It's In Brisbane

I ordered my new (but very inexpensive) mobile phone 'online' from China on Tuesday of last week.  According to the "Tracking Facility" the parcel has arrived in Brisbane this morning.  It takes a few days to get from the warehouse in mainland China to the Airport at Hong Kong.

You can follow its trip to date on the screenshot above left. You will need to click on the photo and then click on the "X" to return to this page.  Previous experience has been that it will take 24 hours to clear customs here in Australia, then an overnight trip from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast for delivery to my home the day after.  With New Year's Day holiday it seems I should receive the parcel early next week.

That should mean a two week delivery time but does include Christmas and New Year holidays.  Though I am not sure Christmas is all that big and warrants a holiday in mainland China!

The very hot weather continues.  Much of today is being spent poolside with short treks inside to catch up with obtaining movies and TV Shows.  Speaking of which, last night we watched the movie "The Judge" and found it to be excellent.  So keep your eyes open for it, it is worth watching!

The pool water temp hit the magical 30º this morning and will be even warmer later today.  The weather will slowly cool off just a little bit each day until the weekend.  I see where Melbourne has 36º one day later this week and 38º the following day.  A hot and sultry 32º here today seems pretty good compared to what is expected later this week in Melbourne, especially with our pool in the backyard!

Last night we slept under the fan while it was whirling away on the "High" setting.  This followed a late night swim.

So far today I have ridden 12.7k's, uploaded heaps of photos for the Community Association website update and washed and dried 30 bottles for my bottling in the next day or so. I have also had 2 swims so far.  A few more will follow later on.

We are not doing anything for New Year's Eve.  At one stage we were going to go to an Irish Pub in Mooloolaba for the night with friends.  There was a probable 2am finish to that one.  We decided it wasn't really our thing so declined the invitation.  With a hot night on the way, a few cool drinks beside the pool here at home this evening sounds extremely inviting!

Hot & Steamy

The weather is the main talking point around the area today.  At the beginning of yesterday after a cool day or two, the pool was mid 20's.

By 5pm the pool water was almost 30º.  The cloudy morning yesterday cleared to a bright sunny day.  At 5pm the clouds returned and we had quite a heavy shower around 9pm.

This morning there were 11mls in the rain gauge and the sun was shining brightly again.  The photo above left  was taken during my bike ride this morning.

I was a mass of perspiration after my 13k bike ride and the swim in the pool after my ride was delightful.  With that heavy shower last night, the humidity was well up this morning too, making it feel even hotter.  The weather bureau are talking of a top temperature around 32º today along with 65% humidity.

The house is all locked up with the blinds drawn, all designed to keep the heat out.  If necessary the air-con will get a run later on.  Then of course there is the pool.  We will get through the day without a hassle.

The MCG cricket is on TV weather permitting! The forecast for Melbourne is showery but hopefully there won't be too many interruptions to play.

Day 4

Needless to say, much of my recent time has been spent watching the cricket Test Match Australia Vs India from Melbourne.  Today is Day 4!  It has been very enjoyable to watch though at this stage it may be the MCG pitch is 'too good' and not providing enough help to the bowlers.  Therefore it has been a run feast and the game may end as a draw.

Kim headed home Saturday morning. It was great having her with us and enabled us to have a great Christmas.

Boxing Day saw the three of us head off for a walk along Kings Beach.  From there we popped into the Kings Beach Surf Club for a drink.  It was overcrowded and extremely hot.  After a quick drink it was decided home was a better bet right beside the pool.

We enjoyed tea at the Bellvista Tavern.

Just before Kim headed off on Saturday morning, the weather turned overcast and there were some light showers about.  It is now Monday morning and we have probably had around 20mls of rain overall.  This is relatively dry as the Gold Coast has received heaps more with some areas getting ten times the rain we have had here over the same period of time.

More showers are expected here this afternoon. I haven't been on a bike ride since Friday because of the wet or threatening weather.

But the pool is again full and the garden and lawns have received a good drenching.

The pool temp is down to 25.7º.  Yesterday it eventually got to be hot, high 20's in the late afternoon when the sun eventually broke through.  Much of Sunday was around 24º.

I put another brew on on Saturday morning and it has being doing all the right things, now bubbling along nicely the last day or so and with no overflows!

I expect to bottle wash possibly Wednesday, the weather looks good for drying that day before the wind and rain return later in the week.

Christmas Day

Today is around 30º, hardly a cloud in the sky and the pool is at a very similar temperature.  I am full to "Pussy's Bow" with roast pork, ham, smoked salmon, prawns and a couple of salads.  I have enjoyed several home brewed English Bitters, Australian Blondes with Lime and Australian Blonde lager.  Right now I an slowing down a tad and enjoying a 'home made' Sambucca.

The pool has been wonderful throughout the day and we have enjoyed several swims throughout the day.

Trish got a watch, perfume and a travel toiletries bag for Christmas while I got a "Fogless Shaving Mirror."  I have ordered a new phone too, all of $110 worth!

Kim received a new watch too.

We have spoken with Kate Arj and the family in a hotel in Dubai just before they head off for a Christmas Lunch with relatives of Arj.  Arj has relatives all over the place.

We had quite a long call with Chris and the two grand children down in Melbourne as well.

So now it is off to sleep off a huge meal!  Or take it easy anyway!

Merry Christmas to all.

Christmas Is On The Way

The weather is just delightful at the moment, not overly hot with top temperatures around 30 degrees or so which is enough to heat the pool up to the high 20's later in the afternoon.

The pool loses a degree or two (or even three if the night gets below 20º) overnight but this is usually perfect first thing in the morning after a sweaty 12k bike ride.

The photo (above left) is the highly scientific piece of equipment I use to calculate the pool water temperature.  It is an aquarium water thermometre.  I bought 4 of them shipped from China via eBay for $6 delivered some time ago.  The blu-tack stops the slider from moving back to Fahrenheit from Centigrade! The photo was taken Monday (yesterday) around lunch time.

It seems getting oil on the bike's disc brakes is a definite no-no!  When the brakes are applied, they squeal something terrible, and according to the internet, this indicates the disc pads are 'contaminated'.  It says the best way to try and clean them is to use 'alcohol'.  I have some 'alcohol surgical wipes' I use to clean my hearing aids.

I gave them a bit of a go on the bike's disc pads and I must say I have vastly improved the back brakes after cleaning using these wipes.  The bike is again usable so I am hoping that eventually any oil still on the pads will eventually wear away.

Trish went the post office to send some Christmas parcels to the grand children in Saudi Arabia.  She had bought some light weight easily sent items, but when she discovered the cost was around $65 by airmail and almost $40 via surface mail, we have decided to take the gifts over with us as belated gifts when we travel to KAUST in May.

My 'cheap' phone from China continues to work well.  The major drawback it has is there is a mere 4GB of ram in it.  Once you take out the space used by the operating system there isn't a lot of space left for 'apps'.  As the apps themselves update, they become larger and larger to cater for the extra 'features'.

The average iPhone or Samsung Galaxy has a minimum of 16GB Ram.  The top of the range iPhone/Samsung Galaxy models even have heaps more! Sometimes they may have over 64GB of Ram! But these phones can cost almost $1,000!  I can buy a great laptop for that amount of money!

Don't get me wrong, those devices are marvellous pieces of technology, but for someone just wanting to play a few simple games, check their emails, send a receive texts and make calls, $700 to $1000 is a lot of money.

