FIRE BREAK

 Queensland Parks and Wildlife services are undertaking work in forests that abut urbane areas as the fire brigade have said there is a high fire danger risk to dwellings. So over the last few months we have had earth moving equipment forging wider fire breaks around our village. Trees and vegetation have been removed and huge mulchers moved in to munch up the fallen trees. The noise was loud. I tried to get as close to our border as possible to take some photos.

Dropping the logs into the mulcher.

The mulcher spitting it out at the other end making huge mounds of mulch, which they will spread later.

An amazing but noisy machine.

Once lovely trees turned into mulch but a necessity to keep us safe from bush fires.

You can see from this photo that I took from a plane when I was returning from Melbourne some time ago, how our village is surrounded by forest and neighbours with acres of bushland.

This is our street disappearing into the forest.

This is our apartment. My study is on the right.

This is the view from my study.

I love living here surrounded by bushland and close to forest walks but I am happy that we are getting a wider firebreak made around our village.

CARIBBEAN DINNER NIGHT

Our monthly dinner had a Caribbean theme this time. Many of the residents got into the swing and wore brightly coloured outfits. The High School catering students, who usually serve us were not able to come this month because it is the end of the school year in OZ and the students have their exams. So the dinner committee organised a captain for each table who helped the staff to serve. The CEO also helped cook while the chef was our guest speaker instead.

The menu: 

Salmon with Coconut & Lemon Myrtle with Cajun Spiced Cauliflower Wings and Chickpea, Orange ,Tomato &Fennel Warm Salad 

OR 

Jerk Chicken with Couscous and Gremolata, Grilled Lime with Avocado, Mango, Pineapple and Mint Salsa and Cajun Spiced Cauliflower Wings 

Dessert : Pineapple and Lime Cake with Pina Colada Ice-Cream, Coconut Foam and Fruit Coulis

The videographer at work and residents getting cocktails from the bar.

Nanette decorates the cocktails

Friends enjoy a cocktail

One of the resident's son plays dinner music for us.

All seated

The ladies having fun

Our table

THE MELBOURNE CUP

 First of all CONGRATULATIONS to Melbournians for tolerating months of lockdown, but you have done it! No cases for a week. Hopefully, you can start to enjoy life again a little. All states in Australia are down to zero or single digit cases now. We have adhered  to strict restrictions and now we are so lucky compared to Europe and USA. 

Every year on the second Tuesday in November, The Melbourne Cup horse race is run. It is our most famous race nicknamed,  'The Race That Stops a Nation' because everyone stops at 3:00 pm to watch the race. There are many parties and sweeps arranged around the country. However, due to Melbourne's Covid restrictions the race was run without the thousands of spectators that usually go dressed in their best or most outlandish costumes and hats.

Naturally, our village joined in the fun. The staff organised a luncheon and viewing of the race in our community centre.   We had prawns, chicken, salad and bread rolls a typical race day lunch. We had winners of the sweeps and winners of the best dressed. Annie, one of our residents, made hundreds of hats for us to hire for $5 and then she donated the money to an animal refuge.

Staff and residents prepare the lunch.

Our CEO prepared the salad.

Chiou See (CEO) explaining how lunch will be served to accommodate the Covid regulations (No buffets allowed)

We had lunch with village friends on our table.

Our village blow up mannequin came along as a jocky. Gwen and Sandra have fun with him.

Everyone stops to watch "The Melbourne Cup". We watched it on the big screen in the hall.

Bill's sweep horse came first.

After lunch chocolates.

The best dressed gents.

The best dressed ladies.

The staff relax at last after organising our Melbourne Cup Lunch.

We had fun. The race was also shown on the TV in the Library, which is at the end of the hall. The many hats for hire were on display there too.

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.

DINNER TIME with covid19 restrictions.

 Our village is an independent living place so meals are not usually provided. However, our CEO, Chiou See Anderson, organises a monthly dinner for us in the community centre. Naturally, these dinners had to stop during the lockdown. But our CEO, concerned about our mental heath being isolated in our units, decided to provide meals for small groups of us in our units when the restrictions started to ease. She cooked the meals with her staff's help and they delivered them to our units one street at a time. One each week for five weeks. The residents were organised into groups of 4 or 5 and were hosted by one of the group in their unit. It was a quite an effort for Chiou See to cook for 30+ and organise getting the food to the units.
Each week the organisation improved. The first time she and her partner and staff delivered the meals from the boot of her car. The next time they plated up the food and delivered from the back of a village buggy. After that she turned one of the empty units into a mobile kitchen and plated up there but the staff still delivered by a buggy. It was fun for us to get dressed up for a change and go to dinner with friends. As we are the village photographers we were given a meal each week. We didn't take photos of the first street but here are some from the other streets.

Chiou See cooking salmon rolled in tea leaves and seasoning and eye fillet steak with blue cheese topping on a bed of mushroom risotto. There was a side dish of vegetables as well. Dana, a staff member, cooked orange and almond cake for dessert.

They plated up from the back of the work buggy.

Staff member and daughter of Chiou see delivers to the unit.

Residents enjoy.

The next week Chiou See cooked garlic and chilli prawns with linguini and beef ribs. Bill taste tests the marinade for poached pears.

Single ladies really enjoy these nights where they can enjoy friendship.

The next week it was our turn. Another lady took the photos so we had a night off. 

We had fish or brisket and cheese cake

The last week the last two streets combined for a street party lunch. Chiou See and her daughters prepared traditional Chinese fare. She cooked in her own house which is in one of the last streets.

Brendan, Chiou See's partner dishes up Won Ton Soup.

Just one of the many dishes.

Just one of the happy couples. We were invited to join them for lunch too.