Everybody is very friendly here and it didn't take long to settle in. I still carry on my independent activities. I worked with a firm of accountants and have retained about four clients which I can easily do here.

Jill: "I still carry on my independent activities. With my accounting work, I have retained about four clients which I can easily do here."

"I wish my friends would bite the bullet and do the same thing. I find it's their husbands that hold them back because they are content to stay at home with their wives looking after them. For me, the time was just right. I was 70 and still capable of organizing a move.  I was living in a block of units - a six pack - which was 30-years-old and needed some work. I owned two of them and I decided I didn't want to be involved. I was out shopping one day with a friend and just dropped in here and thought: ‘I could live here.' I called a round table conference of the family and they agreed with my decision."

"My own mother had totally depended on me for many years - I had to bring her up here which was very hard to do. My family is also spread out, with one in Sydney and two in Singapore. So I went from three bedrooms to two; that was fine. I got rid of everything and started again. I didn't mind really. I think it is the biggest thing for people to do; they can't face it. It's getting rid of the furniture. A friend took my piano and the books, of which I had a lot. I am a compulsive book buyer - fiction, not too heavy."

"Everybody is very friendly here and it didn't take long to settle in. I still carry on my independent activities. I worked with a firm of accountants and have retained about four clients which I can easily do here."

"I am also treasurer of three charities: the Cresbrook Committee for the Royal Children's Hospital of Brisbane, the local Red Cross, and Pathos, which supports a lady in Vietnam who looks after children with HIV. I also play Competition Bridge two to three times a week."

"I help out here with the bridge players and I play scrabble. The best communal activity is Happy Hour on Friday nights. We bring our own grog and nibbles and for about an hour we talk and laugh. There is also Coffee Chat on Tuesday mornings and other activities if you want to be more involved."

"We are so lucky to have our heritage buildings. This one cost over $2 million to do up and it provides the stunning lounge rooms with a great cappuccino machine, the billiard room and big television to show films. We also have the auditorium, dining room, heated pool, gym and art room. The dining room provides dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays plus lunch on Fridays and Sundays, if you don't feel like cooking yourself or you want to invite friends over. It costs just $11 / $15. A number of people have meals delivered to their apartments."

"The facilities are exceptional, really, and all with the city and lots of shopping centres on our doorstep. The kitchens are modern and have large balconies. There are views to the city and river. The weekly fees are reasonable; in fact I haven't even considered them, so they must be - and I am an accountant! It's all quite unbelievable, really."

"We bought a lifestyle - which is a catchphrase - but it is true. When people ask where I live, I say I live at Aveo. I didn't ‘join.' I came to live here. And I do. The friend I first dropped in with would love it - but she is one of those dilly dalliers..."

For more information on Aveo Clayfield please click here.