AUSTRALIA DAY FUN

We celebrated Australia Day in the village. It started by one couple decorating their car and used a blow up doll for a cricket player. Everyone knows Aussies are mad about cricket. A friend helped and supplied the song to blare from the car as it slowly traversed the streets of the village. 'C'mon Aussie C'mon". Then we had lunch and games in the community centre.

 Our flag is red, white and blue but our sporting colours are green and gold. Go figure.

 We are encouraged to dress up. We arrived early to take photos .

Soon the hall filled with residents, friends and family.

Our visiting cricketer named Dennis Road, made himself comfortable at the bar.

 Our volunteer bar crew are loads of fun.

We had traditional fare for lunch. Sausage and onions in bread with tomato sauce, damper and lamingtons.

Damper

 Dennis Road, the cricketer, went to get his lady friend called Elle Ments to come and enjoy the fun at Elements Retirement Village on Dennis Road, Springwood.
On the right Kevin is proud of the lamingtons, that he made even though he is a pommy.

We had a thong throwing competition. See the yellow thong in the air. We call flip flops, thongs. A good time was had by all.

A FUN DINNER

Every month our village administration put on a dinner for the residents. Each dinner has a different theme. This month it was a Japanese dinner. The reason being a group of villagers went to Japan for a  short holiday. We didn't go because we had been before. Anyway the chef cooked two lovely dishes for an alternate drop. There are 80 people for dinner.
For dinner we had MISO SALMON on SHIRATAKI NOODLES with FINE VEGETABLES. TERIYAKI CHICKEN BREAST & RAMEN.GREEN TEA CAKE with YOGURT WASABI ICE CREAM, SWEET MANGO AND FRUIT COMPOTE for dessert.

Some residents spent time making origami table decorations.

We had a Japanese guest speaker and a demonstration on how to wear a yukata and obi. CEO and two staff members were the models and two residents volunteered to help by following the expert's instruction.

The finished dress called a yukata or summer kimono. Karen on the left is the village manager. Dana on the right is the office manager next to her is our CEO and owner of the village Chiou See. The Japanese lady in black did the demonstration.

Some residents dressed up too.

The high school students who came to help the chef and to do the serving. They are catering students.

Some of the group that travelled to Japan as well as some high school students who help the chef and their teacher and the guest speaker.

LITTLE VISITORS

How time flies when you get old. I thought it was only a week ago when I posted but now I see that it was over three weeks. Dang!

Last weekend, daughter Sonya and her boys, flew from Melbourne to visit for a few days and to warm up in Queensland sunshine.

 The boys had a turn at flying the jet.

 The Melbourne family found it quite warm up here in Brisbane. They enjoyed some time in the spa.

 Cheeky

 The next day we went on the ferry to Coochiemudlo Island for a picnic and play on the beach.

It was a lovely sunny winter's day

 Fox constructing a canal.

 The next day it was a picnic in the forest in walking distance from the village. Banjo spies a wallaby.

 Granddaddy bonds with the boys.

In the afternoon Sonya and her friend, Kelly relax in our Zen Garden, while the children went rock hopping.

Fox crossing a bridge.

 On the last morning I took the boys to the local skate park and playground.

Fox found a place for me to rest and he took a photo of me. Then it was off to the airport and back home to cold Melbourne for Sonya and the boys. It was a fun weekend and so good to see Sonya relax a little.

A NEW HOME

If you read my last two posts you would know that we are selling our house and moving into a retirement village. This wasn't a simple decision but took weeks of deliberating. It looks like we have a buyer and we will be moving at the end of March. This is where we are going: