Dads stories

Sent: Saturday, 20 May 2000 9:43 PM
Dear Harald,

That is a long and informative letter! (I mean yours, after all this one here is not yet finished!)

Quoting from Harald’s email:

I had promised you more text for today. That you will get, however, different to what I had intended. Last night I dreamt about a remarkable bird, exactly what, I can’t recall. Just the mere thought of it makes me ponder! And I must say I preferred the dreams I used to have about Jenny (another character in Dad’s book)….

Hence I am asking you for a break, as far as the work on the stories. Otherwise in the end we will loose our connection to the real world! I especially am lately thinking more and more about the fictitious fantasy characters. The break won’t be for too long, because I am intrigued by the characters. In the meantime little Harald can worry about giving his students a good start at life, THE (great) OLD MAN (who) TURNS 70 can prepare himself with his dear Hedwig with a clear head, for the great occasion, “the BIG DAY”. And at the same time we will write each other a few nice things (hopefully) about the trivial things of life.

I hope you can live with this for a while and are not upset with me.

……….

Back to Dad’s email:

Please excuse my big grin, I am not laughing at your expense! Of course we will have a break,  as long as you like! I was always worried that you were drowning in these stories. And I can imagine that the characters are chasing after you. I have the same problem. One of the reasons why I can’t start with the next story is that the previous ones are still running around quite lively in my head and so don’t let me get a foot into the next one! So, a break is the only correct thing. And the big bird, which followed you into your nightmare! The emu is big but a very good natured bird, with a great sense of humour. I had an experience with this and I will tell you my own funny story towards the end of this letter.

“no, no, no! Nothing doing, Cuckoo” Hedwig’s veto. She doesn’t like it. Many reasons, but mainly to do with the money that this would cost, and the distance, and whatever. She would rather everyone comes here. I mean, we have massive amounts of room, the living room alone is 4m by 4m, no worries!  I kept my mouth shut! Of course, if I would say, Cuckoo…that would be the last word. But to be honest, I really don’t care, and they will have to sort it all out themselves! I used to be all for lots of parties. Couldn’t get enough of them. But that was 30 years ago. My philosophy now is “the way of least resistance”. Chinese wisdom. And I really don’t care.

Speaking of the weather. Here it is raining. Not enough. But winter has not yet started so we will most likely get more. The water reserves for Melbourne and surrounds are at the moment down to 47% The prescribed minimum for May is 45%, if it goes below that the water gets rationed. So then you will have to send us some water from Father Rhine. This has happened to us once before, 1966, when we first arrived in Melbourne.

As far as paragraph 4 goes: „there is no bigger pain than what we cause ourselves“!

Next paragraph: bookkeeping....I can’t think of anything worse. Years ago when I had to get my papers sorted out for our Tax Consultant, I was sick for weeks. And that is no exaggeration. I would have preferred to carry shitcans for the entire period (which I did a lot as a young boy. We had a „golden bucket“ as toilet in our village house after the good NSDAP philosopy of waste not want not, we also had pigs, a goat and rabbits, all under my care. And we had 1000 sq m of garden, and the same again on the opposite side of the street. No wonder that I don’t want to have anything to do with gardening).

As far as being frugal, Hedwig and I are the same. Not that I am a scrooge, far from it, at least as far as I am concerned. I am very much opposed to these financial vultures with their loans and credit cards, and from me they get nothing. I wish, in vain, that our kids would feel the same!

Who cares who in the marriage earns the most? I just said this to Hedwig and she said: „you can’t talk! It would have gone right against your principles if I had earned money!“ Well, that is not true at all. I said: „Listen, we both worked to the best of our abilities, for 40 years, we could not have done more if we had tried. So who cares where the money comes from?“.

But I can understand what you are saying. But could it be that you are too worried about what other people think? They probably would have done the same given your situation. Are their families as happy as yours? Probably not, in fact I would bet on it. So what more can one wish for in life?

By the way, now I know where we differ! You hate all form of handyman’s work. On the whole, so do I. The difference is that I have had to master nearly all crafts there are, at least in the home and in the theatre. So if there is anything you wish to know, as long as you don’t expect me to do it for you, ask me! Mind you, once I get started, I always sing. So it can’t have been as bad as all that!

A few weeks (or months) ago you asked me not to write any more about „it“ and I have stuck to it. But please let me say one thing further. Excessive physical activity do not prevent a heart attack, nor do they inprove your fitness. A heart attack is caused only by blockages in narrowed arteries. The narrowing of the arteries is caused by ageing and starts slowly at 40, and as far as I know can’t be avoided. One can of course speed it up with smoking. Excessive or unnatural physical activity speeds up the blood and increases the blood pressure. As a result of this, particles are pushed more often and faster through the arteries, which will then block the blood in a narrowed artery and this leads to a heart attack. If that should happen in the heart itself where the arteries are very thin, an entire branch of the cardic arteries will be stilled and hence die immediately and cause a heart attack. In my opinion, excessive physical activities are those that make you gasp for air, like Tennis. If you don’t have to gasp for air, then the exercise is normal. But I am not an expert nor a doctor. Pardon me but it seems to me that you are not doing yourself any favours with the Tennis. Of course each case is different, maybe you have an extraordinary constitution? Here we have an 80 year old who ran from Sydney to Melbourne and is still alive!

Oh..my specialist. I tried in a roundabout way to let him know that I was swallowing too many pills. He didn’t take the hint. Quite the opposite, now I swallow even more! „How are you?“ he asked. „Apart from sleeping around the clock and feeling lousy the rest of the time, I am very well, thank you“. Didn’t work. He is very good.

..........

The Emu, or better Katherine, seeing you have already heard about it.

We, Hedwig, Peter and I, camped there in 1982. Its a fantastic spot, big lake surrounded by a wall of cliffs. Lots of crocodiles, but not these dammed salties. They are Johnston Crocodiles, up to 4 meters long but not dangerous. Peter and I did a lot of swimming there. 15 years later a young lady had her leg bitten off, but maybe she was unresistably sweet!

Now, Hedwig was busy with her favourite pasttime – fishing (I hate it). You didn’t need any fancy rods. A fishingline on a reel was sufficient. And sure enough, there she had something on the line which was putting up a good fight. She was on her own but she managed to get the fish out of the water. Only it wasn’t a fish. It was a footlong turtle, with the hook in its throat. Hedwig tried to free the hook so that she could free the poor animal and return it to the water. But the line broke. Now what! She couldn’t throw the injured animal back into the water with the hook still in its throat. So she decided it was better to put it out of its misery and stabbed into the soft spot next to its head, using her kitchen knife. Most likely she had had it by then! She threw the dead turtle next to herself onto the grass. And then all she could do was watch how the turtle came back to life and with the knife sticking out of its shoulder like an antenna, proudly waddle to the water and dive headfirst into the waves! She probably still has that knife stuck in her shoulder, as a sign of her high rank. Those animals live to a very great age!

I regularly went for my jog, in the early morning, around 6am. I was only 52 then. I would run to the same place where Hedwig fished, and back again. Nobody else was so stupid to get up that early. One morning on the grass opposite me stood a giant emu. Now there was an emu at the campsite, but only as high as a man. He would run between everyone, very nosy, and always stole whatever was lying around, regardless of who was in the vicinity. They are very trusting. Well, I ran to the end of my stretch, looked behind me, but that strange bird was still standing on the same spot watching me. What to do? Return. I really felt a bit strange. I ran past the emu, tap, tap, tap, tap and he looked at me with an astonished look. And then I heard behind me tap, tap, tap, tap...the beast was right on my heals, swaying from one side to the other. I tried to run faster...ridiculous, impossible to outrun an emu, they can manage 80 kph. He stayed right beside me. I was out of breath and couldn’t go any further. So I walked a while. My new companion also walked, hugging my side and looked down into my eyes. He must have been at least 2.2 m tall. I spoke to him, but that didn’t make any difference. So I panicked a bit and took off again. Pointless, I couldn’t loose him! With further tries of running and walking, him always close to my side, we arrived at a small swamp over which someone had put a few planks. Well, I thought, now I am rid of you. I raced across the planks and just managed to see how my emu, at the end of the swamp, raced around the corner, never letting me out of his sight. When I arrived at the other end, my loyal emu was proudly standing at the exit and welcomed me. This was right next to the camp, and I was no longer afraid. I asked him to wait for me, raced to the camping trailer and let Hedwig give me some bread, raced back again. But to my great dismay, the emu had disappeared.

These are really clever animals. But if they are minding their young, then they don’t show any humor, then they are very dangerous.

Now a personal favour. Like I said above, I agree that you need to take a decent break. But please answer one further question:

You said: „a – as far as I am finding – nice but difficult story. On my first reading the day before yesterday I was very moved by the way that you have expressed yourself. I hope, through my corrections I don’t destroy anything.....“

I acknowledge that it is a difficult story. The question is how difficult? Too difficult? Is my way of writing difficult or too difficult? Should it and can it be simplified? The reason I ask. The first version is already over a hear old. I sent it to my friend, the author. His answer was that he could not understand it, because it dealt with something about which he knew nothing. Ok good, I gave up the story later on, in fact I gave up writing alltogether. But first I translated it into english and gave it to our son Peter. His constant critic was that my english was too formal, which I could understand, I learnt english at the theatre, and had a high ranking englishman as boss. I also gave it up then. I had my doubts, two months ago when I picked Jonah up again. But because I was convinced that my german had improved somewhat I gave it another try.

Like I already said, I am of the opinion, the material is of interest to german readers. But if no bastard can understand it, there is no point! I am not too concerned about it, I know dozens of authors who also don’t write in the style of popular fiction.

....

Well and so we have come to the end of the letter. Thank you for your writing. See...it is also possible to write mile long letters without discussing the stories! And it is quite enjoyable!

Greetings. Peter.

Sent: Tuesday, 16 May 2000 8:49 PM
Dear Harald,

We must be very spoilt here. If a power cable ever comes down due to acts of God, it is repaired within a few hours and the news keeps you informed of progress.

There must be more than a radio blackout where you are living! Hedwig said, just now when I told her about the lightening strike on your house, “ they live by the Rhine, and the storm can’t ever cross it”. Is that actually true? I can remember hearing the same thing said years ago.

With Inge and the Waldfeucht Terhaag meeting, as far as I know they are leaving on the 8^th of August (current plans) and then will spend 6 weeks in Germany. She has withdrawn from the course because of work commitments here. Dennis wants to experience the Neusser Kirmes. Of course you will be able to catch up with them, I am sure they will run you down, so don’t worry!

Great, you took a break! I told you to take a vacation! We will from now on deal with one story at a time. The easiest one is Jonah and Ruth. Please take the attachment from my letter “Jonah, corrected”. It is the same text as that in your letter, but without the yellow highlights and the bracketed letters. Also the corrections have been incorporated.

………….. (long discussions re the various story corrections excluded from translation)……

Thanks a lot for your letters. Here it is raining, tiring. For mothers day, the entire club was here, was very nice.

All the best.

Peter.

Sent: Tuesday, 16 May 2000 7:38 AM
Dear Harald,

I have just received an update for my virus program, but have not yet installed it. They are getting more and more philosophical with their viruses. “I love you, work”. I am very curious if anything can ever be done about it, or if the beautiful internet will one day give up the ghost because of it!

You have a good sense of humor. There you sit in the nicest communication chaos and buy yourself a new used Mercedes! What does Anne drive around in, or does she have to wait until it suits her old man, like my better half? Hedwig never made her license, she had a problem with it. My own wheels are a small Mitsubishi Lancer, 95 Model, and a Mitsubishi 4WD small van 88 model. The latter I kept (i.e. didn’t sell) because I didn’t feel it was worth what you could get for it. Money has become very scarce here in Australia since the capitalists have taken over the government. This van is being used by the entire family, whoever happens to go on leave with their kids, or needs transport for some reason.

…..removed some comments on Harald’s email…….

By the way, Peter has also never been baptised and lives quite happily in that status. As a boy he once belonged to a religious community, and it may be that there he once jumped into a dam, but I am not sure about that. I know that a few of the others have, whenever they joined a new denomination or religious persuasion. I think Inge even jumped into the ocean once, for that purpose, ecstatically, Hallelujah! That was a few religions before Mormonism. Don’t you dare tell her! Even though she is very tolerant, she is also very sensitive, and the nicest person there is!

Your next letter I will answer in a few hours, I am once again ready for bed. It is 7.32 am.

Greetings!

Peter.

Translators note: Just to set the record straight…I pride myself on having been baptised a total 4 times in my life! Twice by the Catholics ( I may well be the only catholic that was baptised twice J - teachers at school certainly never believed me because it is supposed to be illegal or undoctrinal), once by the Pentecostals and finally by the Mormons. But that is another story…best left for my own blog J

Dear Gretchen. Thank you so much for your dear letter. I should really be ashamed to be so lazy with writing. Since my trip to Germany three years ago I have practically written to nobody and heaven knows why! I am always very busy but that is no excuse. But enough of that, I really enjoyed your letter.

So, how is everyone? Of our 6 children 3 are already married. Inge, our oldest (32) lives already for a while in Broom in NW Australia, with her family on a mission. Inge and her husband Dennis are both Computer Programmers. For two years they hung up their working shoes and rented out their house here and committed to doing 2 years missionary work. They are working on an aboriginal mission Lombardina, a catholic mission. They have already finished one year and we currently have their boys, Michael (11) and Peter (8) staying with us for the holidays. It is summer holiday time here over Christmas until February. Despite the fact that life there is quite difficult, they enjoy being there and are happy. They don’t earn any wages but are provided for and get some pocket money. Hedwig and I are very proud of them and happy for them. The two boys will be flying back in two weeks time. The distance from here is 4800 km, at the extreme opposite end of Australia. If you or one of your pupils has time to write a card (in english) I think they would really appreciate it. And I am sure Inge would reply, especially if she can write in English. Her Address is: …..Would even be a good exercise in geography studies.

Our second daughter, Helga (28) and Bill her husband already have 3 daughters- Kathryn (6), Emily (3) and Lisa (1). They live in Hollbrook, approx 400 km from here north of Albury. Bill is working for the council as Road building engineer. Helga looks after the children, as she should. Like every year, they were here for Christmas. The children are very nice and well behaved, but lively and noisy, just as they should be and together with Inge’s sons and our Peter there was a lively tumult especially after the traditional Christmas eve presents were put out, which now usually happens at 10pm on Christmas eve. But more about that later.

Gerd, our eldest son (24) and his young wife Linda were married last year. They don’t have their own house as yet but are living in a 3 bedroom apartment near the city. Gerd works as freelance Sound Engineer (no idea what that is called in german) (tv, radio, records and tapes) and he is very busy. Linda is working in the office of a radio station, where Gerd also worked once (hence the connection).

Robert, our second son (19) is in his 4^th year as apprentice mechanic. He specialises with Diesel Engines. A very hard working young man who has been working with the same company since he was 12 years old and was cleaning buses, to earn his pocket money. If he continues the way he is going he will do well in life.

Susan (19) has left home and is currently in transit from one city to another, hence not working at the moment. She has tried various things but has not yet found the right thing for her. Most likely she will find her home in the food industry. She is excellent in the kitchen. She is going steady with a young teacher and they will probably get married soon. Even though she does not have a set goal at the moment, we don’t need to be concerned about her. She doesn’t mind putting her hand to things, is very diligent and clever and whereever she ends up she runs the show. She is very similar to my mother. Robert, her twin brother, is more like my father. They both get on very well even when they live far apart.

And then there is Peter (11) our lucky last. He is an excellent scholar (so far) and studies hard and is a lovely boy but has the traits of a youngest child. He is forever up in arms about something. If he were the first born, he would be constantly in trouble. But since we are already so old and wise, we are very considerate!

So now you know the entire club. Our children are very independent. After all Hedwig and I also had to stand on our own feet very early in life and the pioneer lifestyle in the beginning here in Australia also contributed to it. They were all very restless early in life and couldn’t wait to leave the nest. But we have our lovely family all together for Christmas. And we have never yet exerpienced any homesickness over Christmas. Every year, no matter where the children are, and they sometimes live quite a distance away, the entire family is here at home. This year was the first time Inge and Dennis were missing. But they were not able to leave the mission, for there were no replacements for them. So that now makes 17 people and the preparations are colossal. And for Hedwig this is the happiest time, then she is in her element. There is baking, in huge proportions. Biscuits, cake and Christmas Stollen. Not only to eat, but also to give away and take home with them. The entire house is put upside down. A lot of craft work and doll making. Not only for the grandchildren but also for others (half a dozen negro dolls, lifesize, in wonderfull colorful clothing were already sent to the mission) and then there is the meal for the christmas eve celebration. How she does it each year is a wonder. Then on the afternoon of Christmas eve, everyone who is not already long here, strolls in and the Christmas tree is put up (not a Eucalypt, a pine tree). Then the children who are slowly going mad with anticipation, are given something to occupy them. And then we have dinner. Then the children are put into two cars and two volunteers drive them away. There are parts of Melbourne where the front gardens are decorated and that is where the children drive to each year. Everyone else then descends on the lounge room and puts out the childrens presents. Also a Christmas plate is made up for each person and the presents are laid out on chairs, tables, cupboards and the ground. Everyone selects their special place. In the meantime I decorate the Christmas tree and the nativity set. All this takes place in a great rush and in no time the children are on their way back. I light the candles and grab my guitar and sing Silent Night, the door opens and there they are all standing, and come inside. We could not wish for a nicer Christmas. Tomorrow I will have the pictures developed and send you some.

This letter is getting a bit long and I better keep it short now otherwise I will never finish. In July we plan to travel around Australia for 4 months, Hedwig, I and Peter. With the car and we have bought a foldup camping trailor. I will write more about this another time. We are driving up to Darwin and then to Broome to visit Inge and then along the west coast down and across to Adelaide. I get long service leave, also more about that later.

Now to your questions:Yes Hedwig and I are well but don’t expect to visit germany in the near future. Yes we have taken on Austrlian citizenship. We didn’t have to but considering that we had made up our mind to stay here, we decided to go for it. By the way, since the 5^th of January we have been here for 20 years and we completely forgot to celebrate it! Well, you can have too much of a good thing! So, I will write again soon, possibly whilst on our trip. Think about sending a card to Inge, would be worthwhile!

All the best dear Gretchen,

Your Hedwig, Peter, children and grandchildren.

Thursday, 13^th April 2000.

I am recovering, from an intensive rescue mission. During the last two days, it looked as if my computer had given up the ghost. The screen was black and nothing worked anymore.

One of the reasons for the new hard disk was so that I could continue to work with the sing along CD’s. Their Programs are very space hungry. I needed to make room for them. I can now load the entire caboodle onto the new D drive and leave them there. I will write more about this another time, when I know what I want to achieve with the songs. I intend countless alterations.

Now, first I wanted to clean up the entire system. Over the years I ended up with a lot of shit, and I suspected that the speed of the PC was impacted by it. Besides, who likes to have such old rubbish in their living room! So, this is the opportunity, garbage, be gone. Would have worke well if I had first copied the entire C drive to the D drive, for safety. But of course, old fool that I am, I didn’t do that. And so with enthusiasm I started to delete everything that looked suspicious and everything that was unknown. What a joy! When I came too again, I had lost my PC. The screen was black. Oh well...deleted too much! Better reload the display drivers. Worked. The internet was still there but no emails. Outlook seemed to be there but it didn’t want to receive or send emails. Outlook Express immediately booted me out. So, reload Windows 98. No difference. Rang Robert. Sorry Dad, I am off to Tasmania for 2 weeks and can’t come over. And he had no idea what could be wrong. So bought a new copy of Windows 98. Over $300.00. Bloody Hell! Even though I believe in self punishment, that was a bit steep. My motto is he who is too stupid for life, needs to pay for it. In the meantime Peter arrived. He tried for a few hours to reinstll the old version of Windows 98, but it simply wouldn’t work. Finally he had to go to bed. The next day I was to isolate teh D drive and install windows 98 onto it, from the beginning. How do I do that? Pull the plug on the C drive. „Pull the plug“? Yes..open the box, and unplug teh C drive. Oh...ok will try that.

To try this, a small test first. Using the A drive. Yep...worked. Windows 98 installed itself on the old C drive. But this had to be seen to be believed. Took over 2 hours. When I was finished installing Windows 98 (4am in the morning) nothing had changed. I still could not get into email. And Office 2000 with Outlook would allow itself to load.

The next morning I then downloaded a new version of Internet Explorer. 1 ½ hours, 17 mb. And look...I could open my INBOX.

I am writing all this as consolation for you so that you know that there are even old camels when it comes to computers. And I prided myself on being the example. Backup, backup, backup, from way back. Old age is not protection from stupidity! And if at least I could have drowned my sorrows...maybe then it wouldn’t have happened in the first place!

.........................

Otherwise everything is sort of ok. Gerd was here with his family. He won’t have time for a side trip into germany. From Paris he will head to Wimbledon. I asked him yesterday what his actual role was. He said Production manager.

How did things work out with your friends? Is there any chance for a reconciliation?

All the best.

Greetings to you and to Anne. Hedwig also says hello. She is sitting here peeling potatoes. I don’t know what we are having for dinner.

Peter.

Saturday, 8^th April 2000.

I have not had a chance to take your artistic creation under the microscope. We have visitors.

Thank you for your nice letter. I agree, this continual hair splitting over these silly but still important commas has been done to death. In English it goes like this with me, I wipe out as many commas as possible, and most probably still have too many. I did read the rules once but have long forgotten them. It seems to me that commas should only be used when absolutely necessary.

The passport picture has finally arrived! I thought there may still have been some problems. As prepartion for the soon to be realised Cable Internet, Robert yesterday installed an additional 20 gig hard disc into my PC and increased my memory to 160K. That should be sufficient. And it all worked like a charm. The first time. Amazing.

My charming wife needed my assistance with shopping. She wanted me to help her choose material to make covers for our armchairs, so that there would be no complaints afterwards. Very wise. Do you know the Opera „the wise woman“ from Orf? Very nice little Opera. But now she is gone – my beloved. Inge dragged her away from me, until tomorrow. What a pity I am over the worst. Those were for me always opportunities for celebration, when my old woman was not home. But I don’t drink anymore. And I don’t indulge in anything else either. As nice as getting old is....sometimes you miss an element of fun!

Where were we? I have just checked in the News but there is nothing new about the David Cup – hier in Australia.

.......(misc discussions re Dad’s stories...skipped)....

So that is it for today. I wish you all the best. We are much better. Oh..Tai Chi.

After an old Chineese saying: "Whoever pracitices Tai Chi diligently and correctly will gain the piability of a child, the health of a lumberjack, and the peace of mind of a sage…"

As I see it, this is an exercise which is accomplished with very slow movement, which is practiced with mental concentration. And in this way, body and soul are simultaneously stimulated. I will write more about it once I am into it. But if you would stand and raise your arms by your side, as slowly as is possible, and then, just as slowly lower them again, and you repeat this several times, then you get an idea how this slow movement can train the body. As I already mentioned, I spent a lot of time with the I Ching and know a little bit about ancient chinese thinking. In some ways it is directly the opposite of what we learnt.

All the best. I hope everything turns out ok with your friends.

Say hello to Anne. Peter.

April 6^th 2000.

Total stillness rules the ocean

Without movement in the depth

And concerned the seaman sees

Smooth like glass the quiet sea
not a whisper of a breath

Deathly silence fills with dread

And in that unending breadth

Not one email lifts its head.

(see below for original in german – when translating poetry it is more about catching the feeling than using the same words!!)

Dear Harald,

I know exactly what you are up to. You are biting your nails! I have just read it in the News. But these german boys are still full of hope. Well, let’s wish them all the best.

Do not worry about the mail. There will still be time next week!. But when you write, please don’t forget you were going to ask a favour of me.

Gerd returns from Adelaide (Tennis) next Tuesday. Then I will ask him re Paris. I think he leaves end of May.

Otherwise everthing is ok. Hedwig and I are dragging our feet a bit. Some sort of virus seems to be playing shenanigans with us. But it doesn’t know our enormous patience. It all depends who will last the longest. I have applied for Tai Chi. Will start end of the month. I am almost becoming glued to my armchair.

Unfortunately I can’t comment on the Tennis, I don’t know the foggiest about it. Our family is non-sportly. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Otherwise I would not have become glued to my armchair.

All the best. Have fun! Greetings. Peter.

German version of poem:

Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser

Ohne Regung ruht das Meer.

Und bekümmert sieht der Schiffer

Glatte Fläche ringsumher.

Keine Luft von keiner Seite!

Todesstille fürchterlich!

In der ungeheuren Weite

Rühret keine E-Mail sich.

26^th March 2000.

I hope you have recovered somewhat. Really sounds like food poisoning. Were you the only one it affected? Hedwig said: “tell him he should disinfect his emails before he sends them to us. All day yesterday I had the runs!”

Many thanks for all the work you put into “Trina” (one of Dad’s stories). I have taken your points and below made a few more comments. I have now corrected all the mistakes in the other two texts, as good as I was able to. Of course that is never 100% successful. But I think I could leave them the way they are, so, if you have had enough, I won’t need to send them to you.

But should you enjoy doing it, one of the stories is quite funny. Sometimes not all that suitable for kids, but still not as bad as I had feared. I worked on it for two entire months. Mainly because I was not familiar with the topic and was a bit fearful with it. Because whilst working with it one of course becomes more familiar with it, and everything appears to be quite normal, as if there was nothing wrong with this at all. Well..maybe there is nothing wrong with it. One has ones preconceived ideas for everything that is out of the norm.

The second story is not funny. It also has nothing to do with women ! J

Now your comments re the Christmas 97 CD are great. See, I had already discussed the Australian CD with an elderly teacher, and she also was completely enthusiastic. Hedwig has been pressing me for a long time to publish it. I better not show her your comments! Oh well, I did approach a couple of places. The ABC were very friendly. And the AMA in Bruehl were immediately impressed. So I wanted to ask someone privately what their opinion was. Now I really don’t know what else to do. Oh well…sleep on it is always the best thing.

