Night Cricket

On Tuesday night I wandered down to the Caloundra Cricket Ground to have a look at a 35 over per team night cricket match between the local Brisbane District cricket team (Sunshine Coast Scorchers) and a combined team from the local Sunshine Coast Cricket Association.

The match was washed out eventually with a couple of showers around 8:30. The local association was chasing 196. Needless to say, this was pretty bright batting off just 35 overs.

The Caloundra Cricket Club hosts the evening. It is just an 'ordinary' local cricket club but has access to poker machines. These are great money makers for the local cricket club.

The bar is a fairly reasonable spot to buy a cool stubby on a hot Tuesday night. These facilities are fantastic and funds raised have gone towards the levelling of the ground and rebuilding the drainage etc. New sight Screens have been installed and over $80,000 has been spent on the lighting system.

Remember to click on the photos for a larger view. You then need to hit "Back" to return to the Blog Page.

It Must Be Footy Season!

If you know your Australian Rules you might get a laugh from this!

Mick Malthouse goes to a football reunion at Richmond and starts chatting with Terry Wallace. Terry says to Mick, 'Well Mick, I don't know what you think of your players at Collingwood, but mine here are all bright and brilliant.

'How do you know?' asks Mick.

'Oh well, it's simple', says Terry. 'We put them through a special intelligence test before they can play here. Just pick any of my players and we will see how well he does.'

Mick thinks for a while and then nominates Matthew Richardson.

Terry calls him over and asks him,' Tell me Matty, who is the child of your father and of your mother who is not your brother and is not your sister?'

'Ah, that's simple plow,' says Matthew, 'it's me'.

'Well done Matty', says Terry, and Mick is very impressed.

Mick returns to Collingwood and wonders about the intelligence of the team.

He calls in Buckley and asks,' Nathan, tell me, who is the child of your father and of your mother who is not your brother and is not your sister?'

Nathan thinks and thinks and doesn't know the answer. 'Can I think about it a bit more Mick, and I'll give you an answer tomorrow?'

'Of course,' says Mick, 'you've got 24 hours. But it is very important that you come up with the answer.'

Nathan goes away, thinks as hard as he can, and then he calls in his teammates. Rocca thought it might be his Grandpa but wasn't sure. Medhurst was certain that it couldn't be anyone. McKee admitted he was sacked from Richmond for not knowing. Cloke also owned up to failing the test while trying to get a position at Punt Rd.

Prestigiacomo thought it could be a cousin in Italy who had been adopted as a child. The rest of the team wouldn't even hazard a guess. Licuria went into the foetal position. 20 hours later, Nathan is very worried that he still has no answer with only 4 hours to go. Eventually Nathan says' I know, I'll ring James Hird! He's clever, he'll know the answer.'

He calls James. 'Hirdy,' he says, 'tell me, who is the child of your father and of your mother who is not you brother and is not your sister?'

'Very simple,' says James, 'it's me!'

'Of course!' says Nathan and immediately rings Mick.

'Mick,' says Nathan,' I've got the answer: it's James Hird.'

'No, you idiot,' says Mick. 'It's Matthew Richardson.'

With thanks to Jan Fitz!

Shortage Of Land?

According to what you read in the newspaper, there is a land shortage for building homes going on at the moment. Our estate here on the Sunshine Coast is going ahead in leaps and bounds though I wonder really how the first home buyer can afford to build in areas such as this. We are about 4 k's from the beach so definitely not in one of the higher priced Sunshine Coast areas. A small block such as ours goes for about $145,000 to a large 600 s/m+ block for almost $200,000. In between sized blocks go for between $160,000 and $175,000 approx.

By the time you put a house and surrounds on it you are looking at a total anything from $300,000 for our sized place to $375,000+ for a 4 bedroom double garage place here at Bellvista.


But none of this seems to have slowed sales or building in our area. Another option which we are seeing more of is that of medium density living. We have a 'Retirement Resort' here as well as a fully 'gated' community of 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom units. This is another medium density development being built now.

