It Continues Hot ....

It has been hot yet again today.  Whilst on my lengthy bike ride this morning I chatted with some people I know, people born and bred in this part of the world and everyone is saying it is a really hot summer.

It is now late afternoon on Sunday, the pool is over 30° and getting 'warm and soupy' again.  Thank heavens for the Waeco portable fridge and cool drinks.  Home brew has again been great.  The air con is running but it is set to 28° which makes sitting under the fan delightful!

My Nvidia Shield learning curve continues to soar!  The Shield's Android operating system is a version designed specifically for the this type of box.  My Minix and Sunvell boxes also had Android running on them but it was the same variation as runs on tablets and phones.  The version on the Shield is different and therefore you can load all the same apps on board because some of the apps just won't work properly.

One app I sideloaded to install, works 95%.  You can get it to work 100% but you need two remotes.  On one program the Shield Remote "Back" won't work but it does work if you use the 'back' key on the wireless keyboard.  And of course I am discovering some very clever people out there who have created approved apps which help to run some of the unapproved apps!

Where there is a will there is a way!

Our Australia Day celebrations were great.  Friends arrived around 3pm and we helped them into the cab well after 10pm.  There was heaps to eat, enough to drink and the weather was hot and dry!  It was heaps of laughs and lots of good times.

Computer Club was busy again on Saturday.  They have spent thousands and upgraded the wifi internet at the club.  Now it runs at around 50MBps.  That is about twice as fast as basic level NBN.  It now means we can really help people and it is great.  It will attract people back to the club again

Even more DVD Screener versions of movies which have been in the running for Academy Awards honors are coming online.  I enjoyed Hacksaw Ridge but it was a little too violent for Trish.  "Lion" became available today but we have the tennis finals on tonight.  And showing them on the Shield they work fine, no hassles, no dramas all runs very well.

I am even more pleased with the purchase than what I was the other day.  I spent a couple of hours with 2 couples who own Android TV boxes.  They don't have a lot of understanding as to how they work so it was a heap on the information session for them, and a very steep learning curve as well.

The guy wanted to make a donation to my home brew shop account.  I learnt he makes his own alcohol so I managed to get him to give me a couple of litres of alcohol and not worry about the Home Brew shop account.  I have heaps of mixers and will find the alcohol very welcome.  After Melbourne my Bourbon supplies were dwindling.  This will give them the lift the supplies sorely need!

Australia Day 2017

And welcome to Australia Day, a day when Aussies get together, have a few drinks and chat around the BBQ!  We have a superb day here with low 30's forecast and the very very small chance of a shower later on.  The pool is around 28° and is delightful.

Yesterday was our daughter Kate's birthday.  Boy but time passes quickly some times!

Since my last post on Sunday just gone, the weather has cooled off markedly.  There was even one night when the bedroom ceiling fan didn't go on at all!  All in all things are getting back to normal for summer!  We could sure do with some rain though!

I continue to bike ride most mornings but I am now changing the way I ride.  Now I will ride for as long and as far as I want to, depending on the day, how I feel and whatever else is on that day.  One day this week I did 10k's, yesterday I did 16k's.  This morning I didn't do any as I bottled my latest brew.  So during the week I had a bottle washing and sanitizing to do ready for today's chore.

All is now done.  We are hosting the group's Australia Day drinks at our place this afternoon.  There will be roast lamb and coleslaw rolls, party pies etc, satay sticks to pay tribute to the way the country is becoming more cosmopolitan and we will finish up with the Aussie classic ice-cream; Drumsticks!

And there will be beer, wine, spirits and more.  It should be a good day.

The new media player, the Nvidia Shield I bought from Amazon in the U.S. arrived on Tuesday about lunch time.  An hour or so later I had learned the ropes a bit, did a complete 'Reset', then set it up all over again and now it is doing just what I want it to.

It is an expensive item though, around 6x the price I paid for the Sunvell T95M.  But the new one just 'does it', no problems, you can play a file back or stream something from the internet and it just works.  DTS audio works fine, no sudden 'freezes' requiring the power to be pulled and restarted, it just does what it should do.  It connects to my home wireless network immediately.

The cheaper the box, the more temperamental it can be.  With the Nvidia, it just does it all.

I have a wonderful Harmony Remote Control for all our electronic media devices.  So instead of a remote for the TV, the tuner amplifier, the Pay TV, the DVD player and anything else, you have only one remote control.  It took a bit of setting up but to watch Pay TV you press the "Pay TV" button, it turns on the TV, then the Pay TV, it turns on the Tuner/Amp and sets it to the correct 'source' and there it comes on, ready to watch.

The Harmony is Infra Red (IR), that means you point the remote at the media area and it sends out signals to turn things on.  The Nvidia doesn't have an IR receiver, it uses Bluetooth.  With the 'other' android boxes I was able to attach a wireless keyboard and its small USB receiver.  The Nvidia will work this way if I want it to.

Therefore the Harmony Remote won't fully work with the new TV box.  But I can still press "Play Nvidia" and the TV turns on, goes to the correct source and the tuner/amp turns on and goes to the correct source.   The volume is still controlled via the tuner/amp (and the Harmony) but for the rest I use the Nvidia's "Mini Remote".

At this stage I am very happy with the purchase and delighted with the way it works.  Trish and I are both great TV watchers so to buy this unit is seen as a worthwhile because it just 'works'.

And if something is not working or there is a problem, you know the Nvidia company will send out an update to fix any niggling little issues with a firmware update.  That is what you pay for!

Some Relief

I will admit with all the concrete, pavers and rocks in our backyard and absolutely no grass tends to ensure the backyard temperature is a little higher than what it actually is. So this reading of over 40° was a slight exaggeration at a little after midday on Saturday.  The cooler inside temperature seen in the lower section is from our loungeroom with the air con going!

The 44% humidity is relatively low for this part of the world.  Then soon after a cool change began to roll in and by 9pm the temp was down to 25° but the humidity was up to almost 70%.  There were 8mls of rain in the rain gauge and all the windows and doors had been flung open and the air con switched off.

As you can imagine it still remained warm indoors after the lengthy period of above average heat and accompanying humidity the last week or so has offered.

Today will get to around 30° with a cooler south easterly blowing in off the sea.  The ceiling fans will adequately cope with any warmth there may be and the house will remain open all day giving it another chance to cool down.  It will be like this for the next week or so.

However I can truly say any discomfort from the heat we may have had to endure over the last week was nothing to what we experienced in Saudi Arabia or Dubai last year!

Not a lot has been happening.  I had computer club yesterday (Saturday) and was kept busy.  We have some extremely smart computer people at the club and there continue to be times when I just have no idea on how to solve a problem but I know that someone there with much more expertise than me is able to help.

With all the cricket and tennis on the TV, there is minimal time for movie or TV shows watching on the TV Box.  We have really enjoyed a couple of episodes of Richard Attenborough's documentary "The Earth II" when the chance permits.  It is due to play on Free To Air TV here in a few weeks but is available everywhere on line.  There is some spectacular scenery.

We also have the pleasure of enjoying it all without any advertising.

My new Nvidia Shield TV box I have ordered from the U.S. has landed in Australia according to the tracking information.  It is to be handed over to Australia Post for delivery.  So it takes almost a week to get from the US to here, then another week to get from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast!

I also have a new phone on the way, one I ordered from China.  It went from China to Geneva.  The last I heard was that it had left Geneva about 5 days ago.  I have no idea where it is at the moment.  I bought it using Paypal so I know I have some protection should the parcel go astray.

So I have the following items to be delivered sometime over the next week or so.  Button batteries I need to charge up the front door bell, a cover and screen saver for the new phone, the new phone itself, my Nvidia Shield media player and an all in one controller for android TV boxes.  Now you know why I keep my ears open for the postie or I need the front doorbell working well in case there is a parcel delivery!

On top of this there is a very minor problem with my LazyBoy recliner chair.  There is a 10 year warranty on it so it will be fixed under warranty.  I have a couple of people to catch up with in regard to their TV Boxes and we are having the mob around for Australia Day celebrations on Thursday.

I did get a new brew on late last week as well so this week will see the compulsory bottle washing and bottling.  For this brew I will use larger 1.25 bottles which makes bottle washing and bottling much less of a chore!

A busy week is in store. 

It's On Its Way Back!

The hot weather that is!  As the photo of the weather station shows, it is getting quite warm out there at around 11 am..  Fortunately the humidity reading outdoors is close to 40% giving us what feels like a cooler day than we experienced over the last weekend.  Last weekend we had 36° but a humidity reading of around 70%.  Well it doesn't "feel" quite so hot anyway!

As the sun moves to the west later today it will then begin to shine on the back of the house and the living area.  The air con is about to go on thus keeping that end of the house reasonably OK despite the afternoon sun.

