Busy Morning, Plenty of Sunshine!

I was up and at it around 6:30 am this morning.  Any expected thunderstorms last night fizzled out before arriving on the Sunshine Coast.  Brisbane had some very light showers but we missed out completely.  It took around 25 minutes to top the pool up from our domestic water supply.  I had been hoping a thunderstorm would have done that for me but no luck there.

I rode over 14k's this morning.  We are expecting around 5 hot days in a row now, today being the first.  Therefore I tend to get any jobs done early in the day when it is a little cooler.

The photo sums it all up really.  I put the gazebo up this morning to give us some 'permanent' shade during the warmer days. The gazebo also adds some shade over the pool later in the afternoon.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

Then I did a bottling, you can see the empty brew keg drying out in the sunshine on the new concrete.  It doesn't take long to dry at this time of year.

When all that was done I spent around 20 minutes just soaking under the umbrella in the pool in the shade.  The pool is 27 degrees this morning so no wonder the water evaporates!  I even had a quick before bed swim last night, just to cool off before falling asleep.

Last night we watched the first four episodes of Series 2 of "The Tudors". There are 6 episodes remaining, 4 more tonight then the last two after the First Day of the Third Test from Perth tomorrow night!

More Sizzle

It has been warm and sunny up here the last few days.  It is 'normal' for my morning swim after a bike ride for the pool to be around 26 degrees nowadays.  If I have another swim later on it is usually around 28 or 29 degrees.  The one downside is evaporation and as we have had no follow up rain from the couple of inches we got 10 days ago, I may need to top it up tomorrow if the promised thunderstorms do not arrive tonight.

The car is all fixed.  The sensor has been replaced and it now has new tyres all round.  It has been serviced and ready to take us to Melbourne mid December.

We had our final Community Association Committee Meeting on Monday.  Wives and husbands joined us for nibblies and drinks and we enjoyed each other's company.  We eventually arrived home before midnight.

The big drama came yesterday when the Community Association website went down. We pay all costs for the website but Stockland had not passed on a renewal notice for the bellvista.com.au domain name.  Therefore when it expired, the website ceased to exist.  Some frantic phone calls to Sydney and a quick EFT cash transfer had all well again by late yesterday afternoon.

As another hiccup, a product I ordered from China has not arrived.  I sent them off an email this morning.  It is less than $6 in value so it isn't a major drama.  I expect they will repost it or give me a refund.  Unfortunately when it does arrive we will be in Melbourne, not ideal but can't be helped.

Trish is at Stitchers today and I have 'washed' bottles ready for a bottling tomorrow.  They are predominately 'new' bottles, so only required a quick rinse.  What can take around 45 minutes took less than 10 today!  It being so hot outside, they dried quickly.

A Sewing Machine repair guy is due after lunch to look at Trish' s aging sewing machine.  I think she will get herself a new one as a "Christmas Present"! I am in the market for a 3TB external hard disk drive to back up all my movies and TV Shows.

A Gorgeous Spring Day

And there are a few more delightful days to come.  A sea-breeze, around 28 degrees, the pool is even warmer and the forecast is for more to come.

I am now completely over the 'procedure' I had on Tuesday.  It did take a day or two to get back to 100% but everything is fine now.  I am 'back on the beer' and enjoying the cricket on TV, especially as Australia is doing well right now.  Hopefully tomorrow (Monday) the last day will see Australia win the match.

I have been bike riding every day and now I have even discarded the 'cable ties' attached to my helmet to keep magpies at bay.  I have added 'Little Mountain Common" back onto my route and I do around 13k's per day.

I must admit the bike rides exceptionally well since it had the service earlier this week.  It was money well spent.  Even little creatures like this one are enjoying the warmer sunny weather.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

My sister's youngest boy Beau's partner Jess is a Mooloolaba girl but lives in Victoria.  They had a wedding to get to here on the Sunshine Coast so planned some time up here, allowing Beau to book in to have a procedure carried out on his eye.  Jess has since picked up a new job on Mornington Peninsular and was unable to get to the wedding.  So Beau is up here on his own recuperating after the small operation and staying with Jess' family.

Beau popped in to watch the cricket with me yesterday which was great.  He is also very keen on my home brew.  Needless to say we had a great time together.  Therefore I gave the Computer Club a 'miss'.

Trish is doing a two day "Workshop" this weekend so I relax in front of the TV, or pop into the pool for a quick swim and later endeavour to keep my hydration levels up!

Hardly a cloud in the sky and just beautiful today.  More top temperatures around 28 degrees are expected for most of this week and then cooler sea-breezes during the afternoons.

