Wedsnesday's Update

We are slowly getting back to normal following our Whitsundays Trip. It seems one of the other couples on our trip was welcomed home by a flooded kitchen when a dishwasher hose burst. Access to the damaged hose was limited so they needed to cut their way in! Not much fun.

This Whitsundays Trip photo shows the view when we moored off Croc Resort Long Island. Below is a visitor we had as it enjoyed the bread scraps we had thrown. Remember you can click on either of these photos for a larger view. Just click on "Back" to return to this page.


My windscreen chip has been repaired and yesterday I had to get a new mobile phone. The shop assistant said it was no problem to copy my 'phonebook' across on the PC. The phone software package however is not Vista compatible and the instructions on how to use the import feature from the PC would not work. I spent much of last night entering phone numbers into the new phone.

I will look at replacing the watch later this week.

I used Skype yesterday to catch up with "Texas Lou". We were able to speak and see each other across 8000 miles. Quite a staggering little program is Skype and it is all free too. Just as she and her husband are starting to enjoy cooler weather there, the weather here on the Sunshine Coast is warming up.

Back on the bikes this morning. This 'fountain' has been installed in a pond to restrict the growth of lilies, looks good don't you think?

Not to be outdone with my new PC, Trish bought herself an overlocker sewing machine. Right now she is working out how to use it. Now is not a good time for a quick photo to add to this page!

Our daughter Kim flies up on Saturday and returns to Melbourne on Tuesday. For those overseas, Tuesday is Melbourne Cup day, the day when Australia stands still to listen to or watch the horse race "The Melbourne Cup". The state of Victoria even has a public holiday for the event! Much of the rest of the nation comes to a standstill about 3 pm to tune in!

Bad Things Happen In Threes

Just before we travelled to Airlie Beach the old knock about watch I wear around the house and in the pool needed a new battery. It is a water resistant watch so I can safely wear it in the pool. Whenever the battery needs swapping over it costs almost as much as the watch is worth to ensure it remains water resistant. Most times I do not bother and just go ahead and 'hope' the reseal is OK. This works most times.

While away I noticed my watch was fogging up! A sure sign it had not become water safe after the battery changeover and water had got into it. So in the next few weeks I could most likely expect the watch to 'die'.

While driving back from Airlie Beach I got a stone chip in the windscreen, exactly where I look out! It was extremely annoying. Fearing bad luck came in threes I awaited to see what the next thing to happen would be! Click on this photo for a larger view, you can even see the stone chip in the windscreen! Click "Back" to return to this page.

It happened, I went to make a call on my mobile phone and the buttons just refused to work! I could not type in my sim card pass code so the phone remained locked and unusable! I had bought this phone 'outright' and was pretty unhappy about spending $300 on a phone that only lasted for 16 months!

I called in a windscreen repair guy who did a good job on repairing the windscreen. It now looks almost 100%. I decided to leave the phone in the sun, perhaps some moisture had got in while we were on our trip and some heat would dry it out. After half an hour in the sun I could get the sim card pass code to type in and 'open' the phone. I retrieved a message OK! However when I went to the Phonebook Application all sorts of strange noises and things happened! Back into the sun again for some more drying out! An hour later the phone book seemed to be working OK. Let us keep our fingers crossed and see!

Yesterday we drove to Bauple and caught up with my two cousins Garry and Phillip. We struck some stormy weather on the way home.

I continue to learn new things about Windows Vista. The new computer is sensational, so fast at loading and completing tasks. Movie files I have downloaded (usually .avi files) used to take a good hour to convert to the DVD format, now take well under 40 minutes!

Vista does most things better than XP did for me, but not all.

Gorgeous warm day again, into the high 20's.

Home From The Whitsundays

The Whitsundays are known as one of Australia's premier tourist destinations. They are a group of over 70 islands just off the northern Queensland Coast which were first discovered by James Cook on his voyage of discovery. The waters surrounding the Whitsundays are pristine and a delight to see. The islands are also home to numerous resorts, Daydream Island, Hamilton Island, Hayman Island, Croc Resort and others.

We were doing a cruise of seven days in a motorized catamaran. Trish and I arrived at Airlie Beach on the mainland (where the craft was sailing from) a day before departure to complete arrangements (ice for beer, deliver drinks etc). Usually this pat of the world is calm but we struck gale force winds for the first three or so days of our one week on the water.

This photo shows Airlie Beach which is a backpackers paradise. Remember to click on the photo for a larger view, then click on "Back" to return to this page!

Our other friends were flying up to Hamilton Island (2 hours away by sea from Airlie Beach )from Melbourne. The weather was so rough it took us almost double that time to get across to pick them up.

After we had all boarded we set off on our own. We were limited by the rough weather conditions as to where we could go for the first night. We selected a spot called Cid Harbour and spent our first night on board together. It seemed to be almost one party to another with plenty to drink and eat. It was great to catch up with old friends. Though some mornings were a little difficult for several group members.

One of the things this part of the world is renowned for is "Stingers". These are small dangerous sea creatures which can kill in extreme circumstances. To offset the possibility of stingers, you wore a stinger suit! The water was glorious to swim in and became our 'shower' each morning.

We visited places such as Stonehaven, Butterfly Bay, Daydream Island Resort, Croc Resort and dropped back in to Airlie Beach for more ice for the beer! Every day was a party.



However the highlight of the whole trip was easily Whitehaven Beach, described as one of the three top beaches in the world. We spent 24 hours there. It has white silica sand which seemed to glow. Even in the moonlight overnight the sand glowed in the dark. Being close to the beach made keeping the drinks up a little easier!



The water was sensational there and the early morning swim off the back of the boat to the beach was something else! During the day tourist boats flocked to this spot and unloaded boatload after boatload of tourists to enjoy this sensational spot. Truly one of the most beautiful places in the world!

Life on board was a little difficult with basic toilet and shower facilities. However with places to see like Whitehaven Beach, and even snorkeling at Chalkies Beach where small reef fish swim up to greet you made for a wonderful week.

We completed our 1000 km drive home mid afternoon on Saturday tired and ready for a good night's sleep in our own bed.

I am considering doing a web page to better describe our great week away.

30 degrees here right now at just after 8:30 am. Summer has arrived while we were up north. The pool is warming up nicely!

Tuesday's News

The new PC is pretty well organized now. Everything is backed up, the scanner, printer, and other add-ons have all been installed and all are working. I miss a couple of little programs that came with XP (eg image resizer) but I have hunted down some other programs which will do what I had wanted. Then there are some things in Vista which are easier to manage than with XP. The new PC is certainly a lot quicker than the Dell it is replacing.

When I am sure everything is OK I will delete a lot of stuff from the Dell ready for its next 'home'.

The most difficult job has been getting the Laptop and the Vista PC to 'see' and communicate with each other. This is a problem between Vista and XP, you wouldn't think the systems had been developed by the same company. A program called "Network Magic" sorted all that out though.

I haven't heard from my friend in West Texas so I guess her computer continues to play up for her.

This is the sign outside the house next door. As you can see it has been sold now. I hear there is to be a 'garage sale' over the next weekend or so! There were building inspectors and anti-pest people in there this morning, ensuring the house has no hidden surprises for the new owners!

We head off tomorrow on the Whitsundays trip so there won't be any more News From The Sunshine Coast for about 10 days. There are lots of people at home round about us to keep an eye on the place while we are away!

The New PC

The monitor for my new PC was delivered to the shop mid morning Saturday and I went down early Saturday afternoon to collect it. You can imagine my disappointment when I connected the monitor and the little sign "No Signal" came up on the screen. All that greeted me was a blank screen! I had received quite a few different leads with it and I was using the standard VGA monitor lead to connect it to the PC. There are many various connections at the rear of this thing and I tried them all and with all the leads I could. No luck!

I even connected the 'old' PC to the new monitor and it worked fine. Came Sunday morning a trick I had learned along the way is to totally disconnect the PC from the power and let it sit. I used the 'best lead' (DVI) and connected it straight to the Graphics Card connectors and restarted the computer! Bingo, all systems go!

Needless to say the rest of Sunday and much of Monday was spent setting it up to do the sorts of things I wanted it to do. So far only two minor programs I had used with XP would not load or run properly on this Vista Premium PC.

