Trish Is Delighted!

So the 2014 AFL Grand Final has come and gone.  Trish is delighted as her team had a very easy win in the end.  It was record loss by the Sydney Team and they gave in without a whelp!  And it probably wasn't the most exciting TV either.  Probably this was because the Swans played so badly and also that my team wasn't playing!

So no sport on TV all day on Sunday.  This was a first for almost 6 months and is to be repeated next weekend I see as the Domestic One Day cricket early matches won't be covered on any TV.

I continue to bike ride each day (or most days anyway).  With the new estate beside us expanding so rapidly I now have heaps of close by safe riding courses to try out.  More importantly, the magpie swooping season seems to have finished already which is great for older guys who ride their bikes for exercise!  I didn't even worry about long cable ties attached to my helmet this year to ward any swooping bird away from my head!

The photo above left was taken on my ride this morning and shows one of the pathways which is available for me to use. Click on the photo for a larger view. The photo also shows just what a delightful day we have today!

The pool was around 22º this morning so it seems having a swim after my ride is back again for the new season.  With the pool back in use it is also time to have the water 'tested' and have chemical levels brought back ready for extended use.

Back in Melbourne with my manually chlorinated pool, the first trip of the new swimming season to the pool shop would most likely finish up with a bill heading towards $200!  But with today's modern chlorinating techniques my bill today was for less than $50.

$20 of that was for salt for the pool so the chlorinator can make chlorine.

The chemicals and salt have now all been added to the pool and the pump is working away dissolving and spreading the added chemicals around and throughout the pool.  I need to run the filter and pump for around 6 hours.

Last night we watched a three movie length series called "Carlos".  It tells the story of Carlos The Jackal who was a terrorist back in the 70's.  It is a French made series so there are some sections of each movie which has sub-titles.

This three movie length series played recently on the ABC here and that is where I got the three films from.  We have the third and final movie to watch tonight.

The Big Day!

Today is Saturday Sept 27th and the AFL Grand Final is around 2 hours away.  As the photo shows, the headphones are connected to the "Tunein" website and I am listening to the Sports Radio Station "SEN" in Melbourne via the internet.

The hot dog rolls are ready to be filled and the meat pies are defrosting ready for Half-Time!  It is a footy day here at Caloundra West.

I am a little under the weather following a very pleasant and lengthy drinks session late yesterday afternoon.  We got home after 9pm last night and the session started around 3 pm.  It was lots of fun!

Yesterday was a get the chores done sort of day.

I repainted the screen wall to hid a multitude of stuff stored behind the shed.  I removed the former non-working solar shed light under the pergola.  I fitted fixings for the new light in the pergola.  I repainted where the solar light had been.  The pool was vacuumed and the front lawn mowed!

No wonder I was thirsty when we got out yesterday afternoon!

Today the sun is shining and we expect the mid 20's as a top temperature.  The sunny sky now hides the promised showers and possible storms later on.  It is a little on the sticky side, another sign there is some rain about!

We are almost ready for the big game!

The domestic one day cricket series gets underway next weekend and will be live on TV!

End Of The Week

We were promised a thunderstorm late yesterday (Thursday) and all we managed was the utmost top tip of the storm front.  Areas to the south got a good fall but we managed around 6mls.

But a even drop like that is better than nothing, especially for the lawn and garden.  Actually the heaviest rain fell while the sun was shining!

We spent much of yesterday 'out' looking around some shops.  The Arts Centre Association required a new printer so that was on the list.  It has been ages since I had been to this shopping centre so I wanted a look around at the new shops.

And finally I was on the lookout for a small wallet.

My wallet is full of numerous cards and other bits and pieces, all of which I want to keep.  But it is so bulky to cart around all the time.  So I was after a cut down version in which I could store all my day to day stuff rather than cart around Melbourne Public Transport Cards and heaps of store cards etc.

I can't put the bulky wallet in my back pocket as it causes me to sit incorrectly and puts extra pressure on my back.

I found a nifty small leather wallet which is just ideal.  You hardly know you are carrying it!

As the day slipped into night at last Friday's drinks, I remembered the solar powered "Shed Light" I had bought and installed to give some light under the new pergola had ceased to work.  So I was on the lookout for a replacement.

The power we have at the back of the yard for the pool is on what is called Tariff 33.  Tariff 33 is a cheaper rate but is not available 24 hours a day.  It is switched off during 'peak times', usually from around 5:30pm to 8:30pm at night.  This is fine for the pool filter (the main reason we got the Tariff 33 put on) but when I want to power up a light while we are enjoying a drink or two there is no electricity!  The solar powered light was therefore a great solution.

