Baby Carter arrived on the 21st of November 2016, a Monday. He arrived shortly after 5 in the afternoon. Soon after his birth at Wollongong Hospital a lot of family went to see him and his Mum, Roxy.
Roxy is one of our granddaughters. Our daughter Monika and granddaughter Natasha drove Peter and me to Wollongong Hospital the morning after the Baby had been born. Here are some pictures from Tuesday morning:
Today Carter is three!! We went this morning to see him and his mum and his two months old Baby Sister, sweet Evie!
“This song is from a movie that translated from Swedish means As in Heaven. This song is sung by a character who gets beaten by her husband. It is a very emotional scene, it’s her first time performing in front of an audience, and when she gets home her husband beats her mercilessly for it. This is my own translation, and it is not word for word exactly, and it’s a rather hard song to translate, because some sentences doesn’t make much sense in Swedish either. Love the song though. I take no credit for this song.”
This is what I say in the above post: ‘As it is in HEAVEN is such a great movie I really would like to watch it again!
A successful international conductor suddenly interrupts his career and returns alone to his childhood village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden.
As It Is In Heaven 2: Heaven on Earth – Official Trailer
Desmond White leads a very modern life, riding his bike around inner-city Newcastle, where he lives on his own in a fifth-storey apartment overlooking the wharf.
Key points:
The Australia Talks survey found 96 per cent of Australians use a smartphone
62 per cent of Australians spend between one and six hours a day on their devices, the survey found
Most people think technology is making life better in Australia
But the 93-year-old was unimpressed when he recently became the owner of an iPhone.
“I had one of the old traditional phones, which was misbehaving. All callers — and I’ve got a lot of callers — would say ‘what’s up with your phone, what’s wrong with your phone?'” he said.
Optus offered Mr White a new phone and he agreed, but he was surprised to find it was an iPhone that arrived in the mail.
“I was expecting one like the old-fashioned stuff,” he said.
Suddenly, Mr White, who once presided over a successful tyre business, found himself unable to perform the previously simple task of making a phone call.
“Everybody promised — I’ve got grandkids and whatnot — to show me what to do with it,” he said.
With most of his family outside of the Newcastle area, Mr White turned to a computer club for older Novocastrians.
“I somehow managed to be able to make a call, and of course receive one … but it would be nice if I could do ever so much more, because I know it has so much to offer,” Mr White said.
“Some of them feel a little bit intimidated, feel a little bit upset because the world is changing so fast.
Ms Keen said the generational gap was particularly glaring when younger people tried to help out.
“They [older people] say, ‘oh I asked my son, or my daughter or my grandson or granddaughter … and they say, ‘oh you do this, this and this, press this button, do that, that’s how you do it’,” she said.
“The person sitting there who hasn’t understood the vast difference in the language and all the terminology, and hasn’t seen that before, is suddenly thrown and they’re thinking, ‘I have no idea what that person did’.
“They go to replicate it later and they have no idea.”
It has been more than a decade since Australians were introduced to smartphones, and the ABC’s Australia Talks survey found 96 per cent of people in the country now own one.
Not surprisingly though, the data shows the older you get, the less likely you are to have one.”
I, Uta, copied the above. This new technology I find very scary. I get the creeps when I am bombarded with terms like ‘the cashless society’! I am not 93 yet, I am ‘only’ 85. But I have very poor vision. The idea that in future I may have to use an iPhone does scare me no end. My husband Peter is very close to my age. However, he knows how to use a smartphone and keeps in touch with the children and he also accesses all the information about the children that is available on Facebook. He spends many hours a day on these gadgets. I find it very helpful that he can always give me information about family and friends. So far it worked out all right that I have to rely on Peter for all this information. I think to have to spend hours and hours on these gadgets to eventually get some valuable information is not a very efficent way to get to the news that is important to me. I think I prefer to keep in touch via email or a ‘normal’ phone call if person to person contact is not possible. So far I have been lucky in that person to person contact has still been possible a lot of the time. And occasionally I still get some beautiful emails! And I like the World Wide Web and WordPress!
“Tutors at the club say where once people would come in curious to explore this new frontier, they are now coming in because they have no choice.”