Have you noticed the counter at 'Visitors To My Blog Page'?

It isn't very accurate I am afraid as it records all visits everyone makes. Each time I put a post on I sometimes have to revisit the blog page three or more times to ensure things are spaced correctly or to polish up some of the text I have typed. Each time I revisit the Blog Page it seems to record another 'hit'. So of the 50 or so hits the counter currently has, about 30 of those are from me fine tuning each post as I put it on the Blog Site.

Rain Sparks Up The Garden

With recent rain the garden seems to grow almost as you watch it! The developers of our estate have installed gardens everywhere keeping the neighborhood bright and colorful. The "Bird Of Paradise" can be seen growing everywhere except in our backyard. This is about to change with a plant which has sat flowerless in the yard for 18 months at last showing a very pretty flower is about to burst forth.

The lawn is growing like crazy too.

The rain has seen each of the palms across the back fence is beginning to show new fronds or 'spikes' which are beginning to open out. We have had over 180 mls of rain so far in February and only need another 20 or so to reach our Feb 'average'. The backyard is looking great!


Click on the photos for a full view.

Blog Page Latest

As you may have seen I have been playing around with the format of this Blog Page. At the foot of the page I have added a nifty page to a weather link which has current weather readings from Maroochydore Airport, about 25 kilometres north of us. These readings are a little different to what we get here at our place as the airport is only a kilometre or so from the ocean so is more likely to be under its influence. You could probably add a degree or two for us to the temperatures recorded there. As I have said before, the rainfall here can be very localized and this is true in this case. Maroochydore Airport had 57 mls of rain the other day while here in Caloundra we received a mere 25 mls.

I have also moved the Visitor Counter to the right side of the Blog Page.

In today's emails I received this 'chain letter'. I usually delete these before even opening them but I had a look at this one. I have 'cleaned' it up a little. It is a little 'sexist'.

Here it is:

"At last !!

A decent chain letter as opposed to normal chain letters/pyramid schemes, this one costs nothing, and you can only win.
Simply send this e-mail to 9 of your mates.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Anaesthetize your wife/girlfriend, put her in a large box (don't forget some ventilation holes), and send it to the person who is at the top of your list. Soon, your name will be at the top of the list, and you will receive 823,542 women through the post.

Statistically, among those women, will be at least:
0.5 Miss World;
2.5 Models;
463 Wild nymphos;
3,234 Good-looking nymphos;
20,198 Who enjoy multiple orgasms;
40,198 Bi-sexual women..

In total, that is 64,294 women who are simply less inhibited, and tastier than the grumpy old bag you posted off. And, best of all, your original package is guaranteed not to be one of those that come back to you.

DO NOT BREAK THIS CHAIN LETTER.

One bloke for example who sent the letter to only 5 instead of 9 of his friends got his original bird back, still in the old dressing gown he sent her off in, with the same old migraine attack, and that expression on her face. On the same day, the international supermodel he'd been living with since he sent off his old girlfriend moved out to live with his best friend (to whom he had not sent the chain letter).

While I am sending this letter, the bloke that is in 6th place above me has already received 837 women and is lying in hospital suffering from exhaustion. Outside his ward are 452 more packages.

YOU MUST BELIEVE THIS E-MAIL.

This is a unique opportunity to achieve a totally satisfying life. No expensive meals out, no lengthy conversations about trivialities (that only interest women).

No obligations, no grumpy mother-in-law, and no unpleasant surprises like marriage or engagement.

Do not hesitate........send this letter today to 9 of your best friends.

PS. - Even when you have no girlfriend, you can send your vacuum cleaner; one of the other women that arrives will know how to use it.

PPS. - This letter can also be copied to women you know so that they can prepare themselves for the great adventure that they may soon undertake."

With thanks to Colleen for sending it on!

I Hate These, But This One Is A Bit Of Fun!

Intelligence Test - With thanks to Keith!

You are going to hate yourself over this. It scores automatically, too. Take this advice ... be sure and think before you answer.

