DON'T BRAG (Message to myself)

After bragging to my readers that we had Covid under control, it has snuck back into our community. Only in Brisbane not anywhere else in the country. We recorded four new cases over the last few days so now we have been locked down again for at least three days. It is quite harsh. Schools closed. Only essential workers can go to work, wear masks, stay apart, stay home except for food shopping, exercise, and medical reasons. If people have been visiting from other states they have to quarantine for 14 days when they return home. Travel is banned. In the meantime testing and contact tracing has gone into overdrive. The health gurus know that it is the UK strain and it was brought into the country by a returning Aussie from overseas, who was positive and went to hospital for treatment where a doctor became infected and passed it onto a friend. Friend was asymptomatic and passed it onto brother who passed it onto three others.

Unfortunately, our vaccine rollout is slow because we can't get Europe to send enough because they need it and we have to give some of ours to third world Papua/New Guinea. We are due to get our (oldies jab) after Easter. Health workers have had theirs. Care home patients are getting it now. Then us. 

So it's time to get a bit of Zen in our village Zen garden.

ST PATRICK'S DAY DINNER

Our monthly dinner night fell on St Patricks Day so naturally the theme for our dinner was St Patrick's Day. Residents were encouraged to wear green and they did. We usually have an Irish Dance group come to dance for us. This year we couldn't get them due to problems they incurred due to Covid Lockdowns in the past. However, we solved the problem when Our Line Dancing Group offered to entertain us by dancing to Irish music. We normally have a distinguished visiting guest speaker but this year we had one of our residents from the History Group give us a talk on St Patrick. We also had a resident sing Danny Boy for us.

Bill says, "Top 'o' the mornin'" to Fergus our mascot.

We sat with a lovely group of neighbours.

Many guests wore green and fun head wear.

Nanette makes great cocktails. The bar is manned by village volunteers.

John gave an interesting talk.

The line dancers entertained us and had fun themselves dancing to Irish music.

Stewart sang 'Danny Boy'

The Rochedale High School Catering students served us well.

Poz, our chef, made a delicious meal: Guinness Pie with Colcannon and Creamed Spinach or Cider Coddled Pork Loin with Colcannon and Baked Sprouts. Dessert : Baileys Irish Cream baked Cheesecake with Green Chocolate Ganache.

Our CEO, Chiou See, and our Residents' Committee Chairman, Ian, led us all in singing "Its a Long Way to Tipperary".