Picture Book Perfect

Easter Sunday and we awoke to a most glorious morning, plenty of bright sunshine after a cool overnight temp of around 17.  There was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was still with no breeze.

I was on my bike quite early this morning and completed a 13k bike ride around where we live.

Click on all photos for a larger view.

I arrived back home to catch Trish about to trim the two lilypilly trees we have growing in our small front garden.  We just about filled the Green Waste bin and we still have one of the two trees to complete.  But that was enough exercise for one morning.

I took fifteen minutes and mowed the front lawn to pick up the excess leaves and twigs from the pruning.  It looks OK.  With the weather returning to normal, the grass is growing like crazy and the lawn grubs are back.  I gave the lawn a spray a few days ago and I will give it the mandatory second serve of Grub Killer just prior to heading to Melbourne in a week or so.

The pool is now a little on the brisk side so my morning swim after the ride, pruning and mowing wasn't as long as it could have been.

Our scheduled 'drinks' session for Friday was brought forward to Thursday as one of the couples (Ian and Kerrie) had an engagement for Friday evening.  As usual it was lots of fun and plenty of laughs.

We have made some enquiries about putting solar energy onto the house.  We can get a 1.88KW system for around $3000.  I have had several quotes so far and this seems to be the best deal available at the moment.  Ian and Kerrie may also be in the market for a similar system so we will check out if we can get a better deal for 2 systems.

Good Friday was super quiet.  It was quiet because we kept out of Caloundra.  Over Easter the population of this place explodes as families head north from Brisbane to the beach for Easter.  With no AFL scheduled, we watched a couple of NRL matches on TV.  I suspect the AFL is missing out on not scheduling any games on Good Friday.  The NRL match in Sydney had a record 52000 attendance!

With the first round of the AFL returning to our screens on Saturday I planted myself in front of the Telly and enjoyed it all.

Computer Club was a little frustrating on Saturday morning.  A member who I believed knew her way around the computer wanted a little help in doing a factory back-up of her new laptop.  Nowadays you often need to create your own set of backup DVD disks in lieu of no copy of Windows being supplied in the purchase.

I gave up in frustration as the backup just wouldn't work.  Eventually I handed the problem to the Computer Tech.  It turned out the lady had brought CD's instead of DVD's!

Another member wanted to update his Tom Tom Via GPS to the latest maps.  He said he had done this and that and was ready to update.  As it turned out he hadn't done the right thing!  I began a 'new' process and suggested he finish it off at home.  He rang me to say the maps had updated perfectly when he got home.

Despite the glorious start to the day we have been promised a wet afternoon and the possibility of up to 4" of rain!  The footy on TV will be a great idea.  The wet weather isn't a good forecast for the holiday makers in town.

Two Days In a Row

How about that, two posts in two consecutive days!

A couple of brief showers put an end to any thought of a bike ride this morning.  I have been riding every morning up until today.  However I delivered over 160 newsletters by foot on Monday in lieu of a bike ride.  I think I would have preferred a bike ride actually.

I am off to buy and install a WD TV SMP media player today for one of the ladies from the Computer Club later this morning.  She gets a steady stream of movies and TV Shows from me and has been watching them on a very old model media player.  It doesn't even play the more modern file types.

If everything goes OK it is straight forward to setup.  The major hassle is being able to access her home wireless network which I have set up for her some time ago.

We have begun watching Season 2 of the TV Series "Rome". After a couple of nights we have watched 5 episodes. 

I managed to get a copy of the TV movie, "The Challenger".  It was about the inquiry into The Challenger shuttle disaster when a space shuttle blew up around 80 seconds into its flight, killing all on board.

One physics investigator on the inquiry wasn't prepared for a white wash and persevered until the real cause was discovered.

It was a gripping story and one we enjoyed very much.

We are slowly getting into gear for our trip to Melbourne for Tammy's wedding in a fortnight.  Our "Melbourne" car has been resurrected, it was suffering from a very flat battery, Our daughter Kate informs us it is currently running delightfully.  Good friends June and Keith look after the car for us and garage it at their place.  Usually Keith starts it up every couple of weeks but he overlooked it once. The RACV got it going OK it appears.

We are only in Melbourne for a week and one of those nights will be spent in a hotel after the wedding, another night will be spent with Chris Wendy and the grandkids the night before we are due to fly back home. So we will only be with Kate for 5 nights.