I bought a light yesterday (see the photo above left) which is powered and has rechargeable batteries which give around 4 hours of light when on battery.  Then you just plug it into the mains again and the light recharges.  Therefore it will work perfectly with our Tariff 33.

The light just sits on a couple of screws and is easily put up or removed to be stored or recharged.  Even with Tariff 33 power available in the backyard it is easy to connect an extension lead to it for an overnight recharge!  A good deal I reckon for $40!

A Damp Start To Wednesday

There was only a few mls in the rain gauge this morning but short very light showers have been coming and going since the sun came up.  The sky still looks a little ominous but it seems the wet stuff is just about over for the day. The sky is beginning to brighten.

Maybe I will go for a shorter bike ride later on today.

Trish is at Stitchers this morning.  This is her third year as President of that group and she cannot go on for a fourth.  I think she shall miss it when this term is up.

However a very good friend of hers is set to take over the presidency so I am sure she will be able to keep a finger or two in the pie so to speak!

Despite being school holidays here right now the crowd at the Caloundra Bowls Club where we went for tea last night was surprisingly small.  It was a chance for us to get out and also give Trish a night off from preparing a meal.  We haven't been there for a long long time so we thought we would give it a try.

Trish had the steak and I had the crumbed fish.  The meals were inexpensive and reasonable in size.  The drinks were cheap as well especially when you compare the prices to what we sometimes pay when in Melbourne.

We are planning a day out for tomorrow Thursday.  We will check out the large shopping centre down the road and a few other spots.  There are some shops with sales on right now and we will do the rounds of them tomorrow.

Sunny But Cooler Than We Would Like!

It has been quite breezy outside the last couple of days with the wind coming in off the ocean.  This means the air is humid and full of moisture which in turn means possible showers.

And this has been the case with lots of showers Sunday, a few showers Monday and the odd shower or two today.  In between it is sunny and today we are looking at around 24 or so.

I did manage a quick swim last week but since then the weather just hasn't been warm enough.

I have the new PC all tamed now.  It is back to where it was a week or so ago with all my programs up and running.  There will be a few programs still to install but these will only be installed as and when required!

As we live in a new area there are additions to our facilities every now and again.  With a move to smaller house block sizes there are smaller or even non-existent backyards.  This means more parks and recreational areas are required.  This new park area is to be officially opened on the weekend.

This (above left) is a new playground area! Click on the photo for a larger view.

I continue to do my 12.5 km bike rides most mornings.  We are in the midst of magpie swooping season but they really haven't been a major problem this year.

Movie and TV Show downloading is again in full swing with things back to normal on the computer front.  My biggest problem now is to live long enough to watch all the stuff I have downloaded!

Having to dig up all my backed up information was a bit of a task when re formatting my PC.  So for this install I have grouped all the important files and portable programs I wish to back up in one folder.  Therefore all I need to now do is go to a backed up folder of that info and everything is there ready to go!

All Done!

It has just gone 1:30 on Sunday afternoon and all is relatively 'back to normal' on the PC front.  I have 'just' finished!

Some of my backing up files will need to be updated a little before it all runs perfectly again.  For example I back up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles and the profile folder name has changed.  These need to be updated within the updater program.

I will also add a few bits between the main PC and the laptop so I am not suddenly needing to copy over profiles and folders.

Everything went fairly smoothly.  I forgot to change my User Access Security Level within Windows.  This meant that when I went to change the inner workings of a few programs Windows wouldn't 'let' me.  Once I reset the settings (available via Control Panel > User Accounts and then click on Change User account Settings all the way down to "Never Notify") you have much better access to some files.

The new PC has numerous USB3 ports.  I have a couple of USB3 capable external hard drives which now can swap files at an incredible pace.  Previously on a good day they would transfer at around 14mb/s.  Via the USB3 ports, they transfer at around 60mb/s.  This makes copying photos and other files from the hard drive back to the computer very quick indeed.

Computer Club was busy as usual yesterday.  The footy was great with Hawthorn just holding on to win their way through to the Grand Final.  Trish was happy with the result but isn't looking forward to the Grand Final next week.  The Sydney team looks quite formidable based on Hawthorn's form yesterday.

Recovery Mode

It is before 7 am on Saturday and I am enjoying my normal browse across the internet.  I usually 'hit' the internet early on Saturdays, there is always something to do or catch up on and Computer Club from 8:30 onwards usually grabs most of my time.

