Bowls, friendship and freedom: Di and John’s life at Carlyle Gardens Mackay
John joined the army in ’63, and we met over in the West.
I always said to him, “Right mate, when you retire, we’re going to your state where it’s warm.”
I don’t like being cold, and that’s how we ended up here.
Since we’ve been at Carlyle Gardens Mackay, I’ve really enjoyed it.
It was just too easy to make friends
When we first moved in, we decided we’d start going down to the social activities. That was the best place to meet people and make friends.
And you do. You just have such a great time with all these people. It was just too easy to make friends.
There are so many things you can do. You’ve got arts and crafts, you’ve got the men’s shed, you’ve got cards, a swimming pool and a hairdresser.
What more do you want? You’ve got your own little life here.
I must admit, a lot of the activities that we do in here, I wouldn’t have done outside, because you just don’t know your neighbours as well as what you do in here.
Bowls brings us all together
At the moment, we both play indoor bowls and we’re both in the choir.
We both like to sing, so it’s great.
It’s a mix of good people, and with the bowls, as I keep saying to them, the bowls is the thing that brings us all together.
It’s the fun that we have. It’s the jokes that we have.
It’s good fun. We have a ball. We do.
More freedom to enjoy retirement
Moving into Carlyle Gardens didn’t slow us down. If anything, it gave us more freedom.
We didn’t have to worry about organising anyone to mow the lawns or making sure the house still looked like someone lived in it when we went away.
We used to go away in the caravan, and we’ve had a wonderful lifestyle in here.
You’ve got no worries. It’s up to you what you do and what you make of the life.
And if you’ve got any problems or anything, you know that you can go to someone. You know you’re not on your own.
Fifteen years that have flown by
We’ve been here 15 years.
It doesn’t seem that long. Time has flown by.
And yeah, I love it.
“Okay, now you can…”
“What, what?”
“No. You’ve said it all again.”
“No, I haven’t, I haven’t.”