As the Oscars get closer, pirate versions of Oscar Favorites begin to appear.  So far we have watched the fancied "Arrival", "La La Land" and the less fancied "Hidden Figures".  We managed 20 minutes of La La Land before I found the delete button.  We watched all of "Arrivals" last night and neither of us is really sure what it was about.

"Hidden Figures" is one of the less fancied movies but in our opinion, it is streets ahead of  the other two above.

"Hacksaw Ridge" is all over the internet today and I still have "Fences", Hell or High Water" or "Moonlight" to watch.  Watching movies is a tough ask when there is cricket, or tennis or highly fancied UK crime dramas all lined up to watch as well.

The new Nvidia Shield is on it way.  Tracking indicates it has been posted, collected by the "Carrier" and is being delivered to a freight facility in Edison NJ ready for its flight to Australia.  I have prepared a spot for it pride of place on the TV cabinet!

My phone I ordered from China first went to Geneva in Switzerland before being sent on to Australia.  Tracking info on that one it that it has departed Switzerland again.  This was a few days ago and there hasn't been an update for some time.

But patience is a virtue!

Brief Respite

In the 15 or so years we have lived in this part of the world it sure has been the hottest for an extended period of time that we have known.  There would be years when the air conditioner is used once or twice per summer.  Recently it has been on for 5 days in a row!  It has been going on at around midday then off about 8pm at night.  Hopefully the solar panels have been absorbing some of the power costs.

The gorgeous afternoon sea breeze has disappeared, swamped by warmer northerlies.  Overnights have been in the mid 20's with high humidity.  Yesterday the wind direction changed giving us a cooler day with lower humidity.  Last night was a comfortable 23° but the hot and very humid weather is expected to resume in a day or so!

The pool is a place to get wet and relax, not to cool off!

My online selling has been successful.  I got $40 for my WDTV which I haven't used for over 12 months and a friend paid me generously for the cheaper Android TV Box I had.  I have recouped almost $100 from the two sales which makes the expensive new box a lot more affordable.

The newly purchased Nvidia Shield TV box was posted from the US on Sunday and is expected here in around 2 weeks.  All online reviews on it have been exceptionally complimentary.

Sport on TV has seen the cricket give way to the Australian Open tennis so there is plenty of sport to watch.

As the academy Awards get closer leaks of movies nominated for awards get released.  We started to watch La La Land but turned it off.  Hidden Figures was different, it was a great movie enjoyed by all.  We still have "Arrival" to watch and a couple of others as well.

Many of the UK detective mysteries have returned so downloading is forging ahead at an alarming rate.

The Jazz goes back for a couple of minor 'under warranty' issues this morning.  With the heat the pool requires a close eye on the water level.  Evaporation rates are amazing!  I continue to get my 12 or so km bike rides in most mornings and home brew ensures my fluid intake is acceptable.  The Waeco just outside the back door is an oasis of cold during this weather.

So life just wanders along, albeit quite hot! The air con and the nightly pre bed swims however ensure we can cope OK.

It Has Been Hot!

If you watched any of the International One Day Cricket Match Australia Vs Pakistan on TV yesterday you will get an idea of just how hot it has been here in S.E.
Queensland.  The three or four extra degrees and the high humidity have combined to create a situation where if you are outside and involved in any activity you will get hot!

But if you can sit quietly inside with the fan going you will survive OK.

The last couple of days we have had the air-con on since around midday, it is set to 26° and with the ceiling fan whirring away it is quite comfortable inside watching the TV.

But get outside and do some jobs around the house you will soon be perspiring madly and extremely hot and bothered and will begin to feel unwell.  Frequent glasses of water is a must do as well.

It is certainly much cooler still than what we experienced with Kate and Arj in Saudi and later in Dubai!

So we take it easy, use the pool a bit, but even it gets into the low 30's during the afternoon.  It is the sort of heat where you can feel the sun burning you if you stand in it for any time.

The mornings up until around 8:30 am are the best times to do things.  This time of year if bike riding I set off well before 7 am to escape the heat.

We can expect a short escape from the heat in a day or so.  The way it works around here is the humidity builds up until everything is cleared out buy a cooling thunderstorm.

Luckily there is heaps of sport on the TV and our Lazy Boy recliners get a good workout.  Those chairs though expensive are absolutely marvelous and so comfortable!

Of course the odd home brew or two doesn't go astray either!

A "Heat Wave"

The phrase "a heat wave" has a very different connotation in this part of the world compared to when we lived in Melbourne.  The forecasters are predicting a 'heat wave' for south east Queensland over the next couple of days.  What it means here is that instead of the top temperature being 30 or 31 it will be 34 or 35!

