Category: Memories

How do you cope with being lied to?

“Das verstehst du noch nicht, du bist ja noch so klein . . . ”

(This you cannot understand yet, you are still too young for this . . . )

This is one of my earliest memories about how Mum would have talked to me. However, Dad would never have talked to me like this. This is how I remember it anyhow. Dad always tried to explain everything to me.

When I was sixteen, I had the chance to meet my Dad for a few hours. He told me that Mum had divorced him . Didn’t she tell you this, he asked me. As a matter of fact, no, she had not bothered to let me know anything about the divorce! In the end I think I told myself that she probably meant well, that she just did not want me to get upset! Was I upset then? My word, I was. When I was  young and still living with my mother,  I could never adjust to the way Mum treated me. No matter how well she meant, she managed to upset me very, very often in lots of ways!

The same kind of being extremely upset I do experience when politicians in power deliberately keep things from the electorate or spread outright lies!!

 

Memories from 2011 about Christmas and some other Subjects

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/

Following is something I wrote in November 2007 and I published it in 2011.  It sounds like I could have written it today.

“Time is running out? . . .  how much time do I have left? With every year time seems to be getting more precious. Whatever I still want to do in life, I should be doing it soon, very soon. There is no need to panic. It is just this feeling in me that I ought not to waste time; in other words, I should make the best use of it I possibly can. Making time for reflections as I do right now, I do not regard this as a waste of time. It nourishes my soul, it makes me look forward to spend the day in a productive way. There are the Christmas preparations to consider. How can I keep them to a minimum with that special Christmas Spirit in mind? Some spiritual songs usually help me along to get into the mood. Even in shopping centres the odd Christmas song can bring about temporary elation, a feeling of peace and comfort in a buzzing shopping centre! And even if this sort of mood happens only for brief moments while doing the shopping , it is still appreciated and helps to cope with the mad commercialism that surrounds us everywhere.

The special food at Christmas I like very much. On the other hand I hate it, if food is being wasted. I rather have not too much food of everything. How awful, if food has to be thrown out because we cannot keep it fresh enough in the Australian heat once it leaves the fridge. There may be one and a half dozen people at our family gathering. People bring food along. I would like to keep the food that I am going to provide to a strict minimum. Unfortunately I know already that this is an impossibility at Christmas time! I suppose I’ll just have to grin and bear it. I am determined to make the most of the Christmas Spirit where-ever I may come across it and enjoy the closeness of family and friends. Indeed I am looking forward to a Joyful and Happy Christmas. I did not always feel joyful and happy at Christmas time: There are some happy memories about Christmas, but there are also some very unhappy ones . . . . May the truly happy hours at Christmas time be plentiful and greatly outnumber the sad and lonely hours! This is what I wish for everyone.

This is the link to some more posts I published in 2011:

These posts from 2011 have the following titles:

Daddy’s Anger:  https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/17/memories/

MY MOTHER:  https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/17/out-of-last-years-files/

After the War (1945):

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/12/after-the-war-1945/

Reflections

Post W W  II:   https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/11/reflections/

 

In Love with Leipzig:

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/10/in-love-with-leipzig/

 

OUR LUCKY ESCAPE;  https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/08/our-lucky-escape/

My Family’s Reaction  https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/06/575/

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/06/thirty-three-years-ago/

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/05/utas-diary/

So the following is still something I did publish in Decermber of 2011:

“5th of December, our second daughter’s birthday; the youngest daughter’s birthday is coming up in four days. The two girls are exactly twenty years apart!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Thai Yoga for beginners with Chaija Noradechanunt from the University of Wollongong. In the pamphlet it says:

‘Enjoy stretches, breathing work and relaxation practices in a women only place.’

On Tuesday, the 13th December, is going to be the last class for this year.

I like these Thai Yoga classes. I hope they’re going to continue next year. For the Thai Yoga I go to Coniston, which is two trainstops away from where I live.  The Older Women’s Network hire the Community Hall in Coniston for these classes. They say:

‘You’re in good company with Illawarra OWN Wellness Centre. What is a Wellness Centre?

A Wellness Centre provides older women with a different model of health and wellbeing. We offer a holistic approach to improving and maintaining health and coping with illness by providing a variety of choices for healthy living. The Wellness Centre provides an informal, friendly and supportive environment.