Arj has added another post to his blog from Saudi Arabia and you can get to it HERE.  It is great reading as usual!   The photos are quite spectacular and help to provide an insight into another different community, different series of values and a different lifestyle in another part of our world!

I collected the new PC yesterday afternoon and it currently sits untouched on the floor of the Computer Room.  We had friends around yesterday afternoon for drinks and it lived up to the usual enjoyable time.  As usual, probably a little too enjoyable.

I will wait till after Computer Club this morning before I begin to set it all up.  I don't think doing it right now is a good idea, I think I need to wake up a bit more and possibly recover from last night's festivities.

I have quite a few portable hard drives.  Some had previously provided a hint of having a problem and as I depend on them so much for my backups, any hint of a problem I replace it.

I have a 1TB drive that probably was OK but it was replaced.  I now use it to store some of my oldest movie files.  As I have recently formatted not only my own PC but Trish's Dell Laptop (which I am using now), I used this hard drive to store all of the programs I needed for a Windows 7 re install.  So I have most of the stuff I need all right 'there'.

This should make the job even more straight forward!

Woo Hoo It's due at 2!

When I dropped the old PC off yesterday (Thursday) with the about to die Hard Disk, I was told the new PC would most likely be ready for me to collect around Tuesday of next week.  The parts needed to be ordered and then delivered.  With the weekend looming it seemed delivery of the parts would most likely occur late on Friday or early on Monday.  Then we needed to allow up to a full day to build the new PC just in case anything went wrong.

Ordinarily it takes less than 1 hour to put all the parts together to 'build' a new PC.

So I was delighted when Peter rang around 11:00 am today Friday to ask could I pop around later today and the 'new' PC would be available to collect.  The parts had been delivered 'overnight' and he had quickly put it all together this morning!

The former high quality video card in the old PC and the recently replaced Power Pack were both able to be used in the new build.  All that needs to happen now is the 4xUSB card could also be installed giving me oodles of USB connections.  But I can live without that if there is a problem on that front. He was concerned to connect the bank of 4 would mean he may need to disconnect the two USB ports at the front of the case!

Peter, the tech guy is also the President of the Computer Club and I think they do appreciate the work I do for them on Saturdays so I may have received a little 'preferential' treatment.

And with the footy not beginning tomorrow till well after 4 pm I should have the new PC online and operating.

It will be around late Sunday afternoon before the new PC it is back to anything like the former PC was with all the programs and setups!.

"Drinks" are on this afternoon.  It is around 26º or so in the backyard right now and hopefully the couple of promised showers of rain later today will hold off till well after dark.  Then we have one Preliminary Final tonight on TV between North Melbourne and Sydney.  Trish's team Hawthorn plays Port Adelaide late tomorrow afternoon and that game is on TV as well!

Where It Used To Be!

There is an empty spot under the office table where my PC tower 'used' to be.  There are now disconnected leads everywhere and the monitor is blank!

The PC has gone!  A new one will be built and be available possibly by Tuesday!  It all happened quite suddenly but in hindsight there were warning signs which happened a few days ago.

One sign was when an anti-virus scan took almost 3 hours instead of 45 minutes to complete.  There were other times but only recently when the PC would freeze during startup and other times when copying files over would take an eternity.  Then two hours later it would copy across extremely quickly.

Most likely this was the cause of me reformatting the PC several months ago as some of the symptoms were very similar to what I experienced this week.

Then the pop-up sign left began to appear on the screen and everything became clear! The PC's hard disk drive was about to fail.  The sign was warning me that there was a strong possibility the disk drive would crash and any information it contained would be lost.

A replacement drive would cost around $150 but that money could be put towards not only a new hard drive but a whole new computer!

Hopefully the new PC will have both the power pack and the video card from the former PC.  We will just have to hope the new PC motherboard has a slot which will take the former video card.  However it was argued that what I wanted to do with the PC really didn't require a dedicated video card.  We will wait and see.

Trish's old laptop has been pressed back into service.  I kept it pretty well backed up from the old PC so what I am typing on now is virtually the same as if I were working on the PC.

I enjoyed a second day at the cricket yesterday.  It was again quite warm and my face is showing the effects of some sunburn.  The cricket was great.  I spent much of the time chatting to another spectator and we relived and shared our old sporting stories.

We have had some breezy days recently and this plant from next door has caused us havoc with the pool.  When we get a northerly wind (which is almost daily in the heights of summer and every other day this time of year), the pool is 'destroyed'.  This plant is currently 'seeding' and the endless stream of airborne seeds finish up in the pool.