Overnight it will be a low of no more than 25° instead of the normal 22 or 23!

It also means the sea breeze may not come in until mid afternoon rather than soon after lunch when it usually arrives!  It means the pool water could get to 31° later in the day rather than the usual 29°.

If it is a 'severe heatwave' it means we have a north westerly all day, no afternoon sea breeze and a top temperature of over 37°!  Most times this severe heatwave means lower humidity so it isn't all bad. We may get one or two of these each summer.

I have had a fair bit of dental work the last couple of years, it seems all those years of not needing the dentist are beginning to catch up with me.  And it usually means that as a broken filling is replaced and I tend to use that section of my mouth again for chewing, other older nearby fillings get placed under some stress and some tend to fail as well.

As usual on our recent trip down to Melbourne I have again lost a filling!  I have the dentist today to replace it.  It will hurt in two places, my mouth after the drill and in our bank balance!

I have had but one faint nibble on the WDTV I have for sale on Gumtree which has been a little disappointing but not surprising.  It really is 'old technology' and is not really suitable for playback of the most recent of file types.

The less expensive of my android TV boxes has found its way to a mate's place where he is putting his toe into the water in relation to these devices and going though a substantial learning curve as he learns to use it.

I bottled a brew yesterday.  I use 750ml bottles which have been specially designed for home brewers.  I usually need 30 of these bottles per brew.  This entails washing 30 bottles, sanitizing 30 bottles and then filling and labelling 30 bottles.  If I use empty 1.25 litre Pepsi Max (or similar) bottles instead, I need to wash, sanitize fill and label only 17 bottles.

It is quite surprising how much quicker this is, doing 17 large bottles in place of 30 smaller bottles.

The 1.25 litre size is roughly the equivalent to three stubbies.  That is a stubby with my lunch, one later during the afternoon and a final stubby with my evening meal.  I will retire some of my older 750ml bottles and put them into storage in favour of using a lot more of the recycled 1.25ml size!

We have our 'drinks afternoon' on again today.  We have to travel to today's venue which is a real pain.  It means leaving a car there as we Uber it home, then back the next day to collect the car from the previous day.  But drinks with friends will more than compensate for the need to travel.  After all travelling only once every four get togethers isn't so bad.

I have been back on the bike again and did around 13k's this morning.  The swim in the pool afterwards is best described as 'magnificent'!

Sunday, We've Been Back a Week!

Usually I am into online buying stuff but today I have been into the other side of the coin, online selling!

I am a huge fan of Android TV Boxes and have two sitting at my place beside the TV at the moment.  And the old WDTV Streaming media player has been there as well.  My 'go to entertainment box' is back to the Minix android TV box which I have had for around 12 months or so.

Technology has caught me out a little with the Minix and the manufacturer is experiencing problems upgrading the firmware so it can take Android 5.  This means that right now the Minix I have is kind of in limbo as they try their best to upgrade the box but without the support of the manufacturer of the 'chip' that runs the box.

It still plays 99% of all the available files and unlike many less expensive boxes, it handles DTS audio without a hassle.  It works fine right now but eventually may be caught out.

The "Rolls Royce" of Android Media boxes is the $300 "Nvidia Shield" of which there has just been a release of the latest model.  It is touted to be 3x more powerful than any other box of its kind!  They will be released on January 16th and I can expect delivery of mine before the end of January from Amazon in the USA.  Yes I have lashed out and ordered one!  I am told I will not be disappointed!

It has Android 7 and has Google Speak.  So you speak into the remote after turning the box on, e.g. "Launch Kodi" and then Kodi begins to start up!  No button pushing, just give the command.

So my need for the old WDTV and my two other android TV boxes soon will no longer exist.  The WDTV went on the local online selling website Gumtree today, I am lending the $50 model Sunvell to someone so they can try it out tomorrow and the Minix will be available to buy again via Gumtree upon my receipt of the new Nvidia Shield in around 3 week's time.

If I can recoup $150 overall from sales of what I no longer require, it goes towards paying for the newest toy!

That's my Gumtree advert photo above!

Unlike many parts of this land, the weather up our way has been a little cooler than the southern states.  Most days we get the odd shower or two but it usually fines up to around 30°.  We had a wet day and a cool top of around 26° dropping the pool temperature by around 5°.  It is approaching 28° in the pool today though.

The Test cricket has finished on TV, my latest brew has a day or two to go and the bottles are now clean and sanitized.  The Waeco situated beside the back door is full of cool drinks and working perfectly.

