Ballina PLR Residents' Community Blog: March 2020

Thursday 26 March 2020

Communiques

From our Residents' Committee ...

From the Treasurer 05 April 2020

Communique 3 Update Link 30 March 2020

Communique 3 Link 28 March 2020

Communique 2 Link 26 March 2020

Wednesday 25 March 2020

Communique 1

From your Residents' Committee ...

Attached is a follow-up to the emails you have been receiving from Manager Rick, relating to the COVID-19 virus and how its affects our daily life at Palm Lake Resort, Ballina.

The attached communique summarises key matters discussed this afternoon with Manager Rick.

Added since it was written - the Library, in fact the clubhouse, is closed till further notice.

Don't forget to keep washing those hands in soap and hot water......

Communique Link

Link to advice about self-isolation

in compliance with government and management advice, your Palm Lake Ballina committees have agreed to suspend all organised activities at Palm Lake Ballina until further notice. This situation will be reviewed on April 3.

Link to management note re mangrove odours 06.03.20

Link to Management note re extra internet capacity 06.03.20

Link to management communique

Link to letter from all committees

Link to Federal Health website

Cassia Circuit in Lockdown

Well here are are some folk who know how to have fun while isolated. If you have a fun street who would like to have their photos immortalised let the blog know and well pass on the request to our fine photographer, Julie Pallant.

Link to more photos

Message from Kate Hewitt

Kate H, our gym, water aerobics and exercise class teacher has asked for this message to be passed on ...

Hi everybody,

hope you are all well and managing to stay positive during these changing and challenging times. I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you all and hope to see you again soon!. In the meantime, I will be contacting each of you for a five minute chat (including a very short survey) about how we (CHEGS) and I can best support you in maintaining your health and exercise program over the coming weeks/months.

I do have some peoples' contact details, but I don't want to miss anyone, so if you don't mind could you please text me on 0439302185 with your name so that I can contact you and compile a group text to keep in touch moving forward.

Thanks ... talk to you soon!!

Kate Hewitt xx

New Link

A new link has been added to the Info & Support page of this blog.
The Residents' Phone List has been added for the convenience of those who want to check up on others or just have a chat in these "non face-to-face" times.
It will be updated regularly.
Please respect the privacy of your fellow residents by keeping the phone list confidential.
It must not be shared with anyone who is not a resident.

Sunday 22 March 2020

Rotary Help COVID-19

Click here to enlarge

Thursday 19 March 2020

Shopping Bus

Notice from PLB Residents' committee:

Want help with your shopping?

The Palm Lake Resort Ballina bus will continue to take residents to Woolworths each Wednesday at 7.00am.

The Booking Sheet for the bus trip will be at the Information Desk in the Oasis Club. Please sign up in advance if you wish to use the bus. Space on the bus will be limited as we must allow for appropriate space between passengers, but it is likely than more than one service will be available.

There is an outside group of people who can help as well;

HELP! is a collective of volunteers from Ballina (not associated with Palm Lake) dedicated to assisting the elderly and people with chronic medical conditions who are advised to stay at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Their services are all non-contact so that both the recipients and volunteers are kept as safe as possible. Their services include - shopping and delivery; mail collection and Post Office runs; phone chats.
They would love more volunteers as well.

Check out the "HELP!" website

Wednesday 18 March 2020

Face Masks

Mary Doohan (Villa 13) is offering to show anyone how to make a face mask, a skill she has just perfected. She has asked for residents to spread the word as they are very hard to get at the moment (none in Ballina, I've tried).

Sunday 15 March 2020

Workshop News

There has been action aplenty in the Palm Lake Ballina Workshop this month as a small group of residents has been busily handcrafting wooden bird boxes.

The Workshop group were responding to a call-for-help from our local Wildlife Society looking for talented folk to make the boxes. The Society places the bird boxes in fire-ravaged bush areas for the shelter and protection of vulnerable birdlife. It also encourages birds to return to that area.

Michael Sherlock, Max Armstrong, Ron Rawson, David Crawford and Peter Kafka rose to the challenge and have handed over their first production lot of 25 bird boxes. Good onya’ guys!

