It's A Kinda Magic

Last night Trish and I went to the Caloundra Events Centre and saw the 'Queen' Tribute Show called "It's A Kinda Magic".

It was the sort of event where I would not have missed a thing had I forgotten to wear my hearing aid. It was certainly very loud. There were lots of Queen trimmings with the lead singer going through all the Freddie Mercury on stage antics and showmanship.


The place was booked out weeks ago and everyone was really rocking. The lighting in particular was sensational. The show is touring Queensland and Northern Territory and I see where there is a second Brisbane show being advertised at one of the big Brisbane theatres.

We enjoyed it very much. Though not huge 'Queen' fans the music was fantastic. There were lots of people up dancing and the odour of hot sweaty bodies was in the air. Trish was amongst the first to book so our seats on the aisle three rows from the front were probably amongst the best in the house as we did not need to look 'up' to see onto the stage.

http://www.queen.itsakindamagic.com/

Receiving And Making Mobile Phone Calls

When either Trish or my mobile phone begins to ring there is pandemonium in the house! We have pretty ordinary mobile phone reception at home especially inside the house. We need to grab the ringing phone and run up this corridor to the master bedroom at front of the house and into the bay window area.

It then takes a few seconds for the phone to re establish connection to the network and for the stronger signal to register on the phone. In most cases by the time this has happened we have missed the call! A few seconds later the message bank ring goes off telling us whoever could not get through to us has left a voice message. It is very frustrating!

People who remember about this often give us a quick call on the mobile and let it ring out. They don't leave a message but ring back a minute or two later! This happened the other night when we got a call from 'down south'. It worked perfectly! We took the call and had a great chat.

The other option for us is to race outside with phone in hand to the back corner of the pool area (near the pool filter pump). Again we have to make sure the stronger signal has registered on the phone before answering! This is easy as long as we have left the gates to the pool area open.

It is something about being on a 'rim' which means we have the poor service.

It sure keeps you fit and on the ball!

I am currently considering upgrading our dial up internet to broadband. What a minefield of information that is! I am using this site a bit to help me out.

http://whirlpool.net.au/

Fish n Chips on Mooloolaba Spit

Mooloolaba spit is a piece of land which stretches to the south of the main shopping centre as it follows the Mooloolah River to where it enters the sea. The 'spit' is a narrow piece of land between the river and the ocean. It is where you find the Fisheries Marina and Fish marketers. There are some great fish and chip places there with the river on one side and the beach on the other.

Though we didn't eat at this fish and chip spot, we discovered that after purchasing a meal you can then go upstairs and overlook the river and where the fishing boats are all tied up. There was a great breeze up there when we looked yesterday and a great view. Needless to say the fish and chips are 10% dearer at this spot! But the view is probably worth it.

On the other side of the spit is the sea. This is one of the few north facing beaches on the Sunshine Coast and a very popular spot with bathers during the cooler months as the beach is protected from cool southerlies.

After enjoying our lunch we drove to Buderim Tavern where this glorious sight met our eyes. We sat back quietly enjoying a cool drink and soaked up the view. We have been here for 5 years now and still find many pretty spots to enjoy.
Rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow and the SE corner of Queensland is waiting expectantly.

I heard the Australian U/19's were victorious the other day in a tight fought game which came down to the wire. Australia therefore won the series 3/2.

And I read on the net that the powers that be in USA have stopped development of the little program RipIt4Me used for copying DVD's. I wonder how long it will be until the 'program' is incorporated into the next generation of DVD copying software?

Out For Dinner

Last night we decided to head to Mooloolaba for our evening meal. We had seen a Thai restaurant there which seemed to be awfully busy with people everywhere. Once as we walked by we had a look at the menu and were impressed by the price of main courses being around $10 to $12. It was fairly laid back and worth a try one night.

