, we could drive to Berry and then further on to Hampden Bridge, I joyfully agreed to this. We had a lovely day out. The weather was perfect for an outing. The good thing was, I didn’t have to walk much. Peter took lots of pictures. I took quite a few pictures too, some of them out of the window from the car.

This leads to Peter’s blog about our outing and another blog about his thoughts to the 1st of May:

https://berlioz1935.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/the-old-and-the-new-australia/

At the moment I do not want to think about seeing the doctor or the dentist or the optometrist. Within the next couple of months I ought to see all these people. Just now I only want to rest and get better.

Peter looks over the coast south of Kiama

From there we drove on to Berry where we had some pies for lunch. We also bought some cake at the Milkwood Bakery. This is a newly opened bakery in Queen Street. They are a branch of the Berry Sourdough Cafe in Prince Alfred Street, which is famous for very good breakfasts.


These are some autumn leaves in Berry and the following picture shows a tree with autumn leaves in this particular street in Berry


This is where we turned off from Berry taking the Tourist Drive to Hampden Bridge


We saw some unusual cloud formations on the way. This was one of them.


This is part of the Kangaroo Valley Road


Further along the Tourist Road


A gate to a property along the Road

Nearly there at the Bridge
This sign tells us that there are wombats in the area
And this sign tells us our way back home

Towards the End of April 2012


Last Thursday we saw Gaby in Merrylands. She waited for us near Merrylands Station. Honey, her dog, was with her. Honey had been bitten by a big dog a bit over a week ago. She had needed some stitches which cost Gaby a lot of money. On Thursday these stitches were due to come out. We didn’t have to go far from the station to the vet’s surgery. Honey had her stitches out in no time. She seems to be all right now.

The following Friday we were busy around the house. We were lucky for it was a sunny day again. We needed to air a big mattress. This mattress is seventeen years old. But it has been keeping well. We got it for our youngest daughter when she was nearly seventeen. The son of her partner is seventeen now. They want the mattress and the bed for their seventeen year old son. So apart from airing the mattress, Peter disassembled the bed. Taking pictures of everything I got into the mood of taken also some pictures through the different windows at the side and back of our house. I can’t get over it how much everything has grown outside. I thought taking photos of it would look quite impressive!

This is a view from one of the dining-room windows
Here is part of the dismantled bed
Our daughter loved to have these for company

Here now are some photos taken from the bedrrom (facing the back), also the laundry door and the kitchen window towards the back. There is another view from the dining-room facing to the right side of the house.
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Ages ago we had planted some Gerbera bulbs. From time to time one or the other new flower makes a surprise appearance.

One of our grandsons, who owns a van, offered to take bed and mattress to the daughter’s place. This morning he came as promised to collect the things. We have a bit more room now in the spare bedroom. It’s going to be our ‘quiet’ sitting-room, meaning there won’t be any electronical gadgets in this room, not even a TV set.

April is coming to an end. The month of May with a very full program is approaching!

I decided I try to add the window pictures again in a larger size to make them look more impressive.

Berlioz wrote a different blog with some of my pictures. You find it here.

ANZAC DAY 2012

Very cold morning. Quite a bit of wind too. However when I saw the beautiful sunshine, I thought: Got to go to the pool, got to go to the pool. The seven o’clock walk did not eventuate: Irene rang, letting me know that she had a sore back due to a fall. She said she felt it may be better to get a bit of a rest till her back got better. Of course I agreed and wished her a speedy recovery.

I delayed my walk to the pool for one hour. At eight o’clock (after having had some porridge) I strolled to the pool at a leisurely pace. I took the shortcut along Brooks Creek, past the Bowling Club. Arriving at the pool a sign told me the water temperature was 26 Degrees Celsius. No way would I be freezing in this kind of water temperature!

As I entered the dressing room, one elderly woman was getting dressed ready to go back home. She said the water had been so nice warm, she would have liked to stay in it a bit longer. Soon some more women came in ready to get dressed after their swim. One woman said it would be nice if the dressing room had some heating in it!

On a windy day like today there was indeed quite some breeze blowing through the shedlike area. It means you have to hurry up to get into your warm cloths. However, there is the luxury of hot showers; the shower water being solar heated of course, the same as the water in the pool.

I had had a bit of pain in my right knee for a few days. The exersises in the warm water of the pool turned out to be very beneficial. Walking home, I took some more pictures. And my sore knee felt very much better. Peter opened the door for me. It wasn’t long before we enjoyed some filtered coffee and toasted crumpets.

While I am downloading these pictures, I watch a live program on ABC TV: The ANZAC DAY MARCH in Sydney! Later on I am going to watch the Gallipoli Dawn Service and the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial Service. These are always very moving, reflective services.

This Villa, with the sign in front of it, has recently been sold.