Newsletter 355 15 March 2022
President’s report: This month we keep in mind the residents of flood affected regions of Southeast Queensland and Northeast New South Wales as well as those around Sydney. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is also uppermost in our thoughts.
COVID unfortunately remains with us, and we continue to ask members to only attend activities if you are vaccinated and boosted. By doing so you will show respect for the health and well-being of your friends and fellow members. We also ask that you not attend meetings if you have any symptoms
Closer to home, we send our regards to Janice who is currently in prehab awaiting surgery; to Evelyn who is supporting her son in palliative care; and Susan who had a double knee replacement in February.
Unfortunately, our annual visit to The Little Snail couldn’t go ahead in January because of the COVID situation. Now this month’s walk had to be cancelled because of torrential rain. We are sure to enjoy future walks all the more.
Several members faced heavy rain to attend the outing to Pearl Beach to join Noreen and Peter for a barbeque. I didn’t hear that anybody went swimming that day.
Our speaker today is our own Richard to continue his remarkable story.
Please remember that this newsletter is for all members. We would love to receive snippets of information, news, trivia, cartoons and jokes from our general membership.
Membership report: Our membership stands at 52, (34 women and 18 men).
Many happy returns of the day for your March birthday: Kristina T 01, Jeanette F 06, Don B 08, Lis T 18, Fran McC 27, and Elizabeth S 30.
Note: All our Probus meetings are generally held on the third Tuesday of every month at 10:15am. The next meeting will be held on the 19th of April, 2022. The committee meetings are conducted in the Northbridge Golf Club at 9:15am on the same day. Members are welcome to attend.
Probus Walkers: Tuesday 12th April to Sir Joseph Banks Park, Botany. This is an easy and interesting walk on the site of the first Australian Zoo, and now features many animal structures symbolizing this. There is also a lake which is home for many water birds. We will start with coffee at Botany, then continue down to the Park, past the old Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, walk around the lake and then across reclaimed land to a walkway out into Botany Bay. After retracing our steps to the Park, we will lunch at the new Sir Joseph Banks Hotel. Easy, approx. 4 klms. Mary Ann will lead this walk since Oriel has an engagement deferred from last year because of COVID. MEET: At 9:30am Redfern Station ticket barriers Giddon Street exit. Catch bus 309 in Regent Street to Botany.
Probus Outings: Tuesday, 22nd March, the Powerhouse Museum. There are many new and interesting displays. If you Google https://www.maas.museum/whats-on/ you will see a list of the current and future events, eg Eucalyptusdom and The Steam Revolution. If you have a creative grandchild who has just completed the HSC there is a display of some of their textiles, woodwork, and inventions. There is a good map of the display rooms online: https://www.maas.museum/powerhouse-museum/map-guide/ and this is also available at the front entrance.
The meeting time is between 10 and 10:30 am at the coffee shop, which you can enter from the front of the building. You can buy lunch later on there as well.
The best way to get there, involving the least walking, is as follows: The light rail to Randwick/Kingsford starts at circular Quay. You get off at the Haymarket stop, (just before Central). Walk up to, and turn left into Pitt Street. The 501 bus leaves from Pitt Street, opposite Barlow Street. Get off the bus opposite the Powerhouse Museum. (Past Macarthur Street, the 5th stop.) An option is to alight from the light rail at the Chinatown stop and walk directly to the museum via Paddy’s market. This is a 20 minute walk.
Examples of displays: Microcars and “Can you remember this?”
Guest speakers: Today Probus member Richard Law will continue his remarkable story. Next month, Jennifer Philps joins us with a talk about “Fighting Cancer”.
Events: Movie Tuesday the 29th March. I am hoping that the three time Oscar nominated move,
“Belfast”, will still be showing at the Orpheum Theatre on this day but no knowing until the week before. It is the autobiographical story of Kenneth Branagh’s childhood, set in 1969 in Belfast during the troubles between Protestants and Catholics. If this masterpiece of a movie is not showing there will be another Irish movie in a totally different vein called, “Nowhere Special”. This is the sensitive story of a father and his 4year old son. Before the movie we can meet at “Fang Dumpling House,” (Chinese food!), which is in the
square of restaurants about 200 yards before you get to the Orpheum Theatre in Military Road. I would suggest that you park at the Council Carpark in Paraween Road and walk back. I will send out more emails the weekend before with definite restaurant and session times.
Theatre Visits. “An American in Paris”, Wednesday 11th May at 1pm. This is showing for a short season at The Theatre Royal in the MLC Centre in King Street. It seems already quite heavily booked and I would need to have numbers of people who would definitely like to attend plus money sent to the Probus account ASAP. Tickets, if still available, would cost $119.95. This is a wonderful song and dance show set in the 1950s and taken from the movie starring Leslie Caron and Gene Kelly. There is a question mark over available tickets and price, but it would be a nice thing to see if I can really arrange it quickly!
“North By Northwest” at the Lyric Theatre, Wednesday the 23rd March at 1pm. This is David Campbell starring in the role made famous by Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock 1950s thriller. Tickets $102. I need to have numbers wanting to attend this at today’s meeting and money paid into the Probus account ASAP. There may be a last minute fluctuation in ticket prices depending on numbers attending, booking expenses and ticket availability.
A COVID tale by Mary Ann. As COVID cases, hospitalisations and deaths all decrease, I thought it pertinent to chronicle the only cases of COVID I am aware of in our Probus community.
Douglas and I both tested positive for COVID in January. Douglas woke on 4th January with mild cold symptoms and decided to take a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) which produced a positive result. We immediately sought a clinic to have PCR tests done. Killara was the closest that was open and we managed to get there about 11am and had the tests done without having to wait at all.
My result came back negative at about 5pm that same day and Douglas received his positive result a couple of hours later. We had isolated that day apart from traveling to and from Killara for the PCR test. We then notified all the people we had met socially in the past week. These included those who attended a family dinner and a person who was in the vulnerable category. They all carried out RATs and, thankfully, all proved to be negative.
From the time of Douglas’ positive result, he not only isolated in our small unit, but he also remained shut in our second bedroom as much as possible to protect me. I quarantined according to the rules in place, but had the use of the rest of the unit. We had a relative delivering groceries to our door.
On the 6th day of quarantine I took a RAT which gave a positive result. So then it was my turn to isolate for a further week.
Our symptoms were extremely mild. Being totally confined to the unit was the toughest part of the whole experience. We had both had our booster shots before Christmas, so we would have been at peak immunity. Thank you to all who developed such great vaccines.
No comments:
Post a Comment