Back To Normal

Things are slowly getting back to normal.  Trish arrived home from Melbourne on Monday around lunchtime.  It was only another 15 minutes or so from Brisbane Airport to our favourite Malaysian (and only Malaysian) eating place at Sunnybank so a delicious and filling lunch followed.  A slice of bread was enough for tea that evening!

Computer Club was again quiet with enough on Kodi from several very interested members to keep me involved.  My footy was sensational on Saturday especially with finals in the next week or so.  Trish's team had a heart stopping finish but managed to get over the line at the last gasp.

Our teams are set to play each other in the first round of the finals.  However a loss by either team won't put them right out of the competition as they both finished in the top 4.

I have been bike riding again as the weather is a little more pleasant as spring rapidly approaches.  There are stories circulating on magpie swooping going on but I haven't experienced anything as yet.

Over the last few weeks there has been a repetitive noise coming from my bike's rear wheel.  Quick looks indicated some possible causes but I still couldn't fix it.

Then yesterday I had a closer look and found where it appeared a section of the tyre was lifting from the side.  I was going to swap it over with a tyre I have on the 'spare' bike kept for visitors and emergencies.  However upon tipping the bike upside down I noticed two rear spokes were broken.  The spare bike has callipers for brakes while the Fluid bike has disk brakes so a straight rear wheel swap wouldn't work.

So off to the repair place I went.  It is a "Fluid" brand, one stocked by the large outdoor chain called "Anaconda".  They have looked after me for repairs previously so off I went.  The quote was totalled up to around $60 or so.  I was going to get a new tyre as well.

The latest model of my bike was on special at around $300, marked down from around $500. So the dilemma became do I commit the $60 and finish up with a 3 year old bike in 3 year old bike condition or do I cut my losses and get a new one and take advantage of the 'special'?  I am ultra concerned about safety when riding the bike.  Are the brakes in good condition? Do the tyres require replacing? Will something conk out on the bike when I am 10k's from home?

The guy said to leave the wheel with the broken spokes with him, for me go home and think about the deal.  I was to get back to him if I decided to upgrade.  I rang him back an hour or so later to confirm, I would buy a new one.

The new one will be ready for pickup this afternoon!  I usually replace the bike every couple of years but this time I was well into the third year!  This morning I removed the bell, the seat and the trip meter from the old bike ready for transfer to the new one later today.

The photo above shows my current bike waiting for the wheel to go back on.  The current spare bike is off to the tip!

The wheel with the broken spokes will go back onto the old Fluid bike later today and I have already removed a tyre from the old spare bike ready to replace the tyre with the lifted section. This bike will then become the spare.  It should be fine for that, after all it appears I have been riding it around with broken spokes and a crook tyre for several weeks now and there hasn't been a problem.

I am pleased to report that as of today all my favorite download sites are back online and working well.  Mike found his time with me interesting as we looked at Android TV boxes and how I have things set up here at home.  He continues on his massive learning curve.

4 Doesn't Equal 40

With a promise of periods of rain and up to 40mls throughout the day yesterday (Weds), immediately a 12k bike ride went off the agenda and a day of lounging about watching the odd movie or two and just doing as little as possible took over.

It blew a gale, the day was gray with overcast clouds and every now again there was a hint of rain.  It eventually did begin to rain but the 4mls I tipped out of the rain gauge this morning shows the expected 40mls just didn't happen.

I felt a bit of a tweak in my back Tuesday afternoon and by lunchtime Wednesday I had an appointment with the Chiro sorted for Friday, the earliest I could get in.  The Mobic came to the rescue but I still need to be wary as to exactly just what I do.

I did a little tidying up with the stick vac and the broom today but the effort of a sweeping motion isn't good for me.

A couple of my preferred download sites are offline at the moment so I have been trying unsuccessfully to find some alternatives.  But I will continue to look.  There are heaps of "Scene Release" sites but very few which target my preferred HEVC file formats. The icon top left is of TV_Release which hasn't updated for almost a week now!

And of course there are lots and lots of forums on all this sort of stuff that I like to keep an eye on and learn from others all over the place.

Trish is still in Melbourne and I guess most of the getting unpacked has now happened.  Trish heads home on Monday and I am to pick her up from Brisbane around midday.

Someone is coming around this afternoon checking out downloading stuff, putting it onto your network  and then accessing it.  He is fairly new to it all and doesn't have much of a background with home wireless networks and just what they can do.

The el cheapo Android TV Box I bought works 90%, I have discovered it doesn't handle high end sound tracks all that well and when they play back via the amplifier there is a slight 'tick' every 10 seconds or so.  We generally use the box with our headphones.  These headphones don't handle Dolby Digital or the like at all so for our everyday TV watching and listening it isn't a problem.

Ah well, one quick perusal over the latest downloads and by then Mike should have arrived!

Learning Something New Each Day

My involvement with Android TV Boxes continues to take a major part in what I get involved with day to day.  I can also add that most days I learn something new about them.

