Christmas

As usual, Christmas lunch was very nice. After ham, chicken, roast beef, prawns and Persian salad we had this delicious trifle and chocolate cake with home-made ice cream, all washed down with champagne. It was just Manami's family and me. 

The day started with Emma coming down to wake me about 5:30. I tried to hold her off till 6, before waking her parents and Hugo. The kids spent the whole morning playing with their new toys. We sat down to lunch about 1pm and were still at table at 4 (with Philip disappearing frequently to take a nap).

Weather was perfect. Not so for the unfortunate Victorians who lost their houses in bushfires and the people in north west England whose houses were inundated after heavy downpours. So distressing.

Doing another one

I won't attempt to repeat the things I lost, but will give a quick run-down of the mating habits of two of my grandparents.

My paternal grandmother had an ex-nuptial son - my father - in 1907. She was a Catholic nun and he was a Jewish (though not by religion) dentist. I am going to Brisbane in early January to meet the descendants of the dentist's sister, as he had no more children.

The result of the liaison - my father:

He used to tell people he got that flat ear from playing the piano by ear! It was really the result of an operation.

My maternal grandfather had an ex-nuptial daughter in 1905. For reasons difficult to understand, the mother of the child was not allowed to marry him, so he took the baby home from the hospital and brought her up himself. He had a live-in housekeeper, whom he married in 1916, and they had a daughter, my mother.

This is my maternal grandfather:

The number of ex-nuptial births in previous generations is astonishing and sadly shows how hypocritical they were about sex.

Oh no oh no oh no - this is so typical of computers

I have been standing here doing my blog for over an hour and now I find it has almost completely disappeared!!!!

I went into the website you gave me, Olga, on tidying up and then, when I went back to my blog it had gone. I'm so cranky I'll have to leave it for now.

Our new baby

This is Navi, Cupcake, Raindrop, Biscuit, Cherry, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Button and dozens more trial names, to today's Poppy, which I think really suits her, so will probably be the one. She belongs to Emma and was hard-earned - she had to get 20 points for good behaviour, and the points kept going up and down like snakes and ladders, over a period of months.

We got Poppy from Pet Rescue and had to wait till she weighed 1 kg, at which time she was 10 weeks old, before she could be desexed, vaccinated and microchipped. She was the runt of a litter of three. The mother and two brothers were both fine-haired and jet black. At this stage, though it doesn't show in the photos, she's wild and woolly.

She has a delightful personality and is so cute we all just want to sit and look at her. Muffy hasn't met her yet. I have read that some cats leave home when a new one arrives, but Poppy actually lives upstairs and they can be kept apart. But I would like them to meet, just to see Muffy's reaction.

I'm sure Muffy and Poppy are photographed more than the royal children!

Just one more. Hugo asked me to print this one for him to take to preschool for news tomorrow:

Today's task

This is the card table at the foot of my bed, put there some months back to accommodate ancestry files, but which seems to have grown into a dumping place for everything. Today's task (which may well grow into weeks), is to tidy this mess up.

For my own edification, as I remove each piece of this stuff I'm going to categorise it here:

On the floor:

• Paper bag for recylable rubbish (too lazy to get my shredder out, so just rip it into small pieces)
• Old address books to be updated into a new one (as people have a habit of moving, marrying, divorcing and dying)
• Booklets of sticky notes; crossword book (which I've never opened, as every morning I do the Herald online crossword); birthday book (in spite of this, I reliably forget all my friends' birthdays, anyway)
• Bag containing things for weekly preschool French lessons
• Yellow Esky containing the treasured purse my mother had when she died in 1998, with coins and her house key in it; a purse containing foreign notes and coins from travel and superseded Australian notes and coins; a beautiful fabric-covered folder (a gift from my Japanese piano teacher); printed class times for Aquatic and Leisure Centre (where I no longer go, but might one day); list of tax paid between 1985 and 1993!!!; magnifying sheet (didn't know where it was, so haven't been using it); WWF information (I donate monthly to orang-utangs in Borneo - easily talked into this by a handsome young Frenchman in the shopping centre one day); green cleaning recipes; operating manual for my Dyson stick; details of MyPost account (for cheaper stamps for pensioners); copy of letters to and from local member re cutting the grass on footpath near Emma's school; brochure explaining online government services; brochure explaining Opal transport card; Seniors' Directory 2015 (which I never use); 2012 and 2014 personal planners (the others and a lifetime of diaries are elsewhere!); and papers related to the development of the Oz Phonics apps.

