getting ready for the working bee

Another weekend over.  Not much to report. Picked Dennis up at work on Friday so that we could have an early start to the weekend. Made chicken Schnitzel for dinner and then we watched TV. On Saturday morning Dennis had to do a service project for church and I headed to Mum’s place. We had a pre-working bee working bee. Mum has a valuer coming on Monday to get a value on the house to help with a loan. So we did a very rough and quick facelift. Gerd outside and I helped Mum inside. Needless to say Mum has been working around the clock all weekend. Went back there for a short while this afternoon. But not sure if I achieved much…mainly held Mum up I think!

Saturday night we attended a social event with the company Dennis works for. This is the first time we attended a work social where I didn’t know anybody. We worked together so long and most of the time we went out it was with my company where we both knew everyone. But it was still ok. Met a few of his colleagues and the food was alright too. But we headed off before dessert…getting a bit old for staying out all night!

Today we went to church. Both of us had to give a lesson at church today. Dennis for the men and I for the women. Same topic. Not my favourite topic. Was on Pornography of all things! Interestingly enough the research we did showed that this has become another sickness in today’s society which is very addictive. One person interviewed said he had been both addicted to drugs and addicted to pornography and it was much easier to give up the drugs than the porn. Now that’s saying something. One thing I remember clearly is that when Dennis and I came back from Malaysia we were absolutely shocked by the crap on TV here in Australia. The TV is censored in Muslim societies so all the bad bits are blipped out. And in the two years we were away things had gone very much downhill here in Australia. Some of the shit that is advertised is absolutely disgusting. No wonder people get addicted. Trouble is that when things deteriorate gradually you get desensitised to it. A bit like that experiment with the frogs. Some frogs were put into a pot of water which was gradually warmed up until it reached boiling point. Not one of the frogs attempted to jump out. They gradually got used to the ever increasing heat until it was so hot it killed them. That’s what evil can be like. We gradually get so used to it that it is no longer abhorrent or strange. Dennis found this poem by Alexander Pope which explains it very well:

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, and then embrace.”

After getting back from Mum’s place I did some more sorting out of stuff for eBay and then added some photos to Mum and Dad’s blobs. And translated a letter Mum found written by Dad to his sister Gretchen in 1982 which I thought was good to have in English.

Just had a successful sale on eBay! “Diatribe My” or “helenamonroe”  bought an art book that used to belong to Dad J I think she is feeling very sorry for me and trying to share some of her huge eBay profits! But thank you very much!

Looking forward to having Pete come back online. Only 2 days to go! I have it on good authority (but mum’s the word) that he was not abducted by any penguins or rats, just very busy. I also heard on the grapevine (very reliable one) that as of today he is much closer to us than you may think…but not giving anything away. I think he was rather lovesick in Adelaide….enough said!

 

Friday night

Can’t believe it’s Friday night and I haven’t updated my blob since Tuesday night! Where did the week go?

Spent one night sorting out the encyclopedias. Was missing 3 books. Finally found them in my spare room! Then made sure there was nothing inside the books (there were scraps of paper…thought their may have been the odd photo) and got rid of the dust. Then I spent an afternoon/evening unpacking 5 boxes so that I could reuse the boxes to store the encyclopedias and make it easy to carry them out of the house. Today they were finally picked up. What a todo!

Each day this week I have been heading to the post office posting books. A lot of my items have been relisted. Only 3 out of 27 are being bid on. And then last night I noticed that the bidder for 2 items sounded familiar. And yes…it was my sister! So without her…there is only 1 other bidder for the 27 items. Hope I catch a few more over the weekend.

Now that Peter has gone into hibernation seems like we are all falling asleep in blobland.

Must go back to the TV. Friday nights have become our ritual TV night. Just finished watching one crime show. And now SPOOKS is starting.

More later. May even do some more translating tonight.

 

ebay overload

Last night was the night where almost all of my listed items came to the auction end. So some of you can imagine how busy that made me. Some sold. But quite a number had to relist. So before venturing down that track I did some analysis as to how I am going…am I in infront or what. Downloaded the ebay transactions from my sellers site and manipulated them in Excel, added the final sale price to see what profit I have made. Well…at least I am making some profit. Despite the huge number of items I had to relist. Taking into consideration that I have deducted the cost of all my listed items (currently 28 are listed) it is amazing that I am ahead by $171.00. Especially considering that some of the books are selling for peanuts. Of course the encyclopedia is responsible for a big portion of that but still. So far have sold 17 items. And like I said…28 still listed.

I made the mistake of thinking that relisting was free…found out that it is not. Not quite as costly as listing the first time but ebay still slog you. So when you think about it, ebay are making quite a killing. Fees look small but everything adds up. I have so far paid ebay $61.85 in fees. But the people who are realling making a fortune are Australia Post. If you consider that each of the 17 items I sold have to be posted at either $4.50 (for items below 500 gr) or $8.10 you can see how much Australia Post are earning with all this! The postage doesn’t impact my profit because it is added to each item and paid for by the buyer. But is quite a deterrent when people are buying books. Even if the book is cheap….the postage still has to be added.

 

Nice ending to a lousy day

I have been trying to sell Mum’s encyclopedia for a while now on ebay. Had it listed as starting price 99.00. Only had watchers. When the number of watchers moved to 3 I decided to make it more interesting.  Dropped the starting price to 75.00 but also put in a BUY NOW price of 85.00. And…wouldn’t you know it….2 hours before the auction end….someone bought it!!!

Won’t go into details about the rest of the day. Too lousy for comments.

The mystery of Faith.

Last night our son came into the kitchen and told me : “I am healed. I don’t need any tranquilisers”. This is always a very sensitive topic with us and usually will lead to some sort of argument. The dilemma here is that all Christians believe in miracles and the healing powers of God. Just the way we believe can be quite different.

