Over A Week

As you would have guessed my new electronic toys have kept me occupied for a few days.  I really didn't need any help for my personal health after my footy team was soundly beaten on Saturday and thus out of the finals for this year.

After watching nearly all footy games throughout the year a performance such as that was 'par for the course', one very poor quarter when the other team got the jump on them and then virtually blow for blow for the rest of the game.  The final difference in scores was just about the same as the difference at the end of the first quarter.

So now onto the cricket season!

The weather is certainly getting warmer with shorts and T-Shirts now the norm.  Socks and shoes have gone and have been replaced with scuffs and sandals!  I have enjoyed several swims in the pool as the water temp struggles to get into the low 20's.

The wind has returned to the south the last few days bringing back colder nights which knocks the water temperature around like crazy.  The wind has been consistent and a little blustery.

We continue to prepare for the Bali trip in April 2017 for one of my nephew's wedding.  All up we will be there for a couple of weeks.  My sister is going (of course) so we all hope to hook up for some good times and a get away from it all.

We have booked some of the accommodation so far.

Computer Club remains busy as well.  Yesterday (Monday) a guy came around with his new Dell Laptop for a setup!  All is now done and he is a happy fellow.  His former laptop is to be reformatted later this week and will then become a Home Theatre PC on which he will install Kodi and connect to his TV.

Then on Monday I helped out 2 other people and just now I have had another call from a guy wanting some clues on Kodi as well.  It keeps me occupied and my mind off the disastrous footy weekend just gone.

A trip to the pool shop is in store to get the pre season chemical update completed to ensure a safe swimming period ahead.

We are both well and enjoying a busy life here  ..... but I am not looking forward to a trip to the dentist later this morning!

More Electronic Toys!

The pool water temperature has been great the last few days, even struggling to a little over 23° one afternoon.  But it is close to a little under 22° most mornings when I grab a quick dip after a bike ride.  It has been cleaned and the pool's inside walls have been all been swept down getting ready for the warmer weather.

A trip to the pool supplies shop is about a week or so away now.  But after being of no cost over winter, this first off spring chemical update will probably be around $50 worth, heaps less than the spring treatment the chlorine pool back in Melbourne used to be.

I have had Computer Club this morning (Saturday) and again it was fairly quiet.  Trish is getting over the 'straight sets exit' of her footy team last night but is not overly disappointed as they have had numerous close calls throughout the year, just managing to hold on in some matches.

Most PC's these days have only a few of the faster USB3 ports to allow much faster uploads and downloads from a PC to an external hard drive.  I have been keeping my eye open for a multi USB 3 hub like in the picture below. 

They usually cost around $25 so when I saw one for $11 I grabbed it.  Unfortunately when I read the deal more closely a little later after placing the order I discovered the one I bought didn't have the power adapter making it virtually useless.

I had an old 3 port usb2 hub and fortunately the power pack from it works fine on the new multi port USB 3 hub!  I was lucky!

For some time I have been dithering over the value or not of getting a "4TB Cloud Hard Disk Drive".  They can be expensive with a RRP of over $300 but usually available just under the $300.  I discovered they had been on special once before for around $200 so I have been hanging out for that sort of discount again.  The other day it was available for local pickup for $239.  Not the real cheap price I wanted but I relented and bought one.

I have spent much of today 'setting it up'.  The drive is connected to the modem router and stays on 24/7.  It is like have a 4TB drive attached to your PC, laptop, tablet, android TV box or phone.  All devices can 'talk' to it and swap files to and from it.  It is a very nifty device.

It is a lot of money though but then you can't take it with you.

For storing and then streaming video files to the android TV boxes it is just perfect!  I believe it can be accessed from outside my home network as well.  There is a program which creates a 'special web address' that you can click on from anywhere and then download that file to your PC.

Midweek Update

Firstly, this joke really tickled my fancy.  My brother sent it to me but to make it fit in with 'airfares' I have edited it just a little....

A friend of mine up here has 2 tickets to the AFL football grand final in a few weeks time.

Private box seats plus airfare etc. But he didn't realize when he bought them that it was going to be on the same day as his wedding – so he can't go.

If you’re interested and would like to go instead of him it's at St Peters church in the Brisbane suburb of Redcliffe at 3.00pm. The bride's name is Louise.

Let us start with the footy, what a great game and it was a shame that one team had to win on the Friday night just gone.  I have said it just depended on which team had nudged its way to the front when the final siren went. With that my team Geelong just fell over the line when an after the siren Hawthorn shot on goal just missed.

With the luck of it all my team gets a week off while Trish's team faces up to a cut throat 'winner goes through to the Preliminary Final match' this weekend.

There were some great Australian Rules footy matches over the weekend.

The bottling I had from last week is complete, android TV boxes both here and elsewhere are all up to date and the lawn has received a cut.  One guy had family up over the weekend and now his adult daughter is after one as well.

I grabbed a fold up table from Bunnings earlier this week.  I will use it for my home brew bottling and bottle washing.  It will store very easily and be a better option than the round 'outdoor setting' table I had been using.