I'll have to stop here and do what's on top of the table another day. I do have several filing cabinets, so will put what I can into drawers, but that still leaves where to put the miscellaneous stuff like my mother's purse, etc.

Tell me, please, where do you put all your stuff????

Facebook is a mystery to me

Lina, you have been putting pics of your hydrangeas on Facebook, and, since I have no idea of how to do that, I'll put mine here! Interesting, isn't it, how the flowers are different colours according to the soil.

Winifred, your problem with putting a comment on this blog is a mystery to me, too. I have no idea how these things work.

I'm off to see  The Dressmaker right now.

No place like home...

The other night I was listening as usual to BBC radio 4, to a program coming from New York. The presenter asked all three speakers where they would rather be if they were not there doing the program. Two out of three said, 'At home in bed'.  You see, it's catching on! It's certainly my favourite place, and has been for many years.

Doing something about my memory..

Robbie Burns 1759-1796 (d 37)

I've heard some people say they read a poem aloud every morning, so I decided to do the same and actually commit some of it to memory! I started with O my luve's like a red, red rose by Robbie Burns.

I'll spend the rest of the day on ancestry. One thing that has surprised me is how many of my ancestors lived to their 70s and 80s. (Poor Robbie Burns died very young.)

Me and my memory...

It's the same old story - I don't do this blog for a while, then I completely forget how to get into it and where to file the photos, etc. It has probably taken 20 minutes for me to get this far today.

Time is flying and I seem to be always bogged down by day-to-day chores and depressed by world happenings. I do a lot of sleeping, hundreds of online jigsaws and - spasmodically - a bit of ancestry. Recently I've dug up a couple of second cousins and spoken to a first cousin on the phone. Not surprisingly, nobody knew about my grandmother and the Jewish dentist. It was a real skeleton in the closet! Today's plan is to get some order into the hundreds of pages I've printed, the dozens of pages of notes I've made, and stuff I've come across in research. To be honest, I have been putting this off for months because I'm in such a muddle.

This term I'm teaching French at Hugo's preschool, which is really enjoyable. Little kids are so cute.

I took the above photo on Saturday at the Japanese School. Emma - the tallest girl, in front of the teacher - is in a Cheer Leaders Group. They gave a really lovely performance.

As you know, I don't generally put photos of people on my blog, but as this was a public performance I thought it would be OK.

Parramatta shootout

I admit I was wrong not calling the Lindt cafe a terrorist attack. It was. There was another terrorist attack a little too close for comfort on Friday - right where Philip works at police headquarters in Parramatta.

A civilian worker like Philip was shot dead, as was the 15-yr-old murderer. Understandably, Philip was a little nervous about going to work this morning. There had been rumours of an attack by Islamists before this happened.

Quote from newspaper:

The teenage gunman who executed a NSW Police Force employee was lauded as a "hero of the Islamic people" on a social media page, which was taken down late on Monday at the request of the police.

Glorious roses

Since my last post we've been devastated by the sudden death of my nephew Michael. He had a heart attack at his home in New York. He was only 45 and left a widow Lisa and two children, Mia 9 and Tyler 6.

Thanks Lina for these magnificent flowers.

Sydney old and new

Every time I go out I wish I hadn't. Long-haul flights are a definite NEVER AGAIN, and train trips and even walking in the city are a nightmare. The constant noises from mobiles, people talking very loudly on them or playing noisy, stupid games nearly drive me mad. Not to mention general bad behaviour, like putting feet on seats. And the train announcements - every two seconds!! Keeping left on foothpaths seems to be a thing of the past. I stick with determination to my side and bang with my handbag - very deliberately and heavily - all those who don't move over! I've even thought of putting poking-out pins in my bag, but Philip tells me I'll get arrested!

