Sensational Day

If the link works, you can catch Kate's latest photos from Saudi Arabia HERE.  It is a Facebook link and it may or not work for you.  We have 3pm local time booked for a Skype chat with Kate, Arj and the grandkids later today.

It is low 20's and there is hardly a cloud in the sky.  The temperature is expected to be even warmer over the next few days with Tuesday looking at around 28 or so.  Then the cooler south westerlies return and the top drop backs to 23 or thereabouts!

The Community Association (BeCA) has taken much of my time lately.  The BeCA website went down and with several unanswered phone calls, emails etc to the web host and not even an acknowledgment of our problems, it stayed offline for almost 48 hours.  Service from the web host was deplorable.

I eventually managed to get it sorted via another guy we had dealt with during the site's creation.  He knows the current overseer and he put through a special request on our behalf.

Then there is the new Bellvista Meeting Place which is about to be handed over from the developer Stockland to the Sunshine Coast Council later today.  We have been putting furniture and stuff back into it.

We are not keen to "Manage" the facility, another group can do that!  When Principal I couldn't stand opening and closing the school Hall when we leased it out.  The whole thing was a real pain!  SC Council still has to appoint a full time management group and we are helping out just a little during the early stages.

The area in the photo above looks great doesn't it?  It is right on the lake here with a sensational deck over the water.  There is a glorious sail providing shade and it is just the most glorious spot (photo left).

This would be a delightful place for a group to sit back and enjoy an activity by the lake.

The 'official' handover is 5pm today, drinks and nibbles supplied.  The Mayor will be there along with other 'heavies' from both the developer Stockland and the Sunshine Coast Council.

Footy on TV tonight so that should finish the day off nicely.  This is the last round of the season and therefore the last weekend 'full' of footy on TV.  Next week we only have 4 games while there are only two games for the two weeks following that.

Then we will have the Grand Final, as always on the last Saturday in September!

Wednesday Update

What a glorious start to the day!  A gorgeous blue sky, sun in the sky and the temperature heading into the low 20's.  My bike ride was extremely enjoyable and I did my 12.5k's without a problem.

The backyard was a picture on this beautiful late winter day

My TV show downloads all came through on time and being Wednesday, the rubbish bins went out ready for collection tomorrow.

But the forecast was for possible storms around lunchtime. This didn't occur at all.  We sat outside to eat lunch and to soak up the sunshine.  Trish had been to "Stitchers" during the morning so it was extremely pleasant to sit outside, the both of us quietly.

But the thunderstorms did roll in around 2:50 in the afternoon.  Half an hour later there were 27mls of rain in the gauge, the front road was awash and the temperature plummeted to around 16 degrees.

Click on all photos for a larger view!

Welcome to the sub-tropics!  It is expected that will be the end of most of the rain.  By this time next week the temperature will be on a steady rise to about 27 degrees!

Already the pool is beginning to get a little warmer.  It was around 18 degrees before the heavy thundery rain came this afternoon.

The Community Association website has been down for a few days!  Repeated pleas to the hosting company with phone calls and emails had met with no response at all, not even the courtesy of a reply!

Eventually contact was made via a roundabout way and the website is now back online.  It appears we are not the only people with this problem and were being ignored by the Web Host.  We will be on the lookout for a new web-hoster I think!

And I am busy copying some older movie files over to a spare hard disk drive I have.  This will free up a heap of space on my large 3TB drive!

Trish has been having a little trouble with her phone.  Originally all she was after was a new phone so she could make calls.  But as you get into the smart phone world you come to appreciate you can just do so much more with one than just make calls.  Her current phone cost $89, makes calls OK, allows her to read her emails and to play a few games.

With Kate and family now overseas Facebook has become another 'want' for a smart phone.  She is beginning to discover her phone just isn't really powerful enough to do all the things she wants it to do easily and without having problems!

I have been reading about a phone from China called a THL T6s which is available online for around $100 delivered.  It has a more modern processor, double the storage and double the memory of her current phone.  You can read about it HERE.  I ordered one for her yesterday.

