Diary

Diary

http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/articles/983591/saltines-are-worst-food-for-your-teeth

The worst food for your teeth? Something like crackers!

I had totally forgotten about this article. Just now I came across it and thought it can’t do any harm to publish the URL to it. Have a look, it says dark chocolate is good for your teeth!

Last Thursday I went to the Heart Moves class. On that day there had happened to be a function in the hall that we use. I think that function had been booked to last till 12 o’clock. But by 12,30 they had not cleared the room yet. Obviously the function itself was finished. However quite a few people stayed behind, talking to each other. After a while someone from our group went in there pointing out to them that we were waiting to be let into the room for our class. They said they did not mind if we came in straight away. So this when our group went in and occupied chairs along the wall. We were about twenty people. In the middle of the room there were about eighty more chairs which had to be disposed off in the adjoining store-room space. Some people were busy doing it. It took a while. In one corner of the hall were a couple of tables with a lot of scrumptious food. These were just left-overs!

Soon someone approached our group inviting us to help ourselves to some of the food on the tables. Our class was supposed to start at 12,30. Even though our instructor had arrived already and had been setting up her music for the class, it did not look like we were able to start any time soon.

So most of our group, including our instructor, were helping themselves to this ‘free’ lunch. Some women objected that they would not be fit to do the exercises after having eaten such a lot. I had accidentally taken a meat sandwich which had looked to me like there was only cheese and salad on it. It was some kind of meat which I definitely was not able to eat. It ended up in the bin. I stuck to eating a lot of crackers, which I had spilled on the tablecloth in my clumsiness. I did not think it was appropriate to put them back into the serving bowl. I did not want them to end up in the bin. so I added them all to my food bowl. They turned out to be rather salty but quite tasty. So I did eat them all!

That day I think I was not all that good in following all the instructions for the exercises. I wonder whether the crackers had something to do with this? Today, it’s Thursday again and there is going to be another class. I promised myself that I would not eat anything before today’s class . Better safe than sorry.

Peter does another Walk and Run on the Oval

I took this picture and all the sign pictures already on 30th January 2014

In January I posted already some pictures of Peter’s walk and run on the oval. Two weeks later he did do the same again. For some reason I did not feel like going along with him then and gave it a miss. But when he went again yesterday I gave myself a push an went along with him. And I quite enjoyed the outing. However yesterday I did not take any pictures. So all the pictures I post today I took already in January.

Yesterday I put my toe shoes for a leisurely walk around the oval. After my walk I did a bit of reading in my kindle while I was waiting for Peter to finish his run/walk. Peter also had his toe shoes on. He loves to wear them on grass. As far as concerns all the signs on the pictures, I must point out that the danger of this summer’s fire season seams to be nearly over. It is nearly March now, meaning that it is not very likely that we get very hot days again. In January I wrote to one of the comments:

“It is a huge sporting complex, Robert. I did not explore all the areas. What I found remarkable is that they pointed out what to do in case of a bushfire. I guess the wooded areas have become more dense and there is more fuel now so that a fire has become more of a possibility since we seem to be getting more and more very hot days with very strong winds.”

As I said from now on there is probably not that great a danger any more. Our summer is nearly over. Apparently the bushfire emergency area is on field which is the John O’Dwyer Oval, the one where Peter does his training.

I did yesterday a bit of practising again, I mean I drove our car for a short distance in the Croome Sporting Complex area before we left to drive home. I just want to get used to driving again. Since I had this eye operation a long, long time ago I always was happy to leave it up to Peter to do the driving. So I must say I am shockingly out of practice. And I am nearly 80 now. I still have my drivers’ license though. I am asking myself again and again, should I really aim at keeping the license a bit longer?

Peter is going to have his eye operation in a couple of weeks!

Are we Equals?

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/no-sex-please-were-equals-20140217-32umo.html

I just read the above article in the Sydney Morning Herald. It is an edited version of an article first published in The New York Magazine.

So I am asking myself now can married couples be equals? The answer is of course, sure, they can be equals. However in a sexual way they definitely cannot be equals unless they are happy to live more or less in a kind of sibling relationship.

I think the French did get it right a long time ago: Viva la difference!

Australia’s World Kidney Day

http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/world/world-kidney-day

Australia’s World Kidney Day 2013

Protect your Kidneys, Save your Heart!

The presence of kidney dysfunction greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease – an important fact that is often overlooked! If you are at risk of kidney disease. See your doctor to discuss maintaining your heart health as well! Refer to our webpages: Your heart and CKD * Diabetes and CKD.

