A Red CUBIFA XI

A Red CUBIFA X
A Red CUBIFA IX
A Red CUBIFA VIII
A Red CUBIFA VII
A Red CUBIFA VI
A Red CUBIFA V
A Red CUBIFA IV
A Red CUBIFA III
A Red CUBIFA II
A Red CUBIFA I

Can "Y"ou Believe It´s Friday Again?

1999: Lazy Letter

I was ever too lazy to fill out and send this "Lazy Letter", can you believe this?!
Today I´d fill it out this way, I guess, the "to"-options have minimized somewhat, sadly:

I didn´t check "Ayers Rock" because... we didn´t go. We´ve been there in 1995.
It was beautiful and awesome to see.

1995

But it was too much a tourist attraction and many people behaved like jerks.
Like the perfectly healthy German family in a Britz-van (what else) parking on the disabled parking lot.
Sometimes you really prefer to let people not know you´re German...

We just sped through this time and there was no need to pay anything.

Instead we took this route:

It was beautiful but also an odd feeling to travel through Aboriginal Land, to have rules like those.
It felt like we did something forbitten, at least I did not feel welcomed.

It was a relief to be out, kinda.

Let me introduce you to this:

You say it´s yummy, it´s healty?
I agree - but this can can do more - it can bring you home from the middle of nowhere via Gravel Road even if your exhaust is about to leave you.
And it can introduce you to the staff of the Giles Weather Station and make you get a free tour, too!

Yep, on Giles Road our exhaust decided he´s very tired and nearly fell off.
Clever as Ingo is, he saw through the can and gave the exhausted exhaust a bed, kinda.

It worked! But we were more than loud, as you can imagine.
We stopped at the entrance of the weather station for a break - it´s a long way to their door, but in the silence of the Outback, they heard us anyway and came to see who´s there, we chatted and got a tour!

So... make sure you always have a 0.5 l can of this yummy veggie juice with you :-)

It helped us out aaaaall the way to Leonora - that´s some 900 km after all!

I really wonder, if the population of Roper Bar has risen?

I really liked the Outback where you see so many people, you greet each other ;-)

One thing in that lazy letter is definitively wrong, though - the tick on: "I´ll be coming home when" - we weren´t done, we just didn´t know.
It´s really, really sad Red´s blog wasn´t around back then!
We had all the time we wanted as long as the money wouldn´t have run out.
I´d finished studying and Ingo´d quit his job, there was no pressure whatso ever.
We lived in the car, this beautiful huge car:

We used free (usually cold) showers, mostly stayed overnight on rest areas for free. Most of the time Ingo cooked, no dining out and if so it was Pizza Hut or Chicken Treat - the money would´ve lasted for waaaay longer.
A chance of a lifetime - and we broke up way too early!

But I´m thankful we had the chance to do it at all. Twice.

CUBIFA – What´s That Noise?

CUBIFA, really it is Friday again! The week just sped by! No Red one again, though. Not that I´ve got no more to tell.
But weird things happen and since a long time I slept a night through and was woken by a strange noise – the clock!

It was kinda weird yesterday, I expected noises like stuff being broken, but that didn´t happen, luckily, my Panama-cup wouldn´t even have had to be moved.

It started at work.
I overwrote entries I generated on my Mum´s birthday, September the 19th . I overwrote them with the date of Ingo´s birthday and they are valid till Bro´s birthday (or till they´re overwritten again).
I´m so glad little Niece wasn´t in a hurry and was not in time in this world. Otherwise would´ve been just yet another family-member born on 19th… Or as another friend as well. I tend to mix up the months or forget a birthday this way, had all happened! 19th, 26th… each month you get them, right?

For the first time this year Ingo´s parents (pic above, with Ingo) came over for a visit.
Yeah, it´s some whopping 60 kms one way… ok, to be fair it ain´t easy with all the construction sites and Braunschweig has a rather weird system of highways. They always got lost. But now his Dad found a proper way and said next season – they´ll go to Spain over winter (yeah, lucky them!) – they gonna come over more often.

Am I glad they left Frida at home.
Yep, Frida. Not my my dear, late Grandma, but their new dog.
They keep naming dogs like that. The one they had before was named Hilde – named like both their Mum´s/Ingo´s Grandmas.
She´s a boxer, a rather large dog and our condo is but 85 m² with many open shelves in the right height…
So… a good idea to not bring her along!

Sadly they also forgot to bring the pics of Heini.
Heini was a Northern Mockingbird that fell out of the nest as a baby-bird and was raised by Ingo´s Dad.
He could say “Guten Morgen, Peter”, “Hallo Peter”, "Heini", “Komm her” (come over here) – he used to combine that with picking worms, how funny is that?!!!
He could imitate the noise of the digital clock and “sing” the first line of the song “Alle Vögel sind schon da” (all birds are there).
How cool, huh? Next time we´re over there I have to remember to ask for the pics!