We are committed to:

.  Flexible, “drop in” attendance

.  Learning from each other, as well as from health professionals

.  Consumer involvement & participation

‘Social isolation is a threat to the well being and health of us all. As women tend to live longer than men, they are more likely to feel isolated. Being on a limited income further restricts many people and decreases our ability to lead full and productive lives. To enjoy healthy senior years our minds and bodies need to be active and we need to do all we can to ensure we foster a willingness to stay well by keeping active.

An older woman is generally considered to be 50 years and over. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women aged 45 Years and over. All are welcome at the Wellnes Centre.’

Thursdays I usually go to a class here in Dapto. It’s a gentle exercise class with Marta Venegas. This class is to improve core strength and balance. I  like these classes. Marta always brings stimulating music along. She sees to it that we keep up with a bit of dancing and also some more serious fitness training. Some of the exercises can be done sitting or standing. This class is breaking up next week. The break lasts to the beginning of February! I must aim at going to the swimming pool more often to maintain some kind of fitness.

My laptop is playing up sometimes. I think I need to take it for another service.”

 

The Playground in Lakelands Park

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Krystal’s birthday coming up on the 5th of April. She turns 21 this year!!

I just looked up what I wrote four years ago on Krystal’s birthday. Here it is:

https://auntyuta.com/2014/04/05/krystals-birthday-today/

It features some pictures what the playground in Lakelands Park looked in 2001.

Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stand beside her.
Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stands beside her.

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And while I am at it, I copy here what the  bush in front of our house looked like in 2000 and I am going to show what it looks like now 17 years later:

This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2OOO. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. It looks very huge now and the gardener trims is every so often otherwise there would not be left enough room for the parking spot at the left of the house.
This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2000. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. It looks very huge now, and the gardener trims it every so often, otherwise there would not be left enough room for one of the parking spots at the left of the house.

 

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This bush looks so much bigger now, and all the trees behind have grown enormously!

And now back to the playground, what it looks like at present at Eastertime 2018:

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Today is Good Friday, the 30th of March 2018. I went for an early walk to the playground in Lakelands Park.

When I arrived back home, I took some Easter pictures:

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Some Peter Rabbit Books for the Kids

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This is another picture from Lakelands Park in 2001. Ilse, Peter’s sister, was here in Dapto on a visit from Berlin. She is in the picture on the right. Our daughter Monika in the middle with her three daughters: Roxy, Krystal and Natasha on the left. I am between Natasha and Krystal.

 

Last Monday in February 2018

Today, the 26th of February, I think back on the last few days. I feel it has been a long time since I mentioned anything that is going on in our lives. Too many things have been happening, mostly very lovely things! Saturday, the 17th of February was definitely the best of all the recent happenings: It was the wonderful wedding ceremony of daughter Caroline and son-in-law Matthew.

As usual I am running out of time again. So I just want to insert a.few photos and write another post when I have a bit more time.

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THE RECEPTION WAS AT THE MARRICKVILLE BOWLING CLUB. THE CEREMONY HAD BEEN HERE AT THE STABLES THEATRE;

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Matthew and his brother Ben

I can publish some photos of the wedding ceremony when we get the official photos from the wedding photographer. Here now are some photos I took at the club of people dancing. I want to mention here that Caroline and Matthew did a magnificent opening dance, and I’ll show some pictures of the bride and groom dancing at some other time when I get some photos of it!

 

 

 

 

Can the Writing of Emails be seen as a Substitute for Letter Writing?

A few weeks ago I referred in my blog to something I had read about ’emails and tweets’:

https://auntyuta.com/2018/01/27/nobody-inherits-emails-and-tweets/

“Nobody inherits emails and tweets!”

This is what Wally says in Di Morrissey’s novel:

https://auntyuta.com/2018/01/26/the-red-coast/

I regard email writing more or less as a substitute for letter writing, and I do save a lot of emails for future reference.  I like that these days some instant communication is possible with email writing. In the past a letter would take quite a while to reach the receiver. Even though instant communication is possible per email, most people seem to prefer  the making of phone calls or sending messages by phone  or using  something like Facebook or twitter. These messages would probably not be kept for very long. But to my mind if you use emails as a substitute for letter writing, these emails might well be of some interest for future generations.

Or what do you think?

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Peter and I saved heaps of letters that we received in the olden days when we had to rely on the postal service for the delivery of letters. We usually made copies of the letters we sent away and these copies are in these folders too. Well, all this someone interested might find in these folders once we’re gone!

Uta’s Diary, Reflections in the Midst of an Australian Summer

Today is Friday, the 19th of January 2018.

