All Quiet On The Sunny Coast

Lovely sunny days but it is a trifle on the cool side.  It is simply sensational sitting in the sun in the 'back corner' out of the breeze though.

I have spent a great deal of time downloading stuff to watch on TV over the last few years.  It then becomes difficult to delete stuff I have seen as you never know if you want to watch it again or if anyone else wants it.  Therefore I am reluctant to delete movies.  This means I have filled up quite a bit of my hard disk drives with old movies and TV Shows.  On top of that I have most of the stuff 'backed up' as well just in case one HDD dies!

Much of Friday was spent putting on older 320GB hard disk drive I have back into service.  This has freed up some space on my major back up drive, a 2TB drive.  The extra 200+MB that I now have available gives me some extra breathing space.

I will put in 'orders' over Christmas for Gift Cards as Christmas Gifts which will allow me to purchase another large drive to store my stuff.

Both our footy teams have won this week so all is happy around the place.  Our two teams are due to meet next Friday night, and despite my side having 'the wood' on Hawthorn with 8 consecutive wins over recent years, I fear the run is about to come to a stop!

I did my bike ride around the new estate over the road this morning.  The house blocks are sure smaller which means the houses are quite close together.  You wouldn't want a neighbour who was into loud music or who has frequent parties when you see how close the new houses are together.  This seems to be the trend all over Australia right now in a move to keep prices for houses down.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Computer Club was busy yesterday.  One older couple there wanted to know about emails.  You can get emails either by the email company website or by having a program on your computer which actually downloads the email onto your computer.  I asked him how he got his emails and when he answered "On my Computer" I knew I was in for a heavy help session.

He gets them via the Yahoo website so I set Yahoo Mail up as his "Home Page" which means it is now just run Firefox and get your emails.  He wanted to know a few other things but I put those on hold as I knew we were already well into new information overload!

Some Cloud But No Rain

The bottles are washed and I have then bottled the brew.  I started soon after I got back from my ride this morning and finished by lunchtime.  In some cases it was quicker doing both stages together, I reckon I have saved around an hour.  In the middle of the two or three hours this morning, the bottles just need to 'sit' for an hour so the solution they have been washed in could do its job and sterilize.

Now everything has been cleaned and put away, the 32 bottles of newly brewed beer are stacked away where they will do their 'thing' and be very drinkable in around 4 weeks time.

I am pleased to report I believe the two hard drives are full of TV Shows and Movies.  They also have "Movie Sheets" for every episode.  Some didn't work perfectly but I just don't have the time nor the inclination to go back and manually edit them.

I even vacuumed the pool today.  Then I cleaned the filter.  I need to take the filter out and pressure clean it with the hose to wash out all the muck which has been collected.

Late yesterday afternoon Trish and I went back around to a mate's place to set him up with Usenet, a method of obtaining movies and TV Shows.  I also did a little maintenance on his PC.  I helped him setup his printer a week or so ago.  A meal at the Curry Bowl restaurant last night was excellent and that he paid for it was even better.

And it is rapidly approaching 4pm and time for a cleansing ale.  The fridge is well stacked.  Each bottle of beer costs less than 50c to make and tastes heaps better than the bought stuff.

When I buy a schooner of beer at the local Tavern for $4-60 I think I could make around 10 large bottles of my beer for that amount of money!

It is clouding over this afternoon but we expect little if any rain from it.  The temp will stay around the low 20's for the foreseeable future.

Copying!

The weather continues as it should in this part of the world.  Lovely sunny days with a coolish wind. Top temps around the low 20's and overnight around 10 or so. I am back on the bike again getting my daily 12 kilometer ride in now the rain has stopped at last.

Both our footy teams had great wins over the weekend so everyone is happy.  The Community Association has had me doing a couple of jobs as well.  I was 'forced' to a meeting at the local Tavern on Monday for lunch and a couple of 'schooners' from the owners. They are seeking the Community Association's support on extending their hours three nights per week.  I think everything will be OK and they will be allowed to open to midnight Friday and Saturday and 11pm on Thursday.

Russell and Irene's visit is less than two weeks away so I have loaded up a 1TB portable hard drive with TV Shows and movies for him.  Another lady from "Quilters" is after some TV stuff as well.  This explains the two hard disk drives currently purring away adding files on top of my PC case in the photo. I purchase the drive, fill it up with stuff and then Russ repays me the original purchase price when he gets up here.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

I have accumulated heaps of TV shows and this now gives me a good reason to re organize them on my PC.  I need it so if someone wants something I can quickly and easily put my hands on it for them.  There isn't much value in having Downton Abbey Series 2 handy if Series 1 has been hidden away in some archive somewhere!