In fact, I leave the house less and less frequently these days. Yesterday I ventured into the city to have a look at Barangaroo, the new casino being built and the new reserve offered to the public in consolation.

If you look closely at the top photo, you'll see a row of terraced houses above the high wall. This is public housing, which the government wants to sell off, in spite of meeting a lot of resistance.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Last Sunday I took myself to a far-distant suburb where there was a cherry blossom festival in the botanic gardens. It was really lovely, with many young people dressed up. Much easier than going all the way to Japan!

Life goes on...I'm still chasing my tail and getting very frustrated. I made a decision to stop taking piano lessons as there aren't enough hours in the day and something had to give. I'll continue playing and doing the online theory course from Edinburgh Uni.

Spring is here in the antipodes. We've had some lovely warmish days already. Won't be long before we're complaining about the heat and bushfires.

Concert piano

This is the piano in the little concert hall. Emma and the other children played beautifully, but I have to admit I did not. I was soooo nervous I made mistakes and stopped before the end of my piece, saying to the audience, 'The moral of the story is Start them young!' They were very polite and laughed and clapped.

Olga, thank you for your advice and web link. I had a look at FlyLady and can certainly learn some things. Manami and Hugo presented Emma and me with flowers after we played the duet and many people congratulated me for having a go! Piano playing is not my forte, but I am determined to persevere.

This morning I got up early and went swimming. Always beautiful and worth the effort.

Trees

When I lived in Newcastle I said the only thing I would move for was trees, and at the time I posted a photo of the trees in our new backyard.  (Since I'm tucked into the basement of the house, the backyard is really my front yard.) It's only recently I've thought to take a photo of the trees out the front, along the edge of the park. We are truly blessed, living in such a beautiful area.

I should go for a walk among the trees first thing every morning, to calm my frazzled nerves. Lately I'm extra frazzled and am finding life quite difficult. Nothing major, as we're all healthy and happy, but I can't seem to get things together, even after 72 years of practice!

When I open my eyes every morning I am overwhelmed by all the things I need to do. Stupid, I know, as most things are self-inflicted: Japanese, teaching English, piano, online uni courses, jigsaws, this blog, reading, ancestry, exercise classes, emails, updating address book, lunch with friends. 

Then there are the essentials, like school dropoffs and pickups, shopping, cooking, cleaning up, washing, ironing, sorting mail, bills to pay, visits to doctor, vet, hairdresser.

I'm behind in every category and constantly feel guilty.

I've tried 'Things to do' lists but they don't help, as I usually lose them under piles of paperwork. Today I'm making a huge effort to get on top of things. Double piano lesson this afternoon, the last before the concert on Sunday. Boy, will I be glad when that's over!

The things kids do..

Hugo brought down a stool and a torch and entertained himself this morning by watching the washing machine go round and round!

I'm so tired lately, it's all I can do to drag myself out of bed in the mornings. According to the weather woman on the telly, this morning is the coldest in Sydney all winter. In fact, the entire winter has been cold and maybe that's adding to my tiredness.

Today's forecast is between 5 and 14, which, although freezing for us, is nothing to you northern hemisphere dwellers.

Between exhausted times I still work on my ancestors. (I liked your comment, Michael!), still teach English, learn Japanese, do online uni courses, mind the kids, practise the piano, go to exercise classes, meet with friends, and so on.

The piano recital is on 16th, so I'm having double lessons between now and then. Talk about a nervous wreck...

Just a little obsessed with ancestors

This beautiful woman was my 2nd great grand aunt Alice Frances Brown, the daughter of a convict, born in NSW in 1857 and died in 1940. That's her in the last blog, on the right in the back row (with dark hair). This photo must have been taken when her hair had turned grey, as I don't think she would have been a bottle blonde! A surprising thing is so many of my ancestors lived till they were in their 80s and 90s, yet that is supposed to be a modern occurrence! Hard physical work and no rubbishy food must have been the reason. She was one of 14 children (including my 2nd great-grandmother).

I have put a large print of the photo on my fridge and her eyes seem to follow me wherever I go.

As I slip into my gym gear I wonder how these women survived in these clothes!

Judith, a newly-discovered relative (through Ancestry.com), who lives in Queensland, sent me this photo of the Brown sisters, including my second great grandmother on my mother's side. She is Eliza, on the right in the front row. The others were Elizabeth, Alice, Priscilla, Harriet and Rose. All lovely names. The photo was taken circa 1893.

Eliza's father, Robert Brown, was the only convict I've discovered so far in the family. She was born in Australia, but her parents were both born in London and married in NSW. Judith has made several visits to the area, right near the Tower. I tell you, this search for ancestors certainly gets you in once you start. And it can cost a fortune!

Apparently, 14 years for stealing some tobacco didn't make
Robert Brown behave well. Grant, yet another relative (matched by Ancestry.com through our DNA) came across this in a Maitland NSW paper:

3rd March 1852

A Boisterous Relative;-

On Monday Robert Brown [married to Thomas Cooper’s daughter Alice] was brought before the bench, charged with disturbing the peace. It appeared that on Saturday night, about midnight, Brown, who was drunk, went into the yard of Mr. Thomas Cooper, his father in law, and commenced a rattoo on the door with his feet, swearing he would break it down if he was  not  let  in,  as  his  wife was  there: Mrs.  Brown having gone to her father’s for protection. Brown continued his vagaries in the yard, till Constable Kedwell, attracted by the noise, found him there, and on hearing from Mr. Cooper how the case stood, and Brown refusing to leave the premises, Kendwell lodged him in the lockup. Brown was ordered to enter into recognizance of £20 with two sureties in £10 each, to keep the peace.

I have to admit my head is swimming with ancestors and I'm in a huge muddle. When the average number of children was about 15, and they married and had 15 or so children, there must be hundreds of thousands of present-day relatives out there. 

Trip to visit the ancestors

Last weekend I set out with friend Pixie to visit areas in the Hunter Valley once inhabited by ancestors. Our first port of call was the Maitland Genealogical Society, where I learnt just what a beginner I am in this field, and how much information is out there to be researched.

This is a sketch of the old Mounted Police Headquarters, which now serves as the office.

We could have spent days and days there, but had to keep going on our roughly-planned itinerary. I got some more information on the Dodds ancestors (on my mother's side) and visited an old cemetery where I took this photo of one of the headstones.

Alexander Dodds (a brother of one of my direct ancestors, John, and father to some of those buried here) born 1814 in Kelso, Scotland, immigrated in 1830s, died 1892 in Sydney, had been quite a prominent figure: auctioneer, justice of the peace, returning officer, mayor, member of both NSW Legislative Assembly and Council.

Further up the Valley, we drove near Maison Dieu, an area just out of Singleton, which still carries the name of the property John (mentioned above) named in the 1830s, as well as Glenridding, named by John Earl, who came out from the Lake District, having married my ancestor Ann Mounsey (daughter of the last owner of Patterdale Hall, picture back in this blog).

The weather couldn't have been worse - wind and rain, with snow threatened - so we didn't quite make it to Quirindi but turned around at Murrurundi after finding this house once owned by ancestors:

Winifred, you should get back into your Irish ancestors. It is soooooo interesting, but of course, very time-consuming. As well as delving into online stuff, I've starting buying books on our first settlers and there's no way I'll have time to read everything before I die!

Good to hear from you, Olga. Do you know your ancestry??

Those very tough ancestors...

This morning Philip brought down a big monitor so I can see all the ancestry documents more clearly. This is a letter written by John Earl in 1822, organising his move from Patterdale beside Ullswater in the Lake District to New South Wales. He married Ann Mounsey, from Patterdale Hall, who had been married before and had several children. Once here, he took up several land grants and became quite prosperous. After some time he left his wife here and went back to England with his housekeeper and they had many children together. Ann Earl is buried in Murrurundi, a town where I used to live, without knowing a thing about her. I will visit the headstone next week on my little trip.

