Warming Up

The saga surrounding the back tyre on my bike looks like it is now over. Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought a decent tyre for the back wheel. The new tyre is now on the new bike and the old tyre and tube will go back to the 'old' bike just for emergency purposes.

Because the problem is the back tyre it can get messy trying to remove the wheel with the dirty, greasy and oily chain getting in the way. The bike was still upside down this morning just to make sure that the tyre didn't go flat overnight causing me to take the whole wheel off again. I completed a 13 k bike ride this morning without a problem.

Foolishly on previous occasions I had removed the back wheel under the pergola. Bits of oil and grease sprinkled on the pavers so this morning I was hard at work with the degreaser cleaning the pavers. Then I took another 30 minutes or so to give the front lawn a mow. It has thickened up remarkably since I fed it a couple of weeks ago and is looking quite good at the moment.

With plenty of fine hot weather forecast for the next few days the gazebo has gone back up again and the pool is taking a little more of my time. The pool water remains a little brisk but is certainly refreshing after a bike ride.

Trish is on a shopping morning with a friend this morning. They have headed to North Lakes around 30 minutes south of here for a look around.

The new Bellvista Tavern 'may' be open tomorrow for the first time. If not tomorrow then a Thursday opening is looking good.

Sunshine Returns To The Sunshine Coast

The rain stopped overnight Friday but we have had a few showers since. So far this month we have had 352 mls a little over 14" in the old scale. Despite the rain being limited to showers, there were still 19mls in the gauge yesterday morning and another 3 this morning.

I won't go into too many details regarding trying to get the 'new' tyre on my bike but I am beginning to run out of glue for my puncture repair kit. What was a 'new' tube Monday of last week is now sporting 4 patches, including one which has been replaced. Eventually I grabbed a tyre off the 'old' bike and put it on easily and without any problems. It will get me by in the short term.

With all the rain though bike riding isn't much fun. With seepage and pools covering some of the paths you come home quite wet from spray. This photo is by far the worst spot but give it another day or so it will be all gone. With the wet weather and now warm each day the grass almost grows as you watch it.

Plenty of cricket and footy over the weekend on TV which kept me busy.

Computer club was hectic again but I seem to be able to satisfy most people's needs. Trish is busy this morning helping to tidy up the "Stitcher's Library".

I am helping a guy out with his WDTV Live SMP player on Wednesday morning. However I think he has 'wireless' broadband which would mean he can't access the internet with his media player and therefore may miss out on some of its benefits. We will wait and see.

Wednesday night we are off to the RSL as there is a Bee Gees tribute night on. It is 'booked out' but we will see if we can fluke a couple of seats. We will give the great small Chinese Restaurant in Caloundra a try again before adjourning to the RSL.

Cooler and Much Wetter

Tuesday morning was probably some of the worst weather we have experienced since moving to Queensland over 10 years ago. It was overcast, hot and extremely humid. It didn't matter what you did, you still felt uncomfortably hot, sticky and lethargic. Then soon after lunch the rain started and really hasn't stopped since.

Even when the rain first started it was till hot outside. We had the air conditioner going with heavy showers of rain going on all about us. Since then we have had over 140 mls with up to 200 mls more forecast in the next 36 hours. And it has gone from Hot, Hot, Hot to Cool, Cool, Cool!

Trish checked my rear bike tyre out after the problems I had with the front one. It too was bulging in places so it was up for replacement. I grabbed an old tyre off one of the other bikes here but I managed to pinch and puncture the tube while putting it on. It is a rear tyre this time and so much harder to get at. The local bike store wanted to charge me $25 for new tyre while K-Mart would do one for $10. Guess which one I bought?

I repaired the puncture and after some problems put the new tyre on the rear rim. Wouldn't you guess it, I had pinched and punctured the tube again! I wasn't happy. However third time lucky and now all has been restored again to prime working condition.

All I need to happen now is for the rain to stop!