You are happy with me! And I get afraid. For you see, you didn’t actually see the book, and Hedwig is only commenting on the book, the computer doesn’t interest her. Maybe I will try Penguin. I held back because I didn’t want to close all doors. Maybe your remarks give me courage.

Functions and their graphic representation. And why you do all that. And your rising reluctance. I can understand it all. Please allow me to voice my own opinions. (By the way..are you using the computer for this and if not, why not?.There should be simple function like the calculator in the computer with which one can quickly sketch it. It is possible via Microsoft Excal, but who would have access to that program and know how to use it!).

In general the young people don’t go to school to learn anything practical, apart from language and arithmetic. They go to school to train their brain, so that it is later on capable of thinking and making decisions, to have a foundation which can be expanded, should it be necessary. They are not all the same as our Peter, who at 6 said, he didn’t need to practice any music because he was a natural with a natural talent! And how often children are right! He has a remarkable capacity to understand, not that it makes things easier for him. But back to your pupils, who are not as talented. Exactly for that reason they have to practice, rehearse, the elctronic preparation for their own brain. Because if they DONT do it, their capacity to understand stays stagnent, the brain stays latend und is potentially useless. They simply have not established enough connections, onto which they can continue to build.

Despite all that, there could well be one of those rascals, who will have a similar experience as I did, that when he wants to fall back onto these graphical examples, he buys a book and studies! I spent my entire life doing nothing else but swatting. But more or less this is what happens to everyone. And if the person in question then knows that it is not impossible, he will most likely have a go. That is what happened to my entire family. Especially Robert, who had dreadful difficulties growing up in school. Now he has a leading position with a large bus company. And he is NOT a „natural“ like his brother Peter. By the way, a terrific bloke. He still gets the shits with formal learning. But then who doesn’t? I myself rather buy a few books and start at the back! But that doesn’t have anything to do with school. The foundation has to be built in the brain, despite if what is learnt appears not to have the slightest value. But I would like to add something here.

I am of the opinion that all children should learn to use the keyboard. The computer has become as important as language, in very job and also in ones private life. Here they simply discontinued to teach people keyboard skills. Actually no longer any of my business, and one day there will come such a clever dick and rediscover the importance! But it is difficult to accept this. Now..before I start to cry...let’s finish. But first back to your comments on Trina (what follows are some corrections to an extract out of Dad’s story and Dad’s comments on the corrections).

11^th January 2000.

It’s been a while since we discussed our dear God. All day long I have this program I watched at 4am this morning when I couldn’t sleep, running around in my head. It is starting to get hot and I had forgotten to put on the small fan.

The topic “EVIL” in capitals, with blue flames all around. Normally I don’t watch such junk. But this topic is one of my philosophical hobby horses, so I was open to surprise.

But the surprise, as expected, didn’t eventuate. The people that were the subjects of this program, apart from general witches, the Ku Klux Klan, Voodoo and such were Jack the Ripper (the English Hamann), Hitler (of course) and a catholic priest as antidote.

The priest meant: “someone who does not acknowledge the existence of satan is totally in error. He has no idea what goes on there”.

I assume that the said catholic priest has already chased out his share of devils. But at least he didn’t accuse the no believers in satan to be possessed by him. It is a bit like mental illness in this regard. When someone says that they are not sick, but totally normal, that is taken as a sign that they are in fact mad (proven fact). So, when I say that I don’t believe in satan, then I am possessed by him. It is a sure sign. It is satan who speaks through me and in this way hides his presence.

And don’t think that this is nonsense from the Middle Ages. All my daughters were from time to time involved in various religious denominations. And this fact was definitely brought home  to me. But that is already a while ago.

I find it interesting that this idea in each Christian denomination (or maybe almost each) is  fundamental -  almost  a foundation. God is almost an afterthought, after all He does nobody any harm, whilst he is sitting there on his heavenly throne and allows himself to be known as a good person. But with satan, one has something that can be touched, one can take him on to test ones courage. Him one knows after all through and through. He is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour. If you take satan out of the churches, then the church will go broke. Exactly the same can be said for TV. Take out all the horror out of movies, and nobody will watch this rubbish any more.

Good and bad. What is BAD, with blue flames or without? I feel we have not yet finished our discussions on this topic.

Also not on the topic of mothers and on the topic of suicides.

Don’t loose any sleep over it, please. All the best. Peter

Comment by the translator (Inge): I have not taken dad’s emails entirely chronologically. Sometimes I combine a couple of emails into one topic because they follow on from each other. In early 2000 there were many emails which dealt mainly with the editing of Dad’s books and stories. So it is sometimes difficult to figure out which comments belong to Dad’s fiction and which are dealing with life issues. He constantly talks about people, and a lot of them are characters in his stories, so I have been skipping them. However sometimes they have other things embedded so when I go back over them I find little snippets. It is an interesting experience translating someone else’s comments, sometimes I have to bite my tongue not to make a comment of my own J so I guess I don’t need to mention here that I am trying to stay as close as possible to dad’s own feelings and ideas without letting my translation be influenced by my beliefs J

Poor me! What a guilty conscience I have. Mea culpa, mea culpa. And now it finally comes into daylight. That apart from a very few exceptions, I wagged all parent teacher interviews. And probably always had some sort of excuse. And I don't have the foggiest if that was good or bad. I think my unusual attitude was: fight your own way through school...or get a job! There were no arguments or scolding. Not that I want to recommend this to anyone else. To make this work requires an authoritative personality. Anyway, let's not dwell on it. I am happy that they all made it.