The cheap box I now have just doesn't do the higher end audio quite as well as the better quality (and almost 4x the price) as my Minix does.  There is the occasional little glitch when listening to higher end streamed videos with Dolby Digital sound.  The glitch can be hit and miss with some Dolby Digital audio streams playing perfectly while others have a little miss every 20 seconds or so.

However the $50 box is a little more friendly for most people to use.

Kodi continues to impress me more and more as well.  The photo shows me watching the channel 9 Footy Show 'live' from Melbourne when I streamed it this morning on the cheap box.  That's it in the lower left of the photo.  It was a "HD" stream so the picture quality was great.

A neighbour I showed Kodi to on his laptop a week or so ago went out and bought an android TV box online.  It was delivered late Friday afternoon and he was keen for me to help him set it up.  I left Computer Club a little earlier Saturday morning and set it up for him before I eventually got back home for some lunch and to enjoy the footy on TV.

Then we had around 12mls of rain yesterday afternoon as our nice warm weather was swept away by a blustery southerly change which brought the rain and then the nippier weather.

The bike ride this morning was delayed until the day warmed up a little but I still managed my 12.5 k's.

I have more footy this afternoon on telly so the rest of the day is sorted!

Where Did That Week Go?

My footy team is known to run hot and cold throughout 2016.  They remain in contention for this year's premiership though not the top ranked team.  They play well against the top sides and not so well against some of the lower teams.  Last week they played one of the lower teams, a team they were expected to defeat comfortably.

So when they were 6 goals down with just one quarter to go I did something that I don't usually do, I turned the TV off and went to do a further setup the new Android TV Box.  I turned the telly back on around 30 minutes later and saw that they had hit the front and then went on to win narrowly!

No wonder I suffered some stress related problems!  I don't think I will be buying a late air ticket down to Melbourne for the finals though!

The neighbour's $50 Sunvell Android TV Box arrived at last over the weekend and we did a swap.  I got the new box, he retained my 'old' one as he had his favorites and everything all set up.

I have been setting the cheap box up all week and about now I have it going pretty well.  This one has a good power on/off light at the front, can be turned off via the remote, starts very well without any hiccups and playback is as good as the $180 Minix.

An important advantage of the Sunvell is it is controlled via Infra Red remote controls, while the Minix is controlled by Wireless Remote.  This means I can teach the remote control signals to my Logitech all in one remote control and not be picking up or putting down two or three remotes or wireless keyboards.

I just push the Sunvell Activity button on the Logitech all in one remote, it turns the Sunvell on, it switches the TV and Amp on an then selects the input on the TV to the Tuner Amplifier, the Tuner/Amp selects the appropriate Tuner/Amp source and off we go!  One push of the Activity button and we have action!

As we said earlier, Kate Arj and family are now back in their own home and their stuff from storage and from Saudi is slowly being put back in place.  The fridge now works again and doesn't short out the whole house, the TV is back and running, the internet is to be connected on Monday and slowly but surely they are settling back into their Australian suburban way of life.

To add an extra pair of hands to assist with setting things up, Trish flew down to Melbourne yesterday (Thursday) to spend around 10 days with them helping where she can.  I stayed back on the Sunny Coast mainly to keep out of their way.

Kim has my old android TV box and is now able to play all the file formats I can send her on a small 32GB I pack with files.  She copies them over to a hard drive then posts the stick back to me for another load up!  It seems to be working OK at the moment.

I have managed a bike ride on several mornings this week but there have been some wet mornings with an early morning shower really making bike riding uncomfortable. One morning there were 9mls in the gauge.

And of course there was the brew to bottle wash for and then bottle this morning.  There always seems to be something to do!

TGIF

It has been one of those weeks!  This is usually the driest time of the year for us but even a mere 25mls as a monthly total for June was way down on an average.

As a result everything is dry and getting a little dusty.  So 13 mls and thunderstorms last night meant we got a drop of well needed rain.  Not only did the rain fill up the pool it managed to grab a heap of dust from the atmosphere and dump it in the pool too.  A pool clean today and a massive clean of the filters followed.

If I tell you Trish is headed to Melbourne next week for 10 days or so you will have worked out Kate, Arj and the family have returned to Melbourne from their two year adventure to Saudi and around the world!  Trish will help them unpack as they move back into their home and removalists and things arrive out of storage around the same time.  Trish gets there Thursday.

We had an hour or so with Kate on Skype yesterday.  Needless to say with them flying back into Melbourne in mid August that the cooler weather has 'surprised' them.

They have their car up and running, have hit Aldi for a new mobile phone sim card and sorted out private health insurance etc.  Today Kate is shopping for warm winter clothing for the kids at the end of season sell off sales.

I have been messing around with my Kodi setup on my android TV Box.  I reckon I learn something new about Kodi every day and this week has been quite a huge learning curve. I am quite pleased with what I have been able to achieve.  I put another local friend onto Kodi during the week, set up his laptop PC and now he is as happy as ....!

