Are there still people who want nuclear power stations? There must be, for from time to time I hear someone here in Australia voice an opinion that we should have nuclear power stations as a back up. In the media there are at present endless discussions about our power supply.
All the nuclear power plant disasters that we know about already, and all the difficulties to rid ourselves of nuclear waste, these are well known facts but not talked about much in main media. Anyhow, with all that present knowledge that is available to us, some people still seem to deliberately ignore all this knowledge and do voice an opinion that we should consider nuclear power stations!
I know, doomsday predictions are not very popular. A significant number of people just want to ignore all the facts. I published in my last three posts some YouTube tapes. All of them have Helen Caldicott in them:
Helen Caldicott is a famous anti-nuclear activist. That does not mean that the majority of people all over the world are willing to listen to her, does it? How many people really make time to listen to what she has to say? Or when they listen a bit, they might soon say, she is just a doomsday predictor, and they are not wanting to further think about the consequences of playing with nuclear. There are an immense number of anti-nuclear organisations:
It seems to me politicians and main media all over the world ignore more or less the message of these organisations. And the extent of the Fukushima disaster is hushed as to not create a panic. It seems to me people with vested interests in nuclear just do not want to change their policies. The worst part is that a lot of people in power are not willing to work on nuclear disarmament.
Today, Sunday, was a perfect day for a drive to Kiama. The Jazz Festival music was very pleasant. We could hear it in all the streets where we walked along. It was a bit like country music at times. The band was actually in the park, but we did not venture there. Instead we tried out the Licked GELATERIA. We liked what we purchased: Peter chose chocolate and rum/raisin ice-cream, I had lemon sorbet and green apple sorbet. For six Dollars each we thought it was very good value.
Dapto Branch of Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW Inc
Bus leaves at: 8.15
We will first visit the ever popular Cobbity Winery followed by a short tour of the area.
Morning Tea:
The bus will call in for a short stop for morning tea/or toilet break.
Lunch:
We will visit Campbelltown Catholic Club for lunch and light refreshments (at your own expense)”
I am a member of the CPSA and bought a ticket to go on that bus trip. So last Monday was the big day for me. Peter did not want to come along. But he drove me to the departure point. Some seven hours later he picked me up again. I enjoyed the bus trip quite a bit. Meeting some new people was great. They were all very friendly. As usual, I took a lot of pictures.
We stopped here at McDonalds for Morning Tea. A friendly lady took this picture of me with my new friend.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
This is where the bus came in again to pick us up after our lunch break.
Here a fub picture: Me holding up a bottle of empty booze at Cobbity Winery.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
I was happy to show off a bottle of empty booze at the Cobbity Winery!
Peter did bake a cheese-cake. It just came out of the oven. Instead of cottage cheese he used “Quark” and “Käsekuchen Hilfe”. The “Quark” came in little containers. We bought it at ALDI’s. Sometime soon we are going to cook a “Schokoladen Pudding” with that chocolate powder that is in the other packet. (“Schokoladen Pudding” is similar to a thick chocolate custard.)
At the back of the packet can be found the English translation about the Cheese Cake Aid.
We hope we get soon some visitors to help us eat the cake!
This morning I managed to publish some food pictures of the meals we had not so long ago. One morning I took the above pictures. It had been raining quite a bit these last few weeks. So, on that morning, surprise, surprise, these little mushrooms had appeared in our backyard. Of course, we did not dare to eat them for we had no idea whether they were poisonous or not. Peter said, there is great danger that people may die when eating unknown mushrooms. These mushrooms did not last for very long. The next day they had all disappeared.
This morning Peter had an 11,40 appointment with his eye specialist. The eye specialist is in Figtree. Peter went there by bus. It turned out, Peter’s eyes are just a little bit better than last time, meaning that no laser treatment was needed at this stage.
Peter had dropped me off near Dapto Shopping Centre, parked his car there, and went to catch his bus. We had agreed, that he should pick me up from the library once he returned from Figtree. I liked being able to spend some time at the library. I took out three large print books. Before that I had gone for a very much overdue haircut. To be able to at last fit this haircut in made me very happy! I also fitted in a cup of coffee at McDonalds, I mean I asked for a proper cup, not a take-away one!
