16" Overall!

Since the rain began early Thursday morning we have had 399mls or around 16 inches of rain.  The wind has at last eased and the rain has stopped, I have cleaned the place up, vacuumed the pool, run inside to escape a quick shower of rain before heading back out to add some lawn feed to the front lawn.

There is a website called "OzBargain".  People who spot a good bargain in a store or online go to OzBargain and put a note online about it.

There have been a few adverts on TV for this Dyson Vacuum Cleaner.  This one costs $450 in Harvey Norman.  But on OzBargain someone had found it online on special at Harvey Norman for $299.  I mentioned it to Trish as a good buy and possibly handy for our little house.

After due deliberation Trish agreed it would be handy.  Our current vacuum cleaner was getting a little tired and our mini vac used for small jobs was losing its charge.  We journeyed to Harvey Norman in Maroochydore and saw it..  The sales girl came over and was selling it to us.  I said I had seen it online at $299.  I had bookmarked the web page on my phone.

She checked her computer and said it wasn't listed there at that price.  She checked with her boss and we bought it for $299.  It goes off special later this afternoon.

It has its good points in that it is versatile and easy to get and use.  The disadvantages are that it it has a battery life of around 15 minutes and then takes almost 4 hours to recharge. 

Our house is only small even though the 15 minutes is a little on the short side.  However for everyday around the house quick cleaning it will be perfect.  We won't be getting rid of the other vacuum cleaner just yet!

225mls Later

We have been hoping for a decent shower of rain following a prolonged dry spell.  There hasn't been any real rain here on the Sunshine Coast for well over 6 months.  Heavy consistent rain has now occurred.  Since the rain started overnight Thursday we have now had a further 225mls of rain and more is forecast to come.

The rain gauge is almost worn out.  I emptied out around 50mls last night before going to bed at 11pm.  This morning there was almost another 90mls in the gauge.  Along with the rain has not only come cooler weather, but also incredibly high humidity.  It continues to rain outside but the inside humidity reading is over 90%.

We have a strong gusty wind as well.  The wind is so gusty we really need to keep the front door and any front windows closed.  As friends were leaving last night, the heavier rain just began.  Around 20 minutes later we checked the passage way here at the house and the floor was wet for up to 6 metres inside as strong winds blew the rain in via the open front door.

The new concrete area and the drainage system we had included has had a fine and successful test.  Despite around 9" of rain, the pool has never overflowed, but has managed to keep draining excess water at a rate strong enough to prevent any overflow.  No water is running back into the pool from the new concrete side at all, any water falling there is being channelled to the drain we had installed with the new area.

At no time has our little street looked like flooding as it has done in the past.  I suspect that this is probably due to the new estate and improved storm water handling. At no time has there been any concern for our little house.  However the danger time is still not over.  It is expected the weather will clear the Sunshine Coast overnight tonight as the weather system makes its way south and into northern NSW.

The front lawn as the picture shows still looks a mess.  The grass still alive is growing well but it may take some time and some lawn feed to get the bare areas to grow again. Click on both photos for a larger view.

We had friends Ian and Kerrie over for our Australia Day celebrations last evening.  It was lots of fun, with great food which Trish and Kerrie had provided.  As usual there were plenty of drinks.  I am now able to have music playing from the media player but have the TV on.  This enabled us to listen to heaps of 'oldies' but also to keep an eye on the Women's Tennis final and the ODT20 cricket match.

I cannot get over the versatility that the new $200 Yamaha AV Receiver now provides for my audio system.  I can virtually listen to whatever I want but have the TV going on a completely different channel.  The AV Receiver is an amazing and versatile piece of equipment.

The Computer Club was a little quiet yesterday with the holiday long weekend and the wet weather.  One guy found every time he opened Firefox it would freeze.  To solve the problem we needed to do a total uninstall, i.e. remove not only the program but all his private profile Firefox profile settings as well.  Most likely there was a Firefox Addon that was causing a conflict.  And then there were the usual problems with email programs as well!

