Category: Life in Australia

trees in backyard

Beginning of October 2017

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I can’t believe that today is already the 4th of October. The different months just come too quickly. I feel as though it must still be September!

Well, these beautiful flowers in the picture I received last Sunday, which was the 1st of October. On Monday we had a public holiday here in NSW and Victoria of Australia. So this long weekend was a good   time for travelling. Our daughter Monika for instance and a lot of her family travelled to Victora over last weekend. I hope now that Monika can see us after work sometime this week so she can tell us all about their trip to Victoria. I think they stayed for one night in Benalla where our son Martin lives now.

We had daughter Caroline and Matthew staying with us last Sunday. We went for lunch to the TREASURE COURT restaurant at the Dapto Leagues Club which I enjoyed very much. I had small prawns in Curry sauce and boiled rice. We also had vegetarian mini spring rolls  as an entree. And all four of us had beautiful Chinese tea. We each got a fortune cookie with our tea. Caroline and I took our cookies home and did only open them at home. Can I remember what it said  on the cookies’ verses? Sorry, no I can’t.

 

With our coffee at home we had savories instead of cake. I took some more pictures of my beautiful flowers on one of the following days:

“All the Birds, Singing” by Evie Wyld

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/30/evie-wyld-birds-singing-review

In our cabin at BIG4 Nambucca Beach Park I actually was able to do a lot of reading. I had taken “All the Birds, Singing” along. I had started reading this novel some time ago, but had not read very much of it yet. Our double bed had very good reading lamps on each side above the bed. So both Peter and I felt encouraged to spend quite a bit of time reading. My book did get extremely interesting and I could not put it down anymore. Each day, that is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I was reading, reading, reading. We had to leave the cabin Thursday morning. Alas, I got to the last pages on Wednesday and finished reading this book. I learned about the fate of a girl from Australia, who went through some horrible experiences. But in the end it only made her stronger. She became a sheep farmer and owned her own farm  on a very lonely island. At first I thought how can a life like this be very interesting? This story is told in the first person. It was absolutely captivating to gradually find out what happened to her as a child and during her teenage years.

Below I copied a bit from an interview at the Sydney Writers’ Festival:

https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/sydney-writers-festival-evie-wyld-all-the-birds-singing/

On Writing Novels & Endings with Evie Wyld at Sydney Writers’ Festival

The Roslyn Packer Theatre was abuzz with chatter, much about Evie Wyld and her latest novel All the Birds, Singing. There’s often much contention about the ending, and while people tossed up theories and commented on Wyld’s Miles Franklin win, the lights went down and Evie stepped onto the stage.

With her fringe and bright yellow shoes she was already a character in herself. And throughout the hour, Wyld spoke with wit and wisdom (my notes are a slanted scribble that’s hard to decipher; a testament to the great things I heard and couldn’t get down quick enough).

Evie Wyld

Gothic and Horror as a Modern Genre

Wyld started by reading from her novel, All the Birds Singing, emphasising the imagery of death and blood, bringing a chill and a hush over the theatre. The first question asked was about the gothic canon, and how Wyld has used horror as a genre in a contemporary way. I’d never thought of All the Birds, Singing as a gothic novel and having it pointed out (and listening to Wyld read), it seemed rather obvious! The moody English island, the dark past, the mangled deaths of sheep…

Our Walk along the Beach at Nambucca Heads

Early in the morning we went for a walk along the beach in our toe shoes. Later on on that day we had a beautiful warm 30 Degrees Celsius. The beach was just lovely so early in the morning. We saw quite a few people walking along there, some with a dog or two. Several people started a conversation with us. One man said that he was from Melbourne. Another man had a dog that was part dingo. the man said the dog was very shy of people and was only one year old. Near where our camp was, there was a lot of driftwood.

 

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Peter  kneeling down taking a photo of that uprooted tree which obviously belonged to the shore line that is why I probably should not call it ‘driftwood’.

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And here we are back at our camp site:

 

Big4 Nambucca Beach Holiday Park

“Our dog friendly holiday park is set on the beach and in natural bushland with abundant wildlife. Enjoy 4 star accommodation in this retro funky park.Choose from a elevated surf shack, funky bathing box, beachfront villa, drive-through or ensuite powered site, standard or budget powered site. Wake up in the morning and go for a stroll on the beach while the kids have a ball on the jumping pillow, heated pool and playground. In the afternoon, go for a drive to the on the beach to the Valla lagoon or pain a rock on the well renowned V wall. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service and super clean facilities. More information and online bookings on.”
We booked accommodation for five nights in this holiday park.  It says:

Fan – Toilet – Bathroom – Private Entrance – Sofa – Wardrobe/Closet

Leaving tomorrow morning and driving up to the North Coast of New South Wales, we are going to stop for one night at Taree. On the way back home we are going to stop for one night at Newcastle.

