Rain Clears ..... Finally!

At last we have some brighter weather without the rain.  Just over 200mls has fallen in this last episode, that is another 8" of rain in the old scale. So far the total for 2013 is over 900mls, or 36".

Again our little house escaped unscathed, no damage and all the water gets away as planned.  Actually since we have added the drain to the new concrete area, storm water now gets away about the best it ever has from our little spot here on the Sunshine Coast.

Yesterday we finished up having lunch at the local Bellvista Tavern.  The meal was OK and there was heaps of it.  Both Trish and I had the Chicken Schnitzel along with a "Parma Topping" and pepper or mushroom sauces.  I had a beer and Trish enjoyed a wine.  When we eat this way at the local Tavern it all goes on a "Tab" and you pay via credit card at the end of the meal.

Leftover roast chicken in bread rolls was more than enough for tea last night.

We watched 'Silver Linings Playbook' last night where Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress at the Academy Awards.  It was a great story and she was excellent in the movie.  Jackie Weaver was in it as well.

Trish headed off to Stitchers this morning (Weds) and left me to do some bottle washing for my next home brew bottling.  I wanted get the bottles dry because there was a little sunshine about outside.  Unfortunately when filling the laundry trough with warm water I couldn't turn the hot water tap off.  Warm water continued to run from the tap.

I managed to turn the hot water off at the hot water service.  However I had to get the tap fixed so I rang the plumber guy I do movies for.  Then I rang St Andrews Care to get them to pay for his labour.  He should get around later this morning and fix it.  Hopefully the tap only requires a replacement spindle and should be straight forward enough to fix.

I had to turn the water back on again for my shower and then off again after I finished!

I managed to get the bottle washing done OK.  I bought even more bottles and another mix of the Black Ale I like yesterday when Trish and I were in Caloundra.

I also had a chat with the guy in the Home Brew Shop about sanitizing the bottles.

Nowadays most home brewers mix up a litre or so of the sanitizer into a spray bottle and then give each bottle a good spray and a whisk around with the sanitizer.

The sanitizer is such that it doesn't require a quick rinse afterwards.

So right now all is out in the backyard drying slowly!  I will probably bottle around Saturday!

This afternoon I have the Final of the Ryobi Cricket One Day Cup being played at the MCG between Victoria and Queensland.  The forecast for Melbourne doesn't look too good so I am not sure how much cricket there will be.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Update:  Terry the Plumber just called in and all is now fixed!

More Rain

The rain commenced overnight.  By 7:30 this morning we had 51mls in the gauge and it continues to rain down outside.  The pool overflow is taking the excess water away from the pool and the new concrete area and the drain we had put in continues to work very well.  The sky is grey and the rain continues to tumble down.

We have been told to expect around 200mls in this lot with perhaps another system to again bring rain later in the week.

Needless to say it isn't cold and I have the ceiling fan whirring above me as I type.  As you could probably guess it is quite humid with all this rainfall.

The picture (click on it for a larger view) shows that poor old Caloundra is right in the middle of it all.

Trish has an Arts Centre Association Meeting this afternoon while I will watch the cricket again from India.  Our team sure has a fight on its hands to stay in this match.  My remote control finger is recovering slowly from a battering it received yesterday switching between NAB Cup AFL matches and the Test Match in Chennai.

I have a BeCA Public Meeting to chair next Monday.

It looks like today will be spent inside again.  I managed to get a brew on yesterday but the next task will be to find some fine weather to get the refill bottles dry after I wash them. I still need another 5 empty bottles so I have the full quota required for a bottling.  I don't foresee this as a huge problem to solve.

Quiet Sunday

Computer Club was busy again yesterday with helping people with their laptops and computers.  One lady I was helping was after TV Series files.

To get your own downloads of files you need several things.  You need the links to see what is available, you need to know what is worth downloading and what isn't, and you need the bandwidth in your Internet Plan to give you the capacity to download.  If you have a 2GB plan, you only have enough to download 1 movie!  For any realistic downloading you probably need a minimum of 20GB per month.

I have re-jigged the right hand side of this blog with several new sections.  "Finding Good Downloads" lists 7 sites I visit daily just to see what is available.  I check both the movies and TV shows.

The 8th link is to TVFreeload, another great source for downloading TV shows.  You must register to enter the TVFreeload site. 

"Movie/TV Series Reviews" lists the sites I visit to see what is being recommended to watch.  Probably the best link is to the TV page of the UK's 'The Guardian' newspaper.  Crime Time Preview is OK too.  Metacritic is a US based website that gives 'scores' to new TV shows and I find this a handy site as well.  Of course there is also Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) as well which gives reviews and viewers 'scores' for TV shows and to Movies.  Anything with a score above 7 on IMDB is probably worth watching!

The 3rd new section is "Turbobit".  Turbobit is a Russian website that stores uploaded movies and TV Shows and you need to pay to have full speed access.  It isn't the biggest file storage website around but with a bit of a search you may find a Turbobit Link to a file you want.  The 04 Turbobit HowTo is a link to download a pdf document which shows how you may be able to download from Turbobit without paying!

The 05 Mediafire etc link will allow you to download another pdf file which can tell you some other download for free 'tricks'.

Last night's "Casserole and Cocktails Night" has caused both Trish and I to look forward to a very quiet Sunday!  Both of us are moving very slowly this morning.  It is extremely humid with the promise of more heavy rain tomorrow which isn't helping us either.  We have already had a couple of brief showers today.  It has brightened a little outside.

I am hopeful of getting another brew on this morning if my inclination to do so returns!  Plenty of cricket and footy on TV again today and I am just in the mood to sit down and watch it all!

All Is Quiet

It is Saturday morning and things continue relatively quietly.  We did venture to the RSL with friends Kerrie and Ian on Wednesday night.  For your birthday the RSL gives free meal, a free drink and free cash for the pokies.  Kerrie also has a February Birthday so we all set off to use up our freebies.  A great night was followed by a quiet and sombre Thursday.

The hot weather has left us and now daily tops are around 30 degrees and around 20 degrees overnight.  This has made a dramatic effect on the pool temperature as well.  The temp is around 22 degrees in there most mornings.

So far this year we have had around 30" of rain which is enough to half fill the pool!  The excess water (and salt) drains away into the street.  Therefore the chlorinator was telling me to toss another bag of salt in on Friday to replenish the salt level.  A bag of salt costs around $8.

I felt my hearing aid wasn't working properly so I popped into my Audio Clinic to have it all tested and adjusted on Friday.  When I jumped back in the car to drive back home I dropped the volume back on the car radio!

Lots of cricket and footy on TV at the moment so plenty to keep me occupied.

We have a casserole night on tonight in lieu of our Friday drinks yesterday.  It should be lots of fun!

Time to head off to Computer Club!

Did You Hear About The Horsemeat In Tesco Burgers?

Within hours of the news that Tesco's  'all beef hamburgers'  contained 30% horse meat, these quips hit the Internet:

o   I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse … I guess Tesco just listened.
o   Anyone want a burger from Tesco? Yay or neigh?
o   Not entirely sure how Tesco are going to get over this hurdle.
o   Waitress in Tesco asked if I wanted anything on my Burger … so I had a £5 each way bet!
o   Had some burgers from Tesco for my tea last night … I still have a bit between my teeth.
o   A woman has been taken into hospital after eating horse meat burgers from Tesco. Her condition is said to be stable.
o   Tesco are now testing all their vegetarian burgers for traces of unicorn.
o   I've just checked the Tesco burgers in my freezer ... AND THEY'RE OFF.
o   Tesco now forced to deny presence of zebra in burgers, as shoppers confuse barcodes for serving suggestions.
o   Said to the missus, “These Tesco burgers given me terrible trots."
o   To beef or not to beef. That is equestrian.
o   A cow walks into a bar. Barman says, “Why the long face?”. Cow says “Illegal ingredients, coming over here stealing our jobs!”
o   I hear the smaller version of those Tesco burgers make great horse d'oeuvres.

