Third Sunday of Advent 2015

This morning Peter and I watched a few of the German Christmas songs on the above video. There are subtitles to all the songs which makes it easy to sing along with the different choirs. After each song is a break. This makes it easy to stop the video and continue watching some of the songs at some other time. Most of the songs we listened to were quite familiar to us except some of the texts we had to relearn. We very much appreciated that we could read the text to all the songs while the video was playing!

Yesterday, on Saturday, we had this year’s Christmas lunch of our complex.

Barbara was our hostess again. She set out cups for tea and coffee making. We could also help ourselves to cold drinking water.

Marion arrived with a lovely big plate.

Peter took this picture of the whole group, only Veronika is missing.

Veronika arrived a bit late and also had to leave early.

I am in the back of the picture with Aileen, Marion B, Irene and Carolin.

There was lots of food for lunch: People had brought different meats, cheeses, and salads, beautifully arranged on platters. (I should really have taken some more pictures!) We all brought our own drinks. As I said, Barbara provided coffee and tea making facilities. She had also set up a long table with chairs in her garage the same as last year. Marion B helped Barbara with the decorations for the Christmas party. This Christmas get-together was a great success again!

The above is the rest of a tree-trunk-cake (Baumkuchen) cut up into little pieces. There was also cheesecake, ice-cream, custard, and yoghurt as well as fruit-salad for desert.

This year Peter was the only man in our group of residents and past residents. (Stan and Jenny I think were busy with their grandchildren, and Jon and Joan had tickets for a function on that day and did not want to waste these tickets.) Peter did fit in well with all of us ladies. We had plenty to talk about and stayed together for some three hours. All of us had a lovely time.

Update on Bulli Beach

In October 2010 Peter and I stayed in a cabin at Bulli Beach. I posted about it in 2012. Having been for an outing to Bulli Beach just recently I thought the pictures from 2010 make for interesting comparisons. Actually, our most recent visit, just for the day, was on Sunday, the 6th of December 2015.

I am going to republish now a few pictures from our stay at Bulli Beach in October 2010.

This cabin was opposite ours.

Early morning view from our kitchen window.

Ready for a walk to the beach.

This is the little cabin we were staying in.

Our kitchen

And this is where we sleep!

This flag indicates, if you go for a swim lifesavers are going to keep an eye on you.

Workers get the pool ready for the summer season.

The next day I consider to go for a swim in the pool.

Gee, the water is still a little bit cold.

Peter decides to stay out of the water.

Let’s go to this place where we can get some refreshments.

A beautiful sunny day.

And who is this?

Peter took a picture of me.

And then someone came along asking would we like to have our picture taken together?

We stopped for coffee on the way back home.

What follows is a reblog that I wanted to cancel, but did not know how I could cancel it. The following text does not make much sense because it is something that I had written quite a few years ago.

AuntyUta

Bulli Beach

We live south of Wollongong and Bulli Beach is north of Wollongong. From where we live to Bulli Beach is a fifteen minutes drive by car. So why did we book into a cabin at Bulli Beach when we can drive there from where we live any day really? The answer is simple. We need at least thirty minutes to go to this particular beach and back home again. Would we do this every day? No way. Most people don’t go to the beach regularly even if they live within walking distance. It is really quite different if you rent accommodation right next to the beach.

We had been staying at lots of other beaches before in different parts of Australia. Last year I had booked into hospital for a day-only procedure (biopsies on tongue). I had to leave the admission forms at Bulli Hospital. On that same…

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Unreasonable Fear?

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/we-need-to-harden-up-unreasonable-fear-of-terrorism-serves-the-enemy-20151207-glhkt0.html

“Unreasoning fear and political panic only serve our enemy.” This is what Peter Hartcher points out in this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Peter Hartcher is international editor. (of the SMH)

I believe Peter Hartcher’s article is well worth reading. I hope the URL link works for you.

. . . . .