On my phone I can switch some of the apps to the SD card.  But crucial essential apps must remain where they are originally installed.  It is this space which is becoming a problem on my current phone.

Frequently it gets that way nowadays where my phone's apps are unable to update 'due to insufficient' space'.  I need to clear the cache and in some cases uninstall apps and then reinstall them to get them to update.

Trish's phone, which has the same processor as mine, has 8GB of ram which means there is plenty of room for her apps to update.  Her phone cost around $100 and hasn't skipped a beat!  So my Christmas gift to myself this year is a new phone just like Trish's.  However the Aussie dollar is dropping like crazy.  This is great for the farmers, the miners and the country's economy, but not good for me buying a cheap phone from China!

The price of the phone has 'soared' to $110!  I ordered it online this morning and I may have it in a couple of weeks or around 9 'business' days.  With Xmas and New Year I expect delivery to take a little longer.

Our youngest daughter Kim flies up from Melbourne to spend a few days with us arriving later this afternoon. She returns to Melbourne on Saturday.

The 1.125mls of alcohol has been converted into 1 litre of Bundy Rum. An elderly lady who I help with her laptop dropped in yesterday with a $25 voucher for the local Tavern as thanks for helping her out this year.  Trish and I will have a meal there sometime in the early New Year.

Look, No Brakes!

Look, no brakes!

This is what happens when you have disc brakes on your bike and you decide to give the bike a bit of an oil!  Some oil splashes onto the discs and then when you are out riding and you try to put the brakes on, you just keep going!

Fortunately there was almost no oil on the front disc so I had that working pretty well as well as a slowly improving back brake.  When I eventually arrived home I put some degreaser onto a rag and gave all disks a good wipe over to remove most of the oil.  But the good thing is, after the oil, the squeak has gone!

Things work a lot better now!

And as you can see from the photo, today's ride was down to Caloundra and the Pumicestone Passage.

The Test Cricket has finished a day early so today will be predominately poolside.  The next Test begins on Boxing Day which is 5 or 6 days away.  In between time we have Kim flying up from Melbourne on Tuesday evening and staying for 4 nights.  A little longer would be good but we will be content with the four nights.  Then around two weeks later, Chris and family (4 in all)  fly up for a full week.

Now we have the two cars here there isn't a problem.  With four visitors later as well as Trish and myself, now we can all go out somewhere, even if we have to take the two cars.

The guy who makes the 40% proof alcohol dropped me off another 1.125 litres yesterday.  I won't make anything up just yet, I will wait and see what I need after Kim has gone!

I have had a not so good brew recently.  It is around 60- 70% on the taste rankings.  I only have around 3 bottles left so hopefully I will take care of that over the next day or so!  I made a lime flavoured lager at Kim's request after returning from Melbourne.  The mandatory two weeks wait after bottling will be up on Wednesday, just in time for us to give it a try!  I suspect the lime taste may be overpowering.  Not a problem as we just will mix that brew with another one, 50/50!

A cooler day in store today with a top in the high 20's, just about perfect.  The pool almost got to 30º yesterday at 29.9, but was a sensational 27º this morning.

A Bit Different

Things seem a bit different today.  It is Saturday morning and I am not at Computer Club!  It must be getting close to Christmas and the Computer Club has gone into recess until January 10th.

And I am at home and I have already completed a 12.5km bike ride and had a swim!  The live cricket on TV is around 20 minutes away.

But most importantly it is cooler today.  One of the Test Cricket TV commentators spoke with several of the Indian cricket players and asked them about the heat during the game here in Brisbane.  After all they play in cities such as Mumbai which regularly has heat well into the 30's.

However all of them said 35 or so at the "Gabba" (in Brisbane) was hotter than almost 40º at Mumbai.  They said the sun would burn you here whereas it wouldn't burn you in Mumbai!  The sun was more fierce here at this time of the year making conditions for playing cricket amongst the hottest they had faced.

Today is a little cooler with a S/E wind change early this morning.  So it will get to around 30º today but there will be that slightly cooler breeze.

We eventually got our 'promised' thunderstorm into the evening on Thursday.  We had 32 mls pelt down giving everything a well deserved drenching.  The gardens, the lawns and even the pool enjoyed the rain giving the plants and the lawn a new lease of life.

We do our aeroplane trip booking down to Melbourne regularly from here and have got cutting out the extra 'fees and charges' down to a fine art.  We use a special recommended fee free credit card with Tiger Airlines.  This saves over $8 per person per trip.  Without using this credit card our $160 return trip for both of us in August 2015 would have cost almost $200!

So we helped Chris and family out with their bookings for flights up here for later in January using this card.  There are 4 of them and with one 20kg suitcase they are flying up to Brisbane and back to Melbourne for well under $600 all up.  That is pretty good for mid-January school holiday flights!

Without the 'special' credit card it would have cost them almost $70 extra!

Another advantage of the recent thundery rain was it put my bike riding for that day on hold.  So I did a bottling instead.  I now give all the bottles a double pre-bottling rinse.  This is on top of the previous initial brush out and soak in water and bleach, followed a day or so later with a hot wash and two further rinses.  Then the bottles are whisked out with sanitizer and dried in the sun.

The photo above is of the bottles being drained just prior to bottling.  The bottling went well.

We had a great Skype chat with Kate late Friday afternoon.  They continue to enjoy it there, especially the safety aspect where the kids can wander down to the park for a play, bike ride or hit of tennis.  We are looking forward to getting over there in May 2015.

The cricket on TV beckons, I must away

Hot, Hot, Hot!

If you watched any of the Test Cricket from Brisbane yesterday, you will know it was a very hot day for us here in SE Queensland.  Players were suffering from heat distress and leaving the ground for showers and treatment.  Our small house was locked up, windows closed and blinds drawn.  The temp was supposed to have reached 35º but that 'official' measurement occurs at Maroochydore Airport, 25k's from us and well within 1km of the beach where it would get the sea breeze earlier.

I would suggest it was most likely a couple of degrees warmer than 35º here yesterday

The sun was best described as 'fierce'.  You felt if you stood out in it for even a short time you would be sunburnt. After all at this time of the year the sun is almost directly over the Tropic of Capricorn which is around 500k's north of us.  So the sun is almost directly overhead here at this time of year.

But the weather was great to warm the pool water after the couple of unseasonably cool days we had recently.

On top of everything, it was quite humid too.  So Trish sat poolside for much of the day while I sat in front of the TV watching the cricket with the ceiling fan on "Hi" and the air-con on 27º.  With the ceiling fan going, 27º is a great temperature to set the air con to keep the room comfortable.

Needless to say, on days like yesterday the pool is a life saver.  I had at least four sessions by and/or in the pool.  The final session was from around 8:30pm to 9:30pm.  It was extremely pleasant and very comfortable!

I set out early on my bike ride today in some steamy conditions.  There was a light sea mist.  The photo above left doesn't show the mist as clearly as I had hoped. Click on it for a larger view.  But the trees in the distance give an indication of how steamy and misty it was during my bike ride this morning.

The electronic notice board outside the Private School here on our estate said the time was just after 7 am and the temperature was 27º!

Today is TV cricket watching in between trips to the pool in the backyard!  Trish will be planted beside the pool with a good book and her towel to dry off after her numerous swims across the day.  She may have a little shopping to do first, but the pool won't be far away at all.