I have already 'teed' Brian up to drive us to the Maroochydore Airport and to collect us on our return.

It's Wednesday!

The cricket here in Australia is all over for another summer. The cooler weather we have been experiencing recently has now reverted to be hot and steamy again.  In our little backyard it feels warmer, so though it may be 30 degrees, it is another 4 or 5 degrees warmer in the backyard.  The extra concrete has made it a little warmer too.  However the backyard gets very little breeze being so small and enclosed.  It holds the heat.

Needless to say this is exceptional in winter!

We had lunch yesterday at the Dicky Beach surf club.  It wasn't the biggest and best meal we had ever had but it was extremely pleasant.  It did mean we could clean up a few left overs from the fridge for our evening meal though.  Trish had some discount vouchers for her birthday from Dicky Beach so we utilised them yesterday.

I went around to someone's place yesterday morning to assist them with their "WordPress" website.  Our 'Community Association' website is also "WordPress" and I have learnt my way around it. I have gained a fair bit of expertise with it and it was a pleasure to help him out.

Despite being "WordPress", their website 'dashboard' (where you do all the new entries from) is very different to ours and lacks much of the flexibility that ours has.  I was able to help him and get things set up the way he wanted.

With the weather improving after a cooler than usual couple of weeks, the pool has again become a great spot for a quick swim later each afternoon.  The water temperature is around 27 degrees in the pool come the afternoon so it is very pleasant.

Trish is at Stitchers this morning while I am having a quiet day on the PC.

We have no one living next door at the moment as they left a week or so ago.  I think the lease runs out this weekend so we can expect new neighbours possibly moving in over Easter.

The original owner of the house next door was in her 70's.  She decided to plant palms in the small backyard.  She planted about 8 of them and all of them close to the fence.  As they grow it won't be long until they begin to damage all the backyard fences.  I showed an offending palm to one of the Real Estate Agents.  She took photos with her phone as she thinks it needs removing.

After absolutely nothing had happened, I sent them off an email today saying the palms are still there and any cost of damage would need to be born by the owner.  I expect there may be some action soon!

This week we are having our 'drinks' on Thursday.  It is around at our place so I have warned them that our TV will probably come on 'automatically' at 6:45pm for the AFL live from Melbourne.  It is earlier than usual because down south they have Daylight Saving and we don't.  So even though the match is due to get underway at 7:45pm local time, it will be 6:45pm our time.

I expect Daylight Saving time across Australia finishes this Sunday when everything reverts to 'normal'.

At Last, Some Quiet Time.

It has been a particularly busy morning this morning.  I had computer club followed by the "Official" opening of one of the local parks.  The park opening was especially successful.  As President of the local community association I was very heavily involved.  It seemed to go pretty well.  It is a very warm sunny day here today so an hour or so outside in the warm sun was a bit harrowing.  All done now.  I am back at home and able to relax.

The hard drive I spoke about in the post below arrived lunch time Wednesday.  It has now taken over from the previous drive which is now utilised for archive storage.  It takes around 8 hours to move files from one drive to the other but all is now finished.

I bottle washed on Wednesday and then bottled on Thursday.  I have enough beer to sink a ship!

Trish is improving albeit slowly each day.  She still is a little dizzy from time to time.  Her not feeling a million dollars did not have a huge impact on drinks on Friday!  She was able to handle herself OK.

On Wednesday we went to the RSL and a night with Dean Vegas.  He is an Elvis Presley impersonator and does a pretty good job.  It was an entertaining evening and the food was OK.  Trish was able to use her RSL vouchers from her birthday.  These entitle you to drinks, pokie money and $15 towards a meal. She had Pork Belly while I had the Fish of the Day.

For the first half of his show, Dean Vegas was dressed as a G.I.  He was in the more familiar Elvis garb for the second half of the show. Click on the photo for a larger view.

Our youngest daughter Kim has just today purchased a 2 bedroom apartment in St Kilda.  The position is right in the middle of everything.  It is a little run down right now but a great buy when compared to the prices on neighbouring places.  Kim gets the keys at the end of May when Trish is down there.  Needless to say she is extremely excited.  We are pleased it has two bedrooms!

The footy has recommenced on TV.  We also get the Sheffield Shied Final live on TV as well as the Fourth test from New Delhi in India.  With heaps of beer in the fridge, plenty of sport on TV can you guess where I will be for much of the afternoon ..... and tomorrow?

New Neighbours?

