In June 1992 Martin’s and Elizabeth’s baby girl Justine was born. Little Justine was 18 months when Martin and Elizabeth came with their children Tristan and little Justine to stay with us at Sussex Inlet. Monika’s twins, Troy and Ryan, were with us too and of course Caroline. We and the three children spent already Christmas in the holiday unit, Martin came with his family a bit after Christmas.
For us it was tradition to have ‘bunte Teller’ with sweets and some fruit for Christmas Eve. The kids loved to have this special treat for Christmas. So ‘bunte Teller’ had to be made up for all of us. As you can see from the picture, we also had candles, and for Peter and me there was wine. I think I felt already somewhat tired by the time we were ready for the celebrations. There’s so much to organize moving into the unit! And it looks like it that for Christmas there was some extra organizing to do.
I’m afraid I don’t look my best in the picture. And maybe the kids were getting a bit tired already as well. But I wanted to show what the ‘bunte Teller’ looked like. It’s possible the drink after an exhausting day gave me the rest. I think we had booked the unit for two weeks for the summer holidays. All the units (fourteen of them) were booked out. For New year’s Eve the manager had a roasted pig organized . All the holiday-makers celebrated New Year’s Eve together on the tennis courts. Outside tables and chairs could be brought to this venue and the roasting pig wasn’t far away. There was plenty of drink available too.
I remember at this holiday place I always like to get up early To go for an early morning walk was immensely enjoyable. I am still like this, that I like to get up very early. Even when I go to bed late, I like to get up early. To have a two weeks holiday close to the water and the beach in the middle of summer is wonderful. It’s so good to have close family to spend the holidays with. For sure it was another great holiday at Sussex Inlet.
Christmas Eve with the ‘Bunte Teller’
With sunflower seeds you can always attract a few lorikeets
Caroline with kangaroo
Little Justine loves the kangaroo
Martin is the one in the red top, I am in the background with a red hat
The young ones gather around the sign (tradition!)
In 1989 my brother Peter Uwe came to visit us. He is the brother who is now a retired teacher and lives in Mecklenburg/Vorpommern, north of Berlin. In 1989 he was still a teacher in Berlin. He took at the time a one year leave from his teaching job. During this time he traveled the world. In this world trip he included a longer stay in Australia. Part of the time he was sailing and diving near the Barrier Reef in Queensland, but a few weeks he had set aside to visit us. We were able to show him around a bit in our beautiful area. Unfortunately it rained most of the time. Only during our one weeks stay with him at Sussex Inlet we had beautiful sunshine. That was so lucky!
I remember how Peter Uwe was really good at organizing. For instance, we had to take one weeks food supply to Sussex Inlet. Peter wrote out all the meals we wanted to cook and what sort of food was needed for all the meals for every day of the week. So we went shopping together. It all had to fit into our (yellow) station wagon. Apart from the two Peters, Caroline and myself, as well as the twins had to fit into the car. The twins were really keen to come with us again to this beautiful holiday place. They loved it there very much. Of course, we all did love it !
Because we had so much stuff to take along, we decided I would catch the train with the children. The train went only as far as Nowra (Bomederry). Peter drove Peter Uwe with all the supplies to the campsite first. Then he drove back to Nowra to pick us up from the station and take us to the camp. As I said before, the last part of the drive to the camp is a 13 km dirt- road. We always enjoyed this trip along the dirt-road which went right through the bush. We would wind the car-windows down to smell the beautiful bush-air. We caught glimpses of the water (Sussex Inlet) several times along this road. The sun would shine through the trees. The water glittered through the tree-branches. Marvelous!
When we arrived at the campsite, Peter Uwe had everything in the unit already under control. All the stuff had been packed away. So we could soon have our tea and apple-turnovers with fresh cream. Peter usually picked up these beautiful cakes at a certain bakery when he went through Berry. These apple-turnovers were always a special treat for us. The kids usually reminded Peter not to forget to stop in Berry to buy the cakes.
A place called Greenpatch is 18 km away from where we stayed. (I mentioned this place in my previous blog.) We went for an excursion to this place on one day and took lots of pictures with lorikeets.
Not far from where we were staying at the inlet there is a long beach. You can walk along it for hours. There is the open sea all along the way, called the Tasman Sea which is part of the Pacific Ocean. When we look out across the ocean we are always joking: ‘Yea, and in this direction is New Zealand!’ As though we could swim all the way to New Zealand!
Peter Uwe loved to jog along the beach. But he never made it to the end of it. Peter Uwe made lovely sculptures out of the sand right next to the ocean. There exist some photos of it. Sadly I could not find any of these amongst the pictures that we have. There’s only one picture of Ryan sitting in a boat of sand. I remember one day we spent hours and hours with Peter Uwe and the kids at some spot near the ocean. I am sure being creative with sand was an inspiration for the kids. Certainly they never did get bored.