They say it will be 33º today, which means it will be just a little warmer for us here.  We are around 3 to 4k's away from the beach which means any cooling influence from off the ocean takes just a little longer to get to us.

It Felt Like Winter!

At this time of the year and in this part of the world you do not expect to get a top temperature of a mere 22º in December.  But that is what we got on Friday!  We closed windows and doors to keep the warm in.  We had strong and blustery southerly winds and heavy overcast gray skies.

It was the sort of weather where you 'rugged up' and watched a movie or two!

Luckily I had the cricket to watch from Adelaide.

On Friday another brew went on.  The recent trip to Melbourne put my brewing timeline out of whack so I have to do two brews almost one after the other to get back into sync.  After sweating like crazy the other day during a bottling, I was "rugged up" to do the new brew because of the cooler weather.  By rugged up I mean I wore a T-Shirt rather than a singlet!

The brew went off like crazy.  By Saturday afternoon it was bubbling away and even 'overflowing' with froth forcing its way out through the air lock and making a mess on the lid. I cleaned the mess up several times during Saturday afternoon.

By Sunday it had quietened down and was sticking more to plan.

The poor cold and drizzly weather put a stop to my bike riding for a few days.  On Sunday I delivered Community Newsletters in the drizzle but this morning Monday blue clear skies had returned and I was off riding.  This morning I rode over 12k's, I cleaned the pool (which was dirty after the rain/drizzle we have had dragging dust out of the air and depositing it into my pool) and then the pool filter.

Last week's cooler weather produced a total of 16mls of rain.

After that I have washed and sanitized 30 bottles to get ready for a bottling.  Currently they are drying off.  Then I even mowed the front lawn! Click on the photo above for a larger view.

With the brew bubbling away uncontrollably there for a while means it will be ready to bottle sooner rather than later!

My swim in the pool after the bike ride was a little shorter than normal for December.  The cold days and cooler nights meant the water temperature was just above 22º which after 28º is quite a shock to the system.  But now just before lunch it is almost back up to 25º so it should be back to summer normal pool temperature by late Tuesday afternoon as long as we get warm nights.

Currently we are watching the TV Series "Gracepoint".  This is a USA version of the British hit series "Broadchurch".  Gracepoint follows a similar line to Broadchurch but we are promised a 'different' ending!  We are enjoying it a lot.

Over the last couple of days I have 'acquired' the TV series "Marco Polo" which had all 10 episodes released on US Netflix over the weekend.

It's All Puff And Blow

The weather has been a major talking point in our part of the world.  With severe thunderstorms forecast for most afternoons and with some areas to the south receiving over 100mls, our little corner of the world has seen just 6 mls of rain!

The picture shows thunderstorms bearing down o Caloundra late yesterday (mid upper right) but from this system we received a mere three mls over two hours of ongoing drizzle.  Yet 30k's away and a little inland, they got well over 40mls.

The storms just died as they got closer to our coast.

In the meantime it has been hot and steamy with the pool being a popular spot.  We would grab several swims throughout the day and then a final swim just prior to retiring.

It has been warm overnight as well but the ceiling fans do a sensational job!

The helicopter issue in the skies above our homes has raised its head again.  Our local Council is just like any other government bureaucracy.  It has taken almost 2 months to get a couple of signatures onto an agreement before passing it along to the local developer for the final signature.  The developer signed and passed on the agreement within 36 hours.

Now it is Council's role to "implement" the agreement so helicopters will now do the vast majority of their touch n go's during pilot training well away from any residential area.

It seems that to help the Council get its act into gear, the local pilot training company decided to give our area another 'burst' of unwanted noisy helicopter touch n go activity. At times we have had two very large helicopters doing touch n go's for over an hour.

My broken filling now has a temporary crown on it.  I spent 90 very unpleasant minutes in the dentist's chair yesterday morning (Thurs) having the temporary crown fitted.  Needless to say the bill (of which less than 50% is covered by insurance) gets into the "Thousands" of dollars area!

I should have become a dentist!

The local Community Association has been successful in its submission for a $1000 Community grant.  The money will be put toward rebuilding the BeCA website which has become a little 'tired' over the last 4 or 5 years.

We are well into end of year Christmas parties.  Trish's main group had a huge luncheon recently which she mainly organised.  They had over 70 in attendance and it all went off perfectly.  The second group of which she is a mere 'member' is having a Christmas gathering today.

Computer Club has its Christmas goodies tomorrow.

I Monday I reformatted the neighbour's PC and it is running OK for them.  And yesterday I bottled the latest brew.  It took a couple of days before the brew began to work.  This is not a good sign!  However it was ready to bottle yesterday which is around a day behind schedule.  I bottled it in the garage when the temperature was 33º and the humidity was around 71%.  I needed a dry set of clothes after I finished.

The cricket Test match between Australia and India continues on TV today.  Before that I must pop into town for more home brew supplies.

The 'old' car we brought back from Melbourne lost the radio, dash clock and a red hazard light remained on.  It turned out to be the electric radio aerial was shorting out and needed to be replaced.  That was done yesterday along with a replacement 'alternator' belt.  The new alternator belt will make the neighbours happy as the car would let out a scream when first started each day.  It now runs very quietly!

The total cost was just over $100 and included a new alternator belt and a new aerial.  This cost fitted in with the sort of money we were looking to spend.  The quote was done at no charge by a local Auto Elec.  I cancelled the mobile guy who wanted around $50 just to look at it.

Finally, last night we watched the movie "Gone Girl" and we both have agreed that the female lead is not a very nice lady at all!  There are heaps of twists and turns!  It was very enjoyable to watch!

All Go Again!

I was doing some texting yesterday on Community Association business and mentioned to one person that my internet was down.  She said her son had experienced internet problems that morning too.  Then on a call regarding the Community Association upcoming newsletter I was told their internet was out that morning as well!

I went and checked my own modem/router and saw the internet light was on again and we were once again 'connected'!  So all is go again online! The internet was off for around 3 hours altogether.

It is extremely tropical here this morning.  The humidity is so high you can see it in the atmosphere like a very light fog up against the end of the street.

Hopefully it won't take much to 'ignite' the atmosphere and for us to get a heavy thunderstorm and give everything yet another good watering.  There are 'possible' storms for us 100k's north of Brisbane, while Brisbane itself and the Gold Coast further south have 'probable' storms in their forecast.

I am supposed to be re formatting a neighbour's PC this afternoon.  If all goes well it is a few hours work.  If things don't go well it could be 36 hours!  Hopefully it will be the former rather than the latter!

If all goes OK we will get the reformatting done, Office 2007 installed as well as Firefox and Thunderbird.  That should be enough to see them through until I can get the other stuff installed over the next few days.

People also do not realise the amount of updating the PC will want to do to get everything up to date.  The Computer is about 4 years old so it will need 4 years of Windows 7 updates!

Trish drove the 'old' car the other day and the radio, the dash clock no longer work and there is a red warning light on the dash saying one of the doors is still open.  I took the car to our local repair guy and he suggested I really needed an Auto Electrician.

We were offered $200 for the old car as a trade in some time ago.  Despite its low value, 6 months ago Trish drove it back from Melbourne (almost 2000k's) and it didn't miss a beat!  It will cost around $50 just for the "Auto Elec" to have a look at it and tell us what is wrong!