Key Facts About Chronic Kidney Disease & Cardiovascular Disease

People at every stage of CKD are at more risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), although those in the later stages have the highest risk.
CVD remains the leading cause of death for people on dialysis and those who have a transplanted kidney.
People with CKD have a 2 to 3-fold greater risk of cardiac death than individuals without CKD.
For people with CKD, the risk of dying from cardiovascular events is up to 20 times greater than requiring dialysis or transplantation.

Keith DS, Nichols GA, Gullion CM, Brown JB, Smith DH. Longitudinal follow-up and outcomes among a population with chronic kidney disease in a large managed care organization. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004;164:659-663

Foley RN, Parfrey PS, Sarnak MJ. Clinical epidemiology of cardiovascular disease in chronic renal disease. American Journal of Kidney Diseases. 1998;32:S112-S119.

Identifying CKD early and slowing progression to kidney failure is important in reducing your risk of CVD.

Weiner ME, Tighiouarr H, Amin M et al. Chronic kidney disease as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: A pooled analysis of community-based studies. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 2004;15:1307-131

The best way to reduce the risk of CVD is to make healthy lifestyle choices. It is also important to control and maintain a healthy blood pressure, cholesterol level, and blood glucose level if you have diabetes. If you have CKD, this usually means using medication as well as having a healthy lifestyle.

Page updated 21 February 2014

I googled the above and copied it. I became aware of World Kidney Day when I looked at some of the posts by Devon Texas. I think it is a good thing to be informed about what you can do to stay as healthy as possible.

In Memory of Charlotte, my Mother

This is a passport photo of my mother Charlotte before she got sick. We do not know for sure, but she may have suffered a certain kind of memory loss later on.

A few Years later another Passport-Photo was taken of her.

We did fly BRITISH AIRWAYS in 1994. We departed London/Heathrow Airport on Saturday, 19th of November at 12.45 and arrived at Tegel Airport/Berlin less than an hour later.

We moved in with my brother Peter Uwe who lived at the time with our mother in a spacious apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg. For about ten days we stayed there and of course saw Charlotte every day. Once every day a woman would arrive to see after Charlotte’s personal needs. Peter Uwe was still a teacher and had to leave his mother on her own during the day.

Towards the end of November we left Berlin in a rental car. We had planned on going again to Windischgarsten, Austria, where Peter’s sister Eva lives with her husband Harald.

Our tour down south led us first of all to Wittenberg for a break at lunchtime. There was a Christmas Fair (Weihnachtsmarkt).I remember we were able to buy there delicious freshly baked potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer). A bit further on we noticed to our delight at some building our Australian flag! There happened to be an exhibition in that building about Australian aborigines.

From Wittenberg we went on to Radebeul near Dresden. This is were famous author Karl May had lived. We knew that they had a Karl May Museum in this town. So we went there for a visit. It brought back to me old memories about the noble Winnetou and his friend Old Shatterhand. Soon it was nighttime and we booked into a small hotel at Radebeul.

The following day we spent visiting Dresden. The Frauenkirche was still in ruins. Money was raised for its restoration. This is where I got my Swiss watch. The proceeds of this purchase helped towards the restoration of the church! There was a lovely Weihnachtsmarkt in Dresden too where we bought some food at lunchtime.

Our next overnight stay was in a hotel in Bad Schandau, a pleasant little spa town at the Elbe River near the Czech border. We took a walk through a wooded area and actually reached the Czech border!

I took this picture of Peter and Caroline where it said that this is the Czech border!

Well, we had not planned to take a direct tour to Austria. We first wanted to see on the way a bit of Germany . During the 1990s we did not have mobile phones. I guess we could have stayed in touch with Berlin or sister Eva via a hotel telephone. But we only rang Eva when we reached Trockau in Bavaria. It was 2 pm on the 2nd of December (I made a note of it!) Peter talked to his sister Eva, wanting to give her an indication when we might arrive at her place. “Did you ring Berlin yet?” she asked. “No, why?” And then Eva said to ring straight away. “Yesterday Uta’s mother has had a stroke and is in hospital!”
(My brother Peter Uwe had been ringing Peter’s sister Ilse who had been ringing her sister Eva.)

We did ring Berlin then of course and said to my brother we would straight away come to Berlin. We reached Berlin late at night. Peter Uwe was waiting for us and went with us to the hospital. My mother did not recover and died during the night from the 21st to the 22nd of December.

