Category: Old Age

Dust Storm

http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/dust-storm-hits-sydney-nsw-government-issues-air-quality-warning/528801

Dust storm hits Sydney, NSW Government issues air quality warning

Friday, 23rd of November 2018

During the last few days we in the Illawarra have been hit somewhat too by this dust storm . However, today there does not seem to be any more dust in the air, even though we have extremely windy conditions. The elderly and people with breathing problems have been warned to stay indoors, avoid exercising and drink a lot of fluids.

Peter went out this morning for a little while. He says the air felt like freezing even though the thermometer showed a temperature of 15C.  The forecast is that the wind should ease after midday.

 

Nearly one Week away from Home (in November 2018)

We have just come back from a great few days away from home. I found our trip was very relaxing, and we did quite a few things that are worth remembering. It is always good to be able to go away for a little while. This creates memories.

Both Peter and I are in our eighties. That we still enjoy doing a bit of travelling, I find remarkable. Peter is battling to maintain some normality to his life while old age and sickness diminish his fitness. The one thing he is still pretty good at, is driving a car. He says driving a car on good roads for certain distances he finds relaxing. Our old Audi goes well on highways. In towns where there are a lot of traffic lights, Peter has to stop the car too often. This is when the car uses a lot of petrol pro km. However on freeways and highways the car uses much, much less petrol, and this makes Peter very happy and joyful to not have to stop all the time. However, Peter being 83 and having a few health issues that can make him feel perhaps too tired after a longer drive, he agreed not to drive the 650 km to Benalla in one day, but rather to stay overnight somewhere, that is  at about the halfway point. This time we came up with the idea to stop at Gundagai for our overnight stays. This worked  out very well. I wrote here that we stayed at the “Gundagai Motel”:

https://auntielive.wordpress.com/

http://gundagaimotel.com.au/

After our one night’s stay at Gundagai we stayed at our son’s place at Benalla for three nights. And on the way back we stayed again for one night at Gundagai. This means we left home on a Friday morning and arrived back home on a Wednesday afternoon. So this makes it close to one week! I reckon we did very well, considering our age and Peter’s health problems. And of course I too have sometimes a few minor health problems related to old age!

Peter is booked in for some more treatment in the hospital. We hope the result of these treatments is going to be as good as possible so that perhaps in future we are still going to be able to do similar beautiful trips!

A ‘short’ Diary Entry

Today is Sunday, the 4th of November 2018

Last Sunday Peter and I went to a wedding. I wrote about it here:

https://auntielive.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/some-more-wedding-pictures/

and here as well:

https://auntielive.wordpress.com/2018/11/03/279/asplendidwedding/

My brother Peter Uwe turned 77 exactly one week ago. I would very much like to talk to him tonight on skype. I hope that this is going to be possible.

We have just been watching another German movie:

“Vater  braucht eine Frau”

https://www.moviepilot.de/movies/vater-braucht-eine-frau/casts

Regie Matthias Tiefenbacher Regisseur/in
Drehbuch Christoph Mattner Drehbuchautor/in
Peter Studhalter Drehbuchautor/in

Cast & Besetzung

August ZirnerPeter Beilhorn

Peter Lohmeyer Dr. Frank Neu
Georg Hans Benny Neu
Ursula Karven Steffi Bungert
Sonsee Neu Verena Plank
Nadine Fano Saskia Neu
Maximilian Köster Thomas Neu
Benjamin Seidel Felix Neu
Jonas Laux Saskias Opernbekanntschaft

It was about a father who’s children wanted him to find a mother for them because their mother had died some years ago when the youngest child was three. The children are now between six and fourteen. The fourteen year old is a girl, the others are boys. The father, Frank Neu,  is a lawyer within a successful law-firm. His partner, Peter, also a lawyer, is very concerned about this lone father with four motherless children. The family lives in a beautiful home. The housekeeper they employ does not stay for very long. She probably thinks the children are too much of a handful. Apparently several housekeepers have left in the past.

It turns out that a very qualified young woman with degrees in child education and a very efficient housekeeper and lover of children is looking for a job. Her name is Verena. The children love her straight away. Peter and I, we both guessed that she would end up becoming  the mother of these four children. But the father in the meantime has befriended a divorced photographer. Her name is Stephanie. When she meets up with her ex-husband, apparently to celebrate something, Frank falsely assumes that this man is her lover. Frank is devastated. It shows that he has had developed quite a lot of feelings for Steffi.

