Last Wednesday we went to Merrylands.
It was a very hot day. We had lunch in Stockland Merrylands and a cup of coffee later on.
Many things had changed since we last had been in Merrylands with Gaby. But we noticed that the Heart to Heart Cafe was still there.
We could hear the helicopter landing on Lakelands Park Oval. We found out later that there had been a horrific accident in Fowlers Road. A motorcyclist had been losing control of the bike and crashed into a parked car. The guy was airlifted to a Sydney Hospital with severe injuries.
Queen Rania: Let’s Drop The First ‘I’ In ISIS. There’s Nothing Islamic About Them
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/03/06/queen-rania-isis-islamic_n_6781160.html?ir=Australia
Posted: 07/03/2015 LONDON — Queen Rania of Jordan said Thursday evening that there is nothing Islamic about the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS.
She was speaking with Huffington Post Editor-In-Chief Arianna Huffington as a part of The WorldPost Future of Work Conference.
Here is an extract of what Queen Rania said in this interview in March. For the full interview please go to the above links:
“Queen Rania said she thought there are different reasons people join ISIS, including desire for a sense of belonging, for adventure, for a job and/or for the religious rhetoric. She said she sees it as a pyramid:
At the top of the pyramid are those who actually generate that ideology, and I think they’re the worst. Fanaticism and extremism exists in every religion but it always remains on the fringes. And I think what makes it drift to the mainstream is the fact that they were supported. Some did support them with money, and they provided them with the infrastructure, which allowed them to then spread that ideology a lot more.
At the middle of the pyramid are those who … [believe] that there’s a political injustice. That they don’t have a stake in their own societies. That there’s no justice. And I think at the bottom of the pyramid are those who are probably uneducated and suffer from poverty and unemployment, and they are the most vulnerable. Apart from those on the top, it’s vulnerability that makes people fall prey to their kind of rhetoric.
Because there are different reasons why people join, she said, the fight against ISIS needs to be undertaken at different levels — including militarily. “But this can’t just be won on the battlefield,” she said. “At the heart of this war is ideology, and you cannot kill an ideology with a bullet. You can only kill it with a better idea.”
I think this pyramid of reasons is very well explained. Last night we opened a bottle of red wine. I had been a hot day. Our room temperature was still 27C. Our motto was always to drink red wine at room temperature. What if the temperature was well above 20C? I urged Peter to keep the opened bottle in the fridge. This morning I happened to notice an article about red wine in the Huffington Post. Here you can read it:
Among other things they say in this article: “Red wine drinkers, prepare to have your minds blown — when a winemaker says you should serve at ‘room temperature’, they’re not talking about the temperature of an Australian room.
The antiquated term dates back to medieval French drawing rooms which were about 14-16˚C and the average Aussie living room is closer to 20˚C.
So basically our wine-drinking habits are the European equivalent to drinking warm beer.”
I have never been to Frankfurt/Oder. We found out now that there is a beautiful Cafe in Slubice in Poland which can be reached from Frankfurt by crossing the bridge over the river Oder. From Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder is only a short trip. When we are in Berlin next year we may have the opportunity to go into Poland to the little town of Slubice and pay the Szczerbisky cafe a visit. Apparently they have yummy dumplings and cakes!
Welcome to the Confectionery Szczerbińscy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See also: Słubice, Masovian Voivodeship
Słubice
Website http://www.slubice.pld
Słubice [swuˈbʲit͡sɛ] (German Dammvorstadt) is a border town in the Lubusz Voivodeship of western Poland. Located on the Oder river, directly opposite the city of Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany, of which it was a part until 1945 (as Dammvorstadt). At the 2011 census, the town had a total population of 18,000 (urban agglomeration Słubice-Frankfurt 85,000).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_(Oder)
International relations
Frankfurt (Oder), being located on the border to Poland, plays a special role in connection with German-Polish relations and European integration. The European University Viadrina has one of its buildings in Poland, in the neighbouring town of Słubice. The university also has a number of projects and initiatives dedicated to bringing Poland and Germany together, and offers its students pro bono Polish courses. Another project that contributes to German-Polish integration in Frankfurt (Oder) is the fforst house, a German-Polish student project, which has been granted support by the town’s administration[7] and by the Viadrina,[8] having been described by the former president of the university, Gesine Schwan, as the place where “Europe begins”.[9]
Twin towns and sister cities[edit]
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany
Frankfurt (Oder) is twinned with:
Poland Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland, since 1975
Poland Słubice, Poland, since 1975
France Nîmes, France, since 1976
Finland Vantaa, Finland, since 1987
Germany Heilbronn, Germany, since 1988
Belarus Vitebsk, Belarus, since 1991
Israel Kadima, Israel, since 1997
United States Yuma, United States, since 1997
Italy Scandicci, Italy
Bulgaria Vratsa, Bulgaria, since 2009
Cake, balloons and fireworks One of the many surprises we have prepared Slubice to celebrate the 750 birthday of Frankfurt, was a huge cake, which on Saturday July 12, during the fair partner cities, residents distributed Mayor Richard Bodziacki.
On Friday, the 23rd of October our new oven was delivered. A very friendly guy rang in the morning and told me he could come along at 11 o’clock. He was right on time. Delivered the new oven, took our old oven out to his van, then connected the new oven and explained to me all about it. By 12 o’clock he was ready to leave. He had said it would take one hour.
There had been an extra charge of 149 Dollars for delivery, installment and removal of old stove. We were very happy with this service. Peter had to go to Sydney unexpectedly for some emergency dental treatment on that Friday. Saving his tooth was quite expensive. Peter jokingly always points out that his tooth had cost him as much as the new stove had cost!
When we had a look at what stoves were for sale we could find among dozens of stoves only two that were produced in Australia. The stove that we chose to buy was one of these two stoves produced in Australia. And we are very happy with this purchase.
We had heaps of rain recently. And our Buddha seemed to like it!
The above picture of our kitchen window is one of 75 that I took over the course of one week. Daughter Caroline is totally right in pointing out to me that I am somewhat overdoing it. I think last week I went out for only three short walks in the morning. Each time I took about 25 pictures. I love looking at these pictures for they remind me of what I have been noticing on my walks. If I did not have these photos to look at, I certainly would not be able to remember in detail what I saw while strolling along in the neighbourhood. So, the question is now, what to do with that many photos. – – –
Yesterday, I tried to tidy up a few drawers. I found a few things that could – with Peter’s consent – be thrown out straight away. Other things trigger the memory about what happened in our lives many years ago. I am always reluctant to throw out anything that reminds me about certain stages in my life. On the other hand, I have to ask myself why keep all this stuff? Most likely it is going to be thrown out anyway after Peter and I passed away.
I am determined to set myself some limits. This is why I publish now only about one third of the pictures that I took last week. I start with telling what we did eat for lunch at the beginning of the week. I cooked 500 g fresh green beans with some small cut potatoes, as well as sweet potatoes and carrots. I added a few herbs, small cut garlic and onions and also a tiny bit of cayenne pepper and a vegetable stock cube. Peter had bought a packet of Kransky (sausages), a fatty sausage.
Here is what I googled about Kransky: “Kranjska klobasa is known as Kransky in Australia, to where it was introduced by post-war immigrants from Slovenia in the late 1940s and the 1950s. The Kransky is very popular in Australia and New Zealand. The Waiters Club in Melbourne, Australia, is renowned worldwide for its wide range of Kransky dishes”
Peter likes to flavour his dishes with some fatty sausage. I had all the ingredients in a large pot to make this vegetarian soup. I said to Peter I would be frying small pieces of the Kransky in a little frying pan, and he could then add the pieces to the soup on his plate. I also put pepper and salt on the table.
I took the above picture after we had had our meal. Peter did not use all of the Kransky pieces. There was some soup left over. The soup-pot is seen here standing on our new stainless steel oven.
I think Peter did finish his soup already, whereas I quickly got the camera to take a picture before I finished my soup. There is apple cider vinegar on the table that we added to our glasses of water. I notice the parsley is on the table too for we added some pieces of parsley to our soup. – The TIME magazine is on the table. The cover picture shows two pieces of fried bacon. There’s an article in the magazine warning people not to eat too much processed meat. I eat very little of that stuff anyway.
Another meal or rather two meals we had last week was kale (Grünkohl). Peter had still some Kransky to go with this. I preferred to have an egg fried in butter on the side. Sorry, no picture of the kale. We cooked the kale for a long time. We have a cutter that can also be used for cutting spinach. This cutter Peter used for cutting the kale into very tiny pieces. The kale tasted delicious with a few herbs added to it. We served it with carrots, sweet potatoes and boiled potatoes on the side. I said two meals, for again it was a big bunch of fresh kale that we cooked and it lasted us for two days.
