Settling In

I have been in Melbourne now for three days. The 'family' (Kate, Arj, the two grandchildren James and Charli, our daughter Kim and Trish and me) had a great meal at our all time favorite Malaysian Restaurant in Clayton on Thursday. It is almost 'family' when we catch up with the owner there.

I watched in amazement as Charli downed three full bowls of curry and rice. She sure loves her spicy food. The rest of us ate like kings with a couple of curries, a noodle dish, some salted pepper squid and Malay Fried Chicken. As usual Kate had fried ice cream!

Yesterday was the end of the school term so after dropping Charli off at her weekly playgroup morning I dropped Arj off at school. There are always a few drinks at the end of term so this meant Arj would not drink and drive!

I have had a request for more photos of baby James so here is one of him on Arj's shoulder.
We have all or family over for lunch today.

First Day In Melbourne

After a good night's sleep I was feeling a lot better after my long drive. The weather in Melbourne yesterday was miserable, cold, wet and windy. Parts of Victoria are receiving much needed drought breaking rain. Melbourne is on the edge of this rainfall and recorded 16 mls.

The day was spent quietly catching up with family and getting to know the grandchildren. As I type this Charli is sitting on my knee. It feels pretty good.

Tonight we are off to my favorite Malaysian food restaurant where we will catch up with our youngest daughter Kim.

Last evening long time friend Carol visited and saw James for the first time and got to meet Charli again. It was good to compare notes with her on how our respective families are going.

It was all good fun.

Trish has a heavy cold and it is a pretty good chance it will be passed on to me shortly. Hopefully I won't get it as badly as she has it. She seems to be a bit better each day.

Caravanning friends Russell and Irene have arrived in Echuca on the Murray River. The weather there was cold and windy but there was no rain. They expect to get back to Drouin on Sunday.

After A Long Drive!

I have arrived in Melbourne mid afternoon on Tuesday. The car computer told me I had travelled over 1850 kilometres and that I had sat behind the wheel for 19 hours and 20 minutes. I had averaged 95 kph. I guess it rained for 50% of the trip down.

I spent the night at Parkes after completing about 1100k's on the Monday and with about 12 hours driving. That only left me with 750+ k's the next day.

After a good night's sleep we have awoken to a very grey day heavily overcast and with a lot of rain forecast. The top temp here in Melbourne will be about 13 degrees.

I have had a nurse of James Stephen and I am glad to say it seems my grand daughter Charli remembers me. The photo shows Trish nursing our new grandson.

I am slowly getting used to dial-up internet connection speeds again.

I need a day or so to catch up with things and then we will be out and about.

Note the Appznet site address has changed again. I have updated the link on the right. The King Of Warez download site is 'off the air' at the moment but hopes to be available again soon.

Reasonable Weather

Today can best be described as reasonable. But I guess it is "reasonable" weather time of the year! It was about 12 degrees when I had a bike ride this morning and it is only about 16 or so now. There are some sunny breaks but a coolish wind is blowing.

I took the camera with me and managed a few photos. The photos look better now than when I first took them. Despite being a 'grey' morning, some of the color in these photos is beautiful. This photo has an autumn feel to it with the browns and greys mixed in with the greens.

Remember to click on the photos for a larger view.

I took this photo of the Glasshouse Mountains from the local Caloundra Airport. I had to crop the photo down to get this bit. A cloud seems to be attached to one of the mountains. The Glasshouse Mountains are a great a scenic day trip from here. You can do as much or as little walking as you like and the scenery can be stunning.

The final photo is of the "The Duckponds". The Council has thinned out a lot of the burnt trees from the fires 8 months ago and this is the result. There are numerous ducks which live here and they seem to want all the pathway to themselves as you ride or walk through the area. The pond can be seen as a green patch through the trees.

My next post will most probably be from Melbourne. I set off for there first thing tomorrow by car. We expect to be back on the Sunshine Coast by July 20th if things go to plan.

After a sunny but cool day in Moree, Russell and Irene are today heading for Coonabarrabran. They are thinking a spending a couple of nights there. It all depends on the weather. I may well see them as I drive down tomorrow.

