Catching Up!

As I mentioned previously, long time friends Russ and Irene from our days back in Hampton Park, (in Melbourne) rolled into Dicky Beach Caravan Park with their van in tow recently.

After Trish's return from Melbourne on Tuesday afternoon, we caught up with them for a meal at a nearby Surf Club that night.  As usual it was like it was just yesterday we had last seen them and the evening was great fun catching up on the latest news from both sides.

We gave them a spell on Wednesday but caught them again yesterday (Thursday) for lunch at The Headland Golf Club.  The meal, though a little dearer than usual, was delightful, great value for money and the view from the veranda overlooking the golf course and across to Mooloolaba was sensational.  Storms were expected to move in later in the day but this didn't upset us at all.  After the Golf Club it was onto Mooloolaba and the Surf Club there. Again we had a table overlooking the beach with more spectacular views.

The chat continued and we enjoyed a few drinks.  I was the driver for the day so was ensuring I only had the very lightest of ale.  This gave Trish and Irene a chance to relax and enjoy.  On top of it all it was Irene's birthday as well.

It was a fun day enjoyed by all.  Though threatening storms all day, a heavy period of rain is all we got with 10 mls in the rain gauge this morning.

They are coming over for a meal later on today (Friday).  I will probably go and pick them up and they will cab it back to the caravan park later on.

This morning was my Home Brew bottle washing day.  The rain has cleared and it is shorts and T-shirt time again.  The bottles are drying in the backyard as I type.  The washing (and you can see the bottle washing setup above) and sanitizing was all done and dusted in just over an hour.

Footy watching over the weekend will be interspersed with heading out with Russell and Irene.  We have the Curry Bowl booked for tea Saturday night which just happens to be Russell's birthday!

Trish is preparing curries for tonight as well so it looks like being a spicy weekend.

The more I play around with Kodi, the more it appears my current days of downloading will come to an end.  The amount of online stuff Kodi provides access to is unbelievable.  The process is a little 'clunky' but we will give it a good try out when my new 'toy' arrives from China.

The Android TV box I ordered is currently 'in transit' and from all reports will do everything I want.  Trish's laptop has a HDMI out so I installed Kodi on it and gave the process a good workout on the big TV the other day.  This only whet my appetite even further for the possibilities the Android TV box may bring.

We watched a movie last night called "Love & Mercy" which we enjoyed very much.  It told the story of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and how he was manipulated by his psychiatrist.  If it is anything like a true story, the guy's behaviour was inexcusable.  An interesting movie and very much enjoyed.

The Boss Is Back!

Trish was due to fly home to Brisbane on Tuesday on the 9:15 am "Tiger Airways" flight out of Melbourne.  She arrived at the brand new Terminal 4 and went to check the flight details and to do a self check-in.  But the machine didn't like her information she was putting in.

As the terminal was new there were quite a few Airport Staff there helping people.  It appears the 9:15 flight no longer existed, and unfortunately Tiger had made a slip up on letting us know!  She flew out at 12:15, I collected her at Brisbane around 2:45 and we were back home before 4pm.

She had a great time in Melbourne and staying at various places wasn't a problem, she enjoyed catching up with everyone very much.

Today being Wednesday sees her at "Stitchers" and there is a 'meeting' this afternoon.  She has been out all day.

Meanwhile other good friends Russell and Irene from Melbourne have arrived at the nearby Dicky Beach Caravan Park.  They are on a 3 month caravan trip away from home in Victoria enjoying the warmer weather here in Queensland.  They are having a ball but now they are getting to the final stages of their trip.  We had a meal with them Tuesday evening and we will catch them again over the following few days before they head off further south on Monday.

The photo shows a pair of bathers and a towel drying on the line.  I had my first swim of 2015/6 season this afternoon.  It was a short swim, only a couple of laps after I had become steamed up from mowing the front lawn this afternoon.  The water temp is around 21 so barely warm enough for a swim.  21 would be water temperature in Port Phillip Bay in summer down in Melbourne.

Needless to say the weather the last few days has been sensational, over the mid 20's in fact the last couple of days.  It has been clear blue sunny skies, just great.

And more good news, the Android TV Box I ordered has been sent from China with delivery taking anywhere from 15 to 30 business days.  I have a tracking number and it is already 'in transit' so I may get it a little earlier than the 3 weeks minimum already suggested.

Sunday

The forecast was for showers prior to the weekend to be followed by a wet few days this week coming up.