Life is tough!

Update

The cricket starts on TV shortly for the 2nd day of the Adelaide Test so this post will be quick.

As I have said earlier, things are geared towards our car trip to Melbourne in a few weeks.  The "Check" light has come on in the car.  Cars are so 'computer' centred nowadays it could be anything,  As the car was going in for a service yesterday I got the guys to check the light out as well.  Turns out it is the fourth sensor used to check the engine emissions and to adjust fuel mix for greater fuel economy.  The sensor has stopped working properly.  A 15 minute job to install a replacement but $250 to buy the new sensor.

It goes in on Monday for the new sensor and hopefully the 2 new tyres will go on on Tuesday.

The service people also reported a rumble noise from the back of the car, most likely tyres but it could be rear wheel bearings.  I guess I will know more after the new tyres go on.

I have pretty crook ears but I have heard that sound for the last few years and just put it down to tyres.  Trish doesn't hear it.  Therefore I am 90% sure it will be tyres.

Friends Ian and Kerrie are heading to Sydney for the weekend so we went to the little Chinese in the main street for a meal together last night.  The fish with ginger and shallots was extremely tasty with enough ginger flavour, the salt and pepper calamari was as good as any we have had and the satay chicken wasn't too bad at all. This was all preceded with San Choy Bow which was a great way to start the meal. At $25 a head it was a delightful meal.

We made some inquiries regarding hokkien fried rice which they said they could do for us if we wanted.  That is a dish Trish and I will save for a trip to this restaurant on our own.

I bottled my Melbourne Black brew into Coca Cola bottles this morning ready for the trip down south.

My tummy is taking a few days to settle down after Tuesday, I guess it is because this time I am that little bit older.

All OK

I managed to lift myself up from the loo long enough to get to Caloundra Private Hospital for my Top N Tail this morning.  A small polyp was removed, nothing too scary and I am not due back there for another three years.

All in all I am happy with that. My tummy continues to rumble from the activity this morning, I am not brave enough to pass wind though!

I put my bike in for a 'service'.  The handle grips had gone 'sticky' with the heat and humidity here and I thought it was time to replace the brake rubbers.  A little over $100 to have it all done, service and replace the parts.  I can get a new bike 'on special' for $300!

The car goes in for its pre Melbourne service on Thursday.  All it now needs is another two tyres on the rear. Trish went to the Physio this morning regarding her shoulder.  She came home a little more enthusiastic with the news the Physio thought she could do the shoulder some good.  We hope so.

A gorgeous day today, around 28 degrees and a lovely breeze blowing in from the north east off the ocean.  No need for ceiling fans today, just open the windows and the doors and enjoy the sub-tropical weather!

Back on the bike tomorrow morning, back into the pool.  Most likely I will be bottling on Thursday!

Some Murmurings

There are a few murmurings around right now, everything isn't quite plain sailing and I am off solid food for 36 hours.  Of course I am talking about my top n tail 'operation' which I am due to have tomorrow around lunch time.  I took several tablets yesterday afternoon.  I am due for several more tablets in around an hour and then at 3:30, the sachet of "Prep"!  Then the murmurings will move to become actions!

I am to live on strained "Cup Of Soup" as well as jelly for both lunch and my evening meal today!  It will be great when it is all over soon after lunch tomorrow.

We have had our first decent rain for around 4 months.  We had 22mls overnight Saturday and another 36mls last night.  The last time we had better falls than this was back in late June!

The pool is full, the gardens are watered and the lawn is returning to green albeit slowly! The bike went in for a service this morning as well because I am 'out of action' from bike riding for a day or so.

It took some time with the rain yesterday but my bottles are ready to fill with Home Brew to take down south with us. The wet weather made them difficult to get dry.

Some of the plastic "PET" bottles I have been using with my home brew are around 10 years old now and have been in constant use.  The vast majority of them no longer have their original tops, they now have Coca Cola tops which last superbly! Some are looking 'tired' and no longer new and clear.

Therefore I have decided to 'update' my bottle collection.  I have around 10 dozen plastic bottles in use, some of which are 'relatively' new.  They all have dates on them so I am going to remove all the older bottles as I go. I reckon I will have around 90 which need swapping over.

I got a $45 credit left at the Home Brew shop from someone I helped with their laptop.  I added $10 and bought 60 new bottles which I brought home this morning.

Now as I drink my beers I will toss the older bottles out and just keep the newer ones. I reckon I will need around 3 more boxes of 15 new bottles per box to completely update the collection!