Where do we draw the line and say no, enough is enough?.  The car still runs beautifully, starts first go and runs on the smell of an oily rag!  How much should we spend to have these problems 'fixed'?

Internet Down

I have just got off the phone after a 30 minute call to my ISP "Internode".  The internet dropped out around an hour ago this morning (Sunday).  I am currently online via the mobile phone being connected to my PC for internet access.

The message from Internode was, if you are not back online by Wednesday morning, call us again.

We had modems connected all around the house earlier trying to isolate the problem.

Hope to be all back up and running soon!

UPDATE!  After speaking with others locally, all experienced Internet Connection problems this morning.  Just before 1pm our internet service was re connected and is now up and running again.

Saturday!

It is heading towards 7 am and I have Computer Club later on this morning. The final Computer Club meeting for 2014 is next Saturday Dec 14th.

The Community Association has kept me most busy the last day or so. There has been an issue with the local airport and I did an interview for TV and the local newspaper on it.  However the whole thing was to stir the local Council into getting itself into gear and finalizing an initiative to remove many of the helicopter circuits from above our homes.

The TV interview didn't even make the News broadcast!

The local MP had a Media release which said as far as he was concerned all the State Government work had been done, the final stage was now up to Council!  And that was almost two months ago! Hopefully the press release will ensure Council signs off on the deal and it is all done and dusted!

The weather has been warm and humid.  Today it should culminate in steady rain and continue as afternoon storms for the next week or so. The pool does need a top up so the rain (if it comes) should be just in time. The photo taken just now shows the overcast sky.  Click on the photo for a larger view.

It can be quite hot inside the house but when we venture to sit under the pergola out there it is just delightful.  The breeze seems to always be cooler and it is just the perfect spot to sit, read, consume and have a swim as required!

It isn't the most elegant of structures but it "works" perfectly! The new 'sun lounge' isn't half bad either!

The latest brew I put on on Wednesday seemed to take an eternity to start bubbling away.  The bubbling usually happens a few hours after putting the brew on.  But this latest brew took a good 36 hours before it launched into action.  Hopefully it will be OK when I bottle it a couple of weeks before Christmas..

The temporary filling I had the other week has collapsed!  I was eating a few potato crisps with an ale yesterday and suddenly found 'lumps' in what I was eating.  I rang the dentist but was told not to worry and as long as I wasn't in any discomfort and come in for my scheduled appointment on 8:00 am Thursday morning.

Hopefully the predicted rain comes sometime today and we get a good soaking!

The Cat's Out Of The Bag!

One of the things I have learnt about blogs is that they are a public document, something out in the open for everybody and anybody to see.  So I couldn't write about our recent trip to Melbourne to attend a very good mate's surprise 80th birthday.

Eddie Riordan was a principal of mine around 30 years ago.  We got on very well and have remained in contact.  They visit us up here in Queensland and whenever we go to Melbourne we catch up with Eddie and Patsy.  So when the invitation arrived for us to attend his 'surprise' 80th birthday we just had to go.

We aren't going down for Christmas with the family this year as Kate and family are overseas.  We thought we would head down and grab a few nights with Kim in St Kilda and hopefully be able to catch up with the lad Chris and family before Xmas as well.

The were two other stand out events while we were there.  One was a Skype chat we had with Kate and family in Saudi Arabia with Kim, Trish and myself.

The second top event was when Chris and family came over to Kim's for  BBQ and a catch up Saturday afternoon for a few hours.  They stayed until after 9pm at night.  That was really good too.

Then there was the surprise birthday party.  Heaps to drink and eat ensured it was a great time as well.  There were many family members present at the party so we felt a little out of it at times.  At least one other teaching colleague was there, Graeme Williamson who I also catch up with from time to time.

We enjoyed the occasion.

While in Melbourne we ate out numerous times, so much so that our first evening meal when we arrived back home yesterday (Tuesday) was a tomato sandwich.  We won't be eating much tonight either!

We had a sensational Malaysian meal on Monday night with our usual favorite noodles dish (Char Kway Teow), crispy duck and a chicken curry.  Along with a couple of rotis and some coconut rice the meal was to die for!

We flew out of Brisbane with Tiger Airlines this trip.  As the real cheap airline Tiger Airlines no longer flies into Maroochydore, fares from our local airport on the coast have remained quite high with the lack of competition.  We booked return flights from Brisbane and paid for car parking for around $100 less than had we have been driven to Maroochydore Airport and flown to and from Melbourne from there!

We are entering the storm season and possible storms were predicted for Thursday, the day we were due to fly out.  We had booked outdoor parking. With the possibility of storms a part of the weather forecast, we upgraded the parking to 'under cover'.  So when the worst hail storm for over 30 years hit Brisbane that night, it was the best upgrade we had ever made!

We and another couple were driven back from the airport by the parking company.  They had parked their 4 month old Suzuki outdoors!  When the car was brought to them they almost cried, the car has almost every panel dented and will possibly be a 'write-off'.

The other couple did give us a tip though.  They prefer to fly with the low cost carrier Jetstar rather than Tiger.  If Jetstar have a flight to the same destination within an hour of Tiger, they will beat the Tiger price by 10%.

We slept quite well last night in our bed and we are busy tidying up today.  Washing is being done, lawns mowed etc, just general tidying up.  I had to get a brew on as well!

The weather is hot, the pool is sensational but I have a laptop to check out this afternoon for someone. The pool and the cool beers may have to wait for a while!

Cooler Times On The Way!

The trip to the dentist will turn out to be expensive.  I have a large filling which is in an important tooth for my chewing.  I have had problems with it on and off for 20 years or so!  This time I had chipped a bit off the back of the filling making it unstable.

So the old filling came out, a temporary one went in and a root canal procedure will occur in two weeks or so.  Then the expensive bit which I haven't worried about previously, "the crown'" will go on early 2015!

A crown was suggested last time I had major work done but at that time the expense seemed excessive.  Since becoming pensioners our financial position has improved so I will go for the crown this time around.

My jaw still aches a little from the drilling the other morning!  It is best described as 'tender'!

Our elderly friends over the road had a problem with their remote control on the TV.  Was the problem in the remote or the TV?  I took a universal remote over and it worked.  So a disappointed Brian (he wanted a new 55" TV) looked for a basic Logitech programmable remote control.  The base model was $40.  The next model up (the 650) had a RRP of $80 though you can usually get them for $70.

A local electrical store had an online special on them for $50!  So he "Clicked and Collected" it late yesterday.  I popped over this morning and programmed it for him.  Now it is a one button push to watch TV, a one button push for his media player and a one button push for his DVD player.  He is pretty happy with the way it has worked out!

My nephew Marcus does work setting up and dismantling large stores for the company he works for.  He had a quick overnight job to do at our local "Spotlight" store and decided to stay with us for a few hours before flying back to Melbourne.

He flew into Maroochydore around 6:30pm Tuesday, worked through until 4:45 am Wednesday and arrived at our place around 5 am for a couple of hours' sleep.  A quick swim to liven him up and after a bite to eat he was on his way around 9:30am.  Though brief, it was great to catch up.

Today is expected to be around 30º but there is some welcome rain due soon after.  Not only will there be rain, but the weather should be a lot cooler too.

