The Home Straight

Christmas has come and gone, we are overfed and have had too much to drink! It has been very busy for us this trip which is good.

Overall the weather has been mild while we had a few showers on Monday. Otherwise it has been great.

We caught up with Arj's side of the family on Christmas night after a quiet but pleasant Christmas day. We were present when the Kate's kids opened their presents in the morning.

Later we enjoyed a quiet and tasty Christmas lunch together.

Boxing Day saw us make our annual trek to Barry and Rainy's down at Drouin for the day to enjoy great company, too many drinks, plenty of laughs and a great time. We did get home a little earlier than expected but I had cricket at the MCG the next day.

I managed to get into the MCG and the cricket for two consecutive days. It was a little on the cool side at the ground especially where I was sitting. I saw the great Sachin Tendulkar bat superbly for India and the two young Australian fast bowlers Pattinson and Siddle (both Dandenong boys) bowl Australia to a great victory.

On the Tuesday evening after the cricket I went back to St Kilda and met up with Trish, Kim and Alex for a lovely Malaysian meal. Trish and I baby sat the kids on Wednesday night after I got home from the cricket while Kate and Arj went out.

On Thursday I did NOTHING! I just sat and watched the cricket on TV and vegged out for the day! I needed a rest badly!

Here it is Friday and we are out for lunch and again for tea. We may be catching up with Kim tonight as well. Kate Arj and the the rest of us are going to a revamped "The Palms" which is a food court style restaurant. The food is usually excellent.

We fly home later on Saturday afternoon where we will be collected from Maroochydore Airport by my brother Geoff and his wife who will spend a few days with us on the Sunshine Coast.

Sleeping Well Nowadays

It remains quite busy. Wednesday saw me mow Arj's lawns while Trish got the vacuum cleaner out. Kate and Arj are flat out finalizing the school year so this was our way of helping out.

We went to our very favorite Vietnamese restaurant on Wednesday night with friends Eddie and Patsy and we were joined by our daughter Kim and her friend Alex. The food was sensational and at $20 a head no one complained. Trish and I bought 2 jars of the wonderful chilli oil to take back home with us as well.

Thursday was the last day of school for Kate and Arj so Trish and I had the day baby sitting. I jumped in the car and went to Bunnings and bought a new and stronger plasterboard anchor and managed to put the curtain rail back up in the bedroom we are using. Later in the morning all four of us went for a walk down to the shops about 1 kilometre away. This is tough work with one 6 year old and a four year old!

Then they played some more before we headed to the park to give the new scooters a try out. Then the four of us were off to Malaysia Garden restaurant for our tea. The kids just loved the curry and rice while Trish and I enjoyed the boneless chicken curry and the plate of Char Koay Teow.

The kids were worn out when we got back home so they were soon in bed. Kate and Arj arrived home well after 9pm following end of the work year festivities. We all slept very well.

Friday saw us catch up with Graeme and Pat in the morning, I gave Keith a quick visit in the afternoon and later on this afternoon we are catching up with Gordon and Anne.

Trish created a small website for Anne and got it all online for her so today's visit is 'payment' for services rendered. It seems we are off to a Thai restaurant.

Since we have been in Melbourne sleeping well every night hasn't been a problem for us.

This One Gave Me A Chuckle ....

Guy goes into a bar, there's a robot bartender.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Carlton Draught".
The robot brings back the best beer ever and says to the man, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says," 168."
The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.

The guy leaves, but he is curious... So he goes back into the bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Carlton Draught".
Again, the robot pours a great beer and gives it to the man and asks, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "100."
The robot then starts to talk about V8 Super cars, MotoGP, CUB beers and Supercheap Auto.

The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time.
He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Carlton Draught," and the robot brings him another great beer.
The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "Uh, about 50."
The robot leans in real close and asks,

"So, you people happy with Buckley as coach?

Busy Busy Busy!

There was even more last minute Christmas shopping Monday morning before we headed to Drouin for our annual Christmas get together with friends. 4 couples have been meeting every Christmas for the last 20 years or so for a lovely meal, a few drinks and a Kris Kringle.

We arrived there early to ensure we had a good chat with Russ and Irene. The car front wheel was slightly turned like in the photo. However I spotted short self tapper screw in the tyre soon after our arrival. The car was unpacked and I quickly slipped into Drouin to have the tyre looked at. The self tapper screw had pierced right through the tyre necessitating a puncture repair.

Back to the Christmas gathering for a chat and a few drinks. I also had in excess of 130 movies to copy over for Russell as well for his media player.

Other couples June and Keith as well as Carol and David arrived.

The meal was delightful and the beer was flowing freely. Then it was Kris Kringle time and gifts were swapped. We decided to stay the night rather than attempt the 50k drive home around midnight. This would also give us a chance to really catch up with Russell and Irene.

We eventually got back to Kate's around 3 pm. From there it was a quick bite to eat and then on to Charli's school Christmas Song Concert.

Bed will be a good spot later on this evening.

Great Weekend

We arrived in Melbourne to a pleasant day with plenty of Sunshine. We spent early Thursday evening with Chris and family but we were soon on our way in our "Melbourne" car well before 7:30 pm to head to Kate's which would be our base for our time down south.

