Diary

Yesterday, on Thursday, I had some real quality time with some of my family too: We went for three hours to a beautiful park at Lake Illawarra with four children of our family! 🙂

There were heaps of other children there too, since the kids were still on their Easter holidays. Granddaughter Natasha was great in watching her nephews, aged 4 – 6 – and 8 years, as well as 18 months old niece. My daughter Monika had picked me up from home with my rollator. The two older kids are the kids of one of Monika’s sons, the two younger kids are the kids of one of her daughters. So all of them are my great-grandchildren! I enjoyed watching all of them playing to their heart’s content in this beautiful park area with lots of other children and lots and lots of playground equipment on a perfectly beautiful sunny autumn day. For lunch we had fish and chips from a nearby shop. We had brought our own drinks. I was so grateful to Monika that she had asked me to come along with them! 🙂

There was opportunity for some interesting conversations with granddaughter Natasha. She is a care worker. To be able to have some longer talks with her was very interesting! 🙂

Uta’s Diary, October 2016: A 24 hour Visit

Last Saturday Peter and I were at Sydney Airport at 9,30 am to pick up our son Martin who had arrived from Melbourne. Martin stayed overnight at our place. Then, 24 hours later, he was picked up by Monika and Mark for a drive to Sydney. Martin went along with them to go to the Grand Final Football game: Cronulla Sharks versus Melbourne Storms. It turned out to be a very exciting game. Cronulla earned their first Premiership crown in 50 seasons, defeating the Storm 14-12!

Monika’s twin sons, Troy and Ryan, are great fans of the Sharks. Several months ago they had purchased ten tickets for the Gran Final. So Martin, Monika and Mark were in good company with the twins and family and friends. Ryan’s two little boys were included in the party, wearing Cronulla shirts like most of the other supporters. In one of the pictures that they published we noticed Martin wearing a Sharks’ cap.

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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2016/oct/02/nrl-grand-final-cronulla-sharks-vs-melbourne-storm-in-pictures

For 24 hours – less sleeping time of course – we had Martin to ourselves. On Saturday Martin watched on television at our place how the Melbourne Bulldogs did beat the Sydney Swans at the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2016/oct/01/afl-grand-final-sydney-swans-vs-western-bulldogs-in-pictures

We had some nice meals together with Martin. Before we went to bed we played a few games of Rummy with him. During the night we went on daylight saving time, that means we lost one hour! But, anyway the sun was up already at about 6 am. It turned 0ut to be a a wonderful day with no wind

After breakfast we drove down to the lake to enjoy the scenery on a wonderful bright day.

Monika and Mark are ready to drive with Martin to Sydney.

1st of August 2016

Last month Lucas turned four. His birthday was celebrated in the Yacht Club at Lake Illawarra. From the club one has a good view across the lake.

The family birthday party was on a Sunday, the day before the actual birthday. Matthew, Peter and I had earlier on that Sunday picked up Caroline from Sydney Airport where Caroline had been flying in from Darwin via Adelaide.

Here is Ebony with her two sons Lucas and Alexander. Caroline and Natasha are looking on.

This is the food that Peter chose as his lunch.

I very much liked the rice and some of the very good tasting vegetables

Alexander and Lucas in the club's playground — Alexander and Lucas in the club’s playground

I loved to walk around and take pictures.

Natasha was keeping an eye on her little nephews.

Alexander is about to try out a bit of climbing.

Another View to the Lake from the Playground Area

Ebony and Natasha are about to take the children back to the table for the cutting of the Birthday Cake!

Peter and Matthew can be seen in the background.

Who is it under the table? — Who was under the table?

Our Weekend 13/14th June 2015

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to the BELVOIR Theatre in Sydney.

http://belvoir.com.au/school-performances/mother-courage-children/

“HSC Drama: Significant Plays of the 20th Century

Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children really needs no introduction to teachers.