I certainly take my hat off to these early settlers. Imagine arriving in Sydney just 40 years after invasion and heading hundreds of miles north to establish a farm! No roads, no McDonalds on the corner. They first had to find their way to their allocated property, clear the land, build a house and fences. How they got the cattle or sheep there I cannot imagine, nor how they managed to grow crops. And the women had 14 or so children...No electricity or running water. At least they were allocated convicts as workers, which would have been better than being locked up. 

Can you imagine doing all that, dressed like this, in 40 degree heat?

Moving on...

Spent a few days with my sister Kay recently. She's downsizing - selling her 4-bedroom house and moving into this wonderful retirement village in Canberra.

Apart from that little interlude, I've been spending hours and hours every day on ancestors. Am making the most exciting discoveries. I got my DNA results back and now I want the man I think is descended from my father's father (well, his sister, as the man himself had no children other than my father, so far as I can work out) to have the test, too. That way my 99% suspicion will be proved either right or wrong.

No surprises with the DNA: 35% Great Britain, 27% Ireland, Europe West 26%, European Jewish 4% (my father's father), Iberian Peninsula 3%, Italy/Greece 2%, the rest not worth a mention.

I've got back as far as 1400 on the Mounsey line, the wealthy family from Patterdale Hall. Winifred, it's on the shores of Ullswater.

It seems another line of the family, the Dodds, were wealthy landowners, too, here in NSW. One of them married a Mounsey daugher. There were several properties established by them which nowadays have become the names of suburbs or country areas.

I plan to take a little trip soon to take photos of headstones and track down the original properties.

Ancestors' former home in the Lake District

I'm just about dropping on my feet, after spending hours and hours every day researching ancestors. Compare this to the houses I put a few blogs back! I couldn't have been more wrong!

Ralph Dodds, the great grandfather I mentioned then is descended from the Mounsey family, who owned this estate, Patterdale Hall. It doesn't look as though they were too poor, does it!

Some of the original occupiers immigrated to NSW and took up land grants here, establishing farming properties, with convicts for servants. Some of them are buried in towns - Singleton and Murrurundi - where I haved lived, totally unaware of my ancestral ghosts wafting about there! My next project is a trip to the cemeteries to take some photos.

Some illustrious in-laws found on Ancestry.com...

(Albert Cherbury) David Rivett was the brother-in-law 
of my father's first cousin, Lorna.

He married Stella, daughter of Alfred Deakin, 

Australia's second Prime Minister (above). 

This portrait of the PM is in our National Gallery.

Dr Christina was one of his sisters.

Rohan Rivett was a son of David 
and a playmate of THE Rupert Murdoch.

In Melbourne, the city where Gaelic football was turned into a religion, Rohan Deakin Rivett was the bluest of the blue bloods. Born in 1917, the grandson of Australia's second prime minister, the son of of the founder of the CSIRO and the builder of Australia’s first atomic bomb was given the middle name Deakin at his christening.

His father was Sir Albert Cherbury David Rivett and his mother Stella Deakin, daughter of Alfred Deakin, who followed Edmund Barton. It was inevitable that the Rivetts and Murdochs would socialise.

Rohan was 14 when Rupert was born. His three sisters played with him and coddled him and dressed him when he was little. Rohan Rivett introduced Rupert to more boyish games and tennis and swimming. Elisabeth Murdoch described Rohan as "the brother that Rupert never had."

This reminds me that when we used to visit Auntie Lorna, she would pretend to want to adopt me, as she had only two sons. Because they were wealthy and lived in a huge mansion, I wanted her to!!!!
I googled the house at 148 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag and it is still there! I remember a huge fishpond surrounded by colannades. The architect mentioned in this article (below) was the very famous Walter Burley Griffin.

