Krystal turns sweet 17 today. She is celebrating her birthday today with her Mum at her Auntie Caroline’s in Sydney. We’ve seen Krystal already on Thursday to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Lauren, our youngest granddaughter, turns 16 in June. So they are all growing up. Two of our grandsons have children of their own already. We have now three great-grandchildren and another one is on its way to be born around the time of my 8Oth birthday!
Today, on this special day for Krystal, I want to publish a few more photos that have Krystal in most of them.
I think this picture was taken on the 14th of February 1999.
We were at the top of Mt Keira. The photo is taken at the front of Mt Keira Restaurant. There are several outlooks on Mt Keira from where you can look down to Wollongong and surrounds. We were able to take Gaby up there with her wheelchair. Monika came along with us with little Krystal who wasn’t quite two yet. Gaby always loved to spend time with the family.
This photo was taken around Christmas 2OOO. Krystal wonders what Granddad is going to do with these sunflowers that grew in his garden.This is just a bit of the front of our house in the year 2000. I put this photo in to show how small this tree in front of our window was at the time. It looks very huge now, and the gardener trims it every so often, otherwise there would not be left enough room for one of the parking spots at the left of the house.This picture is probably from around 2000. This is what it looks like on a day when some kids play soccer at Lakelands Park. Kids still play soccer there during the winter season.This is in Lakelands Park in 2001 when Ilse was with us again.Krystal sits between Monika and me.Krystal has been sliding down and Roxy stand beside her.
Monikas three girls with their cousin Lauren.This picture was taken in Merrylands Central Park on Mother’s Day 2001.
On Mother’s Day 2001 the whole family had met at Merrylands Bowling Club for lunch. Ilse was still with us on this day. After lunch we enjoyed some time in Central Park. It was a great day for all of us. 🙂
I found some more photos from Ilse’s visit in 1999. They bring back so many memories. And I am sure that there are still some more photos from that visit somewhere. The photos that are available cover quite a few things we did during Ilse’s two months stay here with us. I never kept a diary at the time. And of course within the two months we did more things than what is shown via the photos. Gaby used to keep an awful lot of photos. We ended up with all of Gaby’s photos after she passed away. To go through all of these photos would be an immense task. I do not feel like doing this right now. But I do believe that amongst all of Gaby’s photos there would be some mote photos of Ilse’s visit.
The Chinese Gardens in Sydney are very beautiful.
I mentioned in my previous blog that we were with Ilse in the Chinese Gardens in Sydney, and I published two pictures from that visit. Here is just another photo of the gardens. I should publish one day a whole blog with pctures of these gardens. It is a wonderful place and invites you to take lots and lots of pictures. The above picture is actually from 1999. Peter took quite a few more picture on that day but for today only this one photo for I want to publish above all some more photos with Ilse.
Here is Gaby with Ilse and David, her carer. According to what is written at the back of the photo, it is from the 21st of March 1999. It was taken with Gaby’s camera at our place.
Here is a photo that was taken on the 18th of April 1999., also with Gaby’s camera. I do remember that on that day were travelling all the way from Parramatta along the Parramatta River to Sydney Harbour where the Opera House came into sight. We did get off the boat at Circular Quay.
I think David probably took this picture of us with the Opera House in the background. This picture is also from the 18th of April 1999.
Caroline is ready to drive herself to her job in Kiama. I remember that Ilse admired Caroline that she was such a good driver already.
Here is again one of the pictures of the three of us in the Chinese Gardens
In the picture above we stroll along Darling Harbour that is close to the Chinese Gardens.
Peter with his sister Ilse.
This is Martin with Lauren who was born on the 15th of June 1998.Ilse enjoyed visiting with us our son Martin and youngest grandchild in Newcastle.Martin went with us to beautiful Blackbut Park in Newcastle.This is one of the photos that Peter took at Blackbut in Newcastle.We went with Ilse to the Blue Mountains.
I recall we went with Ilse also to the Wollongong Botanic Gardens and to the Nan Tien Temple. Ilse loved all our outings. And of course several beaches would also have been on our itinerary.
Ilse flew back with KLM. I think Peter took this picture at the airport on Ilse’s day of departure.At Sydney airport. Ilse is about to depart.
Peter’s sister Ilse lives in Berlin. In 1999 she came to visit us here in Australia. She stayed for two months: From the end of February to the beginning of April. Caroline, who was twenty at the time, had already given up her studies at Sydney University. She had a job as a waitress in a Pizza Restaurant in Kiama. Being already a good car-driver, she had no problem driving home in the dark after work. Ilse was very fond of Caroline. We went on a lot of outings with Ilse, and Caroline did often come along with us.