The reality appears to be we had the heavy rain on Friday and the weather for the upcoming week now is for 'possible' showers early in the week.  We already have now had the August total average rainfall.  There were 69mls in the gauge when the rain eventually cleared early Saturday morning. The August average is 61mls!

Right now the washing machine is churning away because there is a forecast of 25° with a few clouds for today.  I will set off for my bike ride when the clothes line is full with stuff drying.

Computer Club was busy helping people moving photos from SD cards to their laptop, an easy task for those who know but impossible for those who don't know their way around the computer.

The footy over the weekend has been a mixed bag with Trish's team having an unexpected loss while my team played one of the lower sides who played 100% all night.  The game finished as a draw.  It is a major dent for my team's chances of playing in the finals.

While down in Melbourne, Trish has been busy socializing with good friends as the photo above shows.  Despite not being mobile (no car) she has managed OK with thanks to June and Keith with whom she has been staying.  She will travel back to be with Chris and Wendy today or tomorrow prior to flying home on Tuesday.  Hence the washing machine is working hard this morning.

My new android box is still in China (unfortunately) with supplies still to be delivered from the supplier to the seller for shipping.  According to several forums I follow, there are many frustrated Tronsmart Orion R68 purchasers all over the world also waiting patiently for delivery of their boxes as well.

I had better check the washing machine!

And The Rains Came!

When I got out of bed early to make my morning cup of coffee around 6am, I checked the rain gauge and saw it had around around 10mls from overnight rain.  It is around 2 hours later as I type this and the rain gauge is now showing 25mls or so.

This is only the second wet day for the last 4 weeks.  So the rain is very welcome indeed.

The recently pruned lillypilly in the front yard is just loving it.  You can almost see the new growth sprouting as the rain falls.

Despite the rain, I have the washing machine going.  There isn't a lot to wash but enough to fill a couple of clothes horses which I will need to set up.  I have plenty of time and the rain may clear and give us a little sunshine.

It won't too take much to get it all dry!

I have a friend coming around this morning to check out Kodi.  He is a keen on technology so I am sure he will be impressed with it.

John just loves this sort of stuff and we will have a good time together.

Here Comes The Showers

After of few weeks of sunny skies the "Sunny" Coast is in for a few showers.  The large High Pressure area is headed to New Zealand so our winds have gone around to South Easterlies blowing onshore from the sea and bringing with it the inevitable few showers.

After a 'fine' morning this morning, the clouds have rolled in and we have had a shower with just enough rain to wet the road surface at this stage but that is all.  With the cloud, the sun has disappeared and the temps have tumbled from the low 20's to just a whisker under 20.

When Trish headed south for 12 days I had a list of chores to get through while I stayed back at home on my own.  So far I have cleaned the pavers, washed the cars including cleaning the windows inside and out, mowed the lawns and mopped the floors.  I still have to clean the inside of the living area windows.

Though not 'huge' jobs by any means getting them done along with my daily bike rides, over to a friend's to do some stuff on his computer, getting involved with Community Association stuff and any resultant update of the website life, has not been quiet.

I also have my daily computer series of tasks as well (of course!).

Tomorrow Friday I have a mate coming over to have a look at Kodi on my PC during the morning.  Hopefully the inside of the windows will get done as well and Trish wants me to head into town to get a couple of books she has reserved at the library.

Then of course there is sport to watch on the TV.  As well as the cricket coming from the UK tonight we have all the footy games coming up live over the weekend.

Keeping myself well fed hasn't been a problem either.  My tastes are fairly simple and I certainly haven't gone hungry while the 'boss' is away.

So as you can see it is the same old stuff and life goes along quietly.  I have watched many of the TV western and war series I have been saving up for when I am on my own.  I have enjoyed them, especially Band of Brothers which scores around 9.6 and is almost the top rating TV show ever.

Hopefully the showers clear away but the forecast says it will be wet early next week when our caravaning friends Russell and Irene arrive in town after being away from Melbourne for a couple of months.

A Glorious Friday

Yesterday, Thursday, Trish jumped on a plane in Brisbane and winged her way down to Melbourne for 12 nights.  We bought a couple of tickets almost 12 months ago to fly to Melbourne.  They were very cheap and seemed too good a deal to miss at the time. 

They were a total of $160 for return flights for both of us.  That is $40 per person each leg of the trip.