The beauty of the site is that it is especially set up for Australia and orders placed via that site get free 'expedited' delivery.  We expect it to arrive well within a fortnight!

It is a little big for what she wants as it has a 5" screen.  But the bigger screen will make typing, reading emails and looking at photos better than her current 4" screen. I think she will get used to it.

Let's face it, you can't go too far wrong when it only costs $100!

Overcast But Dry

It is Monday, and right now it is overcast but we did have quite a lot of sun earlier.  Possible showers this afternoon is the forecast but it is looking OK right now at just after midday.

Another 6 mls of rain yesterday pushed the rainfall tally to 121mls for the last few days, 4 mls shy of 5" of rain.  I even got a little brave yesterday and during a drizzly moment or two I spread some lawn food over the front lawn.  The next task will be a "Weed and Feeder" to get rid of a lot of the broadleaf weeds which grow in the lawn at this time of the year.

Fortunately it isn't cold so hopefully the washing will dry with the breeze there is.

For some stupid reason I created a Yahoo email account which is currently our predominant email address.  I also use the email address to access my "Home Page" which I have set up on all our PC's.  But if you're not signed in then you are taken to some strange Yahoo home page site, nothing at all like how I set mine up.

For the last few weeks Yahoo has repeatedly asked me to reset my Yahoo Account password.  This is something I was loathe to do because I use my Yahoo password on my phone, tablet, main PC and Trish's resurrected Dell Laptop.  Trish also uses the same home page on her new laptop.

Today I was again asked to change my password and I declined. Suddenly I was locked out of my Yahoo Account.  I managed to discover how to 'reset' the Yahoo password and discovered for extra security, Yahoo now wants a mix of numbers, letters and capitals! I reset the password with the three various forms and I now can access my home page again.

But I couldn't get my Yahoo emails.  I then had to reset the password in my email program "Thunderbird".  Then I had to reset the password in another email program I use called Mailwasher!  From there it was to the tablet and the phone.

Now that took some organising!  Eventually I found if I went into the phone and tablet's web browsers and wanted to check my emails I was asked to login to Yahoo.  I have three different browsers on my tablet and two on my phone!  It took a while to do!

After a fair bit of messing around all is now done!  All this mess up because I changed a password!

A Quick Update

Arj's Week 3 photos from KAUST in Saudi Arabia are HERE.  The pool does look inviting doesn't it? The photo is from Saudi Arabia, not a wet and dismal Sunshine Coast!

I have just tipped another 65mls from the rain gauge this morning.  This weather event has given us 115mls or heading towards 5" of rain.  For a 'dry' time of the year this rain total is quite extraordinary.

The current August total of 190mls is around three times what we would normally expect at this time of the year. 

For the total year's overall rainfall to date though we are still well down.  We have had an annual total of 862mls to the end of August and the average end of August total is around 1180mls.

You can check my figures HERE.  Click on Q3 at the foot of the page to take you to the third quarter of a year's totals.

Trish's footy team defeated my team last night in the footy competition here.  Overall I thought my guys, who in the midst of team rebuilding, did an OK job.  The final result was a lot closer than I had anticipated!

I have updated the Visitors "Live Traffic Feed" Widget so it may show some strange visitors for a few days.  It stopped working a couple of weeks ago so I swapped it around.  Looks like the previous widget might be working again now!

The previous free counter I had would record "EVERY" visit! So if I added a new post, checked it and then did a little editing it would show another 5 or 6 visitors when all the time it was just me adding and correcting one new post!

No Sunshine

Right now the "Sunshine Coast" is devoid of sunshine.

It was meant to be 'showers' according to the forecast but it seems more like 'rain'!  This is exactly what the area needs.  There hasn't been any decent rainfall until earlier this week from way back in May.  It will be perfect for the parks and gardens and for everyone's lawns.