Anna Fierling is a refugee. She has three children, a shop in a cart, and buckets of chutzpah. She buys and sells her way through a massive and pointless religious war – gulling, lying, charming, inveigling. Will those great capitalist qualities save her from the common fate?

Mother Courage and Her Children is a magnificent pageant of humanity in extremis. A 20th century colossus about a 17th century war is a vision of the 21st century – of globalisation, religion, violence, capitalism, love and pity.

Eamon Flack (Once in Royal David’s City) directs Robyn Nevin in a Michael Gow translation of this epic play.”

As far as I know, Bertolt Brecht asked the question who profits from war? And I would say his answer was that the well off always did profit from wars, but never any of the not so well off.

Today, Sunday, we met some friends for lunch at the OAK FLATS BOWLING AND RECREATION CLUB. We had a very good lunch there and later on coffee and cake.

There's ample parking at the club. — There’s ample parking at the club.

I guess this is for elderly people who drive around on scooters instead of cars.

A View of Lake Illawarra from a Park in Oak Flats.

We took advantage of the beautiful winter sunshine spending some time in this Park at Lake Illawarra.

Sunday, 24th May, 2015

Lake Illawarra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aboriginal (Tharawal): various adaptions ofElouera, Eloura, or Allowrie; Illa, Wurra, orWarra meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, white clay mountain^[1]
Illawarra Lake^[1]
Lake Illawarra, viewed from Mount Kembla, 2008.
Lake Illawarra Location of Lake Illawarra in New South Wales
Location	Illawarra, New South Wales

Primary inflows	Macquarie Rivulet, Mullet Creek
Primary outflows	Tom Thumb Entrance,Tasman Sea

Managing agency	Lake Illawarra Authority

Lake Illawarra (Aboriginal Tharawal language: various adaptions ofElouera, Eloura, or Allowrie; Illa, Wurra, or Warra meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, white clay mountain^[1]), an open and trained intermediate wave dominated barrier estuary^[3] or large coastal lagoon,^[1] is located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, situated about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Sydney, Australia.

The lake environment is administered by the Lake Illawarra Authority, a New South Wales statutory authority established pursuant to the Lake Illawarra Authority Act 1987 (NSW) with the aim of transforming the degraded waters and foreshores of Lake Illawarra into an attractive recreational and tourist resource.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Illawarra

Today, Sunday, Peter and I drove down to the lake (Lake Illawarra) and went there for a little walk. After a very cold night the midday sun was beautiful warming.

This picture was taken on Monday, 11th May 2015, near Sydney University when we went to a court hearing. — This picture was taken on Monday, 11th May 2015, near Sydney University when we went to a court hearing in Glebe.

On the 11th and on the 12th of May we went to the Coroner’s court hearing about the circumstances of our daughter’s death.

State Coroner’s Court of New South Wales

The State Coroner ensures that all deaths are properly investigated. If necessary, an inquest into the death is held. Coroners can also recommend measures to prevent future deaths.

An inquest is a court hearing where the Coroner considers evidence to determine the identity of the deceased and the date, place, manner and cause of death of the deceased. Read more about the steps involved in an inquest.

http://www.coroners.justice.nsw.gov.au/

Sunday Diary, March 2015

We are well into March now. It seems a bit like autumn already here in Australia. Last Thursday afternoon Monika came to see us with Lucas. After coffee we decided we could all go with Lucas to the playground near the lake. Two year old Lucas enjoyed the playground very much even though it turned out to be very, very windy that afternoon. When we arrived, Peter took a picture of a flock of corellas sitting on the grass near the lake.

There is a lot to explore for Lucas on this playground!

Not so long ago Peter and I drove up Mount Brown to have a look at the new sub-divisions. A lot of buildings have already gone up. People who buy a block of land up there have a beautiful view towards the lake.

