Ear Nose & Throat (ENT)

Trish went around to the farewell function for friends Paul and Linda on Sunday afternoon. I just wasn't feeling up to it all with the prospect of standing around and chatting. I propped at home in front of the TV while Trish ventured out.

I returned to the E.N.T. specialist this afternoon and he said the middle ear infection is now gone and I can stop taking the anti-biotic. However my ear still doesn't seem to be hearing all that well as I remain stuffed up with the cold. It is now almost 2 weeks since I first noticed the onset of the cold and the sniffles should be all gone.

The E.N.T. guy put me on a steroid tablet and spray to clear the tubes out. We will see how it all goes.

So as you can probably gather I am getting on top of things as far as my medical stuff goes.

I spent some time today around at Paul & Linda sorting out any computer needs they still have prior to them leaving the area and heading back to South Africa. Paul has an old XP machine which I reformatted for him today. He isn't too sure what he will do with it but it is now 'clean' with just Office 2003 and an Anti-Virus program. It is ready for him to do whatever he wishes.

To thank us for our help over the last week or so Paul & Linda are taking us out for dinner tonight. It should be a lovely night! I am well enough to do this but alcohol won't be on the agenda for me just yet.

No Computer Club Today

I am now on a different brand of anti-biotic and feeling somewhat better. However being a middle ear infection, I am still a little unsteady on my feet. I had suspected I would be close to 100% today but that certainly isn't the case. As well as some unsteadiness on my feet I also have some minor nausea. However both symptoms are much less than when on the other medication.

Therefore I am again giving the Computer Club a miss today.

I wasn't feeling well enough to get to drinks Friday afternoon and I hope to be OK for an outing Sunday afternoon. It will be a matter of wait and see.

My replacement WD TV Live media player arrived yesterday delivered by Fedex. I plugged it in and turned it on. This unit works perfectly. It is great to have the unit back and working. It is almost 6 weeks since I posted my original unit to Singapore when the screen became predominately pink when using an HDMI lead. The original replacement I was sent didn't work either (no picture at all via an HDMI lead) so it too went back. This replacement for the replacement now does what it is expected to do.

The WD TV Live unit allows me to play ALL my audio files as well as access movies from my computer (via wireless). It also allows me to listen to many Internet Radio stations through my sound system. All this for around $120.

A pretty cool day today, cold this morning 7 degrees but a warm sunny 22 degrees this afternoon. Showery weather is due for Sunday and Monday.

As well as using the new PC I also start up the 'old PC' and leave it on for a few hours each day. It hasn't skipped a beat with either a start up or shut down. It is running perfectly.

Maybe I Am Better Than I Think I Am?

I continue to feel pretty ordinary most days with some nausea and dizziness. I am on a strong anti-biotic and anti-nausea medications.

Trish was getting a bit worried for me so did some investigating on the internet on the anti-biotic I am on. It turns out it has many side effects including dizziness and nausea.

I am due for a prescription repeat today so she is going to have the anti-biotic changed.

Therefore I may be better than I think I am.

Visitors

It was great to have Janet and Michael drop in for a visit on Wednesday afternoon. We enjoyed a meal together and they stayed overnight before heading onwards to the Gold Coast. I had a couple of drinks but still I am not moving all that well this morning. The way I feel this morning perhaps I should not have had anything to drink!

Michael grabbed a heap of movies from me and we did a little looking around at Internet radio. We managed to get his mobile phone (with all the add ons) to connect to his audio system in their new diesel Toyota Rav 4 which made him very happy.

Trish made garlic prawns which may explain my slip back. I didn't eat too many but they were nice.

We watched Qld Vs NSW State of Origin Rugby League match later on. It was fun!

This morning they have headed on to the Gold Coast for a few nights before heading back to Newcastle.

On The Mend Slowly But Surely

Visited the ENT (Ear Nose & Throat) Specialist yesterday re my middle ear infection. He said he had seen a few of 'these' recently.

