Happy Australia Day!

This year, Australia Day Celebration was totally different! It was snowing on our way to the event! Here are some participants: 4 generations: Baby Emily, Mum Yasmine, Grandma Maike and Greatgrandma

Yasmine's mum has the same day birthday like her husband Volker, who turned 50! Congratulation once again to both of you!

As quite common during such special birthdays, kids or friends are performing some jokes or reading out some wisdom of life: It's Yasmine's sister Dorothee and her brother Yannick, Yasmine and Stefan as son-in-law

Volker - and all other participants - enjoyed that very much!

The work was done ... so the party could go on!

I also enjoyed that evening! Thanks for the invitation!

After that snowfall, I spotted on my next walk ... right, a snowman:

And my mum invited my sons for dinner ....

and of course my mother-in-law

We all had fun

and it was getting warmer .... and I checked the river Elbe

To my big surprise: now at +3 degrees there was ice

That much ice that they had to cancel the ferry crossing the Elbe (whilst in Brisbane the Citycats stopped due to floods)

unbelievable.

so just compare the photos of this blog with that one before .... the view to the coal power station

But the wind picked up as well, so now the River Elbe flooded the area of Hamburg's fish market. Floods in both my countries. In summertime and in wintertime. ... to be continued

Second week

A typical German winter meal is Green Cabbage with Kasseler and Sausage, so my mum thought it is time to cook it! for her

and for Uwe's mum

and me: look how great it looks. And tasty!

With this meal in my stomach (remember German main meal is dinner at lunch time - at least if you have kids at home or you are not working), I go to the Kindergarden: and asked a girl to take a photo of me and my favourite animal:

I went here to pick up Finnja who was playing with Natalie

I made another walk - along the river Elbe:

the Koala - amongst other paintings - is still there

the coal power station is still working (though it had a break down just when it was only -7 degrees)

This is sunbaking in Germany's wintertime: the sun was shining, and there they are sitting in their winter jumpers and enjoying the warmth of the sun!

the view from that platform direction North Sea

The famous Welcome Point in Wedel, Uwe's birth place! Here in- and outgoing ships are greeted by their national anthem and a welcome song resp. the very famous song "muss i denn"

I was a little bit disappointed because I expected the river Elbe to have ice .... but only snow and ice along the foreshore.

and a shop with flags in the display window .... guess why I took this photo!

In the evenings, we had nice gettogethers with tasty snacks, as you can see:

My sister-in-law Irmtraut

and her husband Otto came along this time.

Winter in Hamburg

It was hot in Queensland, very hot, and there was a nice opportunity to escape: So I left Brisbane mid January flying Emirates to Dubai

I got a nice welcome by my little Emily

who was accompanied by her parents Stefan and Yasmine. After a first stop at their place in Hamburg, we arrived at my mum's place in Wedel, where we had a nice hot chicken soup, together with Uwe's mum. A housewife's recipe to avoid a cold!

because it was only -4 degrees

Remarks: if you want some more photos, please see Yassy's blog and my sister's blog. The first weekend I joined Stefan and Yasmine to Berlin, because they wanted to present the latest family addition to my family and friends in Berlin! Here we are: My niece Daniela with Stefan

My aunt Helga with me

My best friend Gisela (whom I met on 1.10.1975 as a colleague, leading to a long term wonderful friendship)

and her husband Guenter, Uwe's best friend!

my brother Herbert with Daniela's son Thorn, his grandson

Gisela with Stefan

Yassy

Daniela with her mum Angela and the young Goldies

we had a nice stay there, and returned to Hamburg.

One morning, I got this view out of the window:

yes, right, beautiful snow, beautiful sky .... -7 degrees - whilst Queensland was fighting with cyclon Oswald, producing floods, heavy winds, tornados across the east coast. Well prepared I went outside on a morning walk:

waving to my mum in the second floor

looking around the snowy area!

Ir's quite practical and useful, the snow: you can leave messages without mobile phone or paper: So when my sister came home, she knew exactly who was trying to visit her that morning!

...to be continued, and don't forget to watch more photos in Yassy's blog and my sister's blog!