Upon my return home from Computer Club on Saturday I forced myself to do a home brew bottling.  Bottling was the last thing I wanted to do early Saturday afternoon.  The weather was sticky and wet but right now I am glad I did it and got that job out of the way.

Today will be spent quietly.  There is a Cricket ODI from India on later today which will suit me.  The scheduled cricket match between Qld and Tasmania due to be played in Brisbane this afternoon won't happen!  It is too wet!

And tonight we have the final of the Australian Open Men's tennis.

At Last, Some Wet Weather!

January is usually one of the wettest times of the year around here.  But it has been very dry since the middle of 2012.  Today there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon as wet weather has set in.  So far we have had around 25mls or an 'inch' in the old scale.  But we need heaps more.  There is hardly a blade of grass on the front lawn.  The last time it was mown was before we went to Melbourne for Christmas.

So today's steady soaking rain is very welcome indeed.

I was just about to jump on my bike for my morning bike ride when the first drizzle began.  Right now there is steady rain still falling.

I helped a guy buy a laptop recently.  He got one with an i5 processor, plenty of ram, 750GB hard drive and a 1GB video card.  It had an RRP of around $800 and he got it for $660. It was a Windows 8 machine as well.  Along with it he bought himself a wireless modem router.

He asked me to set his laptop and his wireless network up for him.  Windows 8 doesn't have a "Start" button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which is where people have always accessed all things for their computer!  So the first thing I installed was a Start Button for Windows 8!  From there on things were easy.  Today I popped around to his place with his setup laptop and together we setup his Local Area Wireless Network.  Now he has a wireless network to which is connected his old and new laptops as well as an old PC he has.  He can also use his mobile smart phone now as well to access information, updates etc from his network. Finally his wireless printer can now be accessed all over his home.

The guy is also the plumber who works for St Andrew's Care which provides free services to us pensioners!  I had told him we were probably after a new mixer tap for our kitchen.  To show his thanks for my help with the laptop he bought me a new mixer tap.  I now have only to ring St Andrew's Care and he will fit it for me at no cost to us.

Yesterday two other guys from the Computer Club popped over to get some movies and see how I was able to obtain movies.  It was lots of fun.  One of the guys had a new Windows 7 laptop.  I was able to help him out with software for it as well.  One of them brought me a can of home brew mix while the other makes his own spirits.  He is going to get me a bottle of his bourbon.

Brian over the road just bought a new 2TB hard disk drive and I piled all my movies etc onto that for him.  This morning I popped over to his place and set it up for him.  Now I can easily update his movies etc onto the new hard drive and then transfer them wirelessly to his hard drive attached to his media player.

Last night we journeyed with friends to the Curry Bowl Restaurant for a night out.  The food was a big hit with everybody.  We got home around 10:30pm after some extra drinks at Ian's place.  It was a stinker yesterday so Trish and I spent the best part of half an hour relaxing in the pool prior to heading off to bed.

Along with today's rain has come much cooler temperatures.  It is a pleasant change after so much relentless hot weather.  The decision to take the gazebo down late yesterday afternoon was the right thing to do.  More wet weather is expected over the next three or four days.  And the ground certainly needs plenty of rain!

Farewell Termites!

It is a little cooler today, a couple of degrees less than yesterday's warm 32 degrees or so.  The wind is light and blowing from the east, straight in off the sea.

Regretfully the wind is across from the new housing development so our home needs to remain locked up with windows and doors shut to keep the dust at bay.

Is it any wonder we enjoy it here.  These couple of photos were taken on my ride this morning.  The top (above left) photo is of Pumicestone Passage right near our popular fish 'n chip lunch spot.  It was a beautiful morning when I took this photo.  All up it was a 13.5k bike ride for me.  Meanwhile Trish has been bike riding as well and she did over 40 minutes as well this morning.

The second shot seen here is a narrow pathway I follow away from the beach just as I head for home.  It is a very pretty part of the world.

Not a lot of other news about right now.  Trish stayed awake last night until it was 6 all in the fifth set of the Wawrinka Vs Djokovic tennis match.  I adjourned a little earlier at 2 sets all.  The water for my pre-bed swim in our pool was sensational last evening, around 28 degrees in the water and just delightful and cooling.

