Five Years ago

On the 21st of December 2012 we had our 56th wedding anniversary. On that day we went up to the highlands for a visit to Bowral. Did I publish a blog from that anniversary? So even if I did, I cannot find it anymore. But in ‘my pictures’ album I did find some photos. As I remember it, Peter and I had an excellent time up in Bowral on the day of our anniversary . Looking at these old photos brings back memories. So here they are:

These pictures were taken in a Bowral shopping centre .

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In the morning we had visited the Bradman Oval:

https://www.bradman.com.au/bradman-oval/

At the Bradman Centre there was a nice cafe where we had had some morning tea:

https://www.bradman.com.au/visit/stumps-cafe-at-the-international-cricket-hall-of-fame

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Looking up old Diaries

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM MY DIARY FROM 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.”

ON THE 5TH OF DECEMBER I PUBLISHED THE FOLLOWING:

“This week we’re going to celebrate our youngest daughter’s birthday: She’ll turn 33 on Friday. Yesterday another daughter of ours turned 53!

Here is a picture of our lovely baby with me at North Wollongong Beach.

I am 44 in this photo. I think our dog was already 13 or 14 years at the time.”

Bayerisches Viertel in Berlin, Germany

http://www.touristinspiration.com/knowledge/things-to-see-and-do/bayerischer-platz-12454.html

” . . . . The ”Bayerischer Platz” is the center of the ”Bayerisches Viertel”, (Bavarian district), with many streets named after Bavarian cities, which was destroyed a lot [more] during World War II (about 60%). . . . . ”

I just had a look at my post from January 2015 about Bayerishces Viertel. We used to live in Bozener Strasse. I always assumed that the town of “Bozen” was in Bavaria. I know now that is not the case.

Bolzano (Bozen) is in Southern Tyrol and belongs now to Italy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolzano

“During the gradual decline of the Romans’ influence in the 7th century, Bavarian immigration took place and the first mention of a Bavarian ruler in Bolzano dates from 679.^[5] At that time, the Bavarians named the nearby villages around Bolzano Bauzanum or Bauzana.^[6] Germanpopulations have been present in the region of Tyrol since this time.”

It seems, even though it belongs to Italy, the German population in Southern Tyrol is predominant. Here is what I found in wikipedia about the modern-day South Tyrol:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Tyrol

“Modern-day South Tyrol, an autonomous Italian province created in 1948, was part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Tyrol until 1918 (then known as Deutschsüdtirol and occasionally Mitteltirol^[1]). It was annexed by Italy following the defeat of the Central Powersin World War I. It has been part of a cross-border joint entity, the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, since 2001.

My friend Eva Todtenhausen once tought me the text to the following Tyrol melody:

I was ten at the time, and I still remember the words!

https://auntyuta.com/2015/01/27/bayerisches-viertel-2/

This post brings back memories about Bozener Strasse. This is the street where I lived during most of my childhood and early adulthood years. Some of the buildings look a lot more colourful now than they used to. I like some of the very bright colours. During the 1930s and 1940s we children would use Bozener Strasse as our playground because there were usually no cars parked there. Our street was very out of the way and had no through traffic. Tante Ilse and Onkel Addi for instance parked their car in a nearby garage. I think to that garage it was a five minute walk!

I sometimes like to just browse through some older posts of mine. Being able to ‘search’ for certain subjects, often helps to find some posts that I am specially looking for. Today for instance I wanted to find a picture from my first birthday. I assumed that at some time I had published this picture that was taken on my first birthday. Inserting “first Birthday” in the search space, resulted in the following:

https://auntyuta.com/?s=first+Birthday&submit=Search

Alas, nothing came up about my first birthday, but on the other hand quite a few posts that I enjoyed having another look at. Feel welcome, to browse through some of my posts too. I hope you find some of the posts interesting.

Cheerio, and have a good day!

The “Strandkorb”

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Bartelmann

Who was Wilhelm Bartelmann?” inventor of the beach basket” Google celebrating 172nd birthday. Wilhelm Bartelmann The “strandkorb” beach-chair was invented in 1882 by German basket maker Wilhelm Bartelmann in Rostock, originally for his customer Elfriede Maltzahn, who suffered from rheumatism and had requested in his workshop a “seating accommodation for the beach that would provide shelter from the sun and wind” Wilhelm Bartelmann Biography Born: 7 October 1845 Died: 25 July 1930, Rostock, Germany

https://auntyuta.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=11106&action=edit

