Balmy Days towards the End of May 2014

We did have a lot of balmy days during this month of May. Everybody says it has been unseasonably warm so far. Only some of the nights have already been quite cold. Occasionally we had a lot of cloud cover with hardly any sun. Then we feel very much like it is winter already.

I try to take a walk in my toe shoes every day, preferably rather early in the morning. I often walk to Lakelands Park where all the soccer fields are. Right now the grass in this park has been kept quite well cut. This makes it easy to walk on it, especially with these comfortable toe shoes!

Usually the playground is my destination. It takes me only ten to fifteen minutes to reach it..

I am very fond of all the trees in the park. This is why I take photos of them again and again.

Near the footpath the lantana is thriving again.

I noticed a pattern in the freshly mown grass:

Today, Saturday, there was much activity in the park. The young soccer players were having some good practice at kicking the ball under the supervision and encouraging shouting by a lot of coaches, parents and friends.

Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens

We had come past these gates when we arrived at the gardens.

Isn't this a remarkable tree? — Isn’t this a remarkable tree?

And who's hiding here? — And who’s hiding here?

Peter took this picture and also the following ones.

All pictures were taken on Saturday, 17tth of May 2014.

Breakfast at the Hilton Hotel, Sydney

http://www.hiltonsydney.com.au/restaurants-bars/glass-breakfast-detail

“With the undeniable charm of Sydney’s breakfast culture, why not begin your day with a sumptuous breakfast at glass brasserie? An exquisite a la carte menu or our bountiful buffet will whet your appetite.”

“. . . indulge in the finest breakfast in the city whilst enjoying a captivating view of the Queen Victoria Building from glass brasserie’s vast floor to ceiling windows. What better way to start your day?”

” . . . breakfast and a glass of sparkling with loved ones . . . ”

This was Saturday, the 17th of May 2014.

This special event is the Sydey Half Marathon.

http://www.smhhalfmarathon.com.au/
Find out about running the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon, secure your place using the online entry system and learn how you can run for charity.

The last time Peter did run in the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon was in 2005. Anyone who wants to run this distance can enrol for the event. Peter is sorry that he cannot run like this any more.

Peter has always been an avid reader of the Sydney Morning Herald. He has now an online subscription. The SMH sponsored the breakfast at the Hilton for subscribers. We did not regret having made use of the offer for this special breakfast.

Peter’s Birthday Lunch

We have just returned from an alfresco lunch. Since this was another beautiful sunny autumn day. we thought we better take the chance to sit outside for our lunch.

North Wollongong Beach

This morning at 9 am we drove to Wollongong again. After Peter had returned the monitor, we drove to Stewart Park as planned. Stewart Park is not far from North Wollongong Beach where we had some coffee at a little Beach Cafe. It was a perfectly sunny, balmy autumn day. This kind of weather is truly wonderful. We are so lucky to be able to enjoy such weather when it is already autumn. This kind of weather is supposed to continue for the next few days. 🙂

The restaurant was closed, but this kiosk was closed too.

While we were waiting for our coffee I took some pictures with Peter's ipad. — While we were waiting for our coffee I took some pictures with Peter’s ipad.

This is North Wollongong Beach with Wollongong lighthouses in the background.

Wollongong on the 13th of May 2014

Today would have been my father’s birthday. He would have been 110 years today!
Ilse, Peter’s sister, celebrates today her 80th birthday. Happy Birthday to you, dear Ilse!

Peter had to be in Wollongong this morning to pick up a Holter Monitor to get his blood pressure measured for 24 hours. That means tomorrow at 9,30 am he has to return the monitor. We had a very good morning in Wollongong after Peter had got the monitor fixed to his body. We went for a lovely walk along the shoreline and took heaps of pictures. Most of the time it was a bit sunny. Perfect for a walk on a pleasant autumn morning.

We found a parking spot further up from where we had a good view towards the harbour.

Instead of coffee we chose to get some ice cream.

A bit of Wollongong history

Some firemen were around in this beautiful area. We saw some more of them later on. They seemed to be getting instructions as part of their training.

