Category: Life in Australia

A Copy of ‘Experiences in my Life’

On the 10th October 2018 I wrote this:

“Yesterday there was on Peter’s Facebook a link to this blog. A few people were interested in reading it. I reblogged it here so maybe some more people might want to read it.”

So today, one year later, I looked again at this blog and decided to copy it, hoping that some blogger friends who haven’t seen it yet, might want to have a look at it.

Originally I published it here:

https://auntyuta.com/2017/10/05/experiences-in-my-life/

Here now is the copy of ‘Experiences in my Life’ from the 5th October 2017:

“It has been a while  since I added anything to my childhood memories. If I had another look at it now to see what I have written  some time ago, maybe I would find a few things in there that I do not remember so well anymore now. With time the memories seem to fade somewhat. This is why it is important to write down the things that I do still remember now.

Today I thought about it how blessed I am that I have a number of great-grandchildren. Yes, there are five of them now. Grandson Tristan has two girls, grandson Ryan has two boys, and granddaughter Roxanne has one boy. The two girls are nine and ten years. The boys are five and three years, whereas Roxy’s little Carter is now 10 and 1/2 months. Since all of us do not live very close together,  I cannot see the family on a daily or weekly basis. Even a regular monthly meeting is usually not on the cards for Peter and me.  After all we are both in our eighties. Still, I am very happy that Peter can still drive enabling us to participate in special family celebrations. A few times a year our extended Family does come to visit us. I am always thrilled when a lot of visitors turn up at our place!

Everyone tells  us that it  is great that our family keeps in contact for birthdays, and at Christmas time and Easter. I do appreciate this very much and am very grateful for it. It is very rewarding to see the growing up of  great-grandchildren.  Watching them at their different stages kind of reminds me of my own childhood.

I often ask myself: What was I like at such and such an age? I still do have vivid memories about some events and some family members from the time when I was about three or four. So would my great-grandchildren perhaps remember people and events from the here and now when they are in their eighties?

When I go back to the time when I was about three or four, Cordula often comes to mind who was just eight months younger than I was. We could see each other quite often. Actually, I think she was a bit like a sister to me. When her Mum took Cordula for an outing. I was often allowed to go with them. I have such good memories about these walks! I cannot recall that my Mum ever asked Cordula to come along with us when my Mum took me for  an outing somewhere. I think occasionally Cordula would come to the apartment where I lived to play with me. But usually I would go for visits to  where Cordula lived just two floors further up on the fifth floor.

To me – even as a child – these  five story high Berlin apartment buildings  were just perfect as a  place to live  in. When we moved to a desolate country area because of ever increasing bomb raids on Berlin, I missed Berlin very much.

Last year when we went for  a visit to Berlin, we  stayed in an area where  all the buildings  were five stories high. All of them were beautifully restored and maintained. “Wie im tiefsten Frieden”  – like there was absolute peace. This is what we used to tell us during the war when something seemed to be like it was before the war started. These buildings I  am referring to were last year already well over 100 years  old!”

One month ago, on the 13th September 2019, granddaughter Roxanne had a Baby daughter: Evie Rose. That means little Carter ( nearly 3 now) has a baby sister. He loves her to bits!

Last weekend we stayed in Sydney: Grandson Troy did get married to Antonina. It was again a great family event!

In October 2017 two bloggers made comments to

 “Experiences in my Life”

I copy these comments here together with my answers:

  2. It is always rewarding to have family keep in contact. After marriage one of my brothers and one sister moved to Queensland. Another brother lives in Holland. The distance makes it more difficult but sometimes we phone or even visit.
    The grandsons are now in their teens and start making their own lives.

    Reply

    1. That’s right, Gerard, distance makes it more difficult. We often talk with Peter’s sister in Berlin via skype, also we do talk via skype with my brother who lives not far from Berlin. To be able to skype for free for any length of time is a marvellous thing. However seeing our siblings in person and being able to give them real hugs is something else altogether. In our modern world because of overseas flights we do have the opportunity to keep some real person to person contact. But no matter how often we take to the air to go for visits in distant lands in the end we have to live most of the time without our far away siblings . On the other hand it may perhaps be possible to tell oneself that overall the spiritual is somewhat more important than the physical?
      How often do very elderly people lead a very lonely life because none of their loved ones lives near by?

      Reply

I copied what I wrote in October 2013 about Bushfires near Sydney

Sunday, October 20th, 2013

“Premier Barry O’Farrell has today been at the Rural Fire Service Headquarters in Lidcombe.

He has warned residents across the state to brace for the possibility of mass evacuations in coming days amid dire weather forecasts.”

‘‘The state’s in for challenging days ahead,’’ he said

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-bushfires-live-updates-20131020-2vumk.html#ixzz2iEI9AfvF

I just discovered the above new item in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Some areas in NSW experienced the worst bushfires last Thursday when temperatures reached the high thirties (Celsius) with very strong erratic extremely hot winds. 208 houses have been destroyed so far. The entire Blue Mountains Area is still in danger.

So the Premier says ” to brace for the possibility of mass evacuations in coming days amid dire weather forecasts.”