He cleaned things up for me, put some anti-biotic cream on any infected parts and sent me on my way. 15 minutes work and a bill for $190! He also gave me some anti-nausea tablets as I still get a little dizzy if I stand quickly or move my head around. He forecast that I would be much better in the the next couple of days.

Typing this out on the computer isn't too good as I have to raise and lower my head from the keyboard.

It appears the reason I was physically ill the other day was a result of getting 'car sick'. He believed I would only need to be on the anti nausea tablets for a couple of days. I still have heaps of anti-biotic tablets to go. I am slowly getting off the "Cold Tablets'.

However if I try to do too much I feel pretty uncomfortable from the dizziness so it is slow and easy as you go.

I have contacted friends Janet and Mick who are visiting the area from Newcastle. They will stay with us overnight tonight.

In this part of the world one of the biggest sporting events is the State Of Origin Rugby League series. Game 1 is on this evening so we will all sit down together and watch the game on TV.

They will head off for the Gold Coast tomorrow morning where they have a booking for a week.

A cold blustery s/w wind and an expected top of low 20's. It is only pleasant outside if you can get out of the wind! A cool 9 degrees is forecast for overnight.

Trish is at Stitchers this morning so I sent her a text message saying the visitors were arriving later on today.

More Tablets

I awoke Monday and felt a trip to the doctor was what was required. Our doctor just happens to be with Trish's table at Stitchers and is a regular attender to Thursday Night Trivia.

The verdict is that I am now on extremely strong antibiotics to get rid of the infection in my right middle ear. There is some concern that there may be a perforation of the eardrum which is where the ear discharge is coming from. This should heal up OK though.

My heart rate was down so I had an E.C.G. My blood pressure is up (due to being ill) and I am to have a blood pressure test again next week just to be on the safe side.

I had just had my third (I have 17 more to go) antibiotic tablet (Tuesday morning) and I am feeling a little better. The right ear is still blocked and I have an appointment this afternoon with my regular Ear Nose and Throat specialist. He will clean the ear out and check the ear drum.

I still am a little dizzy when standing up or as soon as I lie down. Movement from travelling in the car is not good for my stomach as I discovered yesterday after being driven home. I was very sick indeed.

I still live on soup and sandwiches. My cold and flu symptoms are still there but much less severe now.

We are still up in the air as to whether or not we will invite our friends from Newcastle to stay Wednesday night. We may need to wait until tomorrow morning before deciding what to do on that score.

Cloudy weather yesterday lead to 10mls of rain overnight. Today is again a cloudless clear blue sky day and an expected top of 23 degrees. However a dry cold s/w wind will blow in tomorrow making any temperature feel a few degrees cooler.

Not Moving Too Well

My cold has developed into a full blown version. I do not usually sleep or go to bed during daylight hours, Yet Saturday morning I turned off my 2 PC's and went back to bed to sleep for a couple of hours.

My diet is currently bread and margarine with a cup of hot soup. I have the occasional soft drink to wash down the Cold and Flu tabs I am taking.

We have asked friends Janet and Mick from Newcastle not to visit.

I still have my sore throat though it is a little better now. My right ear is now blocked and I have an ear ache. Problems with my ear lead to dizziness. I plant myself in front of the telly and that is my daily activity.

I feel slightly better today but if there isn't a substantial improvement tomorrow I am off to the doctor.

Old PC Up & Running

I got my 'reserve' monitor back yesterday afternoon and quickly reconnected the old PC to see how it was running. Scott had said it had an unexplainable lag of about 10 seconds before starting up and I was keen to see what was happening.

I plugged it all in and turned the PC on ...... nothing! It seemed to start and run OK but there was nothing on the screen. I swapped leads, I swapped connections, I connected the reserve screen to the new PC and it worked fine. The problem wasn't the leads, the problem wasn't the screen, the problem was in the old PC and most likely something to do with the graphics card! The side came off the computer and I gave the graphics card a good wobble and shove to ensure it was securely seated into the graphics card slot on the mother board.

