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If you are thinking about moving into a retirement village, below are 10 top tips to consider:
- Timing is the key. You need to decide when a move is right for you. If you are not ready, you won’t feel settled, but if you leave it too long you will wish you had moved earlier.
- Age is not the best indicator. Age is simply a number. There is no set age when you should move to a retirement village.
- Share your thinking with family and/or friends. Those who know you will help you to make the decision that is right for you.
- Make the decision to move before selling your home. Once you have made a decision you can then deal with the issues concerning the physical move. By having a clear decision in your mind, the details of selling your home will not be as overwhelming.
Make a list of questions before visiting facilities. This will ensure that you receive the information that is most important to you. It is also a good idea to visit a number of different villages.
- Take a friend or family member with you on village visits. This will give you another perspective from someone who is close to you.
Spend time in and around the village of your choice to get a feel for how it would be to live there. Visit the village more than once and at different times of the day.
- Check the reputation of the village operator. Aged Care Queensland can provide you with information such as does the village operator have a good demonstrated history within the industry? What other villages do they operate? You can also check the operator’s certificate of registration.
- Does the village provide for your future security needs? Does the village have on-site ongoing care or a transfer arrangement with another of their sites? Are Care Packages available within the village units? Is there an emergency call service available to provide 24-hour coverage?
- Does the village offer community features? This could be physical assets such as a swimming pool or community hall or it could be opportunities and places for discussion and meeting with other residents or it could be a regular church service.
The above is by no means a comprehensive list. However, it does provide you with some food for thought when considering a move to a retirement village. Churches of Christ Care operates 13 Queensland retirement villages. For more information about retirement villages in Queensland, please visit their website www.care.cofcqld.com.au
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Bangkok may be the most vibrant destination in South-East Asia. Its charm is accessible to anyone who is not put off by its busy atmosphere. Bangkok demands that visitors dive in and enjoy the lifestyle of South-East Asia.
Bangkok is a captivating, fascinating and dynamic city with countless places to see, terrific shopping opportunities, a diverse and exciting nightlife, and thousands of restaurants. Since traffic is usually standing still, it is better to take the Skytrain and remain above street level. Even there, expect crowded platforms full of people shoving to board the cars.
Siam’s new beginning.
Large parts of Thailand fell under Burmese rule during the eighteenth century. After the destruction of the former Thai capital, Ayutthaya, a handful of men under the leadership of General Tak Sin went in search of a new place to establish the government of the kingdom. In 1772, they settled on Thonburi, a small town on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. The little town was built around an important temple. The site was well protected by the river and hastily erected land walls. Tak Sin expanded the temple complex into the royal temple of Wat Arun, in honour of the goddess Aruna. Wat Arun survives today as the landmark of Bangkok.
An inglorious end.
Tak Sin ruled the Kingdom of Siam with an iron fist for ten years. Years of war transformed him into a merciless despot. He saw himself as Buddha’s successor, and demanded to be worshipped as a god. This led to rebellion and to his execution on 6 April 1782. In accordance with time-honoured custom, he was placed in a cloth bag and beaten to death, because royal blood could not be allowed to spill on the ground.
A city of temples.
Following Tak Sin’s death, Bangkok was founded anew as a different city on the opposite bank of the river. King Rama I used the old capital of Ayutthaya as a model for the construction of his new residence. There he built the Royal Palace and the Royal Temple of Wat Phra Kaeo, named after the statue of the Emerald Buddha, which Rama commanded be brought here from Wat Arun. Today, this is Thailand’s most revered image of Buddha. The area around the Royal Palace is the historic centre of present-day Bangkok, Canals, called khlongs, used to wind through and around the new capital, and much of the city’s commerce took place directly on the water. Nearly all of the khlongs were filled in during the twentieth century to allow for the expansion of the city.
All of Bangkok’s busy streets and wide boulevards were originally canals. The first bridge over the Chao Phraya River, the Memorial Bridge, was dedicated in 1932, joining Thonburi with the constantly expanding city on the opposite bank. The last of the khlongs with their colourful floating markets can still be found in Thonburi.
The face of the Bangkok metropolitan district, known as Krung Thep Mahanakhon in the Thai language, was mostly modernized in the 1980s, when an explosion of construction of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers forever altered the cityscape. The Skytrain now weaves its way through a concrete and steel jungle, with only the occasional glimpse of a golden stupa or ornately decorated palace to remind the visitor of Bangkok’s glorious past.
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Algiers is located on series of terraces that clamber up the hillsides from the sea, towered over by the ramparts of the medieval Casbah, the Old City. Full of flowers, beautiful villas and luxuriously green gardens, the geography of this Mediterranean city is best understood as a huge triangle.
The seaside European quarter is its wide base, which narrows as it ascends the close winding lanes to the Moorish quarter, eventually coming to a point at the city’s old fortress high above.
Island of the Gull.
The first settlers on the coast of Algiers, aside from the native Berber tribes, arrived around 400 BCE. These were Carthaginian merchants in search of a convenient harbour in the western Mediterranean. During the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage, this settlement, known as Ikosim (”Island of the Gulls”) fell to the Roman Empire.
The most significant moment in the city’s history came with the conquest of the Late Roman Numidian Kingdom by the Muslim Arabs around 700 CE. The official founding of the city did not take place until 935 CE, when the Berber tribes (by then converted to Islam) named their harbour Al-Jazir (”White Island”). The city extended no further than what is today the Old City of Algiers, the Casbah.
A bastion for pirates.
After the Moors were driven out of Spain in the fifteenth century, Algiers was the launching point for numerous military expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula, but the Moors were never able to regain control of Spain. In fact, the Catholic Spaniards conquered Algiers instead, taking control of the city in 1509. The city suffered under Christian oppression for ten years before Ottoman Khaireddin Barbarossa recaptured Algiers in 1519 in a daring naval assault. The city and country would henceforth be part of the Ottoman Empire.
In the following years, Khaireddin Barbarossa built Algiers into one of the most powerful bastions on the Mediterranean. Up until his death 1546, he used it as the base for countless raids along the Mediterranean coast, besieging Spanish as well as Moorish cities, and bringing all of Algeria under his control. In Europe, the name Algiers became synonymous with a pirate’s den. In France, however, this was not the case. The French had long been in league with Khaireddin.
From allies to conquerors.
Although European nations tried again and again to recapture the city, all attempts failed miserably. Then, in the 19th century, the French gave it another try. Their conquest of Algeria began with the landing in 1830 at Sidi Fredj near Algiers. The final subjugation tool over fifty years.
After Algiers became a French colony in 1882, a huge influx of French companies and workers arrived and the city grew exponentially. The European residential areas built at that time still shape the cityscape of contemporary Algiers particularly at the base of the “triangle” along the 2-km-long boulevard along the harbour.
In the Casbah. The interplay between Berber pride, Ottoman organization and French sophistication lends Algiers a special charm. Visitors climbing from the French-influenced harbour district up to the Old City of the Casbah experience the city’s different cultures as well as its history.
Built around 1500 and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992, the Casbah is the old citadel of the Ottoman governors of Algiers. The higher one climbs, the more narrow and twisting the lanes become. The houses are crammed so close together that they nearly touch, and balconies are connected to one another above street level. Several important mosques are located in the midst of this confusion, including the Grand Mosque, the New Mosque and the Ketchaoua Mosque. All are renowned for their antiquity and architectural diversity.
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