This warning applies to residents across the state of NSW. I think a lot of people tend to think it is not going to effect them unless they live right next to the bush. However to be honest under these dire weather conditions a fire could turn up anywhere within a very short time. So I think the Premier is right to give people a warning like this.  For sure it is much better to be prepared than to be sorry later on.

 

Here now is a message from the Queen:

 

“2:58pm: Her Majesty The Queen has just sent a message on the bushfire situation here. She’s expressed great admiration for the work of fire fighters.

“I would like to convey my heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been affected by the devastating bushfires across New South Wales.

“My thoughts are with the many people who have lost their homes or livelihoods in the fires, and I have great admiration for the fire fighters, volunteers and emergency services officers who are working tirelessly to contain the situation.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-bushfires-live-updates-20131020-2vumk.html#ixzz2iEQUOraR

Edit“Bushfire Warnings for the Coming Days”

Published by auntyuta

Auntie, Sister. Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Mother and Wife of German Descent I’ve lived in Australia since 1959 together with my husband Peter. We have four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. I started blogging because I wanted to publish some of my childhood memories. I am blogging now also some of my other memories. I like to publish some photos too as well as a little bit of a diary from the present time. Occasionally I publish a story with a bit of fiction in it. Peter, my husband, is publishing some of his stories under berlioz1935.wordpress.com 

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14 thoughts on “Bushfire Warnings for the Coming Days”

  3. Liebe Ute wünsche dir einen schönen Tag und ich wünsche dir das du vor dem Feuer in Sicherheit bist,ist eine schreckliche Sache, die armen Leute tun mir so Leid ich bette für sie.Ich wünsche dir eine gute Woche und alles Liebe von mir.Lieber Gruß von mir und Freundschaft.Gislinde

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your concern, Mary-Ann. We are near Wollongong 100 km south of Sydney. We are all right for the time being. The huge fires in the Blue Mountains a bit west of Sydney are still of great concern.

      Reply

  5. This is a good round-up for me thank you, Aunty Uta, of what’s happening. I see snippets of the news, but only grabs of it. Glad you provided the link.
    I don’t think I’d ever build in a forest.

    Hope youa re well, Aunty Uta! 🙂

    Reply

    1. Yes. thank you, Noeleen, Peter and I are well. Of course people who build in bush areas, are most at risk. But this does not mean if you build in a suburb or city there is no risk. It is very difficult to keep bushfires under control if there is no moisture in the air and if there are very hot, strong winds. At the moment more than 2000 firefighters try to keep the fires under control!
      All of Sydney is covered in smog from the fires in the Blue Mountains.
      Today we might get a bit of rain, but it won’t be enough rain to extinguish the huge fires to the west of Sydney. These fires might rage on for weeks to come.
      Where we are there are a lot of trees and grass and everything dries out quickly in hot, windy weather. As the Premier says, we prepare for the worst but hope for the best!
      Cheers, Aunty Uta. 🙂

      Reply

      1. I hope for the best alongside you, Aunty Uta.

        It’s raining in Melbourne right now.

        Every year the same and every year still so much tragedy in it – losing your belongings, photos, “things”. Left with nil. It’s really distresing, Aunty Uta. I’d hate to see that smoke in the hills.

        Take care 🙂

    1. Sheila, these bushfires in the mountains are terrifying. The really hot weather did not last for very long. Now with much cooler weather I guess the firefighting gets a little bit easier. There are still some rather unpredictable winds around, that means the firefighters and emergency workers still have a very tough job.
      Thank you! Cheerio, Uta ox

Teaching Children Empathy over Competition?

Teaching Children Empathy over Competition?

What do you think, is showing empathy more important than being very competitive?

And what is the parent’s role in helping children that become over anxious?

Can a competitive environment cause great anxiety in children?

If you go to the link below, maybe you’ll be able to find some interesting articles about the raising of children.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-25/learning-from-denmark-teaching-children-empathy-over-competition/11524074

 

Diary with some more Pictures from August 2019

https://auntyuta.com/2019/08/30/diary-with-pictures-from-august-2019/

There are quite a few pictures from August that I published already towards the end of August.

I found now a few more pictures from that month. Here they are:

DSCN5607
Some of our discarded stuff ready for collection

 

We try to sort out some DVDs. We have too many and they take up too much room. So it is best to get rid of some . . . However, for instance ‘As it is in HEAVEN is such a great movie I really would like to watch it again!

 

DSCN5686
We like to sit out there for Morning Tea

This is such a great spot in the morning winter sun!

DSCN5697
Peter is having a bit of a rest.

 

The Hannemann Family in Australia in 1997

Today, I looked at some of my old blogs. I like this picture blog very much. It brings back beautiful memories. This is why I copy it here together with a few other blogs.

https://auntyuta.com/2014/02/12/the-hannemann-family-in-australia-in-1997/

In this picture Peter and I are with all our four children. Daughter Caroline stands next to Peter. All five children of daughter Monika are in the picture too! Her very tall twin sons are eighteen, her two little daughters in the front are Natasha and Roxanne. Well, this was more than sixteen years ago!

img050

This picture was taken at the beginning of September 1997,  a few days after our daughter Gaby’s 40th birthday! We all met for a picnic lunch at Central Park in Merrylands near Gaby’s and David’s home. David, Gaby’s carer, stands in the middle of the photo behind Gaby’s wheelchair. Our son Martin (who’s holding onto the wheelchair) lived in Newcastle at the time and had come to Sydney to see us all. Merrylands is a Western Suburb of Sydney. The Central Park there is a very popular recreational place.