They brought along some cake.
And coffee, mild one, guessing right Ingo´s got only strong one. Guessing further right, we don´t have their special milk for coffee, so they got that in their bag as well.
We´re bad hosts, right? ;-)

And that cake… oh, my.
I was trying to be polite and had a little piece of each.
For 4 hours I didn´t manage to get rid of that taste, despite eating salami and all! Never again will I eat “sugar-cake”, I tell ya!

It was a nice arvo, though, after a rather… awkward hello-hug.

It was like looking into the future, seeing ourselves in 30 years.
How they treat each other is the way we treat each other. Calling each other by their name, no nick-names or like my parents did, calling each other Mutti and Papi, in front of us “children”, ugh!
They are fit, look good, both have heaps of hair on their heads :-)
Getting older means changes, though. I remember Perth 2006, Christmas. I had Ingo´s Dad on the phone while Ingo was searching for more money and I swear, he sounded exactly like Ingo, it was weird.
Now his voice has changed.

I hope some of those things are going to happen to Ingo as well: Getting less loud! Calming down! Reflecting more.

Ingo´s Mum ´d asked me how to send pics via Yahoo and don´t you believe how quickly you get married over here?
She sent me one, saying “your Hubs at age 3” ;-)

I have no idea why I slept through the night for the first time since I don´t know when.
Maybe they´re some kind of “parents” to me, too, after all?

This morning I heard the new song from Passenger for the first time, “holes”. If this doesn´t fit in, huh?

"Said we've got holes in our hearts, we've got holes in our lives
we've got holes, we've got holes but we carry on ..."

Pic: My parents at their silver wedding anniversary.

It sure did hurt to see how life could´ve been for my parents, but never was.
Being together, being retired, spending the winter in Spain, seeing the Grandchild growing up…
Without the last I hope at least this is in for Ingo and I some time.

But for now we were „joking“, we need to take care about the winter-tyres, when we come back from Perth it is winter.
Yah. 4 C this morning, the car warned me!

But now the sun is shining- happy Friday :-)

A Red CUBIFA X

A Red CUBIFA IX
A Red CUBIFA VIII
A Red CUBIFA VII
A Red CUBIFA VI
A Red CUBIFA V
A Red CUBIFA IV
A Red CUBIFA III
A Red CUBIFA II
A Red CUBIFA I

Can "Y"ou Believe It´s Friday Again?

They have sunsets like this every night here…

1995

...says a little note on this postcard.

Well, they did.

1995

When we came to Darwin in 1995 it was no worries to stay overnight near Lake Andrews, where there are free public toilets and showers – where I nearly touched a redback once – a very good experience that made me look way more carefully...
As long as you behaved, all was good, we weren´t the only travelers staying there for quite a while.

When we came back in 1999 already on the way to Darwin a Ranger warned us, wild camping isn´t allowed and fined and a leaflet reminded us, it´s not “good” for nature if you stay overnight on a rest area. Um… not good?

1999

The first night at “our old place” we got a visitor we never heard of before: The Night Patrol. They said, this time we warn you, next time we fine you $200…

I mean… we make no noise or rubbish, we don´t disturb anyone, still we leave money in town, we eat, we drink, we visit museums and all.

We wanted to see the beer can regatta, which was two weeks ahead.

So, instead of paying I don´t know how much per night, side by side with (often) noisy campers, we decided we prefer our own airstrip :-)
Yes, we drove some 50km one way and some days went to nearby hot springs instead.

1999 on the way to Darwin. "Give them a break, use left lane" - funny to see when you spent weeks and weeks in the Outback :-)

Still I certainly love Darwin, don´t get me wrong!
The wonderful atmosphere at the Mindil Beaches, the shopping malls, the yummy spinach-cheese pies they had in 1995, hmmm… I always took two, had one for lunch right away and let the other sit in the car at the window, was still very warm for supper. Sadly that deli had closed down when we came back in 1999.

1999

The Fanny Bay Goal Museum…
That was funny… certainly we were the first there in the morning, so I was being first in all places. When I entered a cell in the maximum security prison – I had to turn sideways, so narrow was the door – I turned around the corner… there were clothes from an inmate, thrown on the bench as if he was still there.
In the first sec I panicked a little, turned around and stood right before Ingo, who couldn´t have gotten out, cause some more visitors blocked the small door!

Sorry if I ruined the effect for you, but I have to say: Very well done by the staff! :-)

1999 - on the way to the airstrip.

The Museum of Northern Territory… If you haven´t already you have to see the exhibition on Tracy.
At first you see pics of Darwin before. You walk by a living room scene with a table I´d rather say 50´s style, magazines from the 70´s on top, a decorated Christmas-tree, and an old radio playing Christmas songs.
Then you come to a cabin with a warning and the info that the exit is on the other side.
It´s pitch-dark in that small room and you hear original recordings of the night Tracy struck.
It was awful – if Ingo wouldn´t have been with me, I´d panicked!
When you get out you see pics of after Tracy. Just plain horrible.
It´s a relieve then to see the Aussie humor: A sea wasp in black and yellow with wings, above the water. ;-)

1999

The beer can regatta wasn´t worth the wait.

1999

But I still have to grin when I think of the elderly man who tried to safe us.
We were on the way to the deep garage in Casuarina. Our car ...