It is a little noisy right now.  The Pest Control people are back today drilling holes to fix the two 'breaches' in our termite protection.  Our patio and driveway are both built 'above' the termite protection barrier which allows the little animals entry into the home.

Holes are being drilled along near the front door as well as all along the back wall of the house and the soil beneath is force flooded with chemicals which kills termites. This will act as a barrier and keep the little pests out!

Click on all photos for a larger view.

Summer Heat

We have continued to move between the TV (with the tennis and cricket being shown on it) and the pool the last couple of days.  Yesterday was a little warmer than usual but the ceiling fans and the pool keep things under control. It was a little sticky though with the humidity level up.

Friday afternoon we interrupted our sport viewing and ventured around to friends Ian and Kerrie for drinks.  We sat under their gazebo in the back yard chatting away and enjoying a few drinks.  As it turned out, my missing the One Day Cricket Match between Australia and Sri Lanka wasn't a problem as Australia played very poorly.

I had Computer Club on Saturday and was busy with laptops, android phones and android tablets.  One lady had a new Windows 8 laptop, the first time I had any experience with the new operating system.  It could take some getting used to as it was different to anything I had worked with before.

You can install a small program which makes Windows 8 operate like Windows 7, i.e. with a start button and regular Start Menu.  I think that is what I would be doing.

I do like power boards with individual switches.  This gives me complete control over everything I have plugged into them.  I can determine what is on and what is off. I have a couple of large 8 plug power boards with individual switches which I use for the Computer and add ons and another one for the TV and entertainment equipment.  I noticed a 6 point one for around $20 when we were in Melbourne and nearly grabbed it as a spare .... but didn't.

I was doing a little re-organising of things yesterday and decided I needed an at least one 4 point individually switched power board so I headed around to our nearby Bunnings store.  I found a four point one at $16-20 which was around the going price from what I had seen.  Below that was a twin pack, two 4x switched power boards for $16-60!  Needless to say I grabbed them.

The photo is lifted directly from the Bunnings website, 2 of these for under $17!

Both Trish and I have completed our bike rides today.  I did around 13k's while Trish did a good 30 minutes on her bike. We both had a quick swim in the pool to refresh after the ride in the morning bright sunny warm weather.

Yesterday we had a brisk northerly blowing all day instead of the recent easterly wind.  The pool did not require any cleaning this morning, it was still perfectly clean.  Had the wind have been back to the east and blowing dust in off the new housing development, the pool would have needed cleaning a couple of times!

Warm Friday

The last few days has been typical Queensland summer weather.  The top temp has been either 29 or 31 degrees while overnight has been down as low as the high teens.  All very pleasant.  Regretfully there has been little or no rain at all.  So far we have had 8mls altogether for this month.

As the weather warms the wind swings from the east to the north.  Recent easterly winds earlier this week mean we have been getting a lot of dust from the new land development across the road. 

This means we need to be careful with the doors and windows being open when the easterly blows.  Today we have a northerly so the dust isn't an issue.

The PC is running beautifully since its recent problems and hasn't missed a beat. Hopefully it will remain like this.

For the last few days we have been moving between the TV and all the sport, the pool, and in front of our computers.

Trish's Friday Group Quilters doesn't begin again until next week.

We did pop out for a little shopping expedition yesterday.  Trish grabbed a new bike, down to $249 from $449 from our nearest Goldcross Cycles store.  She had a good ride on it this morning and loves it.  After riding her other bike which was around 5 years old and hadn't been used regularly, this one is a dream to ride.  She is on a bit of a fitness trip at the moment and bike riding is an acceptable method of exercise.

I needed to go to Maroochydore for a couple of things.  I wanted to check a couple of things with my phone and our nearest Virgin Mobile shop is there.  The best news I got was that when my 'contract' period is over I can pop any SIM card into it and it should work.

