Pictures Do Lie!

The photo to the left was taken this morning while I was taking a bike ride. It looks idyllic for this time of the year. It doesn't show the icy wind that was blowing at the time and the temp would have been in the low teens. Still it was warmer this morning with about 7 degrees than yesterday with about 3. It struggled to get to 17 yesterday and houses in this part of the world are just not built for this sort of weather. A day or so of cool weather is OK but it has been cold overnight for the last fortnight. We should be getting overnight temps around 11 or 12 and daytime it should get to the low 20's as we head towards September.

But everyone down south in Melbourne would love the current weather here as there it has been very cold and wet. There has been snow on the mountains close to the city! But they sure need the rain in that part of Australia.

My Internet Service Provider (Netspace) has just revamped its plans. Unlike in the USA where Lou Ann gets unlimited 1500 Broadband fo US$20 per month, internet access prices here in Australia are extremely expensive comparatively.

I was on a 512 speed plan with 30GB per month limit at AUD$50 per month. For another $10 I am now going to be getting the same monthly limit but with 1500 speed. It should be connected sometime today or tomorrow.

At 512 we noticed that online video streams (eg http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/ ) cannot be watched without being extremely jerky. Also we needed to be a little careful when making a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone call. Voip calls use the internet connection rather than the telephone connection. As we are not using a major carrier (Telstra or Optus) for phone calls, these Voip phone calls are very inexpensive. However if the internet is busy, the Voip call doesn't work as well. With the extra bandwidth a 1500 speed connection provides, these calls should now work even better.

And of course I can download movies more quickly. Instead of taking over 3 hours (almost 4 hours) for a movie, it should now take about 90 minutes.

Speaking of which, we watched a movie the other night called "Stuck". If you like thrillers, this one is a must see. However the ending is not for the faint hearted!