Tomorrow we’re going to meet the in-laws for lunch. We’re very much looking forward to this. Today is going to be very hot. I think tomorrow it may be getting even hotter, However we had some very cool early morning hours. The temperature was as low as 18C, quite cool really for by around lunchtime we may have about 40C or more! We bought recently a portable air conditioner. So far we did not have to use it yet. But should during the next few days the temperature in our house rise well above 30C then to have this portable air conditioner might prove to become very beneficial!

We always buy fresh farm eggs. There is an IGA shop close to where we live. This morning when it was still cool enough, Peter and I went for a walk to that IGA shop and bought a dozen of these locally produced farm eggs. During our walk my thoughts turned to a few things my father liked to point out. I think Papa often looked at politics in a very philosophical way. As in a lot of things in life he very much disliked any exaggerations. So also in politics. I could not say whether he was more left or right. It seemed to me he was exactly in the middle! He often would explain how important the middle in politics could turn out to be. He called it “Das Zuenglein an der Waage!”

21st and 23rd of December 2017

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We had lunch with Martin on the 21st of December
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My vegetarian Lunch

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At home we had some desert
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Martin looks at his new Wollongong Calendar

Towards evening Monika and Mark came to see us. It was the day of our Wedding Anniversary!

Martin had arrived at our place the previous night. He did arrive a bit late. He arrived at Moss Vale by coach because his train had been cancelled because of signal failure in extremely bad weather. Because some passengers arrived late at Moss Vale, the usual coach to go down Macquarie Pass had not been waiting. But a taxi to go down to the coast had been organised by the railway. Martin had had some hot take away when his coach had stopped at Yass. He messaged to Peter not to wait with dinner. We had planned to have dinner ready for Martin’s arrival. I had cooked red cabbage and Peter wanted to fry some pork cutlets. The next day, Thursday, we went out for lunch and we did not cook anything in the evening. But on Friday we had our big meal then. I did not fancy the meat, I just had a sausage instead of the meat. The red cabbage tasted very good. There was even some left for Sunday, Christmas Eve, where the cabbage and some potato salad that I had made, was served with all the cold food, and everyone liked it. Not all the food is seen here on the pictures. There was plenty of food because everyone had brought some food along!

The following pictures I took in the main shopping street in Berry where we went with Martin on Saturday, the 23rd of December for some coffee and cake.

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For lunch we had fish and chips in Kiama and later on ice-cream in Shellharbour Village.

Martin did all the driving on that day. So after we had finished our take-away ice-creams Martin drove us to the Farm Beach that is a beautiful public area these days. It was lovely to walk around this place for a bit.

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31st of December 2012

(A REBLOG of the POST I published on the 22nd of January 2013)

Our day on the 31st of December 2012 started with a trip to Bondi Junction, where we met our daughter. We had a cup of coffee with Caroline (sorry no photo). Then Caroline had to go shopping. We strolled back to the station. This time to a different entrance to the station, one that we weren’t familiar with yet. A beautiful large rest area opened up in front of us. Lots of different food and drinks were on offer at different outlets. In the middle of the plaza some delicious looking (homemade) ice-cream caught our eye. Peter and I each had a cup full of this very refreshing treat. It wasn’t expensive but tasted wonderful. There were plenty of seats everywhere to have a rest. We took the lift down to the platform. Only a few minutes and our train departed. We got off at Town Hall Station. Uta in front of the Christmas Tree     Later on we looked at the displays of some cake-shops. We were hoping we would find some Berliners. It is our tradition to eat Berliners on New Year’s Eve. We had no luck. We couldn’t find any.  We went back to Town Hall Station to catch our train to Dapto.  While we were waiting for the train we took some photos. The trip to Dapto took nearly two hours. Some shops in Dapto Shopping Center were already about to close when we arrived there. We knew we had a bottle of Bubbly at home in the fridge for our end of year celebrations. But we were still without any Berliners. I felt a bit tired and was sitting down for a while. In the meantime Peter rushed into another shop that was still open. Surprise, surprise, he came out with some delicious looking Berliners in the form of stars! He got them at half price for they were the last ones that were left! At home we watched “Dinner for One”, which is a tradition with us to watch on New Year’s Eve. It is a sketch about Miss Sophie’s 90th Birthday. Very, very funny! We’ve seen it so often and every time we laugh our heads off again. Peter tried out to take a few pictures from the TV showing Sydney Harbour. At midnight he took also some pictures of the fireworks. Soon after we went to bed. But of course we did have our Bubbly and did eat the heated up little stars with it. They tasted delicious, just as good as the balls, called Berliners, do taste. Of course we did get messages and phone calls from our children before we went to bed, wishing us a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