We bought lunch at the Food Court at the main Maroochydore Shopping Centre.  For the first time here on the Sunshine Coast I found some Char Kway Teow available from the Chinese eatery there.  Next time however I will order Singaporean Style CKT as they 'doctor' the dish for Australian tastes.  The cook is from Singapore so he knows how to cook it properly!

Later we popped in to the larger Maroochydore Aldi store.  They had a great bucket and mop deal going and we found a few other odds and ends there as well.

This morning I have been around to Terry the plumber's home and I have spent around $800 dollars for him.  He looks like he is going to buy a new laptop for around $700 and a new wireless modem router for around $90.  I guess I will be helping him set it up if he grabs them later on today.

We have drinks this afternoon so I will be away from the telly and the cricket and the tennis.  I will need to keep up with scores on my phone.

24 Hours Later

I am again happy and contented.  The PC took an extra 24 hours than first expected but it is now back home and running OK.  There are a few times over the last few months when the PC freezes during startup.  This happens around once every two or three weeks.  A restart gets it running fine again. Needless to say, when the tech guy first re started the PC after replacing the blown power supply it froze on startup.

This led the tech to want to see what the problem was.  He has managed to fix this sort of problem with other PC's previously with just a good clean up inside, dismantle the pieces, clean everything and then put it all back together again.

So the PC has had the power supply replaced and had a good clean out inside.  Dust and humidity spikes are major contributors to computer problems especially around where we live.  The replacement power supply was $110 and I was charged a further $66 for labor.  I reckon I have done pretty well!  It is repaired and I have had a major clean up as well.

Trish is back into the full swing of Stitchers again.  They have their first meeting for 2013 today.  At a major Committee Meeting on Monday Trish has been offered either the Secretary's job or the Vice President's role for the whole Caloundra Arts Centre Association.  She is thinking about what she will do.  It is quite a feather in her cap to be offered either position.

Movie and TV Show downloading has been quite frenetic the last few days with lots of new series restarting, especially on the UK's BBC.  This wasn't helped by the end of my Internet Month.  Having been in Melbourne for two weeks of the last month, I had heaps of download available to me.  I managed to get through 95% of my monthly quota!

They had a "Curries" night at the Bowls Club last night.  I had a curry while Trish had roast lamb.  My serve of curry wasn't overly generous and Trish found her roast lacking flavour. 

A cool S/E change swept in on Monday afternoon.  Yesterday was a cooler 28 degrees and today we are looking at around 29.  There was no need for the ceiling fan while we slept last night.  The pool has slumped to 24.5 degrees overnight.  It was almost 32 degrees in the pool on Monday!

They are suggesting 35 degrees for Saturday but a cooler day should follow.  The gazebo will go back up again for that.

Usually January is one of the wettest months.  So far this year we have had a mere 7mls of rain such is the dry weather we have been having.  With everything so dry the dust off the new estate nearby is a constant problem when the wind is from the east.  Doors and windows need to be closed just to keep the dust out on these days.

There will be more tennis and cricket on TV today so that will keep me happy!

I Should Be Back "Online" Late Tomorrow

Our 'Air Con' day yesterday (Saturday) was very pleasant.  We had endured an oppressive night on Friday with a low of around 26 degrees and plenty of humidity.  The air con went on around 9 am yesterday set at 27 degrees and stayed on all day!  After Computer Club I came home, found my way to my chair via the "Waeco" and watched Tennis and then some TV.

The outside temp dropped to 27 around 7:30 pm so it was then we opened the house up.  It dropped to under 24 degrees overnight and was much cooler.  I even woke and dropped the fan speed back as it was a little chilly under the sheet.  It is warm again today but at least the house cooled down last night so there should be little need for the air con today.

The PC has been diagnosed with a blown 'power supply'.  A replacement has been ordered and will be fitted Monday morning.  Then the computer will be further tested to ensure all components are unaffected and should be available for collection later Monday afternoon.

The warm weather meant Friday drinks poolside were enjoyed by all.  The others arrived around 3pm and didn't leave until well after 8pm.  It was enjoyed by all.  The photo shows John enjoying the hospitality, his home brew and the pool!