In the meantime we find out that Verena and Peter get on well with each other. It looks like Peter has a lot to do with bringing Steffi and Frank together again. Fourteen year old Saskia understands towards the end, that it is Steffi who may become her mother and not Verena. But come to think of it, Verena may be around the family anyway, even if she goes into a relationship with Frank’s friend and partner Peter. Steffi, with her profession as a photographer is bound to travel a lot on assignments. So it is going to be good for the children to have Verena around when needed. They can all be good friends, right?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326349/

I thought this would be just a ‘short’ diary entry. I kept thinking about it how a bunch of kids do need a good home environment and how this can be given to them if for instance the mother dies. Well, I did find it interesting what sort of solutions opened up in the story of this movie. So this diary entry show a bit what sort of reflections I find can come up in a movie like this one. To me a movie like this is light entertainment and in parts pretty funny. And as I said a movie like this one makes me think a lot about the various different relationships that are possible and might also be in the interest of children who happen to be half orphans

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 12th of August 2018

The soft boiled eggs that Peter cooked for breakfast were perfect. I ate my warmed up crispy bread-roll with the egg, I also had some fresh strawberries with strawberry jam on one half of the bread-roll. And I took all my vitamins. We both also had a great cup of coffee for our breakfast.

At nine o’clock we started watching the Insiders’ program on ABC TV. The politics that were discussed upset me a great deal. I mean I should be used to this sort of political talk  by now where everything gets blamed on labor. But somehow it got to me today more than usual. I just could not keep my cool. Maybe I should stop watching these interviews where no question gets answered properly and were outrages lies are repeated ad  nauseam. Soon Peter handed me a bit of brandy to calm my upset stomach. This bit of brandy that I sipped very slowly, actually made me feel a whole lot better.

Later on for  brunch we had baked camenbert cheese with some bread and a glass of red wine. We also had a bit of vanilla ice-cream with apple sauce. Luckily my stomach had settled sufficiently, and I could enjoy this excellent meal. I enjoyed it very much indeed!

I could not insert a picture in this post, but I try now to insert some pictures here:

https://auntielive.wordpress.com/

 

Filling out an Application Form to apply for a Cataract Operation

In that application form I was asked when was the last time I had an operation. I could remember that I had a Carpel Tunnel Relief operation and that it was probably in November some years ago. But I could not remember which year it was. I remembered though that the day after the operation we had had a break-in and that I had written something about it in one of my blogs. So I searched for the blog and voila, I found it here:

https://auntyuta.com/2013/11/25/after-the-op/

Thursday, 21st November 2013, was the day after my operation. We were out for ninety minutes. When we arrived back home we soon noticed that our place had been burgled. . . . . .

In my blog from the 25th of November 2013 I did not write about a lot of details regarding the burglary. However, I found in the some of the comment sections a bit more about what had happened, and  I copy it  here:

  2. It happened to us before, Gerard. The last burglary we had was in 1994. We had become rather confident that we couldn’t possibly have another burglary. So after nineteen years it happened again. What a shock to come home after a quick lunch and find the place burgled. It was lucky that Caroline and Matthew were with us at the time. We had had lunch at a beautiful place in Wollongong.. Matthew had driven us home from Wollongong as fast as possible for I was in need of some rest after the operation the previous evening. Caroline was the first to enter the house. Everything looked all right at first. Only gradually did we find out that there must have been some intruders in the house. Then Caroline looked around a bit more and discovered the broken in bathroom-window!

    During the following hours Caroline handled a lot of phone-calls for us, namely to the police and the insurance who all asked for a lot of details. In the meantime Matthew had gone with one of our neighbours to the back of our house looking in the parkland reserve whether they could still see any culprits around. On a bench they found a screw-driver, and then they noticed close by in the bush some of the contents of my handbag. They retrieved my wallet with all my cards in it! But of course all the cash had gone.

    Gee, was I glad when they handed me all the personal things out of my handbag! 🙂
    It was such a relief that I didn’t have to renew all my cards! 🙂

    Reply

  3. What a lousy act to have happened Auntyuta, at least you got some personal stuff back, but it still makes you feel sick to think someone has violated your home.
    You look in great shape even with that arm wrapped up Auntyuta.
    Cheers
    Emu

    Reply

    1. Yes, dear Emu, that I got my personal stuff back was a real blessing. The surprising thing was the intruders left no mess behind. They just took a few things and escaped the way they had come in, namely through the bathroom window. Luckily they did not bother to take our laptops along. The cash that Peter left behind in a drawer in the living-room had gone. But we did not notice immediately. It was not apparent, that the drawer had been opened. I had a fairly new handbag (goat-leather). I did not get this back, only my purse/wallet (minus all my cash) and the personal papers and cards out of my hand {shoulder} -bag, well, luckily all this stuff was found in some bushes in the park behind our property.
      We haven’t heard from our insurance yet what they are going to do.
      But our daughter saw to it that we handed in all our claims.
      Cheers, Auntyuta

      . . . . .

      When I found the above blog I was astounded to find nearly five years had elapsed since all this happened. I remember Caroline and Matthew had been staying with us overnight. After lunch in Wollongong they had planned on going back to their place in Sydney. Their things were already packed and waiting near the entrance door. Some things of Caroline and Matthew had been taken out of their bags. Caroline noticed some moisture in her bag. She asked herself, whatever could that mean? Later on we had the idea to get our bottle of vodka out of the freezer. It was not there any more! Gone. So maybe the moisture in Caroline’s bag had come from the bottle of vodka that the burglars had taken out of the freezer. We all agreed that this was the only explanation.

