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X-Ray of Claudia's shoulder

Broken shoulder. Since our arrival in Australia a year ago, we report that Claudia and Poppy regularly go sailing on a 12-ft-skiff (i.e., dinghy) and that both spend almost the same time in the water as on the water since they capsize so often. On May 4 it happens what might have been determined to happen: After a very short time on the water (in winds of 20-30 knots), a sudden gust capsizes the small boat and Claudia, who was out in the trapeze, is thrown onto the boat, lands unluckily on her shoulder and has a comminuted fracture at the head of her left humerus. This is not only sore, but it also handicaps her quite a lot. In the weeks to come, she needs to hold her arm still in an arm sling. Some of the consequences are: Peter learns how to plait Claudia's hair (comment: Claudia's hair style improves daily), Peter chops her food into small pieces, Claudia prefers buckled shoes to laced shoes.

Luck with raffles: meat tray

Typical Australian: Raffles. On May 6, the soreness of the fracture is bearable, thus Claudia meets Julie, Roger, Brett and John in the pub "Gladesville Hotel" for a business dinner of the kayak shop. The pub is a real Aussie pub with restaurant, bottle shop, bar, TAB, billiard and gambling machines. One of the staff sells raffle tickets (once again a typical British-Aussie custom) and Claudia invests AU$ 2 into her lucky draw. The result of it? See the photo. Apparently, it is quite usual in Australia that butchers sell the meat that they couldn't sell during the day to local pubs where it is then "put under the folk". Anyway, we call for an extra-large BBQ...

Two sisters having breakfast in Surry Hills

Aktivities with Armin and Petra. On May 5 to 15, Petra and Armin tour around. They too are attracted by Victoria. In their camper-van, they explore southern Australia and profit from experiences and recommendations of Christian, Susanne, Peter and Claudia during their respective tour in March. The two drive southbound through the hinterland of New South Wales, turn westward in Victoria to reach the Great Ocean Road and turn back to Sydney via a big bend to the east along the South Coast. After their return, Armin has only 3 more days in Sydney before his work asks him back home. Petra stays 9 days longer. Thus, Claudia and Petra explore the country a bit further: Bushwalking on Mount Banks and in the area of the Glow Worm Tunnel, a detour to the Victoria Falls and Hassans Walls in the Lithgow surrondings. Claudia's shoulder has healed enough to not stop these plans; Petra enjoys it very much to drive our Land Rover over dirt roads... ;-)

Opera and Harbour in the evening light, seen from the ANA Harbour Grand

Lady of Leisure. A special focus of this report shall be turned onto Wednesday, May 21. Claudia and Petra spend their day as follows: 12:00 pm masssage with scented oils. 1:30 pm fish market in the sun shine with seaweed salad and sushi. Suddenly, the group at the neighbouring table offers them a lobster which they couldn't eat no more due to too much food. Thus, a whole, cooked, cut-in-halves, ready-to-eat lobster follows as third course (by the way: in the value of AU$ 19.50 to 22.00 – given as a present). After that, one strolls with detours to the ANA Harbour Grand, a 5-star hotel at Circular Quay, in order to take a civilized appetizer at 5:00 pm during sunset in the Horizons Bar on the 36th floor. The bar is left just in time to arrive at the Art Gallery of NSW for the Wednesday nightly event "Art after Hours" for a free concert in classical rooms at 6:30 pm. After that (at 7:30 pm) a wine with Jazz music in the bar of the Art Gallery before one leaves for an Aussie dinner (8:30 pm) in one of the oldest pubs in The Rocks. Hélas, such a life as "Ladies of leisure" is really enjoyable... (It's only a pity that these good times will be over in June when duty is calling again.)

Bits and pieces. While the first beer gardens open their doors in Germany, autumn is knocking at the doors in Australia. A visual impression of a week-end in the branch of the Botanical Gardens on Mount Tomah can be found in our photo gallery.

Multimedia pylons in Homebush Bay

Birthdays. On Saturday, May 17 we celebrate Irina's first autumn-birthday with a beautiful BBQ. Due to the colder season, it does unfortunately not take place on the terrasse but inside the house. In contrast, the party is even more cheerful: It's long since we were in bed this late. Petra's first autumn-birthday follows on Sunday 25 with a rainy day that's unequalled. We need to cancel all our paddling and beach walking plans for this day. Instead, we hide ourselves away at home with coffee and cake – not bad neither. This rainy birthday is finished with a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant.

To the right you can find a visual impression of an evening in Homebush Bay where we showed the Olympic venue to Petra. In front of the main stadium, a multimedia exhibition on Sydney 2000 has been set up last year. The columns illustrate a.o. the names of 76.000 volunteer helpers without whom the big event wouldn't have been possible.