I have managed a bike ride or two between the showers or bottle washing as well.

I have had two call outs today to assist people with electrical setups or computer hassles.  One chap is an English Premier League soccer fan and has had to switch to Optus to get EPL access.  I helped him set up his Optus Fetch TV box this morning and did some work on his PC.

Another couple had lost the sound on their laptop and that just required really 'un-ticking' the "Off" button!  But all are now happy campers with things working as they should.  I was given a couple of bottles of wine as thanks from one guy!

Recently we watched a movie called "The Accountant" which we found to be great.  Keep your eye out for it.  UK TV has seen the return of numerous British detective series and we are again enjoying the latest episodes of Midsomer Murders, Silent Witness, Endeavour, Death In Paradise and Father Brown.  This along with several new shows like "Unforgotten" and "Taboo" have meant downloading and storing away TV shows has been flat out.

Throw in the occasional great movie and our TV watching is going along well.  Somehow over the next couple of weeks we will have to fit in the Australian Open Tennis, One Day International Cricket matches as well as "The Big Bash" T20 cricket!

Busy, busy, busy!

A Happy New Year To All

We are back at home again on the Sunshine Coast after almost three weeks away with family and friends in Melbourne.  It was a great time away catching up with everyone but it is nice to be home again in our own bed!

We left our hotel in Glen Waverley where we spent 4 days eating at local restaurants and enjoying dumplings (as per the photo) and many other Asian dishes.  Internet at the hotel was amazing with speeds double what I get here at home.  At times it was up to 40MB/sec.

It was great to catch up with Kate, Arj and the grandchildren James and Charli at the next stop.  Thanks heavens for Kate's evaporative cooling because Melbourne's weather was at its unpredictable best.  The photo below shows what greeted me upon arrival at the 3rd day of the Melbourne Cricket Test against Pakistan.  It was showery, overcast and the start of play was delayed by rain.

As I hustled off to catch the train home later the same day it was around 37° under a blazing sun and stinking hot.  Such is Melbourne!

Christmas Day was spent with Arj's family but this time it was a lunch.  The Sri Lankan curries were fantastic and so tasty.  However the 36° outside made it yet another hot day.

We spent Boxing Day as usual with Barry, Rainy and friends at Drouin.  We remain good friends with them and had a lovely day down there where we stayed overnight.  The food, the drinks, the company were all just wonderful.

I also managed to catch up with ex colleague Gordon and his wife Anne.  Anne and I taught together in neighboring classrooms for more years than I care to remember so it was another special day.

And we got to Malaysia Garden Restaurant as well as our favorite Springvale Vietnamese eatery.  A couple of jars of their wonderful chilli Oil found their way into the Waeco to be brought back to the Sunshine Coast!

Regretfully I picked up some sort of a tummy complaint late in the trip which made for an uncomfortable night just before we were due to head off to stay with friends Eddie and Patsy.  I was quite washed out after the event the next day so we cancelled out of our two night stay there to begin the long drive home.

We have now learnt something about booking motels on line and what is meant by "Free Cancellation".  We spent a night at a motel in West Wyalong.  It was quite inexpensive and had all the mod cons we ever needed.  That night we booked at Goondiwindi for the next night, around 750k's away and just over the border into Queensland.

When we set off the next morning, the GPS said we would arrive there at 3pm, giving us around 3 hours to fill in before heading off somewhere to eat.  We could cover an extra 200k's in two hours in that time so we decided to exercise our "Free Cancellation" and book a little further along the way at Warwick.  A motel in Warwick was booked and then I rang the Goondiwindi Motel to 'cancel'.

We have learnt "Free Cancellation" does not apply on the day of the booking.  Anytime the previous day or so is no problem, but on the day itself it isn't an option.  So there we were with 2 bookings for the same night's accommodation!  We got to Warwick after it was 42° during the day and over 36° upon our arrival.  We failed to see the arrival of the New Year!

We arrived home the next mid morning the following day!  By midday we had unpacked, the pool had been cleaned and the air conditioner on.  It was a typical hot Sunshine Coast Day, around 33° with quite high humidity.

I was on my bike again yesterday (Monday) and we watched some tennis during the day.  The pool was 31.5°.  Today is overcast, sticky but we now have a cooler south easterly.  It is showery as well.

Things have gotten back to normal fairly quickly, a brew went on this morning and the Third Test from Sydney on TV is under two hours away!

My PC has updated, video files transferred across and things are slowly settling back to normal.