Category: Diary

Diary in December 2017

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

This morning I went to Wikipedia to look for a certain quote by Johann Wofgang von Goethe. When I saw the above Wikiquote page I was immediately hooked. My thoughts were, that this page is very, very interesting. I could not look enough at it. How wonderful it would be if I could study it for hours and hours!

I have the feeling time is running away with me. What with more and more medical tests and all the every day things in life that still need doing if one wants to live independently, one would love to have a bit more time left for reflection and writing.

In old age everything does slow down a lot, in my case maybe more physically than mentally. But the mental capacity is very much reduced too, I am sure. It is often difficult to concentrate on just one thing. The frequent dizzy spells do not help in this regard.

I very much wish to approach the end of my life in a calm, thoughtful way. Haste in any form is obnoxious to me. Alas, quite often it cannot be avoided. Maybe sometimes I feel rushed unnecessarily. But this is how I often feel: “Not being able to accomplish things as promptly as required!” Is that the reason for my blood pressure going sky high? Or are there some other underlying causes?

I am looking forward to some relaxing Christmas celebration with joyful company, some alcoholic beverages and a choice of excellent food. Plus I hope for some soothing music and at other times also some very joyful, exuberant music.

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The other day I bought myself some beautiful sandals in this special shoe shop in Piccadelli, Wollongong.. Afterwards I sat down in that cafe opposite for some coffee and a snack while I was waiting for Peter to return from his medical appointment.

On another day I waited for Peter in the car in Burelli Street in Wollongong. The car happened to be parked where some more retirement building is going on. I took some pictures from the car. When Peter returned we talked about how very convenient it would be to be able to live in an apartment in that new retirement building in the centre of Wollongong. Alas, we would have to have at least half a million to afford a place like this. Our place in Dapto is worth quite a bit, but not quite this much! So I guess we will be staying in our beautiful place in Dapto for as long as possible, trying to look after it as well as possible while we are aging more and more.I really do feel sad sometimes that our place shows some signs of neglect. but on the other hand it is really a beautiful not too  expensive place, and we love it!!

Birthdays in December 2017

Today is the 59th birthday of one daughter, and only four days later another daughter of ours is going to turn 39. We are going to celebrate both birthdays with the whole family this coming Sunday. I am very much looking forward to this.

Early in the morning I checked on our tomatoes. I got a surprise when I saw that one tomato is turning already a little bit red!

The first picture is from this morning, the other pictures I took recently on different days:

 

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Life and style Empty nest? Not a chance

Saskia Sarginson writes in The Guardian about “millennials”. She says if you Google “millennials” you will come across several negative articles citing their failings. I just read Saskia’s article where she points out that her children millennials, but far from the stereotypes society pokes fun at.

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/saskia-sarginson

My children are millennials, but are far from the stereotypes society pokes fun at

Her article with the above heading was published in The Guardian on 25th  November 2017. Saskia explains that a millennial is a young adult, aged 18-34, She says about the millennials the following:

“They are depicted as entitled, narcissistic and lazy, sponging off  their parents while procrastinating about what to do with their lives; their favourite occupation is documenting every detail of their days in a series of selfies; if they do indulge in a little light ‘adulting’, say microwaving their own supper, then this too will be recorded and posted.”

But Saskia says that her own children are not entitled, narcissistic or lazy but angry, for instance that they have no prospects for getting on the property ladder. Most of all they are angry about the state of the world, such as:

“Global warming, plastic floating in the oceans, fracking, the destruction of the rainforests, pollution, and the evils of factory farming.”

Saskia says that none of her children plan to procreate. Her son says this is the right decision because the world is “so fucked up”. It saddens Saskia, that her children have so little hope for the future.

To read the whole article please go to:

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/saskia-sarginson

 

 

 

 

 

Towards the End of November 2017

We had quite a bit of rain. Our old wine stock did get some new leaves that seem to be wandering off. I like the look of the fresh green leaves.

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This ‘White Princess’ plant did bend over in the rain. Maybe we should try to lift the stems up a bit by inserting some stakes?

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I am glad this Jasmine plant is coming back to life again!

 

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This stuff is growing well after all that rain. Quite amazing!

We enjoy all this growth. But we are not proper gardeners. Everything grows sort of ‘wild’ in our backyard. From time to time we do a little bit of planting or a bit of cleaning up. But most of the things in our backyard just seem to grow on their own, especially  after a bit of rain.

