No Real News, Only "Mould"

Life continues to move along comfortably.

Last night we watched "Let There Be Blood', the movie in which Daniel Day Lewis won an 'Oscar' for Best Actor. He certainly played the role very well but we were both disappointed the way the movie ended. It was almost 2 hours 40 minutes long too.

This morning the weather has been fine enough for us to have a bike ride again. During the ride I snapped this parrot. Not a very good photo I am afraid but the little digital camera I have is not designed to take 'close ups' very well. Unfortunately it does not capture the glorious color of the bird.

Our new supermarket is getting close to opening and should provide good competition for the "Coles" supermarket which has had a bit of a monopoly in the supermarket stakes in our town at the moment. The new supermarket is due to open some time next month. This photo shows that the finishing touches are being applied.

I was searching through my walk in wardrobe recently and saw some of my clothes were getting mouldy! I hung them outside in the sun for several hours and then brushed them clean. The problem has never been this bad before and goes to show how wet and steamy the weather has been this year. I have also noticed the 'grout' between the pavers around the pool (especially the pavers not on the sunny side) have a build up of mould too. The mould is especially noticeable on the 'bull nosed' tiles around the pool's edge. I got the pressure sprayer out this morning and gave them all a good clean. The best place to get at them was from in the pool!

All are looking spick and span again now!

I still can't access "Les' Caloundra Rainfall Figures" through the link on the right under "Les' Links". Is it me or can anyone else get through to that page? I just get a blank white page and nothing else.

The Rain Stops

After another 28 mls of rain (just over an inch) yesterday there is some sun between the clouds today. Rain is expected to fall again overnight Thursday. At least we were able to get out for a bike ride this morning though the pathways were a little wet where water seeps across from one side to the other.

The doors and windows are wide open again after being shut yesterday when temps were in the low 20's and the breeze was cool. At least the garden got a good water ... again. I showed Trish the browned leaves as seen in the photo to the left. Trish thought it may be from when she watered them after the hot day. The hose had been in the sun all day and the water in the hose may have been too hot.

The place is certainly more open now the tree out the front has gone. This photo shows the two storm water drains which would have eventually been blocked by the tree's roots if it hadn't been removed.

We are kind of 'planning' what we can and what we can't do during our nine days in Melbourne next week. Hopefully we can fit in a family get together but with us travelling down to Drouin on Saturday night and then recovering Sunday the family get together may have to be on Monday which is a public holiday in Melbourne.

I was busy downloading movies again last night and I have added 'There will Be Blood' and 'Juno' to my collection. Both movies fared well in the Academy Awards earlier this week.

The link to "Les' Caloundra Rainfall Figures is not working at the moment. I am also unable to update the document.

Wet Tuesday

Drizzly rain has returned to the "Sunshine" Coast. We have only had a few mls of rain. enough to keep people under cover. Again it should get to about 26 degrees today.

Some plants in the garden have not handled the hot weather (40 degrees) we had last Saturday. This plant in a pot is showing signs of 'sunburn' and quite a few of the leaves look a little worse for wear. This photo does not show where the leaves have been burnt but they are quite a light brown color, not their usual green! The photo below shows how the plants in the former birdbath have been overcome by that very hot day.



The tree at the front of our house had been earmarked for removal. It was recovering from being attacked by wasps but it is very close to our concrete driveway and also is surrounded by two storm water drains, one from our place, the other from our neighbour's home! Eventually the tree's roots would have caused damage to the driveway and they would have blocked the two drains. These machines sure get rid of the tree very quickly and easily.

UK Europe Trip May 2008

I have been asked several times about what we are doing on our UK and Europe Trip in May this year. I will put these back on the blog page again so you can check out the places we will be visiting.

We fly to London and stay there for a couple of nights. Then we head off on the UK and Ireland leg of the trip. We again stay in London for a few days upon our return.


Click on either of these photos to get a larger view.


Then we head off on the second tour when we go to Europe. Upon our return we get a few days in London before flying back to Australia, arriving home mid June.