I helped a guy setup a printer recently and he is shouting Trish and me out for a meal at the Curry Bowl tomorrow night.  He wants me to setup Newsleecher for him as well.  This is a program which enables you to download movies etc.  The 'special' deal which I found on Ozbargain gives you 1TB of download (and that is heaps!) for $40.  There is no time limit, you just download as you go until you have used the 1TB up.  I reckon that would do for 4 or 5 years!

I have a brew on as well.  I am planning to wash bottles and bottle the brew on the one day.  Then I won't have to worry about drying the bottles.  It will make Thursday a busy day but it will possibly be quicker than doing the two tasks over two separate days.

It is around 4:45 pm and well and truly passed "Beer" O'clock!

Sunny But A Cool Wind

Today we have the 'lazy' wind back, the one that is too lazy to blow around you, it just goes straight through.  The back corner of our small backyard will again be the place to be.  It is 23 there right now.

I was back on the bike this morning but cut the ride a little short.  I still have a bit of a cold with a sore throat so I didn't ride quite as far.  The wind is even icier when on the bike.  As you can see from the photos, the wattle is out adding color to the place.

Another 'brew' went on this morning and it should commence bubbling away later today.  So in next week's posts you will read about bottle washing and bottling!

Trish is at Quilters this morning and then doing a little shopping.  Dick Smith electrical store is on her list to purchase a hard disk drive to fill with movies etc for when friends Russell and Irene arrive.

I got the pressure spray out this morning and gave the bike a clean up.  With all the mud around from all the rain, it was in need of a good clean.  Here it is drying in the 'back corner'.

My footy team is on TV tonight but I am not at all confident of a win.  Trish's team Hawthorn plays in another big game tomorrow.  I will probably enjoy that one more than tonight's game.

No drinks today.  One couple has unplanned for visitors arriving today and are heading out for a meal this evening.  At our drinks session you don't need to go out afterwards for a meal!  You have usually had heaps to eat and are in no condition to drive!  The other couple have work commitments and are also unavailable.

Almost a Week Later!

I received a bit of a shock when I saw it was almost a week since my last post.  On the health front Trish has improved markedly but is still a bit clogged up with her cold.  On the other side I have become a little worse the last few days but still moving pretty well.  I got a sore throat and the rest is history.

The weather is the major topic of discussion.  It has been cloudy and wet with heavy showers sweeping through.  Fortunately most rain is over night.  Most mornings we awake to find around 10mls in the rain gauge.  I have managed only 1 bike ride in around a week because of wet roads in the morning.

The days have been OK, some clouds about but generally sunny and around 21 degrees so the washing machine has been working overtime.  Only the other day Trish managed to get all the washing dry from our recent visitors.

I have been doing help on people's computer problems and today the old 'TV" went to a new home.  We 'gave' it away.

I continue to 'play' with the settings on the new TV trying to get a better picture.  I am getting used to the new one and I am coming to realise the picture settings on the old TV were too much color and the contrast was all over the place.

The new TV has received high praise for the way it shows black.  Black is extremely difficult for TV's to show accurately.  Previously black would look a little 'washed out'.  The new TV has very black "BLACK" and this has ramifications for other settings.  But I have found a control called "Gamma" on the TV and when I lower the gamma rate, the picture brightens.

We have just finished watching Boardwalk Empire Series 1.  I have series 2 to look at as well.  We enjoyed the series.

We are getting into the swing of hosting visitors again as friends Russell and Irene are visiting us from down south early in August.  Russ has been a convert to using the media player and is enjoying TV Series in particular. 

I am to purchase a 1TB portable drive for him and fill it with TV shows and movies.  I see in today's Junk Mail that Dick Smith has a 1TB portable USB3 drive for $119 which is about as cheap as you can get it nowadays.

What Is New Around The Thomas Household

Trish isn't moving too well at all, she is all clogged up with a head cold but is battling on.  She is at Quilters this morning but I had to convince her she should go.  I have a bit of a sniffle too, all following on from our recent visitors one of whom (James) had a heavy cold when he first arrived up here.

