Peter arranged for a HOUSEHOLD CLEAN-UP SERVICE by Wollongong Council for Friday, 15th of January 2016. All items for disposal have to be out at the kerbsite by 6 am that day, but not more than 24 hours before. All recyclable items (like TVs, computers and mattresses) to be placed in a separate pile.
There are ten units (villas) in our complex. We had not asked for a clean-up service for quite some time. I expect, a lot of things are going to be thrown out. In our house more and more stuff is being piled up to go out for the clean-up day which is now only one week away.
Here is a quote from the blog of Mushy Cloud with the heading LET THE LIGHT IN:
“Have you ever wondered about the phrase “having an epiphany”? It’s usually where we experience sudden clarity or insight into something we have perhaps been struggling with. Another way to look at it is that light is thrown onto a difficult issue or situation. The magi, or wise men, found the same when they arrived in Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth.”
End of Christmas: Twelfth Night, Eve of Epiphany and taking down your tree
“‘ ‘ ‘ Today is that 12th day, Jan. 5. It’s been a tradition since Victorian England to celebrate the end of Christmas on Twelfth Night, taking down the evergreens of Christmas season and lighting a bonfire. . . . . . ‘
Early in the morning of December 24th our son Martin had arrived in Moss Vale by train from Melbourne. His connecting railway coach to take him down MacQuarie Pass had not waited because his train was one hour late in Moss Vale. However there was another railway bus a bit later which went through several highland towns to pick up passengers to Albion Park Rail, Dapto and Wollongong. So Martin arrived in Dapto a bit later than expected. It was good to have Martin here for breakfast. A bit later Caroline and Matthew arrived from Sydney to spend the Christmas days with us.
On Christmas Eve we had also all our local family at our place for our Christmas Eve celebrations. I think we were 16 people in all, our two little darling great-grandsons included. Martin, Caroline and Matthew were with us at our house till Monday, the 28th of December. Martin, Peter and I left early on that Monday morning to travel in our car to Martin’s place in Essendon (Melbourne). Martin and Peter could take turns in driving the car. That meant we had some smooth travelling. After having had Christmas Day on Friday, and after that Saturday and Sunday, the Monday when we left for Melbourne was actually a public holiday, the so called ‘Boxing Day’.
Here I mentioned our stop at YACKANDANDAH on our way to Melbourne:
This is the place where grandson Ryan and Ebony stopped with their children on the same day on their way to Adelaide. We knew that they would stop there, but we were not sure what time they would be there. So we did not see them. However Peter received pictures of them on Facebook later on. During their whole trip to Adelaide Ebony sent some lovely pictures of the boys. These pictures told us, that the little ones were enjoying the trip very much.
While we stayed with Martin in Essendon for the last few days of the year, Caroline and Matthew stayed at our house in Dapto. On New Year’s Eve we had a very good dinner at an Indian restaurant near where Martin lives.
Martin, Uta and Peter at an Indian Restaurant on New Year’s Eve 2015,
On Wednesdy, 30th of December, we had visited grandson Tristan and Stephanie and their daughters Kia and Jakie:
This visit was last year’s highlight! We also did get to know Stephanie’s brother on that day.
We had planned on resting on Friday, which was New Year’s Day. We thought if we started driving back on Saturday, we would be arriving back home on Sunday. But before year’s end we had decided changed our mind about leaving on Saturday. We wanted to leave instead already on Friday. We were planning on staying overnight somewhere on the way home.
After Martin had made us again a lovely breakfast and helped us to pack our things in the car, we departed already Friday morning. I must say, it had been great to stay with Martin for a few days. He always looks after us beautifully. We very much like visiting him. But we knew, he had to go back to work soon. So it was just as well that he had a bit of time without his parents before going back to work.
