Beginning of November 2015

The morning of Sunday, the first of November 2015

We had gone to bed late after our grandson’s wedding reception. It was a big wedding reception. Ebony and Ryan both looked great in their wedding outfits, and so did their two little boys. Lots of pictures have been taken at the event. We are waiting now to see the video that Tiana and Carl are going to show.

I think, last Sunday after the wedding I was already up by seven o’clock. The sun was up. It was a beautiful morning. I went outside to sit a bit in the sun. I also got the outside table ready for our breakfast with Caroline and Matthew. The table needs to be wiped every morning. There’s some water on it when it has been raining overnight. When it has been a bit windy there’s lots of stuff from the trees on it.

Anyhow, I was soon sitting down on a chair in a sunny spot with my feet resting on another chair. And then I took pictures of my surroundings. I love the early morning, when the sun has just come up. There’s hardly any breathe. I hear a lot of birds in the surrounding trees. Sitting out there feels like sitting in the middle of the bush, far away from everywhere.

For lunch we went to a place by the sea .

Caroline did get a Hamburger for herself.

Today is Saturday. It is already one week after the wedding. I can’t believe, how quickly this week went. I took a lot of pictures on my walks over the past week. I enjoy walking when I have the camera with me. I like to capture anything that looks beautiful to me. I am very happy that I bought myself a new digital camera. I never worry about adjusting any settings. The camera does all this automatically. This is perfect for me.

The other November pictures I have taken so far I am going to share in another post.

The Wedding Reception

Son Martin was placed next to me.

The bridegroom's parents sitting at the front with the newly married couple. — The bridegroom’s parents sitting at the front with the newly married couple.

Here is the bridegroom's twin-brother. — Here is the bridegroom’s twin-brother.

The bride's father with little Alexander. — The bride’s father with little Alexander.

Lucas with his Mum and Great-Aunt Caroline

Troy with his date, Catalina. — Troy with his date, Nina.

The twin-Brothers with their four sisters.

Uta and Peter in the picture with their grandchildren.

Ebony and Ryan with Krystal, Roxy and little Alexander.

Martin's Daughter Lauren with Friend Kye. The Photographer is Tiana's Friend. — Martin’s Daughter Lauren with Friend Kye. The Photographer is Tiana’s Friend.

Tiana is a good photographer too. A great video of the wedding is in the making. — Tiana is a good photographer too.
A great video of the wedding is in the making.

People could entertain themselves choosing a Halloween hat and getting some instant pictures taken.

There were 92 invited guests including the two little ones.

There were yen round tables for the wedding guests. — There were ten round tables for the wedding guests.

During the course of the evening there were four courses served. Guests could get as many drinks as they liked. Later there was cake-cutting, a waltz for the bridal couple, and then started disco dancing. By 11 pm some people had left already, but others stayed till midnight! I think Peter and I. as well as Caroline and Matthew, were home a bit before midnight. Martin and Lauren and Kye stayed in a hotel in Wollongong. They indicated that they want to visit us at Christmastime. We are looking forward to this!

The wedding was a truly splendid occasion. Now the whole family is looking forward to next year’s planned overseas trip: About one dozen Australian family members are going to meet up with lots and lots of family members in Berlin!

Krystal with her brother Troy. I think she was the one who caught the bridal bouquet.

Getting married

Mark comes in. Does it mean the wedding-car has arrived? — Mark comes in. Does this mean the wedding-car has arrived?

The bride's mother ushers in one year old Alexander. — The bride’s mother ushers in one year old Alexander.

Here comes the bride carrying three year old Lucas. The bride's father on the right. — Here comes the bride carrying three year old Lucas. The bride’s father is int the picture on the right.

The bride signs the marriage contract in the presence of the celebrant and two witnesses.(The groom has signed already.)

In the follow up blog I am going to show a few pictures of the reception!

Ronald Hamilton Bates and his sister Jean

Jean Marion Loneragan nee Bates

A wonderful Person & Pianist – Rest in Peace

Ron and Jean’s mother was Lola May Bates.