Ilse was still in mourning for her husband who had died a year previously. But she liked her stay here with us. I thought it was great to have her around. She is a beautiful person to get along with. She was happy to meet all our family during her two months stay here. She very much cared for all of them. When she left, she said she’d like very much to come back for another visit.
Peter and Ilse at Manly Beach
We went with Ilse and Caroline up to the highlands, parking the car near an old cemetery –where we had a picnic on the lawns next to the old gravestones!Having a rest in the Chinese Gardens in SydneyThere are many beautiful things to see in these Chinese Gardens in Sydney.Here we are on a walk with Monika and her three daughters to the playground at the back of our property.
Krystal turned two on the 5th of April of that year 1999.This picture with Ilse and Gaby was taken on the 18th of April 1999.I think David probably took this picture of all of us with the Opera House in the background.
A bit of an introduction to North Queensland and our holiday there in August 1998 is in my previous blog. I actually have a number of photos from that holiday, but some photos I was looking for I could not find.so far. For instance there are no photos of crocodiles. We saw a lot of them lying near the edge of the water while we were travelling in a boat along that river with a tourist group. I was sure we would have taken some photos of these creatures seeing them lazing sleepily so very close to us.
Also, I could not find any photos of our lovely resort in Port Douglas. Our travel agent had booked a very nice flat for us in that resort. There was a swimming pools, tennis courts, bikes for hire, as well as some night-time entertainment outside on balmy nights. Every morning we had breakfast in a lovely open air restaurant. Most days we did some pre-booked bus tours with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea provided. One night we had a pizza in our resort’s restaurant. We went there for the early evening session when a menu at lower prices was available! I think for the other nights we had bought our own food to prepare in the kitchen corner of our flat.
For the first two nights we had been booked into a very beautiful hotel with breakfast included. On the day after our arrival we did a bus tour to the LAKE BARRINE TEAHOUSE. We enjoyed morning tea and lunch there. We were very happy with all the bookings our travel agent had done for us. From Cairns we travelled by boat to Port Douglas where a courtesy bus picked us up to take us to our resort.
I think it was probably Friday when we were taken by bus along the coastal road to the airport at Cairns to fly back to Sydney. As far as I remember we arrived in Queensland Sunday night and on Friday we had to depart. That means we had two nights accommodation in Cairns and three nights in Port Douglas. (To book a weekend holiday would probably have been somewhat dearer.) It sounds like a rather brief holiday, however we did an amazingly lot of things during these 4 and 1/2 days. Everything was well organized. So we could relax all the way. It was marvellous to spend a few days in such an environment without any stress involved. 🙂
After our arrival at Cairns Peter contemplated whether he should take a dip into our hotel’s swimming pool.After two nights in Cairns a boat like this one took us up to Port Douglas.
The LAKE BARRINE TEAHOUSE was in the Atherton Tropical Tableland. It was a beautiful area for a walk and we saw there this amazing Curtain Figtree.
In front of the entrance to our resort in Port Douglas was a stop for a cute tourist train. This train took us all the way into town.
In those days I was still fit enough to ride a bike. We were able to cycle along the beach and could get into town that way. Alternatively we took the path next to the road that lead into town. The before mentioned tourist train went beside the road that lead into town.
The Kuranda Scenic Railway, that we boarded during one excursion, was full of tourists. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere and everyone was allowed out and walk around a bit to take pictures.
We were on the Crocodile Express going in the other direction.This is what the edge of the river looked like with crocodiles lazing about.Our tourist guide made sure that we did not get into any danger.Where we had a lunch break Peter found a lovely little pool to refresh himself.We went as far as Cape Tribulation.
For afternoon tea we stopped at a very remote place in the rainforest.
There were no modern conveniences in this remote place near the Daintree River.
In August 1998 Peter and I did fly to Cairns. 60 km north of Cairns is tropical Port Douglas, where we stayed at a Radison Reef Resort. Our travel agent had booked everything for us. Quite a few coach tours were included during our wonderful five day stay in North Queensland.
Views of Cairns and the lush coast from the famous Kuranda Scenic Railway
One of our tours led us to this beautiful Scenic Railway.
This is an aerial view of Cape Tribulation where two World Heritage areas meet, The Grat Barrier Reef and the rainforest.
One of our bus tours took us as far north as Cape Tribulation.
My children and grandchildren had the idea we could celebrate my 80th birthday at Sussex Inlet. We always loved to go to this place. Peter, I and the children have such lovely memories about it and often talk about it. I have stored some memories about Sussex Inlet in three of my ‘Pages’. Today I opened Sussex Inlet Page’I’. I thought, maybe some other bloggers might want to have a look too. So I copied one of the photos and the text to the first page. (I noticed nobody had actually looked at this page so far!)