The weather is 'different'.  It is extremely humid but there is a lot of cloud and showers throughout the day.  Today 'everything' is wet!  Even under the pergola outside is wet despite no rain getting on it.

Yesterday was flat out around here.  I had the use of a small utility to pick up my TV which arrived in the shop on Wednesday.  The weather was looking ominous and I wasn't sure the ute (a small Proton Jiminy I think) would be big enough to carry the box.

It would have been a tight fit and I felt I was being silly rather than pay the delivery fee and have it delivered (which I did).

Then Terry the plumber turned up to fit both sets of taps, the hand basins in the en-suite and the bathroom.  He was having a problem with his laptop so I worked on that while he fitted the taps for us.  I got the laptop to work a little better and he is now able to get on the net.  The TV arrived just as he was leaving.

Terry stayed behind and helped us set it up.  Great having another pair of hands to help with lifting furniture and putting the TV together.  Everything seems to be OK but the problem I had feared with using headphones became a reality.  I have cut my losses and now have connected the headphones via the TV rather than the Amp.  The amp now will only be used for music and films which have great sound.  When the sound is like that, I don't wear my headphones anyway.

This morning I have been cutting up boxes and breaking polystyrene packaging into smaller pieces.  The cardboard (the box was 6' x 3') will go to the tip where I can dispose of it free as it is recycling.

We are in for cool and wet weather this afternoon and tomorrow.  It only got down to around 18 overnight but will be a cool 22 today.  Still with drinks this afternoon the weather won't be a problem.

Visitors Head Home ... Eventually

Kate, Arj and family got away late Monday afternoon to catch their 7:40pm flight from Brisbane back to Melbourne.  As the last flight of the day, any delays from earlier on mount up making the last flight a difficult one to time exactly.  This was the case Monday night.  The 7:40 departure was delayed for a couple of hours meaning they didn't fly into Melbourne until close on Midnight.  Fortunately the kids slept through much of the flight and the drive back to Berwick.

It was sad to see them go.

That meant Tuesday was an R/R day for everyone.  The weather has turned wet and showery again.  Most showers tend to be overnight leaving us with cloudy days. 8ml in the rain gauge the other night and another 9 there last night.

I managed a bottling yesterday which meant another little chore was out of the way.

Trish and I have been watching a TV series based on Ken Follet's book, "The Pillars of The Earth".  It was a bit of fun with heaps of action and many twists and turns.  It is set in 12 Century Britain and follows the building of a cathedral at Kingsbridge and the turbulent history of the time.  It was 8 episodes long and we finished Episode 8 around 10:15 last night.

Trish is off to Stitchers this morning and later I will pop around to Ian and Kerrie's home to do some computer/downloading stuff.


The special price on the bottom of the range Tuner/Amp I was looking at is no longer available at JB HiFi.  I had made inquiries on the capability of the unit to do what I wanted, i.e. add headphones.  It seems this cheaper model should have been able to do it but there was no guarantee.  There would still be a need to have dual audio connections, both via HDMI (see below) and RCA (see above left). The one I was looking at was "OK" but would have required a little manipulating.  I will keep what I have.

I have already apologized to Arj.

My new TV should be available any time now for me to collect.  However with wet weather forecast for the next few days I may not be able to pick it up until early next week when the weather (showers) clears up. I am using a friend's 'Ute' so I need fine weather (or a break in the showers).  Late Friday and all day Saturday should both be very wet.

Visitors Continue To Enjoy Sunshine

Kate, Arj and family continue to enjoy themselves in the sunshine.  We did experience a light shower or two on Saturday and another 5mls of rain overnight Sunday but generally the skies remain lovely and blue  It is around 20 degrees at the moment but around midday it is 25 in the back corner out of the wind.

They are all checking out Maleny today, a small hinterland town with some lovely views.  Meanwhile I continue to investigate Tuner/Amps online.  Arj has decided he will take my Yamaha Amp to replace his unit which is playing up.  My unit has Zone 2 enabling audio to be played into a second room.  Arj has a 'sound' mate who has checked it out and says it would do the job for him.

I will replace it with a bottom of the range Pioneer Tuner Amp but it will have all HDMI connectors which mean we can rid of a couple of boxes and all the associated wires which currently surround the old TV.  The problem is my headphones and the need to have dual connections because the best sound is delivered digitally while the headphones I have are analog.  And therein lies the problem.

I didn't get to Computer Club yesterday because we had visitors.  As Kate and Arj have discovered, there is heaps of footy on Pay TV at the moment.  Arj reckons it is OK but Kate isn't so pleased.