Beginning of Autumn in Australia

Today is the first of March 2014. The first of March is officially the beginning of autumn in Australia. Here at the East Coast of Australia we are at present in a rain period. For quite a few days there’s been some steady, drizzly rain. However since last night the rain seems to have increased a lot. Probably we are going to have quite a bit more rain before the sun shines again. The temperature is still a bit above 20 Celsius most of the time. This is why I would call this rain a ‘warm’ rain and I like it. Everything looks beautiful fresh and smells nice. Who knows, our area may have been a subtropical rainforest area in earlier times? With all this vegetation growing we seem to be getting more and more birds here. We can often hear lots of different birds, but hardly ever see any. They are mostly well covered in the dense bush along the neighbouring creek. Sometimes we notice a flock of galahs or rosellas.

We, Peter and I, had been discussing that we should visit one of the waterfalls in our area some time soon. We haven’t been to a waterfall for quite some time. Would be good to take some pictures there. We decided now, it’s better to wait a bit until the rain has eased off a bit more. Peter reckons in this kind of weather it can be very foggy up in the escarpment.

This morning I had another look at my January pictures. Bear with me when I publish once more a few more of these sign pictures I took. What I did this morning is that I cropped all these pictures quite a lot so as to make the writing better visible.

Outside my window it’s pouring, pouring. A really huge downpour. I think it is best to stay home today!

Wishing all my blogger friends a very good weekend.

Peter loves to use the John O'Dwyer Oval for his practising. — Peter loves to use the John O’Dwyer Oval for his practising.

My first Pictures in 2014

At about half past eight in the morning of today’s New Year’s Day we drove down to Lake ILLAWARRA at Kanahooka and went there
for a leisurely walk. It was a fairly warm and calm morning, meaning there was no breeze. However, the sky was quite overcast. And the cicadas were very, very noisy! Lots of walkers and runners greeted us on our walk. They all had had the same idea we had that it would be good to start the New Year with an early morning outing.

We were waiting for the sun to get a bit more through the clouds. — We were hoping for the sun to get a bit more through the clouds.

Peter reminded me that we should be back home before 10 o’clock to watch the live special German News of the Deutsche Welle. 10 o’clock our time was midnight over in Berlin where Fireworks Celebration at the Brandenburg Gate were to be shown. We made it in time for the big show. Ten hours earlier of course we had been watching on TV the huge Sydney Fireworks. At that time we had welcomed the New Year with some sparkling wine. Between the two of us we had half a bottle of that sparkly. That meant we had half a bottle left. It was not difficult to empty that left over half bottle at 10 o’clock in the morning! Peter’s sister Ilse, who lives in Berlin, soon did welcome the New Year by doing some skyping with us. Isn’t the technique marvellous for occasions like this? 🙂

Peter took some pictures too on our morning walk. Here are some of them:

A Park near Lake ILLAWARRA

All these photos were taken on the morning of the 24th after we had been to Port Kembla for a swim in the pool there.

Diary of Christmas 2013

On the morning of Christmas Eve we went first for a swim at Port Kembla Pool. Then we stopped at a park near the Lake. Caroline tries to decipher what it says on this stone. — On the morning of Christmas Eve we went first for a swim at Port Kembla Pool. After our swim we went to a park near the Lake Illawarra. Caroline tries to decipher what it says on this stone.

Here it says what these two islands are called.

The fourth Sunday of Advent this year was on the 22nd of December. As I mentioned before, Martin and S were with us on that day as well as on the 21st of December, our Wedding Anniversary. On Monday, the 23rd, Martin and Peter took S to the airport in Sydney in our rental car because S had booked a return flight to Melbourne for that day.

Then it was Caroline’s and Matthew’s turn to be picked up in Waverly, an Eastern Sydney suburb of Sydney, where they live.
Soon Martin and Peter arrived with Caroline and Matthew at our place in Dapto where we spent the next few days together. The busiest day for us was of course the 24th. A lot of preparations were made for Christmas Eve. We were in the end fifteen people (including little Lucas, who was asleep on his mum’s lap by the time a group picture was made).

Here now is a picture of all fifteen of us.

This is one of the pictures that Caroline took. So she is not in this one.