A Merry Christmas To Everyone

It is Christmas Day and Trish and I are encamped in The Waverley International Motel, a few minutes away from where Kate Arj and family are staying with Arj's parents.

Both Trish and I take this opportunity to wish all our friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We hope that 2016 brings with it all the good fortune you could want.

We left the delightful holiday house we had rented for the family Christmas yesterday (Thursday) at around 10 am.  Hopefully we have left the premises in a good condition to ensure we get all of our bond back.  It was such a great spot we are genuinely considering having 2016 Christmas in the same spot, but over an extra night.  The kids loved it and the pool was sensational. All was helped along by perfect weather.

We dropped Kim and all her luggage off in Rosebud after we left Portsea where she caught up with good friend Renae and they headed off camping for a few days.

We arrived at the motel in Melbourne's south east suburbs around 1:30 pm Christmas Eve and were very pleasantly surprised by the great accommodation we found.  All was great with the room though the bathroom probably needs a make over.  The position is ideal within a couple of minutes walk of the fabulous (and cosmopolitan) The Glen Shopping Centre.  This too is a diner's paradise and all within close walking distance.  A nearby Dan Murphy store (alcohol super store) is also within walking distance.

It appears we got a 'special' promotion with our accommodation and the rooms generally don't come at around $100 per night.  For the regular price you can add 50% to that.  That isn't our room in the photo but a promotional "Google Images" shot.

We have come into an especially hot couple of days so an air con motel room is just perfectly timed.  It will be 35 degrees today, and will be 21 or so with rain tomorrow.  Such is Melbourne!

At this stage Christmas lunch will be nibblies and more in a local very large park with Arj and the family.  However the weather may have something to say about that.  Not only is it hot, there is a gusty wind as well.  The big meal comes tonight when we get together with all of Arj's family for a Sri Lankan Curry get together.

Therefore nibblies will be plenty for lunch!

Kate and Arj have much of next week penciled in with friends to catch up with.  So for us it will be catch them when we can.

We have our traditional Boxing Day BBQ with Barry and Rainy tomorrow down in Drouin.  For the final three nights of our time in Melbourne we will have staying with friends.

The most likely scenario still sees us getting home on New Year's Day with two stopovers on the way.  Reports indicate it has been showery and not overly hot back on the Sunshine Coast.  The weather for Melbourne for our remaining time here is mid 20's or so, just delightful.

Christmas Time

It has been a few days since I last posted.  I post this via Trish's laptop at Portsea.  We are in the midst of our family Christmas get together.  We have our daughter Kim who is over from Perth.  We have Chris Wendy and family who live in Melbourne and we have Kate Arj and the kids with us doing their Christmas visit from Saudi Arabia.

We try to get together by hiring a house 'somewhere' with all the conveniences we want each year and this year we have hit the jackpot, not only with fine warm weather but also with the perfect house.  We have 5 separate bedrooms each with its own air con and en suite.  We have room to burn, a BBQ, great deck and a heated pool.

It is ideal.  There is even free WiFi which allows me to post this blog post.

Chris' wife Wendy is doing the cooking.  She enjoys it and does all the food preparation.  Each family 'puts in' to cover costs and we have a superb spread.

There is plenty to drink and even more to eat.  The pool is heated ensuring plenty of young hungry appetites.  Today we had our Kris Kringle with the kids getting spoilt as usual.  It has been wonderful.

The weather has been mid to high 20's, just perfect.  There is a large screen TV, videos games everything the kids could want.

The photo above shows some of the grand kids (and Chris) during this morning's Kris Kringle.  As an extra treat my sister Judy and Peter popped in for a couple of hours this morning to catch up and spread the Christmas cheer.

Previously on Monday we spent a wonderful evening with friends at Drouin, around 120k's south of Melbourne.  There were 4 couples, people we have known for 40 years or so.  When we do catch up it is as if 30 years have vanished, We seem to take off as if we last met the previous week.  It was another special moment.

Tomorrow we leave this ideal spot and head to a motel around 5k's from where Arj Kate and family are staying with Arj's parents.  We have plans to catch up and enjoy more time together.  We expect to spend a couple of days there before we again head south to Drouin again and other friends Barry and Rainy for a fun BBQ and quite a few drinks.

We still expect to get back home around New Years Day.

A Cooler Melbourne

It is a much cooler place right now here in Melbourne. Kate, Arj and family arrived exhausted early yesterday morning (Saturday) all bright eyed and bushy tailed despite a 14 hour flight from Dubai into a 43 degree typical Melbourne disgusting day. There were extremely hot winds and it was awful.

Around 2 hours later the grand kids were asleep and the two grownups were about to hit brick wall.

It is now 6pm Sunday and a much awaited cool change has arrived sending temps from the high 30's to around 20 degrees.

We enjoyed our stay in Newcastle catching up with Janet and Michael. Mick is due to finish working in March so is coming to grips with the idea of retirement and considering how he will spend his time. He was assured there would be plenty to  do.

Friday was a long driving day, almost 1000ks. We split the driving up between us. We arrived in Melbourne around 5pm after around just under 11 hours travelling.

It has been great with Chris and Wendy and spending special time with grand kids Andrew and Emily. Andrew loves his sport and computer stuff so we get on Ok.

Our day has been spent enjoying a lot of cricket on the telly.

If I  can get the photo up it will be of Chris' backyard after the change and some cooling showers.

Tomorrow it is off to Drouin to a special Christmas night with our Melbourne friends.
 

Kim has flown in from Perth and is catching up with friends.  Kate and Arj are also catching up with others today and have tomorrow to attend to  some business with the bank.

On Tuesday our family will all get together at a holiday house for 2 nights prior to Christmas. For Trish and me this will be a special time.

Are There Any Roadworks?

I would say that around 30% of the road between Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour (around 150ks in total) are under Roadworks speed restrictions. It is amazing.  It turned a 5 hour drive into almost 6 hours. Throw in Daylight Saving which adds an 'hour'  to travel time and we are in Coffs Harbour eventually.

The motel is booked out so we are lucky we booked a couple of days ago.

The Waeco has operated faultlessly so we are enjoying cool drinks as we relax and get onto the free WiFi.

It's to the infamous 'Hoey Moey' for tea and later it won't be long out of bed.

It is around 450ks for tomorrow and we won't be due there until around 5pm we guess.  That takes the pressure off. So a sleep in may be in store.

Will give more updates as more free WiFi comes along.

2 Hours to Drive Off

We head south to Melbourne in a couple of hours.  It is nice not having to rush.  Previously if heading south we would have been on the road for an hour or so at this time.  In the old days we would do the 1800k's from here to Melbourne with just one overnight stop.

We are stopping over tonight in Coffs around 500ks away.  Tomorrow (Weds) onto Newcastle where we will spend Thursday.  Then Friday the biggie, Newcastle to Melbourne in a day where we will stay a couple of nights with Chris and Wendy.

At this stage hot weather is promised for Melbourne on Saturday.  This could change before then owing to Melbourne's changeable weather.

Kate and family fly in Saturday morning.

The Waeco turned out to be pouring money into a machine which would possibly break down again.  At 15 years old the tech believes it is getting close to the end of its life.  I was spared the $180 to repair it.  Instead we have now lashed out (for my 70th birthday present) and bought a new one.  Let's face it, you can't take it with you.