I got bottles washed today and they are drying in the sunshine.  I was advised to use a little "rinse aid" in the rinse water to help them dry quickly.  It seems to be working well.

More Sunny Skies

The sky is blue and sunny but there is a real hint of 'briskness' about the wind.  The kids still find time to hurtle around our court on scooters wearing T-Shirts so it can't be too bad.  We are hoping for 20 degrees today.  It remains cold overnight.

James continues to have fits of coughing which hopefully he takes home with him and doesn't leave any cases here at our home!

Today they are off to Aussie World which has heaps of kids rides and all at a fairly economical price.  Hopefully it won't be too crowded and they won't have to queue for rides.  Tonight there is talk of the Tavern for tea then me and the kids to go home after the meal leaving the others for Trivia.  It is $10 Pizza and Pasta night at the Tavern.

Kate And Family

Kate, Arj and the two kids, Charli and James arrived almost right on time at 7:10pm Monday evening at Brisbane Airport.  Traffic around the airport at that time was extremely busy.  A 5 minute drive from where Trish parked now took almost 20 minutes.  But all worked out OK in the end.  A quick trip to "Maccas" on the drive up saw them arrive just after 9pm.

James had another 'cold' so was feeling a little miserable.

A bit of a play around home, a walk to the park and the playground finished with a trip to the Bakery for cake filled in Tuesday morning.

The pool was again the highlight with the kids getting into their bathers and a little play 'on the steps' which was enough for them.  The water was just too cold.  The Lego came out too and despite the top temp being only 18 degrees, as usual it was much warmer in the backyard out of the wind. The temp gauge said it was 24 in the back corner.

Charli and James made sure the pool was clean and helped me to vacuum it

Trish and the others headed to the beach for an hour or so in the afternoon which left me free to update the BeCA website following Monday's Management Committee Meeting.

After a frosty morning on Wednesday (around 6 degrees) the sun was out again.  Trish headed off to Stitchers, Kate and Arj went to Eumundi Market which left me to babysit the kids.  While they played out the front on their scooters in the sunshine I put a brew on.  Then it was time to jump on the scooters and back to the park (and the bakery) again.  James was feeling the pinch a little after the trip to the playground and the bakery so he adjourned to Mum and Dad's bedroom for a lie down and to watch cartoons which I was able to stream over the wireless network to the 32" TV there.

Charli has requested two sheets of paper so she can draw in the lounge room.  She is singing away to herself while James tries not to fall asleep while watching the cartoons lying on the double bed in the spare room.  I could do with a little lie down myself!  Pretty tough work keeping up with two little ones on scooters at my age.

Needless to say there hasn't been a bike ride yet as I am kept busy 'acquiring cartoons' to watch.

The Sun Re Appears

Around midday Friday the clouds had parted and the sun showed itself again.  Saturday was perfect, around 23 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky while the photo shows what were were awoken to this morning (Sunday).  It is around 12 degrees just after 8 am but the thermometer in the back corner in the sun is registering high 20's.

With Saturday being the first dry and warm day for almost a week, the washing machine received a good workout.  My morning at the Computer Club on Saturday was busy but enjoyable.  One of our drinking couple's is away in Sydney catching up with family, the other has grandkids to look after so we missed drinks on Friday.

We had the two toilet cisterns changed on Friday morning and I eventually bottled the recent brew I had put on.

So as you can see it has been busy.

The next two days will see us getting ready to host Kate, Arj and the two kids when the arrive to stay a week with us.  They fly into Brisbane around 7pm Monday.  The flight arrival time isn't the best but the fares Kate got some time ago more than compensate for that.  Trish will drive to Brisbane to collect them.  I have a BeCA Committee meeting to chair but I should be home by 8:30pm.

The weather is expected to be fine but a little cooler with brisk south westerly winds blowing for the week they are here.  Top temps will be around 20 degrees.

I will head off for my first bike ride in more than a week shortly.  The lawns will then get a mow after they have dried out from around 5" of rain during the week.

This afternoon it is back to the TV and the footy.  I am hoping my team can do as well as Trish's team did on Friday night with a great win.

My new TV delivery is still up to 2 weeks away.  Panasonic are due to receive the shipment interstate on Monday.  Then it is a 10 to 14 day wait until the model I want is shipped to the Sunshine Coast ready for me to collect.