Computer Club was great on Saturday.  I was able to help most people out and those I couldn't I referred onto the resident Computer Technician. 

And we had Ian and Kerrie over for drinks on Saturday afternoon which was very pleasant as well.  Their daughter is getting married in Sydney in a couple of weeks so they are making flying visit south next weekend to do the right thing and attend the Buck's and Hen's Nights.  They fly down on Friday and return Monday!

There has been plenty of One Day Domestic Cricket on TV which I have been watching. I watched the Victorians chase down 351 runs (on a small ground) yesterday afternoon and win with around 20 balls still to go.  I was an extravaganza of big hitting.

After the rain it is back to being hot and sticky today.  We are expecting low 30's and I hope the pool warms up quickly after all the rain it has taken the last couple of days.

Today Is A Sizzler

I took the photo of our indoor weather station which 'lives' in the lounge room a few moments ago.  It gives you an idea of what is happening today with us as far as the weather is concerned.

The 38 degrees is out of the wind in the back corner of the backyard.  That is the hottest spot here at the house and out of any cooling breeze. Look how low the humidity is!  22% is extremely low for here and shows the strong wind is coming from the northwest.  Later the north easterly will blow in off the ocean and the humidity level will rise but the temperature will cool.

Click on all photos for a larger view, then on the cross (top left hand corner) to return to this page.

The heat sizzles up from the dark concrete below it. You can see all this in the photo left.

The 'sender' lives under the small wooden shelf!

But today is a great day for getting things dried on the clothesline!  The possibility of 'severe' thunderstorms exists for tomorrow Saturday and all of the South East can expect anything up to a couple of inches of rain (50mls).

A new and very large shopping centre has opened in Maroochydore.  It was built by Harvey Norman who have closed several local stores they had and now moved them into the one super shopping centre.  The centre also houses Domayne, Joyce Mayne, several furniture stores, an Apple store and several others still to open.

My hearing aid hasn't been working as well as I thought it should so I dropped it off at the shop in Mooloolaba and then headed into Maroochydore to check out the new centre.  Though not quite as big as the store in Dandenong Victoria, the new Harvey Norman store is a great size and at last gives people on the "coast" a reasonable place to check out various electrical items and closely contrast and compare them them.

I have since learned my hearing aid needs to be sent off for repair.  This is at no cost to me as a pensioner who has paid his two yearly fee of $39 for all maintenance, testing etc of both of my hearing aids.

We are keeping our Melbourne trip in the back of our minds.  This morning I put on another black ale and I sorted out the 1.25l softdrink bottles I will use.  This means when in Melbourne I can put them into recycling bins when finished and not to bring them back home with me.

I am having a 'top 'n tail' on Tuesday, the first I have had for around 5 years,  I begin the prep with a tablet Sunday afternoon but get into the liquid 'prep' Monday afternoon.

The car is being serviced on Thursday of next week, my bike is being checked over as well.  Hopefully everything will be completed 'in time' for our departure from here in mid December.  We have a dinner to attend in Berwick on Tuesday December 18th.

All Clear From Pest Control Company

The pest control company did a routine follow up visit this morning to confirm the recent infestations had been successfully eradicated.  It seems all is now fine.

We can have the 'barrier' around the house repaired at around $750 front and back.  That will be a job for early January after our return from Melbourne for Christmas.  This will entail drilling holes at the front and back of the house, filling them with poison and flooding the ground underneath and then plugging the holes up again.

Much of recent days have been spent enjoying the cricket on TV.  I again was most caught up with it all.  I enjoyed it very much.

I attended a meeting in a neighbouring hinterland town on Monday evening and spoke on the benefits of a Community Association.  Then I attended a meeting with Council and the developer on the future of the Land Sales Office becoming a Community Facility on Tuesday.

Trish was busy all weekend with her "Fair" for the Arts Centre Association.

We went out for a disappointing meal at a local Thai restaurant on Tuesday evening.  One of the dishes was allegedly ginger and shallots.  I think they just 'waved' the ginger over it, there wasn't much taste at all.

The days are lovely and warm, around 30 degrees but still quite cool overnight.  Last night it was down to 15 which is cool for this part of the world. The pool looks pretty good right now.

There has been minimal greening up of the lawn from the rain on the weekend.  I did mow the lawn yesterday after I had bottled my latest brew.  I reckon I got more dust than grass in the mower catcher.  I will put on another brew in the next day or so so I can take some of my "Black Ale" down to Melbourne with me.

Trish's shoulder isn't good, she will need follow up on it next year which may see her left arm in a sling for 6 weeks.  She would not be able to drive during that time.