These Tesco burger jokes are going on a bit. Talk about flogging a dead … Agggghhh NO! NO NO NO!  

And last but not least —

Have you tried Tesco Meat Balls? — They’re the dogs bollocks!!

Bike For Sale!

As the topic says, I may as well sell my bike, it hasn't been used for around a week now because of the wet showery weather we have been experiencing.  The morning shower seems to loom around 6:30 am each morning and give us enough of a dumping to make bike riding not much fun!

Heavy showers are expected this morning as the photo shows with heavy rain expected overnight and into tomorrow.  Then we should have showers again for the next few days after that.

My singlets have gone away and my T-Shirts have come out.  Top temps are in the low to mid 20's and is all we can expect.  The sun did poke its head through for an hour or so on Sunday afternoon and the temp soared to the high 20's and very steamy! I managed to clean the pool and wash out the pool filter cartridge.

We have reached an 'accord' with the Helicopter Company which has been giving our residents here a hard time from repetitive circuits.  I suspect my email copies of our concerns to local MP's, Councillors and Airport Management eventually worked.  Comments from disgruntled residents on both our website and Facebook page contributed as well.

We received a very nasty email from them earlier in the week.  Then came a smiling happy phone call hoping we could sort things out late on Friday.  They also promised a list of modifications they would carry out to their flying routine over the estate during training.  However since then the wet weather has set in and there has been no activity overhead!

There were no drinks Friday as one couple had relatives from interstate visiting.  The dampisgh weather kept the other couple away.

There was heaps of footy and cricket on TV throughout the weekend so I was more than happy to settle down in front of the telly and let my 'remote control' do the talking.

It was my birthday on Sunday so we were a little busy with phone calls from down south.  We had enjoyed a night out last Wednesday with friends so we just stayed at home.  We may hit the RSL on Wednesday night as there is a BeeGees Tribute group playing and the RSL always gives you a free birthday meal and drink as well.

Our regular drinks session should resume on Friday and by then we should be back into fine weather as well.

A Damp Start To Thursday

While Melbourne enjoys warm but very dry conditions, here on the Sunshine Coast we have a south easterly wind blowing showers in off the sea.  I just tipped 13 mls out of the rain gauge and the wet weather meant I didn't get a bike ride in this morning.

My riding clothes are dry now after I was caught in a sharp shower of rain yesterday morning.  It was so wet outside this morning the thought of going for a bike ride never entered my mind.

The problems with helicopters has continued during the week with daily repetitive touch 'n go circuits for around 4 or 5 hours a day, and usually in tandem with two helicopters giving residents little respite to the consistent noise overhead.

There has been a large amount of work for the Community Association sending off emails and keeping the relevant authorities informed.  The helicopter company says they aren't breaking any rules and are flying in line with guidelines.  Technically they are right, morally they are wrong and this is a situation where commercial interests outweigh any compassion for residents.

The guy who did the concreting for us last year popped back in again on Monday.  The sealer he used on the concrete hadn't worked well.  He gave the area another coat of 'solvent' and it appears to have done the trick.  Click on the photo above for a larger view.

Last night we headed into town with friends for a meal at the local Chinese Restaurant.  The food we get there is as good as any we get in this part of the world.  We had a lot of fun and the food was very good.  I pre ordered a Hokkien Fried Rice.  Needless to say everyone enjoyed it.

Then it was back to our place for a couple of drinks and a chat.  The 'home made' Sambucca was a huge success and probably contributed to me not moving too well this morning. The second bottle of 40% alcohol has now become a 1.125l bottle of Bundaberg 'style' rum and it too is working OK!