We have had the odd few showers over the last few months with a wet day every now and again but not like last weekend and what we appear to be in for over the next few days.

It won't be flooding rain, just steady rain on and off over the next few days. I did get the lawn mowed yesterday, not that it is a big job.  The pool is full again and we won't have to worry about the pot plants needing a water either!

Trish is heavily involved with her "Expo".  It is not being run by the Arts Centre Association but that group does have a big display in the Expo.  I am not sure how she became involved but she is involved right up to the hilt!

I have managed to get on top of all my little jobs, the Community Association website, the Notice Board and a few other things are now all under control.

The new brew is bubbling away nicely in the garage and my next task is to have enough empty bottles for the bottling.  I only need a further 4 empty bottles to have the full complement of 30 that is required!  With the weekend approaching, and plenty of live footy on TV that shouldn't be a problem.

My footy team Geelong plays Trish's team on Saturday night.  Then they should play each other again in a fortnight as the footy finals get under way. 

It is almost certain Hawthorn will finish 2nd and my team Geelong 3rd.  My team has done very well for a team which is doing some rebuilding.  Hawthorn are quite warm favorites to play in the Grand Final.

The kids in Saudi Arabia are due to begin 'work' on Monday.  That is the beginning of the new school year for that part of the world. Most likely the staff will go back Sunday and the kids on Monday.  A Saudi weekend is Friday and Saturday!

Possible Showers

For the latest photos from Saudi Arabia check HERE.  Hopefully the link will open for you.  They are photos of life in KAUST, especially the Racquet Club.  Sporting facilities are at no cost to those working in the compound!

Click on a photo from the above link to scroll to the next one.  Or view them all in full screen.

Much of the last couple of days have been spent on community issues, tidying up (because the warm sunny weather encourages you to get out and do stuff) and time with Gordon and Anne Atkin, friends who are visiting from Melbourne.

They are staying at a lovely spot right on Moffat Beach.  Their balcony overlooks the suf beach with several restaurants just nearby and endless beach and pathways to go for a walk along.

Over the last couple of days I have put another brew on, vacuumed the pool, cleaned the filter and mowed the lawn!  There are some possible showers overnight tonight so I thought it was time to sort things out.

Trish's Arts Centre group has a "Lifestyle Expo" on this weekend.  As Secretary she has been flat out and never at home the last few days.  Having the second car is really handy in this case!

We enjoyed a sensational lunch with Gordon and Anne at Headlands Golf Club on Tuesday.  Later we moved on to Mooloolaba Surf Club for a quick look around.  The beach view from where we were sitting at the Surf Club enjoying a beer or two is quite sensational as the photo above shows.

And then last night another good mate Anne and I had worked with, Graeme Williamson wandered up from his winter retreat at Tweed Heads to catch up with Gordon and Anne and ourselves.  The meal at the nearby Thai restaurant was great value and the night was extremely enjoyable.

We relived old times had numerous chuckles over what had been fun times together.

Gordon and Anne head back to Melbourne today after a week or so here at Moffat Beach.  They expect to get home to Hallam some time on Friday.

EMail Scare!

Around 8 pm last night Trish and I were sitting watching the media player on TV when her phone began to go 'off' with email notifications.

A few minutes later my phone went off as well.  When we both took a moment to check the emails on our phones, we noted there were gaps in the email subject, eg "Subj ect".

This tweaked a warning in my mind and I remembered something I had read in an email I had received earlier from the Sunshine Coast Computer Club!

This is what the Computer Club email said:

'Dodgy' E Mails

Members should be aware that there seems to be some 'dodgy' e mails circulating. The message may come from someone whom you know, and the subject line generally contains a word misspelled with a space between some letters e.g. Blaz ed or so ld. Sometimes the email may come from someone you know who does not normally send you e mails.

The message refers to an offline or a tagged message with a link to view on line. These messages were not sent by the purported sender. Do not click on the link under any circumstance. If anybody has done so, then they should check their computer for malware as a matter of urgency.

If the sender is known to you personally you could contact them and ask if they had sent you the e mail and if they have not sent the e mail advise them to check their computers for malware.

As the messages had come through on our phones there wasn't any danger of an infection on our computers.  I had received two suspicious emails from Trish's GMail account!  She jumped straight online and immediately changed her GMail password!  Then she carefully deleted all suspicious emails from her Inbox, Trash and Spam folders as well.

After that she did a Malware scan of her laptop.  There was minimal risk of infection as the emails were not opened nor were they downloaded from her GMail Account 'up in the cloud' to her laptop.

But it is a timely reminder for us all!

We have arranged to head to the Headland Golf Club today with Gordon and Anne.  While confirming arrangements on the phone, Gordon said he had seen in the newspaper where Gary O'Shanessy had died at 58 years.

Oshy was a student in the very first class I ever taught as a trained teacher at Leongatha P.S.  We later caught up again as colleagues when we both taught at Eumemmerring P.S.  Later Oshy came to work under me at Doveton North P.S.  We were great mates!

He was clearly the best and most talented teacher I ever saw.  He could do things with kids that I could only dream about!

He went out of teaching a few years ago, ill-health retired.

It is a sad loss to the teaching world!

All Online Again!

At around 3:30 pm on Sunday the lights on the modem/router starting going berserk!  A minute or so later when things had settled down all the indicator lights were on and I was again connected to the internet!

It is only when the net isn't there that you (I) appreciate how much you depend on it.

The smart phone took over some of the duties and was able to keep me up to speed with most of my incoming emails.  The media player also needed the internet though it isn't a crucial part of its operation.

My internet radio on which I listen each morning and evening wasn't available either!

The phone uses wifi as its first port of call for all updates and data use etc.  Though the internet wasn't connected, we still had the local wifi network running.  It was therefore necessary to turn the phone's wifi "Off" so it could then use the data section of the mobile phone network and get emails and access the internet radio. With the phone's wifi left on, it was accessing the local network which didn't have internet access.

So it has been a busy week with my PC playing up during its start up earlier in the week and then when we lost the internet for almost 2 days. Right now, all is 100% again.

We enjoyed around 68mls of rain over the three days including the weekend.  That rainfall total exceeds what we would normally expect for all of August.  The wet weather cleared Sunday morning into a gorgeous sunny and warm day.  It was around 24 degrees.

But today Monday we have a strong wind warning and a blustery cold southerly is blowing.  Though pleasant enough out of the wind, the top temperature will be around 20 degrees.  The wind chill factor will make that feel somewhat cooler!

It wasn't pleasant enough to set out for a bike ride but I did deliver around 105 Newsletters though.  This took almost an hour and I managed a bit of a sweat up during the walk!

Arj sent a link to all their Week 2 KAUST photos on Flickr.  He wants people to be able to view the photos he wants to show but not his whole collection.  It is a matter of working out the "Permissions".  The link is now working again, click HERE. The whole experience appears most spectacular to those of us still here in Australia.  What a marvelous experience for them.

This is a link to some photos Kate has on Facebook.  I am not sure if they will work for you though if you don't have a Facebook account!  Click HERE. Now click on the photo to progress to the next one.  You can also read the caption/comments that goes with each photo.

The best way to keep up with them is via Facebook though!  So get to be a Facebook 'friend' of Arj and you will see most of the photos that way!

Shock! Horror! ADSL Internet Down

This is what I can currently see on my modem/router.  The two dimmed lights second and third from the left indicate no ADSL access.

Evidently there is an ADSL problem for some homes in Caloundra West and it may not be back on till Wednesday evening!

I am using my phone as a wireless hotspot for very basic Internet stuff, emails etc.

Got to save data ......  bye!

Sunday Update!  At least the rain has stopped, a total over the last few days of around 3" of rain, 75mls in the new speak.

The ADSL light now shows on my on my modem/router and even then it took quite a few goes before it would connect!  Now all I need is for the "Internet" light to come on showing it has connected to my ISP and the internet!

See I have had a visitor from Saudi Arabia!

Current internet access is via my phone's "Portable Hotspot"!

It's Back, all lights are now on and working fine.  It reconnected around 3:30pm on Sunday! 

Check out Arj's KAUST, Week 2 Blog HERE.

I will do a larger post in the next day or so!

Well Deserved Rain

The Sunshine Coast has not had a decent fall of rain for several months.  The lawns and parks surely provide heaps of evidence of this.  However this morning I tipped 14mls out of the rain gauge from heavy showers yesterday and overnight.  The worst of the welcome rain is till to fall over the weekend.

The lawns and gardens will get a much deserved drink. But it does make getting clothes dry much more difficult.  The overcast weather means it is a little cooler than usual as well!

A planned lunch at Headland Golf Club yesterday (Thurs) with Gordon and Anne was put on hold because of the inclement weather.  We visited the local Dicky Beach Surf Club instead and enjoyed a great meal and a couple of beers together.

Trish heads off on a two night weekend away with around 50 other ladies from Stitchers this afternoon. They aren't travelling far away but some good laughs will make for a great weekend for them.  I will be forced to sit at home and watch the footy on TV as the rain tumbles down!

My PC didn't want to start again yesterday morning.  A 'startup' item was conflicting with Windows causing the PC to 'hang'.

I have a little program on my PC called "Winpatrol".  It monitors new programs which have been installed and then want to open at start up without my knowledge.  If you download a nasty which wants to install itself at the next start up, Winpatrol puts up a little message seeking your permission for this startup.  It is a very handy program.

But Winpatrol also allows you to delay some 'naturally' starting up programs from beginning during the PC Startup.  I have taken a 'calculated' guess at what programs may be causing the conflict, and timetabled them to start up after Windows has loaded. 

The start up delay can be set from 30 seconds to whatever you want. This makes minimal difference to the way the overall operation of the PC.  Right now everything is working fine.

It also has the added advantage of allowing the PC to start up more quickly.

I have also installed another program called True Launch Bar into which I have put categories for my most used tasks.So if I want to do something with burning discs I go to my "Nero" category and there are all my disc burning type programs ready to go.

Into one category I have placed an icon which I can push and it opens several programs at once, my email preview program, my RSS Feed and my Skype program all at the one time.  I use this for when I expect to be online for a period of time.

At this stage, all is working perfectly and my PC is running fine again!

Today's Facebook page from Kate in Saudi Arabia shows Charli watching the latest episodes of "Neighbours" on their TV.  

A Wet Weekend Coming Up!

It seems get onto Facebook and become a friend of Kate and Arj is the best bet to keep up with their Saudi Arabia photos if you are really interested.

The sky outside at 10:30 this morning is looking OK but a bit threatening at times.  We could sure do with some rain here and it looks like we may get some over the weekend.

I have been busy with Community Association stuff with website updates and sending off nasty emails.  Good friends Gordon and Anne are up from Melbourne for a week or so and we caught up with them at our place on Wednesday afternoon.

I bottled the most recent brew and then had a Community Association Meeting in the morning.  I did manage a 6k bike ride yesterday but that was it.

An overcast sky and a few spits of rain kept me off the bike again this morning.

But I have endured a bit of a PC problem the last day or so.  I did a "Windows Update" on Wednesday and following that the PC 'hung' when it had almost loaded.  I removed sections of the update via System Restore and got working OK again.

This morning it again 'hung' at around 95% loaded which led me to think a 'startup' program wasn't operating properly.  I got into Safe Mode and turned off almost everything in start up that wasn't essential to the PC and restarted it OK again.  I did the full Windows Update and it again restarted perfectly.

Then I slowly turned a couple of startups back on and again it started fine.  I suspect it is something to do with the webcam program.  I have turned the startup program off.  The webcam will still work fine for my purposes, I just won't have the controls I may have had previously (but never used). The webcam is only used during Skype calls!

Touch wood all is going well right now and the PC starts fine.

However I did heaps of backing up when I got things back, just to ensure I don't lose anything! It is amazing how you are reminded of the importance of backing up when you have a PC Malfunction!

Rory In Place Of Bike Ride

The post below will provide a link to the latest photos from Kate and Arj and their first fill week in Kaust.  But if you really want to keep up with the latest of their photos, you will need to be able to access their Facebook pages.

That is where all the photos begin!

This photo shows the 'Welcome" function for all the new teachers at this school this year.

 I was full of good intentions for a lengthy bike ride this morning but got caught up with the golf on TV instead.  A rain delay at the golf meant a 'late' finish.  That late finish was 10:45 am our time so by the time it was all over I couldn't be bothered with a bike ride.  Rory McIroy won in a come from behind cliffhanger finish!

Monday is a busy downloading day as well so instead of heading to the back veranda and my bike I headed for my morning shower instead.

Trish's footy team won easily while mine just won in what was a heart stopping after the siren effort.  Fortunately the kick was wide of the mark allowing my team to sneak over the line.

We have gorgeous days right now, usually sunny and low 20's.  This is a huge difference after we had spent three weeks down in Melbourne!

Arj & Kate's Photos, Week 1 Saudi Arabia!

Check the photos from Arj and Kate's week 1 in Saudi Arabia here:

https://www.flickr.com/x/t/0090009/gp/125968034@N02/G51zK6/

The collection will open in a new tab.  Now click on the first photo and after it loads a  > will appear on the right hand side. 

Click the arrow to go to the next photo! Continue through to see all photos.

Enjoy!

(Link now working again at last, 4pm Sunday)

Saudi News

I was just sitting back beginning to watch the footy last night (Fri) and thought I might just drop Arj in Saudi Arabia a text message via "Viber".  I gave him the latest score of the footy match I was watching.

A few minutes later back came his response, it was a photo taken in their lounge room of a TV with the AFL playing!

Arj had signed himself up for a one month subscription to AFL International which allowed him to watch all the games on his new MacBook Pro.  He had then run an HDMI cable from the new laptop to his TV and "Voila!" there was the game live for him and the family to watch!

You can read more here:  http://behindthekeyboard.global2.vic.edu.au/

We then proceeded to have a lengthy chat on the phone, via Viber.  The phone call is like Skype in that it uses the 'data' part of the line (or internet part).  The call goes via my wifi network, through the internet to Arj's wifi in Saudi Arabia.

There is no charge for these 'calls'.  Though not as perfect as a regular phone call, the calls are very, very good and at no charge.  There was a minimal delay during the chat!

After I had spoken for ten minutes or so Trish and Kate had a lengthy chat.  Kate and a few other ladies are going to an Ikea store today.  They will travel outside the compound by bus to the store about an hour away.

Friday and Saturday make up the weekend in Saudi Arabia.

Their adventure continues!

Settling In

It has taken a couple of days but things are beginning to settle down at last.  Trish has come back to a full on situation with her Arts Centre stuff.  I have vacuumed the pool and washed the cars.  I have been over to the neighbour's place and updated him on three weeks of movies and TV Series.

We are currently watching Series 4 of the US version of "The Killing".  We expect to squeeze the final two episodes in before the footy tonight.

There is a break from the regular Friday Drinks today!

At last I have grabbed all the latest downloads and we are both now beginning to get our heads above water!

The photos here are all from Saudi Arabia and the KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) Compound.

The top photo shows the building in which Kate and Arj are doing their orientation.

The middle photo was taken from the same building but looking out over the Red Sea. Click on all photos for a larger view.

The third photo below was taken at the 'Sports Centre'.  That is a large size TV you can see in the photo!

I am back on my bike and getting the 12.5 k's daily up without a problem.

The pool is beginning to warm, mainly because the overnight temps aren't quite as cold.  The pool was 12 mid winter but is up to 15 or 16 now.  This is still much too cold for swimming!

