On the Way to Melbourne, December 2015

On Monday, the 28th of December, we left Dapto with Martin to drive to Melbourne. We stopped at Yackandandah, where we had lunch in a cafe. I had a vegetarian pastie and enjoyed it very much.

We had some refreshing beer after lunch.

What a beautiful bike! On three wheels, that's the way to go. — What a beautiful bike!
On three wheels, that’s the way to go.

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

Yackandandah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yackandandah
Victoria
YackandandahMainStreet.JPG
High Street, recorded on the Register of the National Estate
Yackandandah is located in Shire of Indigo YackandandahYackandandah
Coordinates 36°18′47″S 146°50′21″ECoordinates: 36°18′47″S 146°50′21″E
Population 663 (2006 census)[1]
Postcode(s) 3749
Location
313 km (194 mi) NE of Melbourne
28 km (17 mi) S of Wodonga
22 km (14 mi) E of Beechworth
LGA(s) Shire of Indigo

Yackandandah /ˈjækəndændə/ is a small tourist town in northeast Victoria, Australia. It is near the regional cities of Wodonga and Albury, and is close to the tourist town of Beechworth. At the 2006 census, Yackandandah had a population of 663.

Here is a bit more from Wikipedia:

History

“It is a former gold mining centre known for its alluvial wet mining techniques. Yackandandah Post Office opened on 13 June 1856. Another office nearby, Yackandandah Junction, opened in 1872 but closed in 1885.^[2]

In his local book, O’Brien (p. 22) quotes an old poem published in the Melbourne Punch, 11 June 1857, titled, “The Lass of Yackandandah”.

“

“Let poets sing of English girls,
Their beauty and their candour;
Give me a sweeter nymph than all, –
The lass of Yackandandah.”

“She draws a cork with such an air,
No mortal can withstand her;
She turns a tap, and turns our heads, –
The lass of Yackandandah.”

”

— O’Brien, The Lass of Yackandandah – a goldfield beauty

Today

The area is now predominantly a dairy farming and forestry region, and has numerous bed and breakfast lodges which allow its many visitors to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the district’s forest and mountains.

The town is affectionately known as “Yack”, though in more recent times it has increasingly been referred to as “the ‘dandah” by its younger residents.

The commercial centre of the town, known as the Yackandandah Conservation Area, is recorded on the Register of the National Estate.

The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Tallangatta & District Football League.

Golfers play at the course of the Yackandandah Golf Club on Racecourse Road

. . . “

Very close to Christmas 2015

It’s still raining.

For the last couple of days it has been raining in Wollongong, and it has been raining in Dapto too. So it is still raining now.

We had a nice lunch on Monday anyway. Peter chose New York Filet steak:

This is the entrance to the place where we had our lunch on the 21st of Decmber 2015.

We had caught the bus to go to Wollongong. Luckily we had taken an umbrella along for it rained all day non-stop. Peter had an appointment at the Hearing Clinic. Before the appointment we had time for a cup of coffee:

We found these Art Light Boxes quite interesting.

Father Christmas in the Window of a Shop

Two weeks ago Peter had had another appointment at the Hearing Clinic in Wollongong. On that day I took a few pictures in the Mall that I did not publish yet. School-classes had been colouring in posters of a Christmas Tree. These posters were exhibited in the Mall.

Pre-Wedding-Anniversary

Kiama Harbour on Saturday, 19th of December 2015

Yesterday, When the temperature in Dapto reached close to 35 Degrees (Celsius) Peter suggested we could escape to Kiama for some ice-cream. Well, in Kiama they catch fish, don’t they? And at Kiama Harbour is a fish-cafe where one ought to be able to get fantastically fresh fish. We set off before lunch to try our luck for getting some yummy, fresh fish.

The climate in Kiama was much to our liking. Our car told us, the outside temperature was ‘only’ 30 Degrees. When we got out of the car, there was a lovely sea-breeze. This was just perfect weather for a summer holiday. Lots of tourists and visitors were around in Kiama. When we cued up at the fish-cafe we noticed quite a few Asian tourists. Peter says, they did not hesitate to spend 70 Dollars on a basket of fish and chips! But you could of course also get smaller portions. Ours was only thirteen Dollars.

Peter fed the rest of my fish to the seagulls. Here they've had already their fill. — Peter fed the rest of my fish to the seagulls. Here they’ve had already their fill.