Things have been busy but quiet.  Meetings with the local Councillor, the daily bike ride and today, the first swim in the pool after a bike ride for the 2016/7 summer.  The water was almost 22° so a little on the chilly side.  We have mid to high 20's for the rest of the week along with the possibility of a storm or two.  One wet night recently saw 40mls end up in the rain gauge.

Magpies are bad this year for us older bike riders.  I just don't ride there when there are aggressive birds around, another friend was attacked four times on his bike ride this morning.  Even Trish had a brush with one while she was delivering the Community Newsletter.

A Little Wet Underfoot

Tuesday was just like a blast from the past with the weather up here.  It was showery on and off all day and needless to say a bike ride was not going to happen.  Altogether I tipped 11mls from the gauge.  And the wind was very cool as well!

A Footyless weekend on TV has just come and gone.  I can now watch the 'local' Melbourne VFL games though as I stream them via Kodi so at least there was that.

As the photo shows it was a brewing week.  With no AFL footy on Saturday it was easy to pinch 40 minutes and put a brew on.  Bottle washing day was on Monday.  Bottle washing is always completed by sanitising where I spray the inside of the bottles with a sanitiser and then leave the bottles to dry with sanitiser all over them.  Around 48 hours later I like to give each bottle a rinse to get rid of as much as the sanitiser as I can after it has done its job.

So the bottles and caps are drying again in the backyard after their final rinse.  Most likely I will do the bottling on Friday. I will need to keep an eye out for passing showers too today while things are drying.

So it is all the same old news just regurgitated yet again!  But I do get a buzz out of it all.

I received my phone calls and Skype calls from the kids for Father's Day.  Kate has a new 4 month teaching job and Kim begins with a new company over in Perth as well.

On Monday we had the Community Association's 3rd Public Meeting for the year so there is just one more to go.  I chaired the meeting and then got a report up on the website early the next day.  It is becoming a hassle I don't really need I think.  The guy who does the Newsletter is away so I got that job done as well.

On Monday the PC went into overload as a huge update came though.  I am guessing it was the "Anniversary Windows Update" as it took the best part of three hours to complete.  I have some new icons back again on my task bar and I lost many of my 'sharing' settings.

But the "sharing" is all back again now.  I use the 'sharing' quite a lot.  For example I took the bottles drying photo on my tablet this morning.  I then get the option on the tablet to save it.  I can save the photo from the tablet to my desktop when the sharing is activated.  It is very handy and does away with the need for cables and the like.

The next door neighbours (to our right as you face the house) are selling.  They own the dog that bit me and used to terrorise us up and down own sideway.  She is OK but he doesn't want to chat much.  So many of their trees have been pruned, hedges cut back and the house painters are back doing the inside.  I suspect the For Sale sign will go up in a week or two.

A guy bought a latest model Minix Android TV Box after I had spoken with him.  It was under $160 delivered with the better remote control.  So all in all it was a great deal he got on eBay.  It arrived late Monday by parcel delivery so I spent an hour or two with him yesterday (Tuesday) setting it all up.  That was fun!

We have footy this weekend, (my team plays Trish's team on Friday night), a bottling to do on Friday so there is a few things to keep me going.

There is always the outside 'spring clean' to do as well. 

Spring Time

The temp is heading to the mid 20's today and there is a real spring feel to the air.

It is great bike riding weather except for the onset of the magpie nesting season.  Parent magpies become extremely defensive of the territory around their nests as their young begin to hatch out.  The nesting season should go on for around 6 weeks before things settle down again and get back to normal.

The parent magpies tend to charge at old guys on bikes and from behind.  You just hear the wind of their wings, followed by a loud screech and the 'clunk' of their beak on your bike helmet as they hurtle by!

One magpie had a few goes at me this morning but it is a little "I've been here before" so it doesn't scare me as much as it used to.  However as the photo above shows I have taken the added pre caution of adding a couple of long cable ties to my helmet.

The cable ties seem to waver in the breeze and shine and flash with the sunlight and this tends to slow any attacking bird making it just little more wary.  You still get the screech but an attacking magpie now tends to keep his distance making the whole episode a little less threatening.

The cable ties also give you a little ease of mind knowing you have some protection from an attack as you ride peacefully along.

The new bike is up and running from when I picked it up late Wednesday afternoon.  I quickly transferred the 'comfort seat' and carry box over along with the large bell and the trip odometer.

I then put a replacement tyre and tube which I got from the very old "Fuji" bike onto the old black bike and have it set up as a going spare bike.  The old Fuji will find its way to the tip in a day or so.

It is only now after a couple of rides on the new bike that I realize the noises, the creaks and the bumps I got when riding on the old bike.  It is reassuring to know the brakes are brand new, the tyres are in tip top condition, all the cables are tight and new, and everything works so smoothly and safely.

Kim returned the 32gb USB drive in the mail yesterday so it has been loaded up with new movies and TV shows she is after and is back in the mail and on its way from the Sunshine Coast to Perth.  That should keep her going for a few weeks on her newly acquired android TV box!