Uta’s Diary

I wanted to upgrade yesterday, but something went wrong with my VISA card. Then Peter tried his card, but it didn’t work either. We have to go to the bank and find out what we can do about it.

It is Friday, the fourth of January, 2013, eleven o’clock in the morning. Already we have 33 Degrees Celsius in the shade. None the less we enjoyed having our cup of morning tea under the trees at the back of the house. Our trees have grown immensely. We hope we won’t get any fires and hot wind. In many parts of Australia the fire danger is extreme and the temperatures are soaring. People are warned to be prepared for evacuations. So far this doesn’t apply to Sydney or the Illawarra.

One Week after Landing

Waking at the crack of dawn we decided it would be a good morning to see the sun rise over the lake. I straight away felt in a holiday mood. It was exactly one week after we had landed back in Australia. The week had been hectic at times. So here comes a lovely holiday morning. And lovely it turned out to be as you can see from the pictures.

RIMG0054 — This is where we parked our car.

RIMG0029 — Eventually some more of this was facing us at home. But first we had some fresh bread-rolls and coffee.

Diary, July 2012

A few weeks ago I gave up walking with Irene. I just couldn’t walk as fast as she any more. I felt I was holding her back. In the meantime Peter offered to walk with me at my own pace. We’ve done this now a few times in the morning soon after breakfast. This morning we were lucky: The sun came out. We saw everything in this wonderful light. Peter took the above pictures this morning. They show parts of our walk. Later on he snatched a photo of me catching some sun at the front of out house. Since our place is at the back of the complex we feel pretty private sitting in front of the house. In winter we often have our morning tea there to catch the beautiful warm sunshine. Here in Australia we’re still in the midst of winter!

Centennial Park

DSCN3211 — This is the bench on and around which were placed the eighteen members of our family who had come to clebrate our 50th. An additional person took photos!
This was in 2006.

Peter is approaching the outside area of the cafe

The glass-doors to the cafe

Look through the glass-doors

DIGITAL CAMERA — This is the bench on and around which were placed the eighteen members of our family who had come to clebrate our 50th. An additional person took photos!
This was in 2006.

Peter is approaching the outside area of the cafe

The glass-doors to the cafe

Look through the glass-doors

http://www.centennialparklands.com.au

Three different parks belong to the Centennial Parklands:
Centennial Park, Moore Park and Queens Park.

After a very satisfying breakfast at our daughter’s place we drove to Centennial Park not far from where the daughter lives. We wanted to see what the place looked like where in 2006 we were celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary.

We found the place without difficulty. We knew they had done some alterations a few years ago. So when we arrived there we noticed that to the original cafe a Kiosk had been added plus a lot of outside sitting area. On this mild sunny morning quite a few people were out already enjoying sitting outside with their refreshments from the kiosk.

The cafe looked inside still very much as it looked at the time of our Anniversary when we had lunch there with the whole family. The cafe was closed because it was still early in the morning but we could have a look through the glass-doors. So we took a photo looking inside from outside.

In some parts of the parks horse riding is allowed. On the way into the park we saw a few very beautiful horses with their riders. Unfortunately I did not think of taking picture and later on we didn’t see any horses anymore.

Here are some details from the Map Guide of the Parklands. There’s
Rollerblade Hire
Cycle Hire
Horse Hire
Dog Wash
Underground Reservoirs
and Bubblers

Distances around Grand Drive, Centennial Park:
Road 3.8 km
Walking Path 3.7 km
Horse Track 3.6 km

Distances from the Parklands:
To the CBD of Sydney it is 5 km
To the Airport 7 km
To Bondi Beach 5 km

DSCN3196 — Bikes for hire

View to the CBD of Sydney

Inside Centennial Park

From Sunday to Sunday

Two weeks ago we were still in Melbourne for the Easter holidays. Last Sunday we were in Summer Hill (Sydney) for Siobhan’s Fundraising Concert. Siobhan Patrick is a friend of our daughter Caroline. She holds a Graduate Diploma of Music (Opera) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In December 2011 she made her oratorio debut as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Wollongong Town Hall. Caroline, Matthew, Peter and I loved this performance. I mentioned it in one of my blogs in December. Concert Pictures

‘Next month Siobhan will travel to London and Berlin for operatic couching and professional development, thanks to a grant from the Australia Council. Following this, she will spend a month in Italy and a month and a half in Austria, attending two prestigious opera summer schools. At these programs, Siobhan will work extensively on her languages, rehearse with top European opera coaches and directors and meet with international opera agents.’

This is what it said in the program of the fundraising concert. The program included French, German and American songs. In the second half of the program Siobhan was supported by two excellent guest artists singing songs from La Traviata, Rusalka, Die Fledermaus and La Boheme.

Associate Artist Sharolyn Kimmorley was accompanying on the piano throughout the program. Siobhan has a beautiful voice and we wish her all the best for her stay in Europe!

When I wrote about all our activities over Easter in Melbourne I did not mention that I actually did not make it to church over Easter. Last Sunday the concert was in the afternoon. We travelled to Summer Hill by train. Because of this, again I did not make it to Sunday Mass.

Well, I made up for it yesterday. It was a warm, sunny Sunday again. I walked to church for the 9,30 Mass. Father Francis, the new priest, is young and enthusiastic. Yesterday he talked about it that if some-one says he loves God but does not love his neighbour, then he is lying: For you cannot love God if you do not love your neighbour! I like it that what he says is always accompanied by a bit of humour.