Summertime

Recent days have been spent enjoying life around home. A little pool swimming, a 10k bike ride most days which usually takes us around the Bellvista Lake which is the centrepiece of this estate. From the lake the 'new' private school (a joint venture between Catholic and Anglican Churches - an interesting association) can be see with the new building dominating the skyline. The building is a covered assembly area and 'indoor' sports centre. You can see this to the left in the photo below.



I have been complaining about all the wet weather and cool summer we have been having. Saturday was the exception, a very hot day with westerly winds and as you can see from the photo on the left the temperature hovered around the 39 or 40 degree mark for much of the afternoon. The hottest day we have had since we came to live here. As you can see this is well over 100 degrees in the old temps! The air conditioner went on at about 11 am and stayed on all day till a cooler breeze came through at about dusk. I spent the day watching the cricket on TV from Hobart where the temp was about 15 all day! It was a bit too hot to go to Saturday's Computer Club

Sunday saw us head out for a bit of window shopping. I was after some shorts with an extra front pocket. Having a crook back (and some would say a fat wallet - all the credit cards!) I don't like to keep my wallet in my back pocket. When you sit down and sit 'on' the wallet it can cause your back to be thrown out. Therefore the wallet needs to carried in another pocket. It was end of season run out time for summer clothing in the shops so I was able to buy a couple of cheap pairs of shorts easily.

Today Monday is back to normal summer up here, overcast and rain developing! Still it will be 27 degrees or so so very comfortable.

As our estate is developed , new bike pathways become available for us to use. When we first came here there was no way you could ride 10 kms around the estate. Nowadays it is easy to do this length ride around here!

We watched the movie "Evening" the other day. It had Vanessa Redgrave and daughter as well as Meryl Streep and daughter acting in it. The movie was a little slow for Trish but I didn't mind it.

Thanks to people who dropped us a quick email with their news, it was great to hear from you! It looks like Trish and I will be able to catch up with a family from Malaysia who are making a brief visit to Melbourne for a week while we are down there next week.

"Comments" and "I'm Not There".

The blog page has been targetted by 'comment spammers'. Yesterday I had this comment posted (see the picture). If you look closely you will see a small line under the fullstop (period) and this indicates it is a hyperlink. When you clicked on the hyperlink a new page opened offering you free pornographic movies. I have deleted the comment and I have now changed how comments are made on to this blog page. I will be automatically emailed when a comment is posted and I will have to OK the comment going on to the blog.

"Comment Spammers" also have computer programs which scan public blog pages and automatically leave a comment with a hyperlink for people to innocently click on and follow. To stop this software, people who wish to leave a comment on this blog page will have to type in some letters to verify they are a person, rather than a software program.

Very windy outside at the moment and not hot. Again temps currently in the mid 20's. I tipped 4 mls out of the rain gauge again today. Just enough rain yesterday in three or four short sharp showers to put some rain in the gauge.

Last night we watched the movie "I'm Not There" the film based on the life of Bob Dylan. I am a huge Bob Dylan fan so I was looking forward to seeing this. This is the movie in which Cate Blanchett was nominated for an Oscar Award. She plays Bob Dylan and this really sums up the movie, a woman playing a male music icon! It is a very different movie with various actors playing someone like Bob Dylan in what was really many different stories. One character resembled Bob Dylan's childhood and youth, another character played him as a married man and took you through his marriage breakdown. Another character resembled Dylan and told the story of his trip to England when he first toured as a rock band after he gave away his folk music image. Yet another character resembled Dylan from his movie 'Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid'.

I enjoyed the music but found the movie not to be to my taste!

I bottled beer again this morning after a 10 k bike ride. It was a bit hard riding into the wind I must add!

The Searchers

Last night we went to the RSL to see (again) the 60's English Pop group "The Searchers". Two originals remain in the group and they are now aged well into their 60's. They are seasoned professional performers. Our table was up front and gave us a great view. Neighbours Debbie and Tony joined us. The meal was 'typical RSL' meaning it was OK.

The audience were mostly people our age or older. There were some great rock n rollers there reliving their younger days when the danced at any one of the numerous Town Halls across Australia. Many of them are still great rock n rollers.

The band came on just after 8 pm and entertained us for almost 2 hours doing all their hit songs from days so long ago. They had quite a few No.1 hit songs and sang them all as well as some of their lesser known numbers and old time favorites. There was a lot of hand clapping and joining in with the songs. Towards the end of the show, many of the audience jumped up onto the dance floor and joined in with a neverending version of "Everytime That You Walked In the Room". The house was nearly brought down with "You'll Never Walk Alone" too.

After the show the band members came out to pose for photographs, give autographs and sell their CD's and DVD's. It was a great night and everyone had a fantastic time.

It seems both Trish and I may have got a crook bit of fish for our meal last night as we both feel a little off color this morning! Or it could have been that we had a little too much to drink!

Under Les' Links to the right is a link to Youtube and The Searchers At The RSL. It is movie clip I took last night of the band singing "Young Girl". It captures the mood of the night and of the show the guys put on. You will need a fast internet connection to watch it though.

Another Year Older ....

Just to show you how interesting today is, here is a photo of our front door! The significance of this photo is it is mid February on the Sunshine Coast and the front door is shut! Usually the front door is opened from mid November and then doesn't get closed until late March. This allows cooler sea breezes to blow through the house. The door being closed yesterday meant it was not warm! During the afternoon between a few showers which dropped 10mls of rain, the temperature was in the low 20's.

Much of yesterday was spent enjoying sport on the TV. A one-day cricket match between Western Australia and Queensland as well as three AFL 'pre season cup' matches meant there was heaps to watch.

We did take a look at the movie "Once", a good choice if you enjoy lots of modern music. It is almost a love story which never was!

At least the sun is out today, no showers (at this stage) and again plenty of footy and cricket on the TV. Along with a few cool beers, a very pleasant way to spend my birthday!

Tomorrow Monday, it is to the RSL to again enjoy the music of the 60's pop group The Searchers. That will be a great night out for us!

Again there were comments at the foot of the previous post. Both were links to a site looking to make money. I have fully deleted both comments!

More Photos From Slides

I went back to the Computer Club today and converted some more slides into .jpg files for the computer. Our kids must hate when I do this!

Our two two girls were on their way to a birthday party when this shot was taken. They had their presents to give and were all dressed up in their "Penang" clothes. This photo was taken in our backyard in Penang Malaysia almost 30 years ago. They look pretty pleased with themselves don't they?

Devi was our 'Amah" when we lived in Penang. As a part of the deal of being allowed to work in Malaysia (at the RAAF School catering for Australian Airforce servicemen's children) we had to employ a 'local'. Devi did most of the cooking, the cleaning and looking after our children. Chris was at school and Kate and Kim were still at home. This meant Trish 'had' to play sport, do crafts and shop to fill her time in! Tough life wasn't it? Remember to click on the photo for a bigger view, then click on "Back" to return to this page.

The final photo is of Chris carrying Kim. This was not the backyard but it is what we could see outside our back door.

We were in Malaysia for 1977 and 78.


Showers and quite cool today. The temperature will really struggle to get to 25 degrees. The cool overnight weather means the pool cools off too. But it won't take much for it to heat up again!

A Lovely Sunny Day .... At Last

Our night out to Spirit Of Tibet was great, great food, a few drinks and good company. It wasn't a late night for us so we watched a movie "Death At A Funeral" when we got home. It gets a very good rating but it was just an "OK" film for us.

Forecasts for the next few days have been amended from "Possible Showers" to "Mainly Fine". We have a cool southerly and plenty of sun at the moment and it should get to about 27 or so.

On my bike ride this morning I rode past what used to be the local Ten Pin Bowling Alley. As you can see there isn't much left with the building being demolished. Aldi are building a new store on this site and will be a welcome addition to Caloundra's shopping. The new Woolworth's (or Safeway) supermarket is due to open in a few week's time. It will be great competition for the Coles Supermarket.

I received a 'Skype" call from Kate this morning and Charli sang Happy Birthday to me over the internet. It was great. James continues to sit quietly and smile! The picture quality isn't the best but it is better than nothing. It is my birthday on Sunday.

My dental work from yesterday seems to have been OK. I was warned to expect some pain overnight as the anaesthetic wore off but so far there has been minimal discomfort, if any at all.

Showery Thursday

The weather has continued to be wet! We experienced a couple of heavy showers yesterday afternoon allowing me to tip another half an inch of rain (12 mls) out of the rain gauge this morning.

After Trish's Stitchery Club yesterday, we went for a drive towards Maroochydore to have a look around some shops down that way. We are looking for a good bright light for Trish to sew by while watching TV. We are after something with an adjustable arm so the light could be swung in to show more light on a tricky sewing job.

We had a wander around a few shops then back home just before the heavy showers began.

This morning I was back to the dentist again for my 'final' root canal treatment. The dentist ran in to a problem so I still have one more minor visit to attend next week.

As I type this the showers have started up again. In this area you don't need too many showers to get a good total, the showers are very heavy. Tonight we are out to Spirit Of Tibet with a couple of the neighbours. He enjoys spicy food, she does not. So one of them will have a great night. The wine has been acquired and hunger is beginning to mount. It looks quite wet doesn't it?

My favorite software download site Appznet has set up on a new site again. You need to register to get 'into' it but there is heaps of free software there. I have updated the link on the right.

Trish watched the movie "Hairspray" last night. It is a musical and not quite my 'cup of tea'. However I have downloaded a movie called "Gone Baby Gone" which looks good and tonight I hope to get "The Darjeeling Limited". Both are highly rated films according to Internet Movie Data base which can be found at: http://www.imdb.com/

I hope you enjoyed the joke in the post below!

You May get A Laugh From This

Paddy had been drinking at his local Dublin pub all day and most of the night. Mick, the bartender, says 'You'll not be drinking any more tonight, Paddy.'

Paddy replies 'OK Mick, I'll be on my way then'. Paddy spins around on his stool and steps off. He falls flat on his face.

'What the....' he says and pulls himself up by the stool and dusts himself off. He takes a step towards the door and falls flat on his face again. 'Damn!' he says.

He looks to the doorway and thinks that if he can just get to the door and get some fresh air he'll be fine. He belly crawls to the door and shimmies up the door frame.

He sticks his head outside and takes a deep breath of fresh air, feels much better and takes a step out onto the pavement and falls flat on his face.

'Bi' Jesus... I'm soused,' he says.

He can see his house just a few doors down, and decides to try for it. He crawls down the street and shimmies up the door frame, opens the door and looks inside. He takes a look up the stairs and says, 'No flappin' way.'

But he somehow crawls up the stairs to his bedroom door and thinks, 'I think I can make it to the bed.' He takes a step into the room and falls flat on his face again. He says, 'This is hell. I gotta stop drinking,' but manages to crawl to the bed and fall in.

The next morning, his wife comes into the room carrying a cup of coffee and says, 'Get up Paddy. Did you have a bit to drink last night?'

Paddy says, 'I did Jess. I was totally 'whacked". But how'd you know?'

'Mick called.. You left your wheelchair at the pub.'

Drying Out

A low pressure area from North Queensland was forecast to travel about 1000k's southwards along the coast, then head out to sea from the Sunshine Coast (100k's north of Brisbane). News reports said there was plenty of flash flooding and other storm damage as the area headed south. A yacht with 37 passengers was on rocks on Hook Island in the Whitsundays, pushed there by the strong winds. All were saved by helicopter. We travelled near where the yacht was in trouble on our Whitsundays trip in October.

The rain was forecast to come in 2 bursts, a morning one followed by the more dangerous overnight surge. Eventually the low pressure area left the coast about 300k's north of the Sunshine Coast and headed out to sea. This meant we missed the worst of the wild weather. We received a total of 79 mls (over 3 inches) for the day with the rain starting about 5 am. We had 6 mls by 6:15 am when I emptied the gauge. A further 73 mls followed during the day yesterday and overnight.

We have now had 500mls for the year so far, 20 inches in the old scale.

Today there is hardly a cloud in the sky, a glorious blue sky and a top expected of about 31 degrees. However after getting 3 inches of rain yesterday it will be humid. The photo shows the plastic I sit the BBQ on under the pergola drying out. (BBQ's don't go well with white pavers!)

Trish is off to Stitcher's meeting today and we thought we might take a drive this afternoon.

We watched the period drama "Elizabeth, The Golden Age" last night. It stars Cate Blanchett who was hopeful of an Oscar Award for her performance as Queen Elizabeth. Though a little 'slow' it was a good film.

I wouldn't rush out to see it, but we both enjoyed it anyway.

Someone left a "Comment" on Monday's Blog Post. It was a very brief message with a link to a website which sells Pharmaceuticals. I deleted it.

Monday ....

I enjoy the drinking part of Home Brewing but there is another side too. The stuff has to be made and then bottled. Today I had to get ready to bottle the brew I put on last Tuesday (on the left in the photo below). Since then my back has been crook and even after two visits to the Chiropractor, it is still best described as 'tender'. But a brew waits for no man, when it is ready to be bottled, it needs to be bottled.

At 6:30 am this morning I was up ready to wash bottles. Each brew makes about 30 to 32 bottles. I had almost 60 empty bottles so I decided to wash all of them and put a second brew on (on the right in this photo) ready to be bottled next Monday. Each bottle gets washed or rinsed 5 times. 300 washes or rinses (and about 90 minutes) later all 60 bottles were drying.

The pool was then vacuumed and after that I set about getting the new brew up and running. That took almost another hour. The back was feeling good so I decided to mow the lawn as well. 30 minutes later that was finished.

It was about 10 am and the weather today is overcast and cool with some light rain promised for later today. I jumped on the bike and did a lazy 10k's.

When the bottles are 100% dry they need to be stored safely. I will do this later this afternoon.

I will sleep well tonight and hopefully the back will be OK tomorrow morning.

Last week's rainy weather really brought the frogs (and cane toads) out. Their croaking can be very very load. Trish found this guy in the garden!

Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view. Then just click "Back" to return to this page.

A Quiet And Pleasant Sunday

This morning there were 14 mls (a little over half an inch) of rain in the gauge. A coolish breeze and a morning pool temp around 24 degrees. After I had vacuumed the pool it was off on a 10k bike ride around the estate we live on. I had a look through a house being built on a small block similar to ours. However it had a 'double' garage (more like 1 1/2 garage) and because the house size is limited to 50% of the land size, the larger garage meant you had smaller rooms. It was three bedrooms but you would struggle to fit a double bed into the two smaller rooms. I reckon our setup is pretty reasonable with a single garage and a garden shed to hold the 'extras'.

Here is another photo I took from slides while at the Computer Club yesterday. It is Chris' 5th birthday party and it was taken in the 'school residence' at Hoddle's Creek. I was the Head Teacher there at the time with one other teacher and about 50 kids. It was a beautiful spot in the country. We have some great memories of family BBQ's held in the backyard of the residence at Hoddle's Creek.

Trish's sister Pam's son Simon became a Dad recently and this photo came through of the proud mum and dad. We don't see too much of them but Trish and Pam try to catch up when we get down to Melbourne. The two sisters spend much of their time together talking about respective grandchildren.

Facebook is all the rage today on the internet for socializing. Our two daughters Kate and Kim both have Facebook pages and use them to remain in contact with their circle of friends. They also use Facebook to swap photos and have pages of pictures of a day out they had at the races or a party or anything. I too have a Facebook page but it is pretty bare right now. I tend to use the blog to share our news.


Trish likes to browse the photo collections there too. The photo above is taken from Facebook and is of Kate's daughter Charli on the swing at the playground near their house and this photo to the left is kate's other child, James. Needless to say, James is smiling, he is always smiling ..... unless he is hungry!

Computer Club Day

I visited the Chiropractor again yesterday (Friday) and I certainly feel better today. I still need to be a bit careful getting out of a chair then turning quickly. However I took the plunge and went on a 6 km bike ride followed by a swim in the pool to cool off! With all the rain recently it is quite humid.

K-Mart have 320MB external hard drives for about $129. Seems a good deal to me. It was in their catalogue on Thursday.

At the computer Club today I saw a little program called CDburnerXP which looked a handy tool. It is a freebie but it does require .net before it will run. Just put CDburnerXP into Google and you will find the download easily. If you don't have .net already installed you will then be directed to a download site to download it. It is a large download though.

I also had a go at converting 35mm slides into photo files on the computer. I was not overly happy with the result but it was OK. I did a couple of photos from when we lived at Hoddle's Creek back in the early 1970's. The photo below is from Thailand in either 77 or 78.



I took a movie of the storm we got on Thursday afternoon and I have put it on Youtube. It goes for almost 5 minutes. There is a link on the right hand side of this page under Les' Links. Or just click on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phUla1JHiv0

I wouldn't suggest you do this if you have 'dial-up' as it is a fairly big movie file.

A few more storms today and another half inch of rain! Nothing overnight.

Trish found her Quilter's Group quite sociable and very chatty yesterday. She enjoyed it.

Caloundra's Turn For A Storm

Thursday had been warm and sunny. The pool looked inviting so I grabbed a book mid afternoon and made my way poolside. It was very pleasant there, a coolish breeze, plenty of shade and I could have a quick swim when ever I wanted. The beer was nice and cold too.

Just on 4 pm I thought I heard some thunder from the south. I quick look in that direction showed a heap of black clouds heading our way. That gave time to clear any washing from the line (wet towels, bathers, etc) and to put away the large umbrella and ready things for a storm. Before long the black cloud was upon us.

The wind blew up and the palms started to be blown about, pieces of palm fronds were blown into the pool. At first there were just a few spots of rain but then it started pouring. This photo was taken from the front door looking across the street. I was busy taking photos and movies. The rain pelted down and the water level in the pool began to rise! As the wind died down, the rain continued! 20 minutes of rain yielded almost 30 mls, (1.2 inches).

The rain was gone as quickly as it arrived. This photo was taken 5 minutes after the rain stopped. The sun came back out again and the humidity level rose! Remember to click on these photos for a larger view, then "Back" to return to this page.



Trish is off to Quilters Club today. I was back to the Chiropractor! Later there will be a little shopping to be done before Sri Lanka Vs Australia live One -Day Cricket from Sydney. Tough life isn't it.

Also great to see the share market back in positive territory again today!

Storms Hit The South East Corner .. But Not Here!

The radio was predicting severe weather conditions for all of S.E. Queensland yesterday. Strong winds, flash flooding and heavy rainfall totals were predicted. I put a weather cover over the BBQ and strapped it down, removed loose items from the backyard and kept my eye the weather radar on the computer. There is a link to the radar on the right hand side of this page "Brisbane Weather Radar Loop".

Radio reports came in of places receiving 4 inches (100mls) of rain in an hour or so, of flash flooding and even of the death as a teenager who body surfed down a flooded drain way until he caught his foot and was drowned. Parts of Brisbane were under water, cars and houses were flooded and the radar showed heavy rain all around Caloundra. The sky blackened, the wind picked up and eventually drops of rain started to fall on us. But that was all!



This morning I tipped 2mls (8pts) out of the rain gauge! Such is the way the weather can be so localized here.

I enjoy playing around with this blog page. For an interest I also keep rainfall totals for the year and I have just discovered "Google Documents". I now can upload my rainfall charts into Google Documents available for anyone to see. Under Les' Links on the right hand side of this page is a link to "Les' Caloundra Rainfall Figures". here you can see how I set this up. It is easy for me to update and I can do it from any PC anywhere in the world.

For those overseas, if you roughly divide the totals by 25 you will be able to easily convert mls to inches. 100mls divide by 25 = 4 inches. Our current total for the year is about 375 mls, divide this by 25 and you get 15 inches so far in 2008!

A nice sunny day today expected to get to low 30's! With all the recent rain it will be humid though.

Trish went to "Stitchers" club yesterday and enjoyed the gossip going on. She even won the fruit and vegie tray which they raffled. Trish was very proud of herself.

We All Wish It Would Go South!

The rain that is ....

Tuesday was a showery day in this part of Australia. This picture was taken from the internet and shows rain bearing down on Caloundra last night. It gave us another 15 mls of rain and a daily total of 21 mls. That gives us 125 mls or 5 inches of rain in the first 6 days of February. A few more mls of rain and we will have already received the average total rainfall for both January and February put together and we still have 3 weeks to go this month! If you click on the photo it will show a bigger photo. Caloundra is about 1 cm (.5 of an inch) from the top. Remember to click on "Back" to return to this page.

The forecasters are already putting out warnings for severe storms to come in from the west this afternoon! However sunny weather is then expected to return over the next few days.

Despite all the rain it sure isn't cold. It is high 20's and quite humid, OK if you have a ceiling fan nearby!

Meanwhile people in Melbourne are crying out for rain, it is very dry down there!

I have a back problem which flares from time to time. It 'went' again on Monday so I have been in a little discomfort the last day or so. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and it is certainly better today. After a severe working over it can take a day or so to settle down again. Before visiting the Chiro, I hastily put another brew on. I have to carry a 22 litre container filled with brew to the garage to sit for a week. I didn't want to try this after having my back treatment!

Trish is back to her Stitchers Group today.

Rain All Around Us!

I tipped 23 mls out of the rain gauge this morning after getting rid of 59 mls yesterday morning. That is over 3" of rain altogether in the last two days. Yet this morning Maroochydore, a mere 25 k's away, had only a few mls while parts south of Brisbane 130k's away had 250 mls.

The rain is expected to continue over the next couple of days and people have been told to be ready for some big falls. These photos are both from daily newspapers and were taken in suburbs south of Brisbane.

As I look outside now the weather is fine though there is a fair bit of cloud about. It is 29 degrees or so (and obviously after the rain) it is very hot and sticky. Some towels are drying on the line in the sunshine. On the Gold Coast the Hinze Dam is 30cms (1foot) above the wall going down the spillway!

I got this photo out of one of the daily newspapers too!

Wet Sunday

Showers and some heavy rain has put a stop to bike riding these last two mornings. I tipped another 59mls of rain from the rain gauge this morning and then removed a large Cane Toad from the pool. The golf club did its trick much to the delight of the local 'black ravens' (or better known as crows!) as they came in for their brekky!

On Saturday morning I headed off as a guest to the Sunshine Coast Computer Club. There were a few winces of pain and looks of disdain when I mentioned I had 'that' program and I managed to get it for free off the internet. I have since discovered thoughts such as this (pirated software) are strictly taboo!

But it was a bit of fun and it was great to assist some people with their computer stuff. One older lady was there with her 2 year old laptop and she had never done a scan for spyware in that time. She downloaded and installed Spybot Search and Destroy, updated it with the latest definitions and then discovered she had over 500 pieces of spyware on her laptop which Spybot then removed! The laptop runs a bit better now! She was also getting an error message as she started her computer up each time. Via Google, we discovered it was something to do with the laptop 'overheating' (a continual problem she has had with this laptop) so we are hopeful a System Restore will solve that one. Needless to say, I enjoyed myself, even if I found some of the stuff a bit basic.

Many of the people there (about 70) are older women. It is great to see them having a 'go'. They are eager to learn about their new found 'toys'. I was interested to see a scanner there which does 35mm slides. This is something I am very keen to learn about when I go back next Saturday morning.

And I fixed my Skype up too. I can now get video in via the "Call Tab". I went back 1 version of Skype to 3.5, installed that and the video now works. We spoke with Kate, Arj, Charli and James on Friday afternoon and had the video working too. As soon as Charli sees herself on the screen she begins to sing, count to 20 and then claps her own performances.

James just sits there, wondering if he is hungry again yet. He just smiles and is always happy. Nanna (Trish) really loves it!

Kate and Arj have been a bit ill with a 24 hr virus lately!