One Week To Go!

Yesterday Trish collected the tickets etc for our UK Europe trip. We take off 12:30 pm on Wednesday May 7, just one week away. Many tasks on the "Still To Do" have been ticked off so things are getting close now.

Since my last post I have been helping the neighbour over the road set up for downloading movies and running them through the processes and the programs now that we have worked out the problem he was having with download speeds. So last night we set up for an overnight movie download. They have recently renovated their home and the Computer Room is in what used to be the laundry! They have a shelf which juts out 18inches or so at about eye level when standing up. As I stood up the other day I collected my forehead on it. The rim at the top of my glasses tends to mask this sort of thing so I did my self a little damage!

Yesterday was bottle washing day and today was bottling day. This photo shows the 5 polystyrene boxes I use to store my brews. The most recent brew is in the bottom box and so they work their way up. The boxes are showing the signs of a bottle 'exploding' and leaking everywhere. It makes quite a mess! Each box holds 21 bottles. I think I will need to update my polystyrene boxes pretty soon! It means my beer supplies will be spot on upon our return from overseas on June 18th.

Remember you can click on each photo for a larger view, then click on "Back" to return to this page!

About 10 degrees this morning and a coolish top of about 22 is forecast. This is a real sign that winter is not too far away. Meanwhile in Texas and the home of Lou Ann, the flowers they grow are well and truly in bloom as this photo shows.

Sensational Sunday

We are enjoying a late burst of autumn with some beautiful weather the last few days. It is high 20's outside at the moment and a cloudless sky!

We have bought new shoes ready for our overseas trip in about 10 days. This morning we decided to walk along a new pathway which runs in the sand dunes along the beach. It was glorious. The Council has just completed this footbridge which finally joins the pathways together making for one continuous path. This is great way for us to wear-in the new footwear.

Though the weather has been coolish the last few weeks, the sea has remained quite warm encouraging beach walkers, swimmers, surfers and fisherman as well to use the beach on such a perfect day. This was taken using the 12x zoom on the new camera along the beach here looking towards Dicky Beach. If you view the larger view of this photo you may just make out the remains of the SS Dicky in the sand centre left in this photo. I am now up to 220+ photos using the Hong Kong Battery and still no 'low battery' indicator can be seen!

Check out the links on the right to "King's Beach" and "Bulcock's Beach". Just click on the play button for your direct web stream to come through.

I almost had a heart attack when watching my footy team play in Perth on Friday night. A one point victory was enough to drive a man to drink.

I attended Computer Club yesterday and I was asked to have my photo taken and give a quick pen-picture of myself to be included in a future edition of the Computer Club Newsletter. When asked what I did on the computer I quietly said I download pirate software and movies off the net. The guy asking me the questions turned out to be a kindred spirit and we gleefully swapped great websites from which we could download our movies etc.

Anzac Day and Perfect Weather

The possible storm I spoke about in a recent post did not eventuate. We had a clear glorious moonlight night. However there was flickering on the walls throughout the night from the electrical storms going on out to sea. The flashes were bright enough to be seen inside the house via the windows.

I have taken about 140 photographs using the $20 Hong Kong camera battery and fast charger and still no sign of a "low battery" icon on the camera's LCD screen.

No sign of new renters next door at this stage.

The guy over the road has just upped his broadband speed and allocation. He has now gone to 1500kbps over my 512kbps. However my download speed is about 430kbps while he is getting 150kbps. I have been spending some time over there trying to see what the problem is, without any luck. He is with Optus and they tell him his 150kbps is 'within Optus' limits for a 1500 speed connection!

Temp is about 26 or 27 at the moment and hardly a cloud in the sky. It would be a great day for a BBQ at the free BBQ's in the local park ... except we have the footy on TV this afternoon.

It has been a huge Anzac day here with record crowds all over the Sunshine Coast attending Dawn Services and marches!

Two Weeks To Blast Off

The countdown is underway until we take to the skies and head overseas. We are both starting to create lists and get ourselves organized.

The replacement charger and batteries from Ted's Cameras in Brisbane arrived and all are working OK. Then this morning the other battery and quick charger from Hong Kong which I bought on eBay arrived as well. I charged the 'Hong Kong' battery in two hours and then took the camera for a walk. I took almost 90 snaps and still no sign of a "low battery' sign to be seen. A pretty good deal for $20.

Needless to say there will be plenty of local shots to be seen on the blog page from now on. I have a host of snaps to publish. This one give an indication just how far from Caloundra CBD we are. The vacant land in the foreground is the Caloundra Airport which is used by light aircraft. It is to be closed soon to become a new Caloundra CBD. This is where the proposed train station will be.