Trish booked flights to Melbourne for next August with Tiger out of Brisbane on the $1 return ticket deal.  It cost us a total of $160 return for both of us to fly to Melbourne and return!  That is $40 per trip per person!

Warm Weather Continues

For the latest Blog entry from Saudi Arabia click HERE.  And the latest collection of photos HERE.

I hope the two links work OK for you.

Just the other day Kate Arj and family did a cruise out into the Red Sea.  The photo shows a group of the kids enjoying the boat trip.

We have had a run of quite warm days here on the Sunshine Coast with top temps in the low 30's and overnight lows in the low 20's.  These are almost summer time temperatures, not what we would expect for a lengthy spell in Spring!  The pool gets to around 29º most days.  It is simply gorgeous in the pool having a quick cooling dip before heading off to bed and to sleep around 10:30 at night!

There was heaps of both golf and cricket on TV over the weekend so that kept me indoors except for the occasional venture outside for a swim.  The swim would go on for around 30 minutes so pleasant is it in the water.

The front lawn even got a mow yesterday early.  With so little rain recently everything is dusty and all the lawns are yellow!  We do expect some rain over the next few days and hopefully the wind will revert to traditional south easterlies off the ocean rather than the north westerlies we are getting from the hot inland. 

Being close to the coast we manage to get the benefit of the daily sea-breeze during the afternoon.

Tiger Airways have some $1 return fares on for late 2015 so we are looking to book for a trip to Melbourne mid August or so.  Strangely enough (or perhaps coincidentally) there would be 4 footy matches at the MCG during our expected time down there.  No it definitely isn't 'coincidentally'!

I have chipped a tooth or a filling so I am almost ready to head off to the dentist this morning, a trip I am not looking forward to making!

Back From The Gold Coast

It actually hit 40º in Maroochydore around lunch time last Sunday!  That is extremely unusual for this part of the world.  Soon after that, the sea-breeze arrived dropping the temperature to the mid 30's.  Needless to say the pool was a popular spot that afternoon!

On Monday we headed to the Gold Coast for three nights.  Trish got an 'online deal' 3 nights for $200.  This was a great price when you consider the hotel was 4 1/2 star and within 10 minutes leisurely walk of the main Surfer's Paradise entertainment strip.

The suburb of Sunnybank and its Asian food was on the way to the Gold Coast and luckily we arrived there around lunchtime.  By 1:30 we had eaten our fill and were at our 4 1/2 star hotel.

Despite booking 'cheaper' priced accommodation we were on the 11th floor with a peak of a view at the ocean.  The room was fine for what we wanted.  Needless to say anything 'extra' we wanted (eg WiFi) was available at a charge.

Friends Ian and Kerrie were staying on the Gold Coast at the same time so we caught up with them most afternoons for a chat, drinks and meals.

We visited Broadbeach, just south of Surfer's, on day two for a look around.  We took it easy, had some fun and ate out regularly with our friends.  The weather was OK and as expected, warm and humid for this time of year!

A new feature of the Gold Coast is the light rail system.  Coming from Melbourne where there are trams, we are used to this form of public transport.  The light rail system is fantastic for getting around.  As the photo shows we had a light rail station right outside our hotel.

Click on all photos for a larger view.

We arrived back at home on the Sunshine Coast mid afternoon on Thursday via Costco.  We saw that at home there was 30mls in the rain gauge so the garden had a good watering while we were away!

We collected mail and set the house up again, moved the Waeco out under the pergola, gave the pool a vacuum, brought in the rubbish bin and unpacked our clothes from our short trip away.  The pool needed a good clean because after such a long time without rain, there was a buildup of dust from the pool surrounds and the house roof and quite a bit of this finishes up in the pool.  The 'harvesting' of rain water via a house downpipe to the pool sees some of the roof dust end up in the water! 

Some items I had bought online had been delivered while we were out of town.  My two pairs of 3D glasses (which usually cost around $50 each on special) had been delivered.  It was obviously a sell out of them and I bought them for $2 each plus postage.  They work great and are rechargeable!

The 8 high quality Eneloop rechargeable AA Batteries I bought at half price were there as well.

It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things again.  I did my bike ride Friday morning, the first for around a week.  I caught up with TV show acquisition and sorted that all out.  During Friday afternoon there was cricket on TV so that was a good spot for me too.

Despite the cricket on TV I still jumped in the pool for 30 minutes Friday afternoon. Summer is almost upon us and the days are really warming up.  Most days it is around 30 degrees or so, the pool hardly gets below 26º either.  Most afternoons the water temp is nudging 30º if there has been any sun at all.

Then at 1pm yesterday (Friday) Skype went off on my PC.  It was Charli in Saudi Arabia wanting to show us the presents she had received for her 9th birthday.  So it was a pleasant chat online and we enjoyed catching up with the latest news.

I have Computer Club this morning followed by a Community Association Final brief meeting and Christmas Celebrations later this afternoon.  It all should be good!

What A Great Thing Skype Is

We were after some details on some things regarding our upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia April 2015.  So we dropped Kate an email and soon after we were chatting face to face with Kate 50k's north of Jeddah via Skype on the PC.

We said hi to the grand kids as well but they were off to sport or catch up with friends.  We sorted our stuff with Kate out, got some good advice and caught up with some local chat.

Much of what we talked about is on an up date from Arj which you can read HERE.

Sorry about the screen shot quality above, it never looks as good as what the quality really was like.  Kate is on her iPad we guessed.

Their water problems are over now but they have heaps of bottled water left if you ever need any.

Very hot indeed here today.  Brisbane is expecting 40º where as here it should be closer to 36.  There is cricket on TV this afternoon so we will be indoors with the air con running.  That solar energy we put on last year makes using the air con a cheap way of keeping cool!

We head to Surfer's Paradise tomorrow for three nights.  We are due back Thursday around lunch time.

They're All Here

With the G20 getting underway in Brisbane today leaders from all around the world are present.  The city of Brisbane is in 'lock-down' and what would have taken you 15 minutes to walk a week ago takes you over an hour today.

They even declared a Public Holiday in Brisbane for yesterday and with heat-wave conditions forecast for the weekend, thousands upon thousands of Brisbaneites fled the city for the beach on the 'long' weekend.

The road between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast was 'chockers' yesterday with traffic reduced to a crawl along the major highways as people fled the city!

Caloundra is 'packed' as well with people making the most of the extra holiday and hot sunny weather.

They are talking about 40º for Sunday and 35º for today!  But it is like when we lived in Melbourne, the heat is accompanied by a strong northerly wind.  Strong winds and nearby shrubs and trees does not go well with my pool I am afraid.  Speaking of which, the pool is close to 26º right now at 7:40 am.

The air-conditioner may get a good run tomorrow as we prop inside, with me watching the cricket of course!  I may even give my usual bike ride a miss as well.  Stinking hot winds does not make for a pleasant bike riding experience.

I am just about to hit the shower and get ready to head off to Computer Club.

It will be a great day for getting the washing dry today!

Today's top temperature will depend on when the sea-breeze can be strong enough to burst through and temper things down a little. 

It will be cooler by Monday which is when Trish and I head to the Gold Coast for three nights.  We got ourselves a cheap deal around 6 months ago, three nights in a 4 star hotel in the middle of Surfers Paradise for around $200!

We are looking forward to it.

Warming Up!

