It's Monday and It's Cool!

It is around 30° today with a lovely cool southerly blowing all the way through the house.  The doors and windows are wide open and the curtains are blowing in the breeze.  There have been some storm clouds around as well but we haven't received anything substantial yet apart from the very odd shower.

I picked the bike up late on Thursday and it was no better than when I left it to be repaired.  It seems the noise is only bad when the bike is under some sort of load and being ridden.  So to have it on a stand and turn the pedals isn't going to recreate the problem.  It will be fixed on the spot this time and is booked in for Wednesday at 11 am.  The guy said it is probably a bearing and will require new parts to fix it properly.

We have had the lifting mould replaced on the car.   They fitted it at no charge and we paid $85 for the part.  I still believe we were ripped off.

My mini-keyboard arrived today from China.  It is absolutely ideal for what I want to use it for.  This is the item which 'went missing' previously and I received a refund for it.  It works perfectly on the Nvidia Shield.  I continue to be absolutely delighted with the Shield.  Last night we watched "Fences" starring Denzil Washington.  As it turned out the copy I had downloaded was quite grainy so we streamed a perfect 1080p copy instead via the Nvidia Shield.  It worked perfectly! (1080p is High Definition).

The Test Cricket on telly from India was awesome.  Awesome is a word I don't like to use but the effort by the Aussies in this match can only be described as awesome!

This morning I bottled my most recent brew.  I cleaned up and was just about to head off on an abbreviated bike ride when there was a 5 minute downpour, enough to make everything wet and sloppy.  This was enough for me to cancel the ride altogether!

On Saturday afternoon we took a free tour of the new hospital just about to open here on the Sunny Coast.  It will be the largest hospital precinct in the southern hemisphere when it opens in a few weeks time.  It was great and we will be so lucky to have such a wonderful facility right on our doorstep!  They had demos of putting on casts and we were able to check out the wards as well.  70% of beds will be in single bed rooms.

One person on the tour described the hospital wards as a home away from home.  It has all the latest mod cons, free wi-fi, electronics to burn and huge waiting rooms and facilities.  It is tremendous.  I can hardly wait to get sick!  The new 'cheap' phone from china takes a reasonable photo too!

All Quiet, Just Waiting ......

I am still waiting for confirmation that the repair on my bike has been completed.  Evidently I just happened to pick the week when the Bike Repair section at our local Anaconda store was flat out with lots of builds and heaps of repairs.  But I should get it back later this afternoon, possibly it will be around 4pm during the lunch break in the first cricket test between India and Australia on Pay TV!

And we are waiting for decent rain as well.  The photo shows just how dry the place is.  No we don't water it, very few if any people water their lawns here.  In an effort to conserve water and to keep costs down, we water the pots in the backyard and occasionally top the pool up as required.  Today the pool required topping up.

But at last it is a little cooler.  It is still shorts and singlet weather for around the house and it can get quite warm for an extended time in the sun.  It was very warm the other day when I washed both cars.  The car we took to Melbourne was the worst with bugs, tar and insects stuck all over the front of it. Turps and elbow grease seemed to work as well.

My $6 'on special' watch from China has snapped a pin where the watch band is connected to the watch itself.  A new pin would fix it but for $8-50 I can get a whole new watch!  Why would you worry about replacing a pin?  The pin snapped when I caught the watch on the car when trying to load the bike into the boot.  It is a tight squeeze and I just clipped an edge on the boot just on my wrist, snapping the pin in the watch.

The cool weather is expected to hang around now.  It will remain around 30° most days and about 24° overnight, but this is somewhat cooler than what we have had.  As the photo shows, we are in desperate need of rain.  They are hopeful of a few regular showers sometime next week.

I did my 3 month ring to Foxtel our Pay TV provider yesterday.  If I ring and say I am going to disconnect the service, Foxtel will bend over backwards to keep you on as a paying customer.  The current deal they offer as a sweetener is 3 months only which means you need to ring up again to get the deal for another 3 months.  The offers they give depends on the package you currently have.  Of course you have to be out of contract to get any deal at all.

But we will now get our Sport, High Definition and Basic Pay TV package for around $35.  The usual price is closer to $65.  So over the year we save close to $350.  When you call to disconnect, you must say "Disconnections" at the voice prompt to ensure you are connected to the 'negotiating' team.  I just tell them I am a pensioner, things are getting tough and I need to cutback on my expenses so the Pay TV has to go.  I have been a customer for almost 20 years as well which helps with my bargaining.

Midweek

Sunday's "storm" yielded a slightly cooler change in the weather and a fraction over 5mls of rain.  A downpour it wasn't.  The rain was disappointing but the slightly cooler temperatures were very welcome.

Though only 6 months old, the bike has developed a click noise down in the pedal cranks.  I was hopeful of losing it for just one day when I put it in to the cycle workshop at the local Anaconda Store for repair. It should be under warranty and I was hoping (and I expected) to get it back later on today (Wednesday).  But this probably won't be the case.  Thursday afternoon at the latest I was promised.

