Lovely Sunny Sunday

There is a small food court in an unpopular shopping complex in Maroochydore.  There are probably only around 6 eateries there but one is a Thai place which does extremely nice good sized meals.

An Aussie guy is the front man but the cooks are all Thai.  The food is excellent and the servings spicy and tasty.

They do a Thai version of my Malaysian favorite Char Koay Teow which is great.  The Pad Thai is excellent as well.

We went to this place for lunch on Thursday along with Peter (from Computer Club) and Cheryl his lady friend.  Peter loves spicy food and is a a keen cook himself.  He just loved the food at this place and we had a very enjoyable hour or two together chatting and eating!

At the end of the meal no one was hungry.

We had arrived in Maroochydore around an hour earlier so had time for a little looking around the some shops.  Trish said she wanted to look at 'Toaster Ovens'.  They were less expensive than we thought.

The oven at home has had some disastrous things happen to it. It seems some hidden plastic wrapper had finished up in the oven and had become crusted over the whole inside.  It was a heck of a job to clean it afterwards but the oven is usable again now.  The oven's door seal has probably gone as well as there is heaps of hot air escaping when it is in use.

Because of hot summers here the oven doesn't even get considered for cooking over the hot times of the year.  The oven is quite large as well and with just the two of use seems a waste.

So we bought ourselves an upmarket toaster oven.  We had some left over roast chicken which Trish heated in the micro wave but she did roast vegies in the new oven for tea last night (Saturday).  So far we give it 10/10.

Being small and light it would be easy to set up outside for any roast cooking required in summer.  So we reckon we have done pretty well.

Arj's latest blog entry is here.

We think they are now in Washington staying with more of Arj's relatives.  There next stop is Hawaii for a week then they fly back into Tullamarine around August 10th.

My new TV box is still being delivered and Chinese tracking has it as currently in Brisbane.  It is usually a day trip to get to this area then on board the next day for delivery.  That means most likely I will get it either Monday or Tuesday .... possibly!

Not A Lot Is Happening

It is certainly all quiet in this part of the world.  The recent overcast weather has meant it has become a lot cooler.  It is amazing the difference in temperature here when we get an overcast cloudy day!  And it has been cloudy and quite cool the last two days and warm tops have been the order of the day.

Cooler weather is not conducive to having an early morning bike ride either!

We did get back to the glorious Headland Golf Club for another Chicken Parmigiana lunch yesterday (Tuesday).  We hadn't been there for a while and friends Ian and Kerrie were keen to catch up so off we all went.

Needless to say toasted sandwiches was enough for our evening meal.

It was good to catch up with the Eathers and have a chat.  Ian also uses his Kodi box a lot and after eating we went back to their place and set up a Trakt.tv account and integrated it into his Exodus Addon.  They can now find their favorite TV series much more easily. The couple of cold stubbies we had were very enjoyable too.

We did notice a roof tile has shifted over our garage eave as we drove out yesterday.  If you wanted a roof tile to shift, this was the best spot for it to happen!  I managed to jiggle it back into place but ideally it requires cementing or being siliconed back in permanently.

I am not so good on ladders nowadays so I will approach St Andrews Care to get someone to do the job.

And that is really all the latest news.

Trish has been sorting out the car Arj and Kate left behind and will want to use again upon their return to Australia in a few weeks.  It has been stored in Melbourne in the back shed of very good friends June and Keith in Berwick.  Arj has a friend who works at Berwick Motors who will get the car back into going order again.  Also the registration has lapsed and the battery has died.

The car will be carted to Berwick Motors via a tray truck where it will be made road worthy again.  Trish has sorted re registering it again so all Arj will need to do is complete some forms which Trish will email him, pick up the Roadworthy Certificate from Berwick Motors and take the lot to Vehicle Registration in Dandenong.

Once all has been processed he will possibly be issued with new number plates, journey back to Berwick Motors, attach the new number plates and he will be ready to go!

I am sure Arj will find filling the car up with fuel much dearer than when he last filled his car in Saudi Arabia.