So much for the mid afternoon finish on Tuesday around at our friends' new place.  The day was great and enjoyed by all.  Eat?  We ate so much a vegemite sandwich was all that was needed for tea that night.

One of the reasons they moved was to have a backyard big enough for a pool.  As it was a delightful day and the nights up this way aren't cold, the pool retains its heat and at this time of year is quite warm and pleasant for swimming.

So with a bit of morning sunshine it warms up quickly from any heat lost overnight.  Yesterday (Weds) our pool peaked at around 28.5º so this morning after my bike ride the pool was still 25.7º and very pleasant!

As the photo above shows, we had lots of fun, heaps to eat and a few drinks. The pool is somewhat deeper than ours and a little longer.  Our pool seems minimally wider though and has the advantage of a narrow ledge around the side about 50cms below the surface.  This is perfect for the grand kids when they are using it.  They can rest there and catch their breath.

The other two major pastimes for this week (apart from using the pool) have been bike riding and home brewing.  This morning before 9 am I have ridden 13k's and then bottled my latest brew!  The photo shows me adding the 1 teaspoon of sugar into each bottle prior to filling it.  The yeast acts with the extra sugar to create the alcohol.  My home brew strength is usually around 3.5% (or 'mid' strength).

Later today I have a meeting with representative from Council regarding the new Bellvista Meeting Place.

I had one swim after the ride and now after doing the bottling and blog update the pool beckons again.

We are expecting around 30º today and into the mid 30's over the weekend.  I seem to recall mid 30's is roughly the same temperature being experienced in Saudi Arabia right now!

A Warm Tuesday

We are expecting about 30º today with cooler sea-breezes after lunch.  Around 4pm those 'cooler sea-breezes' can be quite cool.  This makes just opening the front and back doors a 'natural' air-conditioner for the house.  Our home faces north east, especially purchased so as to capture those afternoon breezes.

We are invited around to friends Ian and Kerrie for lunch today.  They have moved about 5k's away from here to a new home.  With current drink driving laws that now means someone has to refrain from drinking if we head over there or they come here.  This really spoils it so today we expect to be home a little earlier than usual, probably around mid afternoon rather than making a whole afternoon of it.  Then everyone can have a drink when we get home.

Their move also puts a dampener on our Friday Drinks session as well.  They have just sold their home here on this estate.  Previously, despite moving 5k's away, they would prop overnight at their unsold local residence before heading to the new home the next morning.  Now all those plans have gone.

I did a little extra on my bike ride this morning.  I do ride through some pretty parks and gardens as the photo shows.  This photo is of one of my favorite spots.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

In the UK the final episode of series 5 of "Downton Abbey" played on Sunday night.  So last night, having obtained the final episode, Trish and I sat down to watch the series one episode after the other.  We were limited to three of the eight episodes last night as we had a couple of lengthy phone calls come through!

We could sure do with some rain.  This is our storm season where we can expect a hot humid day and a build up of clouds later in the afternoon and then turning into thunder storms and heaps of rain.  But this hasn't been happening just yet.  You could expect a storm each week with around 25mls (1") of rain.  This would be more than enough to clear the atmosphere, water the lawn and garden and top up the pool!

But no rain means I have to top the pool up from the tap.  Fortunately it isn't a large pool so not a huge top up is required.  You would be surprised at how high the evaporation rate can be during the hot weather.  I could expect to lose between 2 and 4cms of water from the pool a week (1"-2") through evaporation.

I hope you enjoy the stories in the post below.  Some of these stories show that these people are not the sharpest tools in the tool-box!

Just For A Laugh!

Number One.
"I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control centre in Brisbane. Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and,at the end of the conversation, happened to mention that she had given her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter into the emergency room right away".

Number Two.
Some Boeing employees on the airfield in Sydney decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. Shortly after they took it for a float on the river, they noticed a Westpac Rescue Helicopter coming towards  them. It turned out that the chopper was homing in on the emergency locator beacon that activated when the raft was inflated. They are no longer employed at Boeing.

Number Three.
A man, wanting to rob a Bank of Queensland, walked into the Branch and wrote ';Put all ya muny in this beeg.' While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller's window. So he left the Bank and crossed the street to the NAB Bank. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the Harbour, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of Queensland deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a NAB deposit slip or go back to Bank of Queensland. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said, 'OK'; and left.

He was arrested a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at the Bank of Queensland.

Happened in Brisbane.

Number Four.
A guy walked into a little corner store in Cairns with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, 'Because I don't believe you are over 21.'

The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she didn't believe him. At this point, the robber took his driver's licence out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk.
The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in the bag.. The robber then ran from the store with his loot.
The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that she got off the licence. They arrested the robber two hours later.

Number Five.
A pair of robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, ';Nobody move!'; When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.
Happened in Adelaide

Number Six.
A guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a brick through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the brick and heaved it over his head at the window. The brick bounced back knocking him unconscious. It seems the liquor store window was made of Flexi-Glass...
The whole event was caught on videotape.
Happened in Perth WA .

Number seven.
"My daughter went to a local McDonalds and ordered a burger. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said was sorry, but they only had iceberg."
Happened in Surfer's Paradise.

Number eight.
"I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, ';';Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?" To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" He smiled knowingly and nodded. "That's why we ask."
Happened in Melbourne ..

Number nine.
"When my husband and I arrived at a car dealer to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, ';it's open!'; His reply, 'I know - I already done that side.'"   Happened at the FORD dealership Dubbo

Picture Yourself!

It is a sensational Sunday afternoon.

The pool is around 27.5º and there isn't a cloud in the sky!  The air temp is probably around 28 degrees and that howling wind has died to a comfortable sea-breeze which is blowing cooler air through the house.

You can sit under the fan right now and watch the golf from Shanghai.  Or you sit back in the pool in the pool lounge, enjoy a cool drink and soak up the warmish pool water. Just picture yourself!

It ain't half bad!

Trish has been out all day today (and yesterday) at the Art Show Fair.  She is really enjoying her involvement and they are making heaps of money for the association!

The sun pergola we had built just over 12 months ago now is just perfect.  Perfectly positioned and now providing glorious shade over our concreted backyard!

Notice the pint of English Bitter on the table?

Right now there isn't as much beer in it as when the photo was taken!

Being Queensland and needless to say, in an hour or two around 5pm someone just over the back will decide to mow their lawn!  Things are done a little strangely in this part of the world!

On a sadder note, the puncture I repaired last week came back.  I was greeted with a flat front tyre again this morning.  I took it all apart and saw the puncture patch was leaking.  Most likely I didn't use enough glue.  Trish has bought me some new fangled stick on patches so I used one of those.  That was a waste of time, the new fangled patch didn't hold either and the tyre went flat again.

Being well prepared I have a couple of spare new tubes in the garage.  I put a new tube in and completed my ride.

Upon my return I used plenty of glue and an old fangled tube patch and stuck it all back together again.

The patched tube has become my new 'spare'.

Click on each photo for a larger view.

I help Brian across the road a bit with movies etc.  His 83 year old mate Ernie has money to burn and is setup with a Media Player as well.  I heard via Brian that Ernie's WD media player had 'died' so he had bought a replacement, a Phillips brand which is no where as good as the WD Live Streaming Media Player we all use.

Ernie couldn't get the new media player to work so Brian brought it over to our place to check it out.  I set it up on my TV and it worked OK. When Ernie got it back he again yesterday, he set it up but the thing wouldn't work on his Sony TV.