It was $200 cheaper than when I bought the original 15 years ago.  With it came a cover and a great set of storage containers, very high quality.

It works great.  It will get heaps of work over summer where we cool drinks while using the pool.

In the meantime the backyard is now finished as the top photo shows.  Potplants are in place, required safety notices have been updated and I even raised the retractable hose to ensure it is over a metre from the ground.  I was guessing that would be a safety requirement if owning a pool.

Now to finish packing.  I am not sure when or where the next post will be.

Have a great Christmas everybody, just in case I am unable to connect to the internet and add a post.

Hot and Windy

We are at a lovely cool end to what has been quite a hot week.  Mid 30's in our little backyard has been the order of the day with balmy overnight meaning the ceiling fans have been put to work as we sleep.

The wind has been blowing quite strongly from the north west again giving us hot temperatures and we have been invaded by falling leaves from the neighbour's plants.

Having the air conditioner up and running again has been great.  It only goes on 27° but under a ceiling fan it feels great.

I have bike ridden for a the first couple of days but since then bottle washing and bottling have taken up two mornings, while building has taken up the third.  We have extended the feature wall across the western fence at the top end of the pool as the photo above shows.

The photo lower down is what it used to look like. Click on the photos for a larger view.

Doing this work at my age in quite hot and oppressive conditions hasn't done my well being any good.

In between has been the usual attending the odd meeting, updating web sites and chatting with various officials on goings on around the area.

Really Christmas can't come quickly enough for me.  We had another Skype chat with Kate in Saudi yesterday.  She bought two 'Kindles' at ridiculously low prices along with covers and delivery to her parents in law home.  Used her Australian Credit card to pay for it only to discover later the payment had been refused as the credit card company saw the purchase had been made from overseas.

They know she lives there, they have it as a mailing address, all too frustrating.

One of her first tasks when back in Melbourne for Christmas next week is to arrange a credit card from a bank in Melbourne.  The email saying there was a problem with the payment had gone to her spam folder and she missed it.

We have cooling showers right now giving everything a well needed drink of water.  The lawn and garden are both in need of a water.  I did top the pool up from the tap mid week but it too is getting topped up again right now.

The cricket test match on TV isn't that exciting with the opposition team being very weak so the traffic is all one way.

We have the final Computer Club meeting this morning and we finish with a spread of food.  Should be good.

We head to Melbourne on Tuesday by car.  The Waeco should be back and fixed by Monday afternoon .... we hope.

A Hint Of "Cool"

We have enjoyed top temperatures of around 30° the last few days.

There is a slight southerly blowing and it has just a hint of 'cool' about it.  However when standing in the sun you can begin to feel the heat pounding down.  It is only another week or so till when the sun reaches its southern most point before retreating to the north again.

The sun is almost as close to directly overhead as it gets here.

Trish went and bought a Sim Card Adapter kit from a Phone Repair place at the local shopping centre on Friday.  The kit was primarily aimed at the Apple mobile phone market as those phones can take some tricky variations of sim card.  The 'new' phone takes a normal sim card, her previous phone took a mini sized sim card and is smaller.

The sim card slotted into the adapter nicely and then into the phone easily.  The phone then connected to the local mobile phone network with out any hassles. Remember the phone only cost AUD$180 and will very successfully allow her to send and receive texts, make and receive calls, attend to her GMail and allow her to follow her Facebook page.

Then there will be the odd game or two she can play on it and all on a 5.5" screen, a little bigger than what she was used to but has become quickly adapted to.

The photo above was taken with the phone and is certainly not 'camera' quality but is more than acceptable for what we want.

It is a 4G phone as well.  If it lasts a couple of years then great.  Then she will have to buy another new one won't she?  Her previous phone was beginning to chew through the battery and seemed to go 'flat' in less than a day.  A couple of the buttons failed at times as well.  They worked OK when I used them but Trish was not totally confident when using it.

All in all it was a good little buy.

After we return from Melbourne I will send away for a replacement battery for the old phone.  That will then become a 'spare' for just in case!

Trish is into Brisbane today with Kathryn (our Chiropractor) to go to the theatre.  I will sit at home and watch the golf from the Gold Coast.

It Has Cooled Off!

It started with a few spits of rain on Wednesday evening followed by another couple of heavy showers.  Rain totals weren't anything startling though, around 6 mls or so.

Thursday morning was overcast and still.  Soon however a very strong southerly buster cooler change came in.  The wind blew like crazy (which you would have seen if you watched the golf on TV from the Gold Coast).  The pool was full of refuse, I am guessing the rubbish blew in from houses a couple of blocks away rather than just next door.

We rolled up the sun blinds the wind was so strong!  Then we had a couple of showers of rain during Thursday and the wind continued to blow a gale.  The temperature was around the mid 20's.  This morning (Friday) the pool is back to 24°!

Needless to say I didn't bike ride yesterday or this morning.

The guy I called to fix the air conditioner arrived yesterday.  He picked the fault in one!  It was a Gecko (a small lizard that gets into everything in this part of the world) that had shorted the power and blew the fuse in the air conditioner unit itself.  Photo left.

The fuse was replaced and the air con flicked into life again.  No cost at all to us.

I have the beer cooling in the Waeco portable fridge on Thursday and it sure was doing a great job.  A bottle of my beer was frozen, so effective had been the repair!  If only that were true.  The Waeco is back for repair again.  The guy believes it may be something other than the thermostat which they replaced two years ago causing the fridge just to cool and continue cooling.  I await with baited breath for what went wrong!

Then the wind picked up again blowing the blinds off the velcro strips I used to anchor them as per the photo above.

So this morning (Friday) after dropping the Waeco off again I was off to buy some more new 'reusable' velcro strips.  The older ones had lost quite a bit of their sticking power.  The new ones are holding OK at the moment.

I did get the final brew for 2015 on this morning as well.  This will be the last one I will do before heading to Melbourne on Tuesday week.  It should start bubbling this afternoon I hope!  Washing and bottling will occur throughout next week!

Our area where we live is going ahead in leaps and bounds with huge residential developments planned for the south of Caloundra.  The increase in population is having an effect on the number of cars on the road and increasing traffic. So yesterday the Community Association met with the Chief Advisor to the State Government's Minister for Transport and Main Roads on the issue at her office in Maroochydore.

So while I interviewed the advisor, Trish shopped at the huge "The Plaza" shopping centre in Maroochydore.  You can read about what happened at the meeting HERE.  I put this report on the BeCA website this morning.

After the meeting, Trish and I adjourned to the Alex Headland Surf Club for a few drinks and dinner.  Very pleasant it all was as well!

And last but by no means least, Trishs' new $185 phone arrived from China yesterday.  We have a hassle at this stage because her current phone uses a 'mini' sim while the new phone uses a larger sized card.  Trish is hoping to pick up a sim card adapter so she can put her mini sim into the new phone.

Regretfully we tossed away the adapters we had or we have stored them 'somewhere' at home.  Despite turning the place upside down last night we couldn't find them.  Hopefully she will come across one today in Caloundra.

So it has been a bit hectic the last few days.

A Happy Little Vegemite

The title for this post describes how I feel after the new "Android TV Box" was delivered yesterday around lunchtime.  I bought it online from China on Thursday and it was delivered to the front door around lunchtime Monday. 

Poor Trish continues to wait for her new phone to be delivered and it was ordered several days before I ordered the TV Box..