I reconnected the power, turned it on and it worked perfectly. While Scott was replacing the battery he may have removed the graphics card to get better access. Re seating the graphics card had it working all again.

And there is no startup delay. The cause of the delay may have been the computer checking to see if there was a graphics card. By re seating it may have improved the connection.

It is running fine. I start it up and let it sit for an hour or so then shut it down. 10 minutes later I start it up again. It is powering off at shutdown and starting well.

You just wonder what it would have cost to have it repaired at a computer shop? All we have done is remove an old dial up modem card from it and replaced a $2 battery! All up about 30 minutes work and $2 for parts!

My head cold is better but I still have some way to go. The sore throat is the worst thing, though it is better today. At least I don't have a runny nose!

I won't go in to Computer Club tomorrow either, I don't want to breathe cold germs over everyone. I possibly have some bottling to do anyway.

Also I now have 2 computers to play with!

My faulty replacement WD Media Player was picked up yesterday by FedEx and I see on the WD Status Website that my replacement replacement media player is ready for shipping from Singapore.

I received a mysterious email this morning allegedly from FedEx saying my new replacement item would be delivered in '5 buisiness days'. (The spelling error is deliberate because that is what it said). My Anti-Virus went off and automatically put the 'FedEx' email into an "infected email" folder. It was a scam email loaded up with a virus! I was saved by my AV program!

I found this on the internet this morning, and this is basically the text of the email I received:


A currently ongoing spamvertised campaign is brand-jacking FedEx for malware-serving purposes.

Dear customer. The parcel was sent your home address. And it will arrive within 7 business day. More information and the tracking number are attached in document below. Thank you. © FedEx 1995-2011

Upon downloading the executing the attachment, the malware attempts to download two additional binaries, next to sniffing for FTP credentials off infected hosts.

A Head Cold

Trish arrived home from her bus trip yesterday afternoon about 5:15 pm. We were having visitors (Paul & Linda the couple returning to Sth Africa) over for a meal so I had put the curry lamb on about 4:30pm. Trish had a busy day co-ordinating the bus trip but it all seemed to go very well. She had bought lollies and bottled water for the bus travellers and this turned out to be just about as big a hit as the art craft places they had visited!

My head cold worsened as the day progressed. A few beers and glasses of wine last night with our guests didn't help either. I awoke during the night with a raging sore throat partly caused by the cold and partly as a result of snoring. I am now on "Cold Tablets". Just before lunch yesterday I managed to pick up enough to give our lawn a quick mow.

Trish's curries were very well received and everyone had a good night. Paul is picking up his new monitor this morning so I will get my 'reserve' monitor back. That will will allow me to give the old PC a try. Paul is going to continue to migrate stuff from his old PC over to the new one. When he is happy with it all we will reformat the old PC so he can take it away with them and pass it on to family over there.

It was a good night last night and enjoyed by all. Despite being 8:30 am as I type, Trish is still asleep!

Bike riding has been put on hold while I try to get over the cold prior to interstate visitors arriving late in the weekend. Nice enough sunny days with the occasional shower blowing in off the ocean on the prevailing south easterly winds. Days get to the low 20's and with the wind now coming in off the sea nights are more likely to be around 12 degrees.

Old PC Returned

It appears the problem with the old PC was that the Bios Battery was dead. These batteries cost about $2. I have the PC back now but I have loaned my second 'screen' to Paul so he can setup his new PC. I will give the old PC a good workout when it can be all set up again.

I got a new hearing aid on Monday, I now have an aid for each ear. The 'new' one is designed to raise the sound level of higher pitched sounds. That will help me to hear more clearly.

The left old hearing aid was refurbished. It is purely a raise the sound level type. It is great to be able and sit and watch the TV without the need for headphones to hear every word. I never new the PC keyboard was so noisy either!

Trish broke a tooth last Friday. It is her front tooth as well. She got to the dentist around lunchtime on Monday and it can all be saved but she needs a new 'crown' on it. She has a 'temp' tooth at the moment while she awaits the crown to be ready for fitting.