All I know about the new Android Box I have bought is it has been collected in Hong Kong.  I was give a tracking number for the parcel and at last it has appeared on the tracking website. Delivery time is any time between July 29th and August 5th.  But I still wouldn't be surprised if it was even later.  Such is the joy of buying stuff from China!

Just Ridiculous

Yesterday (Saturday) we had a top temperature of over 31° and yes it is still the middle of winter and it is the coldest 6 weeks of the year in this part of the world!  Some freakish weather conditions caused warm air to be blown down from the Northern Territory giving the Sunny Coast a record warm day.

Last night I was enjoying watching my footy team on TV as they found some form again and had a strong win all with the ceiling fan on! Just ridiculous for this time of the year!

Things are getting back to normal today, a top of 23° and a clear blue sunny sky.  Tonight should be appreciably cooler with low double figures for the overnight minimum.

For the latest on Kate and Arj's trip in the USA click here.  Kim is home resting up after her trip to the USA as well.

Trish is busy with 40th Birthday celebrations 'Exhibition" for CACA.  She even did a live on air radio interview Saturday morning.  I think she is glad that is over.  But today (Sunday) she is back in again as the celebrations continue.  They had bumper crowds through the doors yesterday and are hoping for a second big day today.

Our daughter Kim has some favorite TV series which I may have downloaded and she can playback on her media player.  The media player is getting a little outdated and file format technology is passing it by.  There are more and more video formats it just won't play.

This is a major reason why I dropped my WDTV in favour of an Android TV Box.  In a package we recently sent her was a 32GB memory stick with some of the series she likes in a format her media player can handle.

I have decided to give my second android TV box to her which will allow her to play all the files I can obtain... This will leave me down on a backup TV Box.  The second is handy to have to play with, to lend to others and to show around.

The pic above is of a cheap Android TV box which I have ordered to replace the one I am giving to Kim.  It has cost under $50 to buy and have express posted from China.  Like many of these cheap boxes from China, this box does have some shortcomings but as a media player it is sensational value.  It is due in a week or two. (http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_366030.html)

Meanwhile the guy over the road is having TV tuning problems, it won't pick up any of the free to air channels.  He has been busy downloading TV stuff for his wife to watch.  So currently the second android TV box is at his place where they can easily go on line, find any TV series she likes and stream them directly to the TV.  No downloading is required. They have a huge download on their internet plan so all is going nicely.

I guess he will be in the market for a cheap box shortly.  He is waiting for my unit to be delivered and expects to follow suit and buy one once it gets a tick of approval.

I have just completed another bottling this morning and am now having a PC spell while I get things back into order.

My nagging cough has disappeared so the new inhaler is working well.  As it turns out it is a form of exercise induced asthma.

Cool And Damp

It is Sunday and the weather is unseasonally cold with overcast skies, a strong breeze and the occasional shower.  We awoke to find 13mls in the rain gauge. The weather was around 15° mid afternoon yesterday so the reverse cycle air conditioning had a bit of a workout.  However as we set off for bed around 10:30pm the outside temp had risen to 18°.

So overall, it is good inside sort of weather.  The inclement weather began yesterday and this had quite an influence on the turn out at Computer Club with numbers down considerably.  This gave me time to chat to a couple of members about the program FreeTelly.

The easiest way to tell people about a few of the intricacies of the FreeTelly setup is for me to make all the information available online as a backup to me telling them.  So I added this page to my MediaHowTo website (HERE).  I have even added a pdf download of the page so people can print the info off and have it beside them as they give it a go.

Most have my contact details as well so I expect the odd email during the week with a 'can you help me' request.

At least my footy team won a tight game the other night where as Tricia's team had yet another close win.

Kate Arj and family are in Albuquerque in New Mexico as they drive across the USA.  They are due home in around 3 weeks.

I moved my PC to Windows 10 several weeks ago.  The move has been quite successful and solved several issues I had been experiencing after the PC had been on Windows 7 for almost 2 years.  The build up of extraneous files over two years and the resultant slowing down of the PC has all been overcome with the move.  My PC now loads in around a minute at startup.

Microsoft's offer a free upgrade to Windows 10 is due to expire at the end of July.  With this in mind we bit the bullet and switched Tricia's laptop to Windows 10 as well.  The switch went fairly smoothly with only a slight problem with the printer and her Dolby Sound capability.  Two downloads from the Asus site and the Brother Printer site had those dramas under control.

I am pretty sure she hardly notices any differences between Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.  I put a program called Start Is Back which makes the Windows 10 start button behave the same as the previous Windows 7 start button and solves heaps of problems not only for her but for others making the move to Windows 10.

Last night we watched the first two episodes of 'Stranger Things', the new series from Netflix.  It gets a great IMDB score of around 9.3.  It is a little Sci Fi but not so bad.  It does have an "E.T" feel to it with the major stars being kids.  We look forward to watching the rest of it.  It is only 8 episodes long so that shouldn't take long to see.  

Free Telly May Be The Answer

If you are considering putting your toe in the water as far as Kodi is concerned, then the new FreeTelly program for Mac or PC is probably the way to go.  Kodi is a 'free' and open source program maintained by a team of enthusiasts. freeTelly is based on Kodi and comes with numerous addons all pre installed.

I first got into Kodi because my WDTV Media player was unable to keep up with new file formats I wanted to use and could be laborious to maintain.

Kodi (FreeTelly) will play any file format possible and the gathering of information about a movie or TV episode is pretty well automatic.  It then presents it all on the TV screen with a further incredible range of options.  Not only does it allow you to watch your own 'acquired' movies and TV Shows, it will also go online and stream virtually everything, either TV Show or Movie that you can possibly think of straight onto your wide screen TV in your lounge room.

For example the last few nights we are having some great crime night TV.  Both series we are enjoying rank in the top 20 or so TV series ever made.  They are both older series but excellent TV shows.  I have 'acquired' the full series of files of "Wire In The Blood" and we are streaming the top rating "The Wire".  Not only are the copies of the streamed 'The Wire' great to watch, but they are widescreen and great quality.

FreeTelly is a pre loaded Windows or Mac PC version of Kodi.  You can install it on your computer, connect you computer via an HDMI lead to a spare port on your TV and run it.  With a little bit of tweaking it will be great.  I have added a page to one of my websites with all the links and the tweaks.  You can check it out HERE.

It has the best addons pre installed but really "Exodus" is the only addon you need! Give it a go.

The Hyundai Sonata is back with a nicely painted front bumper.  All the stone chips have been fixed and the car is back in great condition again.

I am using the 'new' 24" monitor which arrived just after lunch today. I can't get over how light the weight of the screen is.  It seems so thin being LED.  The flickery previous screen was LCD.  It is really great to have a big screen back again.

Kate, Arj and family are driving across the U.S.  Last we heard they were in New Orleans and you can read Arj's report here.  The pic below shows the route they are taking and their planned stops.  It is another 'once in a lifetime' experience for them all.

A Dampish Monday

It is Monday and we have it a bit drizzly outside, but it isn't cold.

Things continue to cruise along quite nicely without too many hassles.  The Hyundai is in the paint shop this morning getting rid of the nasty scrape off the front bumper (see photo).  I didn't even know I had scraped anything till a few days later.

But for $200 to have it repainted and any other little paint chips fixed will be good. We should get it back late Tuesday afternoon.

If you have been pondering over having a go at Kodi there is a new version called "Free Telly" available.  Just Google it and install it on your Mac PC or Windows.  It comes pretty much pre configured with the best addons already installed.

Plug an HDMI cable into your laptop and TV and you are all "go".  Be sure you have plenty of internet download though!

In the settings just get into "International" and set it to Australia and you can have a play.  I also 'hid' the label "Pictures" as I won't use it for showing any photos I have taken.

My wrists are slowly healing after I "cut" them after watching my footy team play appallingly on Friday night.  I was not a happy camper at all after the game.