No Sun On The Sunshine Coast

We had a glorious day yesterday with a sunny 20 degrees or so. I managed to get a couple of loads of washing dried. This morning the cloud cover is back as are the winter woollies! It is almost 11:30 a.m. and the temperature is a miserable 14 degrees. It is cloudy and some rain is forecast. I took this photo of the view from our front door a few minutes ago.

This photo shows the electronic weather station which lives in the lounge. The 14.4 is the outside temp while the 17.7 is the indoors temp.

Caravanning friends Russell and Irene have arrived in Moree in New South Wales and they are enjoying an 8 degree mid morning. They expect to get back to their home in Victoria a few days earlier than they had expected.

I am just about ready to head south to catch up with the new grandson. I expect to get underway before dawn on Monday. Wet weather is forecast for early next week.

I am trying to brighten up the blog page a bit. I have done a lot of investigating without much luck. I did find the Sudoku widget you can now play. Have a try!

Let me know if the page is taking too long to load if you have dial-up.

Strange Pricing

House prices on the Sunshine Coast have been forecast to go up by 15% over the next few years. Today's home buyer usually wants at least 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms and a double garage. A large block of land is valued by young families. On this estate you would expect to pay somewhere between $385,000 and $400,000 for a house like that. A home with a great garden and quality extras would get more like $430,000.

The house next door to us has been on the market for some time. The owner has $359,000 on it. However though on a good sized block, it only has a single garage, three bedrooms and one bathroom. It could suit a retired couple but they may be put off by the large lawn area which would take a while to mow. Recently a single parent mum and her school age daughter were looking at it but they did not buy.

Meanwhile in the new area of the estate is another home for sale on a small block of land. It boasts four bedrooms (though they must be fairly small), a 1 1/2 garage, 2 bathrooms, air conditioning. It also is for sale at $359,000. It would suit a retired couple very nicely as the small block means minimal lawn maintenance.

With deals like this around our neighbour may have some problems selling at that price.

Yesterday's max temperature was about 13 degrees! This is the coldest day here for about 85 years! Today is a little better with it being about 17.5 at the moment. This is still cold for this part of Australia for this time of day.

Caravanners Russell and Irene left Rockhampton this morning heading for Miles. They left in heavy rain. I sense the cooler weather may encourage them to head home a little earlier than they had anticipated. The weather looks reasonable for the next few days in Miles so they may 'prop' there for a couple of days. The further south they go, the cooler the weather is going to be.

Kate arrived home with James Stephen yesterday.

The salt chlorinator I sent away for repair a few weeks ago has been totally rebuilt with all new components and is working well after I reinstalled it onto the pool filter. That was all covered under warranty.

Trish's car went in to have an oil leak repaired with an off the top of the head quote for about $200. $560 later the oil leak has been fixed. The leak was between the motor and the timing chain. The timing chain, alternator and power steering belts were all wrecked and the unit required a $280 repair 'kit' and a three and a half hour labor bill. Thankfully the car runs beautifully now!

Yesterday I received an email from a regular blog page reader in West Texas USA. It is amazing how far the internet travels and how many doors it can open up.

News From The Sunshine Coast

My blog page News From The Sunshine Coast at is like a permanent email.

I add to the blog page every few days or so. Most times I try to add a photo to liven it up a bit. I enjoy doing the page though its contents are bit mundane sometimes. If there isn't much happening then I have to add some trivial stuff to it to keep the thing moving along.

This online email can be accessed by you at any time. Even when we are in Melbourne, I can easily and quickly add news to the Blog Page.

If you wish to catch up with what we have been up to here in Queensland you just go to the blog page and there is our latest 'news'. (I use the word 'news' a bit loosely!). The best way to keep the link handy is to add it to your favorites. If you go down the right hand side of this page you will see a place to click on (Add Page To Favorites). Just follow the instructions and the blog page link http://newsfromthesunshinecoast.blogspot.com/ will be added to your favorites.

Then when you wish to get to the page through Internet Explorer, click on your Favorites and go down to News From The Sunshine Coast, click on that and you will bring up the Blog Page and you will have access to what we have been up to.

I now rarely send out an email with our latest news in it. The blog page 'News From The Sunshine Coast' is how we now keep in touch.

A Quick News Update

Our daughter Kate and new Grandson James (Jay or Jamie?) are due home most likely on Wednesday from South Eastern Private Hospital.

