Holiday Time, Midweek

We have just got over Easter which was pretty quiet for us here on the Sunshine Coast.  The weather has cooled off a little overnight which means there are now some nights where the ceiling fan stays off all night.  It also means the pool temp is beginning to fall but still remains between 24 and 25 for my morning swim after bike riding.

There wasn't any bike riding this morning though as I did a bottle washing instead. the photo shows the sanitizer machine my neighbour gave to me.  He thought it was broken so he bought a new one.  He later discovered the former one was working OK but as he didn't need two of them he passed the old one on to me.

You put about 1 to 2 cms of sanitizer mix in the container.  The bottle fits over the neck which is spring loaded and you can push it up and down so the sanitizer mix pumps all over the inside of the bottles.  I usually give it 6 or 8 pumps to ensure the inside of the bottle gets a good douching.

The bottle then goes on the 'tree' to dry in the sun.

What used to be a laborious and time consuming task now gets completed in less than an hour.

The brew I put on Sunday morning is slowly fermenting and should be ready to bottle this Sunday morning!

Easter was quiet for us.  It is a very big family event in this part of the world and can even rival Christmas for family get togethers.  There is always heaps of sport on Good Friday afternoon, so unlike Good Friday in Victoria.

The kids are all on holidays up here (the same all over I reckon) but it still remains fairly quiet outside.

The AFL footy got underway over the weekend with heaps of games on TV.  My team played arch rivals Hawthorn on Monday afternoon, the Hawks having won the last three premierships.  However with retirements and the loss of up to 6 of their premiership players from late last year, there is a bit of a hole in their side.  My team has picked up several outstanding players over the pre season and went on to win Monday's game reasonably comfortably.

The weather still gets to the low 30's most days up here.  The pool struggles up to around 27° late in the afternoon so we can still enjoy a refreshing swim as required from time to time.  Right now, late Wednesday morning it is about 29° outside.

Trish is at Stitchers enjoying times with all the ladies.  I have a meeting with a senior State Government Minister tomorrow afternoon to discuss traffic issues with him and the needs of our rapidly growing community.

From Saudi, Another Update.

Kate, Arj and the family are continuing to have a wow of a time in Saudi.

In theis report are stories of a visit to an ancient city, Arj's playing with a couple of bands, extravagant prizes and an excursion out into the coral of the Red Sea.

It looks amazing!

Read more here.

All Is Quiet!

And things just continue to bubble along quietly.  After a hectic week or two with local Community Groups this week has been a time for us to catch our breath just a little.  We have still had the 'regular' occurrences on like Stitchers and Computer Club along with some Community Association stuff but that is really all.

I popped around to show someone how to create repetitive cards a little bit more easily on their PC earlier in the week, I helped our former neighbour re set up his TV after he got it back from a major repair and I did a little shopping at Dick Smith who are in the midst of liquidating stock.

From the Dick Smith stores which are closing down I bought two items, neither of which I have a need for right now.  One is a great wireless keyboard by Logitech.  On 'special' you can get it for around $40.  I got one at a very special $26 about 6 months ago so when Dick Smith were tossing them out for $15 it was too good a deal to knock back!

This sort of keyboard is almost a necessity to run the Android TV box more effectively.  The android tv box device continues to blow my mind with just what it can do!

I rave over my Logitech Harmony One remote control.  One click of a button and the TV turns on, the Pay TV set top box turns on and on comes the amplifier.  The amplifier goes to the correct output, the TV to the correct input and within a matter of seconds and one push of a button you can watch PayTV.  They no longer make the Harmony One but have replaced it with a less expensive Smart Hub or a new upmarket 'Smart Remote".  Neither of them work as well as my Harmony One.

So when during the Dick Smith liquidation sales the Logitech Smart Hub came up for sale at $38.99 instead of $129 it was just too good an opportunity to miss out on.  It remains in its box in the cupboard waiting for that 'rainy day'.

I continue to bike ride most mornings dodging the showers earlier in the week.  But there was great relief when about mid week the wind turned a little more southerly and blew the hot and humid air away at last.  Since then there has been a distinct briskness in the early morning air and for the first time this year the overnight minimum temperature has dipped below 20°.  The bedroom fan now runs on Low overnight.

The pool is down to about 26° during the morning and up to around 28° mid afternoon so it is perfect for that refreshing swim.

I am in the midst of gathering things together to move to Windows 10.  I have collected my programs on an external drive ready for the upgrade.  I still may wait a week or two as right now the PC is running very well indeed.

The footy is back on TV again and I have discovered Daylight Saving finishes down south on the first Sunday in April so there is still another week to go.

During Easter Caloundra becomes a major destination for holiday makers from Brisbane.  Therefore we hesitate to even leave the estate over the Easter holidays as we know we will be caught up in all the holiday traffic.  But we have the pool and our own little shopping centre nearby so there is no need to leave anyway.

So life just bubbles along quietly.  As they say, no news is good news!

Thursday

The laptop for a neighbour arrived by post on Monday at her home so I popped around Tuesday to begin the setup for her.  After half an hour or so the recommendation came through to update it to Windows 10 from the pre-installed 8.1.  So I left her to it to allow the update to download and install.

Unfortunately every time the laptop went into 'Sleep' the update to Windows 10 stopped as well.  So by lunchtime yesterday Wednesday, Windows 10 was installed and running so I popped around and set up a better browser than "Edge" the standard Windows 10 web browser and Skype.  We were able to reinstall Windows Live Mail which she likes and knows how to use and setup her email for her, added an antivirus, a copy of Office 2007, Foxit pdf reader and she was all go!

The biggest hassle was getting the printer to work wirelessly.  The Windows 10 updates at the Epson website for her printer were not easy to work out.  But after a full attempted install followed by a total uninstall followed by a more knowledgeable re install, we had contact and the printer worked!  All was OK at the end.

It was a great deal for an I5 at $480 delivered!

The improved internet speed we have here at home continues to amaze!

I completed the most recent Home Brew yesterday (Wednesday) when I bottled.  The unseasonal heat causes problems for my home brew when I noticed with one bottle being only half full in one of the boxes from an earlier brew.  The heat adds to the brewing process causing to pressure to build up in the bottles.  If the plastic bottle expands at all there is a possibility the lid will slip a little allowing the highly pressurized beer to flow out!

This leaves the bottle of beer as undrinkable, it is only half full and makes a hell of a mess in the foam storage box.  This requires a good rinse out of the box and stand for the bottles to dry off!  All of this takes extra time.

With the extremely hot and sticky weather we still have it was a most uncomfortable job yesterday.  Later in the day the few showers we were having extended to periods of very heavy showers and a total of 16mls in the rain gauge.

It is almost 9 am as I type in the small 'office' and for the first time in a few months, the pedestal fan isn't running!

We had a great (and inexpensive) lunch at the Thai we have found around 20 minutes drive from here along with four friends.  Drinks were on again the last Friday and I was pleasantly surprised as to how good I felt at Computer Club on Saturday!

This weekend's sport will be the lull before the storm as far as footy on TV is concerned.  This a a non footy weekend, the only non-footy on TV weekend for the upcoming 6 months until the season gets into full swing again.

We are both well and getting on with our volunteer work (or community involvement stuff).  This week has been quieter for me thank heavens.

We have just finished watching Series 2 of "Bosch", a TV detective series based on the Michael Connelly series of books.  It was thoroughly enjoyable and had us gripped to the TV screen for a couple of nights.  Right now we still have 5 episodes of the latest series 'House of Cards' to go!  Next will be the 6 latest episodes of the award winning BBC Police Drama "Happy Valley".

Really enjoying the stuff on our Android TV box right now!

And in just over a week, daylight saving will be over in the southern states and things will be normal again.

Hot And Steamy!

Melbourne is getting a bout of humid weather right now and it is almost 2000k's away from us.  Here on the Sunshine Coast this morning was overcast, low 20's but the humidity level was over 80%.  I am guessing our humid weather is ending up in Melbourne right now.

Put the 30 or so degrees as the sun breaks through with that and the pool remains a great option for us.  The humidity then drops back but it is still 'thirsty' weather!

It is definitely a little cooler overnight the last week or so, a sign that autumn is finally on its way.

News continues to be minimal.  Still no new battery has arrived for my phone but the one I am now using out of Trish's old phone is holding up perfectly.