1999, Great Central Road

...fit in the first 3-5 rows, then it was too big. We knew that. Ingo drove rather fast.
The man saw the size of the car, the yellow number-plate and started waving “no!”. Guess he kinda heard a crash that never happened ;-)

There at the cinema we saw “Elmo in Grouchland” will be playing soon – too long to wait, but in Kalgoorlie we finally went, a day before Ingo´s birthday.

1999, Casuarina shopping centre

Yep, there were some kilometers inbetween that!

1999

CUBIFA - It´s A Beautiful Day

... and I can´t stop myself from smiling...
Guess the weather over here says sorry. Sorry for this rotten early “summer”, I stay a bit longer.

26-29C! So we went to the city again.

It´s really kinda weird, the trees are deep red already:

Yet there definitively is a feeling of summer.

You got to suck it all in, the clear blue sky:

The colors:

The flowers:

In the city we wanted a quick snack only.
I understand people who get the lowest pay possible aren´t much motivated, but this guy at Mc D moved in really slow motion. So we left without and went to Graff (fav book-store).
I finally bought the book about emigrants.
We have visited the German Emigration Center in Bremen back in 2006 (boy, did we do some travelling that year! Cuba, Perth, Bremerhaven...!) and I really admire the courage and power those people had back then.
Funny, they´ll have a special exhibition, Germans in Australia: 1788 - till today - maybe we go next year.

Often not speaking the language of the country they went to, not even English, it must´ve been frightening and hard. The conditions of travel, oh, my...

We were early in Schadt´s and got the last table, it was full to the brim already. No surprise, huh?

The two older ladies we met before asked if they may join us and we had some interesting chats again.
There is another couple their age often, too, the man came by, said hello and included us.
This major city really is a village :-)

On the way home:

Let´s see how long they keep the fountains going.
I know the weekend is going to stay hot, still I felt a bit sad, felt like… awww, the summer is over. No one wants to let go. One of the last BBQs this year:

Another one:

The leafes turn brown and fall to the ground…

Reflections of the sun in river Oker:

The bridge in sunlight.

Soon it´ll be dark when we go home.

Our love lock and more and more locks at Gauss-Bridge…

This is rather a CUBSIO than CUBIFA…. Can you believe summer is over? No! Not in this weather! :-)

So I´m out on the balcony now! Happy Friday!

A Red CUBIFA IX

A Red CUBIFA VIII
A Red CUBIFA VII
A Red CUBIFA VI
A Red CUBIFA V
A Red CUBIFA IV
A Red CUBIFA III
A Red CUBIFA II
A Red CUBIFA I

Can "Y"ou Believe It´s Friday Again?

Esperance, 1999 - I had parked our car, we went into the museum. When we came back we couldn´t believe our eyes - a green Holden Commodore - exactly like the one we had, parked right beside us! No rip in driver´s seat, so not "ours", sadly...

Our car from 1995 was large - from my point of view at least, a station wagon.
The one we had 1999 was, compared to that kinda huge (oh, how I loved that car!).

Tom Price, 1999

But on the way to Tom Price I had to find out…actually it´s pretty small after all - have you seen “him”? He´s right behind that “truck”.

Tom Price, 1999

No, but really. It´s impressive to stand so close to such a machine, to imagine to drive this thing, a Road Train must be nothing when you think about it, no?

Somewhere, 1999

Tom Price, 1999

Impressed, we moved on to Millstream-Chichester-Nationalpark.

On the way to Millstream-Chichester NP, 1999

Somewhere on the way when we decided to go there, I bought a blouse a size bigger than actually needed, and with long arms.
Despite the heat I put it on and people looked at me as if I was crazy.
And they were right, too!

On the way to Millstream-Chichester NP, 1995

When we visited in 1995 there were heaps and heaps of grasshoppers. Huuuuge grasshoppers. At first Ingo went on the small trail, he flushed them and they jumped at me.
That day I was wearing an old Bundeswehr(Army)-Shirt, which was a bit too large so they jumped on my skin!!! Ewwwww! I felt their little claws grasping me, ewwww!
So, we changed position, I went first-same outcome, they jumped at me and landed on my skin.

Millstream-Chichester NP, 1995

This time I was prepared.
But there´d been a fire and maybe it just wasn´t the time for them, who knows, I saw no single grasshopper. But was afraid to take off that bloused- you never know, right?

On the way to Millstream-Chichester NP, 1995, Grass, btw... Spinifex, looks so soft, yet... outch!

It was another great visit none the less.The paperbark trees, the flying foxes – and don´t forget the little museum and all the infos you get on the way. There was a tennis-court long ago, the lake where the son went for a swim…

Millstream-Chichester NP, 1995, Paperbark-tree with my fingerprints - so soft!

Millstream-Chichester NP, 1995, Paperbark-tree

Guess from there we went direction Port Headland. We had to stop, a train was coming –and we couldn´t believe how long it was. I mean, really! Ingo even had lots of time to get his camera and take a video…

It´s just like this sign says: