Just a quick post today to let everyone know that I feel like shit today, ok during the day I felt ok but as it has gotten darker and colder I am feeling more like shit.

Yesterday Tim, Jessica, Leo, Blain and I went to Australia Reptile Park and it was a great day out we stopped at Macca’s for lunch and took drinks for while we where at the park because we all know that food in these places cost a bloody lot.

I have Leo here tonight, I have started having him on Monday nights when I don’t have Blain as Leo likes to be here without Blain just as Blain likes being here without Leo.

You know I didn’t check my emails on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and this morning I had a total of $442 emails to got through, well I read today’s emails and picked some out of the other days but most I just deleted as it would have taken me most of the day to go through them all and most were blog posts, so this morning I only read 26 blog posts and moved onto answering some mail.

Here are at Friday again and what a cold and wet Friday it has been, and yes I was out and about it’s Friday and that is shopping day, anyway here are this weeks five things.

Long sleeve singlets

A little boy in tears (missing his mum)

Riding a motorbike in wet and windy weather (not me)

Another little boy wanting to stay with nan not mum and nan saying no, yes I do say no at times.

Leo here so Blain now laughing ( no Leo is not staying, just here while his mum does something)

I have said for a long time “life’s too short to be miserable” and I stand by that, yes sometimes we can’t help but be sad and depressed things happen in life to make one both of those but over all we have to chose to try and be happy, to enjoy life.

There are many things in life that cause us upset but dwelling on them achieves nothing but sorrow and/or a headache so why bother and yes I know it is easy to say chose to be happy but often choosing to be happy is the first step to a happy life, maybe not always but isn’t it worth a shot, why do you have to lose.

“Brothers!

We, the undersigned Jews from Krakow, inmates of Plaszow concentration camp, have, since 1942,worked in Director Schindler’s business. Since Schindler took over management of the business,it was his exclusive goal to protect us from resettlement, which would have meant our ultimate liquidation. During the entire period in which we worked for Director Schindlerhe did everything possible to save the lives of the greatest possible number of Jews, in spite of the tremendous difficulties; especially during a time when receiving Jewish workers caused great difficulties with the authorities. Director Schindler took care of our sustenance, and as a result, during the whole period of our employment by him there was not a single case of unnatural death. All in all he employed more than 1,000 Jews in Krakow. As the Russian frontline approached and it became necessary to transfer us to a different concentration camp, Director Schindler relocated his business to Bruennlitz near Zwittau.

There were huge difficulties connected with the implementation of Director Schindler’s business, and he took great pains to introduce this plan. The fact that he attained permission to create a camp, in which not only women and men, but also families could stay together, is unique within the territory of the Reich. Special mention must be given to the fact that our resettlement to Bruennlitz was carried out by way of a list of names, put together in Krakow and approved by the Central Administration of all concentration camps in Oranienburg (a unique case). After the men had been interned in Gross-Rosen concentration camp for no more than a couple of days and the women for 3 weeks in Auschwitz concentration camp, we may claim with assertiveness that with our arrival in Bruennlitz we owe our lives solely to the efforts of Director Schindler and his humane treatment of his workers. Director Schindler took care of the improvement of our living standards by providing us with extra food and clothing. No money was spared and his one and only goal was the humanistic ideal of saving our lives from inevitable death.

It is only thanks to the ceaseless efforts and interventions of Director Schindler with the authorities in question, that we stayed in Bruennlitz, in spite of the existing danger, as, with the approaching frontline we would all have been moved away by the leaders of the camp, which would have meant our ultimate end. This we declare today, on this day of the declaration of the end of the war, as we await our official liberation and the opportunity to return to our destroyed families and homes. Here we are, a gathering of 1100 people, 800 men and 300 women.

All Jewish workers, that were inmates in the Gross-Rosen and Auschwitz concentration camps respectively declare wholeheartedly their gratitude towards Director Schindler, and we herewith state that it is exclusively due to his efforts, that we were permitted to witness this moment, the end of the war.

Concerning Director Schindler’s treatment of the Jews,one event that took place during our internment in Bruennlitz in January of this year which deserves special mention was coincidentally a transport of Jewish inmates, that had been evacuated from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Goleschow outpost, and ended up near us. This transport consisted exclusively of more than 100 sick people from a hospital which had been cleared during the liquidation of the camp. These people reached us frozen and almost unable to carry on living after having wandered for weeks. No other camp was willing to accept this transport and it was Director Schindler alone who personally took care of these people, while giving them shelter on his factory premises; even though there was not the slightest chance of them ever being employed. He gave considerable sums out of his own private funds, to enable their recovery as quick as possible. He organised medical aid and established a special hospital room for those people who were bedridden. It was only because of his personal care that it was possible to save 80 of these people from their inevitable death and to restore them to life.

We sincerely plead with you to help Director Schindler in any way possible, and especially to enable him to establish a new life, because of all he did for us both in Krakow and in Bruennlitz he sacrificed his entire fortune.

Bruennlitz, May 8, 1945.”

Translated from the original document in German

Hello Monday, and what a lovely Monday you are too, ok that’s a lie it is cold and wet and all round not a lovely day at all, just saying.