A friendly girl was waiting to help customers to use one of the newly established ordering machines. She offered to do it for me. Alas, I had a 5 Dollar note to pay my coffee with. But paying with a 5 Dollar note somehow did not work. So the girl went to a service counter to get my order through there. Maybe the machine prefers credit cards. I think paying by credit card and using ordering machines is a bit too much of an innovation for me. At my age it is very difficult to get used to such new things!
More and more large print books are available at the Public Library. Residents can get a loan of these books for free. I reckon, this is a very good thing that the council still provides this free service apart from all the other things that are available at the Library. You can borrow all sorts of books and magazines and videos. You pay only for overdue items. If you return the borrowed items on time, there is no charge, none whatsoever.
By the time Peter and I were home to eat our home cooked lunch it was nearly two o’clock. Peter had some peppermint tea with his lunch, and I had some black tea with skim milk. We had been very hungry when we got home and quite tired as well!
Yesterday Peter had to see the cancer specialist in Figtree as a follow up to his operation from two weeks ago. Apparently his bladder is free of cancer at the moment, but there is a chance some more growth might come back. This is why some follow up treatment in Wollongong Hospital is recommended. I may write a bit more about some details after Peter has spoken to another doctor who is going to give him some more advice about the recommended treatment.
After having been at the the Urology Clinic yesterday, we drove to Figtree Shopping Centre and treated ourselves to some coffee and cake at the Gossips’ Coffee Lounge! It was a huge piece of cake with nuts, which we shared, and we were each given some ice-cream as well as fresh cream with it. Delicious! And the coffee out of proper cups was quite good too.
Why do I always run out of time? I wished instead of 9 am it was only 6 am now and I would have at least two ours to write something. I have the feeling that I have now only about half an hour left to post something. Then I have to get ready to go out.
How many pictures can I still download withing the next few minutes? About 50 pictures that I took recently are still unpublished. So which ones should I choose right now? Maybe I just start with some of the oldest pictures and leave the rest for some other day.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Looking at these pictures I remember some of the meals we had recently. For instance with the ‘Knödel’ (Potato Dumplings) we had some ‘Goulash’ which turned out to be very tasty.
We love salad leaves with our meals. A fried egg is always welcome too. I love our homegrown hot chillies. But Peter does not want to eat these. They are a bit too hot for him.
But when does it stop? It just keeps on pouring, pouring . . .
I hope it won’t keep raining like this next month when my brother Peter Uwe and his wife Astrid are going to be with us. I am very much looking forward to their visit from Germany. Yesterday Peter and I drove up to Mt.Keira. The rain had stopped for just a little bit and Peter could take some pictures with his phone. After a while he also took his tablet out and took a picture with that. We were thinking we could take Peter Uwe and Astrid to the top of Mt.Keira. This should be an interesting outing for them to see the Wollongongs coastline from up there.
View of Mt.Keira from Wollongong Hospital: I took this picture last week when Peter was in Wollongong Hospital for an operation.
When we first came to Australia people told us that they would say it’s raining ‘cats and dogs’ when there were extremely heavy downpours. Well, today it has been raining ‘cats and dogs’ quite often, then there’s some drizzle, then it stops for a while, but not for long, and then it starts all over again. Not a good day for doing my washing . . .
After about two hours in the Day Surgery waiting room Peter was taken to one of the Holding Bays. I was allowed to go with him.
Peter’s things were put at the end of his bed.
Peter had been given a hospital gown to change into. The nurse took Peter’s blood pressure and put some stockings on him.
At 1,15 pm Peter was taken into the Operating Theatre and I had to leave. Peter had had no food and no drink, not even water, since 9,20 the night before! He could have consumed something till midnight, but he chose to go to bed early.