Today Wednesday she is co-ordinating a bus trip for 46 ladies from her "Stitchers" group. She headed off this morning with folder in hand ready to co-ordinate everything.

I have the makings of a cold right now. I am a little clogged up and heady. I am beginning to get sniffly as well. Hopefully it will only last a day or so and I will be on the mend prior to visitors arriving from Newcastle on Sunday afternoon for 4 nights.

My replacement Media Player turned up on Tuesday ... and it wouldn't work! The HDMI connection doesn't work on it. WD are shipping me a replacement ASAP and FedEx will collect the DOA model I received and send it back to Singapore paid for by Western Digital.

Caught In a Shower Of Rain

It was a quieter day than usual for me at Computer Club on Saturday morning. I can have up to three or four people waiting to see me but there were even times when I wasn't needed at all. This made for a pleasant morning.

I headed off for a ride this morning with a very dark cloud off the coast out to sea. About half way round the cloud had come onshore and there was a shower of rain. I sought shelter in a pergola in one of the parks. That finished the ride for today! After the shower I rode home slowly to prevent rain water being flicked up by my bike's tyres.

Trish has a tooth problem and is booked in to the dentist for today around lunch time. I have an appointment for my new hearing aid this morning and the replacement WD TV Live Media Player is due to be delivered today or tomorrow by "Fedex".

There isn't a lot else to talk about as much of the weekend was spent enjoying footy on TV.

Trish caught up with a friend named Dawn for coffee on Sunday morning. Dawn had moved from the Sunshine Coast to Perth to be with her son and his two teenage daughters. This didn't work out as Dawn had expected and now she is 'stuck' living in Perth. Dawn was a good friend of Fred (an old cricketing mate of mine who lives here in Caloundra).

I get my old PC back this evening. I don't know what was wrong with it but it is back and running again. The voip phone played up again despite new filters. I have no idea what the problem may be.

How You Can Tell It Is Cold Here!

This is quite easy to do; you just look in my garage and see if the Home Brewing heat pad is setup! Today I took down the heat pad and set it up ready for a brew I mixed this morning. Today we have lovely clear blue skies and a warmish days (low 20’s) but the temp is getting well into single figures overnight.

Blogger hasn’t been working Friday. The site is closed for some sort of repairs. I will pre-type this up in Word and then copy/paste it into Blogger when it comes back online again. I have never noticed this before with Blogger!

I swapped the ADSL filter/splitter over yesterday afternoon to see if that will fix my VoIP problem. When I had a good look at the older filter/splitter I saw it was one I had received with my original DLink modem/router.

Nowhere did it say it was ADSL2 or ADSL2+ on it indicating it was probably a very early and basic model. Perhaps it was so old it was just a plain ADSL filter/splitter and not really up to handling VoIP calls.

We will just have to wait and see.

It took until Saturday morning and I could put this post online. It is around 8 or 9 degrees right now as I finish this post off.

Last night was spent watching my footy team do very well and now be the only undefeated team in the competition. Friday afternoon was spent getting Skype to work, sorting out emails etc on Paul's new computer. All now seems to be done.

Chilly On The Sunshine Coast

We had a brisk 7 degrees this morning! Winter has come so quickly to us this year. Cold blustery southerly winds and humidity down to less than 40%. I now ride at 16 degrees! I don't use the time anymore, I wait till it is warm enough then off I go. I get my 12 to 15 k's in most days. It has been dry with little rain here the last few days with temps into the low 20's.

I am just about computered out. Friends who bought the new computer on Monday had Trish and me around for a wonderful meal last night. This was after I had spent all afternoon transferring files and installing programs onto their new PC. It went reasonably smoothly with the biggest problem the anti-virus program I like to use. But much of it is done now with only emails and some other utility programs to be installed which I will do Friday afternoon.

The meal was lovely, the company excellent and the job of emptying their alcohol cupboard was commenced! It may take a couple more trips to get that one finished though.

Another older lady on the estate is just having broadband put on and has a brand new Toshiba Laptop. So I have busy helping her out as well. The Toshiba had a strange way of first running and took almost 90 minutes before it was up and going. After installing Windows 7 64 bit it was then I discovered it was only a 2GB RAM laptop.

So I was back this morning to do it all over again and install the 32 bit version of Windows. 64 bit really needs at least 3GB RAM (but better with 4GB) so it would really have struggled with a mere 2GB. The 32 bit version will work fine. She still awaits her modem/router from Bigpond. Currently delivery is about 4 days behind and she is impatient to get on the internet!

Trish has Trivia tonight so I will settle back and enjoy all my AFL footy shows on Pay TV.

I have been trying to get the voip phone working 100%. Sometimes we have had a problem receiving our ordinary PSTN incoming phone calls. I have swapped the wall phone filter over to a new one, I have tried two different modem/routers, we have bought new cordless phones and still the problem is there. The only thing I haven't swapped over is the original filter/splitter which connects the phone to the modem/router. After today that has now been done.

If it doesn't work perfectly now I am not sure what is left to swap over that could be the problem!

Friends Janet and Mick from Newcastle are staying with us for four nights in about 10 days time. The home brew may get a a fair use while they are here.

Winter Has Arrived!

After some glorious weather the last few days, right now (just after lunch) it is grey and miserable outside with rain falling and the temp around 18 degrees. The winter woollies have come out of hiding and are in use.

Computer Club was busy as usual on Saturday with much of my time being used to help a member out with Skype. Both Trish and my footy teams enjoyed wins over the weekend which was good for us. Yesterday being Mother's Day saw Skype get a good use with Trish spending over an hour online with our daughter Kim as well as Chris and his family. Kate rang during the evening to have a chat to her Mum.

Several friends who have been using Nod32 (an antivirus program) have sought to have their registration 'fixed'. I have been able to do that for them.

Friends Paul and Linda who are returning to South Africa in a couple of months time had considered updating their computer over there. The internet soon showed that here was a much better place to buy being quite a deal cheaper. Today Paul and I went out to check out prices and found Officeworks had an excellent special going with a 'tower' at $763 on special down from $999. Paul is happy with his buy and we will set it up on Wednesday (we are invited there for an evening meal).

Trish is at a CACA Meeting this afternoon and I have a BeCA Public Meeting this evening.

The weather should pick up tomorrow and be back to fine (but still cool) on Wednesday.

Cooroy

Cooroy is a pretty Sunshine Coast hinterland town just to the north of Noosa. Trish is planning a bus trip for 45 members of her Stitchers Group to Pomona and Cooroy in mid August. Pomona is the site of the only movie theatre in the world which only shows "Silent Movies".

The group will check out the movies in Pomona and then travel 10 ks or so to Cooroy where they will have lunch and some time to walk around and visit a materials supply store and another Scrapbooking store.

We spent time confirming all would be OK with the stores and checking out the Cooroy RSL for the groups' lunch. We ate there as well.

Rather than making this just a single purpose trip we dropped my new bike at Maroochydore for its after sale 'service', then to Nambour for me to see the hearing aid guy, then to Cooroy and finally back to Maroochydore to collect the bike and have a quick look around the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre.

The bike is now serviced with gears and brakes all being 'adjusted'. I am to get a second hearing aid for my 'good' right ear. Now I am over 65 I am entitled to extra benefits so my new $2500 hearing aid will see me out of pocket to the tune of $400. I also get my current hearing aid fully serviced and maintained for $40 p.a.

Cooroy is a very pretty town and the lunch at the RSL is not cheap but was a good meal.

It is another lovely day here today with temps to get to the mid 20's later on. I had a 13.5k bike ride this morning and then spent some time on the phone walking friends Russell and Irene through some setup stuff with their new broadband connection.

