We Are Geelong!

What a fantastic day Saturday proved to be! The AFL team I barrack for won its first premiership in 44 years by a record 119 points. I had watched them lose their last 4 attempts to win a premiership live at the MCG! I enjoyed yesterday's triumph from the lounge room on the Sunshine Coast.

As we had done in the previous year, friends from the Gold Coast (whom we had met on our Vietnam/China trip) Det and Brenda drove up to watch the game with us. We enjoyed prawns and oysters for lunch and numerous refreshing ales. I had got Det started on home brewing and now he is a total convert. Their single garage in which they do their brewing was becoming so filled with brews sitting out the final two weeks before being ready to drink that Det was considering purchasing a smaller car! After this weekend it will be a motor bike with side car (the side car to carry the esky full of home brew) with Brenda sitting on the back!

We had a great time with them and they headed back home mid afternoon on Sunday. Above is Det and myself, to the left is Brenda!

Geelong won by a record 119 points. The text messages on the mobile started going off about mid match. By Saturday evening we had received many text messages offering their congratulations. Thanks to those who took the time to send them!

Bottling Day

My home brew has been bubbling away for just over a week so it was time to bottle. It is school holiday time here and a few of the kids in the street are getting bored. So with their parent's consent I have had them giving me a hand with this week's home brewing. The other day they helped me wash the bottles and today they returned for the bottling. The two older boys don't find school all that much fun. It seems the only times I ever spoke with them was to get off someone's lawn or whatever.

This was a chance for us all to do something together and allow me to be a bit more positive with them. After the bottling it was time for a quick swim. Still cool though in the pool, about 21 degrees.

However we have a hot day here today, it was about 35 in the back corner of the garden an hour ago (it is a pretty warm spot there!). We should get a cool sea breeze in soon after lunch. Currently the temp has fallen back by 4 degrees (the breeze is coming in) and the humidity is low 50%. Hopefully the pool will heat up a bit.

Out for dinner with friends tonight then tomorrow Det and Brenda will come up from the Gold Coast to watch the Football grand final. It will be a huge day! They will stay overnight returning home Sunday afternoon.

I was sent a folder full of animated gifs (a picture file format) with which I have been having fun. That is where the "Guess Who" came from.

Bird Hazards

A lovely warm to hot day today. The temp in the backyard is nudging 33 with a brisk N/W wind. This means the humidity is nowhere as high as it can be here. A great morning for a ride and I managed almost 12 kms today. I always had an eye out for swooping magpies but even though I passed the spot where I was swooped yesterday, it was easy as you go today. Except for around Duckpools Pond where this fellow wanted the footpath to himself!

About 12 months ago we had some nasty fires near where we lived. The fire came within about 100 metres of our home and and to outskirts of the Caloundra CBD area as well. It also stopped just short of a retirement home. The bush is slowly growing back now as this photo shows.

And this photo shows a fire break that has been created between the Retirement Home back fence and the scrub. This will make the residents feel a lot safer. We must be getting close to the hot weather! However cool overnight temps means the pool has trouble retaining any heat gained during the day.

Bottle Wash Time

This morning I completed another 12 k bike ride. My first swooping by a magpie took place, not very vicious really, a bit of squawking from a few metres away. We do get to ride through some pretty places like in this photo.


With 2 brews on the go at the moment that means over 5 dozen empty bottles have to be washed, sterilized and then dried. School holidays here at the moment so a couple of the kids from neighboring houses came in to give me a hand with washing. That meant the job was done quickly! They enjoyed having something to do. They were quite keen to know when I would be bottling!

A glorious sunny day in the mid 20's today. A couple of cool nights has seen the pool temp slip back to the high 'teens'. Forecast is for Brisbane to have a few days in the 30's later this week and over the weekend. That means we should be in the high 20's here with a cooler sea breeze.

I listened to the VFL Grand Final via internet streaming yesterday and Geelong won comfortably by about 12 goals.

Another Panic Attack?

I am pretty passionate about my AFL footy (as many of you know). My team Geelong is favorite to win the premiership this year for the first time in 44 years and played in a decider match on Friday night to get into the 2007 AFL Grand Final. Queensland, where we now live, is not an AFL state, (the main footy code here is rugby league) and had a one hour delayed coverage of the Geelong Collingwood game on TV on Friday night. This was not good enough for me so I had to listen to the match which was available via streaming on the computer. Geelong battled all night in front of a 98,000 crowd to win by a mere 5 points. The closeness of the game had my heart racing, so much so I nearly had a panic attack....again! Anyway, Geelong won the match and are into the Grand Final next Saturday afternoon.

We have not had a drop of rain since arriving back home on the Sunshine Coast from Melbourne a fortnight ago. We are entering the summer storm season again and there was a possible storm forecast for Saturday evening. I need some rain so I can fertilize the front lawn and soak the fertilizer in as the soil here is very poor. The black clouds gathered Saturday evening so I quickly spread a good 'serve' of fertilizer just before a sudden 10 min downpour and a healthy 10 mls of rain. Another 5 mls overnight was a good top up. The lawn is a bit patchy so it really needs a good feed. From the "Weatherzone" link at the foot of the blog page I see Maroochydore received 25 mls overnight. Maroochydore is about 20 klms north of us here.

Trish bought a couple of pots to 'tart' up the new 'beer garden' area. Looks OK don't you think? Remember you can click on either photo for a larger view. Then just click on "Back" to bring you back to this page.

The overnight rain has cooled things off a lot. We are expecting a mere 21 today which will hit the pool temperature for six!

I have had a plea yesterday afternoon from another Geelong barracker in Victoria for seats to the Grand Final next Saturday. Tickets for this match will be as scarce as hen's teeth! But the person is after 4 seats so if anyone has anything available let me know and I will pass the info on.

Geelong Reserves are playing in the VFL grand final this afternoon in Melbourne and a radio broadcast of this match is available via the internet.

Friday's Update

After our guests departed yesterday we did a little tidying up (washing bedding and towels etc). Later Trish got stuck into her Sudoku while I was back onto the internet for a couple of hour's serious 'surfing'.

Later during the afternoon I did a couple of "brews', one lager and one black ale. As the weather warms up, brewing gets to be a little easier as the warmth brings on the brewing process. This morning the 'black' was bubbling away as this photo shows while the lager was showing signs but not into full scale bubbling just yet. They will both brew for about 7 days and then I will bottle it. They will need to sit in the bottles for at least 2 weeks before they are ready to drink. As I have built up a supply, they won't be required for consumption till about Christmas time.

Yesterday was hot but the humidity was way down around 30%. The temp maxed at about 30 degrees. A cooler wind today and we will be lucky to get to 25. The pool is hovering around 20 degrees. The cool nights take away any heat the pool may gain during the day.

Visitors Depart

Graeme and Pat arrived mid morning on Tuesday. Graeme has had some serious heart issues so his walking is limited. We sat around and yarned for quite a while before heading off on the obligatory tour of Caloundra and beaches. Needless to say during this trip we stumbled across a bottle shop. Graeme can no longer enjoy a beer but he is fine with white wine. We had our evening meal at home and chatted away.

Neither day they were here was really warm enough for a swim but the pool was still a pleasant spot to relax. They had driven up from Melbourne and upon arrival in Brisbane, Graeme had noted the car radiator needed filling. This necessitated a trip to the local "Ultratune" to repair a leak from the car's water pump. They drove up to the Sunshine Coast and noticed the car still needed water. This time a hose clip had failed and water was leaking out. Then, the next morning Graeme had a quick inspection of the water level and noticed it was way down again. Back to our local "Ultratune" to discover the seams on the radiator had split. That is the way car cooling systems can go, the added pressure quickly exposing other weaknesses in the cooling system.

They departed this morning to catch up with more friends just outside of Noosa. We enjoyed having them stay with us. It is always good to catch up with old friends.

Summer Hits With A Bang

We have had a hot day here on the Sunshine Coast. Temps have been into the low 30's (about 90) with a strong north westerly wind blowing reminding us of those terrible summer days in Melbourne with the hot northerly. The big saviour however has been the low humidity. It has been about only 25%. In summer time when the wind is off the sea, the humidity can be anything from 60% to 75%. That is when 32 degrees is bl.....dy hot!

Sunday was a big day in the garden and around the house. The alcove (or beer garden area) had a big revamp. The water feature went into the back corner of the back outside garden and we bought some pavers and set about trying to make this small area into something usable. This is what we have come up with. Trish has her eye on another large green pot and a terracotta gizmo to go on the back wall. The bamboo screen lightens it a bit too.

Meanwhile the back corner (an area which has always defied any beautification) now houses the water feature. We moved a couple of potted plants into the area too to add some color. I reckon the water feature is much better in its new spot. The palms had a bit of a tidy up and a few fronds have made their way to the garden recycling bin!

All this hard work saw the pool get used again to clean up and cool off. I did a bit more finetuning of the pavers today and the pool was used again. Pool temp is still under 22!

A former workmate of Trish, Pat and her husband Graeme visit us tomorrow. We are looking forward to them coming here to stay for two nights.

A Year's Internet Knowledge!

I think we can all relate to this, you know those emails that some people just love to send!

I got this from our West Texas Reader!

"I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number or which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 I dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to
grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician...

Have a wonderful day....

Oh, by the way.....

A South American scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late."

Sunday Catchup

I haven't got around to posting in the blog for a few days so it is time to update. I have frequently remarked that the estate on which we live is developing all the time. They always like to add some pretty park areas. This area is quite new with only partly built homes around it. Click on the photo for a larger view.


Land development continues at a frenetic rate. Roads are being built and house lots developed. The blocks don't seem to be as big as they first were when we moved in. It is rapidly getting to the stage when this estate will be finished and then they will create a new estate to the south of where we are now. It is 5 years now since we moved into our little home on this estate.

There are more new bike paths being created as the estate develops. Many early walkers are out each morning with their dogs or just chatting as they take in some exercise. When the plants in the gardens around the pathways become more established these areas will be even more pleasant and picturesque.

I continue to try to do at least 10 kms per day on the bike. Just recently I took this beautiful photo overlooking Pumicestone Passage. That is the city of Caloundra to the left of this photo. Across the water is Bribie Island and the open sea can be seen through the gap between the island and the mainland.

The weather has been glorious the last few days with temps in the mid to high 20's (about 80 for our West Texas readers). Nights are certainly milder.

All the windows have now been cleaned and pathways etc tidied up with the pressure sprayer. It makes the job so easy. The garden has had a tidy up as well. Several plants have been removed and the garden area looks great. Windy weather had made a mess of some of the palm fronds so they too have been removed where necessary. All of the gardening was done this morning. A 10k bike ride, some more pressure spraying then into the garden meant I was a bit hot and flustered. The pool was just too tempting after I had given it a quick vacuum so I had my first swim of the year. The pool was 20 degrees but the thermometer said the air temp was pushing 30 as I went. It wasn't a long swim!

The football was not very interesting for Trish last night as her team Hawthorn was bundled out of the finals. It is mothballs for them I am afraid. My team plays on Friday night with the winner into the Grand Final the week after.

Our daughter Kim has just got onto a fantastic phone and internet deal from Virgin. For $60 per month she gets 4 GB broadband connection, no line rental charges, free phone calls to all landlines either local or interstate and a free modem router. To get this deal you must be in a 3G mobile phone area. All connections are done via the mobile phone network. If she wanted to, she could get rid of her Telstra phone line and the associated line rental charges. Sounds like a great deal to me.

Blogger has just introduced a feature called "Blogger Play". Follow this link http://play.blogger.com/ and you will see a slide show of photos as they are being uploaded onto Blogger.com from blogs all across the world. A nifty way to fill in an hour or two!

Spring Cleaning

After a 10 k bike ride this morning the spring cleaning bug caught up with me again.

But firstly some comments on the bike ride. We have plenty of bird life in the area and usually the magpie provides a pleasant call as well as quietly getting on with its own business. But not so in the months of September and October as these are the breeding months. Some Magpies can change from timid birds to absolute bird of prey! During breeding season they can swoop and dive on unsuspecting cyclists even inflicting a nasty peck to an ear lobe! They always 'attack' from the rear so you don't know you are in for it until you hear the sweep of wings and screeching. They scare the wits out of you! Today's bike ride was spent keeping an eye out for attacking magpies! I have escaped so far!

Before heading home from Melbourne last week Charli had a nasty cold and was feeling unwell. Trish is now feeling unwell too. This tends to happen to us when returning from down south! She got out of bed fairly late today complaining of feeling cold and aches in her joints.

Today the sunblinds were hosed down with the pressure hose. It does a great job and cleans the blinds up very well indeed getting ready for the summer months. The blinds go all along the back of the house keeping the hot sun off living areas as well as stopping heat being reflected off the white pavers under the pergola.

Tomorrow it is the turn of all the windows!

About 26 expected today and after some early cloud the sky is now blue and the weather is sunny.

Spring Cleaning

A beautiful day again, hardly a cloud in the sky and pleasantly warm, about 26 or 27 (round 80+ degrees for USA readers!). A good day to begin some cleaning up.

We have much of the backyard paved nowadays and there is the annual build up of mould etc between them. They need a good clean too. So I put the pressure hose to work and gave everything a good clean.

Even the side pathway was given a good clean too, getting rid of 12 month's grime and mould build up!

A couple of hour's work was enough for the day. Tomorrow (weather permitting) the sunblinds will have their turn! Then last but not least it will be the window's turn!

I was a bit warm when I finished today but the pool is still only about 18, too cold for me for a dip!

We have now had above average rain for this part of the world. While in Melbourne, we got another 160 mls up here. That is about 6 inches in the old scale.

If You Don't Like A Bit Of Risque, Then Don't Read

I got this one from Keith too ....

At 85 years of age, Wally married Mary Anne, a lovely 25 year old.

Since her new husband is so old, Mary Anne decides that after their wedding she and Wally should have separate bedrooms, because she is concerned that her new but aged husband may overexert himself if they spend the entire night together.

After the wedding festivities Mary Anne prepares herself for bed and the expected "knock" on the door. Sure enough the knock comes, the door opens and there is Wally, her 85 year old groom, ready for action.

They unite as one. All goes well, Wally takes leave of his bride, and she prepares to go to sleep.

After a few minutes, Mary Anne hears another knock on her bedroom door, and it's Wally. Again he is ready for more "action".

Somewhat surprised , Mary Anne consents for more coupling. When the newlyweds are done, Wally kisses his bride, bids her a fond goodnight and leaves.

She is set to go to sleep again, but, aha, you guessed it - Wally is back again, rapping on the door, and is as fresh as a 25-year-old, ready for more "action". And, once again they enjoy each other.

But as Wally gets set to leave again, his young bride says to him, "I am thoroughly impressed that at your age you can perform so well and so often. I have been with guys less than a third of your age who were only good once. You are truly a great lover, Wally."

Wally, somewhat embarrassed, turns to Mary Anne and says: ........."You mean I was here already?"

Back Home Again

I enjoyed getting to a couple of AFL Finals games in Melbourne over the weekend. Both weekend games were 'blowouts' with pretty large winning margins at the same venue. The Saturday game was at night so I was in and out to almost the same seat within about 13 hours!

On the Sunday I caught up with Eddie Riordan and some of his family at the footy. All enjoy a cool ale so the day turned out to be a pretty big one. I have had 2 AFD's since returning home to the Sunshine Coast. (Alcohol Free Days). My team won very easily on Sunday so this made the day even more enjoyable. With an early 'take off' on Monday we spent the night with Chris, Wendy and family who live within 10 minute drive of the airport.

It was great to spend a night back in our own bed again after we arrived home early Monday afternoon. The pool has been cleaned, the lawns mowed and a few other chores have been completed since we have arrived home.

The newer car would not start when we got home. It seems you have to make sure the boot is fully closed. It hadn't been properly closed for almost 4 weeks so there had been a boot light left on throughout that time flattening the battery.

Over the next few days I will get into the cleaning! Sunblinds, pathways, windows, pool surrounds all need a good clean with summer coming up. A very pleasant 26 or 27 degrees today. The pool temperature is creeping up too.

Might even get the bikes out for an early morning ride tomorrow!

Friday's News

Trish continues to be quite busy helping Kate out with the grandkids. Arj has been heavily involved with school this week so having Trish here to help Kate has been much appreciated. Charli had a a relapse with a bit of a 'wog' this morning and is not quite herself. A nasty fall didn't help either but Mum was available to help out as you can see in the photo.

Yesterday we were invited to catch up with former friends Pat and Graeme from where Trish used to work. We spent a pleasant afternoon in the garden having a chat. They are staying with us when they visit the Sunshine Coast in a week or so. Then on Thursday night we were again invited out to catch up with other former workmates of Trish's with a meal followed by a flutter on the pokies. I sat and enjoyed a couple of beers. It was a good night out.

Tonight we are invited out again with a group we spent quite some time with when we lived here. It will be an Indian Restaurant near to where Kate lives. We are being collected then dropped back at home later on which is great too.

The weather here continues brighter than on the Sunshine Coast where again it has been very wet. It seems like they are heading for about 7 inches of rain this week alone. This follows on from the 12 inches of rain we had a week or so ago.

I am off to the Footy finals tomorrow night (Saturday) then again on Sunday afternoon. Both games are at the MCG. After that we will be staying with Chris and Wendy on Sunday night before flying out for home Monday morning.

Wednesday Update

We are keeping busy. Our daughter Kate is using Trish to assist with things she usually can't do. Having a second set of hands makes some shopping excursions easier to do. Yesterday they all went off to a Playgroup Day.

Though not having been out the last two nights, the days have remained quite flat out. Trish and I grabbed a few hours yesterday and did a little shopping of our own. There are some shops here we just don't have ready access to at home.

I had seen a VoIP phone that I thought would be handy. I got one yesterday. Today I bought a 15m cable which would connect a computer to the router modem at home. Handy just in case I want to transfer some huge files to the laptop. The laptop's wireless connection is not always reliable so this would be a handy back up. The one I got is only cheap and only 25% cost of another one I had seen.

The incident with the dog and the damage to the car we borrowed overhangs things a bit. A professional look at it today showed a mudguard had been damaged as well. This means it will have to be an insurance job unfortunately. It is more the inconvenience of having the repair done. Fortunately it is not a car which Gordon uses regularly, but still it is an inconvenience to sort out quotes etc.

I have uploaded a few movies of the grandkids on the right hand side of this page.

We are out for tea the next three nights.

I see it is raining again on the Sunshine Coast with another two or three inches of rain overnight and early today. For the second month in a row, it looks like the monthly rainfall average has already been exceeded and it is only Sept 5th. It is actually warmer (and sunnier) in Melbourne today than if we were home!

Birthday Party

On Sunday we drove over to our son Chris' place to help celebrate the 3rd birthday of their youngest Emily. There was no need to carry the present in, Emily almost met us at the car door and offered to do the present carrying for us. She enjoyed her day and the gifts. Both sets of grandparents were there so it was a great family day for her. Chris has a 2 storey home and the pay TV (showing the Hawks Swans footy match) was upstairs. Needless to say my hamstring muscles had a bit of a working out up and down the stairs to monitor how the match was going.

It is a real buzz to see the grandchildren mixing and playing well together.

They all slept well last night and will probably need a few more hour's sleep today!

I enjoy my daily internet/computer fix! Especially now that our son-in-law Arj has added broadband. So I was a little distraught when after only two weeks of this month's allocation, Arj had 'blown' his download limit! In Australia Broadband is subscribed to with a limit on how much you can download each month. Normal browsing is included within the limit.

So now we are back to 'dial-up' speed until the next 'month' begins, a few days after we arrive back home!

About 15 degrees max here today and the heating is on. My computer tells me it is 21 degrees back in Caloundra!

Busy Times And Some Drama

Time in Melbourne has been busy for us. Thursday saw Gordon and Anne Atkin allow us the use of a car for our stay in Melbourne. This was wonderful. On Friday Trish and I enjoyed a great Vietnamese lunch with two other couples. The food was great and the company fantastic. That evening we drove down to Drouin for a meal with former Hampton Park neighbours Barry and Rainy. We had hoped to catch up with Russ and Irene (also residents of Drouin) but they had another engagement that evening.

On our 50 km drive back to Kate's home later that evening we were cruising down the highway at about 95 kms per hour when a dog loped across the highway directly in front of us. We hit it, killing the dog and doing some damage to our 'borrowed' car. It certainly shook us up and put a dampener on what was a great night.

On Saturday I went to the MCG with my mate Keith and his partner Jenny. I used to go to footy most weeks with Keith when we lived in Melbourne so it was a chance to relive old times. A little too much to drink was followed by a great meal at our favorite Malaysian Restaurant where we met up with Trish, Kate, Arj and the grand kids. Keith and Jenny joined us. As they have already done the "Whitsunday" trip it was a good chance to milk further inside knowledge from them.

The photo above is a smiling James! I have updated the movie on the "Rogue's Gallery" on the right hand side of this page. Click on the link for the latest movie upload.

Today is our grand daughter Emily's birthday party day.