I have a 'wireless' keyboard and mouse. The keyboard connects to the PC via a USB plug or it has a purple adapter so it can connect to the purple keyboard PS/2 connector on the PC. The mouse connects to the PS/2 green connector at the rear of the PC. The new PC has a Purple PS/2 connector on it but no green one! The guy at the shop said just connect the keyboard to the PC via the one USB connection and you may find the one connection will do for both the keyboard and the mouse! And he was correct!

I downloaded a new Internet Security package from Trend Micro and installed that. The darn thing went through a heap of my cracks for programs and quarantined them all! That program only lasted 24 hours before being uninstalled and replaced with old faithfull AVG again!

I still have to connect the printer, scanner and DVB-T tuner card (TV via your computer) but most likely that will happen sometime in the future. Now back to 'playing'!

A Couple Of Disasters

We have not had things go smoothly since my last post yesterday. The new PC was not available for me to collect as promised. The courier who was delivering a new shipment of monitors to the shop failed to arrive so it now appears it should be OK for collection on Monday (pending the delivery of the shipment of monitors).

Secondly there was an ominous pop sound from the garage where I store my home brew while it matures. A closer inspection showed some tell tale signs that a bottle had 'exploded', a beer odour throughout the garage and signs of spilt beer running down the outside of the polystyrene boxes I store them in. Needless to say after inspecting the damage it was a Dark Ale! The bottle on its side in this photo was the culprit. Click on the photo to have a larger view. Then hit back to return this page. See how the base of the bottle has split open creating a hole over 1 cm in diameter!

Thirdly we tried to watch a movie last night that I had downloaded from the internet. Both movies had very good recommendations from IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/) but turned out to be shockers! They take about 5 hours each to download and turn into DVD's. So there was a wasted 10 hours of work!

I had to watch the one-day cricket W.A. V N.S.W. instead!

This is a photo of the window to the room where I have the computer. There is not an eave over the window and this creates problems when it rains. I dare not leave it open in case there is a sudden storm. We have had a quote to put an awning over it and the work should be completed in a month. We are having it powder coated to fit in with the house colors so this takes a little more time.

We went out for a meal last night at our favorite little Thai restaurant where you can eat outdoors if you want. Food was great and the Balinese waitress is delightful!

The cooler and less humid S/W winds arrived overnight clearing away the storms and humidity of the last week. This is a cool change in this part of the world. Temperatures should get to the mid 20's rather than the 30 degrees or so of much of the last week.

More Of Friday's News

The storms which have effected the Sunshine Coast this week are due to clear this afternoon as a cooler s/w wind takes over for the next few days. Today is again warm with the temp expected to get to 31. Though there were storms on the Sunshine Coast during the week, Caloundra missed out on the heavier falls. A 24 hour total of 12 mls (50 pts) was the best we recorded. The rainfall from the photo of the Weather Bureau Radar shows Caloundra was in for a real down pour. A mere 5 mls overnight resulted from this rain. You may have to click on the photo for a better view. Then click 'Back" to return to this page.

The new PC should be ready to be collected this afternoon. That will be great fun setting it up again.

The West Texas Reader has had her computer 'die'. It has been reformatted to get rid of a nasty virus and returned to her now. If you need any software, anti virus etc let me know and I will see if there is anything available through some of the crack sites I like to visit. There are three sites in the links further down the page on the right hand side of this blog which are good starting points! But I have heaps more links if required!

Over the last few days I have mentioned about feeds and RSS. An RSS link is usually indicated by a picture on a web page like the one here. Keep your eyes on the lookout for these 'icons' as they usually link to an RSS feed. Clicking on it can send your computer into 'automatic' and create an RSS feed for you. These feeds usually show the headlines of the site providing the feed. If you were to use the Posts (Atom) link at the bottom of this blog page you would then get the post headings from recent posts I have made on this site delivered to you.

Don't worry about the numbers of visitors to the site, I have just reset the counter!

Storm Season

We are about to enter the wettest time of the year here on the Sunshine Coast. It is the time when the humid atmosphere mixes with 'troughs' and creates thunderstorms. Lately conditions have been just perfect for storms but Caloundra has missed out so far. A quick thunderstorm dropping about 10 ml (.5 inch) of rain about dusk cools the air down and gives the gardens and lawn a nice drink after a hot day.

Last night there were storms to the south and storms to the north of us. These photos give you an idea of how the clouds can look with a possible storm nearby. Maroochydore looked like it got a nice downpour and the northern suburbs of Brisbane received a bucketing. However all that was in our rain gauge this morning was a mere 1 ml from a few sprinkles.



We awoke to an overcast and humid morning. There was enough moisture on the road just to make cycling (without mudguards) unpleasant. The roads dried a little so off we went. Then, at about 10:30 am the clouds gathered, the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed like there was no tomorrow. It was only a quick downpour of about 7 mls in 10 mins, but it watered the lawn and the garden and gave the pool a tiny top up!

As I type, the sun is back out and the temperature is climbing towards the high 20's. The towels from our showers this morning will be dry in no time!

I 'borrowed' this photo from the local newspaper's website. It was taken over the sea during last night's storms.

Whitsundays Trip Looms.

The weather has warmed up during the day but not 'hot' overnight yet. This means the pool loses much of the heat it has gained during the day. Most mornings nowadays the pool is about 22.

Yesterday I 'ordered' my new computer. The guy said I seemed to be going for a bit of 'overkill' with what I had ordered. Possibly be ready for collection Thursday or Friday. 2 MB Ram, good graphics card, 500 GB Hard Drive, Quad core processor, 22" LCD monitor, and heaps of USB's at the back. It should be fun.

Trish ordered a new overlocker sewing machine too. Christmas has come a little earlier than expected.

Our Whitsundays trip is now only a week or so away. Four couples are going and I have the biggest preparation job to do, organize the beer and wine! Thank heavens for the internet and cheap VoIP phone calls!

Here is a photo of the catamaran we will be on.



Here is one of the cabins.



Here is the freezer storage area.


More info on the catamaran:

Leopard 1050 Power Catamaran

Another addition to our fleet, this very roomy twin-engine catamaran cruiser has beautiful classic lines with timeless appeal. The large open plan saloon and spacious home style galley offers comfort, excellent ventilation and is equipped with everything a gourmet chef would require to produce scrumptious meals for his or her crew.

A three burner stove, oven underneath, large bench top area and a decent-sized sink help make the galley area a breeze in which to create fabulous meals afloat.

Boasting 4 large private double cabins, this vessel is ideal for a large family or a party of 2 - 8. Relaxing in the large flybridge is made easy as it boasts a full bimini for shade and offers ample seating for a full crew, making it the perfect entertaining area.

Easy access to the warm Whitsunday waters is simple by way of a swimming platform and ladder from the rear of the cockpit, with a refreshing hot/cold deck shower waiting for you upon your return. A great cruiser for a large family or group of friends, this catamaran is always in demand.

Hot And Sunny Sunday

Not a lot of news the last couple of days. Today is quite hot, the hot back corner of the yard says current temp up there is 34 degrees. Sunny with a gusty N/W wind dragging heat down from the north. Hopefully we will get a storm tonight to dampen things down again. The hot dry winds dries everything out.

I have decided to update the computer. It is getting on towards 4 years old now and except for replacing the monitor, it has done a great job for me. When home it is used most days for 3 hours or so. This does not count downloading movies! I hope to place the order early this week. The last day or so has been spent chasing up drivers so my printer, scanner, webcam etc will work with Vista.

I bought a PVR off eBay this week. It is only a cheapie, factory 'second' so has a bruise on it or something. It is Standard Definition, single tuner with a 160GB hard drive. It means the old Panasonic VCR has gone. The only downside to the PVR is it only can record free to air TV. The connections are only RCA's (3 leads, white, red, yellow) but it looks 500% on picture quality compared to the old VCR.

My daughter has got me involved with Facebook so I am having a bit of a play with that. You can use the feed http://newsfromthesunshinecoast.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default into Facebook so you can keep up with this blog via your Facebook homepage. First though you have to download Flog Blog from the Applications area of Facebook and enter the above link in there.

Pool is slowly warming up, looking at about 24 by mid afternoon today.

Friday's Latest

Yesterday I watched Victoria defeat South Australia fairly comfortably to finish third overall in the week's series of one-day cricket matches. I had another yarn with John Wright, ex NZ Test Cricketer and he remarked on the great conditions his players had enjoyed here on the Sunshine Coast. However he wasn't too pleased when Tasmanian Travis Birt made 195 N.O. including 10 sixes and 9 fours and led his team to a comfortable win over the New Zealand 'A' side.

I had a chat with Lyall Johnson who is a sporting journalist with Melbourne's "The Age" newspaper. During our discussion he spoke about the three players he felt were competing for the Victorian wicket keeping spot. And guess what, there was an article just about that in today's 'Age'.

There was some great cricket over the week and I enjoyed every ball I watched.

Have you ever thought of adding an RSS link to this blog page? At the foot of the page is 'Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)' If you click on this you will find yourself creating an RSS link to this page. This photo shows my 'home page' which I see every time I connect to the web. I have made my own home page with Yahoo. I believe Google has a facility where you can create your own home page too. Those headlines you see are links to an RSS Feed. By clicking on the Posts (Atom) link above you can make direct links from the blog page to a home page which enlists the use of RSS feeds. Click on the photo for a larger view, then click on "Back" to return to this page.

The email program Thunderbird can also receive RSS feeds and then the headlines are always there!

An RSS Reader will also accommodate RSS Feeds.

Cricket And More Cricket!

Where did the AFL footy season go? It is now full on cricket! Yesterday it was Australia Vs India, live on TV from India. Today it was Victoria Vs South Australia live in the flesh at Caloundra!

Victoria cruised to an easy win, I was back home at about 2 pm when the game was due to finish at 5:30 pm. South Australia recovered from 5/25 to make 102. Victoria made those runs in about 20 overs for the loss of one wicket. Victorian opening batsman Aiden Blizzard made a fifty n.o. which included 2 enormous 6's, crossing the road to land in a neighbour's front yard!

During the break of innings, former Victorian wicket keeper (and captain) Darren Berry gave this young local lad a few pointers. It was great to see. The boy lapped up all the information! Later the boy helped in the South Australian warm up, returning the ball to the bowlers as they loosened up.

He had a great day!

High 20's today as the pool slowly warms up. Hopefully the pool will get to about 24 this afternoon. However it will lose a lot of heat overnight.

Another pleasant 10 k bike ride, followed by a brisk swim and breakfast got the day off to a good start. Trish drove to Brisbane to have lunch with a friend from Drouin in Victoria who is in Brisbane visiting her sister for the week. Before I got to the cricket I was pricing a new computer in Caloundra.

From Footy Season To Cricket Season

After recovering from Geelong's win in the AFL Grand Final, and the departure of friends Det and Brenda on Sunday, my thoughts then went to a cricket extravaganza happening this week on the Sunshine Coast. State cricket sides from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania along with a representative New Zealand 'A' team were participating in a season warm up one-day series here. Yesterday we saw some great cricket as well as current or near future (as well as past) international players. Tait (the Australian Test fast bowler) was there along with other 'on the fringe' Test players such as Cameron White and David Hussey.

The New Zealand 'A' team had 4 players who will depart after this week's matches to become members of the N.Z. test squad to visit South Africa.

But there keeping an eye on N.Z. preparations was the great Sir Richard Hadlee and former N.Z. test opener John Wright against whom I had played when I taught at the RAAF School in Malaysia.

Remember to 'click' on the photos for a larger view. Then click on "Back" to return to this page.

We had a good chat with Hadlee and he kindly allowed me a quick snap which I have on this page. I had a longer talk with the former N.Z. Test opener John Wright. Though not a wicket keeper, he stumped me off John Embury way back in 1978 in our match, RAAF Penang Vs the Derick Robbins XI. He remembered the tour fondly and even to playing cricket in Penang. The heat was a major memory for him though this was compensated by the icy cold Anchor Beer we drank over there.

N.Z. 'A' played Victoria and got up to win with 4 balls to spare. Victoria's Cameron White top scored for the match with 65.

It was a sensational day! Play continues tomorrow at Caloundra (Weds) with Victoria playing South Australia. This photo shows John Wright keeping an eye on things with the New Zealanders on the field.

Meeting and speaking with Sir Richard Hadlee was a great thrill.