The Wildlife Society were so pleased they have asked for more but also added possum boxes to the order. If you have had anything to do with purchasing wood in the last few years you will know that it is not cheap! The material to make each bird box costs close to $20; the possum boxes will obviously be more. Our Residents’ Committee funded the first batch, but they need more for the next lot.

Wouldn’t you love to support such a worthy cause?

You can, by:

volunteering to help the Workshop group
donating money to the group
buying raffle tickets at the first Happy Hour in April (04.04.2020) where the proceeds from the PLB Social Committee’s raffle will be given over to the Workshop group.

Link to Photo Gallery of this project

CPR and Defibrillator Training

In response to the great interest shown by many residents wishing to participate in CPR/ Defibrillator training Linda Duke-Yonge has organised 2 sessions led by Mal Whitfield. Each is spaced about a month apart to enable an opportunity for travellers to catch one of the sessions. They are also on different days to minimise the inconvenience to groups who use the Oasis Clubhouse on that day.

Sessions are planned for:

Tuesday 5th May
Thursday 9th July

Each session will be limited to a maximum of 30 people in order to allow attendees a turn on the dummies. If you already put in an Expression of Interest at the Information Session day you will still need to register on one of the 2 sheets that will be on the Information Desk. If numbers are greater than 30 for each session put your name on a reserve list and a third training session will be organised later in the year.

Keep an eye out for the advertising posters and an ear out for announcements at mealtimes.

Library News

With the help of funds from the Social Committee and a very kind resident we have now bought 52 books since the start of this year. Some are brand new and others are pre-loved and fairly new publications.

When the books are placed into the library we are currently putting them at the back of the library, on a shelf by the window, with a notice marked “New Acquisitions” for the first couple of months, so that avid readers, of which we have many, can easily identify newer books. We are also grateful to residents who are donating new or recent novels into our Returns Box. As we get newer books we can discard older and very small print books enriching our collection. Thank you all.

Terri Clark, Villa 7 and Sue Christie, Villa 68.

Wednesday 11 March 2020

February News from the Palm Lake Fishing Club

I don’t have much to report in regard to fishing last month as we didn’t get many chances to try with the way the weather was. A few of us took Migaloo along Patch’s Beach one day but the wind would blow a dog off a chain and the current was travelling faster than Migaloo along the beach.

David Franklin - Our Champion

Nevertheless our new recruit David Franklin in his first attempt at fishing the beach with his brand new rod was the only one to catch a fish. We decided we would need an awful lot of chips to go with his small whiting so we practised “catch and release” and let the blighter go. Despite this Dave was very proud and happy with his catch.

Man of the Month

Our “man of the month” for February must be John “Anchors Away“ Cross for his performance with the crabs we caught. We had eight good-sized muddies to cook up for a feast at the Oasis and John kept them comatosed by keeping them in the crisper trays his beer fridge in the garage. His big mistake was to take them out and try to weigh them as we were all very proud of our success.

Johnnie tipped them onto the kitchen bench only to find out that they wake up quickly from hibernation once out of the fridge. They started running all over the kitchen! Anne arrived when she heard the commotion and I won’t tell you of her response to the calamity. Needless to say, she was not impressed and left “Anchors Away” to sort it out on his own.

Anyway, once he finally caught them all and put them back in the fridge everything was forgiven and we all had a magnificent seafood feast one afternoon at the Oasis.

WANTED: Temporary Fishing Club Rescue Vehicle and Crew

Unfortunately, our Fishing Club Rescue Vessel with Captain Barry at the helm and First Mate Pam will be out of action for about 3 months while the courageous crew take a holiday elsewhere in Australia. Consequently, we need somebody to step into the breach and take on the onerous and dangerous duty of rescuing our members should they get into trouble on the water.

Applicants should have a seaworthy craft (no leaks) and preferably with a motor of at least 15 horsepower. You will need to be available on call (not like one of our other members who has been known to put his bowls in front of a major emergency) and brave enough to take on extremely dangerous rescues.

Please contact me to apply – This is a totally voluntary position and your application will be treated in strict confidence.

Till next month,

Tight Lines Douggie.

Villa 252