Brian drive me over there this morning to have a go at getting it to work.  We discovered it would work perfectly on their second Samsung TV but Ernie's big 55' Sony TV didn't like it.

So the problem was partly solved.  Ernie had his old allegedly non-working WD media player there so I plugged it in and "Bingo" it worked perfectly!  The power pack on the WD is quite large.  It is a battle to plug it right in if you have something plugged into the power point beside it.  You can do it but it isn't a 'good' connection.  You can get a file and file a bit of the Power Pack away so it fits comfortably if a little snugly into the power point.

I am guessing something had happened previously and the oversized power pack hadn't quite been plugged in properly.  Thus the media player didn't work!

We filed a bit off the power pack so it fitted neatly, plugged it in and we had 'ignition'.  Everything worked OK.

Ernie was happy to have his media player back again (and they could watch the latest Downton Abbey) but the local Dick Smith Electrical Store won't be happy when the get a Phillips Media Player returned!

Oh, and one more thing, Arj's latest blog update from Saudi Arabia is HERE!

It Is Saturday Already

Almost a full week and no updates!  Probably because it is the same old story day after day.  I wake up, go for a bike ride, have a swim and then by mid morning get into what ever is on for that day.

It may be time on the PC, it may be a few chores around the house, perhaps pop over the road to help someone out with a computer problem, maybe get involved with something from the Community Association.

And that really sums up this week.

On Monday night I chaired a Community Association Public Meeting where our speaker was the Mayor of the Sunshine Coast.  I have met him a couple of times now and we seem to get along OK.

Then there is always a "HUGE" Community Association website update to report on what happened at the meeting! Then a copy goes up on the Notice Board at the local shops.  Oh it is so busy.

We have a bit of a hassle with some youngsters around the town right now and we have been following up with local police.

There was a new brew to go on too!

For lunch on Thursday we checked out the Kings Beach Surf Club.  The club is a bit run down right now but they are undergoing renovations.  It was a bit of a "Construction Zone" there but as you can see the view was sensational. Click on the photo above left for a larger view.

There weren't any drinks on Friday.  The couple who were due to host are having a kitchen update done so it was easier to put it on hold for another week.

I have gotten into watching some golf on the TV.  So if there is a spare hour and there's golf on the telly that's what I do.

The weather remains fine but blowy most afternoons and a little unpleasant and cool (owing to the wind chill factor).  Mornings are delightful.

Last night we had a couple of showers but there wasn't a lot in the rain gauge.  It was great to give the garden a quick water and top the pool up a little but that is all. Today it will be fine again after the clouds clear.  We have been told the wind will go away for a few days as well.

My phone is telling me it can't download updates as there isn't enough space.  So I have been keeping my eyes open for a replacement with the extra space.  I don't need a lot but the 4GB currently would be heaps better of it was 8GB.  Trish's new phone is 8GB and she can download all she wants.

I was just about to order a cheap phone from China again when after checking the specs I saw it wouldn't work with the supplier we use here.  It would work fine with Optus and Vodafone but not with Telstra.

So now it is back to the drawing board on a replacement phone.

The Waeco lid broke yesterday.  Two small knobs hold the lid in place but allows it to swivel.  One of the knobs broke off, the old story about plastic going brittle with the hot weather.   I replaced the lid yesterday and was lucky they had one in stock.  He said it was the second lid he had sold this week.  So all is good again.  However I didn't like the $95 charge for the replacement.

Trish will be out all weekend as the Craft Association has another "Fair" on this weekend.  I am just about to head off to Computer Club shortly so that will get my weekend off to a good start.

There is golf on TV this afternoon and cricket tomorrow.

So it is same old ... same old!

Thar She blows!

We have had it so windy here recently.  It doesn't seem that a day goes by without the wind getting up and getting quite blustery especially during the afternoon.  And today is no different.  We have a strong S/E wind blowing right now which is signalling a cooler weather change is not far off with the "possibility" of a thunderstorm.  "Possibility" being the operative word!

Anyway, the more interesting stuff to tell you about is here.  Arj's latest post from Saudi Arabia:  HERE.  The latest collection of online photos from Saudi Arabia, HERE.

At the moment where Kate and Arj are, a pipeline to the area's desalination plant is broken, thus limiting the supply of fresh water from the tap.  It seems to be close to mended now but the school has been closed for health reasons for several days.  Without water the toilets won't flush and if the toilets don't flush, you have a health concern.

It seems some reasonable supply with good pressure is now available for periods of the day after several days of slow low water pressure.  As you read Arj's blog you will see how the the local authorities have ensured access to fresh drinking water for everyone.  Expense isn't an issue!

As school was closed down, this gave us time for a Skype chat the other day with Kate and the kids and a chance to catch up first hand face to face.

We have had a quiet continuation of same old same old here on the Sunshine Coast.

Most days I ride the bike and then spend a short time in the pool.  As the wind gets up the pool doesn't seem to be such an inviting place any longer.  I potter about, mowing lawns, clearing wind blown debris from the pool and looking busy!

I bottled my latest brew on Saturday morning before I headed off to Computer Club.  It is nice and cool first thing in the morning so I was able to get the task completed with a minimum of fuss.

At Computer Club on Saturday one of the ladies had bought herself a phone on my recommendation.  The phone is a THL T6s, a brand from China.

I ordered it via this link, HERE. The phone is around USD90 and is delivered by courier free.  That is a photo of it above left.   For the everyday person who just wants to make calls, play a few games, check emails and do some internet browsing, this phone will suit their needs fine.  It is 'quickish' with quite a reasonable processor and has a great 5" screen. And all for less than $100 delivered to your front door.

The lady now has the phone up and running and she is delighted with her purchase!  It took around 10 days to be delivered from China.

Mid Week

An area around 50k's north of us was the only spot to get any reasonable rain from the storms predicted for last night.  We got nothing at all here.  But a cooler change rocked through in mid afternoon dropping the temperature from a steamy and hot 34º or so back to a more pleasant 28º.  The pool peaked out at around 26º or so yesterday afternoon.

It was extremely pleasant lying back in the pool on a lounge relaxing and enjoying a cool beverage yesterday late in the afternoon.  I reckon I spent the best part of an hour just sitting there and enjoying the place.

Last night we had some of the trout Trish had bought at Costco.  They were great sized fish and very nice indeed.  20 minutes in the BBQ with the lid down and around 200º and they were perfect.

This morning I was meant to be heading around to a mate's place to do some computer stuff.  He needed a few adjustments made before friends arrived flying up from Sydney.  They were due at 1:30pm so that meant we had until around midday to get stuff done.

Not only was the flight arrival brought forward by 30 minutes but there hadn't been any calculation for Daylight Saving either!  So the original 1:30pm arrival finished up being midday!  And you really need the best part of an hour to get to Maroochydore airport from here!

So the computer update was put on hold.  This now allowed me time for my bike ride and time to get a bottle washing done!

However the bike ride went on hold owing to a puncture in the back tyre.  And my tyre repair kit had run out of glue!

So the bottle washing was done and is now out of the way!

The local supermarket eventually came to the rescue re the glue, the puncture was repaired and the bike ride completed by around 10:30.  The pool was around 26.5º by the time I got back from the ride.  That was a pretty nice swim this morning I tell you!