Even that visit was short lived before we were on our way early Friday afternoon to Phillip Island and Cape Woolamai where we had rented a home for the weekend to house all our family, their families including the grand children.

It worked out wonderfully with plenty eat, reasonable accommodation and a beach within 2 minutes of the front door.

There was walking, swimming, beach cricket and heaps of eating and drinking. It was a very successful weekend and everyone seemed keen on doing something similar in 2012. The weather was high 20's so everything was just perfect.

We were on our way home mid Sunday morning but spent some time with friends Max and Margaret as well as Pat and Neelan. Each visit was only for a couple of hours but all was extremely successful.

We slept very well Sunday night before we were due to head off to Drouin mid afternoon on Monday. Trish has been busy doing last minute Christmas shopping and helping Kate out where ever possible.

Our 'Diary' is relatively open now with 'commitments' (must do's) out of the way!

Down To Melbourne Tomorrow

A gorgeous 27 or so degrees today with a coolish breeze and blue skies. The bags are pretty well packed now and everything is almost ready for tomorrow's departure. We are flying with Jetstar and are due in Melbourne around 3:30pm where Chris will collect us from the airport.

Trish is busy with Christmas Farewells today while I will finish up with left over Spaghetti Bolognaise and home brew for my evening meal! I have a few licks of my Chilli Oil from our favorite Vietnamese Restaurant in Springvale to 'finish off' with the Spag Bol so all won't be lost!

Our 'second' car is at Chris' place so we will fully independent once we get the car keys in hand.

I am not sure when my next 'blog' post will be as things look really busy for the first few days in Melbourne.

Getting Ready For Xmas

After the disappointment of the recent Test Cricket we have been into "Getting Ready To Go Away" mode. The house has had a clean, the pool filter has been cleaned as well, the lawns have been mown, I have had a haircut and I picked up my new glasses. Sometimes you reckon it would be easier not to go away!

The weather has been crazy hot and humid. On Monday it was hot but the humidity was 80% which is high even for here! It was up to 33 degrees as the day went on. The pool was 23degrees in the morning and around 28 later that afternoon. Today was 30 or so again but when the sea breeze kicked in it was a pleasant 27.

I rode this morning after some heavy overnight showers the previous night and got in my 12 or so K's.

Last night we decided to try to get people together for a Xmas outing up here. The preferred restaurant was closed so someone suggested we try another Thai one just down the road. It was closed for renovations! And it is school holiday time in this part of the world.

We finished up going to a little Chinese Restaurant under new management named the Bamboo Garden. The new owners had also owned a restaurant named "The China Flute". The food at the China Flute was pretty good and very pricey! The six of us decided to try the 'Under New management Bamboo Garden' and had a very very nice Chinese meal. We ordered well which made a difference, Pork with Ginger and Shallots, Salt & Pepper Calamari, San Choi Bow, Satay Chicken, Mongolian Lamb and it was all delicious. Everyone was very impressed at around $50 per double!

On the way home we passed some houses which have been decorated for Xmas. Some people go to a lot of trouble to get their homes sparkling with bright lights. It looks pretty impressive.

We fly to Melbourne Thursday morning making tomorrow our last full day at home. I will do my packing etc while Trish has her hair done, goes to a Stitchers Luncheon and then out with the Tourist Info group for her evening meal! I think she is looking forward to going to Melbourne for a rest!

Problem Solved

I have managed to solve the problem with my PC. I downloaded and installed a small program around two weeks ago called "Soluto". My PC takes a while to startup, mainly because I have so many things going on in the background such as calendars, weather conditions, start up menus, Mailwasher and a few more little utilities. Soluto would monitor these startup programs and tell me roughly how much longer the PC would take to start up.

I noticed Soluto had been 'crashing' a couple of times recently and telling me certain programs had stopped running. I uninstalled Soluto this morning to see if it was causing the conflicts on my PC.

I was right, after uninstalling Soluto I again tried to run ThumbGen and this time it worked. I am guessing there was a conflict there somewhere with Soluto and other programs which now has been solved. I was fairly happy all now seems to be OK once more.

Drinks was great fun on Friday night with plenty of great company, great food and cool drink. We stayed a fair bit longer than we had expected but enjoyed the evening very much. Earlier that day Trish had a great Xmas Luncheon with her Quilters Group. She arrived late for drinks and wasn't hungry or thirsty!

I had my Xmas breakup for Computer Club yesterday and again there was plenty to eat and drink. A couple of the members I help bought me a lovely pen as a thank-you gift. It was lovely!

Thunderstorms rolled through again late yesterday giving us 1/2 an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. Saturday morning had already been wet with steady rain and this morning there was a total of 50mls in the rain gauge.

I managed to get a bike ride in this morning despite the 80% humidity and temp in the mid 20's. There was some spots where there was seepage across the paths but that didn't deter me.

The swim afterwards was refreshing. The pool is quite full again and the temp of the water is around 23 degrees. This morning was hot and sunny but it is becoming more overcast now with a sprinkle of rain around. Rain and more storms are expected tonight.