Their Dell Laptop had never really been attached to the internet (they only had a dial-up connection). I remember I had disabled "Automatic Updates" on it when we down there so at least they could access the internet via dial-up without the laptop wanting to download 150MB of updates. After changing the update settings the laptop proceeded to download 500MB of updates!

Now they are back online again I have to make sure my blog page is online before midday as that is when Russ checks his emails and reads this blog page!

Sorry about blowing all your monthly download allocation mate!

Things Keep Rolling Along!

There isn't much news to pass on right now.

Scott (the PC repair guy) hasn't been back in contact with me as promised. He has been great so far so I can't complain.

Monday was a holiday here for Labor Day. The weather has been mostly fine except for a line of storms which passed through last evening and left us with 11mls in the rain gauge. It is sunny again today.

I bought a new wall phone filter/splitter yesterday. They were marked down from $43 to $20 and I grabbed the last one they had. Internet has been rock solid since installing it. Trish has visited Bunnings and put some of the ideas she saw on "Better Homes" into practice. We received some giveaway plants from a neighbour and they have been added to the garden.

Trish is at Stitchers this morning. The car goes in to have the sticking brake lights attended to this afternoon.

My bike gets its 'free' service tomorrow. The gears and brakes require a little adjusting. I have been riding each morning since the weather improved.

I have an appointment for my Hearing Aid guy tomorrow and from there we are heading to Cooroy so Trish can 'suss' out the town in preparation for a trip she has planned for the Arts & Crafts Association.

Trish and I went to an Indian Restaurant in town for a night out last night. We got talking to the owner on the way out. As it turns out he is a Bellvista Resident as well. We were given a 20% off card for all future meals we have there. Shame the Chicken Tikka was pretty ordinary. The beef curry was OK though.

The other night we watched the movie "The Lincoln Lawyer" which is based on a Michael Connelly book. There were lots of twists and turns and overall a pretty good movie.

On Monday I was up at a place called Palmwoods helping a guy out with his computer. It went pretty well and he was most appreciative of the help. Yesterday I went to another home to check a 'slow running' PC. What it really needs is to be put away and a new one bought. I installed Malwarebytes on it as a last thing and set it to "scan". Usually when I run the program on my PC I get 2 or 3 suspicious objects. After 14 minutes (out of about an hour) scanning it had recognized 114 objects which it believed should be quarantined.

I hope you enjoyed some of the bumper stickers for seniors in the post below this one!

Senior Bumper Stickers

With apologies for any of the stickers which may offend!

(With thanks to Keith!)

A Bike Ride at Last

Dry weather and no overnight drizzle meant I could have a bike ride this morning for the first time for almost a week. It has been wet and showery, so far we have had almost 25" of rain above normal for this time of year. And as the photo shows the weather today is glorious. Showers are predicted to return on Tuesday!

The grass is a little long right now all of which is due to the incredible amount of rain we have had. I gave my front lawn a mow yesterday! I used a special spray to kill a certain type of weed which my lawn had growing in it. Not only did the spray kill the weed it also killed the grass. It is all beginning to grow back now. Problem is it is the weed which is growing back rather than the grass!

The pleasant morning inspired me to vacuum the pool. When checking the salt level I found the pool needed more salt, an effect of all the rain we have had washing excess pool water (and salt) down the drain! The pool is clean and the salt level is again fine.

Computer Club was extremely busy yesterday morning for me. It is nice helping people out but sometimes the problems are so basic you just think some of these people shouldn't be allowed near a computer!

My old computer just won't go now. The new one is wonderful. Scott will try to call in over the next day or so and check it for me. He is a lovely guy and I don't want to make a 'hog' of myself utilizing his expertise.

Russ, a friend in Victoria has had his PC of 11 years die! He took it to the shop to be looked at and was advised the best place for it was the tip. He is now going to get broadband connected and will use his wife's "Vista" laptop as his main computer. I don't think the laptop has ever been on the internet so I would imagine as soon as he connects to his new internet connection, the laptop will spend the first hour or so updating!

Russ is a keen blog reader too.