Humming Tops

The other day we looked into a shop through a window. I noticed these tops. I believe they are called humming tops? I could not help myself, I had to take a picture of them. They reminded me so much of my childhood. Gee, did I love these tops as a kid! My humming top was probably one of my favourite toys. And I knew other kids who owned humming tops. Whenever I visited a friend with a humming top I would try out what kind of humming noise their top did make. This was so exciting!

My friend Eva, who was a bit younger than I was, had lots and lots of children’s picture books. I loved to have a look at all her books! Of course, I had a few picture books myself. However, I am sure Eva had many more than I had. So it was always a pleasure to go visiting her.

Eva had a large play-room all to herself, whereas I had to share my room with my little brother, who was about two when I was five or six. I was allowed to go across the road all by myself to visit Eva. I believe I had instructions to return home straight away if for some reason I could not stay at Eva’s. When I rang the bell at the door to their flat, it was usually the maid who opened the door.

My standard question was: “Guten Tag, can I play with Eva, please?” And then the maid would let me in and I’d join Eva in her room. Eva’s Mum usually came to Eva’s room to say hello and talk to us for a while. Over the years I did get to know their whole apartment. I still know where all their rooms were. But for playing we always stayed in Eva’s Kinderzimmer.

All this comes back to me just by looking at these humming tops! 🙂

I went visiting other kids too. For instance there was Cordula, who lived in the same building that we lived in. I think I knew Cordula already when I was only about three. Cordula had her own room too with lots of toys. Her Mum would open the door when I asked could I play with Cordula. (They did never have a maid.)

Other friends I visited in the neighbourhood were Siglinde, Gunhild and Rosmarie who had a younger sister called Gudrun. I knew all these friends before I started school. With all these friends and some boys as well we often played ball games and hide and seek and some singing games in our secluded street. This was a time when there were not many cars around. I cannot remember any cars ever going through our little street.

Tante Ilse and Onkel Addi owned a car since 1938, the year my brother Bodo was born. They rented a garage for their car some distance away. These days the street is full of parked cars. No children play in the street any more.

How Jackson, Lawler and Abbott tangled Thomson with the HSU

Histoire Through Histoires

ONCE A POLE, ALWAYS A POLE – 25 YEARS OF POLAND´S DEMOCRACY

I think it is a very good experience to look at the 25 things to love about Poland.

KREUZBERGED - BERLIN COMPANION

It´s been 25 years since that Poland I was born in disappeared for ever. Do I miss it? Of course – who doesn´t miss Home. Would I like to go back there? Why do you think did I marry a German?:-)

Here´s a short summary of those 25 years between today and 1989 shown through the things that are considered to make the country special in 2014.

Whatever was before that, however, was my life, too.

(Please click the image below)

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Excursion to Cremorne

Peter surprised me today with the suggestion that we could go to Cremorne. When I heard this I agreed straight away. What a great idea it was to be spending a wonderful, sunny winter day at Sydney Harbour!

The train from Dapto did get us into the city. From Circular Quay we took a Ferryboat across the harbour and got off one stop before Cremorne. All the time Peter and I took lots of pictures. We entered the Cremorne Reserve. From there we could take breath taking picture looking over the water towards the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

Later on we travelled by bus to the centre of Cremorne where we entered a little coffee shop for a well deserved cup of coffee and a bit of cake. 🙂

After our coffee break we took the next bus to the centre of Sydney from where we caught our train back home. We arrived back home in Dapto at 5,45 pm very tired but happy to have had another beautiful day, making very good use of the marvellous Australian winter weather.

Apparently someone put this quote up in 1936!

Peter took this picture on our way up to Cremorne Reserve.

I was getting a bit hot already and waited in a shady spot.

Soon we had lovely views across the water.

Here is another Ferry stop. But we decided to catch the bus

The Budget, Housing and the State of Economics

I received the following as an email already on the 26th of May. I am a bit late in thinking about publishing it. But it might still interest some bloggers in Australia who are interested in Earthsharing & Prosper’s insights on budget, housing and the state of economics

I ask myself, why are capital gains ignored in the budget?