Despite being late April, Mooloolaba is still a very popular spot for holiday makers and people wanting to swim. There are great BBQ facilities there as well as seating and playgrounds for the kids. This photo captures Mooloolaba beach at about 5 pm. People can sit and relax while others complete an after work jog or have a quick dip in the waves.

We enjoyed a walk along the beach and then back via the shops. This photo shows the alfresco side of Mooloolaba eateries with holiday apartment buildings there too. It can be a great place to sit quietly and watch the sights go by. There are also shops to peruse and make the occasional purchase. This time of year outside holiday time makes Mooloolaba easy going and not rushed.

After a drink at the Mooloolaba Surf Club we headed to the Thai Seasons restaurant. Laid back is probably too close a description. It is BYO anything. One family had a box of chips as one of the kids did not fancy Thai food. You got your own cutlery, glasses, serviettes and then ordered at the counter. The only time staff came near your table was to deliver the food. Our reserved table was outside and we shared this area with other patrons. This isn't my best photo I must add!

The food was quite OK and with a bill of about $23 for the meal for both of us we went home quite satisfied after enjoying a great night out.

Another Quiet Day On The Sunshine Coast

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning (17 degrees) with a few clouds in the sky. By 7:30 we were on the bikes and off on our "Corbould Park" ride. It is my least favorite because of long hills and boring scenery.

Corbould Park is the Sunshine Coast horse racing track. Also in this part of Caloundra we have the Pony Club and the Clay Target Club. The latter is being relocated as housing estates press in on the area. You can see the Pony Club in this photograph! Pressure is building on these facilities as the need for new home sites arises.

The Corbould Park Race Track is to be remodelled with a synthetic race track sometime in the near future. If you are at the TAB watching the horse racing and you spot racing from the Sunshine Coast, Corbould Park is where it will be! It is a very popular spot for locals on Melbourne Cup day.

There are lots of bike paths about so the ride down to the race track is pretty safe for all riders. However as we then turn for our trip home we have some nasty hills to climb. But, the flip side is if you have to go up a few hills then eventually you will have to come down them.

This long hill down Ridgeway St is about 600 metres long and you can get up to about 60Kph in this section.








After we had returned home it was time to put a couple of home brews on. This time I am trying a "Black Ale". It is good to have something a little different every now and again. It certainly tastes a lot better than what it looks in this photo.


I don't know what happened with the blimp yesterday!

I still don't know who won the final cricket match the other night. The winner wins the series!

Trish is having another flying visit down to Melbourne. She flies out Weds May 2nd and will return Wednesday May 9th.

Weather forecasters are still confident of some rain especially on Saturday for this part of the world. All of Australia is waiting for drought breaking rains!

Visitor In The Sky

Trish and I were doing a little sorting out in the backyard this morning when we noticed the Holden Blimp circling overhead. We have the small Caloundra Airport just near us and it appeared to be trying to land there. It circled the house and the end of the airport for about 30 minutes before heading a little further away possibly to move away from the flight paths of small planes and helicopters using the airport.

Anyway it was spectacular watching this huge advertising machine circling so low above the house. It has a continuously running text display screen all down one said with its sales message scrolling across the screen which takes up about 1/3 of the side of the blimp.

The top photo is big file so should come up very well if clicked on for a larger view.

A glorious day today with max temp of about 26 degrees. We actually got 2 ml of rain last night boosting this month's tally to 8 ml when the average is about 180mls! Overnight temperatures remain mid to high teens.

Weather forecasters are tipping good rain for South Eastern Australia for this upcoming weekend. We could get some of this over the weekend too with some thunderstorms predicted.

Pool is at about 22 degrees and gets used occasionally, especially after some odd jobs around the place.

I did not enjoy watching the footy over the weekend. My team went down by 4 points to Trish's team on Sunday and some rude language was audible from the lounge room!

Plenty Of Great Cricket To Watch

It has been a busy week watching Australia and Pakistan U/19 teams lock horns in three one-day day/night games this week.