Caravanning friends Russell and Irene expect to arrive in Rockhampton tonight as they head back to Drouin in Victoria. They later plan to spend a couple of nights in St George which was one of our favorite stopover spots. It is also the home of the Riversands Winery which is a great spot.

I bottle washed yesterday and then bottled the latest brew this morning. Supplies now seem to be up to date.

Each of these white polystyrene boxes contains 21 bottles of home brewed beer and there is another cache in the 'office' a bit closer to the fridge! Today I bottled a 'Black Ale' which makes a tasty change from the regular lager brew. The polystyrene boxes helps to maintain a reasonably constant temperature as the beer completes its brewing process (at least another 2 weeks before it is ready to drink).

Cool days with blustery south westerly winds at the moment. Today's max is expected to be about 19. We are looking at a 17 max tomorrow!

Our New Grandson

Our daughter Kate with James Stephen.

More Grandchild News

The name of our new grandson is probably going to be 'James Stephen'. Stephen is actually Arj's real first name.

I think there is going to be a family gathering bedside at the hospital this afternoon. Grandma Trish is enjoying her new role as a babysitter looking after Charli while Arj is at the hospital helping Kate with various duties.

On a more mundane matter, here is a photo of how one of the water course flood drains looks this morning. I have had photos of this on the blog page earlier. It has been dammed to stop all water flow. The ducks really love their new found lake. However it does make you wonder why those of us with a swimming pool must have a fence, yet a developer can do this and create a water hazard so close to homes and not have to fence it!

And this is why it has been dammed, a new bridge is being built and this will be the base for it.


Caravanning friends Russell and Irene leave Rollingstone tomorrow and begin their two week trip home. They expect to get to Drouin by July 1st.

New Son and Mother Doing Well

The name of our new grandson will be determined today. It is out of two names but they haven't finally decided just yet. It will start with a J!

The baby is feeding very well from his mum and he came in a 8lbs 9 ozs. Kate was very bright and breezy when Arj was with her last night.

Trish flies to Melbourne today and will get there mid afternoon and will be picked up by our daughter Kim. Most likely it will be straight to South Eastern Private Hospital from there.

Arj says Charli has a bit of a cold so he didn't get a great sleep last night. Charli had a bad cough at about 1 a.m. this morning and required some medicine and a long cuddle. Carlton's belting by Hawthorn last night in the footy did not help Arj to sleep either!

It's a Boy

Kate had a son late this afternoon. She had a caesar as the baby was laying the wrong way. She also had a full anaesthetic. More details to follow.

Weight and name are unknown at this time. Arj is heading home right now to collect Charli so she can meet her new little brother.

The grandparents are delighted.

Bloody lousy mobile phone reception saw us sitting like this waiting for the phone call.

Grandparents Again

Our daughter Kate down in Melbourne rang us this morning at 4:30 a.m. to tell us her contractions were 4 minutes apart, they were waiting for Arj's mum to get there to look after Charli, and for the ambulance to arrive. As I type (10:51 a.m.) it appears the birth is till 3 to 4 hours away but who really knows.

The VoIP phone calls are getting a good trial today! Trish has changed her flight arrangements and will arrive in Melbourne mid afternoon tomorrow. Great service that and able to do it all 'online'.

I will now drive down most likely on Monday June 25th and get to Melbourne a couple of days later. Everything is about 10 days ahead of schedule.

More mundane news is:

I got another brew on yesterday and it should be ready to bottle late next week, I bottled 32 bottles of Lager yesterday. I like to use filtered water which can be seen here being tipped into the brew. I then carry the brew up to the garage where it sits on a heating pad on a shelf there.

Yesterday we took a drive up the coast and spent an hour or so at Mooloolaba. This photo shows the heavy showers brewing off the coast. If the south easterly wind picks up these showers are blown onto the coastal area. This happened last night and we received over 7 mls of rain.

Caravanning friends Russell and Irene are leaving Rollingstone on Sunday and expect to make Rockhampton later that day as they slowly make their way home to Victoria.

I still haven't got the repaired pool salt chlorinator back yet. (Actually it is still at the pool shop and hasn't been picked up!) I think it is called giving them a 'rocket'! Hopefully I will have it back before I am due to head south in a week or so.

