Tomorrow is the 21st of February, the birthday of Les. One year ago, my age was 89 and five months, and Les turned 86. Les and I had last year nine months of wonderful togetherness. Then this most lovely heart of Les stopped beating, just like that. The last three months without Les have been very lonely for me.
Tag: Birthdays
Tuesday, 14th of September 2021
More and more cases appear in Wollongong as well as in Shellharbour and all over the Illawarra, also the DELTA cases all over Sydney have not stopped yet.
I had been hoping to have a few birthday guests on my beautiful deck. Yes, I had so hoped, that a few outside guests would be allowed to come! But no, having a few guests I must now forget about a bit longer.
My youngest great-granddaughter, Evie Rose, who turned two only yesterday, I have not seen for a while. And my eldest granddaughter, Natasha, who turned 30 last Saturday, I could not see either. Alexander Robert, great-grandson number five, is going to be 7 in two weeks on Monday. I already missed the birthday of Lucas, great-grandson number four, who turned 9 last July.
I would also love very much to see our friend Sylvia for her birthday on Tuesday, the 27th of September. Sylvia was born in 1957 in Germany, the same year that our Gaby was born. Their birthdays were only a few weeks apart. In 1959, we lived in Balgownie Hostel in Fairy Meadow. Gaby’s second birthday on the 28th of August was celebrated in the Hostel, and little Sylvia was one of the guests! So we have known Sylvia and Christa, her mother, for that long. Sylvia’s father used to be a workmate of Peter’s. Sadly, both he and Peter are dead now.
I have seen Christa and Sylvia a few times before the lockdown. They did sit beside me at Peter’s funeral celebrations. And they invited me to spend Christmas Day with them at their place. Both live together in Wollongong. Because of the lockdown, I cannot see them right now. And they cannot come to Dapto to see me. They have not been able yet to see my beautiful new deck. All my outside area looks so different now. All I can do is this, that I can write an email to Sylvia for her upcoming birthday.
I wonder when some of my family will finally be allowed to visit me! So far, only Monika, who does some caring work for me, was able to see my deck and the refurbished outside area. No one else of my family has been visiting yet. But I do get twice one hour weekly home help. The home help wears a mask when she enters the house to do some cleaning, and she usually does a few things outside a well. I am so lucky, that I do get a bit of home help!
Some of my neighbours could already take a glance at the deck. I think it made quite an impression on them. When I meet my neighbours outside, I wear a mask and I do insist on social distancing. Since we are in lockdown, we do not enter each others houses. But there is plenty of room to meet in the common area surrounding the ten free standing villas.
And as I said before, I just love to go for walks with my rollator in the neighbouring park. I am so lucky that I can spend so much time outside in beautiful fresh air. I cannot drive and I have no car. So lovely daughter Monika is helping me by doing some weekly shopping for me. I feel blessed, that I do not have to enter any shops right now.
My Diary July 2017
One week ago we celebrated the fifth birthday of Lucas. On that Sunday all the family met at the Illawarra Yacht Club for lunch.
In April, we also had some lunch at the Illawarra Yacht Club where there is a beautiful view across Lake Illawarra. We had visitors from Germany at the time: My brother and his wife.
And it was three weeks ago, soon after the twins’ 38th birthday. that the family met at the Shellharbour Club. The kids, Lucas and Alexander, were keen on checking out the club’s kids entertainment.
https://www.instagram.com/theshellharbourclub/
theshellharbourclub
We meet the family again next month for a holiday at Sussex Inlet. We booked some accommodation for the weekend from the 18th to the 20th of August. We stayed for a weekend in August at this holiday place at Sussex Inlet just three years ago when I turned 80. We have known this holiday place since 1984, visiting there quite often with our children.
This is one of my blogs that I wrote about Sussex Inlet:
Sussex Inlet December 1993, August 1995, June 2000, August 2014
In my pages at the top of my site you can find many more blogs about Sussex Inlet.
Mothers’ Day Preperations
Peter baked an almond cake yesterday. This morning he filled it with a creamy custard and apricot jam. The cake is resting at the moment in our fridge. Later on Peter is going to add some almond flakes to the outside of the cake.
While Peter was decorating the cake this morning, he also found time to do a yeast cake with buttery crumbles on top!
We have finished our lunch and also done the dishes already. We had red cabbage, braised pumpkin pieces. potatoes and thick cut bacon chops with mustard. Delicious! Sorry, I did not take any pictures of our lunch.
We just found out that daughter Caroline is about to get ready to go on the train to come and visit us. So she as well as some other visitors are going to be here tomorrow for Mothers’ Day. In three more days is going to be Peter’s birthday. Of course we’ll be celebrating the birthday already tomorrow together with Mother’s Day. Peter’s sister Ilse, who lives in Berlin, is one year older than Peter. Her birthday is today. We hope we can congratulate her later on by doing some skyping with her. Ilse always points out that she is one year and three days older than Peter!