The rental property on the eastern boundary of our home is again vacant.  We are hopeful the new tenants will be OK.  The former tenants are carrying out the final cleaning up now.  They had the lawns and gardens done yesterday, a professional house cleaner spent a couple of hours in there this morning and the wife will be back on Thursday to clean up the bins etc. They have paid their rent up until the end of the month so it will most likely remain vacant until then.

We hardly hear from her, she is very quiet and doesn't want to talk.  Ethan, her husband used to work at Mt Tom Price in W.A.  He would be away for up to 6 weeks at a time.  Her family are in another suburb so they are moving to be closer to her relatives.  Ethan now still works away from home but now he is in Chinchilla which is only a few hundred kilometres away.

It seems Trish has a virus as we are hearing of other people with similar nausea and extreme dizziness symptoms.  Sunday she was great, Monday wasn't a good day for her but she is a little better today.

Our very hot weather on Sunday has switched to overcast and much cooler weather yesterday and today. We even pulled the doona up around us early this morning.

I have a 1TB portable hard drive on which I store all of my latest movies, tv shows and other bits and pieces.  It is almost like taking my own computer with me when I head off somewhere.  A few times recently I have been getting some strange error messages recently, like this file is locked or something.

You run a little program called "CheckDisk" which checks the hard drive to make sure it isn't damaged.

If you get a lot of these error messages it can mean your disk is on the way out.  Just to make sure I am not left high and dry with a dead hard drive I ordered a replacement 1TB portable drive from "Officeworks" yesterday.  I bought it online and it will be delivered to my home later this week.

It is a pretty nifty little piece of technology.

I also bought a 750GB drive for a friend in Melbourne.  I have filled it with TV Seasons, TV Mini -Series and lots of movies and I will take it to Melbourne with us when we travel down there in a couple of weeks time for a wedding.

Senior Brilliance

I liked this one:

The latest "News" post appears below!

More Shade

Summer has hit back with a vengeance today.  There is hardly a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining brightly.  It is around the low 30's today, easily the hottest day we have had it for quite a few weeks.

I did the bike ride this morning and what should have taken well under an hour took around 90 minutes.  I was caught up having a chat with a couple of people.  One was a Bellvista resident "Nathan" who works for a neighbouring MP as an advisor.  I was bringing him up to speed with the helicopter issue.  His wife and young family were with him.  He hadn't noticed the helicopters because he is at work all day.  His wife sure let him know they were still a problem!

We are experimenting a little with the gazebo (and the new canopy) in the backyard.  The concrete up the back is great but we miss some shade.  The gazebo has shown us how important it is to have shade in the backyard and beside the pool.

With the share market doing a little better we are considering a permanent structure in the back to provide the shade.  The structure must be under 10 square metres to exclude it from Council building charges.

We get some pretty rough storms up this way and there is always the thought that if a severe storm hits and we have left the gazebo up it could be severely damaged.  Any threat of a storm means the gazebo has to be taken down.

I saw this structure at a display in Maroochydore recently.  This measures 3m x 3m but has all the sides filled in.  For what we are after, we would want the rear gable area 'filled in' but all the rest open.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

You can have it built to any size you want. For example we would prefer it something like 2.6m from the back fence which would set it back a little more from the pool and possibly a little wider e.g. 3.5m.

We would position it 'roughly' in the middle of the area and consider a blind on the 'pool filter' side.  In summer the sun goes down over the back pool filter corner of the block.

The fence there provides shade as the sun gets lower in the sky.  In winter the sun goes down right behind the pool filter, therefore we could get a little afternoon winter sun under the new shade area.

There would be guttering along two sides of the roof which would just open onto the concrete and away through the new drain.

By building something a little 'upmarket' we would add to the value of the property and provide some much needed shade.  We could possibly do something just before Christmas.

I am pleased to report that Trish is feeling much better today but she still is not 100%.  Hopefully she will be fine tomorrow.

This afternoon I can either watch the cricket from India on TV or spend time poolside.  I think the pool sounds a great idea, especially in light of the recent performance of our cricketers!

Not In The Deaths Column Yet!

When I haven't posted for a few days some people get the wrong idea.  They think I am either in hospital or that I have passed on!  Neither is true though Trish isn't too good right now.

She has had a big week with a procedure on Tuesday and then an MRI on Thursday.  She wasn't too well when I collected her after the MRI.  She was extremely nauseous and very giddy.  A quick trip to the doctor Thursday evening saw her have a needle for the nausea but she was told to go home and rest for the giddyness.  She slept well over 10 hours on Friday and didn't even make "Quilters" on Friday.

She is a little better today but still needing to take things easily.

I have been very busy with Community Association business (and watching cricket on the telly!).  We had a photo shoot promotion for the "Open Shed" program on Wednesday, we had a Vision Forum to attend on Friday and then a trip through some Terrace Style Homes in the new Bells Reach estate later in the afternoon.  Each episode requires an entry on the Community Association website and all takes time.

With Trish not moving too well I needed to be contactable as well.

On top of all that, I am in the middle of doing some preparations for an "Official" park opening next weekend!

Computer Club was busy today but I managed to fix a major problem one member had.  Every time she went to open a "word" document, Microsoft Office wanted to re install itself.  But we managed to fix that this morning.

To top it all off I have just added another brew to today's tasks.  This means bottle washing and a bottling later next week.

Pretty warm here today, low 30's but minimums now are either very 20's or high 'teens'.

Must be off, cricket is about to start on TV.  AFL gets underway next week!

Busy, busy busy!

Overcast And Showery!

It has been a very ordinary and cool overcast day for this part of the world.  The temperature is in the low 20's, yes that is correct ... low 20's. 

It is possibly warmer in the pool right now that what it is sitting in the house.

Very little more news.

This morning I helped a guy setup to download movies and TV shows via Usenet.  Needless to say, when I awoke earlier this morning and looked outside it was obvious I wouldn't be heading off on a bike ride.

We did venture to Kawana Shopping Centre yesterday afternoon to fill in a couple of hours.  I saw my $200-20 Yamaha Amplifier on sale for $470 from the same store as I bought it from.  I was after some shorts, "Rugger Brand" which I managed to find OK.  They have sure gone up in price since I last bought them.  When reaching in for my credit card to pay, the lady serving me noticed I had a "Senior's Card" which entitled me to a 10% discount.

There is some thought we should enjoy a marked improvement in the weather come this weekend with temps again around 30 with a bright blue and sunny sky.

Overcast

There really isn't a lot to write about.  The weather has remained very comfortable with tops around 28 each day.  It remains showery with at least a few mls to enter onto my tallies most days.

Trish remains busy with the Caloundra Arts Centre Association.  On Thursday I set up a backup system for a mate on his laptop.  On Friday I helped a guy get Bigpond connected to his modem router.

Our night out Wednesday was great fun at the "Bamboo Garden" Chinese Restaurant and we all had heaps to eat and great company.

Computer Club was OK yesterday.  A lady didn't uninstall an "Office" program correctly, then tried a System Restore to try to fix the problem which arose.  Every time she goes to open "Word", Office wants to reinstall itself.  I have had that happen before myself and the one reliable way to fix it is re format your hard drive.  Something has happened within the Laptop's Registry so that every time you want to want to open Word, the computer thinks you want to install Office again.

So that really is about it.  We had 13mls of rain overnight so bike riding was off the timetable for this morning.  Another shower of rain made that a good decision.

The people in the house to the left as you face our home are moving as their lease is at an end.  They find the small home no longer suits their needs.  We will keep our fingers crossed that the new tenants are OK.  This won't happen for a few weeks but already people are looking through it.

A Busy Few Days

At last we are experiencing some dry days.  We continue to get the occasional shower flipping through and usually this occurs around 6:30 am just as I am getting ready to embark on my daily bike ride.  Today I actually managed my regular 13k bike ride and arrived back home without enduring any quick sharp shower of rain.

Much of recent days has been filled with enduring the cricket from India on TV.  It is pretty hard to watch when Australia's batsmen commit suicide and just don't value their wickets enough.  At least both the cricketers and my self have been put out of our misery with a frightful performance yesterday!

One 'highlight' of Monday was a trip to the dentist.  Hopefully my problem has now been fully overcome.  Don't you just love the sound of the dentist's drill?

Monday night was a Community Association Public Meeting night.  We had around 40 people in attendance and there was some heated discussion on helicopters over the estate with one of our guest speakers, Peter Pallot the CEO of Sunshine Coast Airport.  I think everyone went away as happy as they could be.  Some of the more expensive blocks on the estate are relatively close to the flight path for aircraft landing on the east-west runway of the nearby airport.  In hind sight, those blocks may not have been a good choice.  I guess that is what happens when people don't make full enquiries before buying a new home!