Even if they fall on the pavers, another gust of wind has them in the pool.  And they float on the water's surface, rather than sink.  If they sank I could vacuum them up but they float.  Surface tension then gets them to stick to the pool's edge at the water line.  We have been constantly sweeping the pool's wall to dislodge them and for them to float into the skimmer box.

But they are so light the wind usually blows them back up to the end of the pool.  Trish swept the wall edge 5 times on Tuesday.  In the finish and despite not getting on famously with the neighbour (they have a menacing dog which can intimidate us as we walk up the sideway if we have forgotten it is there) I had no other choice but to approach him about it.

He trimmed it all back yesterday!

To The Cricket

Following on with the advice from the pool shop staff yesterday to do the complete "Reset" piece again with the Pool Chlorinator timer, I grabbed the instructions and word by word followed them and 'Reset" the pool chlorinator timer.  I was delighted when it all came on at 6:30 am this morning and then operated perfectly throughout the day.

Around 10 am I had completed my ride, sorted a few things out on the PC and headed off to Maroochydore to watch the cricket between Victoria and Tasmania.  With a bright blue sunny sky and temperatures in the high 20's it was great to sit back and enjoy the day.

Though not the best cricket in the world (it was a bit slow), it was still great to sit back and watch numerous first class players who had previously represented Australia on the Test cricket arena.

There was some friendly banter and laughter between some members of the extremely small crowd and players.  It was a great day!

I might even do it again tomorrow!

I'm Free For The Rest Of The Week!

Being involved with possible Jury Duty over the last couple of weeks has been a real pain!

You couldn't plan even for the next day let alone for something in a couple of day's time!

I was just delighted to read the following when I checked the Jury Duty Messages on the web on Monday night.

Cricket at Maroochydore, here I come!

This is great news for me:

JURY INFORMATION
Panel A Jurors are no longer required to check the message as the sittings are now finalised. Thankyou for your participation.

Same Old, Same Old!

Roll on the 2014/15 Cricket Season!  My footy season is over after a lacklustre performance by my side on Friday night.  They would not have gone any further I suspect as the teams still above them are much stronger.  Though close losers in the end, they only played with the desperation required in the final 20 minutes or so.  They need to play with that level of desperation for much much longer!

Trish's team is still in the mix.  Hawthorn play Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon and that could well be a great game!

So with only two footy matches this weekend we have spent some time watching the Davis Cup tennis on TV.  That filled in the days OK!

I said in the last post that I had reset all the pool chlorinator times on the automatic timer.  I can run it for 3 sessions per day for various periods.  I try to get at least 6 hours in total to ensure that the chlorinator creates enough chlorine to keep the pool sanitized.  However the first time slot which is meant to start at 6:30 am no longer comes on automatically.  I can switch it on manually and from then on it turns itself off OK, restarts at 8:30 am, turns off at midday and finally goes on again at 1:30 and 'off' at 4pm.

It is easy to make a slip up when doing the setting up, and needless to say I did.  I fixed the setting but it still won't start.  The guy at the pool shop said I should do a full "reset" again and see if that fixes the problem.

If not I will revert to just two sessions and leave it at that!

That probably means there is a problem with one of the circuit boards which is another $150 to replace.  We won't fix it, but look to buying a new and more powerful chlorinator setup in 12 months.  As long as I can get my 6 or so hours in each day automatically, that will be all I need it to do.

And it still isn't warm enough to have a quick dip in after my bike ride most days.  We have around 24 or 25 here today and lovely and sunny!

We have Victoria and Tasmania cricket teams here playing a one full week pre-season warm up series of matches.  They play tomorrow and Wednesday and again on Friday at Maroochydore.  Depending on what happens with "Jury Duty" I am hopeful of getting along to a couple of days.

This again shows the value of having the second car here!

A copy of Trish's Birth Certificate and our wedding Certificate arrived today.  In a few more days we will be off to get our passports done ready for the big trip to Saudi Arabia in 6 months time!

High 20's

What a glorious day!  Not a cloud in a a bright blue sky and today was just glorious.  It was a top temperature in the high 20's, just sensational!

I was notified on Wednesday night that remaining Panel A Jury Members would not be required on either Thursday or Friday!  That will mean week 1 is over and I have only one more week to be on call for Jury Duty!

The bike ride this morning was great fun  One magpie watches me closely as I ride by and rides 'shotgun' with me just to ensure I don't stop and consider interfering with its nest and obvious eggs!  It is something I can do without but I also know this will probably go on for another 6 weeks or so!