The Community Association has seen me flat out recently.  We had a Public Meeting on Monday night which always put a bit of pressure on.  Then we had a meeting with the local MP on Tuesday to discuss traffic concerns around the area.

I eventually got brave enough to make an appointment with the dentist and that is on tomorrow at 11:20am.  I am NOT looking forward to that.  I lost a filling over Christmas and have been slowly building up courage to make the appointment.

A new brew went on yesterday with the obligatory bottle washing and bottling to follow.  Bottling will most likely be Wednesday of next week.

The improved internet connection is fantastic.

Managed to get a new i5 laptop for an older couple here on the estate for around $480.  There is a 20% off on eBay right now on some sites so the lady is very happy to pay her $480 and her new laptop will be delivered to her door early next week.  I even bought a 32GB mini USB 3 Drive for around $14 using the same CTECHIE code to get a 20% discount.

The lady had an older i3 laptop and went to Windows 10 recently.  Another Windows 10 update knocked her wireless out.  It is more than just a simple fix, the laptop is now incapable of being connected to the internet via wireless unless it has a major and costly reconfiguration costing more than the laptop is worth!

The new laptop is on its way for her.

I have a 2TB portable hard drive that doesn't always do as it should.  I am guessing it is showing the use it has had and the age it is.  I decided on a reformat today which hopefully cleans it all up.  After the reformat, all the data has to be put back onto it.

That is happening as I type.  Things I try to do while everything is being put back onto the drive runs that little bit slower on the PC.  It will take around 8 hours to copy everything back to where it was on the drive prior to the reformatting.  Before USB 3, this would have taken well over twice as long if not three times!

We are both well, Trish remains quite busy with the Arts Centre Association and has met some fantastic people there.  They are all retireds pretty well so with time to spare there are "coffee with friends", card get togethers or let us just get away for the weekend events as well!

Except for the dentist tomorrow all will sail along nicely.  There is plenty of footy over the weekend so the TV will be the spot for me!

Warm Weather Continues

It continues to be same old same old I am afraid!

We have been tidying up around the house with some general maintenance stuff, lawn mowing and the like.

I have been messing around and trying to solve problems with my Android TV boxes.  I manage to solve one problem which then in turn activates another and so on.  Then there is an update and things need to be reverted all the way back again so they work again.   But it is all fun.

You don't need to listen to the weather Forecast here any more, it says there will be a top of 30 (that feels more like 35), possible shower (which means absolutely not a drop of rain ... or 20mls) and strong S/E winds.  Overnight will be hot and humid with a low of 22 degrees!  It has been like this for the last fortnight and is set to continue for another week.

A little bit of out and about away from the house for us this week.  We again went to the RSL on Wednesday where the band was a Beach Boys 'tribute' band.  I should not have worn my hearing aids as the music was more than loud enough.  However the food was its usual standard .... lousy!

But the company was great and the beer was plentiful and cold!

I am on the bike again managing my 12 or so kilometres each day.  It is all fun to do to be active and the pool is always there after the ride is over.  Right now it is nice and warm in the water.

The improved internet speeds are sensational.  We now have a reasonable service but feel spoilt because things are just so much quicker and easier.

Trish is lessening her role with Stitchers and is no longer the President.  She has served her two year term and is no longer eligible to stand for that position.  She remains Secretary of the overall organisation though!

I was doing some pressure cleaning today on some of the border stones in the backyard.  The little machine I use is around four or five years old now and has developed a couple of cracks in the plastic 'gun' used with the spraying.  Nowadays when I use it, more water sprays back over me from the cracks in the plastic than sprays onto the border stones I am trying to clean.

It went into the bin today.

My cheap Mobile Phone from China is experiencing battery problems so I have swapped the battery over for the one out of Trish's old phone.  The battery from it isn't too good either but it is sure better than mine.  It would say 85% battery available and you would speak on the phone for around 5 minutes.  Then the call disconnected without any warning because the battery had run out!

I am buying a couple of new ones, one for my phone and the other for Trish's old phone.  Just handy to have Trish's old phone as a backup just in case.

My battery is a good quality one at around $18 (on eBay) from China, the other for Trish's old phone is just $10.  If we get another 12 month's use out of my phone it will be money well spent!

Drinks at our place at 3pm this afternoon so I had better get outside and get the place ready!