Some of our favorite TV shows have finished their UK season so we are catching up with some downloads from late last year. We just watched a series of 6 one hour shows called "Last Tango In Halifax."  It was a little gem of a series with heaps of twists and turns.  It basically told the story of a couple in their 70's who used to go out together in their teens. They lost contact before their romance could really begin.

They had both married other people and had families.  Now both had lost their partners and had found each other again via Facebook.  The problems of family members follow them as they strike up a relationship.  It was a great series and comes highly recommended.

On Tuesday we tried a new Noodle Place who were advertising Char Kway Teow (CKT) on their take away menu. I was a little concerned as it was promoted as including carrot and onion as ingredients.  I don't recall ever seeing carrot in CKT.  I ordered it (without the carrot) while Trish ordered Hokkien Mee.

We were pleasantly surprised!  The CKT had the genuine wide rice noodles and it didn't taste too bad at all.  Trish's Hokkien Mee was OK as well.  We ate beside the beach in a lovely shaded spot.  I think we might do that again one day!

Sunday Update

A glorious sunny 28 degrees and just marvellous.  Especially now the two helicopters doing touch n' go's at 8 am this morning have called it quits for the day.  My computer email went off like a time bomb when the first low flying helicopter arrived soon after 8 am this morning.

I grabbed some photos then quickly sent them off to the Sunshine Coast Airport CEO for his information.

We have residents going to local Councillors, to MP's, everything.  Quite a lively discussion around here right now.  Not sure if it was protests or what but the flights have now stopped!

We enjoyed very pleasant drinks on Friday evening.  We arrived home around 8:30pm and watched something 'light' on the TV.  This meant if we fell asleep it didn't matter!

Quiet enough at Computer Club on Saturday morning, a quick 'bottling' followed and then sat down to watch Victoria and South Australia play in a 50 over cricket match on the Pay TV.  The Vics got over the line by 2 wickets with three balls to spare!

I was back on my bike this morning and did a 13k bike ride.  I had helped someone with a Laptop problem during the week and was presented with 6 stubbies on my ride this morning!  All handy stuff to receive.

This is a bottle of 40% alcohol which I was given yesterday.  I will mix a little Bundaberg Rum flavouring in it and add a little water to get the contents up to 1.125l.  That should keep Trish right for Bundy And Cola for the next few months.

Again there is cricket on the telly this afternoon.  I might possibly sneak a swim in as well once the pool temp rises a little.

The gazebo canopy has stretched and ripped in one place.  With any shower of rain, each of the corners fill with water.  I picked up the $40 replacement canopy last week and it is ready to go.  We took the gazebo down yesterday as the consistent showers of rain meant the gazebo canopy roof kept filling up!

Cooler Weather

We have had showers most night.  10mls one night, 2 mls last night gives you an idea of the sort of thing we have been experiencing.  Around 28 degrees today and high teens overnight.  The lower over night temperatures have had a huge impact on the pool temperature, it was around 25 degrees this morning when I jumped in after my 13 k bike ride.

Today's ride was a little easier than other recent rides.  The reason is I pumped the tyres up!  The Bike Shop suggested I run the tyre pressure around 50psi.  This little gadget which reads tyre pressures arrived the other day, around $7-50 from China of course.

The instructions were in Chinese as well so it took a little trial and error to sort out.  The readings said I was running at around 35psi.  So a quick pump to around 50psi and everything was 'go' again.

Yesterday was bottle washing day.  This was the first bottle washing I had done for some time because I have now recycled all my 'old' plastic bottles and replaced them with new ones. New bottles only require a quick rinse.  Used bottles require the full treatment, wash, rinse a couple of times and then sanitize them. I will probably bottle tomorrow after Computer Club!

Yesterday afternoon I received a call to pop around and show a guy a bit around using Wordpress.  This is a program used for maintaining and creating 'online web sites'.  This is the method we have used for the Community Association's website.