There are some Christians who believe that there is power in words and hence negative thinking and words can cause an effect, the same as positive thinking/declaration can cause an effect. The problem here is the way Jesus described FAITH. He said that “if you have faith, the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain be moved…..”. There are many Christians who believe that to demonstrate FAITH you need to positively affirm it and never doubt and then the healing will come. For a person who has this kind of belief, it is impossible to admit any kind of illness because this gives power to the illness and hence makes it happen or works against your  faith to be healed. And agreeing that you are sick then demonstrates a lack of faith.

My own belief system acknowledges miracles and that healing can happen spontaneously. In my life, when I have experienced this (see below), the evidence has also been spontaneous.

There is a fine line in my view between all this. You can hardly tell the world that you are healed of the flu and then still sneeze and cough and show obvious flu symptoms. I find it very difficult, in fact offputting to demonstrate that kind of faith because there appears to be a falseness to it. When God heals you, the lame can throw away their crutches and the blind can see…instantly. They don’t go stumbling about bumping into things whilst they are thanking God for their sight. They can see and thank God for their sight.

The dilmma here is that if I tell my son that I don’t believe he has been healed because I don’t see it demonstrated in his life, he gets upset and accuses us of having no faith. And in his own belief system he would be justified in doing that. And yet I can’t very well agree he has been healed because stopping to take his medication, when healing has not yet occurred, would have dire consequenses. So we live with this extremely difficult situation. I then need to inform his doctors because of the harm that can come to him if he stops his medication. And then I am in fact the source of his problems. I am responsible for calling the doctors, having him on higher doses of medication when all the time I would love nothing better than that he could go off his medication. Catch 22 situation. Sometimes you wish you could quit being a mother. But of course that is impossible. It’s a job for life. No matter where our how your children end up, if they are healthy if they are sick if they live with you or away from you if they are poor or rich if they are happy or sad you share their joys and their pains! And most of the time, you wouldn’t want it any other way!

Spontaneous healing – an example.

It was more than 10 years ago. I had broken my wrist whilst playing racket ball, a very painful experience, and had my arm plastered up. The plaster was causing me problems and I ended up getting very depressed. The sheer weight of it. And I was very busy at work (as usual) and really didn’t need this handicap. I was supposed to hold my hand up in a sling. And found it impossible to type just using my left hand. So most of the time I was using a finger sticking out of the plaster on my right hand to get around the keyboard. I bought a mouse that was like a touchpad so you could operate it with one finger and I did this with my left hand. As the day went on my arm would feel heavier and heavier and the wrist would hurt…because I wasn’t supposed to be using it.

I remember this very clearly. One Saturday morning I woke up and was sitting in bed feeling sorry for myself. Into my head came the words, very clearly: “Wake up ye that sleepeth”. They went through me like a jolt. I knew exactly what was meant. I had allowed myself to get depressed and had forgotten the power of faith and prayer. I had not even prayed about my situation just drifted along each day.

Well…I didn’t need any further reminders. I sat straight up, and put my left hand on my right arm and said a prayer of healing over my wrist. As I was praying I could feel a strong sense of heat going up the right arm. And I knew at that moment that I had been healed. I got up out of bed and using a pair of pliers, I cut off the plaster. And I thanked God for the healing. The next Monday in the lift at work someone made a comment that my plaster was gone. I told them, I prayed over the arm and it is healed. Was rather embarassing but I felt that I had to acknowledge and thank God openly for healing me. There was no further pain and the wrist was totally normal. Mind you…the story must have gone around the office. Nobody else was game to ask me what had happened to my plaster J

When I went for my checkup, I remember walking past the area in the hospital where the plaster was being cut off. And there someone was sitting and a very nasty looking saw was being used to cut open the plaster. I had to shudder thinking how easily one could cut through the arm. The doctor was surprised at how good my wrist was and even more surprised when the Xray showed absolutely no sign of the breakage.

Why are some things healed and others not? I am unable to say. Most times in my life, healing doesn’t come miraculously. I find that miracles are usually there to demonstrate the power of God. And for them to be effective you first have to agree that you are sick, in my view. Otherwise how can you thank God for healing you?

 

 

 

 

 

blobbing ads, belly dancing and dreams

We had a very nice night out last night at our old church in Mount Ev. They had a “middle east cuisine” night and had invited us to join in. Gave us a chance to catch up with old friends which was great. The event was very well attended. Our friend Dennis C gave a 30 minute presentation showing slides of the middle east with a commentary. He focused on cities in the middle east. As he has been there many times it was very well done. He is quite an expert on that and ancient scriptures.

Then there was a belly-dancing demonstration which seemed a weird thing to do for a church social. But a lot of fun was had by all. And the food was great!

Only negative thing was the long drive there and back! We drove past our old house on the way back but it was all in darkness and looks unoccupied.

I had a weird dream about that house the night before. Dreamt we all stayed there for a night. The entire family. We still had the keys. Was Dennis’ idea. I was worried sick about it because I felt we were trespassing as the house no longer belonged to us. So was carefull that we didn’t leave any traces. No idea where that dream came from!

Read Peter’s blob last night and thought it was very funny. I forgot to tell him that I have already done a few things as a result of his ads. Bought a course in “how to stop snoring”. Gave it to Dennis. It’s a huge document so I think he was a bit put off by it. And I joined another blobbing community…a writer’s community. So far has not been very successful. Then today I looked at a course for writing a book using blobs and another article on adding characteristics to your blob. Seemed a bit complicated so have not yet tried it.

 

 

family...business...bee sting (as in cakes)

I absolutely love living closer to other family members. It is so nice to “bump” into people. Dennis and I decided to go to Northlands for a little while and have lunch there. I knew Peter was visiting Mum and taking her shopping. And wouldn’t you know it…they were having lunch same time as us same food court. Now these lovely surprises NEVER happened when I was living in Mt. Evelyn. Oh..maybe not quite true. I did once or twice bump into Janine and the girls shopping at Eastlands and we did arrange to meet up with Michael, Natalie and the girls at Knox a few times…and come to think of it…I have also bumped into Kathryn and Holly at Knox the odd occasion many moons ago…even Helga … when they were living that side of town.