We had gone to bed late after our grandson’s wedding reception. It was a big wedding reception. Ebony and Ryan both looked great in their wedding outfits, and so did their two little boys. Lots of pictures have been taken at the event. We are waiting now to see the video that Tiana and Carl are going to show.
I think, last Sunday after the wedding I was already up by seven o’clock. The sun was up. It was a beautiful morning. I went outside to sit a bit in the sun. I also got the outside table ready for our breakfast with Caroline and Matthew. The table needs to be wiped every morning. There’s some water on it when it has been raining overnight. When it has been a bit windy there’s lots of stuff from the trees on it.
Anyhow, I was soon sitting down on a chair in a sunny spot with my feet resting on another chair. And then I took pictures of my surroundings. I love the early morning, when the sun has just come up. There’s hardly any breathe. I hear a lot of birds in the surrounding trees. Sitting out there feels like sitting in the middle of the bush, far away from everywhere.
Today is Saturday. It is already one week after the wedding. I can’t believe, how quickly this week went. I took a lot of pictures on my walks over the past week. I enjoy walking when I have the camera with me. I like to capture anything that looks beautiful to me. I am very happy that I bought myself a new digital camera. I never worry about adjusting any settings. The camera does all this automatically. This is perfect for me.
The other November pictures I have taken so far I am going to share in another post.
Son Martin was placed next to me.
During the course of the evening there were four courses served. Guests could get as many drinks as they liked. Later there was cake-cutting, a waltz for the bridal couple, and then started disco dancing. By 11 pm some people had left already, but others stayed till midnight! I think Peter and I. as well as Caroline and Matthew, were home a bit before midnight. Martin and Lauren and Kye stayed in a hotel in Wollongong. They indicated that they want to visit us at Christmastime. We are looking forward to this!
The wedding was a truly splendid occasion. Now the whole family is looking forward to next year’s planned overseas trip: About one dozen Australian family members are going to meet up with lots and lots of family members in Berlin!
In the follow up blog I am going to show a few pictures of the reception!
Jean Marion Loneragan nee Bates
A wonderful Person & Pianist – Rest in Peace
Ron and Jean’s mother was Lola May Bates.
We knew that all three of them had Urn places at the cemetery near Sutherland Station. We had gone to the chapel of that cemetery for Ron’s funeral service. We had talked Gaby into coming with us for the funeral. She reluctantly agreed. She apparently did not want to be reminded of anyone dying. This was in May 1997. Jean was at Ron’s funeral of course. She already lived in a Nursing Home at the time and looked very frail. We thought she would not live much longer. However she lived quite a few more years. We only heard about her death after her funeral in 2002. I think Gaby was able to tell us eventually about Jean having died, for Gaby had contact with people who had contact with Jean. So then we decided to have a look to find their urn places at the cemetery. In the cemetery’s office we were advised about the exact location. It turned out there were memorial stones of all three of them in the rose garden.
http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=957554
These records are at the State Library of NSW. It says in the records amongst other things the following:
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“Jean Marion Bates was a granddaughter of Daisy Bates” |
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“Includes birth and marriage certificates for Lola May Bates, nee Davidson, her daughter Jean Marion Bates, 1916, and a certificate of an entry in Register of Marriages, Arnold Hamilton Bates to Lola May Davidson, 1913. A newscutting announces the marriage of Jean Bates to Frank Loneragan. A letter from Lola May Bates to Ronald Bates, 1966”
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I remember Ron telling us that he once went to Adelaide when his grandmother, Daisy, was in her eighties. He tried to talk to her, but he got the impression that she was not quite aware who he really was. He said he felt he could not communicate with her properly. Apparently he left it too late to see her.
Here is something about the Bates family that I must have copied from a newspaper article many years ago. Sorry, I have no idea which newspaper it might have been in:
Peter recently published in his blog some of the drawings that Ron Bates liked to do on little cards:
I found in the meantime quite a few more of these cards that Ron had given to Gaby. We kept all these cards after Gaby’s death. Peter reckons they belong to us now. He says if we publish them we have to say that we copy-rights.
But here I publish one card that Jean and Ron gave us on the 5th of April 1986 at Sydney Airport on the occasion of our departure for a trip to Germany.
AuntyUta 