Category: Village Voice

As I write this, I am sitting in my study working from home, after more than 2 years of successfully avoiding Covid, I am one of the 68,426 Victorians that have registered a positive Covid test in the last week. The pandemic has seen huge change in working from home arrangements for office based staff and now, with my office phone diverted to my mobile, the ability to directly log into the servers at work and access all of my files online, having Microsoft Teams open to video or real time chat with staff and hold meetings and the staff to be able to see if I am active at my workstation or away from my desk, it has made working from home a very productive option for times this like.

Continue readingVillage Voice: June 2022

There is so much uncertainty in the world right now, I have pondered for several days trying to choose a topic for this month’s cover that would still be relevant by the time it goes to print next week and decided that I can be sure that all 4 of these topics will dominate the news in April.

Continue readingVillage Voice: April 2022

This is the theme for this year’s global celebration to mark the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organisations.

Continue readingVillage Voice: March 2022

There are three documents that will make an enormous difference to how much control you have over your life and assets if an event arose and you were unable to express your choices and wishes yourself. Recently we have had situations arise in both Villages where Residents did not have these documents in place and it has caused enormous distress for families who were faced with many privacy related and legal roadblocks in trying to work through financial, care or estate issues.

Continue readingVillage Voice: February 2022

As I wondered what to say to welcome 2002, my mind kept wandering back to the movie Mary Poppins, and Dick Van Dyke singing:

Winds in the east, mist comin' in
Like somethin' is brewin' and 'bout to begin.
Can't put me finger on what lies in store,
But I feel what's to happen all happened before.

Continue readingVillage Voice: January 2022

As we all begin to remove masks and socialise again at a pace and time that we each feel comfortable, it kind of feels like meeting people all over again for the first time, and indeed some of our newer Residents will not have seen what some of our Staff look like without masks. So, I thought this month I would share some current information about who our Staff are by answering some common questions. 

Continue readingVillage Voice: December 2021

As I sit and write this month’s newsletter, I am quite overcome with emotion, I cannot find the words to express how overwhelmingly proud I am of our Staff and the lengths that they will go to for Residents. Yesterday was ABBA day in the Manor and the Residents “travelled” to the Greek island from the movie Mamma Mia. They enjoyed a special Greek menu, were cared for by staff in full ABBA 70’s costumes, a concert was held where staff sang through masks and danced to ABBA music videos and the Residents clapped and cheered and the joy and excitement could be heard all around.

Continue readingVillage Voice: November 2021

The recent unplanned power outage caused by a lightning strike at the Eastern end of the Village followed later in September with planned power outages in three areas of the Village by United Energy for Frankston power grid maintenance have reminded us all of the importance of having a plan for these types of events.  

Continue readingVillage Voice: October 2021

It has been sometime since we were able to host a meeting in person, so I thought that I would write a Q&A style article for this month’s Village Voice based on questions I have had from individual Residents that may be of interest to all Residents.

Continue readingVillage Voice: September 2021