We remember the time when these apartments were being built. In the meantime many, many more apartments have been built. A lot of them are high rise buildings.

Here comes the free shuttle bus around the corner.

There’s a bus stop in front of this beautiful apartment building.

Tomorrow when we are in Wollongong again we want to park our car near North Wollongong Beach and take a walk in that area. If we had a Million or so we would like to buy an apartment in Wollongong and live there! Still, it’s nice to go there for a visit. The walks and the views are free for everyone! 🙂

auntyuta Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age 12 Comments May 13, 2014 1 Minute

Mother’s Day 2014

Enjoy your day – this is what it said on Peter’s computer.

Daughter Caroline had come to bake a vegetarian lasagne for Mother’s Day.

We decide we are going for a walk with our toe shoes on.

We walk on the grass towards the soccer fields.

I follow Peter and Caroline.

What’s this in the grass?

We are back home. The table is set. Now we are going to have lasagne with some salad and a glass of red wine.

Some more visitors arrive.

Here is daughter Monika with two of her daughters. I am third from left. Little Lucas is there with his Mum and Dad. This Daddy Longlegs is one of Monika’s sons.

Where’s he going now?

What?

There’s some cake left that Peter baked.

Peter baked this cake as well. He has been busy for the last few days!

Here Peter is with dear little Lucas.

All of us had a lovely day!

And here are a few more pictures:

The black area on these cups serves as a chalkboard. The names can be written on the cups with a piece of chalk!
When the cups are being washed, the names disappear again.

auntyuta Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age 6 Comments May 12, 2014May 12, 2014 1 Minute

Childhood Prayers

I love early mornings. Waking up early always seems exciting to me. Here in Australia the nights are getting rather cold now as we are approaching winter. These days when I wake up at five it is still dark outside. Sometimes I think it is better not to get up straight away. So I may tell myself to stay in bed for one more hour or so. Occasionally I am still a bit tired and go back to sleep after a little while. But usually I stay awake the whole time, lying in bed thinking about what I plan for the day or perhaps saying a few prayers. Often I remember my childhood prayers!

The family I grew up in was not very religious. During my whole childhood I remember being taken to church only once. This was for a service on Christmas Eve in 1943. Lots of familiar Christmas songs were being sung then. I thought this was wonderful!

Now what about prayers? Strangely enough there are some childhood prayers that I often remember when I wake up early in the morning. Then I am that child again who was being told to say these prayers before going to sleep.

The first prayer I learned was just saying that I am small and my heart is pure with only Jesus in it.

When I was a bit older I learned another prayer. saying that I was tired, closing my eyes and asking the Lord to watch over my bed.

Mum also told me to ask God for the protection of all my loved ones. In the reciting of all the names there was always Dad included who was on the Eastern Front at this time of WW II.

Here are the prayers as I remember them in German:

“Ich bin klein,
mein Herz ist rein;
soll niemand drin wohnen
als Jesus allein.”

or

“Müde bin ich geh’ zur Ruh
schliesse beide Augen zu.
Vater lass die Augen dein
über meinem Bette sein.”

And I would say:

“Lieber Gott, behüte Mutti und Vati, Bodo und Peter, Tante Ilse, die Omi und Renate und alle die ich lieb habe.”

auntyuta Diary, Life in Australia, Memories, Old Age 8 Comments May 3, 2014 1 Minute

First Sunday after Easter 2014

Yesterday, on Sunday the 27th of April, Peter and I travelled from Dapto Station to Redfern Station. We had a good tasting Hamburger Lunch close to Redfern Station. My Hamburger was made with a chickpea patty, which was delicious. 🙂 For desert we had some yummy ice-cream. We finished our lunch early. Our plan had been to go to a seminar in Redfern. It was about a subject that we find very interesting. However it had turned out to be a miserable very wet day. We were dressed for a sunny warm day. And we had not thought of taking an umbrella along.

When our daughter Caroline messaged us from Waverly we could come to her place to warm up and Matthew would make us a nice cup of coffee, we could not resist. We decided there and then to give the seminar a miss. We just did not feel right any more to go there. We thought relaxing with Caroline and Matthew was the better option at that instance. We had not seen them since before Easter. They had been away for a little holiday.