I think we did go for swims in the ocean and in the inlet at high tide. It was April and still warm enough for a swim. However I could not find pictures of us in the water from that year. At nighttime we played lots of games with the children, such as card-games or board-games.
Caroline was ten, the twins were still nine.
Soon after waking up in the morning Caroline, Troy and Ryan go outside to greet a kangaroo.
We always thought ‘Broken Nose’ was a male kangaroo. But here she shows us how she’s carrying her young one. Surprise, surprise!
Martin holds his two year old son, Tristan. Caroline and one twin are in the front, Grandpa Peter looks at something on the ground, Elizabeth (in brown jacket) looks on too.
While Martin and Elizabeth did their 18 km run to Greenpatch, I followed them with Tristan in their car. Tristan didn’t like to see his parents running in front of him while he was stuck with Grandma in the car! He was happy then to be with his parents at Greenpatch.
Tristan, on his Mum’s lap, looks what the twins do, Martin points out something.
Caroline with her Dad
In one of the pictures you can see Monika with Martin. who has little Tristan on his shoulders.
Monika and Martin are of course sister and brother.
Monika is the twins’ Mum.
Caroline wears a red top. In one of the pictures you can see her running off. Unfortunately it’s not a very good shot of mine.
Mum kept a big photo album with pictures of me. Growing up, I always liked to look at all these pictures. However, I remember distinctly that the following pictures annoyed me quite a bit. I felt awful that the pictures showed me being so very plump! When I was told I looked ‘cute’ I tended not to believe it. I was self conscious at an early age and mostly didn’t feel ‘cute’ at all. I still often don’t like my picture taken because I think I might look awful!
The adults in the pictures are my Mum, Aunty Elsa (Ilse) and Uncle Adi. The little dog belonged to Aunty and Uncle.
I have here now some of the pictures we took on Easter Sunday.
Last night we heard about the earthquake near Aceh. This certainly terrified a lot of people. What a relief that this time it didn’t result in a huge tsunami.
Yesterday the selection and insertion of the pictures for this blog was a bit exhausting. Today I think I ought to write a bit more about our visit. So I am about to do some editing now
Stephanie offered cups of tea as soon as we arrived. I chose flavoured green tea. Peter had black tea with goats milk. Tristan’s family have goats milk for every day consumption. They have their own goats on the property. The girls always drink goats milk and love it.
Everyone went with their cups of tea down the block to where the barbecue was set up. I prefered to stay on the verandah watching from the top the going ons from up there. I enjoyed my green tea out of the stainless steel cup. It was the perfect drink to have outside on this fresh sunny morning. The two girls were a pleasure to watch roaming about in their fairy dresses. Tristan and Martin went about getting the fire going in the barbecue dish. Peter took photos walking here, there and everywhere. Steph was inside. She had taken it upon herself to assemble the blackboard we had brought along for the girls. We had also brought along some books for the girls. A couple of these books Tristan took to reading to the girls soon after our arrival. Tristan is an excellent reader and the girls are excellent listeners!
Here now a few of the goats pictures that Peter took.
For more information about Easter Sunday go to Berlioz1935
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.
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.
The little girl watches her Mum and her Auntie, who both sit in front of the mirrors in Auntie’s bedroom. The room smells of lovely perfumes and lotions. The women are dressed in identical light grey suits. The younger woman is the girl’s mother, the slightly older looking one is the mother’s sister.
The girl thinks, that Auntie is the more beautiful looking woman with her very long curly hair. In the three way mirrors the girl can watch how Auntie brushes her hair. Her chestnut-coloured hair is very strong and long. Auntie is brushing it slightly back so it stays behind her ears, showing off her very long blue earrings.
Oh, I love these blue earrings, thinks the girl. How beautiful they look on Auntie’s ears! Mum does not wear any earrings, because her ears are covered by her hair. Mum’s brown hair is very fine and much shorter than Auntie’s. So is my hair: Very fine and short! thinks the girl. She wishes she could wear her hair longer!
Both women wear identical three big rolls of hair horizontally on top of their heads. The front rolls cover the top of their foreheads, the other two rolls are rolled along behind the front roll. With their suits the women wear identical light pink angora wool tops. The girl watches how the women check that the three rolls are set in the right position. Then they spray each other’s rolls with a lot of hairspray. They both look into the mirrors, smilingly. They are very pleased with the way they look and the little girl is pleased with them.
(I was that little girl in the mirror story!)