As I said I copied only one of the photos. If you look at this post and would like to see some more photos, then please go to the above mentioned post in my pages about Sussex Inlet. There are many more photos to be seen in that page and two more pages about Sussex Inlet.
Uta with daughter Caroline and grandsons Ryan and Troy (the twins!). It was a wet morning.
This was our first time at Sussex Inlet. Caroline was six and the twins were still five. The rain lasted only for one day. After this we had beautiful summer weather again. When our son Martin came to visit with his wife Elizabeth the Inlet looked gorgeous in lovely sunshine.
It was March 1985 and in July Martin and Elizabeth had their first child, a boy named Tristan. After daughter Monika’s twins, Tristan was to be our third grandchild. (The following grandchildren were all girls. Monika’s three girls and Martin’s two girls. So we have eight grandchildren ; the last one of them was born in 1997. In the meantime we are also blessed with three great-grandchildren. )
After having experienced Sussex Inlet for the first time in 1985 we went back there lots of times. The children and grandchildren always loved it. Only our first born child, daughter Gabriele, was never able to join us at Sussex Inlet because she needed an Iron Lung for the night to sleep in.
We were happy that our youngest daughter had the company of the twins. The three of them did get on very well together. When people saw us with the three of them, they often thought they were triplets! The twins would ring their mum from a public phone near the office of the camp-site. The place was still called a ‘camp’ but it had newly built units which could accommodate up to eight people each.
In March 1985 the unit we were in had only just been built. Everything looked brand new. The best thing about Sussex Inlet was that it was very secluded. We called it our little paradise.
Peter discovers a rose in the park in front of the station.
The above pictures are from last Sunday when we took the train to Tempe to meet the family at the Concordia Club. We also took the train last Saturday going to Redfern for a W.A. Dowe Memorial Lecture. The speaker was our good friend Richard Lawrence Giles. The talk was about THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF LAND VALUE TAXATION and started at 2 pm. At a coffee shop near Redfern Station we had some coffee and cake.
Next time we are at this place I’d like to try some of the healthy things that are on offer for 6 Dollars: ‘Immunity Boost’, ‘Detox’, ‘Revitalise’, I think all this sounds good. We happen to know that a lot of university students and maybe teachers get off the train at Redfern to walk from there to Sydney University. Any coffee shops on the way would probably be patronised by some university students and teachers. In this particular coffee shop two very friendly young guys did look after the customers.
Today is Saturday again. We had been contemplating to go to Redfern today to watch a free movie. We did get an invitation to:
CINEMA ET SYMPOSIA. It is a seminar on film – based on Shirley-Ann Hardy’s book “Stolen Land, Stolen Lives and the Great Con Trick of Debt. It says a moderate discussion of the film follows. Free Admission. Refreshments Served. Time 2 pm – 4 pm.
Why did we not go? Simple answer: We needed to stay home to have a rest. Since Peter’s eye operation nearly two weeks ago our life has been a bit too hectic for our liking. After all we are not spring chickens any more! So what did we do apart from the two above mentioned train travels? Well, after the operation Peter went to see the eye specialist already three times for consultations! He also had to get a new referral from a GP (General Practitioner). On the day of the operation our daughter Caroline was able to stay with us. She did the driving to and from the hospital. It was great to have her around. In the evening Matthew joined us too and we had a good time together. Next morning C and M had to go back to their respective work. They keep themselves busy with working and studying.
The next day one of our neighbours inquired how Peter was going after the operation. We mentioned that the doctor in Figtree who had done the operation in Shellharbour Hospital , wanted to see Peter for post operative care. When the neighbour heard about this he was kind enough to offer us a lift to the bus stop. He even would have driven us to Figtree, but we said we would be all right catching the bus. On the way back we caught a bus which stopped a bit closer to home, so we did not have to walk very far. The operation had been on a Tuesday, the trip to Figtree on Wednesday, then on Thursday I found out that another neighbour, my friend Irene, was about to drive to Dapto Mall Shopping Centre. I asked her could I have a lift. When I told her I wanted to go for a haircut, she said to wait for her at the hairdresser’s. She would drive me back home then.
