perth’21-2 – e

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14.February and so on…

So, the festivities are over for now, the city is still pretty quiet, temperature (fever) is no longer taken, but care is still taken to ensure that you can be reached in case of an emergency by leaving your details at the entrance.

And apart from making quark, I pass the time by moulding balls. The first ones turned out too soft, but when dipped in chocolate they become nice and crispy on the outside, the next ones are too hard and dry, but when cut in half and then stuck together they have the right consistency

The latest, I’ve finally dared to try ginger beer, 4 bottles for now. Tastes a bit like apple juice, but still delicious. The only thing I didn’t expect: Gerhard drinks it too. ( an unbeatable offer -G. )

The cold days caused by the foothills of a cyclone (went down to 11° at night) (…it’s midsummer…-G.) are over and it’s getting warmer again.

Now comes the biggest clunker: I’ve been trying for a few weeks to find out what’s wrong with me (yes, I’ve been trying for years ;-))…. -Nothing helped, even the best recipe Gerhard once brought back from Uzbekistan : vodka with salt, nothing helped. Now I’ve figured it out: lactose intollerant and I’ve just made a batch of fresh „quark“ 1. we eat it every morning for breakfast and 2. I was just about to make a key lime and I’ve already bought 1kg of fresh yoghurt. Luckily I had just discovered my love of Parmesan (old cheese is fine), so there is still some left over.

Yesterday we went for a walk past a delicious ice cream parlour and just as we had been standing in the queue for a while, we said, „Gosh, I can’t eat ice cream“. Luckily they had 3 vegan flavours among the 24 flavours, unfortunately not quite as tasty, but it worked. I came up with this as neither vodka with salt nor antiviral tea, fasting, nothing sweet, raw food, EM tablespoon wise (but it’s just not the original anymore, too often reprocessed). And who came up with it again: one day it was better, Gerhard remembered. Yes, the milk must have run out that day. And so it was. Now I’ve also started making vegan milk and have found a very tasty recipe. You can buy almond milk, rice milk and soya milk everywhere here, but 1. it contains almost only water and thickeners (e.g. almonds 3% per 1 litre). You pay a lot and you’re stuck with the packaging.

That’s a joke anyway. There is hardly any recycling in WA. On the packaging it says: Please dispose of in an environmentally friendly way (only not how) or return to the supermarket if they have a device for disposal (of course they don’t).

It’s exactly the same with the bottles. On some of them it says: if you bring them back and they are set for it, you get 10 cent (of course nobody is set for it)

There is no rubbish here, it’s called landfill and it took us a while to get our heads round it, it’s probably used to plug up the holes left by the mining companies and as there are so many of them, waste avoidance is not an issue in WA. There is an incredible amount of plastic waste here, the likes of which we have never seen anywhere else, and it’s hard to do anything about it. When archaeologists dig thousands of years from now we will be classed as the plastic age.

So now I have to make sure that I get my milk intolerance sorted out.

As the saying goes: if it is not curable, it only means that conventional medicine has nothing to offer, but fortunately there are other possibilities.

So it seems to be not only milk intolerance, but also wheat. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. At first I thought it was gluten.

So I realise that it’s not as bad as it first seemed, it just opens up new possibilities. Now I make spreads from tofu, more herbs (why do I have a huge pot of basil that never stops growing and even attracts bees to the 10 hive), with sunflower seed flour, olive oil and lots of spices. Then there’s coconut milk, coconut cream and even sweet condensed coconut milk, so I’m going to try key lime with tofu soon – I’m already looking forward to it.

Opera in the park

This concert takes place every year and is organised by the city of Perth. Nevertheless, you needed to register because of Corona, as participation was limited. We had already registered in January and were put on the waiting list. After we were no longer expecting it, the surprise came shortly before we were allowed in. As this was also the 30th anniversary year, the event was very elaborate and a pleasure to attend and also within walking distance from here, which was very pleasant as it didn’t start until 8pm.

Chairs were distributed across the large car park in social distancing mode. In addition, there were large monitors on which the concert could also be seen better by the more distant visitors. The changing stage design, which was projected three-dimensionally onto the stage, was particularly impressive! -G. )

I bought a new face cream. After 8 days you should see the first results. Tomorrow is the day. I’m already excited and can hardly wait to look in the mirror tomorrow.

I looked in the mirror. I don’t think the 8 days are over yet. Sometimes a burka wouldn’t be bad. ( Have now made the mirror blind – works great …. -G. )

Back to my new life: The only thing I really struggle with is the delicious quark, I have to control myself. We do it like this now, I only go to the breakfast table when the quark has been cleared away and Gerhard makes it himself. I’ve also started focussing more on smoothies again, so I can put everything healthy in there that Gerhard usually refuses. (You’re constantly being tricked when you’re away from home -G. )

Fitness in the Park

Have now discovered fitness equipment in a park, only 10 minutes by free bus.

And I’m very proud, for whatever reason I suddenly managed to do sit ups. I could hardly believe it myself. And despite doing abdominal exercises every day, I had really sore muscles. That showed me that I wasn’t doing enough. I now easily do 50! We (?) will now go there every 2 days.

You simply feel better when you make an effort.

;-))

Gerhard’s eyes have suddenly deteriorated rapidly. We ordered drops from the USA, but it took a while. We also came across Dr. Rath’s Vit. C again, which I discovered to be the best after a lot of research, after all he worked with the „vitamin pope“ Sinus Paulus and runs his vitamins „non-profit“ for a foundation.

So no more travelling by car for the time being. But I’ve always wanted to travel around with just a rucksack, bus and train.