In the little picture Auntie Ilse wears some long earrings which I admired so much as a little girl. In the other picture Mum’s three rolls on top of her head are seen to perfection! I’m fourteen in the picture and I’m happy my hair is nice long. My brothers in the picture are ten and seven.
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Mum called me often ‘Mausel’ or ‘Mauselchen’, whereas Auntie liked to call me ‘Herzchen’ or ‘Liebling’. Dad sometimes said ‘Herzel’ to me, but he usually called me by my name.
Mausel is derived from ‘Maus’ (mouse)
Herzchen is derived from Herz (heart)
Liebling means Darling
Herzel of course also means heart
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My best Friend
From an early age on Cordula was my best friend. Her mum told me one day that in Latin her name meant ‘heart’, but not to tell anyone: Some children might make fun of the name! I did not want anyone to make fun of my friend. So I promised myself to keep the meaning of the name to myself.
In 1939, the year after my brother Bodo was born, Cordula had a little brother, who was given a name which according to Mum was very odd . His name was Tilwin. It turned out he grew up with very bright red hair. The children in the street teased him about his hair. Of course, Cordula would stand up for her brother as much as possible. For the most part I think Tilwin avoided playing with other children. However the children in the street still made rude remarks about his odd hair colour.
The apartment of Cordula’s family was above our third floor apartment, just two floors further up. I often went there by myself to play with Cordula. The family had a ‘roof-garden’ (Dach-Garten) above their apartment. It was about the size of their living-room, enclosed by walls and open to the sky. I remember how the sun came right into it. The floor was concrete and along the walls were garden-beds . Cordula was allowed to look after her own little garden-bed.. Once Cordula’s mum let me have a portion of a little garden-bed too! Cordula’s Mum and Dad were always kind to me. They made me feel welcome and included.
The Lepsius family had food that no other family had. For snacks we children were often given some kind of brown flakes and raisins. Sometimes we were given dates or figs. I loved this food! Mum thought it was strange to eat such things. In Mum’s opinion the Lepsius family was quite odd because they had lived in the Middle East for a while. Cordula’s father was an architect. Mum called him ‘the Hunger Architect’ (Hungerleider) since he seemed to get hardly any work in his profession.
The Lepsius apartment was sparsely furnished . There were a great number of shelves stacked full with books. These shelves went from floor to ceiling. Mr. Lepsius sometimes showed us books with colourful illustrations. He also told us stories. We loved one story in particular which had a funny ending. We demanded to be told this story again and again. Each time we laughed our heads off and Mr.Lepsius laughed with us. The story was about a beggar who knocked at the door of an apartment. A beautiful maid opened the door. Some time later the beggar knocked at another door in the neighbouring building. And the same beautiful maid opened the door! We found the astonishment of the beggar very funny. Mr. Lepsius explained to us, that the family had two connecting apartments across two buildings; that is, the wall between the buildings had been broken through to connect the apartments on that floor. This was actually where the family of Herr Lepsius had lived, when he was a boy.
Mr. Lepsius was old and bald. He was about twenty years older then his wife. Quite a few years later Cordula and I went to the same high-school, and we would always walk to school together. One morning I went up the stairs to see why Cordula hadn’t come down yet to go to school with me. I rang the bell. Mrs. Lepsius opened the door. She was in tears. She did not let me come in but went with me to the top of the stairs. She said: Our father just died; I haven’t even told Cordula yet. She looked at me with despair in her face and I did not know what to say. She hugged me and then she disappeared in her apartment.
……
At age thirteen my best friends were Cordula and Liselotte. We had formed a ‘circle’ and met each other several times a week. None of us had a boy-friend. That does not mean that we didn’t talk about what it would be like to experience romance. We felt talking about it was exciting.
One afternoon the three of us had our picture taken at a photographer’s. I still have this picture. Looking at this picture brings back memories how much at ease I felt then. Yet this Threesome lasted for a short time only. Cordula had already lost her Dad. All of a sudden her Mum died too. How upsetting for her! She moved away to live with her aunts in West-Germany. The departure happened so quickly that there wasn’t time to say good-buy. I felt shocked about it. Yet I sensed that there had been a need for the sudden departure.
The blockade of West- Berlin followed and I was air-lifted to West-Germany to live with Dad and Aunty Lies and her family. When I returned to Berlin I had no idea how Liselotte (Lilo) was doing because we had completely lost touch. She had left school in the meantime to take up a job. Quite by chance I once noticed her walking along the street arm in arm with a boy-friend. I cannot recall what she wore, but she looked very grown up to me. I never thought of approaching her.