Irene parked in an area where it would be easy for her to drive out again. Apparently she is not all that confident yet with her parking. Her husband had been driving for all these years. When her husband recently died very unexpectedly it was up to Irene to get used to driving again. Irene gave me an idea. Maybe I was capable too driving to the Shopping Mall the way Irene did it? All of a sudden I felt I might be able to do it. I told Peter about it when it turned out Peter had to see his doctor in Figtree again on Friday. Surprise, surprise, I actually managed to drive the car to that beautiful parking spot on that Friday. From there it was not far to the bus stop. The following day, Saturday, I managed to park the car near Dapto Station. We left Dapto at 11,35 am and did not get back till nearly 7 pm. But fortunately it was still a little bit light and rained only a little bit. Something similar again the next day, on Sunday, when we caught the train to Tempe. We did get a lift back home in daughter Monika’s new car. Mark was the driver and dropped as off near Dapto Station where our car was parked.
Now to the second week after the operation. On Monday Peter had to go to the Medical Centre to get a new referral for the specialist. I drove him to the Dapto Mall Shopping Centre again. From there he could walk to the Medical Centre. On Wednesday, when Peter wanted to see his eye specialist once more for he still could not see very well with his right eye, well on Wednesday I parked the car in the Shopping Centre again. Just to make sure I asked Peter did he bring the referral from the GP. It soon was obvious that he had left it at home. So I drove back home with Peter. Peter found the referral at home. Then back to our parking spot in the shopping centre. We ran to the bus stop. Peter was sure the bus would have left without us by now. But he was wrong. Luckily the bus was running very late again. We were really lucky to catch it. Peter had thought it could not possibly be running that late. And it goes only once every hour!
We made it in time to the doctor’s appointment or 10 am. But we had to wait for quite a while. Several other patients were waiting for Michelle, the doctor. So Peter had to wait his turn. The bus going back to Dapto is also only once every hour. When we approached the bus stop to go back to Dapto it turned out the bus had left ten minutes ago. That gave us a lot of time till the next bus was due. We used the time to go for some lovely coffee and cake. 🙂
As I mentioned before we went to the Concordia Club in Tempe last Sunday. I found some more pictures from that day which I had not published yet. Here they are:
A picture inside Concordia Club
I took this picture because I thought it looked cute. I think I saw a Swiss flag inside the club. I am not sure where these traditional outfits are from. Maybe Switzerland or Bavaria or Austria? Anyway, I think these dolls look cute!
This sign is in the outside area of the club.
The Australian and the German Flag outside the Concordia Club
Michelle, the doctor, told Peter by the end of the week Peter can drive again. I think she meant by the end of this week. This kind of lets me of the hook. I have no vision in my left eye and Peter has at the moment hardly any vision in his right eye! Aren’t we a nice pair?! 🙂
By the way, we go to Martin Place when we see our dentist, and we go to Bondi Junction when we see daughter Caroline and Matthew. We are very happy that we have a good train connection from Dapto to Sydney. And a ticket for the whole day for public transport (that includes now buses) is for pensioners only 2,50 Australian Dollars! We really like this. 🙂
In my previous post I mentioned the Concordia Club at Tempe and that we had a family lunch there. I could actually not publish any lunch photos for I completely forgot to take a few pictures of our food. But I was thrilled to get such beautiful pictures of little Lucas running around on the lawn in front of the club with a few older boys who look like they are very much enjoying watching this cute little boy running around and picking up their ball.
Lucas did get a bit tired after lunch. Ryan and family had their own transport and went home soon after lunch with Lucas probably falling asleep in the car! They gave Monika’s daughter Kristal a lift too. Martin and S had been in Sydney only for the weekend. Mark and Monika gave them a lift to the airport in the early afternoon so they could catch their flight back to Melbourne.
When Mark and Monika came back from the airport they gave us a lift home. Mark was the driver. Near Bulli Tops he asked us would we like him to stop for an ice-cream. It turned out they had delicious ice-cream at Bulli Tops. We all enjoyed it very much. Plus we had a terrific look down the escarpment towards the Pacific Ocean. Peter thought of taking some iCloud pictures. I am happy to publish them now.
Here I am with daughter Monika.
Earlier on while we were waiting at the Concordia Club for Mark and Monika to return from the airport, Caroline and Matthew were still with us. A very friendly young fellow sat with us at our table outside. During the conversation we found out that his sister is married to a German and lives in Berlin where he has been visiting twice. He said that he liked Berlin very much. We told him about our connection with Berlin. And so it went. He then offered to take some pictures of the four of us. Here they are:
Today we visited the Concordia Club. It was still quite warm as though the summer did not want to leave us yet. We did meet our family at the club for lunch.
There were our two daughters and our son with their partners, as well as our twin grandsons. One of them was there with partner and beautiful son, who is our great-grandson!Also one of our grand-daughters, who turns seventeen early next month, was also there.
Lucas, our little great grandson soon found company on the lawns in front of the club and kept tirelessly running around.
We had great fun watching the kids from where we were sitting down for lunch.
AuntyUta 