So this is what the tutors say! NO JOICE? I hope this is not true for me. I just do not feel like going to that ‘new frontier’ and spending the last bit of time that may be left to me with torturing my brain with new things that I feel I should not have to learn at this stage of my life!! Please understand, I am willing to adapt as much as possible to new things that are necessary for instance to cope with climate change, but somehow I feel that new frontier technology I should not have to be confronted with . . . .
It was the morning after my cousin’s funeral. My cousin’s son-in-law went out early in the morning to get some bread rolls for the family’s breakfast. I asked, could come with him for the walk. I wanted to familiarize myself a bit with my cousin’s surroundings, to get more of a feeling about the area where she had lived. So we went for the short walk to the baker’s shop. I had my camera with me. Looking at some of the displays at the basker’s, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a few photos. I think the shop assistant behind the counter looked at me a bit puzzled. She probably thought I was odd taking pictures. Looking at the pictures now I still think the displays look very appealing.
It’s remarkable that all the items are priced. When it says ‘Euro 1,45’ this means it costs less than two Australian Dollars. A piece of cake like this in a cake-shop in Australia would cost more than twice as much!
We went to the KaDeWe today. We bought a very long, crusty loaf called ‘bark-bread’ Lovely treats with our coffee Peter checks his phone Amongst a lot of sweets and chocolates we found this This creation of the Brandenburg Gate is made out ofmarzipan, 50 kilogram of marzipan were used for it.It took 150 working hours to design it!
Some more copies about what I wrote in 2012 about our stay in Germany that year:
Today (2012/10/06) is already the last day of the fourth week of our stay in Germany. The week started with Sunday when we went with Angie on a beautiful boat-tour through the city. The following day (Monday, 1st October), we met Angie at Bellevue-S-Bahn-Station and had morning coffee with her at Thürmann Baker’s Cafe at Hansaplatz U-Bahn-Station. There’s a Post Office at Hansaplatz from where Angie sent off a parcel to one of her sisters. The weather was very pleasant again. Just right for a lovely walk through Tiergarten towards the Victory Column. Angie enjoyed this walk with us. Later on we met Ilse and Finn at the Italian Restaurant close to Hansaplatz, where the five of us had a very satisfying lunch again outside in the garden area.
Afternoon coffee and cake we had upstairs in our little apartment. Angie had booked in at the newly opened Holiday Inn at Alexanderplatz. She left on Tuesday to fly back to America. Peter and I went to Prenzlauer Berg on Tuesday and had dumplings at a restaurant near Rosenthalerplatz.
Wednesday it was time to travel ‘Criss-Cross-Through-the-Country’ to Munich for my cousin’s Urn-Burial on Thursday. On Friday we travelled back to Berlin. Travelling time was about nine hours. We just had to change trains frequently. That way we were able to travel at a much reduced price. For the two nights in Munich we stayed with my cousin’s family. We love this family. They are such friendly people. Even though it was a very sad occasion to meet them, we still had a good time with them.
So far we’ve had always friendly weather during our stay in Germany. Today is the first day where it is quite cold, wet and dark outside.
I wrote in my post from 24th of October: “Soon I’ll receive a new Visa card in the mail.” Well, this card still has not arrived. In the meantime I got several reminders from wordpress that my subscription renewal is due. They wrote:
“. . . your subscription renewal for auntyuta.com didn’t go through. . . ”
They reckon, it might be because my card they have on file expired. Well, it really should not have expired, but unfortunately this machine in the shopping centre just swallowed it. There was no way to retrieve it. So my bank had to cancel it. But why did I not get a new card? Nobody can explain this to me how it can take such a long time to mail it to me.
To pay for my American WordPress subscription I need a Visa card. Since yesterday I am now in possession of a green eftpos card. But this is no good for payments in other countries. I can use it only in Australia.
Just this afternoon Peter came to the rescue again. He paid the subscription with his Visa card. I am so glad that he did this for me. Now, we are both at a very advanced age. I am rather scared that Peter might die before I die. What do I do then? There are so many things that I depend on Peter for.
For some reason or another I felt very low in energy this morning. This is why Peter helped with the cooking. He made an excellent Bolognaise sauce and I cooked some vegies to go with it. We both liked the meal very much.
Now, for the record: The bushfire season in Australia has started early. Conditions for bushfires are already very bad. Hardly any moisture, in a lot of parts in Australia severely high temperatures with a lot of winds. Last Tuesday we were warned about ‘catastrophic’ fire conditions. To be prepared for quick escapes. Not to expect to get a knock at the door to warn usabout approaching fires. To leave the house early. To go to a safe place.
We have quite a bit of very dry bushland near our home with a lot of undergrowth. Because our whole area was at the highest warning we thought we better leave early. We packed a few things and drove to a shopping centre where we had a bit of lunch. Later on we saw a movie in a cinema that is close to the shopping centre where we parked our car.
After the movie we had some refreshments in the shopping centre and did a bit of shopping. In the meantime a cool breaze had come up. The emergencyinformationof theNSWRuraldid not mention any more warnings. (Peter checked it on his phone)
On the third of January 2019 I wrote and published the following about this movie that is based on a true story:
“Hans Fallada’s book is based on a true story, and this film was made based on Fallada’s book. We saw the film in German. When I say German, I would like to point out, most actors spoke with a very strong Berlin dialect! The acting was very good. However some of the characters in this story are so disgusting that it is hard to watch them. And these very disgusting characters were the ones in powerful positions and the more gentle and better educated characters were always powerless to do anything against the most horrible excesses of those in power. The film shows what happens to simple, not very well educated people that just lead an ordinary life when for some reason they object to how the regime treats them – in this case the Nazi regime.
This movie is set in 1940 in Berlin. Maybe at the time the majority of the population would not have objected much to the way the war was handled by the Nazis. They may have still believed that it was important to support all the war efforts. The propaganda was, that you had to make sacrifices for the good of the nation. If your son died in battle, even if it was your only son, you should be proud of him that he died a war hero. And so on. Only slowly, after several years of war, more and more people would regard this continuing war as madness and wanting to protest against it. It was common knowledge that any protesters would be severely punished. The resistance fighters would have been well aware that protesting against the regime would mean certain death if they were caught.
The soft boiled eggs that Peter cooked for breakfast were perfect. I ate my warmed up crispy bread-roll with the egg, I also had some fresh strawberries with strawberry jam on one half of the bread-roll. And I took all my vitamins. We both also had a great cup of coffee for our breakfast.
At nine o’clock we started watching the Insiders’ program on ABC TV. The politics that were discussed upset me a great deal. I mean I should be used to this sort of political talk by now where everything gets blamed on labor. But somehow it got to me today more than usual. I just could not keep my cool. Maybe I should stop watching these interviews where no question gets answered properly and were outrages lies are repeated ad nauseam. Soon Peter handed me a bit of brandy to calm my upset stomach. This bit of brandy that I sipped very slowly, actually made me feel a whole lot better.
Later on for brunch we had baked camenbert cheese with some bread and a glass of red wine. We also had a bit of vanilla ice-cream with apple sauce. Luckily my stomach had settled sufficiently, and I could enjoy this excellent meal. I enjoyed it very much indeed!
7 thoughts on “Sunday, 12th of August 2018”
We forgot the ABC Insiders which is unusual. Just as well by the sound of it. Glad you made up for it by having such a lovely breakfast. We are finding that the ABC is so keen to remain neutral that it is now dribbling a lot of nonsense in its commentary, frightened to give an opinion, any opinion.
“Barrie Cassidy interviews Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, and Fiona Katauskas talks pictures with The Feed’s Jan Fran. On the panel are The Australian’s Niki Savva, Guardian Australia’s Lenore Taylor and The Saturday Paper’s Mike Seccombe.”
Barrie Cassidy and also the panel did not upset me. The Energy Minister chose not to answer certain questions. Do you expect anything else from politicians? Sometimes I just cannot listen to them anymore! But I understand that the person who is interviewing has to remain polite. I went out for a while to calm down. But I did watch the hilarious talking pictures. A bit of fun and laughing is definitely preferable!
What do you think of the “National Energy Guarantee” program?
Helvi watched the whole episode on my computer. She thought Frydenberg was weak. We feel that renewables are the only way to get cheap energy that will also guarantee lower emissions. It is ironic that Australia with its overabundance of resources now has some of the highest energy prices in the world.