Once I was invited, by a vice principal, for Robert, of course. I can't remember what he got up to. There were several teachers present. And the vice principle voiced their concern. He didn't have to expound a lot about my son Robert, I already knew him for 10 years. Well, Robert took over the discussion and spat poison and gall. And called the vice principal all (australian) names under the sun. I was so shocked, that spontaneously I kicked him in the behind and told him to behave himself. That of course didn't help at all, but I was never invited back. At 12 he went to High School. As soon as he had a teacher he liked, he learned like an ace pupil. Unfortunately that only happened twice in all. Right around the corner from the high school was a new bus company. Robert, not the least bit lazy, went to the owner and asked if they had any work for him. The owner of the company was a very loveable Australian. From then on Robert washed the buses one or two times the week, until he was 15 years old and we took him out of school and sent him to Germany. It was painful to see how he suffered at school. Hedwigs brotherinlaw owned a service station and workshop. (you might know it..in Weckhoven..towards the end). That went well for half a year and then he came back to Australia. And the owner of the bus company hired him as an apprentice. And there he is still working, now as Manager. And almost a member of the family. He drives a Ford Fairlane, a company car. He computerised the entire company and installed networks. His first computer he bought when he was 13 years old, of course mainly to play and to hack. There is enough material here for a novel! For each one of our kids! Would it have helped them had I attended parent teacher nights? I usually knew quite well what was up with them, except for our Peter. He was a very special case. But even here the same rule applied....make your own way or go and get a job. And he actually did...with 15 an apprenticeship as fitter and turner. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, half a year later it was all over. And then he started his incredible journey.

Congratulations to the newborn teetotaller. I could give you all sorts of advise here, but I will resist. But I wish you with all my heart, much luck and success!

1^st January 2000 – letter to Harald:

The new year is quite nice, so far (2:09am). The big computer bug is, as expected, a great to do about nothing. Oh well, Inge won’t agree! She and Dennis and our Peter are continously on call. Peter works for a large powerworks, also as team lead of a Programming Team. I wish my german was better then I could express myself better.

1^st  January 2000 – letter from Inge.

Happy New Year/Century/Millenium to you all!

And what a wonderful peaceful start to the new Millenium! Dennis and I (or mainly I) have been watching the ABC TV extravaganza from beginning to end - with only a short "sleep" break in the middle.

Several thoughts come to mind:

1. The hard slog over the last 2.5 years seems to have paid off at XXXX - no y2k bugs discovered so far. I received a couple of phone calls this morning to give me the all-clear. However - don't want to tempt fate by celebrating too early - our main weekly/monthly/yearend processing cycle starts on Tuesday Night. Also - seeing this is a public holiday - the rest of the systems will start getting hammered only from Tuesday Morning. Also - there are quite a number of dates which caused y2k problems and for which we had to test. The most problems were caused by dates around the 29th of February. A century should normally not be a leap year. However - if it is divisible by 400 then it is. Most of our Programs couldn't cope with the year 2000 being a leap year. This little problem also causes trouble for 31/12/2000 - some programs calculate number of days in a year and if they don't recognize the leap year then this also causes problems. I know from personal experience how many y2k bugs we had to fix. Hence it is irritating to hear people now say that the y2k thing was a huge IT hoax. This has always been a project where it is hard to win. If there are no problems - people begin to question the amount of money spent. If there were problems - then people would complain that we hadn't done our job. Hence I think the whole world owes a great Thank You to the very many people who have been working around the clock to remove the bugs so that we could all enjoy this wonderful beginning to the New Year.

2. It was great to see the entire world celebrating and being united. The commentator on Channel 2 also made a remark that this was the longest programme ever delivered and - it was the first time that a TV channel had nothing but GOOD NEWS to report in an entire 24 hour period. To cap it all off - there was a short news break to announce the freeing of the hostages! The Program was brilliant. I was glued to the set. I wish you all a very happy Year 2000 and hope that we continue to enjoy a y2k-bug-free environment! Love, Inge.

2^nd January 2000 – letter from Dad to Harald.

Lieber Harald, vielleicht interessiert dich das. Peter. (Dear Harald, maybe you are interested in this)

Dear Inge,

Thanks for the nice letter you sent everybody. Mum and I agree wiht you. All the disappointing new Years Eves bevore have been forgotten! I thought some of that stuff was outright stunning, the things they did at the Opera House and the Legs on the Wall. Hans Michaels, a friend from the Opera House in Düsseldorf rang me and said he never has seen Fireworks like the one in Sydney. Well neither have I.

But apart from the stunning performances and the fireworks, I really liked Melbourne better, not so much for what they did here in Melbourne, but the city itself. What a wonderful, majestic city we have got here. I have always claimed it is the most beautyful city in the world, an I believe I was right.

As to the Big Bug, you and the people working with you have to be praised and congratulated. I know, I have been a bit synical about it all, and I just didn't believe that the world would go under, as even some of the media poeople must have done. In that sense, I agreed with Maxime whatshername on the Telly, she reckoned that the whole thing was a bit of a hype. I never thought that the work done to fix this unbelievable situation was for nothing, not a minute. If it wouldn't have been taken as serious as it had than the world would not have quite gone under, but almost.