Here in Australia it is supposed to be autumn now. However since it was rather warm and sunny yesterday, it felt once more like a late summer day. Walking home from church and meeting Peter on the way ( he always loves to meet me after church half way to walk home with me) I suggested we could go to Bulli Beach: Enjoy the beach for a while and then have lunch at the Bulli Beach Cafe!

Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the beach, the skys had clouded over again. But we still had a lovely couple of hours at the beach. At first I took a few pictures. Then Peter started taking pictures also. After we had been in the water we did not feel like taking any more pictures. There should have been some photos of our fish of the day lunch (grilled salmon with chips and salad as well as fruit salad and a glass of water). On the way home we bought some cake for afternoon coffee. Sorry, no pictures of the cake either. We had a yummy piece of leamington cake each and added to this some delicious cherry jam and custard. Later on we played a few games of Rummikcub. We play this with tiles. It is a very relaxing game.

Another Sunday gone. This coming Wednesday is a public holiday in Australia, namely ANZAC DAY.

I think I’m going to publish the pictures we made yesterday in another blog, so that I can publish this writing straight away.

Merrylands

After we stopped at Sublime Point Lookout last Thursday we drove on to Merrylands, a Western suburb of Sydney. Gaby had been visiting David, who’s in Westmead Hospital again.

Gaby took a bus from Westmead and arrived in Merrylands at about the same time we arrived there. We had some lunch in the Stockland Shopping Centre. After lunch it was time for Gaby to withdraw some money so she could do some shopping. Peter helped her with the withdrawal. The pictures show Gaby in her wheelchair. Her dog ‘Honey’ is being attached to the wheelchair. Peter is busy sorting out what bills Gaby needs to pay. Gaby decides then how much money Peter ought to withdraw with her card from the ATM.

As soon as Gaby has been loaded with the required amount of money, she heads off to pay her bills. Then it is time to do her fortnightly shopping in one of the supermarkets where ‘Honey’ is not allowed in. So it is my task to take Honey out for a walk. Gaby usually takes one hour to do her shopping in the supermarket. She gets her stuff home delivered for six Dollars.

It was a beautiful sunny day last Thursday. I enjoyed taking Honey out for a walk. While walking around with Honey I occupied myself taking a few pictures. One picture is of Honey. The other pictures show the street around the shopping centre. This shopping centre has recently been extended. There are still some more extensions going on. You can see it by the huge crane which I tried to capture in the photo. I also took photos of one of my favourite outside cafes called ‘Heart to Heart’.

This area for the kids is inside the shopping centre. It had been provided for the kids during the Easter holidays for the entertainment of kids during certain hours of the day.

We just finished off the last bit of this Easter Cake. It had a lovely vanilla taste and was nice to eat with some unsalted butter and cherry confiture. It had a hard boiled red coloured chicken egg on top. We bought it last Thursday in a shop in Merrylands.

On the Way to Whoop Whoop

Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012

This is our son’s birthday. We are with him on our way to his son’s place in Whoop Whoop. Martin is 52 today and he drives us all the way to Whoop Whoop. On the way we stop at a cafe. We have home-made scones with home-made jam and fresh cream. Instead of tea we have filtered coffee. It’s still early and we are the only customers.

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Some time later we arrive at our grandson’s place. Tristan, his wife Stephanie and their children Kia and Jaki are already expecting us. We are lucky with the weather. It’s still a bit chilly, but there’s sunshine and it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain as has been forecast.

We bring our son’s birthday cake along which Peter baked the previous day. It’s a ‘Baum-Kuchen’, that is a ‘Tree trunk cake’ because when you cut it, it looks like the inside of a tree trunk. Peter found the recipe in one of our very old German cookbooks. Steph and Kia watch how Great-Granddad carries the cake up the escarpment.

Tristan’s family, they live high up. Very steep property. The cars have to be parked at the bottom. The family only moved there very recently. A little while ago they lived on their property in Tasmania, which they sold. So now they live in the vicinity of Melbourne.

We love being able to visit them. Towards the end of the year we’ll probably book a cabin nearby. Then we can visit them again. It is such a beautiful area. I am very much looking forward to go there for a visit in our Australian summer.

In one of my next blogs I am going to publish some more photos of our visit with the family. We had a lovely barbecue with them. And there are going to be pictures of the cake too with a sparkler and the little girls in their fairy dresses enjoying holding sparklers in their hands.

For today I have only the pictures of Peter carrying the cake and Steph and Kia watching.

Brimbank Park

This morning Martin took a few pictures of Peter and me in Brimbank Park.

Here they are:

Good Friday 2012

We arrived in Melbourne last night. This morning Martin drove us to a park where we took lots of photos. The shops are all closed today. Even the cafe in the park was closed. The park is quite large. There were some lovely views and the weather was very pleasant.

I love Judi Dench

BEST EXOTIC
MARIGOLD HOTEL

Judi Dench in the above movie is superb!
Peter and I saw the movie yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed it. There were an enormous amount of laughs in it. They showed how elderly people can still have great entertainment value.
The story depicts British pensioners who want to move to the above hotel in India for their retirement. Hilarious to watch what happens to them in India. Makes me think that there are really endless possibilities where one could go to for retirement. Apart from Judi Dench there were a great number of other brilliant actors in it, British and Indian. I liked the Indian actors very much too. And to see how people live in Jaipur, that’s quite amazing!

Here’s a link to the movie:

Judi Dench talked to one of our reporters on Thursday. Does she feel she’s old? No, she says, ‘I’m not old!’ I just love her.

Today we had a lovely sunny day again, rather autumnly already with a bit of wind and not getting very warm. I finally got around to taking some more pictures around the house to show the immense growth which is taking place in every corner of our property. When we moved here in 1994 hardly anything grew here yet. Now look at it!