We had packed a powerful drink for our trip with some caffeine in it. Martin had also packed us some hot coffee in a thermos. Peter was the sole driver since I do not have a driver’s license any more. Soon Peter’s homing instinct took over. He did not get tired during the whole trip back home. He decided we did not need to stay overnight somewhere. He wanted to drive straight back home instead. So it happened we arrived home already Friday night and Caroline and Matthew were still at our place. Matthew stood outside when we arrived. He was quite a sight in his comfortable sarong from Bali. They had prepared dinner Both Caroline and Matthew were very happy to see us. There was lots to talk about. It looks they are planning to help us quite a bit in the New Year. More about this later.
Our Christmas Tree has not been packed away yet. We usually leave it up till the 6th of January. I always think of the song: Twelve days of Christmas! I found today Pam’s blog about the Epiphany:
” . . . . . For western Christians, Christmas carries on until Epiphany, which is when we remember the arrival of the magi at the nativity. . . . . .”
I also spent some time with what Gerard Oosterman had written He is about to publish all his writing in a book and is looking for a title. So far his decision is to call the book: Vignettes. I tried to find out a bit more about it by googling the word ‘vignette’.
Autobiography and Truth
“All autobiographies are lies. I do not mean unconscious, unintentional lies; I mean deliberate lies. No man is bad enough to tell the truth about himself during his lifetime, involving, as it must, the truth about his family and friends and colleagues. And no man is good enough to tell the truth in a document which he suppresses until there is nobody left alive to contradict him.”
(George Bernard Shaw, Sixteen Self Sketches, 1898)
We often find vignettes in creative writing, as it provides description to achieve an artistic effect. However, we also see its usage in prose and poetry. Writers use this device to explore a character, and describe the setting of a scene, etc. Vignettes give deeper understanding of texts, as writers densely pack them with imagery and symbolism. Besides, it increases writers’ language proficiency, as they use their language to its fullest by employing imagery to get a certain color and mood. Hence, the nature of vignettes is evocative and put an impact on the senses of readers
december 20 our place We had arrived at our son’s place o
Our two Great-Granddaughters with their Mum, Stephanie.A big bubble is being produced by Kia.Our son Martin with his two granddaughters.The horses are being fed green apples.The girls with their granddad and great-granddad.
Jaki looks on as her Dad cuts up some meat for dinner.Tristan with Grandmother Uta.
Yesterday morning Peter and Martin went on a fast walk along the Maribyrnong River. I stayed behind in a beautiful park area near the river and took some pictures. It was still early morning, but a lot of walkers and runners were already on their way. I had my toe-shoes on and walked mainly on the grass.
Peter and Martin are coming back from their 40 min walk.
On Monday, the 28th of December, we left Dapto with Martin to drive to Melbourne. We stopped at Yackandandah, where we had lunch in a cafe. I had a vegetarian pastie and enjoyed it very much.
This is where we parked our car.We had some refreshing beer after lunch.
What a beautiful bike! On three wheels, that’s the way to go.
Yackandandah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yackandandah
Victoria
YackandandahMainStreet.JPG
High Street, recorded on the Register of the National Estate
Yackandandah is located in Shire of Indigo YackandandahYackandandah
Coordinates 36°18′47″S 146°50′21″ECoordinates: 36°18′47″S 146°50′21″E
Population 663 (2006 census)[1]
Postcode(s) 3749
Location
313 km (194 mi) NE of Melbourne
28 km (17 mi) S of Wodonga
22 km (14 mi) E of Beechworth
LGA(s) Shire of Indigo
Yackandandah /ˈjækəndændə/ is a small tourist town in northeast Victoria, Australia. It is near the regional cities of Wodonga and Albury, and is close to the tourist town of Beechworth. At the 2006 census, Yackandandah had a population of 663.
Here is a bit more from Wikipedia:
History
“It is a former gold mining centre known for its alluvial wet mining techniques. Yackandandah Post Office opened on 13 June 1856. Another office nearby, Yackandandah Junction, opened in 1872 but closed in 1885.[2]
In his local book, O’Brien (p. 22) quotes an old poem published in the Melbourne Punch, 11 June 1857, titled, “The Lass of Yackandandah”.
