TEN YEARS OLD

 Our little retirement village turned ten this month. So for our monthly dinner we had a tenth birthday party. Our CEO, Chiou See Anderson (Chelsea in English) and the very first residents, called the 'pioneers', were our guest speakers. Listening to Chiou See tell us about the struggles she had to get this place going was quite amazing. She sold her house to buy the land and she and her three children lived in a shed on the land at first. She had many challenges with the local council and even took them to court and won. It took seven years of wheeling and dealing before the building started. Part of the deal to get started was she had to have some residents pay a deposit to move in when it was finished. So the pioneers put their name down when this place was just an empty block of land. Due to constant rain and floods, the first  buildings were not finished on time. The pioneers had sold their houses but couldn't move in. One couple bought a van and toured around Australia, others lived with their children.

However, things improved and over the next ten years Chiou See continued building apartments until the village was complete with 123 apartments and 1 house. Not to mention a workshop, community hall and library, offices, gym, pamper room, swimming pool, zen garden, water course gardens and 2 BBQ areas

Chiou See telling us about the story of our village, "Elements Retirement Living"

Many residents attended. We do not have any community Covid transmission in Qld. Some times we get some from overseas but they go straight into compulsory quarantine in special hotels. So our restrictions are easing. The village has an  Industry Covid Safe Plan, which means we have to sign in and out of the centre, and one person for so many square metres and try to stay 1.5 metres apart unless from the same family. We are allowed 120 people in the centre but only ten outside in groups. We can have ten visitors in our homes.

The Pioneers have been living in the village for ten years.

The catering students from Rochedale Highschool serve our meals, clear the dishes and help in the kitchen.

Residents take it in turns, street by street, to help put away the tables and chairs and put the dishes in the 90 second industrial dish washer. The students are holding a pen which was given to them from the Workshop Committee. The pens are wood turned timber pens made by the residents who play in the workshop.We were all given a pen, there were over one hundred of us. The two chefs, Matt and Pozz enjoy coming once a month to cook for us.

 The menu was Asian Fusion, fitting since our CEO is Singaporian. The choices were Beef fillet and tamarind miso, sesame noodles, bok choy, glazed baby carrots and green papaya salad or Chicken breast fillet in kung pat sauce with sticky rice cakes, glazed baby carrots and green papaya salad. Dessert was chai  green tea coconut panacotta with peanut salted caramel, asian pacific fruits and rosewater lychee coulis. I forgot to take photos of the meals but they were delicious as usual.

Late news: A friend sent me photos of the meals.

beef

chicken

dessert

THE RED BRIDGE

We went to Logan River Parklands to take some photos of the newly renovated Red Bridge. It was built as a toll bridge in 1939 as part of the Pacific Highway to cross the Logan River on the way to the Gold Coast from Brisbane. It was decommissioned in 1986 and two new bridges were built one going south and one going north providing eight lanes of traffic. The Logan Council have paid 2.5 million to repair and renovate the bridge. It is now a part of a walking and cycle path through the parklands.

We were hoping to fly the drone and take some aerial shots but it was too windy.

That's me! I can't believe how small it was as part of the main highway to the coast. I can remember using it often in the 70's and 80's.

The present day bridges carry eight lanes of traffic but they are nowhere near as attractive as the historic Red Bridge.

The Logan River has parklands on both sides here. The parks have boat ramps, playgrounds, walking trails, exercise stations, picnic spots and barbeques. 

Love this tree and the person under it.

There are wetlands there too but were a bit dry now but did catch one bird looking for dinner.

Linked to:

 

A DAY TRIP

Although there is a threat of a second wave of virus in Brisbane we are still allowed to travel within the state remembering social distancing and wear a mask in crowded places. So we did a short trip today into the country. The weather was a beautiful sunny winter's day and the sky was so big and blue. The plan was to drive to Wyaralong Dam to practice flying the drone and then onto the country town of Boonah for lunch. When we got to the dam we discovered a small sculpture park there. Unfortunately there were not many with descriptions or artists names.

 Well we got the drone up and managed to bring it back safely without ditching it into the lake.

 It was a pretty place and not many people about. The grass is dry out here as it hasn't rained for ages.

 It was so quiet and peaceful.

Then we discovered a sculpture park and many picnic shelters with tables and benches. 

 I thought this one looked like a pelican

Night Swimmer and Fishing Rod in the background.

MOROCCAN DINNER

We can have our monthly dinners again. It was a Moroccan Dinner. Marinated Lamb with fruit Quinoa Cous Cous, Tagine of Vegetables or Moroccan Braised Chicken, Quinoa Cous Cous, Asparagus and Broccolini. Dessert was Orange Meskouta with date Salsa, Cinnamon Cream and Pine nut Crumble.

We don't get to choose who we sit with. This is so we get to know other residents. We were lucky to be with our friends from England, Karen and Eddy as well as Diane Dennis, who lives across the road but has been friends with our CEO ever since she started building the village ten years ago. Diane's husband was a descendant of the Dennis pioneering family of this area. Our street is named Dennis Rd.

We start the evening with drinks.

One couple even dressed in traditional Moroccan clothes.

The lamb dish

The guest speaker spoke about her career in journalism via zoom because she had a cold.

Dessert

Our Ceo thanks the chef and gives him a wedding present from the residents and her. The Rochedale High School catering students offered to help out with serving.

 The CEO and her staff used to organise the dinners but now she has asked the residentts to take over the job. So this lovely capable lady, Ann, has taken on the challenge. She has a band of helpers that has now become the Dinner Committee.

A NEW BOARDWALK

I can't believe it is almost a month since I posted. I must admit my time has been taken up typing contents pages for my photo albums, 36 of them, from 1949 to 2009 after that I went digital. I also have some of my parents albums with photos from the 1920's and I just realised these photos are one hundred years old now. I wonder what will happen to digital photos stored on external drives in one hundred years time. New devices probably won't open the old drives. Think it is necessary to print some photos now for the future. They could be in photo books I suppose but depending on the ink used by publishers will depend on how long the images will last.

Just a few of the albums

We went for a walk in the forest to see the new boardwalk that has been built to replace the old one.

This is one of the shorter walks in the forest and it has been upgraded for disabled people.

Bill is going to attempt to fly his drone along the boardwalk.

It is pretty in the forest as the sun is going down.

The wallaby was hiding behind the tree

The home stretch. Bill is leaving the main track and going down a little path to our village.

I took some arty farty shots on the way.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

We have been lucky in our state and we haven't had any new cases or community transmission of the virus for some time. So we have been eased back from lockdown through stages where we now have a lot of freedom but we must still social distance and sanitise. The size of crowds has increased but not unlimited yet.

So we were able to return to our village monthly dinners. This month's theme was Christmas in July, which I don't really believe in celebrating because I think it is a hang over from British Colonial days, where the people felt it was strange having Christmas in summer. So some people feel it is still right to celebrate Christmas in winter in July. Even though I don't agree with the idea , I'm always up for a dinner party, so we went along and enjoyed.

The organising of the dinners has been handed over to the residents. A committee was formed and they organised the lunch very well indeed. They set the tables.

 They organised a two groups of volunteers to wait on tables, one group for mains and one for dessert. Here they are getting instructions from the committee members. This was necessary because the high school students we usually have were not allowed to come due to school restrictions at the moment. Also it's not a good idea to have teenagers mingling with oldies yet.

 Some came dressed in Christmas attire.

 There were many tables of happy retirees, being able to socialise again. Our CEO mingling with the residents in the background.

The three of us are the village photographers and it is always hard to get a photo of ourselves. We usually take each others table but this time we were sitting at the same table. The CEO organises where we sit, so we don't sit with the same people every time. Julie conned her husband for this shot.

Our CEO/owner of the village, welcomes everyone back after lockdown. She also organised a would be candidate for State Parliament to speak to us.

 About 80 of us turned up to the party.

 Some of the staff joined us too.

 The CEO, Chiou See and partner Brendan with the candidate and PR person.

 The meal was delicious, beef, ham and pork with sprouts, parsnips, carrot and mash.

 After mains we have a guest speaker and look who it is, none other than my hubby, Bill. He was asked by the committee to talk about how Christmas is celebrated in Switzerland, since that is his homeland.

 Dessert was a treat. A mushroom made out of gelato and a brownie of some kind, with a lovely sauce.

Rosa and the other volunteers did a great job.