This cloud is an indicator a possible storm may be brewing for later. There is a chance of a storm tonight according to the forecast. However we will wait and see! Perhaps to ensure it does rain I should go and water the garden!

London is expecting tops of mid to high teens (or in the 60's for friends in Sweetwater) and down to 8's and 9's overnight. (high 40's?).

This sign went up a couple of days ago on the house next door. Looks like we will have more 'new' neighbours soon. Hopefully an older couple, no teenage kids and no dog! We can only keep our fingers crossed!

Glorious weather the last couple of days. Plenty of sunshine and temps up to about 25. (high 70's). It is getting a little overcast as I type late in the afternoon.

I just took this photo 'off' the computer (link 5 on the right to Bulcock's Beach) to show the approaching cloud.

New Camera Battery and Quick Recharger In The Mail

I posted the battery charger and batteries back to Ted's Cameras in Brisbane and received a phone call this morning to say the replacements had been tested and were running OK and about to be put in the mail. It all sounds good!

It has been showery over the weekend with some very heavy falls recorded. We received almost two inches here while further north Maroochydore (20 ks away) received over 3 inches. It is sunny again today with a max of about 24 degrees. I managed to get a bike ride in this morning after being 'washed out' over the weekend. This is photo I took at the Bellvista lake.

I went to Computer Club again on Saturday and I got talking to a lady who I thought was in her 70's. She was keen on buying a new iMac computer saying she was looking to purchase a new computer which was a bit different. I went on to explain to her that Apple Mac computers are generally a little dearer as was the software. She went on to explain that as she was 91 years old and all her children were very secure financially that the money didn't matter and she only wanted the biggest and best! I nearly fell over!

With unpleasant weather outside it was a great weekend to watch plenty of footy on TV. This I did! We had some neighbours over Sunday morning for a chat. They will be keeping an eye on the place for when we go away.

A precautionary trip back to the dentist this morning and it appears that all recent treatments have been successful. He did find time for another filling though! I have one more quick 5 minute appointment just before we are due to fly out!

I am over to a neighbour's this afternoon to assist them with downloading movies.

Camera Battery Saga Almost Solved

Needing a day out we decided to head into Brisbane (the capital city of Queensland) and visit the same chain of camera store from which I had purchased my new camera. We drove into the outer suburbs and caught a train into the heart of Brisbane in a little over 90 minutes. We are about 90k's+ (60 mls) from Brisbane. There were buskers in the streets and wide 'malls' where people could easily get around on foot. The weather was a very pleasant 26 degrees.

The "Ted's Camera Store" was about 150 m from "Central Station". These seems to be a Ted's Camera Store in every Melbourne Shopping Centre but not here in Queensland where they only have 5 stores and none of them is on our side of Brisbane. The young salesman was aware of my problem and said 4 rechargeable AA 2700 batteries was what I was after. He could sell me four with a "Quick (2hr) Charger" for $35. He guaranteed me they would solve my problem and the Quick Charger would work using any power point in the world! It even came with an in car adapter too. Any problems and my 'postage' to return it would be covered by them too.

We had a stroll around the city and looked in on a few shops. Brisbane is a large city but doesn't have the hustle and bustle (and greyness) of Melbourne. The shops are quite modern and the streets are very clean too. It is a modern metropolis. Needless to say, we found our way to China Town where we enjoyed some lunch.

Upon our arrival back home I immediately wanted to quick charge my new batteries! The charger would not work with the AA 2700 batteries! Every other rechargeable battery in the house worked with the new quick charger, but not the super AA 2700 batteries. They did charge OK on my old 'slow ' charger which allowed me to test them in the new camera.

I took almost 100 photos with the new camera before the "Low Battery" indicator came on. I was quite happy with that! Meanwhile the batteries and charger have been repacked and will be posted back to Ted's in Brisbane this afternoon. I should have my replacement items in less than a week!

The other night Trish and I watched a movie called "The Bank Job". It is based on a true story. As we watched it we hardly noticed the time so good was the movie. We recommend it!

News And New Camera Problems!

The weather continues cooler with tops now struggling to get the mid 20's. We have had a cool gusty southerly wind too and that hasn't helped. I wouldn't consider a dip in the pool right now either, too cold for me!

Trish is at her Stitcher's Club this morning leaving me at home to 'surf' the net.

We recently bought a new Kodak 812ZS camera. It came at a pretty good price and it looks like it takes a couple of rechargeable AA batteries. After the original battery turned up its toes I bought some 'quality' Sanyo rechargeable batteries for it. We were not getting a very good run out of these new batteries (despite buying quality batteries) with only enough power for about 15 photos! I reckon it was time to read the "Manual" and saw their recommended rechargeable was a 3.7v battery. I have since discovered that the rechargeables I use peak at about 3v but are really much less than that. Therefore , though long lasting, as soon as the lose their 'peak' power they will no longer be strong enough to power the camera.

I therefore needed to buy the correct rechargeable battery for the camera. After a few phone calls a local battery supplier will charge me $45 for the correct rechargeable battery and $55 for a recharger! Further hunting around on the internet got me a battery for $30 and a lot more for a charger.

eBay was my next bet! I am getting a charger and battery from Hong Kong for just over $20. I am mainly after the charger, my experience with batteries off eBay is they don't last too long. However if the charger works OK, I will look at buying a reasonable battery before we go away. This seems like a pretty good 'risk' to me especially if a charger is going to cost me $55 here. All this needs to be done before we head away in three weeks today!

Had a bike ride this morning and took the 'new' camera with me. These two photos give you an idea of just how much earth is being moved here to finish this area of the estate. With the lack of rain over the last fortnight, the dust problem continues! Work is going ahead and new home sites will be available for sale very shortly. The price of a block of land the same size as our small block is about 4 times the price we paid 6 years ago!


This final photo is the last area of the estate to be developed. Some of the blocks here are at the highest point on the estate offering the best views. Goodness only knows what the cost per block will be. However it forecasts well for what we can get for our little place when we decide to sell up!

Tuesday's News

A little cooler today after some wonderful weather the last week or so. We have a cool southerly today and we are expecting about 24 as a top. As we move into Autumn people in Texas are welcoming the spring with flowers starting to bloom. Lou Ann is enjoying the new sights in her garden in Texas.

I headed over to friend's home yesterday morning as he was having problems reinstalling Photoshop onto his PC. I am pleased to report all is now fine and he is enjoying Photoshop CS2 once again.

The afternoon was spent 'surfing the web' and sorting out flights to Melbourne for September. All is now under control.

This morning it was time to give the front lawn a mow. The place is a little dry lately with not too much rain at all so far this month. We had a small thunder storm overnight which gave us 5 mls which greened some of the lawn up again. The front of the house is looking good at the moment. But as you can see from this photo, the lawn could do with a little more rain!

Just over three weeks until we take off on our trip to Europe and UK!

The Weekend Is Over

We have had a couple of interesting days since I was last visiting my Blog page. Friday of course finished with enjoying the footy live from Melbourne, unfortunately there was a 'technical' problem which sent the footy off the air for over an hour. Still it was a good game. Our neighbours suddenly decided to move out. A family consisting of 2parents and 4 kids were renting the small place next to us. And the mum, Tina, is expecting a 5th in a few months. Later when the owner's representative came round we were told they had been evicted!

Saturday saw me again head off to Computer Club where I had offered to do a 40 minute tutorial to the group on Blog pages, what they are and how you do it. It is so easy to create your blog page, you can be online and posting within five minutes so to stretch this to a 40 minute tutorial was a challenge. We did it quite OK and managed to inject a little humor and fun into the exercise. It was good being told that I would be more than welcome to present another tutorial at any time. It will be interesting to see if there are any new blogs out there after my session. Saturday we dined with some neighbours at their home. Chilli chicken wings and some curry puffs made for excellent fare and coupled with a few drinks it was a good night. We arrived back home in time to see the Brisbane Lions come from 7 goals down in the last quarter to defeat Port Adelaide by 3 goals.

On Sunday we decided to have a quick look at the local Sunday market here in the main street of Caloundra. In the past this market had struggled to attract visitors. However as you can see from these photos things have changed remarkably. There are now quite a few food stalls selling a variety of 'breakfast' options. Local street restaurants are open and the place is a hive of activity. This stall (photo below) sells animated witches and is a popular spot. There are now about half a dozen buskers, singing songs and playing music as you stroll around looking at the huge variety of stalls.


I watched more footy on Sunday afternoon. This morning I am around to help someone get Photoshop installed on their computer. Things are busy right now! Local school kids return to school tomorrow at the end of their term one holidays.

Thursday's News

The weather has remained cooler indicating autumn (Fall) is well and truly with us. (I like to keep Texas Lou up to speed here ... only joking Lou Ann). Nights have cooled off and days see us with cool winds and temperatures struggling to get to 25.

I had more dental treatment yesterday for a different tooth to the one which had root canal treatment. I needed a large filling to be replaced. The filling was a bit like me, getting a bit old. Hopefully the new filling will stop any problems. Trish went to Stitchers and had a great time gossiping!

Last night we tried out a new Indian restaurant in town here. Food was quite good but when I say it was too hot, it must have been hot! Nice to have something like restaurant this only 5 minutes or so down the road. I only wish it was B.Y.O.

The dust problem has stopped to a certain extent. A few light showers early in the morning yesterday settled it a bit. As you can see from these two photos, there is a lot of earth moving going on, much more than was seen at the development of any other stage of the Estate. Click on each photo for a larger view, then on "Back" to return to this page.



This morning the weather was fine enough to take a bike ride. I couldn't resist this view of Duck Holes Ponds. It is a very pretty spot. The weather wasn't warm enough for a swim after I got home and I may look at wearing something warmer each morning, the air is quite brisk at 7 am here!

While it is cool here in Australia, Lou Ann in Texas is showing me photos of Texan wildflowers blooming as spring is in the air where she lives.

Cooler, Windy and Patchy Skies!

As our estate grows, the newer areas where all the construction is going on get further and further away. However one of the final stages is now well and truly under construction. A lot of soil is being trucked out and is being left on some of the airport extremities right next door. There is a daily line of trucks carting the soil and the day long sound of a bulldozer spreading the newly moved soil.

It has been dry for the last 10 days so it is quite dusty. Couple with this a blowy SE wind and we find ourselves in a dusty spot right now.

I cleaned the pool yesterday and this morning you see again where the dust had blown in and settled along the steps leading into the pool. I guess if this is the biggest problem I have right now, things can't be too bad. You may have to click on this photo to really see the dirt, remember to click on "Back" to return to this page.

This morning has been overcast with the threat of a shower. The sun is just coming out now so we may get to our expected top of 24 degrees. The wind is certainly cooler!

Overcast After Some Sunny Days

Things have kind of 'potted along' since my last post. A little tidying up around the place, bottling home brew, attending "Computer Club" and enjoying the AFL footy on TV have kept me with something to do.

A visit to the Chiro was also required after carrying grand children around from earlier in the week.

The Computer keeps me occupied and I am currently assisting Fitzy (down in Melbourne) to get her "Skype" up and running. I have a couple of hassles with my Skype on my computer when receiving calls, I don't automatically get incoming video as I should, I have to 'turn it on'. Also I get a bit of incoming sound breaking up as well. I will go back to an earlier version I think and see if that fixes things.

Next Saturday I am giving a 40 minute Tutorial at the Sunshine Coast Computer Club on "Creating Your own Blog". I am not sure how I will get it to go for 40 minutes but hopefully there will be some questions and more importantly, hopefully I will know the answers!

Really cooling off overnight now and temps in the mid 20's during the day. Despite this the pool is a smidge over 20 degrees. I had a quick swim this morning after a 12.5 km bike ride. Later the clouds came in and we had a light shower of rain.

Tidy Up And Catch Up Day!

With our visitors safely back home in Melbourne it was clean up time back here on the Sunshine Coast. After the house floors were cleaned it was the turn of the patio area to be tidied up. The pressure sprayer is great for this and the place looks as good as new again in a matter of 30 minutes. Windows and flywire screens get a quick clean too.

After a good night's sleep I was off on a bike ride this morning. Then it was bottle washing time in preparation for a bottling in a day or so. Battle washing is a pretty quick chore nowadays and takes under an hour to get the 32 bottles washed, sterilized and then on the 'tree' to dry out. Later they are stacked ready for the bottling!

I misnamed the bird in the photo in a recent post when I called it a Corella. It is actually a Rainbow Lorikeet!

The link to the right to Charli Swimming In The Pool has been re uploaded as a slightly 'brighter' version.

Family Visit Comes To An End

With sunny skies on Monday it was a great day for the last full day for our visitors would be with us. After another 14k bike ride to get the day for Arj and me underway, Kate, Arj, family and Trish then headed to the new "sea" pool at King's Beach. James needed some supervision and he really loved it all again. Later they went across the road where Charli enjoyed many rides at the playground. She enjoyed this slide along with her dad.



From there it was back home for lunch. With a warm sunny afternoon, the pool was the obvious spot. However a low of 12 degrees overnight meant the pool had lost a fair bit of its warmth so any swims were short lived. The link to the movie on the right "Charli Swimming In the Pool" or just click here and it will take you to the movie.

Another sunny morning on Tuesday but unfortunately it is the day they all fly back to Melbourne. After getting the bags packed and safely into the car, Trish drove them to the Sunshine Coast Airport for their 2 hr 15 min flight back to Melbourne.

It was sad to see them go!