Click here: How Smart Are You?

Bellvista Estate Update

It continues to be showery. We get a few overnight and morning showers totalling about 5 mls per day. The weather remains cool. Even the ceiling fan in the lounge room hasn't been going that much lately, perhaps just a little as we watch TV.

However after a 10k ride this morning the pool (though coolish at 24 degrees) was a welcome place to find.

Today's newspaper has the Sunshine Coast as the second dearest place to live in Queensland behind the Gold Coast. The figures combine grocery (etc) costs, transport costs and housing costs to provide an overall percentage. Housing costs in particular have pushed the figures for here up. Transport costs are dear here as there is no direct train access as yet. A train line into Caloundra is planned for the next 5 or so years. Later the track will be extended into Maroochydore.

The estate we live on continues to develop. Another road is being built at the end of our court which would provide an alternative entry as well as divert trucks etc around the edge of the estate rather than through the middle of it. It was due for completion last November! The photo above is the almost completed 'new road".

It now seems it will be ready in two weeks. At the moment they are rolling out the turf and planting trees to complete the road surrounds.

Some of the work is all but completed.

A new sports oval has just had the turf laid. This will be a part of the school we have here on the estate. You can see the school buildings in the background.




I recently added a StatCounter to the foot of the Blog page. This tells me how many people have visited the site. Yesterday the site was visited by 8 people. Obviously there are 8 insomniacs out there! Hopefully they are sleeping better now.

Thanks to the lovely person (from here on the Sunshine Coast) who sent me some scratchies with a birthday card as Trish loved my gift and she is now $4 richer.

After collecting the mail which arrived today I received (should this read Trish received ....) birthday cards from 2 groups of friends in Melbourne again with scratchies in them! Trish really enjoys my birthday! And a total of $6 richer again, $3 from each!

A Bit Of News

GMail is a free email service run by Google. Up until now you can only get a GMail account if you are 'invited' to. Now these free email accounts are open to everyone. Always handy to have these accounts when you are asked for an email address in a form or something. To sign up go to:

www.gmail.com

My sister sent me this photo. It is a composite photo taken in Perth. The section on the left is a fireworks display over a marina, the centre section shows McNaught's comet and a huge bolt of lightning from a storm rolling in is on the right. Remember to click on the photo for the 'full' shot. You will need to click on "Back" to return to the blog page.

Another Year Older

Thanks to people who have contacted me to congratulate me on yet another birthday! Celebrations have been spread over several days with a wonderful night whilst on the Gold Coast on Wednesday, another night out at a local and very pleasant outdoor Thai restaurant on Friday, and last night, with a 2 for $12 meal at a local tavern and some time at the RSL. I can't get over the size and quality of the 2 for $12 Turf and Surf meal at the local tavern.

There is a king tide on today and all swimmers have been warned of the dangerous conditions on all Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast beaches. As you can see in this photo taken today the weather is still showery and unseasonably cool. The pool temp is down to 23 degrees and daytime temps are in the mid 20's. However an improvement is expected over the next few days with temps predicted to be back into the high 20's and even early 30's again.

Current sea water temp is around 26 degrees and it is very pleasant to be in the surf.

Our rainfall total for Feb is very close to 6 inches now but this is still a couple of inches below the Feb average. By the end of this month we should have had about 16 inches of rain to be on the annual average.

A Night On The Gold Coast

Our friends from Newcastle had asked us to join them on the Gold Coast for a night. We headed south Weds morning at about 8 am through some heavy showers of rain and reached our destination soon after 10:00. Michael and Janet were staying at the Belle Maison resort at Broadbeach. As you can see it is very impressive building and we were staying in an adjoining room to them on the 20th floor.

We did want to try out the pool and in the distance you may be able to make out the spa! This was a great spot after we had spent a few hours at the Broadbeach Tavern taking in the scenery and chatting away.