I am due for a colonoscopy next Tuesday and I begin the "prep" for it late Sunday afternoon.  It will be good when it is all over!  We are getting ready to head south for Christmas and getting preparations underway is beginning to take up our time. 

And finally, we watched a TV series called "The Paradise" last night.  It hasn't shown here yet but I reckon it will be very popular when it does so, almost as popular as Downton Abbey I would suggest.

Rain At Long Last

I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the Test cricket in Brisbane was washed out yesterday.  We are around 90 kilometres from the "Gabba" and only had a couple of very light showers up until around 4pm.  There was less than 1ml in the gauge at that time and things were very dry.  I took this 'pre' rain photo of the dried out front lawn yesterday morning.

Around 4 pm the drizzle began in earnest.  It was just like being in Melbourne, continuous drizzly rain but little of any consequence.  By 10 pm we had around 7mls of rain in 6 hours!  By 5 am this morning that had gone to 11mls.  And then the heavens opened up.  The expected S/E wind change came through around that time and in the next couple of hours we another half an inch of steady soaking rain.

The total was a little over 24mls, around an inch and exactly what the doctor had ordered.  The early drizzly rain soaked into the soil so when the heavier stuff came, the lawns, the garden, the pot plants and the pool all benefited.

The pool hasn't been this full for around 6 months.

It is till quite grey outside right now but there is a stiff breeze.  A few lingering showers are predicted for this morning but there should be a fine afternoon to follow.

The chap who wanted his laptop setup during the week didn't have a home wireless network.  I suggested he should update and get a wireless modem router so he could access his laptop from anywhere at his home.  As it tuns out he lives at the biggest and plushest high rise in the main street in Caloundra.

Computer club was a little quiet on Saturday so I headed around to his place around 11 am to set up his new wireless modem/ router.  He is pretty pleased with everything now and has his wireless setup all up and running.

They have a great view from the 3rd floor balcony but their place is so small.  2 bedrooms and a medium sized living area is all they have.  The 'position' is sensational but he went on to say the body corporate is very expensive and with heaps of holiday makers using the facility, Security is called more frequently than one would prefer. There was a little door thumping and raised voices from somewhere else on the same floor while I was there doing my networking stuff.

The Caloundra Arts Centre Association has one of its two annual Fairs on this weekend so Trish has been busy there the last few days.  She really enjoys it and has met some lovely people and good friends there.

This leaves me at home to watch the cricket!  Tomorrow will be bottle washing day so today I need to ensure I have 3 more empty bottles.  It is a tough job but someone has to do it!

What Termites?

Another sensational day, 28 degrees, plenty of sunshine but perhaps a little windy.

My 12k bike ride got the day off to a brisk start.  Then there was the swim afterwards, the pool was around 23 or 24 degrees so just perfect for a swim.  I had someone around at 9:30 to help them set their laptop up.  All went fairly well, not too many hiccups at all.

He asked me how much I wanted for helping him out.  I said I don't accept cash but if he wanted to head up to the Caloundra Home Brew Shop and put something 'on account' for me that would be fine.  He was very happy with that and that should provide me with Christmas Drinks!

Our neighbour Brian (who just loves the movies I give him) has a son David who is a builder by trade.  David is currently working on Groote Eylandt off the Northern Territory. After a couple of months he comes home and usually pops around to his Dad's place.  He always brings his hard drive with him and I top it up with movies and TV shows.  There isn't much on TV there so the movies I provide are invaluable.

David is currently 'in town' and Brian got him to pop over and check the termite damage yesterday afternoon.  "Too easy" was his response.  He arrived here around 11 am this morning and had the two pieces of board replaced in around 20 minutes.  I had topped his hard drive up with movies and TV Shows overnight so he was happy and I was delighted.

Around 1pm Brian (an ex painter) was over with his painting gear.  With his expertise we were able to rejuvenate the paint left by our house painters 10 years ago and within an hour undercoat and then a top coat of paint had been applied.  It looks as good as new again!

People here really appreciate what you do for them and in turn they are only too happy to help out in any way in return.

The "First Cricket Test" Australia vs South Africa is on tomorrow on TV.  Guess where I will be!

Most Days 28 Degrees!

We are continuing with our spell of lovely fine warm days.

We have now watched all of season 3 of Downton Abbey.  After a huge Community Association Meeting which I chaired on Monday we didn't get home until 9pm  Trish went to the meeting as well. We still had almost 3 hours of Downton Abbey to finish the series.  So just before midnight and the finish of the final episode we headed off to bed.