His version of Wordpress looked very different to mine, so it took a little sorting out to see how it works.  But we got there in the end and he was bamboozled by all the new information.  But he now sees what can be done so with a little 'trial and error' he should be OK.

Trish is at Quilters this morning.  Just before she left home, the kitchen 'mixer' tap started to leak badly.  The local plumber had given me a new one as I had told him there was a bit of a leak.  Today the bit of a leak turned into a 'gush'!  As we are pensioners it was just a matter of a call to "St Andrew's Care" and a plumber was dispatched immediately.  The plumber happens to be the guy who gave me the mixer tap when I set up and helped him buy a new laptop.

So all is working well again.

We have drinks around 4pm this afternoon, a little later than normal.  I have the cricket on TV so I will be have plenty on!

Midweek Update

The gazebo now has a second rip in it.  Trish patched the first rip.  We then went to put the canopy back on and it ripped again.  So now the gazebo is 'up' but it has a rip in it,  I dropped in at Bunnings to see if they could supply me with a new "Oztent" 3m x 3m canopy.  The guy I spoke with knew all about spares and replacements and after a quick look on the computer he discovered there were replacement canopies for my gazebo model and at $40  I immediately ordered one.  It has to be delivered up from Brisbane but was told if one was in stock there I should have it in a couple of days.  I continue to wait.

It is a bit overcast and showery this morning and I have tipped 9mls of overnight rain out of the gauge.  The pool has again been topped up and I haven't been on my bike this morning. I lower the front leg of the gazebo to ensure all the rain drains from the roof.

Cooler weather blew in around Monday!  Top temps are now in the high 20's, a blustery (and dust carrying) southerly has blown all the humidity away.  Last night we didn't even have the fan on in the bedroom.  There has been a significant drop in the temp of the pool.

Computer Club was reasonably busy again on Saturday.  One of the guys I had helped out the week before with his laptop turned up with a bottle of distilled 40% proof alcohol.  All I had to do was add the essence of my choice to the alcohol and 'voila' I would have a 1.125l bottle.

Don't let the label fool you, check the bottle neck and screw top and you will see it is actually a 1.125l Bundaberg Rum bottle!  The real Sambucca will set you back around $60 for this size bottle so I was pretty pleased with my $11-50 investment.  I have asked him for a second bottle of alcohol, this should then replenish our supply of Rum!

The Community Association has kept me very busy this week.  Caloundra Airport is right near to our estate.  The concern people have is with Helicopter Schools conducting training 'touch 'n go's and doing repetitive circuits at low height over the estate.  A company at Maroochydore Airport has won a contract to train 50 pilots from the Middle East.  Sunday morning the company decided that two helicopters would do training at Caloundra Airport.  So on Sunday residents experienced over 4 hours of non-stop helicopters doing low level circuits over the estate.  As there were two of them residents had no escape from the barrage.

I have some good contacts so eventually after a few hours it was time for action.  Emails suddenly went off to the local MP's, local Councillors, The Sunshine Coast Airport CEO, and the Helicopter Training School protesting over the prolonged training session.  One mum wrote on our Facebook Page that her daughter was crying with her hands over her ears asking mum to make the loud noise go away.

The Airport CEO got straight back to me saying he would investigate. He shortly afterwards contacted me again saying planned activities for the day by helicopters had concluded.  Emails and website updates followed over the next day or two.  I am still awaiting a final response from the company involved.  An hour or so of continuous flights is reasonable but over 4 hours on a Sunday by multiple helicopters was too much.

Friends Ian and Kerri are heading off to Singapore and Malaysia in April for ten days.  So yesterday, to help introduce them to Malaysian food, the four of us journeyed down to Sunnybank south of Brisbane to try some Malaysian food.