We have been watching Series 4 of "Breaking Bad" all this week and finished the Final 13th episode last night. I really enjoyed it. I had a nasty tummy upset late in January and had a minor relapse with exactly the same thing on Wednesday night. It wasn't as severe as last time but still had me out of bed for 20 minutes at 2 am Wednesday morning.

I have finished my second course of heavy anti-biotics and all the dizziness has disappeared. I remain sniffly though so this cold has been hanging around for 6 weeks or so now. The nasal spray stuff I am on will fix it I have been assured but it may take up to 6 weeks to do so. The spray is around $40 a pop but our GP got me a couple of 'samples' to try.

Yesterday we travelled to the RSL for a "Students' Luncheon". The RSL has a training program for young 'wanna' be cooks and and waiting staff. It is around $20 for a 2-course table service meal. We gave it a try yesterday with friends Ian and Kerrie. The 'lunch' saw us get back home from Ian and Kerrie's just before 6pm. We both had $15 birthday vouchers from the RSL. This saved us a few dollars and ensured we had a great time.

I am catching up on websites. I have added an extra page to my Movies, How To website and I have been busy with the local Community Association website as well. My forums I like to visit can be time consuming providing advice as well.

Trish is at Quilters this morning and we don't have a drinks session planned for today as everyone is away. I will be watching the cricket and footy in front of the telly!

Hot, Hot, Hot.

It may be around 32 this afternoon but with the humidity it feels somewhat more than that. The house is all locked up trying to keep the heat out and there is little respite with no sea breeze which is unusual for this part of the world.

We expect another hot one tomorrow and then storms etc to give us a couple of cooler days. You could see it was hot up here if you watched any of the cricket from Brisbane on Sunday where a couple of players were effected by the hot weather.

I did get another bike ride in though, you can check it out here. Almost 15k's. I got home just as the front tyre was going flat. I had to walk the last 50 metres.

That is two front wheel punctures in the last two weeks. I repaired the latest puncture and thought there may be something inside the tyre causing these to happen. A closer inspection showed the tyre has had it. It isn't a good photo but the bright bits you can see are rays of sunlight through the tyre!

That sure explained why I had two punctures within the last couple of weeks, I was probably lucky I didn't have even more. I have remembered all about mending punctures now.

They were having a clean out of bike tyres at K-Mart well over a year ago so luckily I grabbed a couple at bottom basement prices. I should be fine for tomorrow's ride. You can see where I rode to today from two of the photos to the left!

Gee it is pretty down on Pumicestone Passage.

I bottle washed Sunday morning and I will bottle tomorrow. In this humid weather that will be hot work!

When we had our recent phone problems the Tech from Telstra wanted to check our indoor phone points. One is right underneath the "Office Table" and almost impossible to get to. I wrote about this in a post on February 8th. The big clean up has commenced. This is my Office Table now! The bins are full and we need to make a couple of trips to the Salvos to move some stuff on!

We will move furniture around when the weather cools off a little more, possibly in a month or so! Moving the furniture around should make accessing the phone point a little easier if required.

It is about time to head to the pool again!

New Flight Plans

Trish is flying to Melbourne for a couple of weeks late in April. As Tiger Airways are still not flying into the Sunshine Coast Airport, we tend to travel when it is suitable in and out of Brisbane

When booking her flight some time ago she thought she would give the new airline "Australia Airways" a go to see what they were like.

Overnight Australia Airways went into Receivership! Documentation indicates that as we paid via a credit card there are avenues available for a refund. We will be investigating that later today.

Trish has already booked replacement flights this morning with Tiger Airways out of Brisbane and the cost is actually cheaper than when she had book with Australia Airways.

I have bought myself a 'new' weather station for my birthday. The old (now retired) weather station was purchased off eBay years ago! I paid around $65 for it back then. It has been in use for a few years now and the 'remote' sensor for outside temps wasn't working too well.

The new one was $38 on eBay and it arrived today. It is now setup and working. It will be interesting to compare temperatures, especially outdoors because I always felt the old weather station's outside temp reading was a bit inflated.

We have lots of roadworks around the estate right now with works being done on the main road into the estate. We have a school here which caters for 1250 kids and most come in by car. You can imagine what it is like when the kids arrive for school and the one and only road in has extensive roadworks going on.

In its wisdom the Council decided to carry out its roadworks here this morning as well and decided to redirect traffic back around by the school during school morning drop off time. The roads were gridlocked! I have been busy as President of the local Community Association to see what is happening and try to get the left hand to know what the right hand is doing!

You can read about it HERE.

Political Spin

I thought this was a good one:

Judy Rudd an amateur genealogy researcher in south east Queensland, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that ex-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s great-great uncle, Remus Rudd, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Melbourne in 1889. Both Judy and Kevin Rudd share this common ancestor.

The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows at the Melbourne Gaol.

On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription: 'Remus Rudd horse thief, sent to Melbourne Gaol 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Melbourne-Geelong train six times. Caught by Victoria Police Force, convicted and hanged in 1889.'

So Judy recently e-mailed ex-Prime Minister Rudd for information about their great-great uncle, Remus Rudd.
Believe it or not, Kevin Rudd's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:

"Remus Rudd was famous in Victoria during the mid to late 1800s.
His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Melbourne-Geelong Railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the Victoria Police Force. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honour when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed."

NOW that’s how it's done, folks!

How’s that for POLITICAL SPIN?

Read our latest news in the post below!

Wednesday And All Is Well

There isn't much to write about so I will keep it brief. The weather the last couple of evenings has been threatening but the storm clouds seem to bypass us. The weather continues with temps in the low 30's and humidity around 65%+.

The last day or so the wind has swung around to the south. We still have the warm temps but the humidity is down to under 50% thus making life very comfortable.

The photo left was taken just now at around 3:30pm. The top figure is the outside temp while the lower figure is the current humidity reading. You can also spot the date and the current time.

Click on both photos for a larger view, then click on the cross in the top right hand corner to return to this page.

As usual, Valentine's Day came and went!

My middle ear infection has never fully cleared up since I first had it 9 months ago. I again went back to the doctor and this time received some extra strong anti-biotics. If you go back to HERE you will see the strong tablets I was on back then which made me quite ill.

It seems that now, despite being on even stronger tablets of the same type and as I am not nearly as ill as I was back in May 2011, I manage to handle these tablets quite OK. I do feel a bit woozy for an hour or so after taking one but if I have something to eat I seem to be able to handle these ones much better.

Hopefully these tablets will clear the infection right up once and for all.

Trish was at a meeting Monday afternoon for the Arts Centre, she was out yesterday to do a reconnoiter for a bus trip the ladies will do later, today is Stitchers and Ladies' Cards in the afternoon. She has Tourist Info Centre on Thursday morning and Friday is Quilters. Later on Friday we have Friday afternoon drinks!

No wonder Valentine's Day came and went!

Oh, and it is my birthday on Friday!

Halfway Through The Last Month Of Summer

The summer has been humid when compared to others. On my little thermometer in the backyard we have been getting to around 33 degrees the last couple of days (I think this is probably a couple of degrees above what the actual temperature is) and humidity into the mid 60's. We continue to get the summer sea breeze which usually comes in from the north east around 1pm or 2 pm and drops the temperature by several degrees.

We are noticing that sunrise is now around 5:30 am compared to 4:45 am. It is getting dark around 6:15 pm, all signs that summer is on its way out again for another year.

I rode again this morning and got back to a 27.5 degree pool. It was wonderful. Everyone was away on Friday so Trish and I had drinks watching the one day cricket match from Perth on our own.

I had computer club yesterday and was again helping out with email problems, giving very basic advice on smart phones, helping two different ladies connect their laptops to the internet via their wireless dongles and helping another copy paste from Excel into Word.

There was a celebration for the first blocks sold in the new estate (Bells Reach) by the developer Stockland yesterday. As the president of BeCA I was invited to attend. I caught up with some of the heavies and it seems we may be able to do something on road signage to assist visitors to the estate to find their way out! This estate is a real rabbit warren and difficult to navigate for the new visitor.