The 'old' car we brought back with us from Melbourne as our 'second' car has had a dicky front door lock.  We have kept it going with heaps of 'graphite' which has allowed us to still enter via the driver's door.  Yesterday it 'gave up the ghost' and refused to allow any key to enter it!

$50 for a new lock barrel and another $30 or so to fit it will have everything operational again.  We had been told the cost to repair it all would be around $200 from a repairer in Melbourne.  So the $80 or so we were told about yesterday was pleasantly surprising.  An incorrect lock supply today means we will have to wait till tomorrow to get the car back!

We caught up with friends Kerrie and Ian today and enjoyed a delightful Thai lunch in Mooloolaba.  It worked out at $10 a head so not only was the food great, it was inexpensive as well.  We will do that again! There was no corkage charge either.  I believe you have to 'book' to eat there at night. 

This isn't surprising!

The pool cracked the magical 20º mark later today.  It will cool off some overnight but it is warming up nicely.  I am sure any early season swim will be brief at this time of the year.  I also extended the pool filtering times today.  This ensures there will be plenty of chlorine manufactured to keep the water clear as it warms up!

Jury Duty

Throughout my working life I have received several requests from the legal services to be available for "Jury Duty".  When teaching it was always too easy to find an excuse as to why I wouldn't be available.  Then when I retired I was again requested to be available for Jury duty but on both occasions we were travelling, either overseas or interstate.

A week or two ago I was again requested to make myself available for Jury Duty! This time I have done so.  So I need to be available for anytime during the next two weeks, this week and next week.  I have been given the number A59.

Each day I go online to the Maroochydore Courts website to see if I am required.  A1 up to A43 were required on Tuesday and the ones who were empaneled are back there again today.  Trish and I are hoping to head out for lunch tomorrow but we won't know for certain if we can go until I see if I am required tomorrow when I again go online after 5pm tonight.

Even if I am called I may not be selected to go onto a jury.  I have been told to say I am a retired school principal and often that is enough to scare the solicitors for the accused.  They may 'challenge' you and you are then free to go.

It is breezy up this way today with a strong N/W wind blowing warm air over us.  It should get to high 20's here today before dropping back a little tomorrow and more over the next few days.

We took a trip to some local shops yesterday and I bought myself some long casual trousers, some board shorts and a neat looking singlet!  It was very successful!

Trish's phone continues to work flawlessly.  At a $100 it is a real winner, lovely and clear and all with a quad-core processor.  It does her emails, her games, her Facebook and the other bits she wants perfectly and quite quickly!

Arj has again updated his blog from Saudi (HERE) and there are more photos (HERE).

I put another brew on this morning so my next task is to have enough empty bottles for the bottling!  With around 8 more 'empties' required, I don't think this is a problem!

Father's Day

Welcome to Father' Day here in Australia.  At my age nowadays I manage to get a call from the kids.  In Kate's case, that will most likely be by Skype or Viber and later on this afternoon from Saudi Arabia!  It doesn't matter, a call is always great.

People have been commenting to Kate on her photos that there very rarely seems to be anyone else in her photos.

What people don't realize is just how hot it is over there and that people may only come out at night!

But the photo above was taken last evening in KAUST and shows there are plenty of people about and they are enjoying the music.  Kate said how hot it was there!

My footy team was defeated on Friday and I feel that is probably as far as they will go this year.  They need a fully fit list and all playing at their best on the same day to be able to defeat the top two teams.  My team is in a regenerating stage and the big tip was that 2015 could be their year.  Or that was the aim anyway!

Computer Club was busy yesterday.  Emails were again my major task.  One lively lady in her 80's had her laptop bought for her and set up by her 60 year old son.  He has her doing emails via Outlook!  That is some email program for an older lady to be using, especially one who has only had experience on XP and Outook Express.

For most people like this I put them onto Thunderbird.  It is the email program most like Outlook Express and people love to be able to click on a contact and then send them an email.  Adding an attachment is all done by drag and drop as well!

She also has to use her Bigpond email address, her son won't let her set up a GMail account!  With GMail you never lose your contacts, and you can send from anywhere at anytime.  What you do is 'forward' a copy of all your incoming Bigpond emails onto GMail.  By doing this you have the best of both worlds!

She was going home to seek his permission to set up a GMail account and if I could install Thunderbird on her laptop!

Another lady said her laptop was running slow.  By the time I had uninstalled 8 or so malware/adware programs and then run Malwarebytes to clean it all up it was running a lot faster.  She was delighted to have her Firefox Home Page back again as well.