 

September 2017 Diary

 

I love taking some photos when I manage to go for a walk. When I took the above pictures I had taken my walking stick along. This made walking so much easier. I had not been walking very much during the past few weeks. It had always been rather cold and often extremely windy. The last few days I was determined to go out each morning at least for a little bit and get used to walking again. When I do it regularly, it really makes a difference. Often I feel more confident again to walk around without using my walking stick. This warmer and calmer weather makes me feel that spring has finally arrived here in the Illawarra of NSW, Australia. I just hope  for a bit of rain in the near future because for quite some time we had nearly no rain at all and everything is starting to dry out.

Diane Keaton Movie: Hampstead

Peter and I saw today this Diane Keaton movie about Hampstead. Peter had first to go to the Private Wollongong Hospital for an appointment with his podiatrist who is fitting him some insoles. These insoles might help him with his walking. The podiatrist spent with Peter a bit over an hour. It was already 11,45 when we left the hospital. This left us less than half an hour to make it to the GALA in Warrawong to see the movie. But we were lucky. We still made it on time. This movie was well worth seeing. I am glad we did make it.

 

http://villagecinemas.com.au/movies/hampstead

 

 

“Starring Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson, Hampstead is a heartwarming romantic comedy set around the beautiful Hampstead Heath in London, a quiet piece of countryside in a vast metropolis. Living in a lovely old apartment on the edge of the Heath, American widow Emily Walters (Keaton) feels like she is drifting aimlessly through life. Then she meets Donald (Gleeson), who has lived harmoniously on the Heath for 17 years in a ramshackle hut. When property developers attempt to destroy his home, Emily steps up to defend Donald in the escalating battle and soon finds that, despite his gruff exterior, there is something special about this gentle and unconventional man.”

Diary, September 1st, 2017

 

Two weeks ago, on Friday, the 18th of August, Martin drove us to Sussex Inlet. And only two days before that, on that Wednesday, he drove us to Newcastle to see Lauren and have lunch with Lauren. We first stopped at the place where Lauren lives with her mother. Lauren showed us their house which is small but comfortable. In the back there is a huge garden area with lots of flowers and a double garage that they do not use as a garage but is furnished in a way that would make it suitable for parties, I guess. Lauren asked us, would we like a cup of tea. Of course this was very welcome.

Martin and Peter were walking around a bit more while Lauren went to make tea for us and I was sitting down to wait here:

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Lauren is nineteen, she is our youngest granddaughter. She could take the day off because she works most weekends. This year she got her driver’s license and she bought herself a second hand car. Lauren drove us in her car to the beach for lunch.

Lauren and her mum have two dogs.

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Peter takes a picture of me while I try to take a picture of the dog.
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The other dog is a female puppy, that is growing to be quite tall. 

I took some pictures of the double garage:

 

Peter took these these pictures after our lunch at the beach cafe.

 

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This is Lauren in her Mum’s garden

And this is where we had lunch:

 

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This is where Lauren had parked her car.

This is the food we had at the beaches cafe:

 

Gaby’s Birthday, 28th of August

Today,  Peter wrote the following letter to his daughter Gaby who passed away five years ago:

Dear Gaby,
today would be your birthday and I’m sure we would have visited. Sixty years is an enormous number but you did not quite make it. Your fiftieth birthday comes to mind for which you organised a big party for your friends and relatives. It was a great occasion, we will never forget. We even danced together. I’m sure you would have organised something for your sixties too. Perhaps some of your carers are having
a drink at the Parramatta Leagues Club to remember you. There is a picture with all of them. They were more than just carers, they were your good friends and were with you right to the very end. Your life was a shining example of how one should live. You showed us not to despair and to accept the things we can’t change and make the most of it. With this lesson in mind, we have accepted your life and your passing. Memories can be bitter and sweet but we stick to the good memories. Our thoughts are with you every day of our lives but more so today. Mum and I, we wish we could be with you and give you a big hug. XO

Gaby celebrated her 50th birthday on the weekend after her birthday.

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Gaby celebrating her 50th Birthday
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Gaby and her Carers
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Gaby with Family

Gaby’s Birthday

Today, 28th of August 2017, Gaby would have been sixty years! She died five years ago. I searched in my published posts what I wrote about Gaby’s birthday:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=Gaby%27s+Birthday&submit=Search

Uta’s Diary, 2nd of September 2015

On the 2nd of September 2015 (two years ago) I wrote the following:

“Last Sunday turned out to be a lovely family day at our home. It was beautiful to be surrounded by children, grand-children, and great grand-children for a few hours in the afternoon.  Some almond-cake was left from Gaby’s birthday. There was also freshly baked cheese-cake. Peter had baked this cake!”

There is a picture of Peter’s freshly baked cheese-cake and another picture that was taken on Gaby’s birthday in 2015. The birthday picture shows an almond cake as well as a picture of Gaby and some flowers. Following this are some pictures with three year old Lucas and eleven months old Alexander in it and I mentioned that our daughter Monika took these pictures of her grandsons an sent them to me for my post.

Here can be found more posts about Gaby:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=Gaby&submit=Search

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