And going even further back down memory lane…there was that time when I bumped into Susie and Mum standing opposite Dimmy’s in Richmond. That was mid 1983 to be precise and that meeting had dire consequences. But come to think of it, it was probably a very good experience and something we all had to go through so..that gets me into story telling mode…

1983…for the first half of the year we lived in Mittagong, NSW working on a small farm that belonged to a lady who worked with catholic lay missionaries before they were let loose on the mission fields in the Kimberleys. She worked closely together with the Bishop of Broome and her property was used for 3 week training courses. We had attended such a course prior to heading to the mission in January 1981. When our two year stint in the Kimberleys finished we wanted to continue being involved but wanted to move to an area close to high schools to avoid sending Michael to boarding school. So we were offered this job in Mittagong and we took it. We had our own small house in the town and every day headed to the top of the mountain to work on the farm. Things didn’t work out too good…another long story…and so halfway through the year we headed back home to our house in East Ringwood.

One day I decided to go shopping and call in at Dimmeys in Richmond. Unbeknownst to me, Susie and Mum had the same idea. We met as I said across the road from Dimmeys, in fact waiting to cross the road. A few doors down from Dimmeys was a small café  where they served nice cakes so we headed there and had a cuppa together. And mum mentioned her dream to one day have such a place herself because she enjoyed baking so much. We got to talking about the idea and suddenly we decided considering that the 3 of us were all not working at the time, why don’t we investigate if we can start something together. We bought a paper and looked at shops to rent. We found one in Armidale. We looked at it. Mum fell in love with the shop which also had a flat upstairs. And the rest is history….Hetty’s German Cakes was born. The fact that I lived in East Ringwood and Mum in Heidelberg Heights and didn’t drive didn’t seem to be a problem to us. The fact that the shop was an electrical shop and had never been used for food production, the fact that it didn’t have a kitchen, all those didn’t worry us. After all we had been brought up to never say NO…everything is possible if you only put your mind to it. Maybe we should have been concerned when the Health Inspector told us we would not get a license for people eating in…not enough toilets. But we immediately adjusted our dreams to a takeaway shop idea. Maybe we should have been nervous when the Accountant pointed out that a hobby costs money …a business makes money and that we had to decide very quickly what was it to be ..hobby or business. My cash flow reports showed that with 2 ovens going full blast we could earn a fortune. The fact that making and selling are not exactly the same thing didn’t worry us at the time. We didn’t know until much later how hard it is to dispose of perishables. In fact harder than making them in the first place. And we didn’t understand until much later that all our competition in the area filled up their shop windows with cakes that had loads of preservatives. This was revealed by a study we did later on when we saw factory trucks deliver on a Monday and the windows being still full on the weekend. And we didn’t realise that even to “donate” leftover cake to a charity would mean we had to buy a refrigerated truck.

The first few months were fun. But then the hard grind set in. I had been away from computing for three and a half years and I still remember the feeling when I started working at the small computer school and taught people computer programming languages. A feeling of…wow….I actually like this…I actually missed this…this is what I am good at….not washing pots and pans and floors and baking lots of cakes. The odds were stacked against us. Advertising was too expensive. We tried our hand at leaflet drops but the sort of cakes we specialised in would require consumers from further afield. The area around the shop was semi industrial…office workers gave us some lunchtime trade. In the afternoons our side of the street was a clearway and people were not inclined to park around the corner. If we had all enjoyed the experience, I reckon another 2 or 3 years the business could have been successful. But it was a long shot from the nice little country café that Mum had dreamed about. We all learned a lot from the experience. We learned that having a business requires extreme dedication and your heart to be in it. No use taking up someone else’s dream because the dream wears thin when the hard work sets in. We learned that a food business has the problem with perishables. And when you bake them yourself it is even harder to throw things away. I learned that having a job is sometimes more rewarding than having your own business. In fact there can be more freedom. Unless you happen to strike it lucky and make money doing something you absolutely love doing. The feeling of knocking off at a certain time and having the weekends to yourself can be very nice. Most business people don’t enjoy that privilege. Also being able to take your annual holiday. Not stressing out when you get sick. All these are benefits one gets when being employed that unless you have worked for yourself, are really hard to put a price on and appreciate. We learned that working together with family members, especially when you are all under stress, is much more difficult than working together with strangers. A lot of people loved the cakes. And a lot of our friends benefited from the left overs! In fact one young man was yearning for “bee stings (Bienenstich)” for years afterwards and sent me a card from Germany saying that he had yet to find a bee sting that tasted as good as Mum’s. At the end of 1984 we managed to sell the business without too much fuss and loss. The only negative thing was that both Mum and I were now the owners of a bank card that we may otherwise not have had J and that sadly Mum had invested quite a bit of money up front which we were not able to recover from the sale of the business. But that is what happens to dreams sometimes. They cost money.

Dad's emails

As I mentioned in a footnote in Dad's last story, the emails in the first 6 months of 2000 were all about Dad's stories. He was so engrossed that the characters seemed to become real to him. I am amazed at how much work Harald put into editing and correcting his German and giving him feedback on his stories. He was also working on English versions but had problems because of his style of English. When he rights in german it is lighthearted and fun to read. His English is a bit more formal and doesn't flow as well.
In his emails he is constantly referring to people which I am assuming are all characters in his book or stories. And he seemed to be massproducing these! So it is quite difficult to wade through it all and extract what is relevant to what I am trying to achieve with his blog. Which is basically to paint a picture of Dad, his life and his beliefs/attitudes. Eventually I want to put them into a book form with photos and also with Harald's emails. Have just emailed Harald to ask for permission and if Harald is interested in helping with this.
I will have a look at his actual stories later and work out if these too can be published.
Now must get dressed and do something away from this PC :-)

Lazy evening

Last night Dennis and I had a lazy Friday evening. In the afternoon, after the shutter guy finally finished, I picked up Mum and quickly did the Aldi shopping. Then picked Dennis up at the station. Then dropped Peter off at the station. Peter was very excited because he had a social night out. Met up with a group of people playing D&D. First social outing for him in a very long time. He was brought home sometime after 3am! And sounded like he had an enjoyable time. I was so happy for him because he doesn’t got out much.

