Uta’s Diary, October 2016: A 24 hour Visit

Last Saturday Peter and I were at Sydney Airport at 9,30 am to pick up our son Martin who had arrived from Melbourne. Martin stayed overnight at our place. Then, 24 hours later, he was picked up by Monika and Mark for a drive to Sydney. Martin went along with them to go to the Grand Final Football game: Cronulla Sharks versus Melbourne Storms. It turned out to be a very exciting game. Cronulla earned their first Premiership crown in 50 seasons, defeating the Storm 14-12!

Monika’s twin sons, Troy and Ryan, are great fans of the Sharks. Several months ago they had purchased ten tickets for the Gran Final. So Martin, Monika and Mark were in good company with the twins and family and friends. Ryan’s two little boys were included in the party, wearing Cronulla shirts like most of the other supporters. In one of the pictures that they published we noticed Martin wearing a Sharks’ cap.

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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2016/oct/02/nrl-grand-final-cronulla-sharks-vs-melbourne-storm-in-pictures

For 24 hours – less sleeping time of course – we had Martin to ourselves. On Saturday Martin watched on television at our place how the Melbourne Bulldogs did beat the Sydney Swans at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2016/oct/01/afl-grand-final-sydney-swans-vs-western-bulldogs-in-pictures

We had some nice meals together with Martin. Before we went to bed we played a few games of Rummy with him. During the night we went on daylight saving time, that means we lost one hour! But, anyway the sun was up already at about 6 am. It turned 0ut to be a a wonderful day with no wind

After breakfast we drove down to the lake to enjoy the scenery on a wonderful bright day.

Monika and Mark are ready to drive with Martin to Sydney.

Last Day of September 2016, Uta’s Diary

So, today is already the last day of the month. It was a pretty hectic month for this 82 year old. Two years ago we celebrated my 80th birthday.

These are some of the flowers that I received for my 80th Birthday in Sept.2014

This morning Peter discovered a flower on our ‘butterfly’ bush in front of the window. We call this little tree ‘butterfly’ tree because its leaves look like butterflies.

It was still early morning when we were ready for some green tea.

When we were in Sydney two weeks ago we wanted to visit this museum but found out it opens only on Sundays. We were there on a Tuesday. So we have to go back there some other time. During this month we were in Sydney three times. Once we stayed overnight there for two nights. We stayed in a loft apartment, that meant to the bedroom and bathroom we had to climb oup these stairs. It was good exercise for us, indeed!

Alexander’s second Birthday

Alexander’s second birthday is coming up this week.It is often convenient to celebrate birthdays on a Sunday. So the birthday of Alex was celebrated already yesterday. This time we all met at The Shellharbour Club. It seems that more and more clubs provide playgrounds for the children these days. The Shellharbour Club too has a playground.

Both Alex and his four year old brother Lucas loved to play with all the toys that Alex had been given for his birthday.

This is Peter's Hamburger and my sweet potato chips — This is Peter’s Hamburger and my sweet potato chips

The sweet potato chips were excellent and we shared a fruit salad that was a very good choice too. Everyone ordered their own food at the club.

this time

Frolicking around Sydney

Peter and I stayed in an apartment at Darling Harbour. To frolic around Sydney’s Darling Harbour was quite exciting. It was my 82nd birthday. At nighttime we strolled to an Italian restaurant and had a three course meal there with a glass of red wine. There was also some beautiful music to entertain us. We liked that very much. The food and the wine were very much to our liking as well. So we had a lovely evening. After the meal it was only a short walk back to our apartment.

Uta’s Diary, September 2016

Yesterday we bought a few things for our backyard.

We already planted somef things in these boxes. We may also use some pots for more planting. At the moment Peter is still struggling to remove some spread out roots of the camphor laurel tree. The main roots we had taken out by the people who removed our three obnoxious trees from our backyard. The far away roots of the camphor laurel tree are very, very thick. They lifted up some of the earth in the backyard. So Peter took it upon himself to try and get rid of some of them. They are so very hard. Peter thought maybe a chain-saw would do the job better than his little axe. So he bought one yesterday. Sadly, he found out, it does not work very well. He still has a hard time cutting through these roots.

There is one little bush left that stood near the camphor Laurel tree. It is cut back a lot, but perhaps may come back again.

Once we have levelled the area sufficiently, we may try out some of that grass. — Once we have levelled the area sufficiently, we may try out some of that synthetic grass.

Whenever we do some gardening,we do only a bit at a time. We cannot do too much in one day, otherwise we get too sore. After a couple of hours, we usually feel, that we have to stop.

Visiting the MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY in Canberra

THE MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY
is situated in the Old Parliament House.

We did drive to the Old Parliament House on that Friday morning after we had returned from our walk to Manuka. I wrote about this walk in my previous post.You can go back to it here:

Going for a Walk to Manuka

We saw in the museum interesting historical things.

Buses did bring a lot of visitors to the museum.

The Museum stressed 1215 as an important year for the MAGNA CARTA — 1215 was the year when the MAGNA CARTA was first drafted.

At lunchtime we drove to this tavern, Wig & Pen, to have one of their delicious beers and some lunch.

Bike riding is quite popular in Canberra.

Our chosen beer was Russian Ale,. We were warned it had very much alcohol in it! — Our chosen beer was Imperial Russian (like a very strong Guinness),. and we were warned it had very much alcohol in it!

While waiting for our meal I had a look in this very interesting magazine about beer brewing:

I liked my spicy vegetarian meal. However it turned out, I had to leave some of it. It was just too much!

