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.