Insomnia Cure

Not a lot is happening still! The weather is warm and pleasant, nights are extremely comfortable and plenty of breezes are keeping the weather ideal. Humidity remains well within normal ranges and not a factor. The air conditioner hasn't been on for a couple of weeks now.

Just reading this post will be a great cure for your insomnia!

We have an issue with the pavers around the pool. It appears we have a crook batch with the surface wearing off the paver allowing the aggregate to show through. This only occurs on many of the pavers in the open air, those under the pergola are perfect. The company we bought them through is back to the manufacturer looking for a remedy. One way out is for the pavers to be resurfaced. It is the aesthetics of the paver which is the problem, not splitting or anything nasty like that. I expect this to be a long and drawn out process.

Recently I bought (and then returned) an Image and Slide Scanner. It did not want to work too well on my Vista PC. Yesterday I ordered this one through another company. The beauty of this one is it does not need to be attached to a PC to work, therefore the need for the software to work harmoniously with the PC system is not an issue. This unit saves the scanned image onto a 'card' which can then be saved to your PC. Like many people our age, we have millions of slides which now can be easily scanned into the PC for easy access.

Several representatives from awning suppliers in our area will be visiting our place early next week to give us 'quotes' for a blind to block off the end of the pergola

All Quiet On The Sunshine Coast

There isn't a lot of news about at the moment. The weather has been very pleasant with a wonderful north easterly breeze most afternoons. Temperatures range between minimums of low 20's and maximum temps around 28 or so. Some cloud keeps the sun away but it is warm enough to keep the pool at about 26 most days. The humidity is down too making everyone more comfortable.

Our neighbours next door (on the right as you face our house) have moved out to take up employment managing an Accommodation Park on the south side of Brisbane. They left Monday evening.

Trish and I watched the "Oscars" which we enjoyed. We had seen most of the movies so felt we had some added insight into what was happening. I still think the best film was "Changeling". Last night I watched "The Wrestler" which I enjoyed too.

Trish is at Stitchery this morning and has a medical appointment early this afternoon.

We are flying down to Melbourne on Wednesday March 4th to celebrate Trish's birthday. We will be there for a couple of weeks, returning here on March 18th.

I am almost ready to bottle a batch of Apple Cider. I usually do cider in stubbies and they are drying now.

I have been asked to have another go at my presentation on Skype for the Computer Club on Saturday morning. I will be taking Trish's laptop with me so I know I have a machine which will work properly (even though it may be a little slow).

Our home is extremely close to the house next door (on the left facing our home). Unfortunately it is a rental property and the real estate agent has put young families in there as the two most recent tenants.

We are thinking of putting a full length canvas blind across the end of the pergola to give us a little more privacy than what we currently have. I have discussed prospective tenants with the Agent and she has agreed to be more careful in selecting appropriate tenants and now appreciates our position. This is the 'end' we intend to make more private.

Cloudy and Mild Sunday

It is the rainy time of the year here so the showery weather we are getting today is to be expected. It is about 28 outside with a glorious breeze blowing through the house. It is a shame the breeze doesn't get into the Computer Room but the ceiling fan is whirling above as I type. We have had a couple of short sharp showers today. It is humid but the breeze makes it a very comfortable day indeed.

I was able to bottle another brew this morning to replenish supplies.

This morning these two Pee Wees were making a heck of a racket on the clothes line in the backyard. Then there was a magpie sitting on the pool fence and this disgusting creature swimming around in the pool (see below)! So I am not sure what the Pee Wees were cross with, the cane toad or the magpie. Cane Toads were introduced to eat insects (cane beetle) which were attacking the sugar cane many years ago. Now the cane toad itself is a declared pest. It is poisonous if eaten by other animals.

The cane toad has now passed away unfortunately, blunt instrument trauma I think is the name for its method of death.

2" In An Hour

The recent weather here has been very tropical, hot and humid. The humidity usually leads to heavy tropical rain. Yesterday was a stinker with temperatures in the back yard heading towards the mid 30's (90's Lou Ann). Our small backyard doesn't get too much of a breeze. The air con ran for much of the afternoon. The pool was the place to be though at about 27 degrees. Then at about 5:30 pm the clouds began to roll in. The camera tends to automatically lighten dark shots so it was much darker than this snap shows!

The satellite TV went off, the clouds being too thick to allow any signal through. And then down came the rain. I managed to sneak out and check the total at about 7 pm and there were 50mls in the gauge. The pool was almost overflowing!

Much of yesterday was spent reformatting Trish's laptop. After a couple of false starts it took me somewhere between 5 and 6 hours to do. It now loads in about 2 and a half minutes compared to the 10 minutes it used to take!

Home From The Gold Coast

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes in all forms and shapes. I received great birthday cards with pleasant inclusions, many best wishes via email and the odd email birthday card too. Thanks everyone for your kind wishes.

We dove to the Gold Coast to spend a couple of nights with friends (Det and Brenda) who we met on our trip to Vietnam and China. It is only two hours from our place to theirs at Burleigh Waters and almost 200k's. It is freeway for 99% of the trip so usually it is a relaxing ride. It wasn't long after we arrived we were enjoying drinks followed by a BBQ dinner.

The next day we visited Mt Tamborine. The Mt Tamborine area is a little like a trip to the Dandenongs outside Melbourne. It is in the hills and has its fair share of handicraft stores and boutique wineries. Having visited the Dandenongs on quite a few occasions the Mt Tamborine area though picturesque didn't have the same "wow" power. The weather was showery and this didn't help. One spot which was nice was the St Bernard Hotel perched overlooking a cloudy valley. It had a lovely outdoor area too but the weather prevented us from using it.

We had a great meal that night at a local club which completed an enjoyable day. We then headed back home the following morning through a couple a heavy showers of rain. Extensive roadworks made the return trip a little longer.

Today the weather is warm and very humid. Right now mid morning it is 31 degrees outside with the humidity hovering around 75%. I rode for over 10k's this morning, then washed the bottles for my next bottling and the lawn has been mown. I also dug away the earth surrounding the palm in the middle of the front lawn in readiness to have it pulled out. It just hasn't flourished there at all. A swim in the pool followed this morning's work. It was all hot work.

Both of the our next door neighbours on either side are in rental properties. In the small house quite close to ours is a young family with two little children. They agree their decision to rent that home was a mistake and doesn't suit their needs at all. On the other side is an older couple Andy and Jean with whom we along quite well with. They have decided to leave having gotten a new job helping to run an 'over 50's park' on the south side of the city. We are keeping our fingers crossed we get good neighbours in to replace them.

To The Gold Coast

Sunday was warm and sunny so we drove to the beach about 10 minutes away for a walk along the boardwalk. There was a cooler breeze blowing and the seas were rough following the rainy stormy weather we had just had. As usual the view towards Pumicestone Passage from around towards Kings Beach was stunning. There were jet skiers, surfers, people picnicking across the water on Bribie Island and strollers everywhere. The water is a little murky following the rain flushing out some of the local creeks.

From there it was back to our home and an hour or so beside the pool (or in it for a short time as the rain has cooled the water) and a couple of drinks and a chat.

Today we are driving down to the Gold Coast to spend a couple of nights with Det and Brenda, a couple we met on our trip to Vietnam and China. Det is now heavily into both sides of home brewing, that is brewing and drinking! They live at Burleigh Waters near Burleigh Heads, a most magnificent and picturesque beach on the Gold Coast.

We expect to get home Wednesday about lunch time.

Tuesday is my birthday!

The Wet Weather Heads To NSW

Grey skies and plenty of rain has been the highlight here for the last few days. Our totals are in the vicinity of 100mls (4") the last day or so but other Sunshine Coast areas have had much more than that. The pool is full again! The rain is now heading south towards NSW.

I was to do a Tutorial at the Sunshine Coast Computer Club (SCCC) yesterday on Skype and Facebook. I was going to install Skype on a SCCC laptop and walk people through the process of setting up their microphone, their webcam and creating a Skype account. However we must have caught the laptop I was going to use half way through a Firewall update because the firewall refused to let me install Skype. This made a mess of the Tutorial and meant I had to spend a little more time on Facebook. I walked people through my Facebook Page and showed how you were able to keep up with everyone's news, about creating a Facebook account, looking at photo albums etc.

I will be wary next time I do a tutorial down there on their equipment.

Trish's laptop is running awfully slowly at the moment. It runs XP and doesn't have enough RAM. XP needs at least 500MB of RAM and this only has 256MB. It requires having the system wiped off and everything reinstalled again. It currently takes over 10 minutes to start up. After a reformat the startup time should be reduced to a few minutes.

We have seen some great movies lately. "Changeling" has probably been the best one, a great story and based on actual events. Angelina Jolie has an Oscar nomination in this one. "Doubt" was great too. Meryl Streep has been nominated in this one and plays the role of a Catholic School Principal who follows through on her hunches. It brought back some memories of times when I was a principal. Last night we watched "The Reader" in which Kate Winslet gets an Oscar nomination. Another great story.

Movies I get from the internet seem to come in bits and starts. There were many great movies there a few weeks ago, now the selection is very ordinary!

I Got A Laugh With This One.

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the world.

So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to Orlando, thinking that he would start by working his way across the USA from South to North.

On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read '$10,000 per call'.


The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for.

The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God.

The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Atlanta . There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same looking golden telephone with the same sign under it.

He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in Orlando and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.

She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God.

'O.K., thank you,' said the American.

He then travelled all across America, Europe, England, Japan, New Zealand.

In every church he saw the same looking golden telephone with the same '$US10,000 per call' sign under it.

The American decided to travel to Australia to see if Australians had the same phone.

He arrived at Perth in Western Australia and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same looking golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read '40 cents per call.'

The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. "Father, I've travelled all over the world and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches.

I'm told that it is a direct line to Heaven, but in all of them price was $10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?"

The priest smiled and answered,

"You're in Australia now, son - it's a local call".

KEEP SMILING

More Fire News

I was speaking by phone with a former staff member of mine yesterday who doesn't know how her home wasn't burnt in the fires in Victoria on the weekend. It was just an act of God which turned the wind moments before her home was to be engulfed by flames. She didn't even know there was a serious bushfire in her area until she looked to the bottom paddock and saw flames racing over the hill.

This seems to be the common story, things happened just so quickly and there was no advanced warning that the fires were on their way and people did not even have time to flee.

In the photo (from The Courier Mail) the city of Melbourne can be seen through the devastation caused by the weekend fires.

Click here and the link will take you to a gallery from the Courier Mail Newspaper with almost 300 photos of the fires in Victoria.

I also found this site this morning which may be of interest:

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/fires/updates/report/index2.htm?time=Thu%20Feb%2012%202009%2011:03:57%20GMT+1000

I have also heard that despite it being in the midst of winter in Sweetwater Texas, bushfires is a real concern for our friends there as well.

Scammers

Trish and I were sitting back watching TV yesterday afternoon when the phone rang. The person on the other end said she was selling raffle tickets to aid the Queensland Fire Brigade. She talked about the fires in Victoria and the cost that had been to the state and to the fire service down there. She mentioned that the Queensland Service was also in need of money and would Trish buy some raffle tickets?

It sounded a bit dodgy to me so Trish told the person we had already made donations elsewhere! The person then hung up.

Today we saw this article in the local paper regarding scam phone calls made yesterday with people 'selling' raffle tickets.

A piece of the article appears below:

I received a call yesterday afternoon from a woman she believes was involved in the scam.

The woman said she was collecting on behalf of the Queensland Fire Service.

“She asked if I was aware of what was going on in Victoria and said they needed money,” Ms Pearson said.

“The lady then said the Queensland fire brigade was struggling too and needed more money.

“At the time I thought she sounded a bit dodgy, and when she asked if I’d like to buy some raffle tickets or make a donation, alarm bells started ringing.

You can't be too careful!

The death toll has now risen to 181 with even more victims expected to be found as more and more fire ravaged areas are opened up for vehicles to use again.

Fires Continue To Be All The News

The death toll from the bush fires in Victoria is currently 173. Fires are still burning. The Melbourne Newspaper "The Herald Sun" website is here for people outside of Australia to catch up with the very latest. This touching photo has been taken from the 'Herald Sun' website as was the photo below.

All our friends and relations in Victoria are safe. Russell who lives down in Drouin not far from where the fires were spent much of Saturday afternoon on his house roof with a hose putting out burning sticks as they fell from the sky from the incredibly hot fires nearby.

Our daughter Kate said the fires were within a couple of kilometres of her suburban home. Trish's brother lives at Beechworth in North East Victoria where the fires are still burning out of control. Fortunately current winds are blowing the fire well away from the township so they are safe for the time being.

The same cannot be said for the town of Healesville not too far from where I used to teach many, many years ago. The town is under threat right now as I type. Healesville is where you find the world famous "Healesville Sanctuary". Here is a link to their website.

Meanwhile on the Sunshine Coast we have had our hottest day for the summer with 33 degrees (about 94 Lou Ann) yesterday but the almost 70% humidity made a feel a lot hotter than that. The pool was a great spot to spend much of the afternoon.

Last night we watched the movie "Australia". We found it entertaining. The movie covered a huge number of story lines: the stolen generation', the attack on Darwin by the Japanese, Aboriginal folklore, Australian scenery, racism, Australian outback life. As long as you didn't take it too seriously it was a fun yarn. I am not sure there were Japanese troops on an island just off Darwin at any time during WWII let alone at the time of the bombing of Darwin but as I have always said, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!"

The cricket is on TV again this afternoon so I will be happy. We also expect to have a rainy night tonight, it has been quite dry for the last week or so.

And Now Sunday's News

Life continues to bubble along with things to do, sport to enjoy on the TV and new movies to watch. Our Grand daughter Charli has just started "Three Year Old Kindergarten". All pre school activities such as Play Group, Kindergarten etc help to promote social skills and assist children in their smooth transition into future school life. Charli's mum and dad are both teachers so she gets to participate in all things which prepare her for school.

Just have a look at the size of the 'back pack'. Chiropractors must rub their hand with glee when they see children with huge school bags like this, their financial future is assured!. Our daughter Kate was a little disappointed when she said good bye to Charli as she had to leave and all she got in reply was a cursory look from Charli as she said "Bye Mum" and went back to concentrating on her play dough!

And as you can see below, James (though not old enough to attend just yet) isn't going to find Three Year Old Kindergarten much of a hassle either!

The news of the moment here is the weather. While northern Queensland is drenched with floods (some areas experienced falls of 14 inches of rain in the last 24 hours) Melbourne has had a day where the temperature got to 46 degrees (almost 115 degrees Lou Ann). Serious bushfires broke out across the state taking an estimated 40 lives and destroying hundreds of homes. I took this screen shot (above left) at 5 pm yesterday and shows the then current temperature in Melbourne.

There were fires close to our daughter's home in suburban Melbourne and there was some consternation there as you can imagine. It is going to be 24 degrees there today (high 70's) and much cooler. There might even be thunderstorms later today.

Our news here is the pavers surrounding the pool. We had them laid about 3 and a half years ago and already you can see the aggregate showing through. A representative from the company which sold them to us saw them Friday afternoon and believes it looks like we got a crook batch .... but what is to happen about we don't know just yet.

I have been busy with the Bellvista Community Association Blog page and have been trying to shift it to another account. I have also constructed a simple but effective Bellvista Community Association web page and have distributed it to a few of the members of the committee to seek their feedback.

I Just Love this, Thanks Keith!

Bob feared his wife Brenda wasn't hearing as well as

she used to and thought she might need a hearing aid.

Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family

Doctor to discuss the problem.

The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the

husband could perform to give the Doctor a better idea

about her hearing loss.

Here's what you do,' said the Doctor, 'stand about 40 feet

away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone

see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and

so on until you get a response.'

That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and

he was in the den. He says to himself, 'I'm about 40 feet away,

let's see what happens.' Then in a normal tone he asks,

'Honey, what's for dinner?'

No response.

So Bob moves closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet

from his wife and repeats, 'Brenda, what's for dinner?'

Still no response.

Next he moves into the dining room where he is about

20 feet from his wife and asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?'

Again he gets no response.

So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away.

'Honey, what's for dinner?' Again there is no response.

So he walks right up behind her. 'Brenda, what's for dinner?'

(I just love this)


'Bob , for the FIFTH darn time, CHICKEN!'

Time For Another Post On My Blog.

The weather here has remained showery but warm, the humidity is still reasonable high but we are getting regular showers of rain over night. The rain further north has been torrential and some places have received 20 inches of rain in 2 days from Cyclone Ellie. Fortunately it wasn't very destructive as far as cyclones go.

Not a lot has been happening, just 'the usual'. Another 'brew' is on, the lawn has been mown, I have been to Computer Club.

I have been disappointed in the slide scanner I bought especially the Vista driver which came with it. I have been in contact with the supplier and it is being returned in the next day or so.

The Bellvista Community Association had a meeting on Monday evening which I attended. They are looking to create a web presence so with the showery weather outside I put my head down and have created a simple web site for them. You will need to click on the picture for a larger view. Then click on 'Back' to return to this page.

It is pretty easy to do as current day software almost makes the web page for you. Most of it is wysiwyg, which means "What You See Is What You Get". There are quite a few web templates available for download so it is just a matter of typing the info in and adding a few pictures and before you know it the web page has been created!