Hers came with 'cheap' postage ($6) whereas mine had a postage charge of around $25.

You can buy what I got for around $280 from JB HiFi with the better quality remote.  Mine cost around $100 less and with the better quality remote included. And after a little fiddling around I managed to get the quality DTS sound working on it this morning.

It does things that little bit better than the Tronsmart does, the one I got at half price.  Needless to say the Tronsmart will be available for sale.  At $70 it is still a really good buy for someone as it works fairly well.  I seem to feel it didn't work well with my lower end Yamaha Amplifier which is where all my devices play through.  Everything, ordinary Free To Air TV, Media Player, Pay TV and Blu Ray player all play through the amplifier.

Trish's old phone is beginning to play up.  The battery will go from 70% to empty in a very short while.  Needless to say the new phone can't arrive quickly enough.  It is due for delivery sometime this week.  I will buy a replacement battery when we return after Christmas and then we can keep Trish's current phone as a 'spare'

After she gets her phone we will both have received our Christmas presents.

We continue to have warm steamy weather.  My next stop will be the pool after this.

The Waeco is chugging away under the patio cooling some brews, ciders and soft drinks.  It is working quite well.  We have another hot day tomorrow before cooling off for a few days when we can expect top temps around 27° after the change.

Trish is well into Xmas lunches from various groups with which she is involved.  So it is Christmas busy, busy busy.

Hot & Steamy

Many of you will have already come across this on Facebook or the like.  But just in case you haven't!

The few degrees of wind direction turning a northerly into a north westerly has been back the last day or so.  I now leave the 'garden Vac/Blower' continually hooked up to the power outside and do a sweep every hour or so around the pool area to pick up leaves from next door's plants.  We got a northerly the other day and didn't get any dramas.  A few degrees of direction to the west and we get the hassle back again.

I am 'stuck' at home with deliveries from overseas due in the next day or so.  I got an "Out For Delivery" email this morning from DHL but I am not sure if it means it is on a truck coming to my place today or if a truck is heading to the Sunny Coast with the delivery on it ready for me to get tomorrow.

Trish's new phone is now listed as "In Transit" from Hong Kong.  But that message is now 3 or 4 days old and could arrive on the doorstep at any time.

Things are beginning to fall into place for our trip to Melbourne as far as accommodation is concerned.  We will prop at Newcastle for the Wednesday and Thursday of the journey down to Melbourne.  That makes Friday a huge day with around 950k's from Newcastle to Attwood (near Tullamarine Airport Melbourne) to do.

That will be the biggest day on the road for us for the whole time we are away.

We have booked accommodation in Glen Waverley for Christmas Eve and Christmas Night and set ourselves to catch up with friends on Boxing Day and then stay at Chris's that night. The last couple of nights we will spend with Eddie and Patsy Riordan.

Being a hot and steamy day today the pool will be a popular spot this afternoon.

Trish is out for much of the day, a meeting and then a Christmas get together will follow.

We were supposed to get storms last night but it seemed extremely heavy rain fell here for less than 10 minutes but that was enough to put 8mls in the rain gauge.

Friday

It is late Friday morning.  Trish is at Quilters but more importantly the promised cooler wind change has arrived early dropping the temp back to a very pleasant 29°.  Which coincidentally is about the same temp as the pool!

This morning it was a bright clear sky and the temp was nudging 35° outside when I did my 12.5k bike ride.  The north wester was relatively quiet so there wasn't the wind hassles I have been having with leaves in the pool from next door.

Then the clouds rolled in and the wind switched to the south (despite showing it blowing from the east via the wind vane in the photo).  So we have a pleasant afternoon in store for watching the golf from Sydney or the Test cricket from Adelaide.

Yesterday was blistering hot.  We decided to just make sure the air conditioner was working and cool off inside just a little.  The air con wouldn't start and when I checked the switchboard, I saw the AC power switch had flicked off indicating most likely there had been a short somewhere.  I couldn't get it to go.

I have called from a repair guy to look at it.

I have just been told the Waeco has been fixed.  The fan had stopped working which caused the fridge to operate almost continually.  This in turn 'fried' the power lead.  I will pick it up Monday morning and give it a good test run before we head south.

But then things happen in threes don't they!

As you may have noticed I am keen on the Android TV Box.  The one I have has its problems so I have bought myself a new much better model for Christmas and my birthday.  It is a Minix Neo X8H Plus.  JB HiFi will sell you one for around $285.  I have found one online for around $180 delivered.  I should have it in a week or so.

Trish's new phone also bought online remains classified as "Collection: Shenzhen (guangdong) - CHINA".  It has been like that for a few days now.  Such is the joy of dealing with purchases from China!

Last night we had a meal at the local Caloundra Bowls Club.  Good basic fare it was.  I enjoyed my roast beef very much.

The two TV shows we are watching right now are "The Man in the High Castle" and "Masters of Sex".  I am really enjoying the former.  It tells of life in the USA had the Japanese and Germans won the war.  Half the US is called the "New Reich States".  It is all very interesting to watch.

Time to fire up the TV for a sport watching afternoon.

My Biggest Hassle Right Now

There aren't too many hassles in this part of the world.  We have had low 30's today even at around 4:30pm.  Then the pool registers something like 29.7° which is pretty comfortable when having a swim.  Usually we get a north easterly sea breeze come in around midday or so but it has stayed north westerly for a few days this week.  And the north westerly wind creates my biggest hassle right now.

The photo shows the end of the pool and what the neighbours have planted in their backyard.  He seems to plant whatever and the tall growth to the right is bamboo.  For us it gives us some welcome shade during the afternoon to the kitchen.

Now the plant to the left of the umbrella is a lillypilly. It too provides excellent sun screen late in the afternoon for the lounge room.  The weather vane points due north!

Possibly the two worst plants for pool owners is either a gum tree or a lilliypilly.  The reason is they drop leaves all year round.  So with a north westerly some of the falling leaves find their way into the pool.

We did get a north easterly yesterday afternoon but we had the north westerly and just a few falling leaves today.  After a north easterly yesterday afternoon I didn't even need to vacuum the pool this morning.

Today has been a more of a north westerly day so the pool will most likely need a vacuum tomorrow.

So just a few degrees of wind direction makes a huge difference for me.

Isn't that just such a wonderful if it is the biggest problem to have?

The swim in the pool just before was sensational.

Yes, retired life is pretty good!

Quick Post Before a Swim

Trish was concerned that the "Back" button on her $100 phone didn't always work.  It seemed OK when I used it but she was sure it wasn't working properly all the time.  She has had it 2 years now and it has worked fine for what she wants.

Onto the Chinese websites we go and her new phone will arrive later this week or early next week.  The drop in the Aussie Dollar hasn't helped.  The USD$125 translates to AUD$185 nowadays but the new phone should arrive shortly.  It has a better camera (that wouldn't be saying much) 4G and much more memory then her current phone.

That is a photo of the parcel taken from the GearBest website where we bought it.

Again we have the low 30's today and the pool is around 28° so very pleasant for swimming. 

We are in the midst of planning our trip to Melbourne and hoping to fit in with Kate and Arj when ever we can.  We will leave here on Tuesday Dec 17th and return most likely New Year's Day.  We have a two night stop over at Newcastle on the way down, arriving in Melbourne on Friday Dec 18th.  We will spend several nights in a hotel quite close to where Kate Arj and family will be staying over Christmas time.