When we bought them our daughter Kim lived in St Kilda and we were going to stay with her.  Her unit is right on the tram route with stops right outside her door.  Whenever we stayed there we didn't need a car.

Since then Kim has moved in her job to Perth in Western Australia and the unit is being rented out.  So we lost our accommodation.  This didn't suit me as it would now mean we would have to impose on others and we didn't have a car so we weren't at all independent.  I decided not to go.

It actually was cheaper for me not to go as the car parking in Brisbane for 12 nights was well over $100.  We lost my $80 flight fares but saved $100 on car parking!

On Saturday Trish is catching up with Kim who has arranged to be in Melbourne for her work which is headquartered there.  Trish will stay with two other lots of friends while there before heading back to Chris and the family prior to flying home Tuesday week.

We have had howling westerly winds for much of the week and though sunny looking, it has been bitterly cold.  I didn't ride because of the cold on Wednesday and missed Thursday as I was in "Sick Bay" following a wonderful drinks get together with friends.

But today Friday is gorgeous.  It is a true shorts and T-Shirt day with temps in the mid 20's.  That nasty westerly has left us alone.

I had decided to do a few jobs getting ready for summer while Trish was in Melbourne.  Today was the day I would give the pavers a 1x chlorine to 2x water sweep over and then give them all a gentle hosing down.  The mix kills the buildup of moss and mildew and allows it to be all hosed gently away.  This treatment is also non damaging to the pavers!

They looked great when I had finished.

With all the wind and now with muck from the pavers being washed into the pool, it was about time I gave the pool a vacuum.  This I did.

It has been almost 2 months since I had manually cleaned the pool filter.  The style of filter we have requires the filter cartridges to be manually removed and you hose all the gunk out of them onto the front lawn.

I opened the top of the filter compartment and removed the large cartridge for cleaning.  What I had overlooked was the automatic pool pump was due to come on in a few minutes!  While I was hosing out the filters in the front yard I noticed heaps of water gushing out of our storm water drain onto the street.

The new pool pump cycle had started, the empty and open filter compartment filled with water and then overflowed all across the back yard!  The photo above shows the water level in the pool by the time I ran back up the sideway and turned the pool pump power switch off.  The water level isn't meant to be anywhere near as low as that.

Of course had it have continued for some time the pump would have overheated (as there was no water to pump) when the water level dropped below the level of the skimmer box. During the brief few minutes the pump was operating the water level dropped around 4" or 12cms.

The pool is being topped up again from the house water supply and again the backyard is drying out.

I have computer club and plenty of footy on tomorrow.  Tonight I have pizza for tea!

A Little On The Busy Side.

We have been enjoying more typical weather since I last posted.  Lovely sunny days, top temps in the low 20's but often with a cool blustery wind.  Get out of the wind and the days are glorious.

We were out for lunch at one of the local Surf Clubs catching up with friends on Friday.  Trish has been busy with the Arts Centre Association and getting prepared for her trip to Melbourne on Thursday for almost 2 weeks.

The footy was great over the weekend with both our teams having great wins in difficult situations.  The games were on at the same time on TV so Trish watched on free to air TV in her sewing room while I had access to my game via the pay TV in the lounge.

We have been keeping our eye open for deals on new recliners.  Mine is showing big signs of wear and tear.  It is showing some wear on seams with the leather surface being worn away.  The leather suite is getting to 10 years old now and with hot sweaty bodies the recliners, especially mine, are past their best.

The best quality recliner chairs around in shops right now are Lazy-Boys.  They are expensive but are built with top quality materials, and the best mechanism.  Over the weekend they had a big sale and we bit the bullet and have ordered a couple.  We have gone away from leather to less expensive material covering.

I haven't been over the moon with the way the current leather suite has worn.  Because of this and a substantial saving in price, we have opted for material rather than leather.

We have selected the best quality coverings and in a cinnamon color.  It will be brighter, colorful and still fit in with the remaining leather 2 seater lounge which we will keep.

We have selected two different models of chair and in different sizes.  Trish has selected the top photo model, while I have selected the lower photo model.

The only down side is they have to be built and we won't get them until almost Christmas.  We have added a full 5 year warranty to each chair on everything, stains, rips etc.

On a different topic I put a brew down on Friday, will probably bottle wash later today and bottle later in the week after Trish heads to Melbourne to catch up with family and friends on Thursday afternoon.