It is turning into a showery afternoon.  We have a strong S/E breeze blowing showers in off the sea today.  More consistent showers are expected tomorrow.  I did manage a 12k bike ride this morning, my first ride for over a week!

Feeling Better And Enjoying The Sunshine

Though still not back to fully fit and 100%, I am certainly feeling heaps better.  Actually I am pretty good.  A tummy gurgle from time to time but otherwise I am feeling good.  I even managed a beer last night, one being the actual number!

All the ordered items have arrived.  My new webcam for Skype has won a thumbs up from people who previously found the Skype audio from my end not the best.  Now it is all clear and fine!

Then yesterday Trish's new $100 phone arrived as well.  She spent some time customizing it to the way she likes it.  It is a 5" screen and has heaps more memory than her previous phone.  It does things more easily and quickly now.  For $100 it is pretty good deal.

It is no Samsung G5 or anything but it is better than her bottom of the range (but still works OK) Huawei.

Our two footy teams play each other again tonight in the first week of the footy finals.  I am a little more confident than I was two weeks ago but Hawthorn is way ahead in the favoritism stakes for tonight's match.  But we will see.  At least we get another chance if tonight doesn't go well.

Currently we have lovely sunny days and generally a top temperature around 23 or so each day.  The pool temp is sneaking up but some very cold overnight temperatures means the pool loses any heat it gains during the sunny days.  We have another couple of showery days coming up early in the week.  It should give the lawn another soak.

Bread, Butter & Vegemite Sandwiches!

Bread, butter and Vegemite sandwiches remains my staple diet right now.  My tummy is still a bit 'tender' but I am able to get around OK.  I managed to 'chair' my meeting last night with around 35 or so in attendance.  Then this morning I was up and about putting the latest info onto the Community Association's website so I can't be too bad.

A planned visit to the beach and fish n chips for lunch with friends didn't occur.  Neither did the couple of frosty cold lagers I had planned as well!  But I can still get around though bike riding hasn't been on my agenda.

From what my emails tell me the new phone I bought is on its way from China and is due here any time from Thursday through to Tuesday of next week.  According to the tracking number I have the article doesn't exist.  But that sort of thing is par for the course for when you deal with them.

The new webcam is 'in transit'.  That means it is somewhere between Sydney and the Sunshine Coast.  It was posted late Monday so I reckon it will arrive either tomorrow or the day after.

It is supposed to be a warm day today.  However the cloud is keeping the sun away and it is quite breezy outside.  A cooler wind is due tomorrow but if we get the sun back as planned it may even feel warmer.

That's it for today, same old same old!

Glorious Days But Tummy Bug Not Good

I was struck down with a nasty tummy bug yesterday (Sunday).  I had a headache, cold in my joints and just overall achy. I used the toilet on a most frequent basis!

It wasn't at all pleasant. Right now it is Monday morning and I still haven't eaten anything for around 36 hours!  All I have had was fluids!

Though not surfing along on the crest of a wave this morning, I am certainly feeling a lot better. I have a meeting to chair tonight in the new Bellvista Meeting Place.  I don't think I will be staying late!

Both our footy teams had good wins over the weekend and the two teams are set to meet in the first finals game coming up on Friday night.  The footy finals are here.

And spring is off to a warm start.  We have mid 20's today and possible even 27 tomorrow.  Then it drops back to 24 or so for the rest of the week.  Overnight temps will be double figures!

Arj has sent a couple more links, his updated blog is HERE and the new photos are HERE.  Their shipping stuff from Australia has arrived so now they have lots of things from home to keep them going!  And they have bought a car.  I am not surprised at this as even a short trip in that heat isn't much fun!

The official 'opening' for the new Bellvista Meeting Place went very well on Friday night.  I knew a lot of the people there as we had dealt with them at both Council and via Stockland.  Everything was catered for with seafood, finger food and no shortage of drinks.  I think those who got along to the night had a great time.

I chatted with the Mayor and other dignitaries.  It was a great night enjoyed by all!

We spoke with Kate Arj and family via Skype on Friday afternoon.  Kate complained about the sound quality of the microphone on my webcam.  It is 8 years old I have discovered.

I saw something I might like at around $45 from "The Good Guys".  I bought the same one on eBay for less than $35 and it should be delivered later this week.

Hopefully the inbuilt microphone will work better on this webcam.  Another mate also commented on the poor Skype audio as well so it looks like there was a problem.