It is now a week since the phone connection was repaired and all seems to be going well.

Last night we watched "J Edgar", Clint Eastwood's movie about J Edgar Hoover. It is a long movie but it was an interesting story. Not heaps of action but still quite interesting for those of us who didn't know a lot about the man.

Then we watched another movie called "Tower Heist" which had some good actors in it. After it finished we decided it was a waste of time to watch.

This Time, Heaps Of Drops

We didn't get a drop of rain Tuesday evening from an advancing line of storm clouds but last night we received just under an inch of rain in less than 30 minutes. The pool is full, the garden and lawns have been watered and today it is warm, sticky and mainly sunny.

The gazebo is back up again and everything is great! Later today the pool will again be nudging the very high 20's. This morning it was a little over 26 degrees.

There was 26 mls in the rain gauge this morning!

I did well over 12 k's on my bike ride with my new "Aldi" bike helmet. It is a much tighter fit than the 'old' one and certainly feels a lot more secure.

We Didn't Get A Drop!

Late Tuesday afternoon the picture to the left shows a series of storms approaching our place in Caloundra. Some places received up to 35mls in less than hour. Click on the photo for a larger view.

Trish and I had hurriedly pulled the gazebo down to ensure it wasn't destroyed in a storm. By the time the storm line hit our place there wasn't a drop of rain. When it did arrive it felt like a Melbourne cool change, the temperature suddenly dropped and the ceiling fan went from 3 down to 1!

Trish is in to a tidying up stage of our time here. "My" office will be reorganized. One thing we did learn from the recent phone problems was just how difficult it was to access the phone point in the room. Before we can move things we need to clear out stuff which is no longer required and tidy up some of the garage shelves so things still required from the office can be moved there. It won't be done quickly right now as the weather is just too hot at the moment to spend too much time working hard.

We enjoyed another lunch at the Mapleton Hotel with friends Ian and Kerrie. Those of you have been here with us will know exactly the place we mean. It was a lovely meal in exquisite surroundings with a masterful view of the Sunshine Coast.

Another recent purchase from China arrived today. It is a stand for my phone which goes on my bike. It would be handy from time to time and will enable me to carry a phone with me when out and about on the bike. Usually I keep my phone in my top pocket but none of my riding gear (T-Shirts etc) has a top pocket!

It would also be handy for my next "MapMyRide" trip. It looks like my bike will 'fly' now.

Aldi have some bike riding specials on right now and I am expecting a new bike helmet when Trish gets home.

Today is Stitchers in the morning and then Trish and some friends head off for card playing in the afternoon. It is a day Trish really enjoys. She also expects to be elected the President of the "Stitchers" group at this morning's meeting.

I had my usual ride this morning and then hit the pool for a swim. At around 7:30 this morning it was 27.5 degrees in the pool! With today being hot and sunny (with a possible thunderstorm again) the pool should be over 30 degrees late today.

Phone Line Repair

After I had just returned home from Computer Club Trish received a call on her mobile saying that Telstra were parked out the front of our home. Our repair job wasn't due to done till Thursday but here it was being done early Saturday afternoon. The guy quickly checked the repair carried out by the earlier Tech and then did some testing.

He announced the problem was definitely inside the house. We went straight to the wall plate in the kitchen and took the plug apart. Corrosion had built up in the plug and was causing a short circuit. He replaced the plug/plate and was on his way. Before he had gone too far I was back out the front flagging him down again.

The cordless extension phone had no dial tone. He popped back in and quickly declared the wallplate filter/splitter was dead as well. The wires connecting into the Telstra wall plug from the filter/splitter were black indicating more corrosion. The pic is exactly the same as the wall plug I replaced. The connector wires inside the clear plastic plug were black!

It was less than 12 months old so I got my money for it back under warranty. I bought a new one and since then things have been pretty good. Hopefully all is now OK.

The weather is again sunny but quite sticky. Today should get into the high 20's or even nudge 30 degrees. Tomorrow morning may well be bottle washing time!