Then picked up Mum from where I had left her at the shops. And picked up from Mum’s place a delicious goulash which Dennis and I devoured for dinner. And then we sat in front of the box for the rest of the evening!

Slept well with our shutters down. The room was pitchblack. And it felt good leaving the windows open. Because we are so close to the Street and there are often a lot of people wandering about because of the Housing estate opposite, it felt so good to cut out the light and feel more secure.  You can leave the shutters open a tiny bit for air to get in. So they are perfect. We first came across these in Germany. Anneliese has them and we found them a very good idea. Only she has them all around the house, we decided the 3 front windows were sufficient.

Good to see the many blog entries this morning and catch up on everyone’s news.

 

Greetings from Bali - Robert

Thought I would add this cheery email to my blog so you can all see what
your uncle / brother Robert is up to! For those who didn't know...Robert
took off for Bali a week ago...spur of the moment thing!
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert
Sent: Friday, 19 August 2005 7:46 PM
Subject: Hi All Still Well

Hi Folks,

just a note to let U know that I am remarkably well, having fun and partying

hard. Just amazing really as I though I was getting too old. Seems there may

be some life left in the old dog yet.

Anyways on the downside will be back in Darwin Monday morning. Might be
looking for a new job / taxi then as I think the boss was a little pissed
off by my sudden departure. Not too fussed really, might have to look at a
change to add another page to the adventure. BTW its been over 2 years since

I left sunny Melb., been a few places since then ey.

Hope all is well down there. Not too cold and all are healthy.

Lots of love

Robert

Cold and wet here in Melbourne

Well…the front door has been open all day so that my shutter installer (John) can have power. Was sitting at my PC before and suddenly it got real cold. Been drizzling all day. Sort of day it is nice to be inside, relaxing with the heater on, a good book or movie…ahhh…one day I will get there!

 

There has been a dubious looking character hovering around outside. He first made his appearance when we were having the floor laid. Came into the front yard, then to the front door and told the floor layers they should not display their mobile phone in the window sill. Because someone might come and pinch it. I came out just as he was leaving and asked him where he was heading. He told me to the mall. I don’t know…none of us believed he was realling trying to warn us…felt more like he was casing the place.

 

Then today he made a reappearance. Was hovering in our drive around John’s truck. Then told John to be carefull that he already warned us re leaving mobile phones in view. John also felt that he was more checking the place out than being a friendly neighbour. I am glad for the shutters. Even gladder still when we finally get a proper fence put up! Still waiting on a quote for that.

 

Fixed the PC for the girls so now all that remains is to deliver it.

 

The shutters are installed…only the handles to come. I tested them out in the bedroom. It is pitchblack inside with them fully down. Will be very easy to sleep in! They are great for people who work shift!

 

Have copied Peter and added an adveritising feature to my website. My geographic map is no where near as glamorous as Peter’s. So probably a waste of time advertising on my site J

 

Last remaining bit of work inside is to install a linen cupboard. Mario has been and pulled out the old one and replastered the wall. But today I found out that the cupboard won’t be installed until the 6^th of September. So will have to live with the junk on the patio for another 10 days!

 

John is due to finish in a few minutes and then I am off to pick up Mum and go shopping. In the meantime have been taking photos for more ebay sales.

 

WOW...INSTANTANEOUS

Well..it worked..and so fast. Much quicker than going via the CREATE POST; and REPUBLISH option!

waking up

This morning I had hardly opened my eyes when the doorbell went. I thought the shutter company were coming at 9am and so had allowed myself 1 hour to get up, clean up the bedroom and make myself decent. No such luck. I was wiping the sleep out of my eyes when “John” was standing at the door full of beans and raring to go! First I had to stumble out of the house and move the car. Then I bought myself a few minutes because he had to unpack. Raced into the bedroom and took only 2 minutes to make it look decent. Then attacked the lounge. Amazing how much time you can gain when you end up in a panick!

So…by 8.10 all was accomplished that I would normally have taken the entire hour to do. And I was ready for breakfast and my morning dose of blogging. That is reading up on everyone’s news!

Was very quick this morning. Only the regulars had updates. That is Peter and Ben!

Haven’t heard a word from Natalie for ages. Lisa’s is back on track. Amy is pretty consistent. Haylee is stuck because I still haven’t delivered her computer. Will fix that today or tomorrow.

The main reason for this entry is that I am testing sending updates to my blog via email. So if you are reading it….it worked!

quiet but busy

Well I did manage to stay home today but can't say I had what I would normally imagine is a "quiet" day...with rest and relaxation. Did some washing and cleaning. Took a while to get my engin phone to work. In fact it is still not quite right. We seem to be able to make calls but when I ring the new number it doesn't connect. Waiting for the techo to get back to me.
Peter took Dad's old PC into his bungalow after I spent a fair bit of time, in vain, trying to get the G drive (a 40 gig hard disk) reformatted in a way that Windows 98 can see it. He has decided to do it himself. Don't blame him and can't say I am disappointed :-)
After much cleaning in the kitchen and leaving all the doors open all day I managed to get the burnt broccoli stink out of the house. I also managed to defrost and wash my freezer in preparation to moving the fridges back into the kitchen (they have been parked outside since we started our renovations).
Did a lot of washing and managed to get most of it dry.
Did a lot of surfing on the internet trying to find some statues I brought over from Mum's place prior to working out how much to sell them for. No luck yet so may have to go and visit some shops to get an idea.
Sent a few email messages around. Made dinner. And that's about all. Still didn't get to setting up that PC for Haylee and Melissa.
Talking of our granddaughter. On Dad's old PC came across a very nice photo of our son Michael and Haylee and Melissa. Hence I am doing a bit of showing off. (Grandmothers prerogative). Hope you like the pic. It was taken in 2003.