We are enjoying a couple of 'oldies' on playback on TV at the moment.  We start off with a couple of episodes of "The Wire" and then finish with a feature length viewing of "Wire in the Blood".  The former gets an IMDB score of around 9.5, the latter 8.6.  So it is quality TV watching!

My 24" PC monitor began to flicker on and off recently.  It was connected via DVI to the PC's video card.  It continued to flicker when I connected it to the motherboard's HDMI port.  I have a spare 21" monitor which connected to the PC video card and has operated perfectly, no flicker and all works perfectly.  I do note the smaller screen size though!

eBay came to the rescue and a replacement 24" should arrive sometime this week. The PC's video card doesn't have a decent HDMI connector, just DVI.  So to be usable now and future protect myself, I needed a monitor with both HDMI and DVI.  Most monitors for sale on eBay seemed to be one or the other so it took a little time to find exactly what I wanted.  But a quality 2ms Acer 24" screen at around $190 with HDMI and DVI delivered seemed reasonable to me.

Just An Update

I have been back on the bike again this week, well until a brutally cold and strong S/W wind blew into the Coast that is.  Not only is the wind quite strong, but it is icy as well. 

On the weather reports yesterday the apparent temperature received a great airing, e.g. the temperature is 17 but it feels like 9 was an all too common report.

The kids continue to enjoy themselves in the USA, Kate and family visiting Disneyland in Orlando and Kim in Las Vegas.  Arj put a blog post up and you can check it out here.

Kim has regular updates on Facebook as well.  She was recently spotted trying on one of those Man v Food episode meals almost successfully!

Any thought of buying a new cheap phone went on the back burner when my 24" PC monitor began to flicker, so much so it was almost impossible to use.  When I first bought it some time ago I put the old 21" monitor away as a spare.  I am using it now though as the replacement bought on eBay doesn't get delivered until next week.

The larger scrape on the car's driver's side front bumper gets fixed on Monday.

We have eventually upgraded our phone plans which didn't go without a hitch.  We have again seen we needed to redo our Voicemail intro's and we discovered eventually that our data was turned off on the phone by default.

I even got a response from TeleChoice re my Sim Card being 'activated' before I did anything myself.  We have swapped a couple of emails over the incident.

I am off for my annual ear tidy up with an ENT Specialist today, that is on my right ear which has caused me grief throughout my life.  The ear canal itself has been reshaped and no longer cleans itself automatically.  This is definitely not one of my 'favorite' experiences.

We watched a great movie the other night called "The Room".  Both Trish and I would highly recommend it.

A Wet Day In Store

After some chilly mornings followed by bright sunny days, today Tuesday is showery.  This should clear later this afternoon with the sunshine due back tomorrow.

Today is Kim's birthday and there are birthday wishes galore for her on Facebook.  They are currently in Las Vegas and staying at the Bellagio.  Needless to say it will be a big day for her.

I completed my bottling on Sunday in nice sunny weather so all my beer supplies are back to max.  An India Pale Ale I had brewed a month or so ago was ready to drink so I dug a couple of bottles out to try.  It is nowhere near as nice as the Little Creatures brew but was quietly drinkable.

We have lashed out another three dollars per month each and upgraded our phone plans so we now have over $1000 worth of calls and 3.5GB of data each all for $28 per phone.  Being a 'budget' phone company this upgrade didn't go smoothly and as it turned out I was without my phone being able to make calls for about a day.

But all is working again now.  As it turned out we needed new Sim cards unbeknown to us.  These sim cards had to be posted out and not knowing we needed new sim cards we were just waiting for the upgrade to go through.  I got online yesterday (Monday) and sent them a please explain message.  An hour later my service was cut off!  I then discovered I would have to wait for a new sim card to arrive before it would work again.

The new sim card arrived this morning (Tuesday) but I thought it would need activating.

I unsuccessfully tried to activate the new sim online this morning.  A wait on the phone for 10 minutes or so  while I rang customer service followed.  I then discovered it had already been activated.

