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.