I continue to play around with Kodi on my PC and I am becoming more impressed the more I investigate.  It is an amazing program!

Now I am off for a bike ride.  The temp outside has just topped around 18° and is warm enough for me.

My Latest Pastime

After a balmy weekend we awoke this morning to sunny but cool and crisp windy weather.  The warm north westerly has given way to a very blustery south westerly and unless you are rugged up, the wind just blows straight through you.  I gave up on my bike ride after around 7k's this morning, it wasn't worth it.

It is one of those "is 23 degrees but feels like 14 degrees" days.

The bike continues to make a funny click noise but it is much improved since I gave it a good oil.  The Community Association Meeting went on an hour longer than expected on Monday night but it was truly worth while.  We received great news from both our Councillor and the Sunshine Coast Airport Management Team member for our residents.

Right now it seems all the hard work we have put in is showing some positive results.

Late in July I was online and saw an Android TV Box for sale at around half price.  Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered, but lots of owners of media players like I have have been experiencing problems.  My media player is now an old model and the manufacturer no longer supports it with firmware upgrades.  So I have been keeping my eye open for a possible replacement to play all my files.

I have paid $70 for the Android TV box delivered which is half the current price.  I should have had it by now but they sold out before they got to my order.  I have since been told it should be sent around August 18.

I have previously heard of XBMC, a media program you can install on your PC.  The latest incarnation is called Kodi.  Kodi has been extended to work on a range of devices.  It now works on all sorts of Android devices, as well as Windows, Mac and Linux. So as the pic above shows you can get it to work on your laptop, your tablet, your Android or OS phone, even on your TV.  I think I read somewhere you may be able to install it on a Samsung Smart TV.

My new Android TV Box comes with Kodi installed.

Kodi is 'open sourced' which means it isn't owned by a private company and modifications can be made to it easily by anyone.  You can also have a huge variety of addons which can do numerous things.

I have downloaded and installed Kodi onto my PC to give it a try.  There are heaps of YouTube videos on how to set it up, how to install addons and even some great addons for you to try.  What the Android TV box tries to do (and different addons have different degrees of success) is access a variety of on line video streams from all across the world.  Everything comes via the internet so you need a decent connection and plenty of download speed.

I added the IPTV Stalker addon this morning and managed to get it running at almost 100%.  I can now access almost 750 channels world wide via my PC.  The quality varies of course.  There are sports, movies and many others.  There is HBO, Cinemax, Sky Sports, CBS, History Channel, and heaps more.

It is amazing!  Needless to say, I can't wait till August 18 and my unit is sent.  Then it is another wait for it to arrive from overseas! 

I Felt The Earth Move!

I had finished eating some reheated spaghetti after a fairly busy morning at Computer Club on Saturday.  I had filled my glass with icy cold home brew and had sat down to watch the footy which was due to start at 1:40 pm.

The game had just started and a couple of minutes in it felt like someone was shaking my chair.  The TV began to wobble on its table and it all went on for few seconds.  SE Queensland had been hit with a 5.7 earthquake.

It was scary.

It appears our concrete slab on which the house has been built has cracked after some lengthy period of dry weather several years ago.  This has caused three bricks to be broken as another crack in the outside wall of the house follows the cement between the bricks for around 2'.  This crack is now an inch longer!

I have had it checked and told the problem is cosmetic rather than structural.

My earlier post saying Trish had gone to Lake Cootharaba for the weekend wasn't correct.  She and 35 other ladies from Stitchers had gone on a 'retreat'.  They had a ball.  All food and accommodation was supplied and all around 20k's away.

She slept well last night.

It is a beautiful day today with a top temperature around 26°.  Needless to say there is a northerly blowing.  Tomorrow we revert to the usual winter southerly and the temp will drop back to around 21°.

The pool is a chilly 17 or so.  In mid winter the pool gets down to 12°.

My footy team won OK but Trish's team didn't fare so well.  That match was a tight game with all players under great pressure every time they got the ball. This led to some uncustomary mistakes with kicking and caused turnovers throughout the game.  It was a top tight game of footy!

I have a Management Committee Meeting tonight to chair so I won't be able to sit back and relax till after 8:30pm.

My bike is making a bit of a clicking noise coming from the hub between the two pedals.  I have oiled it which has improved it.  The part may have dried out a bit from lack of use while we were overseas for two months.  I gave it another good oil this morning but it isn't easy to get the oil to exactly where you want it.