Ok everyone wonder how my weekend was, well it was pretty good, wet but good, I went out on Saturday morning to buy a new vacuum cleaner Kmart had them for only $49, it’s bagless and does the job. I also managed to get myself two lots of socks each lot having 7 socks in them for only $1 each so that is 14 pairs of socks for only $2 and I bought both Jessica and Kathy-Lee a new bra each for only $3 very good indeed.

I had breakfast here yesterday or brunch if you prefer, it was at 10.30am I did bacon, eggs, hash browns and croissants. I decided to have breakfast because I had 22 eggs that were on their way out, I tested them all before using them and had to toss 2 of them as they had gone off, by the time breakfast was over I had none left, I scrambled 18 eggs and fried up two all the eggs got eaten and all but half a slice of bacon went and there was 1 hash brown left out of the 8 I cooked up. I asked the girls if I should do breakfast again instead of lunch and they all said yes, so I will be having breakfast here a couple of times a month. I will just have to make sure I have lots of eggs………..

Yesterday afternoon I felt like making some muffins and then remembered I had used all the eggs so no muffins. I also liked that by 12.30pm all the girls and grandchildren had gone home and I had a quiet house, Tim was at work.

I am starting a new thing for Monday nights since I don’t have Blain on Monday’s (he goes to his dad) I will be having Leo instead so that way I don’t have to have both boys on the same night, although mostly they are ok when I have them both they can and do fight on and off during the night and Leo has said he wants nanna to himself and not have to share with Blain all the time, but that is ok Blain doesn’t like sharing me with Leo either.

On Saturday night Jessica asked me if I would pick her up from the mechanic, she had to drop her car off again this morning and I said I would, so I go out there to get her at 9am ok I was a few minutes late, but when I get there she is no longer there, I ring her she said she wanted me to get her if her sister couldn’t and that she said she would let me know, she didn’t say that at all she said she thought if I did it she wouldn’t have to worry about Natasha doing it. Anyway as it turned out Jono picked her up, I was a little annoyed that I went out there for nothing.

I am getting annoyed that I can’t get my morning BGL down this morning it was 10.8 most morning is it between 9-11 and they have increased my insulin from 16 to 20 to 24 units although I often take 25 units instead of 24 I take it at night before going to bed prior to taking it my BGL is between 12-15 at night, this I would understand if I ate junk food at night or had sweet sugary things but I don’t often it is between 2-3 hours after I have had tea that I go to bed, yes I go to bed early that is just the way it is nowadays. I am also fed up with testing my blood all the bloody time but I know it has to be done. I don’t want my diabetes to get out of hand as I know that is dangerous.

Ok I am signing off for this post, I am looking forward to your comments because I am human and normal and like comments/feedback…………….just saying…………..

Welcome to this weeks Five Things Friday, yes I know I have been pretty slack the last few weeks could promise things will change but can’t because who knows what each week will bring, so anyway here is this weeks five things.

Jeggings………………that don’t fit

Searching for a receipt………….and failing to find it

A cold snap………….

Working daughters and crying grandsons

Feeling bubbly inside……………..for no reason

Dhurringile Mansion

Today let us talk about the camps in Victoria

There were at least eight camps in the state during World War II which held between 4000 to 8000 people. Most were located in the Goulburn Valley because food was plentiful and there was a good supply of water.

Four of the camps were for enemy servicemen who had been captured from around the world and then transported to Australia. These camps were at Dhurringile Mansion, Camp 13 near Murchison, Camp 6 near Graytown and Camp 5 near Myrtleford.

The other four camps built near Tatura were for civilians considered a security risk because of their nationality.

The 65-room Dhurringile mansion was used as a POW camp for German officers. One of the most successful escapes from the camp happened in 1945 when 17 officers and three batmen tunnelled 14 feet down from a large crockery room, and under a perimeter fence.

The mansion was later used by the Presbyterian Church as a training camp for orphans before the Victorian Government turned it into a minimum security prison.

View from a tower

The first purpose-built internment camp for World War II was located about 167 kilometres north of Melbourne at Tatura. It consisted of four camps, two at Tatura and two at Rushworth, a couple of kilometres away. The lands where the camps are situated has since been sold and is now in private hands, however, the German War Cemetery was built next to the Tatura cemetery a few years after the war ended. It was the first war cemetery to be established in Australia.

The camps at Tatura were opened in 1940 and held German and Italian internees. Conditions were tough, the mess halls were the only heated rooms in Camp 1 and only one section of Camp 2 had hot showers.

But internees were able to develop tennis courts, workshops, a newspaper, flower and vegetable gardens and start small businesses such as haircutting and tailoring.

A Kosher kitchen was established for Jewish internees and one hut was also converted to a Jewish synagogue.

Camp 3 at Rushworth was used exclusively for family groups and hot water was available in all the wash rooms. It also featured a camp school taught by German teachers.

However, internees at Camp 4 lived in corrugated iron huts, which were very hot in summer and freezing in winter as the windows had no glass. This camp was used initially for Europeans who had been living in Australia at the outbreak of the war. They included Germans Italians, Hungarians, Finns and Romanians. Once Japan entered the war, they had to make way for Japanese internees as well as some Chinese from Formosa, now known as Taiwan.

Tunnel dug by Germans