The last month of 2016
The 9th of Dec was Caroline’s birthday. Since we were not allowed to see Peter for some time, we took the chance to all go out for some lunch in Wollongong, sort of like a birthday lunch for Caroline.
Soon after lunch we went back to the hospital and found out that Peter was doing all right. The procedure had been going as well as expected. (In the meantime we found out that Peter has to undergo the same procedure another time in a few months.)
The following day, Saturday, Caroline and I went to visit Peter in hospital. This was the day when Caroline had some major problems driving our car. With the help of Matthew the car ended up in the repair shop. Monika was still on leave and could help us to pick it up again after it was fixed the following week.
Late on Sunday morning Peter was allowed to go home. I had been waiting with Caroline and Matthew in the ward in his room. We were all very happy, that he was allowed to leave the hospital already on Sunday. Since our car had ended up at the repair shop, it was up to Matthew to drive all of us back home in that very small and very old good Proton. Matthew thought, there was nothing to it. Within a few minutes he had us safely in our home. Peter’s recovery did not take long. The main thing was, that he had to drink lots of water all the time (he still does!) and go to the toilet frequently.
In the meantime we have had our anniversary: We have been married for 60 years now! Someone took a picture of us in 1956 a few months before our wedding. However, we do have no wedding pictures! We thought they would cost a bit too much money.
We do have a few pictures of our 60th Wedding Anniversary. I am going to publish them in another post.
On the 21st of November our daughter Monika became a grandmother for the third time. Her daughter Roxy delivered in Wollongong Hospital a beautiful boy, named Carter Scott, a son to Roxy and Scott.
He is a cousin to Lucas and Alexander.
Uta’s Diary: What did I do in September 2016?
Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney
In Sydney happened to be “The Festival of Dangerous Ideas”. As part of the festival there was a talk in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, and we had tickets for this event. We were sitting very high up in the CIRCLE. David Marr and Annabel Crabb talked about: “Do we have the government we deserve?” This was on Saturday, the 3rd of September.
https://auntyuta.com/tag/festival-of-dangerous-ideas-in-sydney/
On Sunday, the 4th of September was Fathers’ Day in Australia. We met the family at the German Club:
https://auntyuta.com/2016/09/05/utas-diary-5th-of-sep-2016/
We tried to improve our backyard:
https://auntyuta.com/2016/09/13/utas-diary-september-2016-2/
On Thursday, the 15th of September, I had lunch with a seniors’ group at the Dapto Leagues Club. I am a member of that group. The membership includes gentle movement exercises on Thursdays from 12,30 to 1,30pm. But recently we have become short of people who want to do the exercises. We are looking for new participants who are willing and able to do these gentle exercises. Personally I feel, that these exercises are very beneficial for me. Not only that, they are also tremendous fun for our instructor, Marta, has always great music to go with the exercises.
From the 20th to the 22nd of September Peter and I stayed in a hotel in Sydney:
https://auntyuta.com/2016/09/23/frolicking-around-sydney/
On Saturday, the 25th of September, we saw in the Griffin Theater in Sydney a play called “Gloria” with Marta Dusseldorp.
Then on Sunday, the 26th of September, was a birthday celebration for Alexander, who turned two:
https://auntyuta.com/2016/09/26/alexanders-second-birthday/
Finally, on Monday, the 26th of September, was the women residents’ afternoon at Irene’s place. I remember I felt rather tired that day. One woman had to leave a bit early. I decided then that it would be best for me to leave together with her. But all our Friday afternoon games afternoons I survived in good spirits.
I sometimes feel that I would like to stay home more. I mean I like to go out and do different things. However at times it becomes a bit too hectic for me and I feel the need to slow down somewhat. After all, I am not a spring chicken anymore!
However, Peter and I were able to do a bit more gardening to improve our backyard. Today we did not go out at all because all day we had very stormy weather. These wind gusts have been blowing nearly none-stop since yesterday.
21st of September 2015
Last year I turned eighty. What a special birthday it was! Another year is gone. I consider myself to be at an ‘advanced’ age. Still, sometimes I seem to forget about this a little bit. But more about this later. First of all I would like to insert a few pictures that we took yesterday, on Sunday the 20th September. Three of our friends joined us for lunch at the Treasure Court Restaurant of the Dapto Leagues Club:
http://www.daptoleagues.com.au/treasure-court/
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All in all our lunch lasted for well over three hours. We were sitting and talking over afternoon coffee for quite some time. It was very stimulating, this talk with friends our age. We had so much to talk about! When we left the club, we showed our friends our new second hand car. They were very impressed because it looks like new. I now hope it is going to drive like new for a few years, for this ‘new’ car is already eleven years old!
It did not take us long to make up our mind to buy this car. Two days later (Thursday the 10th) we could already pick it up. In the meantime we already took it to the highlands for a drive. Peter had no problem to drive with it up and down MacQuarie Pass. It has a 2 litre engine compared with our old, 15 year old, car that has only a 1,3 litre engine!