The view from their room was quite spectacular. This a panorama shot where I have 'stitched' 4 photos together side by side to create this shot. You can download the program too. It is called "Autostitch". You can download it from:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.zip

If you then get into Autostitch "Options" via the "Edit" Tab and reset the Output Size and Scale to 100% you get a full size Panorama view of you photos stitched together. Otherwise it will only make a panorama shot at 10% of the original size.

This shot actually shows 2 views, one looking eastwards to the sea while the other is looking north towards Surfers Paradise.



We had a pleasant evening meal with some accompanying music from a live performer and finished the evening at Conrad Jupiter's Casino which was within walking distance.

A great night was had by all and we said our goodbyes on Thursday morning as we headed north to home and they headed south to return to Newcastle.

But We Certainly Needed The Rain!

Fortunately I had decided not to top the pool up last night!

Some showers had been predicted but we got a little more rain than just showers! I heard some rain overnight and when I had a look at the rain gauge at 6 am today I saw that we had received 25mls. When I looked 50 minutes later the total had soared to 50mls! And since then we have had another 10mls.

We would expect to get over 175 mls in February following on from a similar amount of rain in January. The current total for 2007 (including the rain this morning) is about 200 mls for the year to date so still somewhat below average.

No need to water the pots or the garden. The front lawn will be green again and I have removed the valve which allows pool overflow to drain straight out to the front street!

The EL Riordan Memorial drain is working a treat keeping water from the garden out of the pool!

This is the view from the front door looking towards Caloundra and the sea.

Lots Of Swimming

The day started off with a 13 kilometre bike ride before breakfast. The beer I am brewing seems to have brewed very quickly and could be ready to bottle in a day or so. This meant bottle cleaning had to be done!

I have had a problem with the plasma TV since we had bought it. There was always a problem with getting the lips of people to move in synch to the sound when playing through a sound system. The new sound system I bought 12 months ago has an adjustment so you can adjust the sound synchronization so it all works pretty well. Samsung (the screen manufacturers) have now overcome the problem but it means getting the screen firmware updated via computer. I had tried this before. The repair guy had improved it but not fixed it. Samsung have given me another phone number where it is guaranteed the problem will be fixed. I was able to organize that today all under warranty.

We decided to head to the beach!

The waves were dumping and they were pretty strong too. It is times like this you realize that you are not as young as you used to be!

However I got a few great rides and bathers full of sand and seaweed! Isn't it amazing where the sand and seaweed can get!

Scrub up pretty well for an old guy! My birthday this weekend coming up! Here I stand before you all, living proof you can fatten a thoroughbred!

Back home for a swim in the pool before enjoying my daily internet 'fix'.

In Les' Links there is a link to the web page I made following our Vietnam and China trip mid 2006. At the foot of each page at that website was a link to the 'old' blog page I had. I had to work out how to update the website to the new blog page address and then upload all the pages again. I got there eventually!


I see a few people have downloaded the DVD copy program RipIt4Me. This program is updated regularly and is currently up to version 1.6.9.0. I have put a link to the download site in "For Hard to Copy DVD's" which always has the latest version available for download. Remember however you will need another three programs for RipIt4Me to work, Fix VTS, Shrink 3.2 and DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0. Visit the 'How To Do It Web Site' link for all the instructions you will need!

I see where Virgin Airlines has 'specials' to the Sunshine Coast from Melbourne at $89 one way! These specials go through to June 21st and are not available on all flights or all dates.

Another "Must See" Spot For Visitors.

Last night we went to the 60th Birthday of Peter Cullen. Trish worked with Pete's wife Colleen at the Sunshine Coast Private Hospital and we have maintained contact with them. They came with us to The Searchers a couple of weeks ago.

Pete's birthday was held in a private room at the Buderim Tavern which has been renovated recently! They have done a marvelous job on the pub and the view from the room (adjoining the Main Bar) is spectacular. Buderim is a suburb of the Sunshine Coast but is about 10 k's inland and much of it is on a hill. This offers great views and cool breezes. It can also be quite an upmarket and trendy area.