Quiet day at home today

Gave Dennis the car today so that I don't get tempted to go out. Wanted to have a quiet day at home and catch up with a few things:
housework...so far only managed to hang out the washing and burn a pot of broccoli. I thought I could smell something but had totally forgotten that I had put on some broccoli to steam. Was so engrossed in translating! Now the whole house stinks.
blogging....as usual..always do the things I like to do first so find that a couple of hours have gone translating a few more of dad's emails. They are very funny to read in german because he mixes up his words with english german and platt. And there are a lot of german/platt sayings that are difficult to find equivalent sayings for in english.
We have had an ongoing battle with a company who delivered a skip almost 2 weeks ago. One of the tradesmen hired it. And it was a very large one and had been filled far too hight. I have called the company 4 times to get it picked up and each time they claimed they had already picked it up. It was standing right in front of our side fence and meant the drive way was out of action for the entire time. I was getting fed up with carrying the shopping in from the street and was starting to think about what else I could do to get rid of it. Well..this morning it has finally been picked up! With all the stuff in it. Mario had stashed our old linen cupboard onto it as well and I was afraid the driver was going to leave half of the junk behind.
I have Dad's old computer here and have backed up everything from his hard disk. Our Peter is getting the PC so he can play some of his old games. But it has been configured with XP and Windows 98 so it has taken me some time to get the PC sorted out. Now I have everything copied and deleted all Dad's files so hopefully getting it converted to Windows 98 is not too much of a hassle. That's the next task for today.
And then I am installing a PC for Melissa and Haylee.
So that should keep me out of trouble today. Any spare time I have will be spent getting a few more things onto ebay! (sorry Pete)
Must dash!

Roulladen and a near death experience

The way I make Roulladen is not exactly the same way as Oma makes it. But they taste ok too. Maybe we should create a recipe blogsite for Oma where she can share all our favorite recipes? What do you think?
Well...here goes for my roulladen...and no exact measurements...sorry...do everything by feeling :-)

Ingredients:
thin slices of beef (schnitzels are good or create your own..buy a roast and cut into large thin slices)
Mustard
salt and pepper
Onions - diced finely - absolutely heaps
Bacon - diced (optional)
Gerkin quartered (Dill cucumbers) (when you quarter, cut them into strips lengthwise)
stock cubes
bread crust
string to tie up (in germany you can get special roulladen spikes for this).

The thinner the slices of beef and the bigger the better. I take a large surface and spread out as many slices as fit. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn around and again sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then take a knife and spread each slice evenly with mustard (I use german mustard).
Then take a handfull of onions and spread on each slice
Then the bacon
Then in the middle stick a quarter strip of gerkin
Now roll up each piece of beef to make sure that the stuffing doesn't fall out (need to fold over the ends a bit if you can)
Then fasten the lot...with string unless you have the small metal skewers which are brilliant for the job. I have also used long strong toothpicks but they can become dangerous if not removed properly (have a story to tell...see below)
Now heat up some oil in a large frying pan and brown all roulladen all over.
Then place all the browned roulladen into a large pot or a casserole dish (they can be cooked in the oven which is better or on top of the stove where you must watch them more)
Pour water over the frying pan (when you finished browning) to dissolve all the tasty brown bits and pieces that have been left in there and then pour this hot water over the roulladen.
Add quite a bit of stock (use beef stock or cubes) and enough water to cover them.
Add a crust of brown bread (I got this from Mum I think but have no idea what it does)
And cook the lot for about an hour and a half. Either in oven or on stove top - if on stove top then turn down to simmer. If the stock level starts to drop..top it up. Pot has to be covered.
Once they are done I usually remove the roulladen and let them cool down. It is easier to remove the string or whatever you have used to bind them together when they are cold. If they are still hot they tend to break apart.
Now thicken the stock that remains in the pot. Put the roulladen back into the stock (I use cornflour to thicken). And heat up before serving...watch out that they don't burn!
ENJOY!

Messy and fiddly to make but DELICIOUS to eat.

Now for my story:

Once I made a large pot of roulladen when I was working as chief cook and bottlewash in the Kimberleys at the aboriginal mission. To tie the roulladen together I had these miniture sate sticks - size of toothpicks but with pointed sharp ends both ends. Very easy to use. I thought I had taken them all out before I served up. We would have the food all laid out in the kitchen and people would help themselves and then go into the dining room to eat. We all waited until the priest had sat down and said grace and then we hoed into the tucker.
My eyes happend to look up just in time to see a fork heavily overladen with a giant piece of roulladen, held by our priest, make its way into his widely open mouth. But the problem was there was one of those deadly skewers sticking out in front which I am sure would have killed him! I froze for a second (do you know that feeling when you want to yell out but can't - the words just won't come?) and then screamed out...STOP...I think everyone freaked out. Needless to say, we all examined the rest of the roulladen very carefully before consuming them. And that was my story. So string is safer I suggest! Just very messy to remove.

4th generation blogger!

Haylee has really taken off with her blog! That makes the 4th generation in our family now into blogging. Must be some sort of record?

Preparations for retirement

Today I managed to spend some time thinking about how we will manage on less money. I studied our phone bill (ghastly) and made some major changes. Thanks to advise from Peter that I received some time ago I opened up an account with Engin and ordered their VoIP box so that most of our calls will now go via the internet. Their box will be connected to my ADSL router and then I will connect our handsfree phone to it and try and remember to use it to make most calls. Local calls will now be 10c unlimited also all national/interstate calls. So that should save quite a bit. I have also got $25 per month free calls to mobiles (that's half what we are spending now) so that will improve things.
I reduced my mobile plan from $80.00 to $30.00. Greedy Telstra charged me $50 to reduce my plan! And I had to make a new plan which now runs for 12 months. The other day I bought a vodaphone prepaid card which I will use once I get close to the $30.00. And then in 12 months...I will swap to the Vodafone plan for good and drop the Telstra mobile phone.
I will monitor all this for a couple of months and if the VoIP thingy works...I may apply for broadband cable and get rid of our homeline altogether. Wait and see.