We have our two night stay in a holiday house booked for the whole family.  Most likely we will travel direct from Irene and Russell's home in Drouin to the booked holiday house at Rye on the Mornington Peninsula.

We will spend several nights with at Chris' place and a couple of nights before heading home with Eddie and Patsy.  We may be after some contingency stop overs as well.  We will spend at least two overnight stops on the road heading home.

There isn't an update on the Waeco repair just yet but we recall the service from the place isn't super quick.

The pool beckons!

A Bit Of A Change

After some sunny and warm days (the pool got up to 28° on Saturday) it is a little overcast with a slight sprinkle about this morning (Sunday) and a bike ride is off the agenda.

It has been a busy couple of days ... for a change.

The movie theatre company Queensland based Birch Carroll and Coyle have withdrawn from theatre ownership in Victoria.  So Trish was given a couple of vouchers during a recent trip down south to Melbourne.  We decided to use the vouchers on Thursday afternoon and trooped off to Maroochydore and saw "Bridge of Spies".  I wasn't too sure where the movie was going but as soon as they introduced an American Airforce pilot named "Powers" it all fitted into place.

It did bring back thoughts of "Spy Planes" and the "Cold War".  We both enjoyed the movie very much.  Thanks David!

There is a new road being built by the developer Stockland to open up all of Caloundra South and add another 50,000 to the population of the Sunshine Coast.  This road will connect into our main road Bellvista Blvd and provide a much sought after second way in and out of our estate.  As President of the Community Association I was invited to attend a "Turn the First Sod" ceremony for construction of the new road on Friday.

The whole show was bigger than Ben Hur with local TV and the press in attendance.  There was the Government's Minister for Main Roads (and his advisors whom we had met with a couple of weeks earlier), our local MP Mark McArdle, local Councillor, and executives from Stockland.

As it turned out I was invited to participate as the local citizen representative.  You can read more about it here.  I was interviewed by both local TV stations and got a quick spot on the Local News on Friday night.  It was nice to be welcomed by the Channel 7 interviewer and be greeted with "Hi Les".

You can read more about the new road and the planned extension to the area here.  Check out the embedded movie there.

At Computer Club on Saturday morning I was greeted as the TV Star!  A little over the top of course but nice.  I have been invited to speak to the local "Ratepayers' Association" on Tuesday evening about BeCA's involvement and reaction to the road situation around here.  There is much lobbying going on for major infra structure for the Sunshine Coast, especially the road system.  With another 50,000 to move in over the next 10 to 15 years, road planning and upgrades need to begin now.

There is plenty of golf on the TV at the moment and that will fill in much of today.  I have the program "Kodi" installed on my tablet.  Kodi is the program I use on my Android TV Box to watch movies, TV series and to do some streaming.  Currently the Australian Masters is also being shown on "The Golf Channel" in the USA which I can watch via "Kodi".  So I spent a little time yesterday sitting beside the pool after a swim, enjoying a cool drink and watching the Golf live via Kodi on my tablet!

I managed to get another brew on yesterday as well.  It was hot (and thirsty) work!

I also decided it was time to set the Waeco (portable 12v refrigerator) up under the patio to house our summer drinks.  I also wanted to be sure it worked OK.  Regretfully it didn't work so on Monday it is off to the work shop for a repair. We use it a lot when travelling especially when we will drive to Melbourne this Christmas.

It's Warming Up

We are looking forward to the low 30's later this week but the overnight temps will remain in the high teens.  If ever you wanted to visit the Sunshine Coast, this time of the year, November, is the month to do it.  Usually we have warm daytime temperatures along with not so hot nights.

We are promised some top temps in the low 30's coming up later this week.  It is light around here well before 5 am at the moment!

Thank heavens the test cricket match is over and hopefully a better pitch will be available for the next Test match due to begin late next week.  This week is a watch the golf weekend I think!

I booked the car in to have the power/cigarette lighter points in the dash and the boot checked.  Trish drove the car down around 5 to 8 in the morning and was home with the car around 10 minutes later with it all fixed.  The first guy had stuffed it up.

The original guy was down his main reception man who was on holidays so he was doing two jobs at the one time.  He had forgotten to check the fuse of which I reminded him as I arrived to pick up the car after a service.  He found the faulty fuse and sent a worker to get a replacement.  We chatted along until the spare fuse arrived back which he fitted.  There are a couple of 'spare' spots for spare fuses.  He inadvertently stuck the fuse in a 'spare' spot rather than where it was meant to go.

On Tuesday the auto elec immediately saw the problem, put the fuse back in the correct spot and "We had ignition!"

I managed a bike ride this morning (Weds).  It has been a bit showery overnight the last few nights.  Even a hint of any rain means I don't ride!  Wet roads are more than a hint of rain so I didn't ride the day before.  That it all cleared up beautifully afterwards was all too late.

The more I mess around with Kodi and the Android Box I have bought the more impressed I have been.  Kate described it as a Google TV Box when we were Skyping each other recently.  A little more investigation and I can confirm the Google TV Box can be a distant cousin to what I have. I guess it really comes down to what you call it.  Most commonly the box I have is referred to as an Android TV box.

Apart from an android problem of effectively dealing with HD sound, my unit is just amazing in what it can do!

Trish is tidying up a few chores after Stitchers this morning and I am filling in time writing a Blog entry.  Time to think about another swim I think!

Read My Blog Or Watch the Perth Test?

What a decision to make, read this blog entry or watch the Perth Test match?  Which is the more dull and
less exciting to do?  Both are pretty chronic at the moment aren't they?

Not much news around about at this stage.

Our "Holiday Club" membership has been cancelled and following a phone call today we were told to return the 'kit' that we received at sign up and then all monies would be refunded.

Computer Club was very quiet on Saturday which meant there was no rush to get things done.  I could take my time and ensure everything went according to plan.

My 'new' chair has an updated 'protective covering'.  I do tend to perspire a lot so something like as you see in the photo above is required to protect the fabric, despite it already being 'scotch guarded'.  Sitting in the chair is a sure way to fall asleep if you are even just a little on the tired side.

I have updated the old laptop to Windows 10 just for the fun of it.  With a special connecting device I bought I am now able to put what is on the old laptop screen onto the TV which is great if I needed to use Kodi with it for TV and movie show watching.

The connection isn't quite 100% but I would want to try it for an extended time to see if the picture 'holds' and doesn't start 'flickering' again.  The old laptop's hardware just isn't quite able to do it, it nearly does it but not 100% it seems.

This was a major reason for updating the laptop to Windows 10 in the hope that improved Windows 10 graphics drivers would be able to hold the picture.

I bike rode this morning and our weather looks like warming up again.  The 22mls of rain we got overnight Saturday into Sunday has done the garden the world of good.  Low 30's later in the week looks like perfect swimming in the pool weather.

Sad End To A Great Night

The local Powerboat Club here in Caloundra had a double act on last night (Thursday), rock icon Jon English along with Peter Cupples who often performed in "Carols", lots of daytime TV shows and with a group called the Stylists in the 70's were performing.  Along with 4 friends we had a great night out, great company, good pub fare and few drinks to go with it.

I have a link with Peter Cupples via his brother Terry.  As a young 19 year old country teacher I was appointed to Toora Primary School in South Gippsland around September 1965.  I lived with a local family.  I went to French Island in 1966 to teach but returned to Toora in 1967.