I continued going to the same girls’ high-school. Many girls in my class were talking about their boy-friends. I did not have a boy-friend and did not have a clue, how on earth I could ever get to know some-one from the opposite sex. I stuck to day-dreaming. In my mind I fantasised about romantic meetings: I loved making up conversations with an interesting young man!
I had hardly any money to spend on clothes or make-up. I felt very inferior to other girls, who all seemed to be better off.
Uta and her friends 1947
I liked to keep my hair long and just a little bit permed. I was astonished and gratified when a girl in my class said she liked my hair-style. </p
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Some of today’s writing is reblogged and I did a bit of editing with it. I thought these different parts make sense if I put them together. Well, it’s writing by trial and error. I want to see whether it makes sense to any one. I’d love to get some input. Would this writing be of any interest to my descendants?
The boys told me that Tomscik never shared his supper with you children,’ said Dad. It was June 1953. I was on a one week leave from FLEUROP and had used this, my very first vacation, to visit Dad in Düsseldorf.
‘Don’t worry, Dad,’ was my response. ‘We never wanted Herr Burghoff to act as our Dad. I thought it was perfectly all right that he bought ‘Abendbrot’ only for himself and Mum. At the time he was still studying and didn’t have much money. Maybe it would have been different had he already been employed in the Public Service.’
‘And what is this, that he wants to marry Mum?’ asked Dad. – ‘Well, it’s true, he wanted to marry her. You know, that as a Catholic he was not allowed to marry a divorced woman. That’s why they asked the Pope for special permission. It took a while, but they did get it in the end.’
‘Yea, by declaring the marriage invalid and my children bastards,’ screamed Dad.
‘I know, they established that she married under pressure of her mother and sister Ilse. They claim, she didn’t really know what she was getting into when she married you.’
Dad looked extremely upset. ‘That’s absolute nonsense!’ he shouted.
I felt very sorry for Dad. ‘Anyway, Dad, it seems Mum’s not going to marry him after all. Tante Ilse says so.’
‘And why would that be? What could possibly be a reason for not marrying him now?’
‘The reason? According to Tante Ilse there are several reasons. You know Herr Burghoff is now employed here in a town in the Rheinland. That is Mum would have to move away from Berlin, if she wanted to live with him. And you know what Mum’s like: She just does not want to leave Berlin!’ Dad nodded. He knew all about this: Mum had always refused to leave Berlin to live with him.
‘ And Tante Ilse told me something else. She said when Mum went to his new place for a visit, she noticed him praying a lot. At least twice a day he would fall on his knees praying in front of a statue. It was kind of acceptable for Mum to go with him to Sunday Mass in Berlin. But apparently she can’t stand all this praying at home. Tante Ilse thinks it was just too much for her to see him do this. Indeed, it must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back!’
We arrived at 10,30 am at Martin Place station to meet Angie and Roy at 11 am. We walked along Macquarie Street to their hotel and Peter took some pictures along the way. When we arrived at the hotel they offered us refreshments straightaway. And we soon got into talking amiably.
Later on we had Japanese lunch with them at the Opera House. The sky had cleared for the day. In beautiful sunshine we walked up to the Opera House. Peter took some pictures. When my lunch arrived Peter took a picture of that too. I had ordered a vegetarian roll. It looked beautiful with the avocado on top and cut up in small pieces. Somehow I managed to eat all this with chopsticks! I spiced every piece with soy sauce, horseradish and ginger. Delicious! The others had ordered something with fish. They all commented that my dish looked much more colourful.
After lunch we walked through the Botanical Gardens and Peter took some more pictures. By 2 pm we were back in Macquarie Street where Angie and Roy were staying at the InterContinental.They had tickets for a concert for later in the afternoon at the Opera House. So it worked out well that they could have a little rest before going out again. Peter and I wanted to catch our train back home from Martin Place. We had had a lovely day with two people we had never met before. But some of Angie’s family are known to us. They all were emailed some photos of yesterday’s meeting. One of Angie’s sisters, who lives in England, already emailed back saying she and her husband were planning to travel to Melbourne next year to see their two sons there and meet other family members. It’s such a small world! Peter worked out that a lot of the descendents of his paternal grandparents already live in Australia.
Angie and Roy travel today, Monday, to South Australia and to the Barossa Valley. They stay in Australia for two weeks only. During this time they also plan to fly to Alice Springs (to see ULURU), as well as to Cairns and from there back home to America. I think in Sydney they had had only three days.
Today I had the feeling that spring was just around the corner. I walked to church and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Soon I took off my cardigan and let the sunshine touch my bare arms. This is good for replenishing Vitamin D and for absorbing more Calcium, I told myself.