I took these photos with my phone camera so they lack a bit of clarity but still give a good idea of what was there. This is a view over the Sunshine Coast. I will take the camera next time and get a better shot. We will also add the Buderim Tavern to our list of 'Must See' locations for visitors who stay with us.

This photo shows Pete (not leaning on the rail) catching up with friends. As you can see from this, the area near the rail is all open allowing unprecedented views and access to the cooling breezes. Later in the evening we swung the lounge chairs around and sat back enjoying a cold Carlton Draught and a Bundy and Cola draught! Very pleasant!

It was a very good night enjoyed by all. The speeches were particularly entertaining!

Another Update

A text message from our guests indicate they have found a spot on the Gold Coast and are staying there.

Weather continues to be very pleasant with cooler nights and warm days. Overnight has been the high teens while daytime temps are high 20's. Humidity is not too bad at all. The pool is now about 24 or 25 overnight reflecting the cooler night temps and struggles to get to 28 during the day. This summer is certainly the coolest we have experienced during our 4 year stay!

One of the down sides to copying DVD's is you then need storage space to keep them all! We have solved that problem with this addition to our lounge room furniture.



I have tried something different with the Home Brew I mixed this morning. I am using 500 gms of malt instead of sugar in the original mix. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

The front lawn is drying out quickly. Though this is the wettest time of the year, we have had virtually no rain at all for the month so far!

I have put another "One-click" DVD copying program link on the right side of this page. It is called Clone DVD 4. It is not really a one click program as it gives you a choice of what you want to copy (movie only or whole disk etc) it also allows you to choose the output disk size as well. Most time you will select 4.7 GB or DVD 5.

Guests Move To The Gold Coast

Janet and Michael have headed back to the Gold Coast. They have their eye on a resort there where they have previously stayed. It is well positioned, has all the facilities they want and they expect to stay there for up to a week. A surf carnival here in Caloundra this weekend means accommodation is pretty well booked out.

Last night we ate at "Something Blue" a local outdoor restaurant with a mixed menu. The meal was very enjoyable. We then headed to the RSL to catch the last half of a band doing Fleetwood Mac songs.

Janet and Michael had spent the day at the Eumundi Market and then wandered down the coast before settling on a swim at the new King's Beach pool.

We have been invited to join them for a night next week on the Gold Coast.

Happy Hosting

Janet and Michael have been with us for several nights now. It has been great fun hosting them. On Monday we ended the day with a walk along King's beach foreshore and found a quiet spot to enjoy a cool drink overlooking the beach.

Later we adjourned to King's Beach Tavern to enjoy an evening meal on the balcony, again overlooking King's Beach surf beach. At this time of year it is glorious sitting outside as the sun goes down.


On Tuesday afternoon we did a couple of 'touristy' things an our way to Mooloolaba. The view from Point Cartwright is fantastic as is the view from the Mooloolaba Surf Club as seen in this photo.


One of our favorite eating places is The Spirit Of Tibet. The Spirit Of Tibet has a sensational chilli sauce which is home made and extremely hot. Michael seemed to find the meal great but as you sense from this photo, the chilli sauce was a little too warm.


After our meal we walked along the Mooloolaba shopfronts till we found a Gelati ice creamery. It was a great way to cap off a great night out!

Visitors Arrive From Newcastle

We first met Janet and Michael during our caravaning days at a park in Mudgee. We all got along very well and had some great nights around the campfire, frequently with cool drinks in hand. They returned to their working life in Newcastle while we continued on our tripping around. We maintained contact via email.

We managed to catch up with them at their home and always it was like we had last enjoyed each other's company a week or so earlier when in fact it may have been up to 2 years. They are visiting the Sunshine Coast and we were glad the decided to spend a few nights with us.

Michael had just taken delivery of the new car and was pleased to see how it handled touring up to the Sunshine Coast. Newcastle is near the Hunter Valley so whenever we get together wine seems to be on the agenda too.

We spent a very pleasant evening poolside, reliving old times and discussing family developments.

Monday was spent very quietly without a lot of alcohol!