      In due time the police and someone from the insurance came around. They looked at the broken in window, and we mentioned the screwdriver that was found on the park bench. The police woman explained that the screwdriver could not be counted as evidence even though my discarded purse was found nearby. Anyway, the police were very friendly. Also, the insurance were very good in handling everything. They assessed the value of all the stolen goods and gave us reimbursement in the form of money.

      Postscript: My eyesight is not very good at the moment. I’ll send off my application form to Shellharbour Hospital tomorrow. This means they may put me on a waiting list, and in about 12 months I’ll get my operation on my right eye. My left eye is totally blind from a macular hole that was so bad 18 years ago that the operation at a hospital  in Sydney was without success. Ever since I am somewhat scared that something might happen to my good eye too. But if the cataract in my good eye gets worse and worse, that does not help, does it? So I better apply for an operation. . . . .

“Our Souls at Night”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Souls_at_Night_(film)

We watched this movie yesterday. Peter and I, we both thought it was a good one.  I read the plot in Wikipedia and it says beautifully in a condensed way everything about the theme of the movie.  I copy here the plot the way I found it in Wikipedia:

“Louis Waters is a widower. One evening he is visited by Addie, a widow who lives next door. She invites him to sometimes sleep over – platonically – talking in bed to combat loneliness. They try it out, and like it. The community finds out, but assume it’s a sexual relationship. After Louis’ coffee shop friends make a joke, Louis walks out mad. Addie’s friend Ruth asks her a few questions. To stop the gossip, the two have Sunday lunch together at a restaurant.

Addie’s son Gene dumps his seven year old child Jamie with her. Louis helps her care for him, sets up his train set and gets Jamie a dog. The boy even sleeps with the elderly couple in a real family setting. After Gene learns of the relationship, he takes Jamie back even though his wife has left him. Louis and Addie go on a trip and get around to having sex.

Addie falls down and ends up in the hospital. Her son wants her to move in with him and Jamie. She decides that family must come first and the couple spend their last night together. Both she and Louis are back to sleeping alone. So Louis sends her the train set and a cell-phone. After getting into bed, she calls him and they start talking as old friends. And the movie ends.”

Cast

. . . . .

“The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2017.[6] It was released on September 29, 2017 on Netflix streaming. ”

Personally I do like movies that deal with relationships among people, be it romantic relationships or family relationships or important friendships. There is some of all of this in this slow moving movie.

I guess there are all sorts of ways to combat loneliness in old age. It seems to me we are bound to feel lonely without some significant personal contacts. 

 

Diary

How can I go back to my website the way it has been for seven years? Maybe it was stupid of me to create a second website just so that I could publish a few photos again. My premium site, which is my original site, had reached its limit as far as publishing pictures was concerned, and without reverting to a business site and paying more, I would not be allowed to publish any more photos for another year. To create a second site, where I could publish photos, was a rather easy thing to do. However now both sites ended up with some new setting which I dislike very much. Changing the settings is just too complicated for me,  since I am not computer savvy enough to accomplish anything like this. I tried, and tired, and tried to find my way through it. It just is something I do not understand, not at all.  Peter cannot help me with it either. So maybe when my daughter Monika comes to see us she may have an idea how to go about creating some acceptable settings for both my websites.

ABC Roundtable Debates Melania Trump’s “I DON’T CARE, DO U?” Jacket: What Did She Mean?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/abc_roundtable_debates_melania_trumps_i_dont_care_do_u_jacket.html

Ihis is what the president writes  in Twitter:

“I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” written on the back of Melania’s jacket, refers to the Fake News Media. Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!

I say good on her if she truly no longer cares what the Fake News Media writes. The question should be whether she cares about the children!

I think about this all the time. Do we for instance truly care about the children on Manus Island and Nauru? If we all wore jackets with some writing on the back: “We really care about the children on Manus Island and Nauru” – That would be utterly false, wouldn’t it? So what should we write on our jackets? Just ” WE REALLY DONT CARE” or what?

Melania Trump, CNN and other members of the media were at a facility with children aged 12-17.

Last Sunday of June 2018

We are in the midst of winter. We find the days and nights very cold at this time of the year. Apart from the winter cold we had a lot of changes in the weather during the past few weeks: A lot of rain, followed by a lot of wind, then off and on more rain. Hardly any sun, or when there was a bit of sun there was also a lot of wind. For quite a few days I had been suffering from a bad cold.

Today, on this last Sunday of the month, we finally have a lot of sun with not much wind. In the shade it is only 17C. However, it means, this is a beautiful winter day and a wonderful day to go out into the sun a bit. I suggested we drive to Kiama for an early fish and chips lunch at the harbour. Peter too likes the perch that is being sold at the fish and chips shop at Kiama Harbour. From experience we know it is good to arrive there early before the big midday rush. We managed to arrive in Kiama at 11,20 and did not have to wait long to be served our fish and chips.

On the way back home we stopped in Dapto at the Pie Shop and  got an apple pie to eat at home later this afternoon. And when we arrived home just now we indulged in some desert: Vanilla ice-cream with loganberries and some whipped cream. Delicious!