I remember “beach baskets” from my childhood days. The above picture from 1940 of a “Strandkorb” with my mother and Tante Ilse in it and my father leaning on the side of the Strandkorb I published in a blog here:

https://auntyuta.com/2016/05/25/my-father/

Heaps of Beach Baskets to be seen here:

https://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g187364-d2037827-Reviews-Warnemunde_Beach-Warnemunde_Rostock_Mecklenburg_West_Pomerania.html#photos;geo=187364&detail=2037827&ff=274298172&albumViewMode=hero&aggregationId=101&albumid=101&baseMediaId=274298172&thumbnailMinWidth=50&cnt=30&offset=-1&filter=7&autoplay=

I just found another blog I wrote about our stay in Graal/Muritz in 1940:

https://auntyuta.com/2012/01/16/the-beach-at-graalmuritz/

During the summer of 1940 we were on holidays at the Baltic Sea. We had rented a small cottage. Auntie Ilse was staying with Mum, little Bodo and me most of the time. Our maid Gertrud was with us too. Dad worked during the week in Berlin and came to Graal only on weekends.

Two year old Bodo must have already been quite a walker. I remember that Dad took us for walks in the nearby forest where we would be looking for blueberries. These berries were quite delicious. We would eat them for supper with some sugar and milk.

The beach was not far from our cottage. We went there every day. A photographer had a shop close by. During the day he often took pictures of people on the beach. The following day he displayed the pictures in front of his shop ready for sale. I think people did not order to have their pictures taken. They bought them only if they happened to like them.

In my files I have two of these pictures. They are more than seventy years old now. I was reminded of these pictures when we went to an Australian beach the other day. In one of these old pictures you can see my father with my mother and Auntie Ilse. The women sit in their ‘Strandkorb’. These ‘Strandkörbe’ are very popular on all German beaches. They are popular still to this day. They are a good windshelter. I think people usually place them in such a way that they can catch the sun. Mum and Auntie Ilse were always proud of their suntan.

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.

DIGITAL CAMERA — Gaby celebrating her 50th Birthday

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

Fuggerei

Whenever I think about the housing crisis and that so many people in this world have to live without adequate housing, I think of the Fuggerei in Augsburg. My father’s older brother used to live in Augsburg. In 1977 Peter and I visited this uncle and his wife. They showed us the Fuggerei which is still maintained to this day.

I just looked up the blog I published about it some time ago. Here it is:

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

Here I copy the comments it got to this post about the Fuggerei:

10 Responses to “The Fuggerei is the world’s oldest social housing complex still in use.”

catterelAugust 10, 2015 at 7:53 pm Edit #

Fascinating! I’ve always wanted to visit Augsburg properly (I changed trains a few times there but never got beyond the station) – maybe one day I’ll make it.

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- berlioz1935August 10, 2015 at 8:13 pm Edit #
  
  It is a great place. The main street has buildings reflecting the wealth of the former trading post.
  
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- auntyutaAugust 11, 2015 at 8:03 am Edit #
  
  We have some lovely memories of the place, Cat, spending the day with Uncle and Flora. Gee, this goes back to 1977!
  
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berlioz1935August 10, 2015 at 8:26 pm Edit #

I remember the day well. Flora, a Berliner speaking with the out of place accent, was a retired GP who did some work for the Army checking up new recruits. She was a no-nonsense person who liked to be in charge. In the restaurant, she was the queen.

She had ordered a huge platter laden with cheeses and cold cuts. We could not eat all and she ordered all the left-overs being packed up to take home.

The building in the main street seemed to be covered in gold and great churches could be seen. The Fuggers of the 16th century financed half of the known world.

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- auntyutaAugust 11, 2015 at 8:06 am Edit #
  
  It is quite impressive how rich the Fuggers were. Their housing project is a good example of what can be done for needy people.
  
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  - auntyutaAugust 11, 2015 at 8:21 am Edit #
    
    Yes, Flora was quite a character. Both she and Uncle were marvellous hosts to us. They walked with us showing us very interesting places around the city centre. After lunch back it was back to their luxurious apartment for coffee and yummy cakes.
    Uncle was overjoyed when he could hand us a minuscule grandfather clock to take home as a gift. We loved this little clock because it was given with so much joy and reminded us of that beautiful day we had spent in Augsburg. Alas, sadly in Australia it soon broke to pieces! 🙂
gerard oostermanAugust 11, 2015 at 11:27 am Edit #

Yes, the idea of ‘owning’ own place is fairly new. We had no idea of that concept before we came to Australia. We always rented in Holland and it was as secure as owning.
Social housing has a lot going for it. Just look at what the Fuggerei achieved and it is still going.
Something like that in Australia would now be a shopping mall or a McDonalds.