My second new but hardly spotted android box is still keeping the neighbour happy.  I don't know who is keener to see their newly purchased TV box arrive in the post, them or me!  I am looking forward to getting my new $50 model back and setting it up as a second box here at home.

I have been back on the bike as well getting my 12.5k's in most days.  A few days with a top of 25° certainly make the morning ride a little less of a chore.  I didn't ride this morning though as I washed bottles and put on another brew.  That is two home brew jobs done in one day!

The Olympics on TV have taken some of my time as well I must admit.

Thursday we had lunch at the little Golden Beach Vietnamese place we haven't been to in a long time.  It wasn't cheap but it was nice!  I then made myself an egg and cheese hamburger for tea using a couple of left over buns from Wednesday's lunchtime.  Toasting the buns on the BBQ gave them back some life and made for a tasty snack for my evening meal.

The old TV series "The Wire" has been great to watch.  It is one of the highest ever rating TV series and despite being well over 10 years old, it remains sensational TV watching.  We finished series 2 during the week which means we still have 3 full series still to go.

Right now we are watching "The A Word" which tells the story of a little boy whose parents are discovering that he is autistic. And just to keep the viewer interested it has some elements of "The Last Tango In Halifax" to it as well.

Footy is on again this weekend.  My team has a supposedly 'easy' game on Sunday but who knows.  Trish's team suffered a surprise loss last week so the blow torch is on them as they face another ranked finals team on Saturday.

I have Computer Club tomorrow again which I always look forward to.

Cool Saturday

Today is quite overcast and the cool wind which has been haunting us for most of the week continues.  Around 20 is all we can expect for today.

The parcel from the last post has been posted to W.A.

Kate Arj and family are expected home mid next week and Trish has already put in an offer to fly down and help Kate with the unpacking!

Their car has been removed from our friend's garage, has been serviced, a new battery fitted, some repairs done to bring it up to 'roadworthy condition and is ready to go.

The car is booked in for re registration on Friday of next week which is about the same time as the tenants are leaving the house.

Their stuff from Saudi should arrive back also on the 12th.  They arrive back in Melbourne mid afternoon Wednesday August 10th.

So it is all ready to go!

The other night we watched a movie A Hologram For The King which is a Tom Hanks movie about a guy trying to sell some IT stuff for a new city being built in Saudi.  It tells the story of the problems he endures with Saudi Bureaucracy and Saudi customs and restrictions.  It seems to us to cover what we recall of our time in Saudi.

The Olympics have begun in Rio but the time difference makes viewing the Games a little difficult.  We are 13 hours ahead of Rio time so prime night time events happen here mid to late morning.

Still it would be more fun to watch than the cricket currently coming from Sri Lanka where Australia's efforts are best described as woeful and pathetic!

But we have the footy this weekend where my team plays the bottom team and Trish's team (the top team) plays an opposition from the bottom half of the ladder.

It should be a pain free TV watching weekend for us.

All Packed And Ready To Go

On Monday the cheap android TV Box I ordered arrived.  At around $50 delivered it really was a let's wait and see what it is like before we celebrate.  Now the box has arrived and I have set it up for a quick play I no longer have it.

Instead the neighbour over the road has it and is enjoying it.  Previously he was checking out my 'old' android TV box to see if it did what he wanted.  He seemed quite happy with the old one and is now even happier with my new one.  He ordered one for himself and he should have it in around 10 days or so.

I did stream a movie on it just to make sure it worked OK and it worked faultlessly.

The photo above shows the 'old' android TV box I own all wrapped and ready to go. It will be mailed to Kim in Perth tomorrow and hopefully it will be in her hands early next week.

Kim watches a few of movies or TV series I download and plays them back on her WDTV media player.  The WDTV is getting a little old in the tooth nowadays and because of a lack of updates, it no longer plays the latest video file formats.  We will swap a fully loaded mini 32GB drive in the mail every month or so.

I can only send her WDTV compatible files.  The android TV boxes are really designed to stream online content but they can also be great media players as well and play all formats of files.  So my old model Android TV Box would suit her needs perfectly.

Ideally they need a good internet connection to stream and can use a bit of your download allocation. If you don't have a good internet plan, streaming is not for you.

And these android boxes are not user friendly either.  After all Android is primarily used to run your phone or tablet, and not powerful streaming equipment.

So it is packed and ready to go.

Kate Arj and family have landed in Hawaii for a final week's R and R.  They are due home in Melbourne on Wednesday August 10th.  They have received some good news that their tenants are planning to move out a few days after they get home which means they can plan any quick renovations or maintenance and get back into their home sooner rather than later.

We have now got confirmed tickets to fly to Bali next year in late April for a family wedding, my sister's boy Beau is marrying the delightful Jess.  Tiger Airlines no longer has flights between Brisbane and Bali and this lack of competition means good discounted fares are harder to come by.  But we aren't too disappointed with the special deal we managed to get.