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Inside Queen Victoria Building
Inside Queen Victoria Building

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So, this is a REBLOG of what we did on New Year’s Eve of 2012 (five years ago!). This year we plan on staying home again to watch ‘Dinner for one’ and the Fireworks on TV, also to have some bubbly and hopefully also some Berliners. For lunch on that last day of this  year we want to go out with some friends

Here are the comments and my replies to the above post from January 2013:

  1. .

    auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 2:00 pm Edit #

    Near the Queen Victoria Building we found a lovely little place where we could have a bit of lunch. The fish tasted so good, I managed to eat both large pieces! And imagine, the lunch in the center of the city was a special for ten Dollars! Great value indeed.

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  2. Three Well BeingsJanuary 22, 2013 at 3:31 pm Edit #

    The Queen Victoria Building is really beautiful. And I was just thinking today how quickly we moved on from the busy Christmas and New Year’s activities. It was nice to have a reason to look back and see how you spent your last day of the year! The food looks delicious, too! 🙂

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  3. auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 3:58 pm Edit #

    Thank you, Debra. 🙂

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  4. likeitizJanuary 22, 2013 at 6:43 pm Edit #

    You both look great!

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    • auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 6:53 pm Edit #

      Thanks, Mary-Anne. It was a good ending of the year.

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  5. The EmuJanuary 22, 2013 at 9:11 pm Edit #

    What a delightful and beautiful way to spend new years eve, love your tradition.
    The pics are great and I must admit the one with the fish in it is more to my liking.
    May you both relive your tradition for many more years to come.
    Emu aka Ian

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    • auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 10:08 pm Edit #

      Hi, Ian, I’m glad you liked my little post. The fish I had for lunch was really great, very fresh tasting the way I like it. Normally I would eat only one piece of fish that big, but it tasted so yummy that I finished off the other piece as well! And I did eat most of the chips and all the salad. As a drink we only had water, which was for free.
      The young friendly woman who served us asked us whether we were planning on seeing the fireworks that night. But we said, no, we were going back home to watch it on TV.
      After the scorcher we had last Friday we had some cooler weather the past few days. When you go out in 40+ temps it’s like going out into an oven, isn’t it?
      Hope you’re keeping well, Love, Uta.

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  6. catterelJanuary 22, 2013 at 9:41 pm Edit #

    Lovely post Uta – and so pleased for you that you can upload your photos again. I’m very impressed by your starshaped “Berliners” – they look very posh. “Dinner for one” is shown on all the German-speaking TV channels in Europe over and over again on New Year’s Eve – for some Germans, it’s the only English film they know! But surprisingly enough, although the actors were very well known in Britain, hardly anyone in the UK knows that little film. Glad you are carrying on the tradition down under!

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    • auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 9:55 pm Edit #

      So pleased, Cat, to be able to share some of my photos again. You probably know that Germans call these “Berliners” Pfannkuchen.
      I heard about it that “Dinner for One” for some reason is hardly known in the UK whereas in Germany it is very popular. There’s one channel here in Australia who always have it in their program for New Year’s Eve. Some fans in Australia watch it every year too. 🙂

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      • catterelJanuary 22, 2013 at 9:58 pm Edit #

        I guess the ex-pat German-speakers were homesick for it so the TV people do them the favour!

  7. auntyutaJanuary 22, 2013 at 10:19 pm Edit #

    We belong to the people who are really hooked on it. Just thinking about it makes me laugh. The Butler asks: Same as every year, Miss Sophie? And she answers: The same as every year! It’s so good the way they’re acting it. But I’m afraid I don’t know the names of the actors. Poor 90 year old Miss Sophie. All her companions are already dead. And the butler has to pretend they’re still alive and have come to the dinner party.

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Maxim Gorki’s play “Children of the Sun” was shown at the Drama Theatre in Sydney’s Opera House. We saw this play last Saturday. There was a matinee performance at 2 pm which suited us for we prefer to be home at nighttime. Before we went to the theatre we met Caroline for lunch in the city.

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Caroline had a salad and Peter and I had beer battered fish and chips.
Caroline had a salad and Peter and I had beer battered fish and chips.

We told Caroline that we had lunch at the same place on the last day of the year 2012. Later at home I looked up the post I published from that day. Sure enough I did find the lunch pictures and was able to republish them.

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