Took all afternoon to sort all that out! Now I need to cook dinner.

an afternoon with the family

Am enjoying Sunday. But we have been very tired all day. Didn't sleep too good last night. Went to church this morning and had trouble staying awake. Probably due to staying up too late last night. We had dinner guests. Was fabulous. Mum cooked the food and we entertained our guests. Mum cooked Roulladen (beef olives) and red cabbage and a beautifull and very delicious black forest cake. I picked it all up at 6pm and all I had to do was cook some pasta and keep it warm until 7pm. Everyone loved the food. Was absolutely delicious and we all ate too much. Probably another reason why we didn't sleep that well.
Michael (son) and his family arrived early afternoon for a late lunch. had plenty of food left over from the night before. Had bought some home-made pasta at the Market and so I made a couple of sauces...bolognaise and seafood. Heated up the leftover roulladen and devoured what was left of the blackforest cake. Now I am tired AND full! Was good to see our granddaughters. Haylee started her own blog so have added a link to my blog. She will initially be an infrequent blogger until they get a PC and internet access. The PC is in my bedroom still in a box. Have to install it and check it out before delivering it to them.
Apart from enhoying their company, another good thing about visitors is that the house gets really cleaned! Feels so good when it looks tidy and not so crowded with junk. Pity it never lasts long in that state!

ebay mania

What a night it has been. Am trying all sorts of things via ebay:
- more books
- Mum's encyclopedia
- some DVD's
- some clothes I bought cheap today

Huge amount of effort by the time you have taken photos and entered descriptions. If they sell...will be worth it ..if not...then a lot of work for nothing!

So far I have:

out of the first 4 Items ..all sold.
Out of the next 5 books...4 sold
out of the next 5 books..1 is being bid on so far...only 2 days to go

I now have a total of 28 items for sale!

If everything sells....great..I have some room on my shelves and a bit of pocket money ! But so far it is a lot of work for a few dollars!

must head to bed...it is very late!

Nice ending to a lovely day

Sure had enough surprise visitors today. First Helga and Charlotte, then Mum and finally we picked up Stacy, Dennis' niece, at Heidelberg station and had a lovely meal at the Thai restaurant we went to a week ago with Peter,Michael, Natalie, Gerd, Ben, Haylee and Melissa. Highly recommned the place...

Tarin Thai
71 Burgundy St Heidelberg VIC 3084
ph: (03) 9457 6250 Restaurant/s

Food is delicious and the staff are extremely friendly. Very small restaurant was totally booked out on both nights we were there. Mum came with us tonight. We all loved it. Because it was wednesday night I didn't book...and we almost couldn't get a table. So if you want to try the place..make sure you book regardless of which night it is! Mind you...they also do takeawy.

Was really good catching up with Stacy. Stacy is the oldest daughter of Dennis' sister Pat who recently died of cancer. I had not seen Stacy for quite a few years. She was always either away travelling or busy working when we have been in Sydney. So was great to catch up. Stacy now works for the Dept. of Immigration. Her boyfriend is in politcs and worked for Premier Carr in NSW. He is currently out of work...considering the premier retired!

Felt good today. Had lots of energy. But still didn't get a chance to exercise. (unless you can count running around the house with a vaccum cleaner and mop). Will improve from next week!

Visitors - Helga and Charlotte

Had to get up early today (7am) to empty our hall cupboard in time for Mario and his son who have ripped it out of the wall and are currently replastering the wall behind it.

So I did manage to crawl out of bed at 7am but then sat down at this PC and suddenly it was 8am. So then between 8am and 9.30 I cleaned the kitchen, vaccumed the house, empty the hall cupboard (contents now on our patio) just in time for Mario's arrival. Then the phone rang and it was a very nice surprise indeed. Helga and Charlotte were to pay me a visit.

By the time they arrived I had even washed the floor in the kitchen, hung up the washing, put on another load and put on the dishwasher. It's amazing what can be done in a very short amount of time when there is not time..and what takes forever to do when there is plenty of time!

Was nice having Helga and Charlotte with us. The spent a couple of hours here and then Charlotte looked tired but was not comfortable enough here to go to sleep so Helga drove off again. I have forgotten how much stuff one has to pack to take a baby anywhere. Helga had the boot full. Bags of toys, change of clothes, prams, blankets, etc. By the time you add getting ready, driving here and back, packing up again and unpacking at home to the 2 hours...you would have an entire days effort. I was reminded of when Peter was 6 weeks old. I brought him and Michael (then 3) from Gladstone to Melbourne for a 6 week holiday with Mum. And we went by train from Gladstone. Had a bassinet with me and cloth nappies. We got caught out at Gimpy. There was a flood and the train had to spend 24 hours in the station. I was lucky having a baby. The local Salvation Army captain took us into his house, fed us and gave us a bed for the night and the chance of a hot shower. Then the local chemist donated some paper nappies...first time I had paper nappies...because I only took a few nappies with me and they would not have lasted the extra 24 hours. When finally we took off again we went to Brisbane. I remember lugging everything including the kids across a road and a bridge to get from the northbound to the southbound railwaystation in brisbane. I had with me all our clothes and some food. I can't for the life of me remember how I managed. From Brisbane it was to Sydney and there I changed trains for Melbourne. I was breastfeeding Peter at the time. And because of that (and the fact that people were not comfortable having a lady breastfeed in public) the conductor gave us a small compartment to ourselves! By the time I arrived in Melbourne I smelt as though someone had vomited all over me...from the breast milk leaking and not being able to have showers for a few days!
I guess I was young, strong and full of energy!
Mum has arrived so I must dash. More later!

I'm ok

Just thought I'ld put a quick update in before I crash. Survived this morning's procedure and am home again. Apart from a splitting headache and feeling woozy I am feeling fine. Must be ok. Had sandwhiches for morning tea and a big mac for lunch!
Won't get the results until to morrow but the nurse told me there is nothing to worry about! Dennis is picking up Mum who will stay with me this afternoon. House arrest until tomorrow night only because of the anasthetic.

Survived monday

Today wasn't as bad as I expected. Had a pleasant surprise when Mum arrived. She walked from the Mall. Now that would never have happened in Mt. Ev!
Roof is now definately finished and we have a giant skip in our drive full of the rubbish. Wednesday we get a new linen closet built. And apart from the shutters and a possible fence that is definately it! I will be so glad when I can get into a routine.
Welcome to Em and Holly! Nice to read what you are up to.
Must dash....bed time.