In 1967, ccommodation was found for me at the local Guest House where I was quickly taken under the wing of two of the young residents there, Garry Moore who worked at a local bank and Terry Cupples, the Toora Station Assistant.

In those days I never really had a drink.  These two guys were seasoned Guest House inhabitants and before long I was enjoying a beer, listening to music and having an all round wow of a time.  We became good mates and spent nearly all of our out of work hours together, chatting, listening to Bob Dylan albums and enjoying a cool refreshing ale.  I will spare you the gory details but we got up to quite some mischief and did some things we would now not rather repeat nowadays.

How we ever got home some nights driving in the condition we were in made us believe we would live forever. 

On weekends, we would each go home then meet up again on Monday when we returned to work.

After leaving Toora a couple of years later, we kind of lost contact, a fact I discovered happens with many young teachers working in different spots around the state.

Around 20 years later we all caught up again at Terry's place in Thorpdale in the Latrobe Valley for Terry's 40th birthday.  It was a glorious sunny day, sitting around telling lies about what we used to get up to, enjoying a few beers, meeting each others' family and having an all round great time.

Later that afternoon Terry's younger brother Peter arrived to join the celebrations.  We all sat on the grass in a paddock nearby, Terry and Peter with their guitars and Garry's wife with her violin.  There were a few more beers of course.  What a sensational day we all had, the drinks were great, the music unbelievable and the company as good as ever.  It was like the intervening years had disappeared and it was just yesterday.

I hadn't heard from Terry since that great day now around 30 years ago.

As we headed to the Powerboat Club last night I vowed to have a chat with Peter, check up on how Terry was going and try to contact him.

Jon English and Peter Cupples were just great, we all enjoyed the evening enormously.  After the show I managed a few words with Peter and asked after Terry!  Terry had passed away a couple of weeks ago.  Garry Moore had been dead for around 2 years now.

What a shock!

No News

The new lounge chairs were just too much for me last night.  I missed a few minutes of a couple of TV shows from time to time as the eyelids just got so heavy.  We continue to find the new chairs great.

I got the car back from the service OK late yesterday afternoon..  But it has done 100,000k's now and things like brake pads and the like are beginning to require replacement.  This all adds to the cost.  The car still runs perfectly.

He tried unsuccessfully to fix the cigarette lighter type power outlets this car has in the dash and in the boot.  Though replacing the fuse, they didn't work when I tested them at home.  It is booked into an Auto Elec next week and he will get them going again.

The cigarette lighter type power point in the boot powers the Waeco when we are on the road.  I can take my own beer with me as we have this mobile source of cooling to take where ever we go. But it also handy for foodstuffs as well.  Nothing better than to pull up for a breather and there is an icy cold drink ready to go.

I managed a bottle wash for my home brew this morning and then mowed the lawn in lieu of a bike ride.  Riding anytime well after 9 am is a pretty warm thing to do at this time of year.

Today has been so boring one of the more exciting happenings was that I changed my computer's desktop background. The photo above is now on my PC.

Check out http://wallpaperswide.com/ for wallpaper downloads for your desk top background update.

It's a gorgeous day here today. Great blue sky and around 28° in the backyard.  The pool water temp is around 26.5° mid afternoon Wednesday.  It was a few degrees cooler when I swam this morning after mowing the lawn.

The Skies Above Are Blue Again

It has been an anxious couple of days as we slowly but surely begin to get on top of things.  We have opted to use the "Cooling Off" terms to cancel the Holiday Club we had joined.  I see from my Express Mail 'tracking' the letter advising them we wanted out was signed for and collected this morning.

Just to be on the safe side I rang the Holiday Club yesterday (Monday) afternoon to get an email address then emailed them a copy of all the paperwork.  Now refunds of deposit etc should begin to re appear in the account.  I certainly slept a lot better last night.

It has been a little cool, overcast and showery here with around 25mls finding its way into the rain gauge.

But today the sun and warm (not hot) weather has returned.  I did a bike ride after getting the car to the local Auto Service Centre for the car's 'getting ready to go to Melbourne" service.

Kate and family only spent a couple of days in Egypt but had some incredible adventures around the pyramids.  We spoke with them via Skype Sunday evening and the kids seemed to have really love it surrounded by all that history.

We continue to modify plans for the Christmas trip to Melbourne with Kate and family flying back home just for Christmas.  Kate flies in to Melbourne at 6:30 am on Saturday Dec 19th.  Trish wants us to get to Melbourne as close to the 19th as possible.  It seems Kate and family will be catching up with people ASAP the first day or so before we all head to Portsea (or somewhere on the Mornington Peninsula) for Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

While they are catching up with their friends over the arrival weekend, we will possibly head Drouin way to catch up with friends down there.  Kate is keen to head to Carols by Candlelight Christmas Eve.  Christmas will be spent together with the traditional "Bartholomeusz family Christmas Night".  We will work out Christmas Day arrangements in due course.  As Chris' wife's dad is ill, we expect they will head to Central Victoria to celebrate Christmas there.

From Christmas onwards we will still need to confirm accommodation, even if it means grabbing a motel for four or five nights along the way.  A motel near to where Kate and the family will be staying seems a good alternative right now.  We will spend a couple of nights with the Reardons before heading for home around New Year's Eve.

Those plans will most likely change again as we find out what the others are up to, especially Kim who is flying over from Perth.

But we will see.

On & Then Not On.

It is almost a week since I have posted, and what a busy week it has been for both us.

To begin with, summer has arrived in force with top temps yesterday (Saturday) reading as high as 35° in our little backyard.  The backyard is protected from any breeze but for most of day the temp sat around the low 30's.  The pool was over 27° during the afternoon as well.

We had a huge day Monday with the Community Association's AGM and array of speakers including our Federal and State MP's along with our Councillor.  This was preceded by an Emergency Services Expo and free sausage sizzle for local families.  The Fire Brigade, SES, Water Rescue, Red Cross Police etc were all in attendance.  It was great and the kids loved it.

The major focus of all speakers at the Monday Night Public Meeting was on the new Caloundra South development right on our doorstep which will see another 20,000 homes built over the next 10 to 15 years and the huge need for an upgrade in roads around the area.  These roads are already under pressure and will suffer more as the area continues to grow.

Trish's Arts Centre Association groups have been readying for a major Fair being held over this weekend.  As Secretary of the whole thing, she has been busy all week with preparations.

On Wednesday several of us from the Community Association attended a meeting in Brisbane with advisors to the State Government's Minister for Roads on the roads issue.

On Thursday Trish and I drove down to a spot south of Brisbane to pick up our 'freebie' prize.  It turned out to be a "Holiday Club" pitch with a buy in for 15 years (at a largish price) and get cheap accommodation all over the world.  There was the promise of a free two for 1 cruise offered as a sweetener when you signed.

We had to make a commitment at the end of the presentation right there and then, on the spot.  That turned me right off and I told the guy so.  However Trish was quite keen and we finished up agreeing to become involved and paid a substantial deposit.

In the cool light of the days following the agreement, I continued to feel uncomfortable about the whole thing.  In my current state, the uncomfortable feeling began to reflect in my anxiety levels.  Advice from friends was not to proceed.  There is a 7 day 'Cooling Off' period which we will exercise on Monday.

Hopefully a peaceful night's sleep will follow on after that.