On the 13th of January 1995 we were back in Australia. My mother was to be cremated. Only there was a severe backlog at the time. The cremation could only be done well into February. And the funeral service could only be held after the cremation. Well, this was the German way of doing it. It upset me terribly. Yes, this was very difficult for me.

Peter Uwe, my brother, had been living separated from Klaudia, his wife, for some time. Peter Uwe had a new partner already. Her name is Astrid. At the time Klaudia and Astrid did not like each other, not at all. But over the years this has changed. I think they are at ease with each other now whenever they happen to meet. Peter Uwe and Klaudia have a daughter, Corinna, who was at my mum’s funeral, also Klaudia and of course Peter Uwe. Astrid was not there. Just two more people were there: Our cousin Wolfgang and his wife Gisela.

These are the five people who were at my mum's funeral. — These are the five people who were at my mum’s funeral.

This building is at the entrance to the cemetary (Städtischer Friedhof Schöneberg)

I guess the funeral service would have been held in there. We took the above picture in 2010 when Klaudia had the idea to show us the spot where Mum’s urn is buried anonymously amongst other urns on a beautiful lawn. The following pictures are the ones Peter Uwe sent us from the day of the funeral.

This stone we recognised in 2010 when Klaudia showed us the cemetery. Where these flowers are from the day of the funeral is presumably where Mum's urn was buried. — This stone we recognised in 2010 when Klaudia showed us the cemetery. Where these flowers are from the day of the funeral is presumably where Mum’s urn was buried.

At Sydney Airport November 1994

We moved into our new home in September 1994. A few weeks later we had a burglary. I was so upset I wanted to cancel our planned trip to Berlin. A very understanding doctor managed to calm me down with some hypnosis treatment. So in November we went as planned to Sydney Airport for our departure which led us first of all to another stop over at Singapore.

The following pictures show that our family came to the airport to farewell us. I find these pictures very interesting for our family. They show our grandchildren what they looked like nearly twenty years ago!

I noticed that all four of our children and all six of our grandchildren that we had at the time, are to be seen in the photos! Also Gaby’s carer David and our daughter-in-law.

The Hannemann Family in Australia in 1997

In this picture Peter and I are with all our four children. Daughter Caroline stands next to Peter. All five children of daughter Monika are in the picture too! Her very tall twin sons are eighteen, her two little daughters in the front are Natasha and Roxanne. Well, this was more than sixteen years ago!

This picture was taken at the beginning of September 1997, a few days after our daughter Gaby’s 40th birthday! We all met for a picnic lunch at Central Park in Merrylands near Gaby’s and David’s home. David, Gaby’s carer, stands in the middle of the photo behind Gaby’s wheelchair. Our son Martin (who’s holding onto the wheelchair) lived in Newcastle at the time and had come to Sydney to see us all. Merrylands is a Western Suburb of Sydney. The Central Park there is a very popular recreational place.

Monika holds her five months old baby daughter. Gaby and Martin are in the picture too. — Our daughter Monika holds Krystal, her five months old baby daughter. Gaby and Martin are in the picture too.

In the picture below Troy, who is one of the twins, walks with his girlfriend.

Ryan, the other twin, as well as Caroline, Martin and David presumably walked ahead.

However one of them must have taken this picture, right? Maybe Caroline?

After our picnic lunch we all walked right through the park towards the little waterfall. It looks like at the time there was still quite a bit of water to be seen. Sadly, after a few years without much rain, there was no water left in this area. When we took a picture there two years ago, everything looked completely dry. Maybe in the meantime the water situation has improved somewhat. We should go there one day and have a look.

Here we are with Monika's daughter Natasha on that day in early September 1997. — Here we are with Monika’s daughter Natasha on that day in early September 1997.

Another Weekend gone

It was a good weekend. We had the family visiting with little Lucas. And we received the great news, that in September Lucas is going to have a little sister or brother. How exciting this is for the whole family!

Caroline and Matthew arrived yesterday at lunchtime. This afternoon they left again to go back to Sydney. Yesterday we had Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad) and Bouletten (Berlin Meat Patties) for lunch. Caroline did bring some cake which she had baked herself. We had this yesterday for afternoon coffee when Monika came with Mark as well as Troy and Ryan who did bring little Lucas along. Ebony, the newly expectant mum, had stayed at home to have a little bit of a rest.