The Clock - Die Uhr

the following poem/song was written in German by Johann Gabriell Seidl. It is one of Mum's favourites and I have had a go at translating it. Mum also said that Dad used to sing it. Came across it whilst cleaning up. That's why housework is so slow. There are just too many distractions!

I carry whereever I wander
A clock with me constantly,
How many seconds have beaten
Exactly I can see.

A very great Master
Artfully drives it’s cogs
Even though it’s chime doesn’t always
Grant every foolish request.

I wished it would hasten
Many a longwinded day
I wished it would sometimes
Have slowed somewhat it’s pace

During my joys and my sorrows
In storm and in rest
Whatever life had to offer
It rhythmicly beat its best

It beat at my fathers coffin
It beat at the bar of my friend
It beat on love’s joyful morning
and when at the altar I wed.

It beat at the childs sweet cradle
It beats, God willing, much more
When better days arrive
That my soul is longing for.

And those days when it faltererd
And threatened to stop it chimes
The Master always wound it
Generously one more time

But would one day it stay still
Then I am afraid it is done
No one apart from it’s Master
Will make the silent clock run.

Then I will join the Master
Who lives near the end so far
Outside away from this planet
where eternity starts.

Then to him I’ll return it
With thankful and childlike pleas
See Lord, I did no damage
Quite on it’s own it ceased.

a break from translating!

I didn't realise translating could become addictive. I guess I am really enjoying reading dad's email messages. And can't stop myself from getting them translated so that they are available for everyone. I feel like we have been given a great present! And it makes up in part for loosing Dad so soon after my retirement.
I wanted so much to sit down with him and record his stories. Even though I saw so much of him this year, it was not possible to discuss his life. He needed all his energy to stay alive. It was very hard for me to pray that God spare him any further suffering because selfishly I wanted to hang on to him. But I prayed despite my own feelings that he be either healed or quickly released.
When I read his emails I can see him sitting there ...at his PC ...grinning away. I found this picture on his hard disc!
Well..now I must drag myeslf off to do some work around here! I also have to start medication in preparation for the medical test I have to undergo tomorrow. Not looking forward to it! Was told to spend the rest of the day very close to the toilet. More later.

We have a new blogger

Today I spent some time setting up Dad's old PC and making a copy of his files. In the process I found some of his old email messages that he sent to Harald and decided that I would set up a blog for Dad...even though he can't add any stories, I will add them as I extract them out of his writings.

You will find a link to his blog under my links! And I hope you all enjoy the first story I added on Dad's behalf.

Other than that I cooked. Bought some fresh sardines yesterday which I baked in oil. We had garfish for dinner. Was delicious. I also bought a new screen for my PC (flat panel) which I installed this morning. And we drove to Pascoevale to put a deposit on the security shutters. Made lunch for Stuart and Paul who finished our patio and most of the roof. Only a few things left for Stuart to do during the week...and he also will remove all the rubbish.

Tonight Dennis and I watched our Saturday shows....Inspector Limley Mysteries followed by Frost. I found 2 hours of detective stories as much as I could handle hence worked on Dad's PC after Inspector Limley was finished. We enjoy the british detective series. Saw the end of Frost which also looked good.
Am feeling much better tonight. Still some discomfort but I am sure by tomorrow it will back to normal.
Just noticed the time! I find the time slips by awfully quickly when I am translating! Better head to bed.

Not so nice

Well I guess we need to share the good along with the bad. Yesterday didn't end all that well. I have a recurring health problem which reared it's ugly head and ruined my afternoon and evening. Often it requires hospitalisation to fix it but I tried without that this time and I am feeling a bit better today. But Dennis just reminded me that our specialist told me last time that one of the reason it recurrs once it starts again is because it doesn't properly get fixed up. That is only possible via a sojourn in a hospital so I am still not totally out of the woods. Don't want to go into gory details.
I am having a test done in hospital on Tuesday which may shed some extra light. So hopefully I will be ok until then. So....I am resting and not eating much - which can't harm me in any case :-)
Had a quote done for security shutters yesterday. Extortionate though they will be ..considering the small size of the windows...we have decided to go ahead with them. We are only covering the windows facing the street. Will make me feel safer but also assist with keeping the heat out in summer.
Stuart and Paul have just arrived to finish our roof and patio. And hopefully to clean up the rubbish. So that should really make us feel like we are back to normal.
This afternoon we will get a quote for PVC fencing. Not sure if we will go ahead with that now or leave it for a while.
Dennis is still enjoying his new job. But he likes the weekends even more!
Had a good shopping spree at the market. Bought lots of fish which I will have to prepare today. Trying to cook my own sardines...have been living on sardines on toast for breakfast ...they say that sardines are very good for you and also contain calcium! Also found a good stall that sells nice lamb. We have swapped to lamb mince. We like the taste better than beef.

Rainy day in Melbourne

Not much to report today. Was a cold and wet day here in Melbourne. Hopefully the new paint on our roof didn't wash down the drain!
Had the maintenance guy come out today to fix our new kitchen drawers. Some were a bit loose. He seemed to know what the problem was and checked all the others whilst he was here. So hopefully they will be ok now.
Dennis and I had a lazy night watching another Inspector Morse story. Lying on the couch with the heater going fullblast. There was a time when Dennis would be watching on his own whilst I was on the phone with colleagues in Europe, Asia or the US. I am beginning to feel relaxed. Certainly appreciate having the evenings back!
Tomorrow I am getting a quote for some security shutters for our front windows. On Saturday we are getting a quote for PVC fencing. And Stuart and son are expected to come and finish putting the roof back over our patio. That should complete the roof. Next week I expect Mario to come and rebuild our linen cupboard and that ...apart from some new lights in the family room....is definately it!

