MELROSE MONITOR FEBRUARY 2021 From the Care Manager’s Desk Hello Everyone Hello to all our residents & their families, Let us all welcome 2021 in the hope that this year is going to be better than the last. We Wehave have been received through thesome results tough timesof the last recent year andResident are fortunate and Family/Carer that we have Satisfaction been able Survey. Thank you for participation. Please be assured all areas of low satisfaction are beingto keep reviewed everyone and safe an fromaction COVID. plan will Please be developed don’t feel toyou address are alone, these we issues.will get Athrough copy of theany hurdlesgraphed that results come ourand way the together. corresponding We are a Actionbig family!!! Plan will be displayed on the Noticeboard in the front foyer for your interest. Birthdays this month: Happy Birthday to all the following residents, I hope you have had a Kindwonderful Regards, time. Catherine Minogue, Elsie Martin, Dennis Kennedy, Samuel Gunaratnam Sueand HaleyJoyce Whitney.- Care Manager Sadly missed are Mr Shankaran, Mr Wallace Boyd, Mrs Enid Moss and Mr Leslie Brown. Les called Melrose his home for the last 10 years. We will dearly miss them all. Inside this issue: COVID 19 update and visiting rules Care Manager 1-2 There have been no COVID-19 cases for How to make a comment/complaint 2 the last 16 days in NSW therefore some relaxation has been made as a result but Waitangi Day 3 visiting numbers to aged care remains at 2 visitors in 24 hours. History of St Valentine’s Day 4-5 I would like to thank all families for Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward 6-7 abiding by the rules. Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy 8-10 Please remember to visit during the hours of 10 am to 2 pm as we have Chinese New Year 11 assigned a staff member just for screening purposes. Puzzles 12-17 We need to maintain vigilance as one Activity News 18-19 mistake can be detrimental to everyone. Lavender Wing Calendar 20-21 This is reminder to all, please answer Camellia & Jasmine Wings Calendar 22 the questions truthfully and let staff members view the questions with you Photos 23-25 before you submit the answers. This is because if you are denied entry for any Melrose Retirement Village News 26-27 reason, we will need to verify the answers before entry is allowed. Recipe’s 28 Page 2 MELROSE MONITOR From theComments Care &Manager’s Complaints Desk We have had some very positive resultsTim since to we write started screening all staff and visitors and have managed to keep all residents safe and free from flu /influenza for more than 12 months. What is happening this year We are due for accreditation this year around September therefore we are very busy putting things in place by reviewing systems and educating everyone as 2020 was a very difficult year and additional changes had to be made and implemented. It was a big learning curve for all of us. Despite everything we continue to move forward and make changes to improve. Vaccination for COVID We are awaiting Public Health advice on the new vaccination and will keep you informed when it arrives and when it will be offered to all residents. It is advisable that we do take this vaccine because of the nature of the virus we are dealing with. With all the media talk about covid vaccinations I just wanted to remind everyone that the vaccination is not a cure for covid. You can still catch the covid virus, however the vaccination is designed to help reduce symptoms, stop duplication of the virus, and decrease its ability to mutate. Open door policy If you have any issues, please feel free to come to see me in my office. My door is always open for all. Let’s all stay positive and hopeful for 2021. Cheers Kind Regards Susie Mudaliar FEBRUARY 2021 Page 3 Waitangi Day - New Zealand National Day Waitangi Day is the New Zealand national day celebrated each year on February 6. Unlike Australia, whose national day marks the settlement at Sydney Cove by Europeans, New Zealand’s national day commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840. Waitangi Day thus marks the coming together in friendship of the Maori people and the white European settlers although it hasn’t been an easy road from there. New Zealand's nationhood Under the terms of the Waitangi Treaty, the Maori people agreed to accept British sovereignty. They in turn were granted citizenship and land rights. The treaty, however, has never been officially ratified by the New Zealand Parliament (although it did pass a Treaty of Waitangi Act in 1975 which sought to honor the terms of the agreement) and has been a source of dissension and discord, particularly in relation to land rights. But it is an historic document nonetheless in seeking to clarify the rights of the Maori people and the European settlers and it lit the way to New Zealand nationhood, which Waitangi Day celebrates. Waitangi, Birthplace of a Nation Waitangi, New Zealand, is the birthplace of the nation. It is on the Bay of Islands within four hours’ drive north of Auckland. It is a national reserve adjoining the town of Paihia and evokes the very essence and history of New Zealand’s beginnings. The Treaty House, built for British Resident James Busby who was sent to New Zealand from Australia, still stands as a memorial and monument to the historic event of 1840. This is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British government and Maori tribal leaders. Meeting place and war canoe Close to the Treaty House is the Maori Whare Runanga (Meeting Place) which was completed in 1940 and is a finely detailed construction with carvings representing the major Maori tribes. Down by the water is the largest war canoe in the world, the Ngatokimatawhaorua, which is named after the great canoe of Kupe, traditional Polynesian ancestor of the Maori people. The Waitangi reserve is a must destination for those visiting the Bay of Islands. http://goaustralia.about.com/od/discovernewzealand/ Page 4 MELROSE MONITOR HistoryComments of St Valentine’s & Complaints Day Every February, across the country,Tim tocandy, write flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this holiday? The history of Valentine's Day -- and its patron saint -- is shrouded in mystery. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. So, who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl - - who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France. While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial -- which probably occurred around 270 A.D -- others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. FEBRUARY 2021 Page 5 History of St Valentine’s Day To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goathide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year.