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I believe these yellow flowers are some snow peas flowers. So far the snow peas seeds I planted a long time ago, never developed properly. Just now, I looked up a few hints how to grow snow peas in pots. This makes me want to try again. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time if I observe some of the rules!? Here is one of the videos I had a look at. Usually I skip the ads, But on this video, the ads in the beginning were actually quite beautiful to have a look at! After the ads comes up a bit about growing peas in containers::

 

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The wild strawberries come up in lots of places. Occasionally we pick some and eat them. They are not very tasty. But maybe they are full of vitamins? We also have strawberries growing in our ‘garden bed’. We had already harvested quite a few of these strawberries.DSCN3500.JPG

It looks like some more strawberries may be coming!

 

I think it was last year when we planted two plants: One Loganberry and one Raspberry!

These plants never seemed to grow. I few months ago I noticed these plants were still a bit there. I cleared the surroundings and gave them some worm juice (diluted with water!). And now – since we had recently quite a bit of rain – they do grow a lot all of a sudden. I wonder whether we are going to be lucky and get some fruit of them eventually.

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This is actually our lemon balm which grows plentiful too after all that rain. It grows close to the berry ‘bushes’, and we have to watch it that it does not spread too close to those berry bushes!

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We have some very strong looking tomato plants. Perhaps some of the leaves need to be discarded?

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And this is my very own chilly plant for Peter does not like hot chilly.

 

My Ancestry

Having just had a little bit of sweet red wine with lunch today, I felt a pit tipsy.

Peter said, he read two interesting blogs today from Polish people, one written in English the other one in German. I cheered him, I said, after all I am half Polish, aren’t I? Well, Peter pointed out, I might actually be more Russian for when my father was born in Lodz in 1904, the place was Russian.

But you see, my father was actually German by descent, and as far as we know, he never gave up his claim on German citizenship. When later on in life he moved to Germany, he had no problems at all being recognized as a German for he was definitely totally German by descent.

So does that mean I am neither Russian nor Polish even though my father was born in a Russian place which later became Polish again,  and then during WW II was occupied by Germans? All this is very confusing, isn’t it?

I am an Australian citizen now, have been for some time. However, Peter said, I probably could not be a member of the Australian parliament. How so? I had to renounce my German citizenship, didn’t I? Any German embassy could vouch for it, that I am not allowed to carry a German passport anymore. I had to hand in my German passport as soon as I acquired Australian citizenship. So doesn’t that make me eligible for the Australian parliament? I bet it does!!  🙂  🙂

By the way my mother is from Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, same as her father (my grandfather), whereas her mother (my grandmother) comes from Bavaria. Seems to be a straightforward German ancestry on my mother’s side.

“Don’t Worry, Life Is Easy” by Agnès Martin-Lugand. Also my Opinion on Gay Marriages

This book can be downloaded and read in iBooks on your Mac or iOS device.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/dont-worry-life-is-easy/id1159625953?mt=11

 

“Description

Now in Paperback: The much-anticipated, bestselling sequel to the international phenomenon Happy People Read and Drink Coffee.

Diane needs to start over again. After returning from Ireland and turning the page on her stormy relationship with Edward, the brooding Irish photographer, she is determined to rebuild her life in Paris with help from her best friend Félix. She focuses solely on getting her literary café back on track-until she meets Olivier.

He is kind and thoughtful, and she may have a future with him…until she stumbles across her former love at a photography exhibit. What is Edward doing in Paris? Why didn’t he reach out? Faced with a hail of questions, her old flame remains cold and unresponsive. Apparently, he, too, has moved on.

In order to put the past behind her, Diane must go back over her tracks. Ireland saved her before. Can she get answers there and find peace again?”

 

I got the above book from the local library and enjoyed reading it very much. When I can find  “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” I am going to read this too. However I find it is all right too to just read   “Don’t Worry, Life Is Easy”  without having read “Happy People Read and Drink Coffee” .

Above I copied the

iTunes Preview of  “Don’t Worry, Life Is Easy” 

Several people are mentioned: Diane,  Félix , Oliver and Edward. It says:

“In order to put the past behind her, Diane must go back over her tracks. Ireland saved her before. Can she get answers there and find peace again?”

So Diane does go back over her tracks, namely to Mulranny where she spent quite a bit of time not so long ago and did get to know and love quite a few people who helped her in a personal crisis after having lost her husband and young daughter in a car accident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulranny

Diane loves Félix like a brother and treats him very respectfully as her partner in that business she owns, namely her literary café.  Félix is gay and a very good friend to Diane. He loves her and always looks out for her. With the postal survey about same sex marriage, that we just had in Australia, the issue of ssm is a lot on peoples’ mind these days. In this fictional story that I have just read, this guy  Félix is a very happy and friendly Parisian bloke who loves to go out a lot and meet his friends. Towards the end of the book the issue comes up that someone would like to have Félix  as a permanent partner because he loves him. It is left open whether they really get together. But if it should happen that they want to stay together, why should they not be allowed to marry? What harm would a marriage like that do to anyone?

Heterosexual couples usually get very excited about marrying, even if they have already lived together for some time. Once a marriage proposal has been accepted, there is joyful excitement all the way which usually extends to friends and family as well. Why should not gay people have the option to go for marriage? I do not know the statistics about the duration of such marriages, however I am inclined to believe gay or lesbian marriages probably last at least for as long as heterosexual marriages, on average that is.

Going back to the above book, I would like to copy here a few sentences from page 15 of the book. Here is what Diane says about the bookstore:

“I had wanted the bookstore to become a warm, welcoming place, open to everyone, somewhere that all types of literature would find a home.  . . .  “

Lots of Rain in Dapto on Saturday, 18th November 2017

Peter went outside to save some of our strawberries:

 

 

While I ‘m at it I’ll insert some more of our recent pictures. First here are some pictures that Peter took the other day when we went for a little walk in the morning:

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Peter took this picture of a Jacaranda Tree in Figtree, a Wollongong Suburb.

Only last Wednesday Peter went to see his ophthalmologist in Figtree. His eye pressure turned out to have somewhat deteriorated, and she prescribed him some stronger eye-drops.

https://auntyuta.com/?s=Gossips+Coffee+Lounge&submit=Search

I had some Chai and a slice of lovely warm banana bread at the Gossips Coffee Lounge while I was waiting for Peter to return from his appointment. The Gossips Coffee Lounge is in the Figtree Grove Shopping Centre. They have a huge Fruit and Vegetable Shop where a lot of produce is offered at reasonable prices. Before we drove home, we used the opportunity to buy some fresh things.

https://figtreegrove.com.au/centre-info/about-us

Last Tuesday Peter saw hiss oncologist in Wollongong. Peter is doing well, but for a little infection that was detected in his urine she prescribed for him precautionary some antibiotics. But he was allowed to continue with his BCG treatment in Wollongong Hospital. It was his fourth treatment in this series. Everything went well. So this was then last Thursday. He parked in the Hospital Carpark in a special area that is set aside for cancer patients. The parking is free for him.

At the hospital  I stayed with Peter only for a couple of hours. Then I caught a bus in front of the hospital. This bus took me to Ribbonwood Centre in Dapto where I always have on a Thursday at 12,30 with about a dozen other seniors a ‘slow movement exercise class’. After the class I waited for Peter at the centre. He arrived after his treatment a bit after 2 o’clock to pick me up. It is always good to be back home after an outing like this.

Last Thursday I had taken a sandwich with me for lunch. I always take some water with me too. The other Thursday I bought at the Hospital Coffee Shop some lunch: A Gourmet Salad! It was very much to my liking:

 

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Peter had to be at the Cancer Care Centre of Wollongong Hospital by 9,30 in the morning. We arrived early and I had a cup of tea in the waiting room. Peter was of course not allowed to have any drink before his treatment.

The other day a nice tea lady gave me a delicious biscuit. I took a picture of the wrapping to remember the brand name for I want to try and buy it somewhere. It tasted so very nice.!

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From 2 pm to nearly 5 pm I played Scrabble and Rummy with my lady friends. (Same as always on a Friday.)  I was back home by 5 pm. Then from around 6 pm to 11 pm we had constant thunder and lightning. Sometimes it came very, very close! Peter and I gave TV a miss last night and just spent some time with playing Rummy with our Rummy tiles. Peter won this time. This made him very happy!

It rained through the night and most of the morning. Very good rain for the garden!

 

 

My November Diary continued

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Above are some previous pictures of the jacaranda tree in out neighbourhood. It is the only one close by and has not got very many blooms left. However I noticed this week wonderfully flowering trees in different towns of the Illawarra. At this time of the year they all seem to be still in full bloom and look very lovely. Unfortunately I never had my camera with me whenever I came near some of these beautiful flowering jacarandas.

The other day I went with Peter for a little walk near our house. It was early morning.  Looking up into the sky we could still see the moon. Peter tried to take a picture of it, alas with not much success.

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Peter took this picture of me. It was a beautiful morning for a bit of a walk.