In my first post about our visit to Canberra

Uta’s Diary, August 2016

I mentioned that on Saturday, the 27th of August, we went to the Telstra Tower and later on to the National Museum.
At nighttime of that same Saturday, which was our last day in Canberra, the Museum of Australian Democracy presented
THE HANSARD MONOLOGUES (Age of Entitlement) and we had tickets for this very interesting show. As I said before, the Museum of Australian Democracy is in the Old Parliament House.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you might like to have a look at this website:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard

We departed Canberra on Sunday, the 28th of August. Our first stop was Goulburn where we had some coffee and cake in a building from 1889.

Then, we drove on to Bowral and had a lovely lunch there with our friends G and H.

Driving home we went down MacQuarie Pass with some pies from the Robertson Pie Shop.

Going for a Walk to Manuka

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuka,_Australian_Capital_Territory

We had arrived at our hotel on Thursday, the 25th of August. The following morning we wanted to walk to Manuka to have breakfast there. It was a crisp, sunny morning. We knew, Franklin Street would take us straight to Manuka Shopping Centre, however we chose a different way so that we would have a bit more of a walk.

Before we left, we left this sign outside our door so the staff would know that we weren't in bed any more! — Before we left, we placed this sign outside our door so the staff would know that we weren’t in bed any more!

Our hotel was at National Circuit, Instead of turning right to Franklin Street we turned left.

The following pictures are all taken on this early morning walk to Manuka and back. On the way we noticed some early spring flowers and blossoms. We had breakfast in Manuka at a baker’s shop. We also had a look at the inside of the Catholic Cathedral in Manuka.

Visiting Canberra in August 2016

We could park our car right in front of our room.

This was a rented car. We had to leave our car behind for it needed new spark plugs. We had left home early in the morning. Our plan had been to drive up Macquarie Pass to Moss Vale for breakfast at a cafe in Moss Vale. We found out that Macquarie Pass was closed for maintenance work. So we went up the Jamberoo Mountain Road Pass to the highlands. To arrive at our chosen cafe in Moss Vale via this pass instead of Macquarie Pass took us just an extra ten minutes.

After our very good breakfast in Moss Vale we drove straight through to Canberra where we spent a couple of hours at Parliament House before checking in at Forrest Hotel at around 2pm.

I wrote about our visit to Parliament House here in my previous post:

https://auntyuta.com/2016/09/07/utas-diary-september-2016/

All hotels in Australia provide you with tea and coffee making facilities. We had bought some cake in Moss Vale for our afternoon coffee.

We liked to have coffee and cake in our room.

Top right the air-conditioning kept the room at 22C at all times. We never had to reset it.

When the air-conditioning switched itself on, the air came out really hot. After a little while it would switch itself off again. I thought, this worked really well. I never felt cold in our room, even though the outside temperature would be a cool 5 degrees C during the night.

This is early morning Peter in bed with a cup of tea. — This is early morning Peter in bed probably with a cup of tea.

During the night we topped our bed with a woolen blanket. There were a couple of Australian made woolen blankets in our wardrobe. That these blankets were actually Australian made, was very much to my liking!

Uta’s Diary, September 2016

CANBERRA,

CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA

FROM THE 25TH TO THE 28TH OF AUGUST 2016 we stayed in the Forrest Hotel that is situated in the National Circuit marked light blue on the above map.

“Forrest Hotel & Apartments

Located in the quiet Canberra suburb of Forrest, this hotel is less than 10 minutes’ drive from Parliament House and the National Gallery of Australia.”

Our room in the Forrest Motel — Our room in the Forrest Hotel

Before we checked in into the Forrest Hotel we went for lunch at the cafe in Parliament House, and we also went around for a bit looking at areas inside and outside the Parliament.

This was a beautiful salad served on barley. — We each had a beautiful salad served on barley.

I had quail eggs with the salad, and Peter had chicken — I had quail eggs and tofu with the salad, and Peter had salad and chicken on barley.

It was nice sunny outside but a bit to windy to be sitting there for our lunch.

Walking around outside, we had this view.

For a while I did sit outside in the sun.

Peter took this picture as I was walking up these stairs.

Uta’s Diary, 5th of Sep 2016

Yesterday, on the first Sunday of September, it was Fathers’ Day in Australia. Our daughter Monika had booked a table for lunch at the German Club. The place was totally booked out. I was told, Fathers’ Day and Mothers’ Day were the two most busy lunches. Even for Christmas they do not have that many bookings because for Christmas most families like to celebrate at home.

At the German Club there is now a cafe section. After our rich German lunch we placed ourselves in that cafe section for coffee and cake. Mark, Monika’s partner, gave Peter a special bottle of beer. While Peter was hugging this bottle, Monika took this picture of Peter and me.

On the left is Mark’s daughter Tiana, then Monika’s daughter Natasha, Mark’s mother Merl and Mark.

We have been invited for next Sunday afternoon to Mark’s and Monika’s place for coffee and cake. It is going to be Natasha’s 25th birthday and Monika’s whole family will be there. We’re looking forward to that.

Matthew has been visiting our daughter Caroline in Darwin over the weekend. In a few weeks Caroline is going to visit us again. Caroline may be working in Darwin till February of next year. There are affordable flights available between Sydney and Darwin. Caroline and Matthew do make good use of these! I wonder, when we can see our son Martin, who lives in Melbourne. He was with us in Berlin where we had a really good time with him. We have not seen him since we returned from overseas; that was a couple of months ago. How time flies!