8 of us are heading back to the "Drift Bar" again this evening.  It is around 30º today so it should be just gorgeous there later today.  There are $4 beers from 4 pm to 6pm, then a "Parmy and Pot of Beer" special deal for $15 to follow.

It should be extremely pleasant sitting in an outdoor setting as the sun goes down over Bulcock Beach with the evening temperature around 25º or so!

Summer With A Rumble!

Summer has arrived here on the Sunshine Coast!  The pool will again be the focus of much of our day to day activity.  This morning as I rode by the Private School here on the estate, the neon notice board at the front said 7:10 am, 27º!

The hottest part of the day here is usually late morning.  Around lunch time the cooler sea-breeze makes its way in and the temperature stabilizes or drops several degrees.  The last few days we have had a strong northerly blowing in from central Queensland.

The northerly breeze was so strong yesterday the cooler sea-breeze couldn't arrive until around 2 pm.  This gave us an extra 2 hours of heating up.   So it was around 36º when eventually the sea-breeze arrived!

The rumble in the title was for the thunder storms which amounted to nothing for us last evening.  We had the lighting and the rumble of thunder but this morning there was a paltry 1ml in the gauge.  That 1ml did bring our rainfall total so far for 2014 to 1000mls, or 40" in the old language!  In this part of the world we can usually expect over 1500mls p.a. or a little over 60" each year.

More thunderstorms are predicted for later on today, and are most likely to happen around the Sunshine Coast area.

Yesterday we had decided on a return trip to Costco around 40 minutes south of us.  We had emptied the freezer section of both fridges so we were prepared for the shop.  Things were a little cheaper but we expect the quality to be top-notch.  In this part of Australia we find the meat nowhere near as good as what we had when in Melbourne.  So if we can get good meat from Costco it will be worth the monthly 'safari' down there.

As we were driving home, the outside temperature was reading 39º!  Costco is that little bit inland away from the sea so that area doesn't get much of the tempering sea winds.

To the west of Brisbane in the city centre of Ipswich it was almost 42º yesterday!

Last night we watched a movie called "Frailty".  It is an older movie and one I had never heard of before!  If you get the chance have a look at it.  It was in the best Alfred Hitchcock suspenseful style!

Warming Up ...

One of the couples we enjoy drinks with on a Friday has a problem with "Silverside" or "Corned Beef".  He loves it but she isn't too keen.  Trish cooks it quite a bit so we have always intended to have them around for some Silverside so the husband who loves it can enjoy it again.

We decided to combine the regular Friday drinks with Silverside for an evening meal.  And that happened yesterday.  But this time all 6 of us who usually attend "Drinks" would stay for a meal.

We started our drinks session a bit later and enjoyed a sensational meal of corned beef/silverside.  It was a great night and Trish did a wonderful job catering for everyone.  It went down very well.

The non-silverside eater had a lovely piece of pork instead.

Starting later in the afternoon meant finishing later at night.  So it was quite late when they went all home.

With extra guests coming around and the weather warming up it seemed like a good time to set up the portable fridge/freezer (the Waeco) outside under the pergola near the back door.  (photo above left) It is great for cold drinks outside and as the weather warms up, we do spend more and more time out there and around the pool.  To have access to a cold drink after jumping out of the pool dripping wet has many advantages.

And the extra fridge room was handy last night (Fri) with guests coming around.

I found an interesting computer program yesterday.  I had seen it before and had it installed on the previous PC.  It is called Popcorn Time.  Google it and read all about it.

You will need to have a fair bit of download available to you to use the program.  It doesn't suit my purposes but there may be some people who do like it and find it handy.

They are talking about 29º this afternoon and even warmer for the next few days!

Trish rather likes the decorative lights we can usually buy to string around the outside of the house around Christmas time.  She doesn't limit the lights to just Christmas, we have them going all year.  They certainly brighten up the backyard.

As they are a Christmas item they aren't usually available all 12 months of the year.  But they are available again now and back in stores getting ready for Christmas.  So we have been busy putting the finishing touches to the backyard.  A couple of strings of 'icicles' have now completed the job.

I like to keep some pool implements close by so I can readily clean out an errant floating leaf or bug.  These have had to be relocated as they got in the way of the new 'icicles'!

But all is looking good now!

Not So Perfect

Following a spectacular Monday, the weather here did a "Melbourne" on Tuesday with showers and heavily overcast skies.  The sun did peep out for an hour or so in the afternoon and we got to 25º but much of the day was miserable, showery and around 21º.  It wasn't at all pleasant.

I didn't manage a bike ride! The black skies opened up with Melbourne type heavy drizzle for an hour or so just as I was about to set out.  I actually got to the end of the street on my bike before the obvious heavy black clouds convinced me to turn around and seek refuge at home!

This morning (Wednesday) we have already had more showers and the sky has been overcast, but there are some blue patches of sky about (see photo left) and a more pleasant day has been forecast.

Come Friday we are back to 29º and into the low 30's for three or four days after that!

I was fortunate to find a direct telecast of a One Day International cricket match from New Zealand on TV yesterday so the day wasn't a complete waste!

We both spent much of the day around the house looking busy and with me watching some cricket.  I tipped a mere 4mls out of the rain gauge this morning (Weds).

I did manage to 'scare' my brother though when out of the blue I rang him up and we had a good chat! He is travelling nicely.

A problem I do have is this blog when I call people!  My brother reads the blog (obviously he has a problem with insomnia!) so that means I really don't have any new news to pass on to him!

But it was good to have a chat.  He and his wife Jeannette have the caught the caravaning bug and are looking forward to a trip later this year along the Murray and into South Australia.

In 2015 he is looking at heading up to the "Gulf" in northern Queensland.  They would hope to be away for several months, and therefore miss out on the cold Melbourne winter.

We enjoyed catching up.

Perfect The Next!

You couldn't wish for a nicer day.  Clear blue sky, 27 degrees later on this afternoon and the pool should also be over 25º then as well.  The pool was approaching 23º for my after bike ride swim this morning around 8:30 am and even that felt great!

I squeezed in a couple of dips in the pool yesterday, one after finishing my morning's shade handiwork, the second mid afternoon with a refreshing icy cold ale in hand!

The shade fix has been completed and seems to make quite a difference to our shade pergola at the back.

There will not be any further need for anyone to jockey for a chair which doesn't expose them to the afternoon sun at one time or another.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

As we get closer to Xmas, lights and other decorations come back onto the market.  And these solar powered lights add some color to the overnight backyard.  I wouldn't quite call it an obsession for Trish, but perhaps I could call it a "high priority want"!

We still have some of last year's Xmas lights (or what is left of them that still work) flashing in the backyard overnight now.  The rectangular grid of fairy lights that Trish just loved died around April and she was most upset to learn she would have to wait until Xmas 2014 before more would come on sale!

I reckon she probably bought the first set of rectangular designed Xmas lights that K-Mart sold this season.

If you look closely in the top photo you can see the lights have been put up ready for last night's first showing!

And they went off perfectly as the lower photo shows!

And this morning I have had to move the pool's leaf rake to an obscure spot so the "Icicle Lights" could go up at one end of the pool.  Oh it will be exciting!

The next set will come from Aldi (if they have the same design as 2013) and they will go all the way around the backyard!  But I suggest Trish will be out buying some backup lighting sets not too far away, just in case one of her creations goes on the blink!