But it working fine again now.

The TV series Game of Thrones gets great scores yet it is a series neither Trish nor I could get into.  However we felt we may be missing something so last night we started to watch the latest series.  Neither Trish nor I are into dragons, ghosts, giants and magic in any TV series.  So when a giant strolled through the front gates of a walled city at the beginning of episode 2 that was it for us.

The delete button came into play and we began to watch a UK Police drama series called Marcella.  No dragons, ghosts, giants or magic in that one!

The Hyundai Sonata we own is getting on to ten years old now but has only done just over 100,000k's.  Being a 6 cylinder motor, there is heaps of years work still in it.  We are tarting it up again and getting some small dents knocked out and a nasty scrape on the front bumper resprayed.

I had the dents done this morning for $70 and the front will be re sprayed early next week for $200.  It will be great to have it back looking good and new again and all for less than $300.

A Night At the NRL

It is Sunday and we have returned to the Sunny Coast after a night at the Rugby League on Friday watching the local heroes "The Brisbane Broncos" play the "Melbourne Storm".  Being from Melbourne originally we tend to lean towards "The Storm" who are currently 2nd on the NRL ladder.  The Broncos sit in 6th place but enjoy a huge home ground advantage.

Storm won 48 to 6 in front of almost 45,000 fans.  This is a huge crowd when you consider many NRL matches in NSW attract less than 10,000 to a game.

I have attended hundred and hundreds of AFL matches in Melbourne and this includes possibly the best part of 15 AFL Grand Finals which get crowds in the 100,000 range.  So this NRL experience was interesting for us.

There were 6 of us in our group, one couple dyed in the wool Broncos fans, the other couple formerly from NSW but not big NRL watchers and ourselves.

We decided to make a night of it and booked into a hotel in Brisbane to stay the night.  The hotel was perfectly placed and about a 15 minute walk from Suncorp Stadium.  The hotel was great, quite comfortable for us and not overly expensive for an overnight stay.

Needless to say the event began with drinks in the room and a chat and a good catchup with friends.  Around 5pm we began the walk to the game along the famous "Caxton Street", the main drag which leads to the stadium and is designed to capture NRL supporters both on their way to the match and again on the way home.

We found a place to grab a bite to eat and a cheap meal called "Hanks Burgers and Beers".  It had been difficult to find a spot where 6 of us could sit, have a drink and grab a quick bite to eat.  But Hanks was perfect.  What we didn't know was the place had only opened for the first time 5 hours earlier and we should have guessed there would be first opening night hassles.

Drinks service was slow but not too bad.  Whereas the meals were impossible.  When our meal order eventually arrived after waiting for almost an hour the food wasn't hot and they missed three of our orders.  Refunds followed.

But they did have Little Creatures Pale Ale on tap.  This is the beer I really enjoyed in Fremantle a month or two earlier.  And even better it was a little cheaper than when I had it in Western Australia.

Now to the game itself.  Unlike Aussie Rules where you actually see 'more' when you are at a live match, with NRL you see more on a TV broadcast.  The photo shows exactly where we sat in relation to the game.  So close watching of play at the far end was better watched on the "big screen'.

It may have been the one sidedness of the game, but the crowd was strangely quiet.  With Aussie Rules there is a continual noise, cheers and shouts.  With NRL the major crowd reaction comes when a "Try" is scored.

That will most likely be our one and only NRL match experience, an experience I am glad we did and was a fun night out with good friends.

And unlike a night game in July at the MCG, it was about 9pm when a soft cold breeze rattled through the ground causing fans to be glad they had worn warm coats and scarves.  At the MCG this would have happened around 4pm that afternoon!

Speaking of cold it was just over 6° at 7am this morning here at Caloundra but we do have a glorious sunny day in front of us and a top expected of around 21°.  It may be a degree or two warmer here.

Kate and Arj and family have arrived in Orlando Florida after New York and Washington.  Kim is in California and all are having a great time.