This meant Tuesday was a big day updating all the news on the BeCA website.  It was Trish's birthday too and we celebrated by doing some shopping around lunchtime and enjoying Fish n' Chips for tea.

A group of us are out this evening for a meal at the Bamboo Garden Restaurant.  It has pretty good Chinese Food there.

The 2 500GB external Hard disk drives I bought online from Harvey Norman last week arrived today.  One is for the Arts Centre Association and the other is for good friend Ian Eather which I will set up for him as a backup.  Recently Ian had a scare with his laptop and he thought he had lost everything.  This will now ensure that if he has a problem with his laptop he should have his major stuff backed up.

I also washed bottles this morning for my next brew.  13 of the 30 or so I required were brand new bottles, never been used and just required a quick rinse.  This meant the job was a little easier than usual.

After all was finished I did have a quick swim in the pool.  It was a little on the refreshing side following all the poor cooler weather we have had recently.

Some Respite

Today the weather forecast has moved from "Rain" to "Showers".  We actually had a little sunshine earlier today just before lunch.  Since the rain started Friday afternoon until just now we have had another 190mls of rain all up!  That is a little over 1100 mls in total so far in 2013!  That is a lot of rain, around 44" in the old terms!

And the weather bureau says we can expect showers for the rest of the week.

My bike is again for sale!

Drinks was extremely convivial on Friday and I should also add we were very well behaved!  It was a fun time.

Computer Club was a little quiet on Saturday because of the wet weather but I was kept busy enough helping people out.

Despite requiring hearing aids, I do enjoy listening to quality sound on my sound system.  As I now have my new $200 amplifier I have discovered I can play Digital Theatre Sound (DTS) files from my Media Player through the amp and get full DTS sound.  There isn't a lot of commercial music around which is DTS in quality, so people try to 'create' their own DTS soundtracks by manipulating their current music files.  Some work really great, others aren't quite so good. Some complete CD's come as just a single DTS track

The last day or so I have been combing download sites to find DTS audio cd's, whether commercially made or put together by home enthusiasts.  I have had a ball.  Using trial and error (along with a failure or two) I have discovered how to download a long single DTS music file and to 'rip' it into its individual tracks.  

In between time I have been enjoying the footy on TV and enduring the cricket live from India.

As I purchased some more clean bottles recently I already have enough empties to get ready for another brew.  The brew went on around an hour ago!  Half the bottles will be 'new' so they don't need the same level of cleaning as re-use bottles do.  This will make bottle washing a little easier later in the week.

Guess What? More Rain Is On Its Way!

I took my bike off the "For Sale" list this morning and managed a 12.5km bike ride, the first for around a week!  Though heavily overcast with high cloud, any rain stayed away while I completed the bike ride.

With the break in the weather it was rather busy around here this morning.  Mould had built up on some of the pavers with all the the rain so I gave it a 1:2 ratio chlorine and water sweep over the affected areas.  A quick 'firm' house off and they look great again.

I managed a quick mow of the front lawn as well and finished with a catcher full, easily the most grass I have cur from it for over 6 months.  Despite how the good the photo looks, there is a substantial amount of weed in the lawn but it sure looks better than here.

With all that work now out of the way I needed a quick swim prior to tackling my final task for the morning, to bottle the latest brew.  Now as I type it is trying to rain with spots falling from time to time.  Showers are expected to break into rain this afternoon and go on for a day or so.

Drinks are on at our place this afternoon but that won't be until around 4pm.  Next week it will be earlier as the Rugby League begins with live TV from 7:30.  This means drinks will need to be over a little earlier as the the other two couples are both Rugby League fans.  AFL doesn't begin in earnest for another three weeks.

I bought two 500GB external USB3 Hard Drives for around $46 each delivered from the Harvey Norman online website yesterday. Trish is after one for her "Stitchers" group.  They can then have a store of all their stuff, photos, newsletters, website etc all kept together in one spot.  At $46 each they were a great buy.

The other drive is for Ian, one of the drinking crew.  He will use it to back up his laptop 'just in case'.

I have found another couple of TV Series which I will 'collect'.  One is called "The Americans", the story of a married couple who are really KGB spies planted in the U.S. around 1970.  It looks quite good.

The second is called "Banshee", and tells the story of a recently released "con" who has fallen into the role of the sheriff of the small town called Banshee.  It looks good as well.

Run both titles through IMDB and check them out.