Trish has been busy with the Fair preparations, setting up on Friday and then the actual event itself yesterday (Sat) and today.  Finally she has a Fair wind up meeting on Monday morning.

I managed a bike ride two mornings this week but with visits here and there and showers overnight (we just had a light shower and threatening skies earlier this morning) it hasn't been possible to ride daily.  Usually the weather clears mid morning but with warm and humid conditions, bike riding is extremely uncomfortable when left to later on.

And to top it all off the cricket has been on TV daily since Thursday as well.

I did manage to bottle my "Melbourne Trip Beer Supply" this week and get another brew on to top up my everyday supplies as well.  Bottle washing and a bottling will follow during next week.

Kate Arj and the family are currently holidaying in Egypt for a week with a group of friends from the school they teach at.  What great experiences the grand kids have had for their age.  Just amazing what they have seen and experienced.  The photo shows our grand children Charli and James with a friend at the pyramids.

My morning shower beckons.

Weather On The Improve

After a mild weekend we are looking forward to some more typical temperatures coming up this week.  Though it is high 20's today, 30 or so is on the way for much of this week.  Even the pool is getting back towards 25° today after the cool outburst we have just endured.  It should be even warmer later in the week.

Drinks were great fun Friday but not so good on Saturday.  Trish had a fairly slow Saturday but I managed to struggle through OK.  By Sunday we were all OK again.

The lounge area has been through a bit of a reconfiguration.  We have had it setup this way before (refer to the photo above) which isn't a good setup for when we have visitors staying.  Their view of the TV leads to a cricked neck.  But we don't get people staying very often so this setup suits us nicely right now.  It would take around 15 minutes to put it around the other way again if and when visitors ever come to stay.

We have temporarily covered my chair with one of Trish's quilts.  With the warmer weather on the way and with me perspiring so much, a cover of any sort will help protect the chair's covering whether the cover be leather or fabric.  The experiment so far has taught us that the idea of a doona cover with a polyestre centre will best suit our needs.  The next step is to find a suitable bright and matching color doona cover to complement the other new recliner chair.

And a word on how we find the new recliners ... sensational.  They are extremely comfortable!

Recently I was online and got onto a couple of 'free' tickets to the Brisbane Food and Wine Show.  We went in yesterday (Sunday).  We had saved around $60 on entry costs so $20 for parking was a breeze.  It wasn't quite what I expected.

It was more of a cavalcade of various produce from companies or areas around Queensland and interstate.  There we cheese producers from the "Yarra Valley" back in Victoria, there were other products from Queensland's "Granite Belt" or "Logan Area".  There were wine makers from all over Australia and even some boutique beers to try as well.

We didn't need any lunch on our way out.  It seemed all nibblies, yoghurt, wine or beers!  But it was fun.

We were given free scratchies for a chance of a lucky prize.  Trish is the winner of a 'major prize' from her scratchie.  The top major prize is a $2000 credit card, the bottom major prize is an $800 iPad.  One of the in between prizes is a free holiday in Caloundra!  We have won 'a major prize'!

As you may have guessed, we have to attend a 90 minute presentation to collect our prize.  It is some way away for us to travel to, a spot south of Brisbane, but for minimum of an $800 prize it seems worth the trip.

It isn't all bad news, the place we have to go is just a few kilometres from Sunnybank, one of the few places we can eat Malaysian food here in Queensland.  We drive down there on Thursday!

Kim flew to Bali for 5 nights to stay with her friend Mel.  It is a 3 hour flight from Perth and the cost isn't at all great.  Photos we have spotted on Facebook indicate she has enjoyed a spot just beside the pool.  She flies home today.

Drying Out!

This morning was the first time since Tuesday I have been able to get out for a bike ride because of the recent consistent wet and very cool weather.  I got the 12k's or so completed this morning but did get the occasional spot of rain!.  As the day progresses, the grey clouds lift a little more and we even get a speck of sunshine every now and again.

The pool is down to 22°so any swim this morning was brief and refreshing!

It is still mid teens overnight and the temp outside today will get to around 25 or so.  Both Trish and I went for pullovers the other evening as we got a top temp around 23 or so.  Come 4pm it cooled right off!

Following on from Wednesday, the new brew has been bottled and stored away.  Another brew has gone 'on', this one labelled "Melbourne Blonde".  It is a brew I will put into large soft drink bottles and take with us down to Melbourne when we head that way for Christmas and to catch up with all the family.

Kate, Arj and family are flying in from Saudi Arabia for Christmas, Kim is flying over from Perth and we are heading down from Queensland.

What other news is there?  The remote sensor on the weather station has been returned via mail for a replacement, I haven't heard back from Lou Ann yet with any possible storm update and the recliner lounge chairs we ordered some time ago have been built and arrived this morning.

The new chairs are fabric covered rather than leather as the previous ones were.  One word to describe them is "comfortable".  They are more compact than the 'old' recliners which were each huge by comparison. The color seems to fit in well with the general toning of our home.  A purposely made quilt will eventually cover my chair.  I tend to perspire a fair bit and in the sub tropical climate we have here the chair will require some protection.

To remove the old chairs was a story in itself!  They were too big to take down our inside passage way so we used a trolley to get them out via the sideway.  Because of their size, we had to move bins, bikes etc just to fit them through.  The neighbour over the road will take them.  If there is a change of mind, the "Salvos" will take them.

Right now they are cluttering up the garage.

We have drinks again this afternoon at 3pm.  At this stage there will be just 4 of us but that will be OK.

Damp Start To A New Day

The new Weather Station I bought in the midst of frustration with the old one arrived on Monday, was setup and running Monday night, was in pieces when the remote temperature sensor failed Tuesday morning and by late Tuesday afternoon was packed up and its box ready for return!

On a more positive scale, the Android TV box has been running at around 99% and right now I am delighted with it.

The quality sound issue remains with the Android Box but the most listening we do to is TV stuff via our wireless headphones, so the sound quality issue isn't a diabolical concern at this stage.

We are entering the 'storm' season here and have had regular overnight rain the last couple of nights with almost 1/2" on each the last few nights.  Usually it has cleared by dawn so I can bike ride OK.  This morning the showers have lingered and any bike riding is off the agenda!

The photo above shows the bottles now drying which I have rinsed prior to bottling.  The rinse is to ensure I remove all of the sanitizer which dries in the bottles during the washing process.  The bottles are a little easier to handle during bottling if dry.

The photo also shows the kind of day we have awoken to this morning and the mats we have bought to catch any oil leaks from the 'old' car we brought back from Melbourne.

It is interesting that the problems I have had with the Android Box and now the Weather Station have raised my anxiety level just a little.

Also the WDTV Media Player box has been acting up something awful as well.  I was able to backdate the firmware to an earlier version and since then it has been behaving itself nicely.  It is good to have a win at last!

We saw that terrible storm in Mexico recently and how the system petered out to be a rain depression over Texas dropping heaps of rain there.  We wonder whether Lou-ann there managed to get any of this rain as it has been incredibly dry for a few years in her part of the world.  I haven't spotted anything on her Facebook page but I don't look all that often.

Time to get back to the bottling I suppose!

An Overcast Sunday

The forecast yesterday (Saturday) was for a possible morning shower clearing to a fine and sunny afternoon.  The 11mls of rain in the rain gauge this morning indicates we didn't get the weather that was forecast.