Recently I mentioned in one of my posts how in the past little children were made scared of the “Weihnachtsmann” (Santa) so as to make them “good little boys and girls”.

I ask myself, are we in the Western societies all like “little children” that we can be frightened that much by our politicians? Why do they not frighten us to do any travelling? After all accidents do happen, don’t they? How many people get killed or injured in traffic accidents every year?

Why are women not warned to get into a relationship with a man? After all possessive men may do terrible things. How many women get killed or injured by their partners every year?

Why are we hesitant to let our children walk to school and home by themselves? They could get molested or kidnapped! Well, to how many children does this actually happen every year? Do we teach them not to be too trustful of strangers? What about the internet? Do we have control over how they use the internet?

What is your opinion on all of this?

A perfect Day at Bulli Beach, 6th of December 2015

We had lunch at the Bulli Beach Cafe. The sugary flowers were to be eaten later on. But after lunch we went to the beach first.

Peter waits for the coffee. — Peter waits for the
coffee.

The coffee has arrived and we can eat the cup cakes.

Matthew reckons the glove compartment is a good spot for taking some cakes home.

Caroline and Matthew are about to go back to Sydney.

Scanning old Christmas Photos

Some Diary notes:
As usual I am running out of time on the computer. Just now I have been scanning some old photos. I’ll try to insert them before I get ready for our day at Bulli Beach.

First here is a picture from around 1900 that shows a “WEIHNACHTSMARKT” in Berlin. I came across this picture only yesterday and I think it has historical value.

Yesterday, on the 5th of December, was Monika’s birthday. Here is a picture of Monika that was taken on the 5th of December 1959:

I had to put the top half of this post in draft. We did go to Bulli Beach Cafe for lunch. All in all we spent more then three hours at the cafe and at the beach. Everyone had a good time. The weather was perfect for a day at the beach. Today’s pictures I am going to publish some other time. Today I want to conclude this post with more of the scanned Christmas pictures from years past.

Here I am with Monika at Fairy Meadow Beach.

The following pictures are also taken at Fairy Meadow Beach on Christmas Day 1959. It was our first Christmas in Australia.

Ura with Gaby. Also a friend of the children. three year old Birgit.

Christmas 1962 Martin and Monika with five year old Gaby , who is in Prince Henry Hospital — Christmas 1962
Martin and Monika with five year old Gaby , who is in Prince Henry Hospital

The following picture was taken on Christmas Eve 1978. Caroline was only a few weeks old.

Peter and Caroline Christmas 1979 — Peter and Caroline
Christmas 1979

Christmas 1981 Caroline is three — Christmas 1981
Here we have for the first time an artificial Christmas Tree!

Troy, Ryan and Caroline Christmas Eve 1981 — Troy, Ryan and Caroline
Christmas Eve 1981

Uta’s Diary, Beginning of December 2015

Just now I am thinking back to Christmas 1962. On the 18th of December we went by train to Sydney to visit our daughter Gaby in Prince Henry Hospital. When we left in the morning it must have been pretty cold for we were wearing thick winter coats.

Five year old Gaby was in the hospital’s respiratory ward. By the time we arrived she was already propped up in a wheelchair and waiting for us in the enclosed verandah so that her four year old sister and 2 and a half year old brother were allowed to see her. (Naturally very young children would not have been allowed to enter the respiratory ward, where visitors had to enter with a mask and wearing a white gown.) The verandah was decorated for Christmas as shown in the above picture. It was quite warm there, so we soon took off our winter coats.

My goodness, this was fifty-three years ago! How time flies – – – Last Tuesday, the first of December, was our official start of summer and the temperature at our place was 35C, which we thought was what an Australian summer should be like. But the following day, on Wednesday, it was only between 18 and 22C. Did we have changes like that in the middle of summer some sixty years ago? I can remember some very hot Christmases, but also some fairly cool ones. So we have to be prepared for either close to 20C or close to 40C. On Christmas Day we always love to go to the beach or somewhere in the country. I never like the idea of cooking a hot Christmas dinner on Christmas Day, and I think we never did this, but some people do this, even on a very hot day in Australia. But then, sometimes to cook a Christmas dinner might be all right if they are lucky and it doesn’t get too hot on Christmad Day.

Here is something else I do remember: Travelling to Australia as migrants from Germany on the big ocean liner STRATHAIRD in 1959, we had the opportunity to go to some English lessons on board the ship. The teacher told us a bit about the climate in Australia. She said Melbourne was a city that was known for great variations in temperature. The standard saying was, that Melbourne could have four seasons in one day! She also said that rich people liked to stay in Queensland during the winter months which were always pleasantly warm there, whereas the summer months they preferred to stay in Tasmania. She said Tasmania was too cold in winter but in summer it was a beautiful place. Strange that I should still remember this introduction to Australian weather conditions.

Childhood Memories about Advent

At this time of the year memories keep coming back about how we celebrated the Advents Sundays during the late 1930s and early 1940s. During those years we always had an ‘Adventskranz’ with four, thick, usually red, candles. On each Advent Sunday one more candle would be lighted. The ‘Kranz’ was made up of fresh fir-tree branches. When we sat down with one, two, three or four candles lit, my little brother and I would be allowed to do some ‘kokeln’, but of course always under supervision by Mum. ‘Kokeln’ would mean that Mum gave us a beautiful fresh twig of the fir-tree branches to hold over a burning candle. This made a fantastic smell. Oh, how we loved this smell. I could tell, Mum loved it too. This quickly brought us into the mood to sing some Christmas songs.

https://auntyuta.com/2014/12/03/christmas-songs-and-some-german-christmas-customs/

It is still early Sunday morning. We have had our breakfast with some fresh bread-rolls. We lit one candle on our artificial ‘Adventskranz’. The dishes are done now. I look out through the kitchen window and can still see some of the flowers. They usually last only for a day or two. But some more new ones may come up soon.

First Sunday of Advent

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This is the first Sunday of Advent. A couple of days ago was Mark’s 54th birthday. In 2011 Mark’s 50th birthday was being celebrated.

https://auntyuta.com/2011/12/03/party-pictures-from-nov-26th/

https://auntyuta.com/2011/11/29/50th-and-55th/

Next Sunday, on the 6th of December. we are going to meet the family again to celebrate some more birthdays.

NATURAL SOURDOUGH

The other day at Merrylands we bought this NATURAL SOURDOUGH bread. I just have been eating a few more slices of it. This bread tastes very yummy! It is called ‘Roggenmischbrot’. It is a product of Australia and has a ‘true European taste’! There were 650g of it for five Dollars. I think, it is very good value.

Last Saturday we went to the Griffin Theatre in Sydney. We went to a Japanese Restaurant before the theatre. Caroline and Matthew were with us. I had a vegetarian dish, which was very good. I liked it a lot.

On Friday the 13th our group of women went out for lunch together. This had been quite a hot day too. After lunch we were at Erika’s place for our game of Scrabble, for coffee and cake and later on we played Rummy as we always do on a Friday afternoon. Today is Friday again, and I just came home from our games afternoon at Irene’s place.

This picture is also from Friday the 13th of November 2015.

Some more photos of Stockland Shopping Centre in Merrylands

Yes, Merrylands Shopping Centre is now a lot larger than it used to be. Gaby did experience the second stage of the opening, but she died before the third and last stage was ready for opening. After we had our lunch and some coffee in Merrylands last Wednesday we spent a bit of time to walk through the new section of the Shopping Centre. (I think the outside temperature was close to 40C on that day!) As we were walking along all the new little shops, Peter was looking out for a shop where he might find some delicious continental bread. And he was lucky: He was able to buy a ‘Roggen-Mischbrot’. It was sliced, cost only five Dollars and was quite fresh.