We knew that all three of them had Urn places at the cemetery near Sutherland Station. We had gone to the chapel of that cemetery for Ron’s funeral service. We had talked Gaby into coming with us for the funeral. She reluctantly agreed. She apparently did not want to be reminded of anyone dying. This was in May 1997. Jean was at Ron’s funeral of course. She already lived in a Nursing Home at the time and looked very frail. We thought she would not live much longer. However she lived quite a few more years. We only heard about her death after her funeral in 2002. I think Gaby was able to tell us eventually about Jean having died, for Gaby had contact with people who had contact with Jean. So then we decided to have a look to find their urn places at the cemetery. In the cemetery’s office we were advised about the exact location. It turned out there were memorial stones of all three of them in the rose garden.

http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=957554

These records are at the State Library of NSW. It says in the records amongst other things the following:


				“Jean Marion Bates was a granddaughter of Daisy Bates”
				“Includes birth and marriage certificates for Lola May Bates, nee Davidson, her daughter Jean Marion Bates, 1916, and a certificate of an entry in Register of Marriages, Arnold Hamilton Bates to Lola May Davidson, 1913. A newscutting announces the marriage of Jean Bates to Frank Loneragan. A letter from Lola May Bates to Ronald Bates, 1966”

I remember Ron telling us that he once went to Adelaide when his grandmother, Daisy, was in her eighties. He tried to talk to her, but he got the impression that she was not quite aware who he really was. He said he felt he could not communicate with her properly. Apparently he left it too late to see her.

Here is something about the Bates family that I must have copied from a newspaper article many years ago. Sorry, I have no idea which newspaper it might have been in:

Peter recently published in his blog some of the drawings that Ron Bates liked to do on little cards:

Ron Bates

I found in the meantime quite a few more of these cards that Ron had given to Gaby. We kept all these cards after Gaby’s death. Peter reckons they belong to us now. He says if we publish them we have to say that we copy-rights.

But here I publish one card that Jean and Ron gave us on the 5th of April 1986 at Sydney Airport on the occasion of our departure for a trip to Germany.

Pictures from September 2006

According to the photos we went by train to Parramatta on the 27th of September 2006. Herta was with us. And in Parramatta we met Gaby. I had completely forgotten that we had done this excursion with Herta to see Gaby and go with Gaby and Herta on a Ferry trip to Sydney Circular Quay.
The above picture shows the Parramatta River. The Parramatta Ferry stop is only a little bit further on.

First now here are a few pictures Peter took soon after we met Gaby in Parramatta.

Here we are with Herta, our Dutch friend from Melbourne.

Peter took more and more pictures from the boat.

Gaby arrives in her wheelchair at Circular Quay.

We have arrived at Circular Quay/ — We have arrived at Circular Quay.

I am very grateful to Peter for finding these pictures and letting me publish them. Yesterday was our monthly meeting with the ladies from our complex. This time the meeting was at Irene’s place. I wore the same outfit to the meeting that can be seen here in the photos from 2006. This actually means, the outfit is maybe ten years old! But it really is still in good condition. Even daughter Caroline did not object when I did not want to discard it yet. I told her, I love wearing it. And so I wore it yesterday. I was thrilled today to find out from Peter’s photos for how long I have actually had this item in my wardrobe!

Life as it is in Old Age

https://shakeclouds.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/do-we-really-need-to-become-a-better-version-of-ourselves/comment-page-1/#comment-3

The above blog by ‘shakeclouds’ inspired me to do a bit of thinking about my life in old age. This is why I wrote a comment to shakecloud’s blog. His question was whether we really need to become a better version of ourselves. Here now is a copy of my comment:

For my age I am in comparatively good health still, and I am grateful for this and love every day that I can spend in a way I like to spend it. Sometimes I get impatient with myself because my aging body demands that I do things slower and slower. It is no wonder, that I am always running out of time to do all the things I have been meaning to do! Some things always have priority, like spending time with a large extended family, particularly on various special occasions; keeping up regular meetings with my friends; seeking medical advice or dental treatments when needed; going on excursions with Peter, my husband, sharing with Peter doing shopping, cooking, maintaining house and yard in an acceptable condition or at least in as good a condition as it is possible for us to manage. I think since both Peter and I are at an age where we reasonable can expect to live only maybe five or ten more years, we do indeed appreciate that bit of time that is left to us probably much more than when we were younger! By the way, so far Peter’s health also is also quite good still. I think, we are more lucky than people with a lot of money but who maybe are not very healthy anymore.