Dream

Had a very strange dream the other night. Dreamt Mum and I were travelling overseas. Occasionally Peter D was with us too. Problem was we had too much luggage and my dream had us standing in front of various lifts trying to get to train platforms so that we could catch the train to the airport. But the lifts never had enough room for all our luggage. So there was this dilemmna ...what could we do. We couldn't take the bags down one at a time because then nobody could mind them at the other end. Was a very frustrating dream and I think it is warning me to travel light when we go to germany later in the year :-)
And the other thing was that we were constantly loosing Peter. He kept wandering off and in the end we missed the plane! As we had not intended to take Peter not sure what the message is here!
So Mum....take heed. Very little handluggage and one suitcase each....that is not too heavy :-)

3 new stories translated for Mum

I added 3 new translations to Mum's english blog. These were from the german site that Peter had put in as drafts for me. Two of them are similar to previous stories but more detail and one is new.
Have now received payment for the other 2 ebay items. Posted them off! So that was actually a very profitable exercise given that I had no further use for the books and was wondering what to do with them.
Had the first coat of paint put on our roof today. Looks like a new roof already!
Must dash. Have to take Peter to his doctor and then I have a doctor's appointment myself.

Potatoe Pancakes - or Roesti as the Swiss call them

2 large potatoes
1 small onion
1 egg
handfull of flour
pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg

oil for frying

Peel potatoes and onion grate half using very fine setting (or vitamise in blender with egg) grate the other half using rougher setting on grater mix together with egg, flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg heat oil in frypan add a few spoons of mixture to frypan and flatten into pancake
fry until well browned and then turn fry until well browned on other side serve with:
tomato sauce or
salad or
or apple sauce

Quiet Tuesday

To force me to stay home I gave the car to Dennis for the day! Slept in and felt much better when I woke up. Then found out that 2 ebayers had already paid for their items. To make sure that I get a good ebay reputation I quickly packed the books and walked over to the Mall to post them. So I can also claim 30 minutes exercise in walking to the mall, around it and back! Updated ebay with the payment received and posted statuses. Then to make it really friendly I also sent a personal email to each of the two that had paid so promptly and left them some good feedback. Hope that will induce them to leave me some good feedback so that other people will feel comfortable buying from me! What a rigmarole!
Had a phonecall from Dad's doctor (the one I met at the repat the day before) and he confirmed again that all the comments he had heard re autopsy point to MSA. He told me he will never forget Dad as he learned a lot from him. Both medically and also from a personal perspective. Was very impressed with Dad's courage and his willingness to remain positive when all seemed hopeless. Also said again what a gentleman Dad was. We will hear more once the written report is available.
At some stage I began to panick and realised that if I was going to teach a bunch of young men how to cook Potatoe pancakes I better get moving. So started with producing a recipe to hand out. Then peeled an enormous number of potatoes. Decided to make the mixture myself so that we could cook enough pancakes to feed them all and give them a taste. So had to put together the raw ingredients for the demonstration and also all the utensils and frying pans for the fryup. Decided to make enough mixture to also feed Dennis and Peter before leaving.
Dennis arrived shortly after 5....Takes only 15 minutes by car. Then we went and picked up Gerd's car (Dennis had a meeting to go to so we needed 2 cars) and Mum. Then fed everyone pancakes at home. Then grabbed all the prepacked bags and Mum and I headed to the church.
I had asked them to have someone there at 6.30 so that I could set up. We arrived shortly after 6.30 and all was pitchblack. There were a small group of young people in the foyer sitting in the dark. Mum and I went through the dark hall and found the kitchen which was also dark. We found an area in the hall that was lit up so found Mum a chair to sit on whilst I investigated further. None of the lightswitches I tried seemed to work and it took quite a while until one of the men turned up and got us some light. So ...we were late getting started. However all was set up fairly quickly. There were 2 other ladies, one demonstrating a South American dish ...Sort of like samosas (curry puffs) and one showing how to make your very own marshmallow (an American).
I plugged in my frying pans ready to get started and oh no!!!! No OIL. Now anyone who has tried to make potatoe pancakes will know that OIL is the most important ingredient...After the potatoes. You have to literally pour the stuff into the pan. They are probably more deepfried than fried. By now the young men had all turned up so I quickly negotiated myself to be 2nd on the list of demonstrators and raced out by car to find somewhere to buy oil. Lucky for me there was a petrol station around the corner and amongst all their caltex (oils aint oils) specials they also had 2 bottles of olive oil which I grabbed. Headed back and was still plenty of time to get started.
Was great to have Mum there who promptly took over the cooking of dozens of pancakes whilst I tried to demonstrate in between the curry puffs and the marshmallows. In the end we all got through and most of the pancakes were devoured. And the homemade marshmallow tasted yummy but by watching the complicated cooking method I have decided not to try making it myself!
For those who are interested I will post the recipe for Potatoe Pancakes but remember it is to feed 1 person so will need to increase the ingredients if you are very hungry. And this is a very simple recipe designed for our young men when they hit the mission field and are destitute! Mum has a much better recipe for the more adventurous!
Love, Inge.

ebay success story

Well the auctions for my first 4 items have been completed and all 4 books sold. Some for much more than I expected. Now I will see how the payments progress and finally how much ebay will charge. I have bought satchels for easy posting. Have another 4 books listed and tomorrow will try some other things.

Today I did some housework, went out with Mum. She had to have an ultrasound of the heart. Results won't be known until end of the month when she visits her specialist. It was quite a long process. Mum was in there for 45 minutes.

I bumped into one of Dad's doctors who told me that verbally he had heard it confirmed that Dad was suffering from MSA not Parkinsons. MSA stands for Multiple System Atrophy and it is also known as Shy Drager. It is a rare disease that not much is known about as yet. They don't believe it is passed on in our genes but think more that it is environmentally caused. Once the final results are printed out this doctor will call me and go through them. There is quite a bit of information on MSA on the internet. The one thing that stands out is that even though some of the symptoms are similar to Parkinsons, this disease progresses much more rapidly and causes all those other symptoms Dad was suffering from: noisy breathing (called stridor) and the muscle wasting in the legs (muscular atrophy) and also the fainting when his bloodpressure became very low on standing.

Was very tired today so tomorrow is a sleeping day. Will stay home and rest as much as possible.

Exercise: hate to say it but zilch.