We had a quick look around and then settled into lunch.  Needless to say we ordered our favorites, Chicken Curry, Char Kway Teow, Lobak, Salt and Pepper Squid and a Roti.  Ian couldn't believe the bill at $48!  Kerrie really enjoyed it.  Ian is a little more conservative and he found the chicken curry not to his liking because it was a little spicy.  That just meant there was more for us!

Rather than travel over 100k's just for lunch, we had a look around a local shopping centre then adjourned to a pub before tackling an evening meal at a different restaurant.  The afternoon was very pleasant.  After visiting Dr Dan's for a red wine we eventually went back to a different restaurant for an evening meal.  This time we had Hainan Chicken Rice, Malay Fried Chicken, Satay Skewers, Singapore Fried Noodles and Murtabak.

We managed to get through it all.  The food was fine but not to the same quality as our lunch had been.  The satay sticks had been deep fried and the Malay Fried Chicken wasn't as good as we usually experience when in Melbourne.  This time we were up for $60!

Then it was a 100k+ drive back home.  After plenty to eat and drink during the day, Trish and I both slept really well.  It was a day Ian and Kerri won't forget!

Friday

Well, the end of the week has arrived.  As per usual it has been busy and for this time of year, hot and sweaty.  A cooler pool of air from the south is expected tomorrow morning bringing with it a few showers.

It didn't take the pool long to heat up after last weekend's deluge.  And the weather is more like we should expect in summer, that is a little sticky and the occasional heavy shower or thunderstorm.  The other night we had 10mls, enough to top the pool up again and give the flowers a water.

The portability of the new stick vacuum cleaner has seen it come out even for 5 minutes at a time to give the ensuite, the computer room or kitchen floor a quick clean.

I just gave it a bit of a workout and did 95% of all the tile areas here at the house.  Its portability means it is easy to maneouvre.  

I had Community Association on Tuesday night which meant a big website update on Wednesday.  Trish had Stitchers on Wednesday and Quilters today.

Thursday was 'free' so we decided on a day out.  A huge new shopping "Home Centre" had opened in Maroochydore so we tripped down for a bit of a look.  It is about time we had a feature like that here on the coast.  For lunch we headed back to the refurbished Mooloolaba Surf Club.  We had the 'Seniors Carvery' which gave us access to the buffet with roast pork, vegetables as well as a salad bar.

The 'Seniors' bit meant we got a smaller plate.  All this meant was you heaped the food on higher!  The cauliflower was a bit firm but the rest was passable.  Really, all you can eat and under $10 per person was good value.  The drinks were OK too. On top of that we received a free ice-cream in a cone and a soft drink.  My 2 schooners of VB were enough for me.  But it was all a bit of of fun.

Mooloolaba Surf Club overlooks the beach (or what is left of it after the storms last weekend).  There were people in swimming and believe me, it was warm enough to spend a lot of time in the water!

The Council will get its teams onto the sand and pump it back onto the beach again so things will be back to normal.

On the way home we had a quick refuel at "Dr Dan's", (Dan, Murphy the discount booze barn).

The gazebo hasn't been up for a few days.  The canopy seems to catch the water and it makes huge pools in it.  The material isn't the best either and it has noticeably faded and appeared less opaque recently.  It isn't designed to be a permanent fixture.  We really want something which is semi-permanent.

When we arrived home yesterday I decided to worry less about the weather and just put the gazebo up to give us some shade during these very hot days.  Unfortunately it wasn't 'sitting properly' when we expanded the base and in its weakened state, the canopy ripped.  We will try patching up but it looks like we will be after a new replacement canopy.

The supplier for the model we bought is in China and doesn't have replacement canopies.  However a better quality replacement which fits the "OzTrail" brand gazebo also fits the brand and model we have.  That canopy is twice the rating of what is currently on our gazebo.  Needless to say it is much more expensive!

Hopefully the repaired canopy will get us through this summer!

Today we bought tickets to fly to Melbourne in April to attend a wedding.  We will arrive down there on Tuesday April 9th and fly home again a week later.