There is one goal I have set for myself and unfortunately not been able to do much about yet: That is getting rid of accumulated clutter! I am still hopeful, that one of these days I might manage to get rid of at least some of the clutter. Last but not least, being able to do things on the computer I find rewarding and also relaxing.

I want to point out here that shakeclouds (Enrico) chooses subjects to write about in his blogs that I find very interesting.

Why eat Organic Food?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/07/why-should-i-eat-organic-google

I just came across the above article in The Guardian. What I find quite baffling is the following:

” . . . Of the “conventional” non-organic food we eat, 46% contains residues of one or more pesticide, and levels are going up dramatically, not down: in 2003 the equivalent figure was just 25%. Consumers are assured that farmers and growers take human health protection very seriously, but the truth of the matter is that the National Farmers Union and chemical companies militantly defend their pesticide armoury in the face of any government attempt to restrict it . . . .”

” . . . Can you afford organic? The annoying thing is that because the true environmental and health costs of chemical agriculture (pollution, soil erosion, ill health, animal suffering and more) are “externalised” , that is, not accounted for up front in calculations of the “efficiency” of our existing food system, organic food generally costs more. But choosing organic whenever you can nevertheless makes good sense. . . . ”

I ask myself: Can I afford organic? Peter and I buy food on a weekly basis with a certain amount of money. If we cannot increase this amount, I guess we just have to eat a bit less of everything to make the money last to buy only organic food! Some products in supermarkets are labelled ‘organic’. I have to check, how these products compare in price. How much more do organic products actually cost?

I found this in http://www.pan-uk.org/files/pesticides_on_a_plate_2013_final.pdf

“A COMMON-SENSE APPROACH
Over recent years levels of pesticide residues in our food have been steadily
increasing, and as much as 40% of the food we eat contains them. Residues found
in several fruit categories exceeded Government limits. A number of the most widely
used are highly toxic and have been linked with developmental defects, cancers
and other disorders. . . . “

Uta’s Diary, October 2015 (cont.)

October is rapidly coming to an end. The last day of October is going to be in nine days. This is when grandson Ryan is getting married to Ebony. The whole family will be present for the wedding in Wollongong. Hopefully I will be able to take a few pictures. I do have a new camera now. Yesterday I took the first pictures with it. I quite like this new camera and I believe that eventually I will be able to get used to it. It is very similar to my old camera. However some things are a bit different, for instance how to transfer the pictures.

This is a trial picture from the first day when I had the camera.

We had to go to Sydney yesterday. This is when I tried to take some pictures on the train.

Peter occupying himself with Suduko. — Peter occupying himself with Sudoku.

Both Peter and I went for some more treatment by the Dental Hygienist at Sydney Holistic Dental Centre. Before we went back home on the train we had a bit of food at the food-hall in the Pitt Street Mall. We also bought some beautiful fresh rye bread and cake from the Lüneburger Baker in the Queen Victoria Building.

These steps lead down into the food-hall where we were sitting.

Uta’s Diary, October 2015

A week ago on Tuesday Peter said he had to clean out the gutters that go along the sides of the house. After having previously cleaned out the gutters along the back of the house – https://auntyuta.com/2015/10/07/utas-diary-early-october-2015-continued/ – he felt confident he would be able to do the same with the gutters on the sides. A bit of a challenge was the shed on the one side of the house. But I think what he could not reach from standing on the ladder, he was able to hose off finally. It was good that he was able to use plenty of water for this.

After Peter finished with this side of the house, we had a little tea-break. It was an overcast morning again. Just as well, that it did not get very hot and Peter had no trouble finishing off the other side that still needed doing. Luckily at the front of the house the gutters seemed to be fairly clean still for there are no huge trees reaching over the front of the house.

The high grass on this side of the house has been trimmed recently!

Peter asked our body co-operative gardener the other day whether he could cut our grass. He did it in no time at all and asked only 20 Dollars for it. In the meantime Peter was able to cut the regrowth with his push-mover.