THE ENEWS OF PROSPER & EARTHSHARING AUSTRALIA
MAY 2014

The state of economics

Welcome to the second Evolving Economics enews, combining the Earthsharing and Prosper Australia news lists. This knowledge is important in an age of entitlements, where welfare is demonised and unearned incomes (a.k.a. capital gains) are ignored. Take a quick look at these budget costs:

Jobseekers – $10bn p.a
Family Tax Benefits – $19bn
National Disability Insurance – $17bn
Medicare – $20bn
Imputed rents (unrealised capital gains) – $484bn in residential real estate alone.

So why tax students, the poor and the productive when so much revenue potential exists in economic rents?

With much talk about the ‘1996 Howard Costello tough budget’, we are reminded of the change since. In 1996, First Home Owners borrowed just $95,000 on average. Today that has more than tripled to $303,000. Wages have only increased by $214%, compared to 319% in housing (read land) costs.

This federal budget will cost the poorest 20% of the population, the lowest quintile, $2.9 billion over four years. However the wealthiest 20%, those earning $88,000 or more, will pay just $1.78 billion – 40% less.

It is time the public spoke up on the record capital gains occurring in housing, mining and other natural monopolies. That is our specialty here on the Evolving Economics enews. We hope you find this information of use and can join us to maintain this knowledge base, continuing to push governments towards a refined economic system that encourages productive activity over speculative largess. See our recent press releases.

Abbott on the International Stage

Having just watched this hilarious video I decided to reblog it! 🙂

Unload and Unwind

Well I’ve been saying for awhile now that our Prime Minister is making us look foolish on the world stage but I never really imagined it would be this direct. Following is a clip for Last Week Tonight which aired a segment lambasting Abbott on a variety of fronts.

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June 2014, Diary of Aunty Uta

This morning I took a photo of this T-shirt. I think I’ve had this T-shirt for more than ten years and I am still wearing it! Admittedly only at night-time under my pyjamas. So this old T-shirt still keeps me warm at night. And I had always liked this Ancient Chinese Proverb!

MORNING WALK

By 9 am I was ready for my morning walk. This morning I remembered to take my camera along. It was a lovely winter morning full of sunshine. The escarpment looked very clear in the distance. I think today we would not to have any worries driving up Macquarie Pass!

I liked the look of these bottle brushes.

The bottle brushes are on this little tree.

Here's another tree with bottle brushes! — Here’s another tree with bottle brushes!

I started walking across the soccer fields in Lakelands Park.

On the way back Jenny, one of my neighbours, called out to me. She had just started her morning walk. She stopped to talk to me for a while. Then she went on and I went home for a cup of espresso coffee.

Here is Jenny walking:

We had our espresso sitting outside in beautiful sunshine. Peter served the espresso in cups like these:

Educational Balance

I like what Lew Bornmann has to say about Educational Balance. This is why I reblog it.

Lew Bornmann's Blog

It seems to me…

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” ~ Carl Rogers.

I willing accept being labeled an advocate for increased emphasis on technology and science in education – essentially the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subject areas. These are the skills most critically required in today’s rapidly evolving society and the area where insufficient graduates are choosing to pursue degrees. At a time when many people are either seeking employment or are under-employed, numerous positions are going unfilled as a result of skill-set mismatch. While important, it is not necessary for every student to complete a college degree though everyone should pursue as much education as possible.

No one should denigrate the value of a liberal education. But students must be cognizant of what skills will best serve them in the world awaiting them…

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GABBYS AT BERRY

This is the Gabbys House where you can have High Tea ($45 per person) for a Relaxed and Delightful Afternoon! Maybe we could consider this for my 80th Birthday? Well, just a thought.

Or what about this place for Lunch? Lunch would probably cost only half as much. Plenty of time to think about it, more than three months actually.

But now let’s go along Queen Street a bit more. We are actually now on the side of Queen Street where the Old Post Office Building is.

On the way we saw this map in one of the windows.

This Bakery Shop is somehow connected with the French Bakery Restaurant in the other street.

We had done a lot of walking and headed back to our car.

Just outside Berry Peter stopped the car again to get out and take a picture of the beautiful landscape. I felt tired and stayed in the car. But I took some pictures from inside the car and later on I tried to catch from inside the car a bit about the road building activities. Peter had to drive slowly within the construction area.