Phone Fault Returns

We don't get a lot of incoming calls to our landline but we did get a couple yesterday. After receiving the calls we noticed the internet started to play up and the router indicated a phone was left off the hook again. Plugs were pulled out, routers were re started and eventually we got it all back together and going again.

It seems the landline phone (and we have two of those) do not record when they have been hung up. If you hang up and then pick up again, you get an engaged signal.

We tried several tests and each time the fault was replicated. However when you answer the two phones connected to the Voip system (and this system picks up regular incoming Telstra calls as well) everything works fine. The voip system has a 'base phone' near the PC and a second cordless phone in the lounge room.

I contacted Telstra Faults again this morning and even then the call to them dropped out while lodging the fault. To get the wall phone phone to 'hang up' I had to disconnect the phone from the wall plug and then replug it in! Eventually the fault was recorded and it seems we have to wait until Thursday of next week to have it attended to. The internet works 'fairly well' and with the voip phones still working we can still receive our incoming calls.

We aren't too badly disadvantaged, as the system as it stands right now without the regular phones connected works 99% of the time. If the internet does drop out, it seems to reconnect again soon afterwards.

Early morning showers means I don't get to have my bike ride this morning. Trish has Quilters this morning and then we have drinks later on this afternoon. Again tonight we have the T/20 cricket matches on again.

Sorting Out Some More Phone Connection Issues

Our phone line seems to be working fine since the tech re connected it after the wires just fell apart in his hands. After it was all over, the phone was working fine but I noticed a couple of lights stayed on on my Billion Modem/Router that weren't on previously. We have VOIP phone calls connected here for outgoing calls. Voip phone calls use the computer part of the phone line and not the regular telephone carrier section. This frees us from call charges and allows us to make calls nationwide to landlines for 10c a call, not time restricted. We can call Melbourne landlines for 10c and speak for 2 hours with this service. Our modem router has voip built in.

At one stage the Voip wouldn't connect at all. And the modem/router told me that a phone was not 'hung up' even though every phone in the house was 'on the hook'. Our Voip service has never been perfect and sometimes you would go to answer an incoming call on one of the cordless phones but all the other phones in the house would continue to ring! A quick hang up and re answer fixed the problem.

To solve this problem it was suggested I get into the modem/router and adjust the onhook/offhook settings which I did. This improved the problem but didn't fix it 100%. I am now guessing that we have never had a 100% perfect phone connection at the house. Now we do have a perfect connection and I now needed to readjust the onhook/offhook settings so the "Line" light on the router would go out and the voip would connect.

I actually have two modem/routers. I swapped them over yesterday afternoon and I am now using my DLink model. Everything is working fine. The second modem/router (above left) doesn't have to have onhook/offhook settings adjusted, it does it automatically.

I did a different bike ride yesterday and you can check it out here. The MapMyRide website works better with Internet Explorer! My ride this morning was a little shorter than previous rides because the sky was a little threatening (see left). We have a blustery north easterly wind today blowing humid air in off the Pacific Ocean bringing light showers. I just made it home in time to miss a short sharp shower of rain. Earlier in the day I tipped another 4mls out of the rain gauge from overnight showers.

The gazebo is back up again in the back yard. I did it as a one man operation and it took me a good 20 minutes to erect on my own. You would do it half the time with two people. The weather looks pretty reasonable for the next week or so; good for the gazebo.

The pool was 27 degrees yesterday afternoon. After the bike ride yesterday, I put up the gazebo, mowed the lawns and then had a swim. It was just wonderful. A later afternoon swim saw me relaxing in my floating chair with stubby of home brew in hand! Very pleasant!

Speaking of home brew, I put another "Black Ale" on this morning. Bottle washing and a bottling will follow over the next week. The photo shows the mix before I add any water. The mix is made up of 300gms of corn syrup, dextrose and malt along with 150 gms of Very Brown Sugar.

Trish is at the Tourist Info Centre again this morning and isn't due home till after 1 pm.

Remember you can click on all photos for a larger view.