We loved the tennis on TV yesterday with Hewitt and Tomic both winning great finals. Today we have the One Day International cricket match from Adelaide beginning early afternoon.

The nominations for this year's Academy Awards started me into a downloading frenzy the last day or so.  The other night we enjoyed "Skyfall" while last night we watched "Argo".  I also have Les Miserables, Lincoln, The Sessions, Hitchcock, Django Unchained and a couple of others to watch.  However with the tennis now on who knows when we will get to them.

The third Mrs Brown's Boys episode for series 3 should be available soon as well.  We will find time for that!

Shock Horror

The worst possible thing has happened.  I went to turn on my PC Friday morning and ..... nothing!  It appears the 'power supply' has died.  A replacement power supply will be fitted Monday and hopefully I can get it back Monday afternoon!  Then there will be a bigger update on the last few days.

The heat has really hit the last few days and is forecast to go on till Monday when we can expect some relief.  The overnight temps are around 26 degrees which is unseasonally hot for here.  Days are around 33 and humidity is about 65%.  The pool is a popular spot.

However at 8 am this morning even the pool was just under 29 degrees.

The air con will be on today and we will plant ourselves in front of the TV and watch some tennis.

Our Turn For Summer Heat

Slowly but surely we are sliding back into our Queensland lifestyle.  The Test Cricket is now over and things are beginning to get back to normal.

I am often the butt of jokes when I am asked what do I want for Christmas when we trip down south. I usually answer gift vouchers would be fine by me.  This year I received 4 gifts for Christmas, 4 gift vouchers totalling around $160 in value.  I was after a 3TB external hard disk drive so I could store my entire downloaded movie collection in just one place.

3TB external hard disk drives usually cost around $160 as a RRP.  However JB HiFi had them on special at $118, a saving of over $40.  Needless to say at that price I snaffled one up straight away.  Quite a bit of time since our return from Melbourne has been spent copying files all over the place.  It took well over a day just to move all the movie files but now everything is backed up and in place.

The second day home my computer looked like it didn't start up properly.  Actually it did start, what didn't start was the PC monitor.  The connection from the PC to the monitor has always been a bit 'iffy' and this turned out to be the problem.  The HDMI Mini 'adapter' had failed.  This was no problem as I had several DVI cables which would do the job just as well.  It took a little messing around, numerous rude words and some time on my back under the computer table adjusting cables but eventually it all worked.

I am back on the bike again doing my 12+ kilometres per day.  The weather has been delightful with temps around the high 20's and the wonderful sea breeze coming in each afternoon to cool things down.  Most nights we don't even have the bedroom ceiling fan on.  However the hot weather many southerners have been feeling is expected to hit us today with a top around 35 degrees before the sea breeze comes in again later in the afternoon.  Then we are in for a week of 30+ temperatures and amazingly for this time of year, no rain.

The other $42 left from my Christmas vouchers bought me three boxes of new home brew bottles.  I am continuing to get rid of 90% of my older home brew plastic PET bottles and replace them with new ones. The new ones only need a quick rinse out and they are ready to use.  A new brew of Lager was mixed this morning and should be ready to bottle early next week.

Click on all photos for a larger view.

Our daughter Kim and her new friend Mick (living here in Queensland) popped in for a quick visit on Sunday prior to Kim jumping on a plane to head home to Melbourne and work.  It was great to see her in our neck of the woods.

Our 'new' area at the back where we replaced the small garden has been wonderful.  When in Melbourne I was asked if the new concrete meant everything was warmer.  By mid afternoon the back fence creates shade so the new work has not made any noticeable difference to the comfort level of the backyard.  The pavers under the clothes line are in the sun nearly all day and they can sure be hot at this time of year.

We also have the gazebo up at the moment and this too means there is always substantial shade for sitting throughout the day.  By midday the shade from the gazebo gives us plenty of shade.  I use the beach umbrella to give us shade over part of the pool.  Yesterday I spent an hour hour or two just relaxing in my inflatable pool chair in the shade in the pool.  I repeated this after 4pm but this time had a lovely cold 'black ale' in hand!