“
“Let poets sing of English girls,
Their beauty and their candour;
Give me a sweeter nymph than all, –
The lass of Yackandandah.”
“She draws a cork with such an air,
No mortal can withstand her;
She turns a tap, and turns our heads, –
The lass of Yackandandah.”
”
— O’Brien, The Lass of Yackandandah – a goldfield beauty
Today
The area is now predominantly a dairy farming and forestry region, and has numerous bed and breakfast lodges which allow its many visitors to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the district’s forest and mountains.
The town is affectionately known as “Yack”, though in more recent times it has increasingly been referred to as “the ‘dandah” by its younger residents.
The commercial centre of the town, known as the Yackandandah Conservation Area, is recorded on the Register of the National Estate.
For the last couple of days it has been raining in Wollongong, and it has been raining in Dapto too. So it is still raining now.
We had a nice lunch on Monday anyway. Peter chose New York Filet steak:
This is the entrance to the place where we had our lunch on the 21st of Decmber 2015.
We had caught the bus to go to Wollongong. Luckily we had taken an umbrella along for it rained all day non-stop. Peter had an appointment at the Hearing Clinic. Before the appointment we had time for a cup of coffee:
We found these Art Light Boxes quite interesting.
Father Christmas in the Window of a Shop
Two weeks ago Peter had had another appointment at the Hearing Clinic in Wollongong. On that day I took a few pictures in the Mall that I did not publish yet. School-classes had been colouring in posters of a Christmas Tree. These posters were exhibited in the Mall.
Yesterday, When the temperature in Dapto reached close to 35 Degrees (Celsius) Peter suggested we could escape to Kiama for some ice-cream. Well, in Kiama they catch fish, don’t they? And at Kiama Harbour is a fish-cafe where one ought to be able to get fantastically fresh fish. We set off before lunch to try our luck for getting some yummy, fresh fish.
The climate in Kiama was much to our liking. Our car told us, the outside temperature was ‘only’ 30 Degrees. When we got out of the car, there was a lovely sea-breeze. This was just perfect weather for a summer holiday. Lots of tourists and visitors were around in Kiama. When we cued up at the fish-cafe we noticed quite a few Asian tourists. Peter says, they did not hesitate to spend 70 Dollars on a basket of fish and chips! But you could of course also get smaller portions. Ours was only thirteen Dollars.
Peter fed the rest of my fish to the seagulls. Here they’ve had already their fill.
Kiama Harbour was just beautiful on a day like this. We spent about an hour there. By one o’clock we were back in Kiama’s main street and were looking for a parking spot. Peter found some parking near the police station and got out of the car to take some pictures of the surrounding buildings. I took some picture from inside the parked car:
Then Peter found another parking spot closer to the shops. It was close to some shops, but the ice-cream shop was still quite some distance away. Where we had parked, we could smell some coffee. And there was a nice sitting area under umbrellas outside. We noticed a display of yummy cakes. So we sat down outside and a friendly girl came to take our orders. Apart from flat white coffee and cake we also asked for some water, which arrived in a beautiful blue bottle.
This is our car.
We ended up driving home without having had any ice-cream. Well, we can go back to Kiama some other day for that yummy ice-cream in Kiama. I am sure the great Australian Ice-Creamery is still going to be there when we go there next time.
I took this picture well before Mass started on that Sunday.
Third Sunday of Advent 2015
I took some more pictures on that Sunday on the way home from church:
The other day we bought some Bratwurst. I had cooked some red cabbage. So we had the Bratwurst with red cabbage and some boiled potatoes. This makes a good meal. It is a German meal I do not mind having from time to time. Even in our summer this meal is rather welcome. We also had some German beer with it. I love the beer that has malt and hops in it and is devoid of chemicals!
Peter loves to eat raw slices of Kohlrabi. The other day we bought one Kohlrabi, which was quite large and, if I remember right, cost just three Dollars. Cut into very thin slices it tasted delicious.
AuntyUta 