Pakistan won the first two games played here. However Australia had come with a 2 - 0 win line from games which had been played in Brisbane over the weekend just gone. In Thursday's game the Pakistanis chased down 310 runs to win with three overs to spare.

Most games finish at 8:30 pm and I am usually well and truly back home before then so I don't get to see the end of these matches.

At the beginning of yesterday's match the score line was 2 games all. Australia batted first and made 275. The young chap from my former team Dandenong of 35 years ago (Kumar Sarna -Indian born - New Delhi but has been living here for over 10 years) opened for Australia and made a patient 48. When I left the Pakistanis had cruised to 50 in 6 overs but a collapse then saw them to 4 for 64. I was told that most of the better Pakistan batsmen had been dismissed so things were looking good. Here Kumar sets out to open for Australia.

Kumar opened the batting for Dandenong in this year's Premier District Cricket Grand Final. Though not having played for Dandenong for many years now I still have a strong affection for the club. They were great days from years gone by and I remain a staunch barracker and supporter of Dandenong Cricket Club.

I had spent the morning showing Kumar's mum and dad around Caloundra. They seemed to enjoy it very much. We visited the boardwalk, King's Beach, the new pool (as seen in this photo), Shelly Beach and Dicky Beach. On a previous day they had caught the bus then train from Caloundra to the Gold Coast for a look around!

It was good being able to talk about the times I had spent in India. We all seemed to get on very well together!



Kumar fields very well and has a very good throwing arm. Needless to say he is number 11 as you have probably guessed from this photo.






On a different topic, I like to use Firefox to look around the web. Most people use Internet Explorer and it is certainly better now it has gone to version 7. Microsoft have borrowed many of their new ideas from Firefox and now both browsers work similarly. I had noticed Firefox wasn't working as well as usual and wouldn't do things it had done easily and safely before. I totally uninstalled it, did a search of the hard drive and got rid of any other folders with "Firefox" in the name then went back and reinstalled the program again from scratch.

The difference now is incredible, the program works quickly, smoothly and safely again. With Firefox you can adapt it so it suits the way you want to do things. It has many extensions available for it as well as themes. Therefore you can fully fashion it to do exactly as you want it to do as well as look just right for you.

I have found Outlook Express (the email program) also jams frequently on my computer. This usually involves a 'forced shutdown' - push the power button and a restart. This also means getting off the net then back on again. I no longer use Internet Explorer, I use Firefox's cousin Thunderbird. Again it has extensions and themes too. It is so much easier and smarter to use the Outlook Express.

Both programs are free to download and use.

Cricket On Again Today Australia Vs Pakistan U/19's

I had a great day at the cricket where Australia played Pakistan in an U/19 day/night match at the Caloundra Cricket Ground. It is suggested that several of these lads will go on to represent their respective countries in Test matches.

There was some great hard hitting and sensational batting. Pakistan easily accounted for Australia by 100 runs in this the third match which now sits at Australia 2 wins, Pakistan 1 win. The two teams are playing again today with another match scheduled for tomorrow.

One of the Australian players is a young chap by the name of Kumar Sarna. He plays for Dandenong in the Melbourne Premier Competition and was a member of this season's Dandenong CC Premiership team. I took great delight in telling him we had something in common, that we both opened the batting for Dandenong! Shame it is about 35 years apart! Fred, a former President of the Dandenong CC and with an involvement there of well over 40 years was watching the game too.

Replacement Bottle For Cleaner Arrives

The doorbell rang at about 9:15 this morning and there was a delivery guy with my replacement soap dispenser bottle for my $100 GMC water pressure cleaner. Here is a photograph of what arrived. Yes, a whole new pressure cleaner (and fully functioning soap bottle dispenser), a much better model than the original. You guess with current drought restrictions all along the east coast of Australia this must be the best way to empty their warehouses. You can just see the soap dispenser bottle just above the wheels! You can click on the picture for a larger view!

We visited our former neighbour's home about 20 minutes away to help celebrate the first birthday of their youngest child Emma on Saturday. Here is the happy family! Andrew's grandfather is originally from Ormond in Melbourne's south east. I spent much of my childhood in the neighbouring suburb of Glenhuntly and used to play some sport at the Ormond oval. We get on pretty well. Andrew and Naomi's boy is named Dylan and he is a real sweety!

It was a pleasant family afternoon and a bit of chat and a couple of drinks.

Trish and I are both almost fully over our colds. An occasional cough or a slight sniffle is all that remains.

We are expecting a late blast of summer later this week with most top temperatures into the low 30's. Overnights will remain cooler though as the humidity has dropped. Overnight temperatures are around the mid to high teens.

Pressure Cleaner

About 18 months ago I bought a cheap water pressure cleaner from Bunnings. It does a great job cleaning the paving, pathways, windows and sunblinds around the house. It came with a soap dispenser bottle and everything else (including a two year warranty) all at under $100.

The nozzle split so I utilised the warranty and had it replaced. They messed up my claim and in the end I was sent 2 replacement nozzles.

Just the other day I noticed the soap dispenser bottle had snapped its neck and was no longer usable. You can see the broken screwtop section in this photo. Having nothing better to do with my time I contacted the manufacturer (GMC) a month ago for a new one under warranty. I was told to email them a copy of the receipt and they would send me a replacement within three weeks.

As my replacement bottle had not been received by yesterday I decided to follow up on the issue by phone. The girl with whom I spoke looked up my claim and said there was no problem. She looked quickly and saw there were heaps of soap dispenser bottles in store so she would make sure one was sent ASAP.

She then looked further into my claim and saw that a replacement had already been sent on Tuesday. She looked closer and saw that they were sending me a completely new high pressure cleaner to replace for the soap bottle! Not only that but they were sending me a model worth two to three times what I had originally purchased and that I should receive it on Tuesday April 18th!

I will let you know how I get on!

As last night (Thursday) was the first night since Trish had returned from Melbourne 3 weeks ago and that we were both getting over our heavy head colds, we treated ourselves to a meal at "Spirit Of Tibet". It was fantastic, beautiful tasty curries (especially the "Spicy Prawns). Most of you who have been up here with us will have experienced "Spirit", it is a top class eating spot with great food.

A footy on TV weekend with some time Saturday afternoon at a kid's birthday party. Our former neighbours are celebrating their youngest child's first birthday and we have been invited!

On The Improve

I am pleased to say that though still a little 'clogged up' with a head cold I am certainly feeling a lot better. The Cold Tablets have been put back into the medicine cabinet again. I have had the heavy head cold for over a week now, however when I speak with friends down south I am told you can expect it to linger for three weeks or so.

Trish is certainly much better and probably almost 100%

The weather has changed here a lot. Nights are now mid to high teens while a max of 26 or so is now common place.

Talk around the place is that we had a mild summer this year with about 13 days over 30 degrees between Dec 1st and March 31st. The top temp on the coast for these 4 months was 32.7.

This month has been dry with only 4 mls of rain when April usually produces around 160 mls.

Trish's eldest brother Bevan has been admitted to a nursing home. He suffers from Parkinson's.

Cold Tablets Back Out Of The Medicine Cabinet

After what seemed a great improvement in my heavy head cold, I had a relapse yesterday. Tissues were strewn about the chair as I watched the footy on TV. My eyes would water and then the nose would do its thing. It was a relief to get to bed I tell you. Feeling a little better today and nowhere near the same number of tissues about the place.

Trish is almost over her head cold now.

Appznet, my favorite download site is back and I have updated the link on the right. You need to re register again to gain entry.

You can always tell when there is even less news than ever about because I have photos of the garden in the blog page. Garden stuff is different here than what we were used to when living in Melbourne. We were advised to cut one of the limbs of a pot plant off to encourage new growth.

Though a little sceptical at first we removed a limb. We were told there would most likely be two new limbs grow from where it was cut off. This photo above shows the new growth of the new limb. The lower photo shows the little bud of the second new limb just as it is beginning to come through. You may need to click on these photos to make them larger.

Nothing beats local knowledge!

We have had a cool wind the last day or two. Today will only get to 24 degrees and it was down to 16 overnight.

Easter Update

It is easy to see that Easter is very close at hand. This is probably the busiest time around the Sunshine Coast with holiday makers from all over flocking here. Victoria has been on school holidays for almost a week now and Queensland and NSW (I think) start their school holidays tomorrow. The carpark at the local shopping centre is packed!

The sun is shining and it is a lovely 26 degrees poolside as I type. The pool is a cool 24 degrees. However you dare not venture too far from home unless you want to be involved in traffic snarls.

My head cold is clearing up a bit and I am feeling much better. The Cold Tablets have been put back into the medicine cabinet. Trish is almost 100% again and back to the daily bike ride while I remain at home (watching the World Cup cricket on TV!)

I see my favorite download site Appznet is still offline. I did get an email suggesting they had read something on a forum about crack download sites had been raided and computer servers confiscated by police. However this post was written on April 1st and one never knows if it is true or not.

There still seems to be heaps of these sorts of sites around. I found this one today and registered to use it at http://www.nsaneproductions.com/forums/index.php A little bit of hunting around will help you find the download section.

It is about time I put a photo of the grandchildren on the blog page again. They all get on so well when playing together.
Our youngest daughter Kim is enjoying a Music Festival at Byron Bay with several girlfriends. They advertised and got two guys to share the accommodation with them thus keeping costs down!

Trish and I are off to The Golden Beach Tavern tonight for the 2 x Turf and Surf specials at $6 each. We booked in last night and were lucky to get the last two spots available.

Surprise Visitors

I used to go to the footy every week when we lived in Melbourne. There was a group of us who would meet each week at our 'own' spot and have a couple of drinks and heaps of laughs. If we saw a good footy match, that was a bonus.

One of the Footy guys Keith and the delightful Jenny popped in unexpectedly on Tuesday. I was in the middle of my first full day with a heavy head cold and was not operating at 100%. However a few home brews before lunch seemed to pick me up a bit.

Keith and Jenny were returning from a week cruising the WhitSundays with 3 other couples and then he was catching up with relatives of who live nearby to Caloundra. We spent some time discussing their trip and how it had all been organised. It sounds like they had had a tremendous time there.

We went to King's Beach Tavern for lunch on the deck then a quick look around King's Beach, Bulcock Beach and finally the RSL.

It was great to see them again.

Keith was planning to head to Brisbane the next day and catch up with more friends. The Brisbane Vs St Kilda footy match at the "Gabba" on Thursday night was also on his 'must do' list.

I am planning on a quiet day today with a view to getting on top of this head cold! Trish is almost back to 100% now.

Appznet remains offline at the moment but I found a new site "Hot Stuff" at http://forums.top-stuff.info/index.php Again you need to 'sign up' to be able to download from this site. The download section is over two thirds of the way down the page.

Tuesday News Update

Trish's cold is well and truly on the improve, most probably because she has passed it onto me. I am now all clogged up with a head cold and not feeling 100%.

This weekend saw the beginning of the AFL season and I managed to spend a fair bit of time in front of the TV watching heaps of footy. The new broadcast agreement means we now get the Friday night 'showpiece' game live on Pay TV. It was disappointing to see my own team go down on Sunday and Trish's team was beaten also.

Sports news wise, the best news over the weekend was the victory of Dandenong in winning the VCA first grade premiership. Live ball by ball scores were available on the internet at http://cricket.com.au . So much of the weekend was spent with one eye on the computer screen. This is Dandenong's first ever senior VCA premiership after being elevated to this level around 1980 when DCC merged with Waverley CC. The name was then changed to just Dandenong.

I notice one of my favorite websites Appznet is offline at the moment. I hope they get back again soon.