Kiama Harbour was just beautiful on a day like this. We spent about an hour there. By one o’clock we were back in Kiama’s main street and were looking for a parking spot. Peter found some parking near the police station and got out of the car to take some pictures of the surrounding buildings. I took some picture from inside the parked car:

Then Peter found another parking spot closer to the shops. It was close to some shops, but the ice-cream shop was still quite some distance away. Where we had parked, we could smell some coffee. And there was a nice sitting area under umbrellas outside. We noticed a display of yummy cakes. So we sat down outside and a friendly girl came to take our orders. Apart from flat white coffee and cake we also asked for some water, which arrived in a beautiful blue bottle.

We ended up driving home without having had any ice-cream. Well, we can go back to Kiama some other day for that yummy ice-cream in Kiama. I am sure the great Australian Ice-Creamery is still going to be there when we go there next time.

Close to the 4th Sunday of Advent 2015

Peter was on a swing early this morning:

Right now we are celebrating Beethoven’s birthday:

https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-ludwig-van-beethovens-245th-year

Sydney had a big storm:

Christmas Decorations in our Street, Dec.2015

This morning Peter took some pictures from up high!

Uta’s Diary, December 2015

I took this picture well before Mass started on that Sunday.

I took some more pictures on that Sunday on the way home from church:

The other day we bought some Bratwurst. I had cooked some red cabbage. So we had the Bratwurst with red cabbage and some boiled potatoes. This makes a good meal. It is a German meal I do not mind having from time to time. Even in our summer this meal is rather welcome. We also had some German beer with it. I love the beer that has malt and hops in it and is devoid of chemicals!

Peter loves to eat raw slices of Kohlrabi. The other day we bought one Kohlrabi, which was quite large and, if I remember right, cost just three Dollars. Cut into very thin slices it tasted delicious.

Sorry about the quality of the Kohlrabi pictures!

Third Sunday of Advent 2015

This morning Peter and I watched a few of the German Christmas songs on the above video. There are subtitles to all the songs which makes it easy to sing along with the different choirs. After each song is a break. This makes it easy to stop the video and continue watching some of the songs at some other time. Most of the songs we listened to were quite familiar to us except some of the texts we had to relearn. We very much appreciated that we could read the text to all the songs while the video was playing!

Yesterday, on Saturday, we had this year’s Christmas lunch of our complex.

Barbara was our hostess again. She set out cups for tea and coffee making. We could also help ourselves to cold drinking water.

Marion arrived with a lovely big plate.

Peter took this picture of the whole group, only Veronika is missing.

Veronika arrived a bit late and also had to leave early.

I am in the back of the picture with Aileen, Marion B, Irene and Carolin.

There was lots of food for lunch: People had brought different meats, cheeses, and salads, beautifully arranged on platters. (I should really have taken some more pictures!) We all brought our own drinks. As I said, Barbara provided coffee and tea making facilities. She had also set up a long table with chairs in her garage the same as last year. Marion B helped Barbara with the decorations for the Christmas party. This Christmas get-together was a great success again!

The above is the rest of a tree-trunk-cake (Baumkuchen) cut up into little pieces. There was also cheesecake, ice-cream, custard, and yoghurt as well as fruit-salad for desert.

This year Peter was the only man in our group of residents and past residents. (Stan and Jenny I think were busy with their grandchildren, and Jon and Joan had tickets for a function on that day and did not want to waste these tickets.) Peter did fit in well with all of us ladies. We had plenty to talk about and stayed together for some three hours. All of us had a lovely time.

Unreasonable Fear?

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-need-to-harden-up-unreasonable-fear-of-terrorism-serves-the-enemy-20151207-glhkt0.html

“Unreasoning fear and political panic only serve our enemy.” This is what Peter Hartcher points out in this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Peter Hartcher is international editor. (of the SMH)

I believe Peter Hartcher’s article is well worth reading. I hope the URL link works for you.

. . . . .

Recently I mentioned in one of my posts how in the past little children were made scared of the “Weihnachtsmann” (Santa) so as to make them “good little boys and girls”.

I ask myself, are we in the Western societies all like “little children” that we can be frightened that much by our politicians? Why do they not frighten us to do any travelling? After all accidents do happen, don’t they? How many people get killed or injured in traffic accidents every year?

Why are women not warned to get into a relationship with a man? After all possessive men may do terrible things. How many women get killed or injured by their partners every year?