27. February   Wine festival

At the beginning of Jan. we had already registered for the wine festival at the harbour in Fremantle. I also got lactose tablets in a pharmacy that you take just before you eat dairy products. My thoughts were on a nice cheese and ham platter. The food there was unfortunately not as suitable and the usual as at any colourful market, but the wine was very digestible and I didn’t have to resort to beer. They were all small vendors with excellent wines, because most of the wines here don’t suit me at all, the sulphur content is too high – who knows what else. Gerhard also enjoyed sampling some gin.

Before we made our way back, we went for a walk by the water, Gerhard took me by the hand so that I wouldn’t trip, across a grassy bank and before I knew it Gerhard jumped down there when I was just thinking no, that’s far too high, me firmly by the hand, so I had to jump too, Gerhard looks at me to see if I’m going to make it, at that moment he stumbles, still holding my hand, we both fly over the pavement and I land with my head in the gutter, which is why, surprisingly, my nose didn’t get any damage, but there was probably glass there and it was dripping from my forehead and how could it be otherwise? Onto my bright linen trousers. Now we were both sitting there, people came running and we just managed to stop them from calling an ambulance. After we’d filled up two speed wipes, we remembered that there was an ambulance in the hall that was happy to finally have something to do. The cut on his forehead wasn’t long, but it was deep and they really wanted to have it stitched up. I was able to convince them to glue it together and promised to make me a fringe if it didn’t work out.

I left it for 2 days, then put a fresh piece of aloe vera on it and today on Friday there is hardly anything left. I also put a piece of aloe on my burnt finger, which was healing and the skin is already closed. If you haven’t had anything for a long time, you often forget the good things. It’s usually Gerhard who reminds me.

Then it rained cats and dogs for 4 days and as we live on the top floor and don’t have a roof over the „tiny balcony“, we can’t open the door, our only „window“, as it rains right in. You can tell it’s approaching autumn, you can already see the autumn fashions in the shop windows – it’s awful.

Art exhibition on the beach

Saturday was Multi – Kultifest and yesterday, Monday, we took the opportunity, as it was nice and warm again, not to say hot, and went to our beach. The surprise was big: a great art exhibition on the beach. People were strolling around in their Sunday clothes and this time we felt very out of place on the beach in our swimwear.

30. March   A Night On Bayview  (a musical romance under the stars)

Today we went to an open air concert of the WASO (Western Australian Symphony Orchestra) which had been postponed by 6 weeks due to Covid. The distance was marked on the lawn with white circles, so we had a good view, as no one could squeeze in between.

And we were lucky, although the concert didn’t start until 7pm, we were there at 5.30pm and it was already quite full. The concert takes place every year and was incredibly elaborate with the whole orchestra. This time it was in a suburban park with luckily good bus connections. It was a pleasure and didn’t finish until 21:30.
Food stalls were there, alcohol was allowed to be brought along, which is often the case here in WA, i.e. you can also bring your picnic, which is quite relaxed here, and children are always very welcome.

Today we went to a vegan market on the Swan River. I was curious to see a stall that made tempeh. What do they do with it? Convinced that it was healthy, I once again didn’t think about wheat, so I ate the lumpy tempeh, which was also dripping with fat. Conclusion: vegan is not necessarily healthy.

Good friday

One of the few public holidays where everything is closed. As we don’t know how many more hot days there will be, we went to the beach again today, but you can already tell that the water is getting colder. And what we didn’t expect was that the public holiday and school holidays meant that it was busier than ever before and we had to look for a place to eat, even though the snack bar had already gone into hibernation and was closed.

Eastersaturday

Today I finally made my lactose and wheat free key lime pie. I bought a square cake tin, firstly it looked so small and secondly I didn’t want to block our bread pan for so long and thirdly it’s easier to store in the fridge. Then it started: firstly, I realised that it doesn’t have a lid and that I would have to make the base in the horrible oven, so I’m glad that it’s working more or less on these ceramic plates. Has anyone ever seen a master chef cook on something like this? NO. And then without instructions. Well, the base was a bit firm, then this time I actually wanted to put an egg in it, but had forgotten to buy new ones, luckily I remembered banana, but then I had probably left the base in too long and when you turn off the oven it stays hot for what feels like hours. The filling of silken tofu, coconut milk, lemon juice and lemon jelly pudding was so thin that I was relieved when it had set by the next morning. The Easter eggs were no problem, the balls were made egg-shaped instead of round, the only problem was the chocolate icing. If I put the balls in the freezer beforehand and then dip them in the chocolate, they set immediately. At the moment it’s so hot again that this doesn’t work and I have to wait forever with one ball after the other until they are firm and then put them back in the freezer.

But if you look at our Easter table, it still looks quite successful, doesn’t it?

The eye drops must have got stuck and Gerhard now has an appointment with the ophthalmologist next week.

And I’m eagerly waiting for us to finally get to Thailand to see the dentist I was so enthusiastic about. Hopefully she’ll still be there. I’ll have to enquire.

Gerhard went to the ophthalmologist today and came back completely relaxed. So we have found the right one among the masses (levelled out). It will be done at the end of the month.

And after 4 months, the police clearance certificates from Bonn have finally arrived. (and couldn’t find anything – sometimes you get lucky…; -G.)

Here we have another picture of the One-mile-jetty in Carnarvon, which is now historic, as it was completely destroyed by a terrible cyclone on 12 April. However, even then it was forbidden to enter due to dilapidation, but a donation box was set up to renovate it again.

In some places, up to 70% of all houses were destroyed in the cyclone. Fortunately, all caravans were asked to leave the area beforehand. It was a section by the ocean that we enjoyed travelling along several times.

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