51 mls Altogether

Wednesday was very cool here with one part of the state recording its lowest ever top temperature. Brisbane got to a very winter-ish 19 degrees when the average is around 30 degrees at this time of year. Don't let the blue skies in the photo fool you, we still had a couple of showers after I took this snap.

Thick clouds covered the sky with rain on and off throughout the day. The pool is full to the top again with some water draining out through the 'overflow'.

I still haven't been able to fix that small computer program on my PC. However someone else has exactly the same problem which makes me feel a little better. It will be just a minor adjustment which will most likely be fixed in the next program update.

The pool needed a bag of salt today but I knew it was getting close anyway. When we get a heap of rain and some water goes out through the overflow you lose the salt from your pool.

When the water was 'tested' a month or so ago the pool guy said it needed salt then. However the Salt Chlorinator has a built in low salt indicator and it hasn't been showing anything about the salt being low for some time. However this morning it was 'on' so the bag of salt was added.

A couple of passing showers is all we are getting today and the temp is closer to 24 degrees. I wouldn't want to swim in the pool right now as it has cooled right off. I haven't been on a bike ride for two mornings now because of the rain.

PC Won't Do What It Should!

After solving problems for everyone else I am now unable to fix something on my own PC. A couple of weeks ago I started using a program to add 'movie information sheets' to the new media player I have acquired. It has been working pretty hard and I have just about got everything up and running.

I was about to do a few more TV episodes on the media player yesterday and the program wouldn't run at all! It did nothing!

The program "Thumbgen" is what is called a 'portable' program. That means there is no need to formally install it onto your computer from a 'setup' program. It runs from its own folder but it does need something Windows things previously installed (called.NET3.5) which is already in Windows.

I jumped on the internet and found the 'Thumbgen Forum' and left my concern there in a post I wrote. This morning there is a reply from the guy who wrote the program! He wanted me to send him a copy of the log file. I did that for him this morning. I await his answer.

Meanwhile I have had trouble getting my 'old' PC to run. It just wouldn't go. The red light would come on for 10 seconds and then nothing! I decided to move the ram cards around from one slot to another. There are 4 slots and two x 1GB ram cards. I swapped them around, hooked the PC back up again and it worked. I have now installed "Thumbgen" on it and it works perfectly! I have a temporary solution to my problem!

Busy day yesterday (Sunday) with bottle washing. With 2 lots on the go I had a double bottle washing to do.

Our youngest daughter Kim has moved out of the shared flat she had been living in for over 5 years. She has decided to go out on her own and has a small 1 bedroom place in this block. It is about a 5 minute drive from her previous place. It would now be around 15 minutes walk to the main Acland St shops rather than the previous 5 or so minutes. We reckon she will be happy there. We got the photo off Google's "Street View".

We had a blustery cooler change come through yesterday. Today is a cool 24 degrees with a lot of cloud overhead. Showers should extend to rain Wednesday afternoon. We will have to wait and see though on any rainfall!

Cooling Off

After a blast of perfect swimming pool weather here, a cooler south easterly change Thursday afternoon has returned temps to the mid 20's with overnight mid to high teens.

The change came through late in the afternoon Thursday with localized heavy falls. Here we got a mere 7mls, enough to top the pool up a little, while at the Caloundra race course about 4k's away they got 29mls. Some areas of Caloundra lost power as strong winds accompanied the change while here at our place it wasn't much of an event at all.

We had the final Community Association management committee meeting on Monday evening which meant my Tuesday was busy getting the website up to date and writing letters or emails. It was Newsletter delivery day as well and I had to get out and deliver my 110 copies to local homes. Tuesday was fairly busy ... and hot.

With Christmas not too far away and our trip to Melbourne to be with the family, it is time to get my 'home brew supplies' up to date and ready for visitors who may come up in the New Year. I have two brews on the go which means double brewing, double washing and double bottling. It won't be too bad as I will be using large 1.25 litre Coca Cola bottles for the second brew. Both brews are bubbling away as I type. I will be washing heaps of bottles tomorrow.

Of course the First Test from Brisbane is on right now as well which keeps me fully occupied during the daylight hours.

A week or so ago I bought a new power board online at one of the daily 'specials' websites. It has individual switches and buttons which 'light up' when turned on. This one has a couple of USB power connectors as well for charging phones, keyboard mice etc. It has a RRP of over $120 but on special online it cost a little over $30. There is no shortage of individually switched power surge protected power points now. I especially like to 'totally' switch off my PC overnight so I find the individual switches excellent.

Trish has been busy with Stitchers and Quilters and other CACA Committee issues. She receives a couple of calls most days with issues or just a quiet chat.

Movies have been good this week. Last night we watched George Clooney in "Ides Of March". We have also seen "Albert Nobbs" and "Red Dog" this week. "Tyrannosaur" was another interesting movie as well. Most have "For Your Consideration" on them which means they are copies for judges at the Academy Awards to view prior to nominations.

I am about to get ready for Computer Club in an hour or so. I plan to be back home fairly early to again enjoy the Test Cricket on TV. There is plenty of sunshine today so we may even get a full day's play.