Thursday News Update

Though taken a couple of days ago, these photos give you the idea that it can be quite cool here some mornings. This photo was taken at about 7:30 a.m. There was hardly a cloud in the sky that morning and my daily bike ride took me down to Pumicestone passage again.

As you can see from this photo the passage is glassy smooth and makes a very pretty photograph. Further below is another photo I took of the apartments which overlook this part of the beach. They would be sensational places to live with great views especially when the weather is fine. However with a howling south easterly blowing in from the sea I am not so sure it would be as picturesque.

The beach here is not really able to be swum in. And I would imaging you would be right in the middle of all the holiday traffic. I think I could handle that inconvenience to live is such a pretty spot. Couldn't you?


Caravanning friends Russell and Irene are currently in "the best caravan park they have ever been in" at a spot called Rollingstone about 50k's north of Townsville. They have enjoyed swimming in the resort style pool there. They start their trek back to Drouin on Saturday. That leaves them about 2 weeks to do the 3000k trip home.

International School To School Experience (ISSE)

ISSE was a program I first encountered during my final appointment within the Victorian Education Department. Delegations of 11 year olds from schools around the Pacific would be exchanged between schools. These exchanges usually occurred over a month or so. Trish and I took 6 children to a school in New Delhi in India. It was not only an incredible experience for the kids, but for their adult chaperones as well.

Whilst I was at the school, we hosted delegations from USA, India, Malaysia and Japan. The Japanese children were a bit more of a challenge as the difference in languages played a greater role. However the squeals of glee when a Japanese student discovered a fleck of gold at Sovereign Hill sounded exactly the same as the squeals of glee of an Australian student when they found gold!.

These kids are now all young adults. Daniel, seen here relaxing poolside in Dubai where he works as an engineer was one of the delegates Trish and I took to India.

Yumi was one of the delegates who came to visit the school from Tokoname in Japan. She maintained some email contact with me over the last 8+ years but this contact died away recently as time began to take its toll. When I recently sent out emails notifying people of our change of email address, I added Yumi's name to the list .... just in case!

Yesterday I received an email from her with this delightful photograph of her, her new son Ryusei Yamashita and her husband. You will need to click on the photos for a larger view.

The last full day I spent in the school as school principal began as usual about 8 a.m. but did not finish till after 10 p.m. We had two Parents' Meetings after school that day. The first meeting was to go over arrangements with parents who were hosting a delegation of students coming from overseas. The later meeting was again with parents, but this time the parents of delegates who were travelling overseas later in the year.

I loved being involved with ISSE. I remember driving home that last night filled with enthusiasm for the program and wondering how I could do something I loved so much and still get paid for it!

I cannot describe how fantastic I felt when Yumi's email and photograph arrived yesterday.

Normal Winter Weather Returns

Both yesterday and today have seen a return to more normal winter weather for this part of the world. Nights are now down to single figures while yesterday saw a max of 23 degrees and beautiful sunny day.

Our caravanning friends are still in Townsville. We all agree that Townsville seems a nicer place to visit than the better known Cairns. Today they are catching the ferry over to Magnetic Island for the day. Magnetic Island's Horseshoe Bay faces north and thus has protection from the cooler southerly winds is a truly idyllic spot to visit. They move on to Rollingstone (about 60k's north of Townsville) tomorrow.

When watching TV there are a couple of shows on the Pay TV I particularly like which are not necessarily Trish's preferred viewing. Trish usually heads to the second bedroom where she will do a little sewing or watch TV on her 'portable'. At last I convinced her to update the little portable and we bought this 19" widescreen LCD TV with a built in Standard Definition Tuner late last week. It has a great picture and makes Trish's viewing even more enjoyable. It will be a great attraction for visitors as it lives in the visitor's bedroom!

Trish flies to Melbourne next Monday which is 1 week before our daughter Kate is due to have her second child. Grandma Trish is looking forward to catching up with the grandchildren ...... and family and friends.

A Cold Cold Saturday!

The south westerly winds have blown in over SE Queensland. Last night it was down to 7.5 degrees and today's top will be lucky to get to 19. It doesn't get much cooler than this here! Sounds like a great day to watch footy on the TV! We have some sun from time to time but there is a fair bit of cloud too.

This photo was taken at a park called Little Mountain Common near to us. This is a creek which runs beside the park and it is showing some signs of wear from accommodating the recent heavy rainfall. You may be just able to make out NZ Bob and his dog BJ who are regular walkers around the estate. My bike is in this shot too.

You will see NZ Bob better in this one. (But you will have to click on the photo for the larger view). This is Little Mountain Common and the bike path goes all around this pretty area. Today I took one step off the pathway onto the grass and finished in in 4" of water! This is a pretty spot for bike riding.

At last we got our VoIP up and running on the new router. VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol and uses an internet connection to make the phone call rather than the regular Telstra phone network. The Caller ID on your phone will show "Private". The line quality is not as good as the regular Telstra line quality but is pretty good anyway. At 10c nationally for an untimed call it is a very good value. We can use our 'ordinary' cordless phone system to make the calls and when on the line, it is strange to pick up the wall phone and hear regular dial tone on it! Our regular cordless phone system will then pick up regular incoming calls over the phone network.

Friday's News

The dryer (very cheap and a bit tinny) became available yesterday so we picked it up. We think for the dozen or so times each year we need a dryer in this part of the world it will serve our purposes very nicely. It sits well on top of the front loading washing machine we have as this picture shows.

Friends Russell and Irene have arrived safely in Townsville. They are catching up with another friend June Daymond today and then having a quick look around the town over the next few days. On Tuesday they are heading 60 or so K's further north to a spot called Rollingstone. Most likely this will be their furthest spot north.

After sending the salt chlorinator to Brisbane for repairs under warranty I removed the top from the pool filter cover and built this wider cover. This will protect the repaired salt chlorinator from the sun a lot better. I don't know when the repaired unit will be sent back to us.

Time for another home brew to go on. Now the weather is cooling off a bit, especially overnight, I have to use the "Heating Pad" to keep the brew at a reasonable temperature so the brewing process can occur. I will be bottle washing over the weekend (between footy matches on TV I guess!)

At last a sunny day but a chilly south westerly wind is blowing. It is a cool 17 or so in the backyard right now! We have had 126 mls of rain for the first 8 days of June!

I have given up on waiting for Netspace to provide us with a VoIP phone service. They have been unable to put new users on for about three weeks now I have read on the internet. We have done some research and have gone with a group called "MyNetFone". Put the name into Google and you will find their website. It may be all 'Go' later on today (if we are lucky).

Steady Rain Easing

We had a wet day yesterday with a further 39 mls into the gauge. That gives us a 89 ml total for the two days. Unlike other recent rain in our area of Queensland, this rain fell right across the SE Corner, so most areas around Brisbane had falls around the 60 ml mark. Even Brisbane's dams received some rainfall above 50 mls. As it has been so dry, most of this rain just soaked into the ground with very little run off recorded. The rain is now moving off the coast as this screenshot shows.

We tried a little shopping yesterday, albeit totally unsuccessful. The items we went to lo0k at were sold out or hadn't arrived yet so we have had to place orders. One of the items is a very cheap and quite small clothes dryer. On the few days we are unable to dry our washing, a little low cost clothes dryer would be very handy. In summer, when it is quite humid, a clothes dryer would be handy to completely dry out the bed sheets which had been washed and then put on the line.

Today we are expecting a max temp of 18 degrees. The rain is being pushed to sea by a cold dry south westerly wind coming in off central Australia. Hopefully we will get the sunshine back today!

Friends Russell and Irene were planning to take their caravan from Charters Towers in Northern Queensland to Townsville today so they should be well set up in Townsville by 4 pm this afternoon.

Steady Rain Comes to SE Queensland

Steady rain has been falling overnight here on the Sunshine Coast. I tipped 50 mls from the rain gauge this morning at about 7:00 a.m. and just before 9:00 a.m. there is a further 3 mls in it.

This screen capture was made at about 8:20 a.m. and is taken from the Bureau of Meteorology radar internet site (http://mirror.bom.gov.au/weather/radar/#map1). When I first looked this morning the whole radar picture was covered in blue and white! Even the Brisbane water catchment areas are getting steady rain and it is forecast to go on for another 36 to 48 hours. Brisbane's dams are currently at under 19% capacity and residents have level 6 water restrictions aimed at keeping water use to 140 litres per person per day, so the steady rain is very welcome.

The EL Riordan Memorial drain which keeps the back garden from flooding is running continuously and the pool overflow drainage system is keeping up OK while the rain remains as 'steady'.

Colder weather is expected with temps to be about 20 degrees with minimums about 9 from Friday onwards. Today is expected to get to about 19 with the wet weather.

Netspace have still to provide me with details to activate my VoIP telephone service.

Our caravaning friends Russell and Irene should be in Charters Towers arriving there yesterday before heading on to Townsville.

Sunny Today But Lousy On Sunday

There have been more showers for us here on the Sunshine Coast. I tipped another 16 ml out of the rain gauge today after a cool gray Sunday!

Much of this area was previously swampland. That explains the numerous estates on the Sunshine Coast with canal frontages (and incredibly high land prices!). We have an extensive system of water courses on this estate which are designed to cater for tropical rainfall. With development occurring all across the estate there can be a bit of a problem when a water course is being redesigned or altered to accommodate new roads and bridges. This photo is of one of those. There used to be a 'road' here which provided access for trucks in and out of the new development area.

If you then look further up from where this is happening you can see the resultant backlog of water still waiting to get away!

More rain is expected later in the week over Wednesday and Thursday. The problem is the rain falls on the Sunshine Coast but misses Brisbane's water catchment areas. Brisbane's dams are currently at about 18% capacity!

I still have not been emailed my setup details to entered into the router to enable our VoIP phone calls.

The salt chlorinator for the pool goes berserk whenever there is a shower of rain and cannot be turned off. It appears moisture is getting through cracks in the protective covering for the controls. These cracks appear to be the result of direct sunlight causing the plastic covering to split. It has been recommended that I create a cover for the chlorinator to protect it from the sun. I expect the warranty will cover any repair costs.

Sunday News

The weather the last couple of days have given us a hint of the winter ahead. It has been cold, (low 20's), wet (18 mls over the last 36 hours) and overcast.

The house next door is for sale and has been empty now for almost 2 months. People wander through it from time to time but don't ever come back. When first built, the owners (pictured here at our place last night for dinner) kept all costs to a minimum. Therefore it only has a single garage, one bathroom (no ensuite) and three not over large bedrooms. It served their purpose as a first home purchase perfectly. However now the new owners are trying to sell it and are finding it doesn't have a very wide appeal. And they have $359,000 on it when the average price for a 4 bedroom, two bathroom and double garage house is $385,000.

A lady and her 10 year old daughter looked at the place on Friday and were back for a second look today. However I think she would be offering much less than the asking price!

It was good having former neighbours Andrew, Naomi and their two great kids Dylan and Emma over for a meal last night. We enjoyed a few drinks and Trish had a great time playing with the kids! Trish flies to Melbourne in about a fortnight to be with our daughter Kate who is due at the end of June. Kim is busy looking at an MX-5's as a new car (secondhand) and busily visiting car yards around Melbourne.

Though a gray morning this morning, the lake in the middle of the estate here was pleasant to be around.

I am hopeful we will have our VoIP phone service up and running sometime tomorrow. This allows us to make phone calls via the internet rather than via Telstra's telephone links. It will be interesting to see what the sound quality is like. These calls are much cheaper to make via VoIP than with Telstra. However if you have Dialler ID on your phone, the VoIP call will register as coming from a Melbourne (03) number!

Bigpond Gone!

Our Bigpond email address is no longer operative! Contact me via the email link on the right of this page if you would like our main email contact address.

A beautiful day again with temperatures around 24 degrees. Not bad for the first day of winter!

We had some pretty nasty fires around here just over 6 months ago. However things have greened up nicely with nature repairing much of the damage caused by the fire. In some places you would hardly even guess there had been a scrub fire. here the burnt tree trunks are still easy to be seen.

The Council has also cleared out a lot of the undergrowth and made this parkland a little safer. It had been a good spot for travellers in small mobile homes to stop overnight in without having to pay any caravan park fees. They were well hidden but still close to the main road. Nowadays it is quite open.

I have installed Office 2007 onto my computer. I see it creates a new format of Word document called .docx which may not be able to be opened in Word 2003 or Word 2000. You can 'set' the Save to be in a .doc format. It is also a bit of a hunt to find where the "Save As" option now is.