Last night Trish and several of her friends tripped into Brisbane to see South Pacific.  It was a very enjoyable night for them.  I was forced to sit at home and watch Big Bash cricket live on TV.  I too enjoyed my night!

I didn't ride this morning.  Instead I was up by 6:15 am washing the car.  It was covered in 5,000 kilometres of road grime, dead insects and dust!  It was a much bigger job than I had first thought.  But the car looks fine again now.  It travelled those 5,000k's very comfortably without a problem.  The next job was to put a brew on and finally to clean the pool and the filter.  It was all done by 8:30 am and the following 15 minutes spent soaking in the pool was sensational.

Trish is out for lunch with 'the girls from Stitchers', I again will setup the umbrella and launch the inflatable chair into the pool and spend an hour or two relaxing and waiting for the sea-breeze to come in!

Car Insurance

I want to bring people up to date with a small tactic we tried yesterday regarding our car insurance renewal.  At the moment we are with Youi Car Insurance.  We found they gave us the best deal as we could select and choose the features we wanted for the kilometres we do.  When we first joined Youi our car insurance bill was cut by over $100 from our former insurer.

Last year our car insurance bill for the Hyundai was around $490.  Needless to say we were surprised when this year's bill was closer to $530+.

So I decided to give Youi a call.  We had already found an alternative company which could do our insurance for $440 but with a $600 excess, $150 more than we currently had.

By the time I had voiced my disapproval to Youi 'renewals' on the $40 increase, our revised bill was downgraded to $415 for what appears to be the same coverage as previous.  That is a saving of around $120 and all for a 10c phone call!

(Our phone calls cost us 10c as we use voip for some Australia wide landline calls.)

Trish and I are feeling much better after a full day at home recovering from our Christmas time away.  I will probably ride my bike tomorrow as the weather here is remarkable pleasant when compared to much of the rest of the country.  We didn't even bother with a fan over us last night in bed and I decided not to have a quick dip prior to bed as it was a little cool.

We expect a nice 29 degrees today but I will be spending much of my time in front of the TV watching the cricket.

Last night we watched Skyfall and the first episode of Series 3 of Mrs Browns Boys.  The movie was pretty good and we had plenty of laughs from Mrs Brown.

Home Again

Despite being totally worn out I will give a quick update on what has happened since I last posted on my blog page.

As you can tell we are now home having driven around 850k's from Newcastle yesterday.  Many of the northern NSW towns along the coast were very busy making our trip home a little longer than we liked.  We arrived home around 4:45 our time, or 5:45 Daylight Saving time.  Kempsey was slow but we were very slow stop start through Macksville.

Extensive roadworks north of Coffs Harbour also slowed us.  Then there were the ultra careful drivers doing 80 in a 110 zone with a stream of vehicles behind them which also made the drive a little longer.

We left Melbourne around 7 am on Monday and arrived 730k's later in Goulburn at around 4pm.  The motel was magnificently positioned within walking distance of clubs etc and also boasted a great shower.  The rest about the motel was extremely disappointing!  We didn't sleep well.

On New Year's Day we left Goulburn for Newcastle and arrived there around 1pm.  It was a leisurely drive.  It was less than leisurely when we arrived with friends Mick and Janet at their home. 

We were made to feel extremely welcome and had a great time with them.  Too much to drink and eat again and lots of laughs and chats.

On the following day Mick took us to a 'Company Apartment' situated overlooking Newcastle Beach.  It was delightful, a wonderful spot and a very comfortable residence.  Mick works for Arrium which was formerly a part of BHP.  Great view isn't it?

We visited a couple of the newer touristy venues situated along the river.  We believe we will possibly drive down again for a better look around Newcastle.

My computer started OK upon our arrival back home.  However it wouldn't start this morning.  Or it did start but there wasn't anything on the monitor.  I have been able to fix it but it took some time and some inappropriate language but in the end everything works agin.

There won't be much eating or drinking going on for a couple of days still I reckon.

I still aren't ready to give my daily bike riding a go just yet, more quiet time watching the cricket is on the agenda.

Click on each photo for a larger view.