Why are we hesitant to let our children walk to school and home by themselves? They could get molested or kidnapped! Well, to how many children does this actually happen every year? Do we teach them not to be too trustful of strangers? What about the internet? Do we have control over how they use the internet?

What is your opinion on all of this?

A perfect Day at Bulli Beach, 6th of December 2015

We had lunch at the Bulli Beach Cafe. The sugary flowers were to be eaten later on. But after lunch we went to the beach first.

Peter waits for the coffee. — Peter waits for the
coffee.

The coffee has arrived and we can eat the cup cakes.

Matthew reckons the glove compartment is a good spot for taking some cakes home.

Caroline and Matthew are about to go back to Sydney.

Scanning old Christmas Photos

Some Diary notes:
As usual I am running out of time on the computer. Just now I have been scanning some old photos. I’ll try to insert them before I get ready for our day at Bulli Beach.

First here is a picture from around 1900 that shows a “WEIHNACHTSMARKT” in Berlin. I came across this picture only yesterday and I think it has historical value.

Yesterday, on the 5th of December, was Monika’s birthday. Here is a picture of Monika that was taken on the 5th of December 1959:

I had to put the top half of this post in draft. We did go to Bulli Beach Cafe for lunch. All in all we spent more then three hours at the cafe and at the beach. Everyone had a good time. The weather was perfect for a day at the beach. Today’s pictures I am going to publish some other time. Today I want to conclude this post with more of the scanned Christmas pictures from years past.

Here I am with Monika at Fairy Meadow Beach.

The following pictures are also taken at Fairy Meadow Beach on Christmas Day 1959. It was our first Christmas in Australia.

Ura with Gaby. Also a friend of the children. three year old Birgit.

Christmas 1962 Martin and Monika with five year old Gaby , who is in Prince Henry Hospital — Christmas 1962
Martin and Monika with five year old Gaby , who is in Prince Henry Hospital

The following picture was taken on Christmas Eve 1978. Caroline was only a few weeks old.

Peter and Caroline Christmas 1979 — Peter and Caroline
Christmas 1979

Christmas 1981 Caroline is three — Christmas 1981
Here we have for the first time an artificial Christmas Tree!

Troy, Ryan and Caroline Christmas Eve 1981 — Troy, Ryan and Caroline
Christmas Eve 1981

Uta’s Diary, Beginning of December 2015

Just now I am thinking back to Christmas 1962. On the 18th of December we went by train to Sydney to visit our daughter Gaby in Prince Henry Hospital. When we left in the morning it must have been pretty cold for we were wearing thick winter coats.

Five year old Gaby was in the hospital’s respiratory ward. By the time we arrived she was already propped up in a wheelchair and waiting for us in the enclosed verandah so that her four year old sister and 2 and a half year old brother were allowed to see her. (Naturally very young children would not have been allowed to enter the respiratory ward, where visitors had to enter with a mask and wearing a white gown.) The verandah was decorated for Christmas as shown in the above picture. It was quite warm there, so we soon took off our winter coats.

My goodness, this was fifty-three years ago! How time flies – – – Last Tuesday, the first of December, was our official start of summer and the temperature at our place was 35C, which we thought was what an Australian summer should be like. But the following day, on Wednesday, it was only between 18 and 22C. Did we have changes like that in the middle of summer some sixty years ago? I can remember some very hot Christmases, but also some fairly cool ones. So we have to be prepared for either close to 20C or close to 40C. On Christmas Day we always love to go to the beach or somewhere in the country. I never like the idea of cooking a hot Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, and I think we never did this, but some people do this, even on a very hot day in Australia. But then, sometimes to cook a Christmas dinner might be all right if they are lucky and it doesn’t get too hot on Christmad Day.

Here is something else I do remember: Travelling to Australia as migrants from Germany on the big ocean liner STRATHAIRD in 1959, we had the opportunity to go to some English lessons on board the ship. The teacher told us a bit about the climate in Australia. She said Melbourne was a city that was known for great variations in temperature. The standard saying was, that Melbourne could have four seasons in one day! She also said that rich people liked to stay in Queensland during the winter months which were always pleasantly warm there, whereas the summer months they preferred to stay in Tasmania. She said Tasmania was too cold in winter but in summer it was a beautiful place. Strange that I should still remember this introduction to Australian weather conditions.