With such a 'big' meeting it was always going to take me time to update the website on Tuesday morning.  So after a 12k bike ride I gave the car a wash.  With all the dust and a brief sprinkle of rain the car looked pretty awful.  Then it was time for a quick swim before spending almost 2 hours updating the BeCA website.  It was just after midday when we arrived at Ian and Kerri's for a Melbourne Cup afternoon.  It was extremely pleasant and just what was required to settle back, relax and enjoy good ale and company with friends.  We arrived home around 7:30 pm.

A mixture of a late night the night before followed by a few drinks and heaps of lovely food a good night's sleep beckoned.

After a good 7+ hours sleep overnight we awoke to yet another 'perfect' day.  With a top around 28 degrees a bike ride and a chat with walkers along the way made for a pleasant start.

While Trish headed off to Stitchers I put a brew on.  I am probably a couple of days early getting underway but it is better to be sooner rather than later.

I think the pool will be a good spot to sit by and relax after our appointment this afternoon regarding Trish's sore shoulder.

Perfect Weather

The weather is perfect, not a cloud in the sky and a top of 27 today with humidity around 50% (which is low for this part of the world).  But if we had our 'rathers' I reckon we would opt for 50mls of heavy soaking rain.

The extremely dry weather means everything is yellow.  The lawns, the parks, nature strips all are yellow from a lack of rainfall.  Everything is dry and dusty!

Well not so dusty as they were a day or so ago.

We had been putting off the annual wash windows etc until we got some rain to settle the dust.  But enough was enough!  It started a week or so ago when I cleaned the blinds across the the patio in the backyard.

Then the front door and the screen door were so foul they needed a good hose down as well.  Anything with flywire was a dust trap! This then made the garage door look pretty ordinary so yesterday, Sunday, I gave it a pressure clean too.

This spurred Trish to do the inside of some windows which in turn got me to do the outsides!  I reckon we could have top dressed the front lawn with all the built up dust and grime we have cleaned off everything in the last day or so.

Come 11 am the whole house windows and flywire screens had all been cleaned!  The rest of the day was spot cleaning bits we had missed!

The pool is at last beginning to warm up.  Most afternoons sees it at around 25 degrees.  This morning it was over 22 and quite pleasant for an after bike ride swim.

We have a big Community Association Public Meeting tonight.  We are hoping for around 50 people to be in attendance with local MP's, Sunshine Coast Airport Senior Management and our Councillor all there.  As President it is my job to chair tonight's meeting.

Tomorrow is Cup Day and we will spend it with Kerri and Ian.  They head away again, back to Fiji a favorite haunt of theirs for a week on Thursday!  We are around to their place for a BBQ ... and a few drinks!

Trish's shoulder still causes her concerns and her specialist's appointment is still a week away.  It is beginning to cost us money!  Another resident also fell in the same carpark.  He has had his surgery already.  He requested that we contact his solicitor as he is seeking to have his out of pocket expenses reimbursed.  The shopping centre management doesn't return messages or emails.  Phone calls with them on the subject are treated curtly and impersonally.

We are meeting with the solicitor on Wednesday afternoon.

The 8th and final episode of Series 3 of Downton Abbey was on UK TV last night.  I have acquired that episode already.  Last night we watched the first 5 episodes, tonight (after the meeting) we will enjoy the final 3 episodes!

They're Back!

The pest control guy returned yesterday to confirm the small infestation of termites/white ants he previously treated had been successful.  They had all now been killed he believed.  He then proceeded to inspect the whole house.  He found a second and much smaller infestation in the main bedroom.  They were in one stud in the wall.  Again they have been treated and he will return in another 10 days to ensure the treatment has worked.

In both cases any damage is minimal.The rest of the house is clear.  In many respects we have been lucky.  He suspects there is a big nest somewhere, most likely on a neighbour's property.  The termites took 10 years to make their way to our place!

Termite and White Ants are a perennial problem in this part of the world.

The best suggestion is they got in where the front concrete driveway had been laid which was above the termite protection shield built into the brick wall.  They were the same concretors who also built the concrete patio again above the protection line.

Holes will need to be drilled into the front and rear of the house concrete areas and poison poured in to build a wall of protection to keep the little pests out!

A very warm day today with the temp around 34 degrees in the backyard.  The cool weather which has hit Melbourne is due to arrive after lunch causing the temp here to slip to around 25 degrees.

No drinks this afternoon.  One couple are off on a holiday in their mobile home.  They are heading south.  I suspect they will strike some cold weather along the way.  Ian and Kerri have been entertaining friends for two weeks so both are taking a rest from festivities and 'drying out'.