The painful thing for you will be that now, as everything went as smoothly as it did, some people will be critical and think it all unnecessary. I don't know what advice I could give you for that. You will have to be prepared and find a way to cope. Prayer will help in a situation like that, never forget that. From case to case you will find advice within you as to how to deal with the situation.

As to the leap years, I can't quite understand that there now are still problems with the years 1600, 2000, 2400 and so forth. Ther Gregorian Callendar is quite clear about this. I am getting a bit disappointed with the programming professinon. Windows 98 have a situation in which it deals with two digits years in that it decides to put anything before 1931 into the year 2000, that is the year 30 (my birth year) is the year 2030. I just am flabberghastet by that. How can there, after all that, still be two digits years. As a result, of course, in the program I am working on, Mum and I are borne in 2030, never mind what I do! Even so my instructions and whatever are four digits.

Another thing is, that Microsoft states that the callendar on which their dating is based, is the Gregorian Callendar, which started towards the end of the 16th century. Up until then we had the Julian Callendar (named after Julius Ceasar, who, himself a mathematician among other things, got the callendar started at the year naught). Well, that's OK. BUT, Borland now, in Delphy, and no doubt in other programs, continued their callendar right back to the year zero, which of course is wrong. The Julian callendar does not have the correction factor of not calling centuries leap years (which Ceasar actually invented). It has a leap year every forth year, never mind what. Which caused the callendar to be out by quite a bit in 1500, hence the Gregorian Callendar which replaced the old one towards the end of the 16th century.

Are those clever computer programming people actually stupid?

Well, all the best to you and Dennis. I have corrected the addresses of both Michael and Peter and send them a test mail.

Mum and Dad.

6^th January 2000 Email to Harald.

Also doch! Im momentanen Klima der Miseprime die nun auf die "Verschwendung" hinweisen vielleicht eine kleine Erleichterung.

Ich hab Sophie's World angefangen zu lesen

werd mich melden

Peter

Translation( so..after all! In the current negative climate which is pointing to waste of money maybe a bit of release.

I have started reading Sophie’s world. Will soon be in touch.

----- Original Message -----

From: Inge

To: Dad

Sent: Thursday, 6 January 2000 01:57

Subject: the bug is biting

Good Morning,Well ... the bug started biting here last night and has continued to sting us during the day and tonight. Nothing very damaging but ratherm irritating.I am still at work waiting for the results of another patch. I'll try and call you on the way home. Have a nice night/morning/day. Love, Inge.

17^th January 2002 Email to Harald.

Eine Stimme aus der Wüste   Peter

Translation: a voice out of the desert. Peter

----- Original Message -----

From: Inge

To: Dad

Sent: Monday, 17 January 2000 08:17

Subject: FW: The heroes of Y2k

Hi Dad, here is someone else tyring to tell the world why things went so smoothly! Love, Inge.

--Y2k News 11 January 2000  COMPUTERWEEK

The heroes of Y2k By Judy Backhouse

The truly crazy headed for the hills with fortified bunkers and ammunition.The more cautious bought water and tinned food. Even the most optimistic drew some extra cash the week before. Everyone speculated about the outcome. But in the IT world, we worked. We checked code. We corrected code. We tested code. We rolled dates forward and backward and forward and backward until our nerves were paper-thin. We upgraded hardware. We upgraded operating systems (to cope with the new hardware). We upgraded compilers (to cope with the new operating systems).  We modified more code (to cope with the new compilers). And then we began the cycle again of testing and rolling forward and testing and rolling backward.

We initiated great, complex Y2k projects. We compiled project plans. We filled in endless forms about the state of our Y2k projects. We  wrote monthly reports about the progress of the Y2k projects. We went to meetings where we were told how the future of the company depended on the Y2k project being completed in time.  We dealt with panicked business people. We soothed troubled nerves at dinner parties. We were asked to predict the outcome by distant cousins who knew we were "in IT". We became overnight experts in the working of diesel generators, photocopiers, motor vehicles and washing machines. And, collectively, we averted the disaster. Like superman of old, the IT professionals of today managed to intercept nothing less than the end of the world. In an industry where projects run notoriously over the most pessimistic time estimates, we met the deadline. The clocks ticked over to the year 2000 with nothing more than minor hitches.  And were they grateful?

Did the world thank us and laud us as the heroes we quite clearly were?

No!

They turned around and called it "all hype". They questioned the money spent. We did our jobs so damned well that the only question remaining was whether there had been any need to do the job at all.

So, to all those IT people out there who slaved away at the Y2k problems over the past few years, who endured the pressure of fearful but helpless managers; who lost endless sleep testing things at night because there wasn't a separate test machine; who cancelled their December leave; who couldn't be in exotic places to welcome the start of the new millennium; who stayed sober on New Year's eve because they were on standby; who went to work on the 1st and the 2nd to boot up the machines - I say put your feet up, pat yourselves and each other on the back and go and get some much needed sleep with a smug smile on your face. We did it.

The IT people across the planet are heroes - even if unsung ones. Like housework, what we do is not appreciated unless we don't do it. But

like the housewives of old we go on doing it, knowing that it is good,honest, necessary work - and that it gives us inordinate power. So, my fellow programmers, system administrators, database administrators, operators, analysts and support staff - congratulations on a job well done. Ours may be the youngest profession on the planet, but this 21st century belongs to us.