Monika holds her five months old baby daughter. Gaby and Martin are in the picture too.
Our daughter Monika holds Krystal, her five months old baby daughter. Gaby and Martin are in the picture too.

In the picture below Troy, who is one of the twins, walks with his girlfriend.

Ryan, the other twin, as well as Caroline, Martin and David presumably walked ahead.

However one of them must have taken this picture, right? Maybe Caroline?

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After our picnic lunch we all walked right through the park towards the little waterfall. It looks like at the time there was still quite a bit of water to be seen. Sadly,  after a few years without much rain, there was no water left in this area. When we took a picture there two years ago, everything looked completely dry. Maybe in the meantime the water situation has improved somewhat. We should go there one day and have a look.

Here we are with Monika's daughter Natasha on that day in early September 1997.
Here we are with Monika’s daughter Natasha on that day in early September 1997.

 

Reflections on Travel

This is a copy of what I wrote in April 29, 2015:

Recently I reflected a lot on our past two overseas travels. One trip to Berlin we did five years ago and another one two and a half years ago. When we travel we always try to economise, meaning we are not out to stay in expensive hotels or visit restaurants that are well above our budget. The greatest extra expense we consider to be the air-travel ticket plus insurance. Since both Peter and I are going to be past eighty when we travel next time the insurance is going to be sky high! We usually book a flight well in advance and look for special offers. The last two times we did fly with Malaysian Airline from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur and from there we had connecting flights with KLM. We thought these flights via Kuala Lumpur were pretty good. Soon we want to find out what’s on offer for next year.

2016 is going to be a huge family reunion in Berlin. Our Australian family is already planning for all this.  Some members in our family have never been to Berlin yet and are very keen to get to know a bit about the city and the German family members who live there. Especially Peter’s sister Ilse is very hopeful that a large family meeting can take place next year in Berlin. She and Finn are already thinking about all the arrangements that can be made. One of our grandsons is busy making plans about all the destinations where he and his family intend to travel to. He worked out that a nine day stay in Berlin could be included. They also want to stay for a few days in London and maybe some days in Switzerland, and I think there was also talk about Paris.

When Peter heard that they plan on staying for nine days in Berlin,  he  soon thought about a number of places he could show them in Berlin. Peter knows Berlin very well, partly from personal experience but a lot he knows because he keeps himself always up to date on the internet about what is going on in Berlin. When it come to history, he can tell you a thing or two about Berlin’s history as well. The past few days he published memories about the last days in Berlin before the end of World War Two. You can look it up under:

https://berlioz1935.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/tuesday-24-april-1945/

The memories start already here:

https://berlioz1935.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/berlin-the-last-battle-in-europe-during-world-war-2/

There are diary entries of Peter’s mother which he translated.  Also, Peter’s own comments about these eventful days continue for several days.

It is amazing how much Peter remembers about this time seventy years ago. This was just a few days before he turned ten! He also likes to read up on official records about the last days in Berlin before the end of the war, and he is also always looking for relevant pictures from that time.

Our Overseas Visits

 

https://wordpress.com/post/auntyuta.com/761

Today I wanted to write about our overseas travels. So I checked what, I had written about it before. Luckily, I was able to find  quite a bit of information under the title ‘Memories from August 2010’. (There is a link at the top of this post!)

Anyone who goes to this post from 2010 is going to find out that even by 2010 we had done already quite a bit of overseas travelling. In the meantime we travelled overseas two more times, namely in 2012 and then in 2016.

Living in Australia and having some family in Germany makes us want to travel overseas as often as possible. So far we had the good fortune of being able to use all this airline travel. On top of it, Airlines do still offer low price airfares!

At least a few people must be aware by now, that air travel is extremely bad for the environment. But how many people do actually try to avoid air travel these days as much as possible?

In 1990 we did do a trip around the world. I wrote about it here:

https://auntyuta.com/2014/02/05/our-trip-around-the-world/

Our first trip overseas was in 1977. Caroline was born in December 1978. We travelled with Caroline to Berlin in November 1980 and then again in March 1986 when Caroline was seven.

 

In 1977 Peter and I visited my cousin Renate and her family in Munich. From Munich we did a day trip to visit my uncle Edmund and his wife Flora in Augsburg. Among other things we visited with them the Augsburg Fuggerei. For lunch they invited us to the close by FUGGEREI STUBE.

https://auntyuta.com/2015/08/10/the-fuggerei-is-the-worlds-oldest-social-housing-complex-still-in-use/

 

In 1977 we travelled a bit around Western Germany staying with family and friends. But most of the time in 1977 we spent visiting our family in Berlin.