Sadly the word ‘renewables’ has become a dirty word in our Government. Those without solar and batteries will increasingly carry the burden of coal fired energy and its maintenance.
What do you think will give us energy at a price that is affordable? I just had my electricity bill which was $410.- for three months. The last gas bill was about the same.
Our recent electricity bill was a bit over 600 Dollars for three months, Gerard. But we use no gas. You’re right, only people who have solar and batteries can expect to pay less for power in the long run. Why does the government not want some of the old power stations to close? And why, oh why, do they even think of allowing new coal power stations to open? Surely no investor would want to invest in new coal fired power stations? Who owns the coal? Is it the government or some companies?
Surely, we have enough sun and wind in Australia for all our energy needs. We have sun and wind for free, whereas someone has a vested interest in all the coal reserves and wants to get some adequate profit from whatever their investments were.
I hate it that there are so many different energy companies now. The supply of energy and water should be in government’s hands only. The government should also have strict rules that our air and environment does not get polluted. But instead of looking after the needs of the total population in the first place, they are more interested in looking after vested interests and companies above all. Anyhow, this is the way I see this, and I am just an ordinary citizen without special knowledge.
You say that renewables are the only way to get cheap energy that will also guarantee lower emissions. I could not agree more!
The week ahead, Easter week, is going to be rather busy for us, especially for Peter. He has an appointment with his dentist in Corrimal for tomorrow. On…
Ah Joe, it is so good, that even after another year has passed, Peter and I usually are still able to enjoy our food a real lot. And we are so lucky that we can easily afford to eat well on a low budget! Good food is very important to us and also to our extended family.
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doesitevenmatter3
OH! Still such a beautiful brunch…the setting, the decorative flowers, the yummy food, ETC! I hope you enjoy brunch often!
I enjoy seeing your photos, Uta!
HUGS for you and Peter!!!
I would like to reblog this to auntyuta. In my opinion a lot of it what you say about conditions in America applies to Australia too! Just ignoring all the facts and pretending we can continue having these magnificent living standards for ever and ever, can make the situation only worse. Changes in our living standards are bound to come. I am sure we can adapt, if only, if only disastrous wars can be avoided somehow. Uta from Australia
I commented to the following post and actually reblogged it:
‘Here’s How Much Worse Things Will Get If Capitalism Isn’t Overthrown’
Looking at this headline again, a few thoughts enter my mind. I imagine the majority of people in a majority of prosperous first world countries so far did rather well under capitalism, but even in properous countries the people at the bottom who at this stage do not so well under capitalism, these people increase more and more, that is for more and more people at the bottom all over the world things already get worse and worse. And soon it will affect also people who at the moment still do rather well. However a lot of the true capitalists are going to stay at the very top for quite a bit longer and they probably will be able to avoid a lot of the hardship that most other people have to suffer.
My worry and great concern is that if the masses are going to try to overthrow the very top people, that this will lead only to unimaginable disastrous wars. Isn’t it better to do anything to avoid such wars by continuing to do whatever is possible to reduce climate change in a peaceful way, and by for instance avoiding any clashes with the authorities? I think there are still a lot of things that can be achieved in a totally peaceful way!!
As you can see, it is a post about ‘cardless cash’.
This is part of a comment that a very good blogger friends wrote after I published my post about the ‘lost’ Visa card. Here is what she wrote. It shows so much understanding:
” All of this can be so frustrating! I’m so sorry you had to deal with this!
The world and how we “do” life has changed so much, even in just the past 10 years…all this on-line and machine-stuff makes me nervous. Especially related to finances. 😦
Oh, well. I guess we change and adapt to survive. 🙂”
Well, I guess, people always had to change and adapt to survive. This is nothing new. But the speed of the changes definitely has changed. I do very much agree that just in the past 10 years there have been enormous changes. I ask myself how people my age are supposed to cope with these changes. My feeling is that I am getting much too slow to adapt to all these changes in an adequate way. In every way I am on a very slow lane now. Fast lanes and ever faster lanes are not for me. I wish to be allowed to outlive my life on my beautiful slow lane. That way I can still enjoy my life, what is left of it that is.
