A copy of a Post from 2013

After the last weekend in July 2013

I had taken the painkilling tablets the doctor had prescribed for me. I was supposed to take three times two tablets per day, however not more than six a day with intervals of at of at least six hours. For three days I took the six tablets per day. On Friday I already felt much better. I walked a lot in the sun. The right hand didn’t feel as painful any more. There was still some feeling of pins and needles, but I was able to do a lot more house-work than during the past few weeks. Friday afternoon Irene and Marion came to my place. We played a game of scrabble as we always do when we meet on a Friday afternoon. Then we had our coffee break. And after coffee and cake it was time for some games of Rummy. Irene said she’d have to leave early for her son was to come to have dinner with them. She went home just before five. We had had three hours of togetherness. For me three hours was plenty. I honestly felt very, very tired and was glad when Marion decided to go home too. Maybe she would have liked to stay a bit longer. I don’t know. However I did not hold back and proclaimed that I felt dead tired and desperately needed a bit of a rest. I did lie down on the sofa in the living-room.

Peter had been doing his things all afternoon but he agreed that he would cook dinner. He cooked some lovely cauliflower with breadcrumbs in plenty of butter. I needed only a short rest. Soon I got up again to have dinner with Peter. I felt very grateful that Peter had undertaken kitchen duties. This bit of a rest was so good for me. Before Peter started cooking he took my blood pressure. It was extremely low, however the pulse rate was very high. Peter gave me a glass of water. When he took my blood pressure again after about half an hour, the pulse rate had normalised and the blood pressure seemed pretty normal overall. It’s amazing what a difference a bit of rest can make!

On Saturday morning I got up very early because I had gone to sleep early the night before. My right arm and hand felt like it was improving a lot. I took a shower and continuously did exercises with arms and hands. Since I felt so much better and it promised to be a calm sunny morning, I had the idea to be walking to the pool. I very much longed for the solar heated water of the pool. Just the perfect morning to stretch out in the water for a few minute, I thought.

I had breakfast with Peter. I planned to arrive at the pool towards ten o’clock. There was some time to do a few things around the house and in the kitchen. Ten thirty am is the time when we like to watch the German News Program from Berlin. At the same time we usually have a cup of morning tea. When I told Peter I would be walking to the pool he reminded me I would not be able to watch the German News then. My response was that if he picked me up from the pool by twenty minutes past ten we could both be sitting in front of the TV by half past ten. Peter agreed that he would pick me up at the set time.

So I walked to the pool. It was a very pleasant walk. I did not have to walk too fast. Very cheerfully I arrived at the pool and talked to some attendants at the entrance. I soon noticed there was a class of women in the deep end of the pool. The instructress stood at the edge of the pool and gave instructions to some lively music. I was happy to stay at the shallow end of the pool. I had the whole area to myself. The water was flooded with beautiful sunshine. Doing my movements I felt very invigorated. I loved to have this bit of music from the top end. It helped me with moving about rather enthusiastically. I thanked God for such a wonderful morning.

After a few minutes all the women from the class did get out of the pool and assembled in the shower room. I soon followed. I was ready on time for Peter to pick me up. A bit after eleven we got ready to go to Dapto Shopping Centre. It took us nearly an hour to finish our shopping there. We bought some very good food and felt very happy with our purchases. However on our list were a lot more things to buy at another place. This would have taken us another hour. We decided to buy the other things on the following day, which was a Sunday. We wanted to go home and get lunch ready.

Saturday night I did fall asleep in front of the TV. When I woke up I noticed the TV had been turned off and Peter was in the other room talking to his sister Ilse on Skype. Ilse lives in Berlin where they have a great heat wave at the moment. I could hear every word Peter was saying and also every word Ilse was saying. After a while Peter came looking whether I was awake. He suggested I come over and talk to Ilse for a bit too. I love having a conversation with Ilse. I went to talk to her. There is always something to talk about with Ilse. This talk with Ilse cheered me up a lot.

More Pictures from our Visit to Melbourne, December 2014

On Boxing Day we spent some time playing scrabble Peter, very reluctantly, joined Martin and me in a couple of games. The following morning Martin and I had another game. Peter definitely did not want to join again! 🙂 Never mind. Martin and I very much enjoyed another game.

Peter took this Picture of us at the SCRABBLE Table.

Martin cooked some very good meals for us!

Martin tries to do a bit of gardening along the side of his unit.

This was a very ripe one. We made good use of it!

These are Martin's plants near the entrance door to his unit. — These are Martin’s plants near the entrance door to his unit.

Martin's balcony in front of one bedroom. — Martin’s balcony in front of one bedroom.

Martin has two bedrooms. He gave one to Peter and me. We had a side door to the balcony, which I thought was lovely! In the living room Martin has a sofa which can be made into a good sized double bed. This is were Caroline and Matthew slept when they came to stay at Martin’s place after having spent a couple of nights at Matthew’s family’s place in Boronia.

One morning, when the others had gone shopping and I was on my own, I occupied myself taking pics around the living room!

The first Month of the Year

This is one of last year's pictures when we tried to establish a bit of a herb section. Sadly it turned out that all the herbs eventually died on us. We are just not very good gardeners. — This is one of last year’s pictures when we tried to establish a bit of a herb section. Sadly it turned out that all the herbs eventually died on us. We are just not very good gardeners.

The first month of this year, where has it gone? And where has the whole of last year gone? One thing is for sure: Each month I took quite a few pictures. Looking at the pictures that I collected over all these months, I cannot but remember what I did in every of these months.

Last Friday we played Scrabble again at my place. There are usually four of us. When one person cannot make it on a Friday, just three of us play. I happen to have a picture that I took nearly two months ago when we also played at my place.

Irene, in the right of the picture, is at present very upset because her husband died recently of a heart attack. She says during the day she keeps herself pretty busy. But then in the evening, when she is sitting down and Les does not sit in the easy chair opposite hers, then she always becomes very, very sad.

This is where a funeral service was held for Les, our neighbour. We all miss him very much.

This picture was taken soon after we arrived. After a while a lot more people turned up, probably about eighty. Les had come from Hungary in the 1950s and he and Irene had been very popular with people from the Hungarian Club.

The temperature in our house is at present only about 30 degrees Celsius. But it feels rather sticky (humid) I to me. I do sweat quite a lot. This is why I keep drinking more and more water. The other day I mentioned to my friends that I believe that one should drink about two litres of water per day. One lady objected. She insisted that if you drink that much all the good stuff, that the body needs, gets flushed out! I then asked her whether it was not like this, that the poison needed to be flushed out. She still insisted that one should not drink that much water.

Friday, the 13th of December 2013

This was the last Friday before Christmas where I could play Scrabble with my friends. Early in the morning I had gone for a walk in Lakelands Park. Again I took quite a few pictures. I can’t help myself, when I have the camera with me, I usually start taking some pictures and then it just goes on and on.

More pictures of that morning some other time. I took lots of flower pictures too. But here now a couple of picture from that Friday afternoon.