Tomorrow is the 21st of February, the birthday of Les. One year ago, my age was 89 and five months, and Les turned 86. Les and I had last year nine months of wonderful togetherness. Then this most lovely heart of Les stopped beating, just like that. The last three months without Les have been very lonely for me.
Category: Life in Australia
trees in backyard
Peter’s 80th Birthday
A bit of Diary
A Car did get stolen from one of my neighbours! How did this happen? I found out about it last night. Apparently, some teenagers stole the car during the night from Sunday to Monday. Early Monday morning the police came to the neighbour’s door telling him that his incinerated car had been found in Coonawarra!
Living on my own at my own Home
The organization HOME INSTEAD makes this possible for my mobility is drastically shrinking and without some care giving I would not be able to look totally after myself. There are just too many things that I cannot do anymore. The Australian government is subsidizing HOME INSTED to a large extant. It is said to stay at home with some help is cheaper than be looked after in a care home.
Would I ever want to go to a care home? I do not think so. What if I really cannot look after myself anymore? I want to talk to my doctor about all this as soon as possible.
Memories about our Dutch Friends
I want to write about our friends Nick Tap and Nell Tap. They were both of Dutch origin. Nell died in January 2013. I have no idea what happened to Nick. He had major health problems. There were widespread family members, including three sons.
Nick and Nell were both born ln 1933. They suffered a lot under the German occupation in World War Two. The food that the Dutch people did grow ended up on German tables. For the Dutch population there was hardly anything to eat. The children suffered severe starvation.
As I said in the previous post Peter and I liked to visit the Taps. I remember how they told us about the scarcity of food. Once a German soldier very secretly had given Nick a piece of bread. This soldier could have been severely punished for this!
First Tuesday in December 2024
Yesterday afternoon I wrote the above. In Megan I have a helper who is not only interested in helping me with my housework and shopping, but she is also very interested in what I am writing, Really, she is such a pearl for she does not shy away from trying to help me with my writing. We had a trial writing session yesterday, that is, I asked her could she take over my typing. So I was telling her bits and pieces, whatever came to my mind, what I would like to be writing about. Sometimes I was talking rather fast. Still, Megan was able to catch up with most of it, just keeping on with the typing, here and there making a few changes. I can say that basically it remained a first draft, so I can now decide whether I can use it for something.
We could not go on that Cruise
Our landline phone was out of order
Peter took this picture on the morning of Sunday, the 7th of September 2014. This was Fathers Day in Australia. There were blue irises as well as a bottle of Peter’s favourite port-wine. The cake made with ground almonds was for the afternoon. Monika arrived in the afternoon with sons and daughters as well as two year old grandson Lucas. Monika brought gifts along for her Papa: A lovely bottle of wine, chocolates, scratchies and a card.
Son Martin rang from Melbourne at night-time. This call was diverted to our interim mobile phone that Telstra had sent us to use while our landline phone was out of order. This mobile phone had no ringing sound. Instead a computerised female voice always announced to us when we had a phone call.
Caroline and Matthew had been going away for a few days to attend the wedding of their friends. They are back now and we are going to see them on Sunday. They probably made a lot of pictures and are going to tell us a lot about their trip.
Peter thought he had a lovely Fathers Day last Sunday. We are looking forward to seeing Caroline and Matthew very soon.
A missed Cruise, but still some beautiful Birthday Celebrations
Nearly two months ago was my 90th birthday. It was not celebrated the way it had been planned. Come to think of it, the changes were not all that bad. I tell myself, I am still a lucky person. I am grateful for being alive and able to enjoy life a lot. Here is what I published before:
All this about September 2024 I published one month ago in October. Here is a reply to that post from dear Linda (Rangewriter) and my reply to it:
- rangewriter What a bitter disappointment.
auntyuta Yes, Linda, It took hours and hours before it was esablished that Monika could not receive her new passport soon enough for us to be able to board the ship before its departure. Finally, we had to find a way back home at our own cost. What a horrible day! However, my sweet daughter Caroline drove me all the way home to Dapto late in the afternoon. When she heard of our plight that we were not allowed to board the ship, she left her work early and retrieved her car to where it was parked in Sydney to take me home to Dapto. We had a bit to eat at my place and at about 10pm Caroline drove back to her place in Sydney.
https://auntyuta.com/2024/10/13/remembering-september-2024-continued/
As you know, on Wednesday, September 18th, the ship left without us. My daughter Caroline drove me back home on that day.
Three days later was Friday, and this was my 90th birthday. On that day I had a good time staying overnight in a nearby hotel with my friend Les. Naturally we spent the following weekend together too.
Thursday September 27 was the day that the Carneval returned to Sydney, and our luggage was there to be collected. I had borrowed from Les a big suittcase for the cruise! The suitcase had done the trip to Vanuatu and back without me. My family picked it up for me and I was happy that I got it returned in a good condition.
On the following Sunday, the 30th of September, we had as planned a family gathering to celebrate my turning ninety as well as great-grandson Alexander turning ten on the 27th of September just a few days after my birthday!
We had a nice birthday lunch as well as afternoon cafe and birthday cake at the neraby German Club. About ten people were present, including the birthday boy of course. Unfortunately some people could not join us on that day because of illness.
I feel sorry for Monika and Natasha that they had to miss out on a cruise that had cost them so much money. All that money is lost now. But they still hope eventuallyto be able to go onto another cruise. I made up my mind now: I do not want to book another cruise again. I prefer to stay close to my home.
Remembering September 2024 (continued)
Wednesday, the 18th of September, was a pretty horrible day for my daughter Monika, granddaughter Natasha, and me! We could not go on the cruise and that was it. We had paid for a 9 day cruise. We had paid for the trip to the boat and back. It was all for nothing. We were not entitled to any money back. In the end I thought maybe it was all for the best that I couldnot go on this cruise. I feel now. that it is best for me if I stay at all times very close to the place where I live. Just to stay away for 9 days, I had had to pay 700 Dollars in insurance. This shows what a risk I am if I do not stay close to home. So, from now on no more cruises for me that take me too far away from home.
How did the three of us find our way back home after the cruise was cancelled, and how did we get or luggage back that was already handed in for the cruise? Well, these are questions that I want to answer some other time. For now I just want to point out that I made the most of it celebrating my birthday with a very special person in a nearby hotel on Saturday, the 21st of September. On Sunday, the 29th of September, followed a special birthday celebration for ten year old Alexander and me at the nearby German Cl;ub. (Alexander is a gteat-grandson of mine who was born just a few days after my 80th birthday! 😀)
AuntyUta 