REPLY
- auntyutaAugust 11, 2015 at 3:31 pm Edit #
  
  This uncle Edmund and his wife lived in a patrician. very spacious apartment. And I am sure they did not own it but paid rent, which they presumably could very well afford. I assume each one would have had a very good pension. As Peter mentioned, Flora substituted her income by doing some casual medical work.
  Edmund as well as Flora were widowed when they decided to get married. Edmund seemed to be quite content to have resolute Flora for company in his old age.
  
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stuartbramhallAugust 12, 2015 at 9:32 am Edit #

Very interesting background. Excellent example of German determination to retain the commons. As I understand, resistance to enclosure was strongest in Germany. It was only under the Third Reich that customary rights were abolished in many regions. It’s good to see this institution survived the Nazi regime.

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- auntyutaAugust 12, 2015 at 4:02 pm Edit #
  
  Yes, it is quite amazing, Stuart, that the institution survived over such a long time. However it says In the Wikipedia that the Fuggerei was heavily damaged by the bombings of Augsburg during World War II, but has been rebuilt in its original style. I am glad that it was rebuilt in its original style! 🙂
  
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Berlin in 26 Days from the 4th to the 30th of June 2016

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I just noticed a blog about our first Sunday in Berlin in June 2016:

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/24843910/posts/11404

There is a video that was taken in the Volkspark am Weinberg.

I did write the following:

We had arrived on Saturday, the 4th of June. Ilse’s sons had come to Tegel-Airport to pick us up and drive us with all our luggage to our apartment in Rubensstrasse. It was so good to have the two cars waiting for us. Klaudia as well as Ilse and Finn had also come along and we took off on the Autobahn that took us from the airport to our apartment in just a few minutes! Once we were settled in our apartment, we were given huge amounts of food, especially Ilse and Finn had brought a lot of food along. So all of us stayed together for quite a while, talking about lots of things and having a nice meal.

Strangely enough we did not feel too tired to go out to the Brandenburg Gate after our Berlin family had left us. So it was the five of us from Australia, namely Martin, Caroline, Matthew, Peter and me, exploring Berlin on our own on our first day in Berlin after we had only just arrived after our very long trip all the way from Australia.

The following morning we went out for breakfast. Die “Wolke” was just around the corner. They were doing pretty good business on a Sunday morning. We noticed a constant stream of customers. So we had a good breakfast sitting down in the Wolke Cafe.

Steak tartare is a meat dish made from finely chopped or minced rawbeef

I seem not to have taken any pictures from that afternoon we spent near Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) and where we had gone to by public transport.
But on Sunday the five of us did – also by public transport – go to Alexander Platz and from there on the U-Bahn to Rosenthaler Platz to meet my niece Corinna and her son Carlos for lunch.

After lunch and coffee at the place that had been a cindema in the past, we were heading for Volkspark am Weinberg. where – as Corinna promised – there would be some dancing on display together with great swing music from the 1940s. Carlos had made his good-buys in the meantime. (After all, it is only a certain amount of time a fifteen year old is willing to spend with the ‘oldies’!)

Peter and I found the music quite electrifying. It reminded us of old times and the swing music that we used to like. During the 1950s, when we would often go dancing, swing was still quite popular.On that Sunday afternoon in the park inspired by the music Peter and I actually tried a little bit of dancing of our own. To our amusement, somebody videoed us while we were doing this! (See video at the beginning of page) We found this absolutely hilarious. Later on we watched for quite some time the dancing of the very young people. They seemed quite familiar with this type of dance music and danced very well indeed. A lot of these young people had dressed up in the 1940s style. There was even one young guy who had dressed in something that reminded us of the post WWII period when the young Americans of our occupation forces looked in their uniforms a bit like this guy did. Quite amazing!

The above is taken form my post from Jul 26, 2016 with this URL:

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/24843910/posts/11404

First thing when you go to this URL there is this video that was taken in the Volkspark am Weinberg. I think Matthew was the one who made this video of us and titled it “Adorable Dancing Couple”

Photos from June 2016, Berlin Memories

Quite a few years ago this place used to be a cinema. Now it is a cafe with lots of books for customers to read.

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DSCN0960 — Among people at Berlin Alexander Platz on the first Sunday in June 2016

DSCN0959 — Here is Peter with our son on the left, next to him our daughter, and the daughter’s partner on the right

Yes, this picture is taken by me, also at Alexander Platz. The five of us had arrived from Australia only the day before! After our first night at the apartment we all went to a nearby baker for breakfast. We talked the other day about what had been available there for breakfast. One very memorable thing were the bread rolls with fresh raw minced meat!