Yesterday we told every one, we would go today to a funeral at Rookwood Cemetery. The funeral is to be in the Catholic section of the cemetery. Susan, Mila’s daughter, rang us the other day that her mother had died. I think she was 89 and had been rather sick for quite some time in a nursing home. We remember Mila well. She used to be our neighbour quite a few years ago. After she moved in with her daughter in Sydney, she sometimes came with a pensioners’ group for visits to the Dapto Leagues Club, where we could meet up with her.
Initially I really thought we would be able to make it to today’s funeral. Alas, Peter and I had a very short night. We both woke up much too early and just could not go back to sleep. We had been thinking of going to Merrylands as well as to Lidcombe to the cemetery. The funeral is to be at 2 pm. Peter pointed out that we could not go back to Susan’s place after the funeral for this would mean we would be getting home far too late.
Anyhow, we decided now, all in all it would be too much of a hassle for us. There are reason, why we should be going to Merrylands one day. But I think we have to do it on a day when we have nothing else planned. I reckon for younger people it is easier to plan to do several things in one day. We are just a bit too old for all this. I feel better when we can do everything at a leisurely pace and don’t have to stress ourselves out too much.
Anyhow, we decided to stay in our local area today to have a quiet, relaxing day – – –
Meeting with Granddaughters in Melbourne Two Years ago
I copy here a blog that I published two years ago. At the time we had spent a lovely evening with Justine and Lauren. Both their birthdays are in June. They are six years apart. Justine lives in Melbourne and Lauren lives in Newcastle. Because it is their birthday this month, I thought I republish this blog which has a few lovely pictures with the birthday girls.
Famous sculpture at the Yarra River in Melbourne.
Peter, granddaughter Lauren and I had been waiting at Flinders Street Station for granddaughter Justine who was going to meet us there after work. It was a happy meeting after not having seen each other for sooo long!
After dinner we strolled to a Gelato shop that was still open. We each had a little tub of this delicious gelato and sat down at a large table with a terrific view of the Yarra.
This was a lovely night out with the granddaughters. Justine caught the train back home from Flinders Street Station. Peter and I went with Lauren by train back to Essendon where our son Martin was waiting with the car to take us home.
Sunday, 15th March 2015
I reblog this post so my followers have a chance to listen to “Pop Corn” and to see this 73 year old family picture!
When you go to the original you’ll find two great videos as well as a family picture from 1942. In the picture you see Peter with his two sisters, Eva and Ilse. Yesterday was Eva’s birthday. She turned 83!
In May this year Ilse is going to turn 81 and Peter is going to be 80 three days after Ilse’s birthday.
Wie die Musik zeigt, kann das Leben sehr kunterbunt sein. Und dieser Schlager von 1969 war ja damals sehr beliebt. Vielleicht haben wir damals sogar danach getanzt. Heute ist das alles ganz anders. Ich bin ruhiger geworden.
Gestern war Sonntag. Eigentlich kein besonderer Tag im Leben von Rentnern. Schließlich haben wir Dauerurlaub auf Staatskosten. Das gefällt unserer Regierung (Australien) gar nicht und sie überlegt, wie sie die Altersrente beschränken könnte. Die Bevölkerung wird immer älter und bald gibt es nicht mehr genug Arbeitende, welche die Rente für uns Alten erarbeiten können. Das kommt davon, wenn man nichts zurückgelegt hat.
Es war aber doch ein besonderer Tag, denn meine ältesten Schwester, die in Österreich lebt, hatte Geburtstag. Ich rief sie an, um ihr zum Geburtstag zu gratulieren. Dann warf ihr Ehemann seinen Computer an und wir konnten auch noch, nach einigen Schwierigkeiten, skypen. Dann sprach ich auch noch mit meiner anderen…
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Uta’s Diary, December 2014
NBN means ‘National Broadband Network’. We are the lucky ones, it has come to Dapto already!
On the second Sunday of Advent we visited Monika and Mark. They had been in the process of celebrating three birthdays: Monika’s, Mark’s and the 21st birthday of Mark’s daughter Tiana. There was some cake left from the previous night of celebrations:
When we were at Monika’s place another thunderstorm came up with heavy rain. This was about the fifth thunderstorm in a row. The clouds built up during the day and then it started to rain. A bit like in the tropics. The doctor had prescribed antibiotics for Peter’s infection. On the third Sunday of Advent was the first time when he did not have to visit the toilet that much anymore. Today he has to see the doctor again to find out about the test results.
I asked Ayleen’s permission to take a picture of her Christmas Tree. I noticed quite a few gifts under the tree. In the conversation I found out that Ayleen’s family is very large. Sometimes they are close to thirty people when they meet for Christmas dinner with the extended family at a restaurant.
On the eve of the third Sunday of Advent I went to Mass with Ayleen. Her daughter Loraine was happy to take us there and back.
AuntyUta 