It continues overcast and mid 20's today but it is brighter outside now than earlier this morning.  And as the photo shows, bottle washing has been completed as well.  The pool is full, the grass out the front is turning green again and all the garden and pots have had a good water.

After bottle washing I went for an 'abbreviated' ride but I still did 10k's.  The pool felt better than it looked when I had a post ride swim!

There isn't a lot of news....   I won't bore you with swapping the batteries over in the weather station (was that a gasp of relief I heard?).  Getting the main unit to connect to the outside weather sensor for the outdoor temperature is always a bit hit and miss.

I reckon I used several sets of batteries before giving up with the outside temp area blank on the main display unit.  I just couldn't get it to connect.  eBay was the next port of call and a replacement ordered!  Just as I was about to toss the old unit out, I noticed the temperature outside was 26°!  The bloody thing had connected.

The Android Box works at about 90%.  It is OK but not perfect.  It won't turn off sometimes and the sound jumps a little as well.  Trish said to get and better quality one but I said I had one more trick to try!

I use Trish's old laptop as a backup and for most of the day it just sits there.  Regretfully it doesn't have an HDMI out connection on it.  But via eBay you can buy VGA + audio to HDMI converters.  So I have ordered one of those and will try running the old laptop as a HTPC (Home Theatre PC).  The converter is due around midweek.  It won't do high quality sound as the old laptop just doesn't have the hardware/software to do that sort of thing.

But we will give it a go.

Most likely I will lash out and buy myself a quality Android TV Box unit for Christmas.  Cheap ones are around $100 (or less),  OK ones are closer to $140 and good ones are anything from $200 to $300!  The Nvidia Shield unit is over $300!

The one in the photo is around $200 depending on where you buy it from, what it is preloaded with and if you want an 'air mouse' to control it.In the photo you can see the standard remote control, you really need an 'air mouse' or as I have a portable wireless keyboard!

They are amazing gadgets!

Midweek News

Just after lunch the temperature here is heading towards the high 20's with 30+ expected tomorrow.  Then it drops back to mid 20's or just over again until warming up again over the weekend.  The minimum temp for the next week or so is now up to 18° overnight which is good news for the pool as the water won't cool off as much overnight.

The mower started first go today.  It was just a little job cleaning up some of the bits and pieces of reed paneling I was cutting up to put into the recycling bin.

The ceiling fans are on every day or so for around an hour just to temper things.

My new Android box has had a couple of firmware issues and all the new owners are hastily awaiting an automatic firmware update to come through.  This happened the other day with my unit.  Not only was the update unsuccessful but I also got an error message saying the system was now damaged and wireless updates would no longer work.

Being a Chinese supplier, explanations in English on how to fix the problem make interesting reading.  A quick understandable fix appeared online and I was a lucky one because the fix worked.  The box is now updated and working OK.  I tried to restore a previous Kodi setup I had backed up.  Regretfully the backup didn't work and the box didn't operate properly.

Another reinstall of Kodi this morning and I am pleased to say the unit is now working well.

It is Spring and it is spring clean up time.  The blinds along the front of the pergola (see the photo above) get dusty and require a couple of cleans (back and front) each year.  It is after jobs like this one I realize I am not as young as I used to be.

But the back yard is looking its best right now.

I also managed to put another brew on this morning (Weds) so bottle washing and a bottling will follow.

I did to get to the Chiro on Monday and I may possibly need to go again later this week. The back remains a little sore.

Arj has sent a link to some of his photos online following their recent trip to Sand Island.  You can see them here.

A Sensational Sunday!

The 'temporary' final maneuvering of potplants has occurred.  The solar powered Christmas lights are almost all in place and the backyard has returned to blissful peace.  The stretched and sore muscles in both our bodies are recovering and a call is about to made to the Chiropractor for a tune up.

Some of the remaining paint will be used on the two sections of concrete we still have up towards the back fence.  Though not proper 'paving paint' we have so much of it we will give it a go.  A quick patch up paint from time to time will be required but we have enough paint to last for some time.

I am not good with my hands when it comes to anything mechanical.  When our good friends and neighbours moved out recently when they downsized from a 5 bedroom home to a small 3 bedroom unit they decided they didn't want their 15 year old (or thereabouts) lawnmower any more.

I decided to give my 30 year old mower to the guy over the road and took Brian's 15 year old model.  It worked beautifully when I gave the lawn a mow a week or so ago.  I needed to tidy the lawn up again on Friday and despite my best efforts I couldn't get the thing to start.  So I grabbed my old model back again from the neighbour, gave the lawn a quick mow and contacted Brian to see if there was a special knack to start his former mower.

He came round, went through the start up procedure but there it sat, silent and useless.  We both felt that most likely the spark plug was the problem but I was unsure if I had a spark plug spanner.  After an hour or so I seemed to recollect where I might have the required sized socket, found it and yes it fitted perfectly.  The spark plug screwed out with hardly any pressure required.

With this in mind I replaced the spark plug and gave it just a small bit of pressure to ensure it was locked in place.  Two pulls of the starter cord and the mower burst into life!

We will see how well the 'fix' went when I need to start the mower again in a week or so.

Delightful sunny days and I have no idea where the forecast of possible morning showers came from!  The days are around 26° and sunny, even the pool was 24.5° this morning when I had a post bike ride swim!

After Computer Club yesterday I am even more convinced that some people should never be permitted to have access to a laptop!  Movie chat and some stuff on Kodi took up more time.  I helped a couple buy an i5 powered laptop for $575 delivered as well and they were very happy with the deal.

Cricket on TV and plenty of stuff to enjoy on the new Android box. 

Life is good right now.

Arj has a new post on his Blog Site.  We visited this little spot when we did our Red Sea snorkelling thing!  It is relatively close to the shore and a really picturesque little spot.

http://behindthekeyboard.global2.vic.edu.au/2015/10/18/on-the-weekend-17th-october-2015/

All Finished

There will be a few tiddly bits to finally sort out (like which pot plant where) but the feature wall job is done.

We bought the two panels yesterday and pinned them into place with a few screws.  We even had our former neighbour and retired house painter pop around to advise if the job needed yet another coat.  He said it all looked fine to him.

Trish even managed to get her Christmas lights up as well. The butterfly received a coat of paint and now takes pride of place in the feature wall.

We are delighted with the finished job.  We feel it really adds to the backyard and helps focus even more on the pool itself.

Gorgeous day today, mid to high 20's and even the pool is beginning to warm up.  When the older neighbour moved out he left me his mower.  It wouldn't start when I went to mow the lawn.  I am giving both it and myself a rest for 30 minutes before going out and trying again.

We have a Friday drinks on at our place later today.  It should be a nice day for it.

Getting There!

The older one gets, projects such as the one we are currently undertaking around our house the more difficult they seem to become.  I would suggest almost every muscle in my body right now is screaming out in pain!  I am just not used to carrying, holding onto, thinking, aligning and painting!  And as the photo shows our little backyard is changing quite a deal.

I now have two layers of 4.5metres of bamboo paneling to get to the tip after I removed it for new wall.  I will need to borrow the use of a vehicle to do that.  We have become constant visitors to the super sized hardware store a couple of k's away.  My small household electric drill gave up the ghost yesterday as I was screwing the final cement sheet into place and now I have a new (but still very cheap) electric drill.

We have oodles too much paint so in future anything around our home which needs a coat of paint will be the color of the new feature wall.  In the photo it has one coat paint only with a final coat still to go.  Most likely that will go on this afternoon.