This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2914. — This is what my plate looked like for lunch, yesterday, 9th February 2014

Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I went for a bit of Supper to the AGA (Australian German Austrian) Club.

Coffee Culture

Places like Sydney have developed over the years a great coffee culture. Not far from where Caroline and Matthew live there is this coffee shop, dine in and take away. Some time ago Matthew and Caroline took us there.

The bottle you see in this picture is not a beer bottle but they serve water in these bottles. As soon as you sit down at one of the tables, someone comes with glasses and a bottle of water. I think it is a law now in Sydney, that when you go to a shop for a cup of coffee, they have to provide free water for you with the coffee. In some places you have to serve yourself from the counter where you find some water in jugs as well as glasses. Other places prefer to serve you the water to your table.

One of the waiters noticed that I was taking picture. Very politely we were asked then would we like to have a picture taken of all four of us. Happily we agreed. Here is the picture:

Matthew and Caroline are lucky: Where they live in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney all the shops they need are within walking distance or easily to reach by public transport. There are still lots of small shops in their street. However property prices in Waverly are enormous. Naturally, the rent they have to pay for their two bedroom unit is a lot. However they like the area very much and don’t plan on moving to a cheaper area. Not needing a car they save quite a bit of money which can go towards the rent. In most cheaper places they would not be able to survive without a car.

I think it is as good as official that if you drink strong coffee or tea you ought to drink some water too. For these beverages, namely tea and coffee, are diuretic, meaning you lose water which you need to replace if you do not want to become dehydrated.

Isn’t it important to stay sufficiently hydrated, especially in hot weather? I believe that this is so. I always try to think of drinking sufficient water. There is another reason why I try to drink a lot of water, it has to do with my tendency to bruise easily. And this is one of the reasons I am used to taking a lot of vitamin C supplements. Some people warned me, if I take too many of these Vitamin C tablets, I can develop kidney stones. Well, I have not developed any yet. Amazingly, as long as I drink sufficient water, any surplus vitamin C gets flushed out! For instance, if I get lose stool, then I know I have taken more vitamin C than my body needs and I reduce the intake a little bit.

I have been taking Vitamin C supplements since my early twenties (I am 79 now). I believe what Linus Pauling, the nobel prize winner, found out about Vitamin C, is right. My observation is that some people do all right without any supplements. Others, like for instance aborigines, badly need them if they are deprived of their traditional food. Some berries, they used to have plenty of in the bush, are extremely high in vitamin C. These days our fruit is usually not consumed fresh from the tree but comes from long storage in cool-rooms and loses some Vitamin C very quickly. Some of the traditional food, that aborigines used to eat all the time, had excessive amounts of Vitamin C, much much more than for instance oranges fresh from the tree. So how can you keep up sufficient intake of this vitamin without supplements if you are not in a position to get your supply fresh from the tree?

The first Month of the Year

This is one of last year's pictures when we tried to establish a bit of a herb section. Sadly it turned out that all the herbs eventually died on us. We are just not very good gardeners. — This is one of last year’s pictures when we tried to establish a bit of a herb section. Sadly it turned out that all the herbs eventually died on us. We are just not very good gardeners.

The first month of this year, where has it gone? And where has the whole of last year gone? One thing is for sure: Each month I took quite a few pictures. Looking at the pictures that I collected over all these months, I cannot but remember what I did in every of these months.

Last Friday we played Scrabble again at my place. There are usually four of us. When one person cannot make it on a Friday, just three of us play. I happen to have a picture that I took nearly two months ago when we also played at my place.

Irene, in the right of the picture, is at present very upset because her husband died recently of a heart attack. She says during the day she keeps herself pretty busy. But then in the evening, when she is sitting down and Les does not sit in the easy chair opposite hers, then she always becomes very, very sad.

This is where a funeral service was held for Les, our neighbour. We all miss him very much.

This picture was taken soon after we arrived. After a while a lot more people turned up, probably about eighty. Les had come from Hungary in the 1950s and he and Irene had been very popular with people from the Hungarian Club.

The temperature in our house is at present only about 30 degrees Celsius. But it feels rather sticky (humid) I to me. I do sweat quite a lot. This is why I keep drinking more and more water. The other day I mentioned to my friends that I believe that one should drink about two litres of water per day. One lady objected. She insisted that if you drink that much all the good stuff, that the body needs, gets flushed out! I then asked her whether it was not like this, that the poison needed to be flushed out. She still insisted that one should not drink that much water.