I have been busy with downloading stuff but also updating the Community Association website.

Our 'arch enemies' the Maroochydore Based Helicopter Company recently had an article printed in a Qantas in flight magazine.  In the article it says they are prepared to bend the rules to be innovative.

I have forwarded copies onto our local MP and others.  The local M.P's Office has got back to me seeking more details.

Our weather is blue cloudless skies but a there can be a chilly wind.  It is around low 20's most days and usually remains in double figures overnight.

We now have both cars here in Caloundra.  The second car was handy today when Trish had Quilters and I had a Chiro appointment.  A neighbour has insisted we park the second car in his driveway.  It gets parked out of the way so he can easily get his won car in and out.

This really solves a problem for us.

And that is another task now completed, I have updated the blog page!

We Are Home & They Are Safely In Saudi Arabia

Despite a few small hiccups, the final removal days went fine for Kate Arj and Family. They moved to Arj's family's home for the final 2 nights while we moved to spend a wonderful evening with friends Patsy and Eddie.  The drinks and company were both first class.

Later on Friday we moved house again, this time to our youngest daughter Kim's place in St Kilda.  It was valuable family time as we all caught up yet again with all our news.  Kim and Trish speak reasonably regularly on the phone but there is nothing better than a good old face to face chat!

Both Trish and my footy teams performed well over the weekend recording good wins.

On Saturday evening we headed to Tullamarine for final farewells as Kate Arj and family were to board their 14 hour flight to Abu Dhabi, and, after a 6 hour stopover, another hour or two to Jeddah and a 50k road trip to KAUST!

Farewells were brief as they headed through to Immigration, then a meal and finally to prepare for the flight.  We drove home with heavy hearts wondering when we would again see them and have a chat.

Around 9:30 am Sunday we had packed both cars and set off for our 1800 kilometre drive home.  As there were two cars we weren't able to 'share' the driving. I am pleased to report the trip went without a hitch, both cars performing perfectly!

The first night we stopped in West Wyalong after a 600+k drive, the next night was in Goondiwindi and a 750+ k drive.  The final leg of around 430k's saw us drive into Kilbride Crt around 12:30.

We unpacked the cars and set about catching up with chores from our 3 weeks away.

Slowly but surely, via Facebook, Instagram and emails, information began to filter through from Kate Arj and family.  They used free wireless to get info back home to those of us waiting for news! Their own home internet connection was not connected they believed.

The photo above left shows their home in Saudi Arabia. This photo (left) shows James and Charli playing on some playground equipment near their home.

And the photo below left shows one of the huge rooms in their house. They didn't get much time to settle in to their new home as they both were due to head off for orientation at school on Tuesday.  They had passes to sort, procedures to be aware of and new people to meet!

Arj and I had set up Viber on our phones before they left and suddenly I had a Viber text message from him.  Then a notification came up on my PC screen saying Arj Bartholomeusz was online on Skype!

Arj had taken his modem/router with him.  He had plugged it in, connected it to the internet jack in the house and they were connected and online.  Their phones and iPads were able to access the internet. 

Emails crossed the oceans and a short time later we were able to speak and see Arj, Kate and the grand kids via Skype!

We heard all about their plane trip, their arrival in Jeddah where they were collected by the school and bypassed several queues to get through immigration and customs, some early purchases they had made at the wonderful supermarket, people they had met and all the excitement of beginning a new stage of their lives in a new land!

We spoke on Skype for around 20 minutes before they were to be picked up and taken to school by private driver.  Kate explained that the weather was hot and so humid.  The air conditioning unit in their home was very effective, (it had to be!).

Kate said it was so humid, clothes wouldn't dry properly if left outside!

Us being able to share their life at KAUST via Skype, Instagram, Facebook etc is just so amazing in this electronic age.  Arj even listened to the Melbourne Sports Radio station SEN on his phone to catch up with all the footy news!

Remember to follow Arj's blog HERE.