Rivett House: 148 Edinburgh Road 1928
Built for Dr E.W. Rivett on the opposite corner to his hospital, the house was the subject of a court case between Griffin’s development company and Rivett (Rivett won) over the building’s design which was completed contrary to the covenant and the original plans submitted to and approved by Griffin. Its interior walls were rendered brick instead of stone and the flat roof of the original design was scrapped for a pitched roof with Marseilles tiles. The rest of the house including its original layout which had been created by Griffin remained unchanged.

Picking mandarins

Well, she won't get run over by a bus in that outfit, I hear you say! Last Monday, Queen's Birthday holiday for us, we went to a local orchard we had seen advertised, to pick mandarins. So did at least 236,421 other carloads of people, which meant the first few hours were spent in a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam. We eventually managed to get into an orchard and it was fun picking bucketsful of fruit. One week on, we are all a slight mandarin colour.

Have been very busy practising the piano and tracking down ancestors these past weeks, and am very pleased with success in the latter department. I am concentrating on my paternal grandmother's siblings, and have found a great uncle - son of her youngest sister - his daughter, granddaughter and grandchildren. They are spread from Hawaii to NZ, and used to live in Alaska. I have also come across relatives from further back, one in Scotland and the other in an as yet unnamed foreign place but with a daughter living in Sydney.

I need to work out a way of organising all the papers I've printed from Ancestry.com, and get the hundreds of ancestors into some form I can handle.

I sent off a sample to have my DNA tested. So far, almost all ancestors are from England. What I'm hoping is that there will be some evidence of my Jewish grandfather, whose ancestors came from Poland (that's if I've got the right bloke).

I am not exaggerating when I say I find playing the piano EXTREMELY difficult, so am doing an online uni course on improving my ability to learn. Hope it works!

Interesting what you say about British and American Englishes, Winifred. I'm not surprised they are difficult to understand. When I went to Scotland I could barely understand a word, and had to keep on asking the locals to repeat what they'd just said. One thing I notice about listening to the BBC every night is that almost all the announcers speak very, very fast and I have great difficulty understanding them.

Sunset

Just glanced up and saw this wonderful sunset, so dashed outside and took some pics. The tall flower is on one of our

xanthorrheas. It came out white because I used the flash.

It's been cloudy all day, so this evening effect is completely unexpected. Winter tomorrow. I think in the northern hemisphere you wait till the solstice, but here we start winter on the first day of June.

My problem with music is that I can't sing a note, have no sense of rhythm, and can barely tell one tune from another!
Playing the piano is like climbing Mt Everest - extremely difficult.

It's so hard it makes me want to cry

I find understanding different keys in music almost impossible.  I've tried and tried to read about it, but nobody seems to get down to my low level of understanding - not understanding.

When I listen to a piece of music I can't tell what key it's in.
All pieces sound the same to me.

And when I'm told that A minor is relative to C major, I don't have a clue what that means. To make it worse, there are two minor keys to each major. With the harmonic A minor scale, for instance, there are two sharps on the way up but none on the way down. How, I ask myself, can you compose a piece of music in this key with sometimes sharps and sometimes not??? 

Not only do I not understand the theory, my fingers get all muddled up when I try to play the scales. It certainly doesn't come naturally to me.

Oh, I just found a whole book online and free that might help: http://www.monarchknights.com/teacherwebpages/halladay/documents/BasicMusicTheory1ed_000.pdf

Yes, Winifred, I'm with you on 'the good old days'. My heading on that blog was highly ironic.

My first convict

1832.  23-yr-old Robert Brown stole some tobacco in Colchester and was transported to Australia for 14 years! He was my great-great-great grandfather (by marriage) on my mother's side.  Once he was freed he stayed on.

I was really interested to read about toilet and washing facilities on board ship. Apparently some people wore the same clothes the whole voyage. Toilet paper hadn't been invented, so a piece of rag was hung on the lavatory door for everybody to use. It was washed now and then in vinegar. A shower was having a bucket of cold water thrown over you. People seldom, if ever, cleaned their teeth.

Olga, your comments about me playing the piano at the concert made me smile. I'm absolutely hopeless and will be VERY nervous. I hope I don't go blank!