We have decided the current length of the wall is ideal so the extra paint I bought to do the whole fence as well as plenty of extra 'just in case' will go into storage in the shed.

We celebrated our good work yesterday with a trip to the Dicky Beach Surf Club for a meal and a couple of drinks last night.

So there will be a little more painting to happen later on today.  Trish is thinking about exactly what she still plans to do, where the feature panels will go, the new tall wire sculpture to go in the very middle, all that important stuff!

I did get my latest brew bottled as well this morning so that job is out of the way.

We had some thunder and lightning last night and early this morning.  But there were only a few mls in the rain gauge, enough to water the lawn and the garden as well as top up the pool. By 9 am any thought of a storm had gone, the sun was out and I was free to begin with the putting on the undercoat!

With any work to do around the house, bike riding goes on the back burner.  I may be back on board the bike tomorrow though!

Looks Like Work To Be Done!

The first non footy week for the best part of 5 months has now come and gone.  Taking its place of course is a heap of cricket on TV.  Most of the matches are now available on free to air so the TV screen on the computer desktop is tuned right in.

The weekend was 'as usual' with me off to Computer Club first thing Saturday for the usual round of email problems, setting up a new android phones, some updates to people who are interested in Kodi and a general chat about anything at all.

More Android TV messing around for much of the rest of Saturday and for some of Sunday filled my days.  Interspersed was a look at the cricket on TV!

Here in Queensland the household fences around the house block are built with palings side by side rather than overlapped like we had in Melbourne.  As the fence ages, the palings shrink and you can see through to next door.  To get a little extra privacy we have double sided the back fence and we have put up reed grass panels to help fill the gaps along the side fence as you can see in the photo above.  As the reed gets older and begins to crumble, I usually just put a new layer over of panels over the top.  This gives us good coverage and privacy around the pool area.

After time and with weathering the reed panels begin to look pretty 'second hand' like it is looking right now.

This morning it was off to Bunnings (the local super hardware store) and grabbed some cement sheet panels and oodles of quality paint, similar in shade to the pavers. I bought 3 sheets 1.6 x .9 metres as the first 'stage' of recovering the side fence.  After I remove some of the old reed paneling, the 3 cement sheet panels will go up tomorrow and they will then get their first coat of paint.  I will still need two more sheets of cement sheeting to complete the first stage from the pool fence across to the pool filter cover.

You can buy decorative heavy duty patterned plastic panels nowadays.  We will buy two and they will go into place to complete the job.

I have heaps of paint so if we decide to go all the way from behind the pool pump across to the back fence we can if we want to.

I will put off a required visit to the chiropractor until after the panel work is completed.

I did manage to bottle wash on Sunday and I expect to be bottling either tomorrow (Tues) or Wednesday.

Lovely sunny days the last few days.  It was a round 22° in the pool this morning after my bike ride, still a little on the brisk side!

A Damp Start To Friday

The sky appears to be clearing at 9:30 am here after some quite strong south easterlies have blown in off the Pacific Ocean which meant great surf for surfers for much of yesterday.  I began yesterday's bike ride in blustery conditions and sunny skies but didn't hang around on the bike for long.  The wind made bike riding very unpleasant.

Then clouds began to blow in off the ocean later on Thursday afternoon and we even had a sprinkle of rain. It remained windy overnight and the sprinkles changed to showers which have continued throughout the night and into the morning.  We have had around 14 mls of much desired rain during the showers, a much needed top up for the pool and the lawn.  There were large areas of yellowed grass yesterday and hopefully with the showers the green will return.

Trish has forgiven me over fixing the dishwasher. It has been operating perfectly the last few washes.  It is doing well for around 13 years old.

I continue to play with the Android TV Box via a lot of trial and error. I have completely re installed "Kodi" once and added a "Build".  A 'Build' is a fully repackaged addon for Kodi with its own theme, preferred downloaded add ons and a considerable re working and integration of the these addons.  If you get the right build, you probably won't need anything else.  I have only added some Aussie TV backup addons

I have then 'modified' some aspects of the 'Build' to get it to do more for what I want it to do.  Kodi seems to be designed to access online video and audio streaming sources from the internet.  I still prefer to download my own files and use Kodi as a media player to play them back.  The program Kodi allows you to do both.

Kodi will go anywhere on your home wireless network to find files to playback for you. So you don't really need to have a hard drive connected directly to it to playback movies and TV Shows.

This model of android box does have a slight playback issue as I have discovered from personal use and from the comments of other owners.  There can be a one second 'stuttering' of the playback which may happen once or twice over a 4 hour period of viewing.  I moved the hard drive containing all the playback files to a direct connection to the box  to see if that eliminated the stuttering.  It didn't work.  So I have now returned the drive to the old media player where I can directly access it as a 'network drive' from the PC over the wireless network.

The advantage this has is that I have just downloaded an episode of a new English TV detective series.  I can just drag and drop the file onto the network drive and can easily add it to the Library of the Android TV Box.

The biggest advantage of the Android TV Box is it plays ALL files, including the new HEVC file type.  This file type is HD quality in a SD File size!  So is super quality in extra small file size.

I did a brew on Wednesday and it is bubbling away nicely.  I now have the awkward job of ensuring I have enough empty bottles for the upcoming bottling, a job I reckon I can handle OK!

The pool is slowly but surely warming up.  Most mornings the pool temperature is around 22º.  It gets up to almost 25º by late afternoon.  I swim most mornings after my bike ride.

There is a heap of domestic one-day cricket now on TV so there is always something to watch and fill in time if required.

Trish is at Quilters this morning and the sun is just beginning to pop its head through the clouds!

I hope this post gets online OK as Blogger is doing a few strange things.

Duty Free, One Down One to Go!

When we returned from our two months overseas earlier this year we bought a couple of bottles of both Tricia's favorite, "Pernod" as well as Frangelico "Duty Free'.  Following Tricia's footy team's big win in the Grand Final on Saturday, bottle 1 of the Pernod has now been emptied!

That is three premierships in a row to Hawthorn!  Trish loved the game but for those barracking for neither side the game was a fizzer!  But the drinks we had, the hot pies and the scrumptious prawns were just delightful!

For me the eating and drinking were the most enjoyable features of the day.

The NRL Grand Final (Rugby League) played the next night was a great match to watch because of the closeness of the scores and the amazing finish.  Both games were sellouts but a ticket to the NRL Grand final was around $45 a ticket while a ticket up in the nosebleeds for the AFL Grand Final was around $170!  And they could have sold the AFL Grand Final tickets twice over!

The weather here has been spectacular.  High 20's each day and hardly a breath of wind nor a cloud.  I have been back in the pool each day after my bike ride with the swims getting a little longer each day.  But the water is still cold.

It was to the pool shop today for the 'before the summer swimming season pool chemical' top up!  A couple of bags of salt, some "Buffer" and a bag of "PH Increaser" and by late afternoon today the water will be perfect (if a little on the cooler side)!

Cricket is back on the TV again so all is going along nicely!

A brew will go on tomorrow so that will keep things ticking over.

This website looks interesting!  (https://couchpota.to/)  I can run the "Chrome" web browser on my Android Box and this would be another way to enjoy movies. Or you could go online and just hook your lightweight laptop up to your TV with a HDMI lead and off you go!