So off we went to their place in Waverly. We arrived there quickly by train and bus. We were lucky. A train to Bondi Junction came straight away. And at Bondi Junction we immediately did get a bus. to where we wanted to go. Really an excellent connection! We knew where to get off the bus and from the bus stop it was only a very short walk for us. It did not rain very much, that meant we did get only a little bit wet. Caroline had some heaters on. That made us feel all right very soon. Being able to talk to Caroline and Matthew was great.

They made sure we caught the right bus back to catch our train to Dapto from Bondi Junction. By half past seven we were back home, had some supper and started watching our movie on ABC TV at 8,30 pm. We saw “Parer’s War”. It showed what Australians and Americans experienced in New Guinea towards the end of WW II wich is really quite mind boggling.

It is a pity that we did not feel up to it to go to that seminar. A very interesting speaker from the University of Canberra was to give the talk which in a way was to touch on the subject of “the crisis of democracy”. A few times we have been to other very interesting seminars at this place in Redfern. They often send out invitations we find worth taking notice of. However quite a few invitations we missed out on over the years, for it is not always convenient for us to go all the way to Redfern for a two hour talk. Maybe it would make a difference if we lived somewhat closer. I don’t know. We always seem to be running out of time!

auntyuta Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age 8 Comments April 28, 2014 2 Minutes

FINCH THERAPY, Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT)

I found the above adds after my consultation for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I had a Carpal Tunnel Release operation in November 2013. A few weeks later I made an appointment at the above clinic. I was given treatments every two weeks and had to do some of the MAT exercises at home. After several weeks of this my body was well aligned. This week I went there for a follow up examination. This turned out to be okay. I was advised to have another follow up examination in three months time.

Thankfully my carpal tunnel syndrome has improved a real lot. My right hand is close to normal again! Also I seem to have a much better balance in my body. I would say the FINCH THERAPY really made quite a difference in my well being. Peter underwent the same therapy and is quite happy with it. This therapy helps with muscle activation. However arthritic pain is a different matter. The therapy cannot help with this. Both Peter and I suffer more or less from arthritic pain. This can be very painful at times. We are told, keeping as mobile as possible, is what we should aim for. Both, Peter and I, try to move about as much as possible.

I told one of the therapists that we were being kept very busy over Easter since we did have a few visitors staying with us and going on a lot of outings with us. The therapist asked me then if we went out for coffee. I said we did not go out for coffee so much. I should have told him then about all our different outings. But there was no time for this.

So were did we go? Just to recollect: There was one outing to Port Kembla Pool and Beach early on Easter Saturday morning. The same day we went to the Nan Tien Temple for a delicious vegetarian lunch. And of course we had a good look at some of the temple interiors and surrounding beautiful grounds.

Easter Sunday, very early in the morning, we went for a walk in the Minnamurra Rainforest. Later on we had a Buffet Lunch at the Novotel in Wollongong. When I said we had 15 people at our place on Good Friday, the therapist asked me whether I had to cook for all of them. I said I cooked lunch only for seven of us. The others came later.

I could have mentioned that our son cooked a lovely meal for us on Saturday night after we got home from the temple. He cooked Ravioli and there was a sumptuous salad to go with it.

As far as my diary goes, I could mention that Peter went already twice this week to get new top dentures fitted. Yesterday he had to see his eye specialist in Figtree. We went to Figtree together on the bus. While Peter saw his doctor, I ‘amused’ myself in the nearby shopping centre. Shopping centres make me feel very tired. And I had been up since 5 am already. We arrived home for a quick lunch. Then Peter drove me to my heart move class at Dapto Ribbonwood Centre. Well, that was only yesterday. I remember I felt extremely tired during the class. I like to go to these classes when I feel more rested. These heart move exercises are actually great fun. There is always such invigorating Latin American music to go with it, as well as Vienna waltzes.

auntyuta Diary, Life in Australia, Old Age 4 Comments April 25, 2014April 25, 2014 2 Minutes

Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts