Time For Me To Head Home Again

Despite an unkind weather forecast, the day was almost perfect for the wedding of my nephew Marcus and his lovely bride Brigitte. We drove to Dromana (about 50 minutes away) soon after lunch on Friday. We had Kate with us in the car (which completed the round trip perfectly)and met our other daughter Kim at the hotel. We stayed in the Dromana Hotel which had lovely large older style rooms. We were extremely happy with our choice of accommodation. We discovered the bus service was only for getting back to the hotel after the Reception.

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

It was a lovely day, catching up with all the family and attending the wedding and the reception. Kate isn't a real lover of alcohol and she was fine to drive us back to the hotel about 11:30 pm. It was great night.

The wet weather arrived Sunday morning as we went to the bride's parents home for a lunch. We didn't stay too long as the weather was threatening and we were all tired or perhaps a little seedy from the night before.

Trish went to bed quite early Saturday night. She has a cold and the wedding reception didn't help either.

Today is Sunday and I am due to fly back to Maroochydore first thing tomorrow morning. Trish will take me across to Chris' place this afternoon where I will spend the night. She will then drive back to Kate's. Chris will drive me to the airport first thing Monday morning.

I am due to arrive in Maroochydore about 10 am and my mate John Logan is coming with me for several nights.

Trish is staying a few more days and is due home on Thursday morning.

Water Level Is Fine!

I spent yesterday glued to the TV enjoying the 1st Test match, Australia Vs England live from Brisbane. The Australian fast bowler who took a hat trick was Peter Siddle who plays with Dandenong, the team I played much of my cricket with.

Trish went to a show in Melbourne last night with our youngest daughter Kim. She drove the car into Melbourne and back again. I checked the water level in the radiator this morning after the car had done about 150k's and the water level is fine. The car has performed perfectly, it hasn't missed a beat!

We are about to head off to Dromana this afternoon (about an hour away) for the wedding and won't get back here until Saturday afternoon.

$200

I caught up with my brother yesterday and left quite a few movies and TV shows with him. That should keep them going for a couple of months!

The car has been running fine but I had to put water in the radiator yesterday. I am hoping this was just from an airlock when the repair was done recently. The temperature gauge doesn't budge and the temperature yesterday was well over 30 degrees. With the motor running beautifully and the temp gauge not budging it seems OK.

For the fun of it I popped into a Hyundai dealer just to check out a change over on a new small very basic brand new model Hyundai Getz. They valued our car at $200! However the key words were "changeover price". If necessary we could get into a new Getz for about $10,000. Hyundai have a $12990 drive away deal on right now.

Our feeling is we will stay with the car we have. However any more serious problems and it may have to go.

We went Vietnamese last night with Patsy and Eddie. The total for the 4 of us was $60 and the meal was sensational.

Kate took the kids down to catch up with Arj who is on a school camp about 80k's from here for a few hours yesterday afternoon. As you can see from the photo taken here, when they returned last night it had been a pretty tiring trip for two little kids.

I have the cricket test match on TV today and then we have the wedding tomorrow and Saturday. The weather has turned to rainy. A cooler 24 today and then low 20's for the next few days. This is a shame for the wedding tomorrow afternoon.

From Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne Monday afternoon after flying for over 2 hours from Maroochydore to Tullamarine, Melbourne. One of the disadvantages of living where we do is the Sunshine Coast is a popular holiday destination for families. So the little boy who played up for the whole trip down in the plane was constantly being attended to by his mum. She stood and sat back down again about 25 times, each time plonking down into the seat in front of me. I was watching a movie on the laptop and unfortunately the drop down table I had was broken. The laptop didn't sit properly so each movement in front of me had to be managed carefully. As a school principal I was always in favour of retrospective abortion and this was yet another good case!

I spent the first evening at Chris' place with youngest daughter Kim, Trish, and Chris and his family. It is always a bit of fun. I gave Andrew the 'old' laptop to use and after 15 minutes he was frustrated with how slow it was. Trish was driving Kate's car so getting to the other side of the city and Kate's place at about 8:00 pm wasn't an issue. This photo of Kate's home in Melbourne was taken this morning.

On Tuesday we were off to see our official financial advisor Darren and our unofficial advisor John Logan. As I am about to turn 65 we need maneuver the superannuation around to make the most of benefits available to us. That is all now done.

From there it was back to John's home for 'coffee'. We knocked over a few stubbies and now John is flying back to the Sunshine Coast with me on Monday as he has some business to attend to in Brisbane. He will stay for a few nights with me before flying back home.

The car is running very well. One of the spark plug leads wouldn't click on properly but after clearing some debris (broken bit of old spark plug lead) the lead now firmly clicks into place and the car runs very smoothly. We have an issue with the front door as the driver's side door won't unlock with the key. The lock needs replacing. However the remote control works reasonably well and unlocks the door OK. We drove the car for well over 70k's yesterday and it went flawlessly.

Today I am driving over to visit my brother this afternoon and then later tonight we are out for Vietnamese for tea with Eddie and Patsy.

The weather has been sunny and low 30's with a northerly wind. Rain is forecast for tomorrow and stretching over into the weekend. We have the wedding on Friday.

Showery Weather

Overcast, windy with showers of rain is the weather we are getting right now. Another 7mls in the gauge from yesterday with several showers overnight. This is the view which greeted me this morning at about 7:30am.

I fly to Melbourne tomorrow morning so it is time to tidy the backyard up, clean the pool, give the lawn a quick mow and get things ready. I am only away for a week so there isn't as much to do as some other times.

I have been invited out for tea tonight and to have a few drinks. I won't over indulge as there is nothing worse than moving at 100% and flying in a plane.

So my next post will be from Melbourne. The forecast down there is for lovely warm weather while here is expecting showers on and off throughout the week.

Trish, The Mechanic

The car wasn't ready till almost 6 pm and repairs cost much more than anticipated! The guy told Trish it was running a bit roughly but should be OK to go. She got about 50 of the 70k's done that she had to do to get to Kate's when the car just didn't seem to want to go anymore.

She pulled to the side of the Freeway and again called the RACV for help. Because she was on a Freeway the only service available was a tow! So again the little car was towed via a truck but this time to Kate's home. Later another RACV guy arrived and spotted the problem quickly. It needed new Spark Plug leads. I had indicated this to Trish earlier when she described the car's behaviour via the mobile phone. It has been like this before many years ago and new leads fixed it.

The RACV told Trish exactly the type of leads the car required (special leads for a Mazda 626 or Ford Telstar). This morning (Saturday) she bought and fitted them herself in about 15 minutes and right now the car is running just beautifully!

I was pretty disappointed that the repair people over at Tullamarine would put someone into a car and send them to travel 70k's during peak hour traffic in a car which wasn't running properly! A phone call to them will be in order first thing Monday.

I was absolutely flat out at the Computer Club today! I was glad when it was over and I could come home. The last 24 hours or so have been a bit stressful so a full on morning wasn't what I was looking for.

It Never Rains But It Pours!

The rain we were expecting didn't fall on Wednesday or on Thursday. It was cloudy enough but the grey skies didn't drop any rain. Yesterday morning I got Trish to the local airport well before her take-off time ready for her trip to Melbourne. The next I heard from her was when she was stuck beside the road in Melbourne in our second car we have down there with the motor refusing to go. Our daughter in law Wendy was walking back to collect the kids from school while Trish waited for the RACV!

The car has cost us a bit recently with gear box problems so another break down was not what we wanted. It turns out the radiator had a leak and the thing had boiled dry. The car was towed to the nearest RACV centre, (next to Kim's work) and they waited till it cooled down. The head isn't cracked so they stopped just in time. It is being repaired as I type and hopefully all will be OK by lunchtime today!

The water level in the pool was down a fair bit yesterday and I had banked on the promised rain to top it up. I awoke at midnight to hear the heavens had opened up and it was raining steadily.

This morning the pool is full and there are 38mls in the rain gauge (1.5" Lou-ann).

I also managed to steam-clean the floors yesterday afternoon. It wasn't too hot but I sure lost plenty of fluid doing the job. Fortunately I had plenty of home-brew available to replace any lost fluid!

Rain On Its Way

The dishwasher still sits idly and still not checked. We have to remove everything from under the sink to get to the hoses and power lead. It will possibly take an hour or two to check and this isn't high on the agenda just now. Trish is getting ready to head to Melbourne and working on the website for the Arts Centre Association. She is enjoying it a lot. This has put the dishwasher on the 'not so important' list!

It is a delightful day outside, hardly a cloud in the sky and a stiff breeze blowing in off the ocean. As usual here, the warmest time of the day will be around lunchtime. The cooler prevailing sea breeze usually kicks in early afternoon and the temperature usually begins to fall be it ever so slowly during the afternoon. I did 14ks today on the bike and the pool was a whisker under 26 this morning. It will get to over 28 in the pool later today.

Click on the pool photo for a larger view.

The water level is down a little with some evaporation over the last few days. Some showers followed by rain is expected overnight and early tomorrow. The hose into the pool's skimmer box that you can see at the top of the photo above left is connected to a storm water diverter built in to one of the downpipes from the roof (click on the photo to the left for a larger view). When it rains, water from the roof is diverted via the hose into the pool. The pool probably needs 3 or 4 cms to top it up to be full again. With the diverter about 10mls of rain should be enough to do this.

We watched the movie "Red Hill" last night. It is an Aussie movie created by the same team who made "Wolf Creek" which was a bit of a horror flick with plenty of violence and action. You can see the similarities in movie style when watching "Red Hill". It wasn't too bad.

I take Trish to Maroochydore airport tomorrow morning (Thursday) at 8:30 am. She flies out at 10:30. This is 11:30 in Melbourne as they have daylight saving. Trish is due to be collected from Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne at about 2:15 pm. It is a good idea to be earlier rather than later when flying with these budget airlines nowadays.

Kind Of "Back To Normal"

Trish has been very busy over the weekend with the Craft Centre Association's big annual "Fair". As a Vice president she attended the centre Friday, Saturday and Sunday and is back there again this morning for a follow up meeting.

My presentation on "Buying Over The Internet" went quite well at the Computer Club on Saturday morning and I was able to help a few people out.

The weather has been a little cloudy with the odd short shower in the mornings but generally a fine afternoon. This year has been cooler than most years. So far there hasn't been a max temp over 30 degrees which is most unusual. The pool is about 25 in the morning and struggles to get to 27 or so in the afternoon. No showers early today so I got the full 13+k bike ride in OK.

There is a sense of heat out there today so maybe we will get to the high 20's here.

I am not much of a golfer but I enjoyed the last day's play in the Australian Masters over the weekend. Tiger Woods was playing and had a sensational final 6 holes where he picked up 6 shots! It was great to watch. Australia's Stuart Appleby won the tournament.

Trish heads to Melbourne on Thursday and I follow her down on Monday.

We haven't had a chance to check the dishwasher just yet but hope to get to it later.

A Shower Was Enough

I managed only 3 kilometres of my bike ride today until I was forced to return home because of a short shower of rain. The sky was quite black and looked ugly this morning but the wind was coming off the sea and could have blown the dark clouds away. It did but only after a short sharp shower which wet me through. Right now it is sunny outside, pretty humid after the shower of rain and heading to the high 20's. It is a bit too warm to ride.

I found this can toad sitting on top of the in pool thermometre when I checked this morning. He is now suffering from blunt force trauma as a result of a three iron and he is currently on the front lawn!

Our dishwasher hasn't been working so well recently and Trish decided to give it a good clean out. She spent an hour on it yesterday, put it all back together and started it up. Now it goes into problem mode with a light flashing on the front indicating no water is getting through.

We will check it out over the weekend but it has been making a new noise recently and the dishes haven't been perfectly clean. We may be in for a new one!

Trish is at the Caloundra Arts Centre today getting ready for the annual Arts Fair on all this weekend. it is the group's major fund raiser and Trish has been heavily involved with the organisation.

Trish has been working on a website for the Caloundra Arts Centre Association group too. It is now online and you can see it HERE. She is prepared to experiment more with her website than I ever was. She has added the banner background picture and the next step is to modify the background color.

She will be busy with the "Fair" all weekend. Fortunately for me there is either golf from Melbourne (depending on the nasty weather predicted for the next few days) or a cricket Test match involving New Zealand in India.

I have a presentation to give tomorrow at the Computer Club. I am doing something on my experiences "Internet Buying".

The joke below tickled my fancy!

All Girl Biker Bar

An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake.

He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels.

After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, 'Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?'


The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says,

'Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair,Given that you are blind, that you should know five things:

1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.

2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.

3. I'm a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.

4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weight lifter.

5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

Now, think about it seriously, Cowboy. Do you still wanna tell that blonde joke?'

The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters, 'No...not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times.'

The latest "News" post is below!

Recovering From A Bit Of A "Booking" Problem

The weather has improved but still remains a little on the cooler side for where we live. Hopefully we will get above the mid 20's today as cloud has been around now for some time. It is clear and sunny now but a little breezy off the Pacific Ocean here.

Plenty of sport on TV has kept me occupied and Trish continues to work away on her website for the Craft Association here.

I have been a little busy with the Community Association as we had a public meeting on Monday night and I was involved with trying to alert everyone via the website what was happening. Check out the right hand side of this blog and look for "Bellvista Community Association" under Les' Links. The 'News&Events' page is where I have all the latest news.

We even had our local Member of State Parliament visit yesterday to check out some of the hassles we have with only one road into the estate. I was a member of the deputation that ran him through resident's concerns.

As many of you know we are heading south in a week or so, Trish for two weeks and me for one week. We have a wedding to get to down on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. We had booked into a motel for the our one night down there. Trish got a call this morning to say "Sorry, but we have double booked your room and you can't have it now!" We hastily went to book a 'cabin' at the nearby caravan park but were informed, "Sorry, we are booked out!"

We eventually found a couple rooms at the Dromana Hotel which is only slightly dearer than the run down motel we had booked into. And it is right on the foreshore!

I am doing a presentation at the Computer Club this week on buying things on the internet. It is pretty basic stuff but sometimes that is just the sort of information some people want.

I Love This Joke

Education....

A man is stopped by the police at midnight and asked where he’s going.

“I’m on my way to listen to a lecture about the effects of alcohol and drug abuse on the human body.”

The policeman asks, “Really? And who’s giving a lecture at this time of night?”

“My wife.”

No Bird 'Attacks' For Two Days In A Row.

I am pleased to report that I have had no problems with birds protecting their nests by diving on me during my bike ride over the last two days. This is most likely because it has been so wet I haven't been able to get out for a ride. Another 38 mls in the rain gauge this morning giving us the grand total of 55mls (or over 2" in the old scale") over the last two days.

99% of these birds giving me a hard time means they fly within a couple of metres of me so it isn't at all dangerous. Most of the birds are usually smaller ones and are not a problem.

The average annual rainfall for Caloundra is about 63" per year. Up to this morning we have had over 72" of rain so far this year and we still have the best part of two wet months to go. If things go according to 'averages" we can expect another 8" of rain up to the end of 2010. The weather people are expecting rainfall 'greater than the average' for the remainder of 2010.

And we are to get two new sets of neighbours, one on either side. The young couple to the left as you face our place have bought a 5 bedroom place north of Maroochydore. He enjoys his music and they are planning to increase their family. The current little house is totally unsuitable for them. They popped in yesterday and asked us to witness their signatures on a sale document. They leave in about one month.

Meanwhile on the other side there has been a marriage breakup. He has already gone and the wife and two little kids are moving out in a about 10 days.

It would be great to get some 'older' neighbours with whom we can relate. We will just have to wait and see.

I enjoyed the joke below!

The Porch!

A blonde teenage girl, wanting to earn some extra money for the Summer, decided to hire herself out as a 'handy-woman' and started canvassing a nearby well-to-do neighborhood.

She went to the front door of the first house, and asked the owner if he had any odd jobs for her to do.

'Well, I guess I could use somebody to paint my porch,' he said. 'How much will you charge me?'

Delighted, the girl quickly responded, 'How about $50?'

The man agreed and told her that the paint brushes and everything she would need was in the garage. The man's wife, hearing the conversation said to her husband, 'Does she realize that our porch goes ALL the way around the house?'

He responded, 'That's a bit cynical, isn't it?'

The wife replied, 'You're right.... I guess I'm starting to believe all those dumb blonde jokes.'

Later that day, the blonde came to the door to collect her money.

'You're finished already?' the startled husband asked.

'Yes,' the blonde replied, 'and I even had paint left over, so I gave it two coats.'

Impressed, the man reached into his pocket for the $50.00 and handed it to her along with a ten dollar tip.

'And by the way,' the blonde added, 'it's not a Porch, it's a Lexus!

Bike Gets a Rest

No bike ride today, it was too wet! Rain started earlier this morning and there must be over an inch in the rain gauge by now. It is all due to clear overnight and hopefully just "Showers" for the next few days. However they are only expecting low 20's for the next two days.

It was almost necessary to top the pool up yesterday as the level had dropped somewhat due to evaporation. I held off as the forecast had predicted the rain this morning. The water diverter I installed 12 months ago had the pool topped up after about 10mls of rain. It is overflowing out into the street via storm water drains right now.

The photo shows the hose from the diverter which empties into the pool's skimmer box. It works really well.

Trish is at the Tourist Info Centre again today while I tap away on my keyboard. I have been doing a bit on the Community Association website today which I enjoy doing immensely.

Cricket was a disaster last night on TV with the home team getting beaten again. It is raining still but there is live coverage of New Zealand vs India available on Pay Tv so that will fill my day in.

Inception

The new shopping centre here on our estate opened on Monday without any fanfare (nor most of the shops!) The doctor still had to get broadband connected after Telstra messed up the order, hopefully this will be done before the end of the week. The hairdresser isn't opening till Wednesday. The Bakery required a clearance from the Fire Brigade to run its ovens and that was due to come through late yesterday afternoon. The supermarket has 5 weeks till opening as it requires generators to be installed as backup for their refrigeration.

It was supposed to rain yesterday afternoon but we only got enough to make the roadway damp! It wasn't enough rain to keep me away from today's bike ride around the estate. The photo left shows some of the pathway I ride along each morning. I did almost 14k's today and was swooped a couple of times by smaller birds thinking I was a danger to the young in their nests. The swooping wasn't enough to cause me any worries.

I recently downloaded the movie 'Inception' which scores 9.1 on the Movie Data Base. This is a huge score! We watched it last night and now I have just question to ask .... does anyone know what this movie is about? It is a Sci-Fi movie and not really our cup of tea. We much preferred "The Social Network", the story of Mark Zuckergerg, the creator of Facebook which we watched over the weekend. "The Social Network" movie scored 8.5 and both Trish an I enjoyed it very much!

A cooler wind this morning but it is still expected to get to the high 20's this afternoon. Showers are predicted for the rest of the week though.

The race which stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup is to be run this afternoon so we will sit down to watch that later on. Trish has Stitchers Wednesday morning and I am off around to help an older couple with their computer in the morning.