Today I wanted to withdraw some cash with my Visa card. I went to the ATM in the Shopping Centre and inserted my card. Before I could punch in my number there were a few pages shown with stuff that I gathered would be some bank advertising. All of a sudden I became aware that the machine would not allow me to withdraw any money with my card. So I pressed ‘cancel’ for the return of my card. Alas, it was in vain. No matter what I tried, my card was not returned. The machine had eaten it! And I was without any money! Some passers-by advised Peter and me to go to the bank and complain. Yes, Peter was with me. So we both went to the bank, that luckily was not very far away. So we found out, that this particular bank was not allowed to retrieve my card from that ATM for my card belonged to a different bank. I had to go to my bank and report my card lost and they would issue me a new card.
Peter and I then went to our bank. They were very helpful. Soon I’ll receive a new Visa card in the mail.
I must say this ‘cardless cash’ society drives me nuts. Luckily Peter was with me doing his best to keep me a little bit sane.
We went to the KaDeWe today.
I hope you enjoy brunch often!
AuntyUta 
We forgot the ABC Insiders which is unusual. Just as well by the sound of it. Glad you made up for it by having such a lovely breakfast. We are finding that the ABC is so keen to remain neutral that it is now dribbling a lot of nonsense in its commentary, frightened to give an opinion, any opinion.
Here you can watch the whole program, Gerard, in case you and Helvi are interested.
http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/sunday-12-august-full-program/10111188
“Barrie Cassidy interviews Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, and Fiona Katauskas talks pictures with The Feed’s Jan Fran. On the panel are The Australian’s Niki Savva, Guardian Australia’s Lenore Taylor and The Saturday Paper’s Mike Seccombe.”
Barrie Cassidy and also the panel did not upset me. The Energy Minister chose not to answer certain questions. Do you expect anything else from politicians? Sometimes I just cannot listen to them anymore! But I understand that the person who is interviewing has to remain polite. I went out for a while to calm down. But I did watch the hilarious talking pictures. A bit of fun and laughing is definitely preferable!
What do you think of the “National Energy Guarantee” program?
http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/balancing-act/10111158
https://www.energy.gov.au/government-priorities/better-energy-future-australia
Thank you Uta for the links.
Helvi watched the whole episode on my computer. She thought Frydenberg was weak. We feel that renewables are the only way to get cheap energy that will also guarantee lower emissions. It is ironic that Australia with its overabundance of resources now has some of the highest energy prices in the world.
Sadly the word ‘renewables’ has become a dirty word in our Government. Those without solar and batteries will increasingly carry the burden of coal fired energy and its maintenance.
What do you think will give us energy at a price that is affordable? I just had my electricity bill which was $410.- for three months. The last gas bill was about the same.
Our recent electricity bill was a bit over 600 Dollars for three months, Gerard. But we use no gas. You’re right, only people who have solar and batteries can expect to pay less for power in the long run. Why does the government not want some of the old power stations to close? And why, oh why, do they even think of allowing new coal power stations to open? Surely no investor would want to invest in new coal fired power stations? Who owns the coal? Is it the government or some companies?
Surely, we have enough sun and wind in Australia for all our energy needs. We have sun and wind for free, whereas someone has a vested interest in all the coal reserves and wants to get some adequate profit from whatever their investments were.
I hate it that there are so many different energy companies now. The supply of energy and water should be in government’s hands only. The government should also have strict rules that our air and environment does not get polluted. But instead of looking after the needs of the total population in the first place, they are more interested in looking after vested interests and companies above all. Anyhow, this is the way I see this, and I am just an ordinary citizen without special knowledge.
You say that renewables are the only way to get cheap energy that will also guarantee lower emissions. I could not agree more!
Your Sunday meals sound beautiful and yummy! Especially the eggs Peter made for you with love!
I try not to watch news or politics TV shows. But maybe I should. Usually they upset me too much.
HUGS!!!
It is kind of a tradition that we have soft boiled eggs on Sundays for breakfast. And usually it is Peter who enjoys boiling the eggs.
Hugs from Uta
I haven’t met an egg…fixed any which way…that I don’t like.