A Week To Take-Off

It has been so windy in this part of the world the last few days.  Strong winds have been the norm for us and make for tough work one way at least on my daily bike ride!  The screenshot of the PC pop-up happens daily!

The wind has ramifications for the leafy plants and bushes from next door and the pool I am afraid.  The house there has been sold and the current owners are in the process of moving out over the last week or so.

So with secateurs in hand I have been pruning back plants shrubs and bushes from next door which sway over onto my property but more importantly drop leaves.  The pool is just one destination the leaves have, the others are the house drains and the roof guttering.  At my age climbing ladders to clean leaves out of gutters is a serious no no!

We 'take-off' for Melbourne by road in a week today!  It is around a 1900km drive all up and we plan to set off around 8:30 am on Tuesday of next week and arrive in Melbourne around 5pm or so on the Friday.

On the way south we plan to catch up with a friend with whom I played cricket when in Malaysia (around 40 years ago) in Ballina for a quick visit and arrive in Coffs Harbour for an overnight stay on the Tuesday.  Then Newcastle with Mick and Janet for Wednesday and Thursday before a 900k drive from Newcastle to the northern suburbs of Melbourne.  It seems a long drive for one day but it is dual freeway for 99.9% of the trip with both Trish and I sharing the driving it isn't so bad!

We have the family Christmas gathering on the Saturday afternoon.

Almost two weeks ago I had the first inklings of problems with one of my computer back up drives.  I jumped online and ordered a 2TB Seagate Portable replacement.  With this being Christmas it took almost two weeks for the parcel to be delivered from Sydney but it did arrive yesterday.

I manage to semi retire my drives as soon as they look like they are going to play up.  The 2TB Toshiba Drive (labelled T in the photo) has been semi retired now to be an extra drive on the 4TB Seagate Cloud drive.  The Seagate Cloud drive is attached to my modem/router and stays 'on' 24/7.  So it can be accessed by any device from anywhere on my home network at any time.  You can play music from it on your tablet, your phone or any other device at any time.

Now I have the 2TB Toshiba attached as well as a 1TB old Seagate drive as well.  This gives me loads of backup space all accessible from anywhere on the home network.

I do like my online Christmas specials!  Recently we lost power for almost 4 hours.  I do have a rechargeable light which we use for out doors.  It is snazzy light but doesn't hold its charge that well.  Needless to say that during the blackout, it was useless as the battery was flat.  But I did spot a $99 reduced to $30 rechargeable 'work light' on special.

To good a bargain to miss I thought.  I had an email today saying it was ready for the Courier to pick up so hopefully it will be delivered later this week, well before we go away.

Hot and sunny again today with a top around 32°.  The pool will get to around 30° I guess though this morning's after bike ride swim saw the pool at a little over 27° and just delightful.  I have cricket on TV after lunch so that will keep me occupied!