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I think we had an early breakfast at The WOLKE, WHICH WAS A BAKERY and also a coffee shop. Later on we went by S-Bahn from Bahnhof Friedenau to Alexander Platz. Did we have a Curry wurst at Alexander Platz? We definitely had something to eat and a drink. Then we went by U-Bahn to Rosenthaler Platz where we met my niece Corinna and her son Carlos. So, we went with them on a tour of the neighbourhood. This district, called Prenzlauer Berg, is popular with tourists. Actually, this is the district, where Corinna went with all of us to have coffee in that converted cinema. Before that we went with Corinna and Carlos for a Mexican lunch. Then after coffee we went to a park where there was music and dancing. By that time Carlos, who was already pretty grown up, 15 I think, excused himself and went off somewhere else, probably to spend time with his friends.

DSCN0962 — Here we came out of the underground.

Some pictures where we walked along.

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The above pictures are taken in the park where the music and the dancing was. Oops. I forgot the pictures from our Mexican lunch. Here they are:

DSCN0974 — Peter with Corinna and Carlos at the Mexican place where we had lunch.

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Uta’s Diary April/May 2017

The last few weeks passed very, very quickly! So that, really I do have a lot to catch up on as far as some writing is concerned.

I think I already started on writing about some of the things we did with my brother Peter Uwe and sister-in-law Astrid. While Peter and Astrid were here the days were filled to the brim. Now, five days have passed already since they left to fly back to Germany. And still I did not get much of a chance to write anything!

I just want to start with a picture I took the other day of our ‘tray of happiness’. It is really Peter’s ‘tray of happiness’ for I do not think I depend on it for happiness. If I remember correctly, Matthew used to give Peter’s tray with all the different jams on it the above name. This name shows indeed how important for Peter is this tray. There need to be five different jars of jam on it. If only four jars are left. it is time to go shopping for another jar. It is very, very important for Peter that at all times there is an adequate selection of jams on that tray!

DSCN2806 — Only four jars of jam left? Well, it must be time to buy a bit more jam!

To the left of the tray is Peter’s mug that he likes to drink his water from. He needs to drink at least two litres of water every day. So every morning a big two litre glass jug is filled with water. That means Peter’s mug to drink out of has to be refilled on a regular basis. The large blue cup on the right side in the picture is Peter’s coffee cup for breakfast.

For old people that we are, it is good to have a daily routine. The difficulty only is that my routine overall is often slightly different from Peter’s. For instance instead of buttered toast with four or five different jams, I prefer to have a cooked breakfast. A good breakfast for me is vegetables and an egg sauted in some butter and served with some green salad leaves. But I usually have for breakfast the same sort of coffee that Peter has. I do not always manage to do some cooking for breakfast. Then I might just have a slice of buttered toast with vegemite and maybe some yoghurt.

In conversation with family we often mention Peter’s ‘tray of happiness’. I think this is why I just did find it easy to write about it. I actually enjoy writing best when I can do it in a conversational way.

The last few weeks were filled with German talk in our house, for Astrid has a very limited knowledge of English. Peter Uwe understands written and spoken English somewhat better and can say something in English if he has to. However he prefers to say everything in German. When I talked to Peter Uwe and Astrid I tried to speak strictly German without any English words added to it. This was at times rather difficult. Sometimes I was lost for the exactly right German word. When I asked Peter to help me out, he often could not find the right German word straight away either!

Yesterday afternoon I joined four other ladies for our Friday games which I had missed while our visitors were around. One of the ladies asked me, whether our German visitors had liked it here in Australia. And I said, that they had enjoyed their stay in Australia very much, and that we had done a real lot of things with them. And we had very much loved to have them here.

Yes, it was a terrific time with them here. When we have visitors from overseas they are always astonished how beautiful the area is we live in. For us it is marvellous too, when we can go to all the different places that we did get to know and love over many years.

Some bloggers that looked at some of my previous posts might remember perhaps a bit about the Illawarra area and beyond. To mention all the interesting places makes really a long list. Even though we could take our visitors to a lot of places, there was in the end not enough time to take them to the Blue Mountains, or to Berry on the South Coast. Also a trip to Canberra or Melbourne could not be fitted in. Peter Uwe had Queensland in good memory from a previous stay in Australia some eighteen years ago. Astrid had never been to Australia. Peter Uwe and Astrid decided to book a one week holiday up in Cairns, Queensland. They did fly to Cairns and stayed in a hotel there. They were lucky with the weather. It was good for swimming and snorkeling.

They also loved our solar heated swimming pool in Dapto and went there twice in a row. They were also happy to meet our extended family several times.

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