I was amazed how healthy I felt on a day like today. Last month I had persevered with several more tooth-extractions, There were some five teeth that had very old and quite large amalgam-fillings. I had made up my mind that it was time to get rid off these teeth. So now there aren’t anymore amalgam fillings left in my mouth. I wonder whether this is why I feel much healthier? Soon after all those extractions I had started a detoxing program. Kate, the naturopath at the Dental Centre, gave me four different supplements, which I keep taking as prescribed. In about six weeks I’ll go for another check-up to find out whether the detoxing of the various metals in my blood has been successful.
Most days I feel that walking for thirty minutes or so is no problem. I usually don’t get pains anymore and I hardly ever seem to run out of breath while walking. Besides, I used to wobble a bit to one side quite frequently. This seems to be better now. Come to think of it, I have been keeping quite well over the last few months. Didn’t I undertake an exhausting overseas trip from the end of May to the beginning of July this year, and didn’t I cope with the stress of travelling remarkably well? Who would have thought that I was capable of travelling for so long without a problem?
The last time I had travelled overseas had been in 1994. That year I had gone with Peter and daughter Caroline to Berlin. In 1997 and 2004 Peter travelled to Berlin by himself. So I had not been to Berlin for a long time. I felt very much like a stranger there during our recent visit in contrast to Peter who straight away felt at home again. He’s extremely familiar with this city. I think the biggest difference, compared to my previous visits, was the experience of feeling so much more elderly. I was for instance always grateful when younger people offered me their seat on the underground train or on the bus. Being elderly gave me the feeling that I could go slowly. I did not have to hurry as the younger people did. Whenever I felt a bit tired I could sit down and rest for a while.
We arrived in Berlin on the 31st of May. We had expected warm weather, but it was still very, very chilly and often extremely windy. Consequently I soon developed a terrible cold. However with adequate rest I quickly recovered from this attack of flu. When it had become a bit warmer, Peter and I enjoyed what nature had to offer, especially further up north in Mecklenburg/Vorpommern where we stayed for ten days with my brother Peter and his wife Astrid.
Mecklenburg/Vorpommern has forests and many, many lakes as well as canals connecting these lakes. The small towns in the area all cater for tourists. Very old houses have been lovingly restored. Some new developments include expensive marinas. Peter and Astrid showed us historical sites and castles where previously kings and queens liked to relax with their families, away from the hussle and bussle of Berlin.
The last few days of our stay in Germany we were back in Berlin. Day-temperatures had risen to well above thirty degrees by then. It did not cool down very much during the nights either. Daylight lasted till about ten at night. At four in the morning it was quite light again. Sometimes it seemed to be a bit light the whole night through!
Peter’s sister, who lives in Berlin, went on a lot of outings with us. Sometimes we were driven around in a car by friends or family members. However most of the time we used public transport – and very efficient transport at that. When you want to catch an underground train, you hardly ever have to wait for more than five minutes for the train to arrive!
Most people probably do not know that Berlin has many lakes, rivers and canals with hundreds of bridges. I do not know the exact number of bridges, however, I was told Berlin has more bridges than Venice! We saw quite a few of these Berlin waterways. Once we were taken on a boat- excursion that took us right through the city centre! On the boat we were served beer. frankfurts and potato salad. A few times we went on ‘book hunting’ excursions. Visiting friends and family in different parts of the city kept us busy as well.
On Friday, 2nd of July, was departure day. We left from Tegel Airport . This Airport is rather small and totally inadequate for a city like Berlin. Because of a lack of space very few big machines can fly in or out of Berlin. However, a much larger airport is to be opened in Berlin in about two years. If all goes well, Peter and I may then be able to go on a direct flight from Sydney to Berlin which would probably cut travelling time by a few hours.
This time we had a return flight from Sydney to Berlin via Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam. We travelled KLM. To our great relief our luggage could be booked through to Berlin and later back to Sydney.
I was a bit apprehensive about our return flight since the schedule included a five hour stay at Kuala Lumpur. To my surprise I rather liked this stay at Kuala Lumpur Airport. The airport is huge. Internet connections are provided without charge. There is also no charge for drinking water! In the midst of the airport is a rainforest enclosure for travellers to enjoy. And of course there are shops, shops, shops! Also facilities for showers, massages, reflexology treatments and more. In the sitting area you can find stretch-out seats for tired travellers!
We did not want to go for dinner at one of the restaurants. We rightly assumed we would get dinner on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney. However we decided to go for coffee and cake at the Airport’s Deli France. And we enjoyed this! For a little while I also made use of one of the stretch-out seats. Why doesn’t every airport have those seats for sleepy travellers?
AuntyUta 