I had had a bit of breakfast before we left at 9 am. I welcomed the chance to go for some lunch when Peter went into surgery. I took a bus down to the Mall and went up Keira Street to the Indian Restaurant where we had been on the 9th of December when Peter had had the other operation. On the 9th of December happened also to be Caroline’s birthday. Caroline took some carer’s leave, Matthew was on leave from Uni and Monika was on her annual leave. This is why they all could stay with me and we all had lunch together in that Indian Restaurant.
This was my Lunch Special for only 8 Dollars.
This lunch turned out to be delicious. When I returned to the hospital by 3 o’clock, I was told that Peter had only just come out of surgery and was in Recovery now where I could not see him. The receptionist advised me to come back by 5 o’clock. I passed the time having coffee at the Hospital’s Cafeteria. Next to the Day Surgery Centre is a beautiful spacious lounge room as well as an outside terrace with quite a few seats. First I tried the terrace, but it soon got too hot there in the afternoon sun. So I found a lounge seat next to a table with several magazines. One magazine announced that Prince Harry is getting married in September. I also had our TIME magazine with me. In the TIME magazine I found for instance a very interesting article about sleep. The following is one section of that article which confirmed my belief that 7 hours sleep each night is the most healthy.
The following two links show what I wrote about Peter’s operation last December.
Shortly before 5 o’clock I went back to the reception desk on floor 1 near the main entrance. According to their computer Peter had just been released from Recovery and was about to be taken to B 4 East. I then took the lift to level 4 , where Peter had just arrived and was given a bed in the ward that is mainly for Urology patients.
Peter soon could send messages from his phone: One message to Monika, who was still at work in Wollongong, the same message to Caroline and Mathew in Sydney and also to our son Martin in Melbourne. They all were happy, that the operation did go well without any complications.
In this ward Peter stayed for only one night. The following day he was allowed to go home.
On Tuesday, the day of the operation, our daughter Monika had changed her shift from 9 o’clock start to 10 o’clock start so that she could pick us up and drop us off at the hospital. After her shift, which ended at 6 pm on that day, Monika came to the hospital to see Peter and then take me back home to Dapto.
I ended up being extremely tired when I arrived home that night. Regrettably, I had then some quite restless sleep that night, but got out of bed very early the next morning because I could not go back to sleep.
Monika came again to pick me up to take me to Wollongong where she had to be at work already at 9 o’clock. We left early to beat the traffic. Shortly before 8 am I was already in the hospital and could go straight to the ward to see Peter who had just received his breakfast tray. The policy in the hospital is, that one person is allowed into the ward from 8 am on already. From 10 am on more visitors are allowed in. Peter was happy that I could come in early.
Peter stayed in the ward till lunch time. One woman in Peter’s room had to cancel her meal, probably for some medical reason. We never talked to her, for she was behind a curtain. But the nurse offered me the spare meal which was Mac/Cheese. I accepted and really enjoyed this meal. It was an excellent meal. Very tasty! Peter had a meal with lots of vegies and some chicken.
We know that Monika had to work till 5 on that day. To ask her to take us home would have meant many hours of waiting time. Peter felt well enough, to go to Dapto by bus and catch a taxi back home from near the bus stop in Dapto.
A sister said she’d have to ask the doctor whether it was ok for Peter to go on the bus. Luckily the doctor said it was ok. So with great relief we were home by early afternoon.
As compared to the operation in December Peter recovered this time much more quickly. This is really good.
Yesterday I wrote: Shorty before 11 am we went up by lift to Level 2. Immediately we were let into the reception area, which was well equipped with chairs and some screens. On the TV screen we noticed that there had been an Air Crash in Melbourne near Essendon Airport.
Mt. Keira can be seen from the Entrance to the Hospital.
On Tuesday, the 21st of February, Peter was booked into hospital for another operation. We arrived early and waited near the Main Entrance for the assigned time to be let into the Day Surgery Ward. We went up by lift to Level 2 shorty before 11 am. Immediately we were let into the reception area, which was well equipped with chairs and some screens. On the TV screen we noticed that there had been an Air Crash in Melbourne near Essendon Airport.
“Cheap Booze & Tour
At the back of the packet can be found the English translation about the Cheese Cake Aid.
AuntyUta 