So it is a day or two 'off the bike' for me.  As I put a brew on Monday today provided the perfect opportunity to bottle wash and sanitize this morning.  Approaching 8:30am that task has been completed.

As it was slightly cooler we decided on a walk along Kings Beach on Monday afternoon.  Despite being a little cooler and mid February, we have decided it is still too hot to head off for a walk over a longer distance.  But as the photo above shows we did find a delightful spot at one of the local "Clubs" (of which we are members) to relax on the deck with cool drink in hand.

The new deck at "The Mets" is a new addition and overlooks Kings Beach and the sea water pool.  It was a very pleasant spot to spent an hour or so.

Last night (Tuesday) we decided to get some tea in town.  We finished up with Fish n Chips overlooking the Caloundra bar, a dangerous piece of water for fisherman to cross on their way out to the deep water.  There was a strong sea breeze blowing and I had the fore thought to take some drinks along as well.  It was a great spot and enjoyed very much.

Trish is off to Stitchers today which is her major Craft Group she goes to.  Chatting and laughing seems to be the major activity at Stitchers and this makes for a morning Trish loves very much.  Having made some wonderful friends there makes it even more enjoyable.

Last night we watched and enjoyed the movie "Patriots Day" the story of the Boston Marathon bombing.  It was extremely enjoyable, plenty of action and well put together.

A Hot Sunday

It is nudging 37° in the backyard just before lunch on Sunday.  There is a good chance of thunderstorms later in the day and hopefully a good drop of rain but we will have to wait and see.

Nowadays I try to do a longer bike ride on a Sunday.  I can then afford the odd 'bludge' day or two later in the week and do quite a few less k's but still maintain a good weekly total.  I managed almost 23k's this morning, not bad for a 71 year old!

The fixing of the rubber moulding on the car roof didn't pan out as well as would be expected.  I believe their response has not been reasonable but the outcome is we pay for the part (albeit at a reduced rate) and they will fit it.  But it is $90 I now have to spend because I didn't want to front up two days after I bought the car with a piffling minor problem to annoy them with, a piece of minor lifting rubber moulding!

Thanks to everyone who went to the trouble of contacting me (mainly via Facebook) to pass on their wishes to me for my recent birthday.  It was great and very much appreciated.

This bout of hot weather has only been for a couple of days and things are expected to cool off tomorrow again.  But it is the rain we desperately need.  Our front yard is steepish.  With the lack of rain the grass has died off and the ground has become rock hard.

We get a bit of a storm and the water just runs straight off it.  So we need bucket loads to soften the soil again and to get the grass to regrow.

The view in the photo is the view I get after beer o'clock up here.  I sit under the pergola, cool ale in hand and sit back and purvey my 'kingdom'.  It is extremely pleasant. The photo was taken by my new (and very expensive for me) $240 phone from China.  It is a Xiaomi Brand, one of China's top selling brands.  You can buy Xiaomi phones in Australia if you look hard enough.

Reviews by world wide reviewers give it an excellent report and describe it as great bang for your buck.  I am satisfied with it and especially love the 32GB storage and access to 4G.

I spent this morning re setting up my main go to "Kodi" program my new Android TV Box.  Previously I copied the main user files from one device to the next.  I have exactly the same version of Kodi (called SPMC) on my PC, my tablet and both my Android TV Boxes.  It is the same settings, everything.  You can just copy the major 320MB userfiles from one device to the other and it runs pretty well.

So now I should have a slimmer and more effective cleaned out version of SPMC on my devices.

Footy on TV this afternoon, T-20 Cricket on TV tonight and the air con humming away with a cold home brew in hand should take care of the rest of Sunday.

There is a UK TV Series called "Unforgotten" which played last year.  A second series of "Unforgotten" aired in the UK earlier this month.  If you like a good detective police series, keep your eye open for the 6 episode series 2 of "Unforgotten".

A Little More Like Normal

Nowadays a cool day in this part of the world means 'normal' summer temperatures.  The weather still remains to the forefront in our minds with above average temperatures prevailing day and night.  But last night (Monday) was a little more like back to normal.

It had been a stinker of a day and there was a notable build up of clouds throughout the day.  Then around 6 pm the heavens didn't quite open up but there was rain, thunder and lightning.  We did get around 13mls or so which is a bit like a downpour lately.  Usually a downpour would be 50mls, not just 13!

After the storm there was a chill in the air, so much so we even turned the ceiling fan down to "Low", a place it hasn't been since September last year.  But it was so pleasant to have a cooler night.

On Sunday it got up to 40° in the backyard.  The air con went on around 11 am and went off after 10pm.  There weren't people out and about, everyone was locked up indoors out of the sun.

Monday I bottled and still managed over 9k's on the bike.  Today I managed another 16k's or so.  I arrived back home this morning just as a quick short and sharp shower of rain passed through.

Last week I bought a new office chair as the old one had split across the front of the seat.  I was after something comfortable and with reasonable quality.  Comfort though was the first priority.  But as it turned out the most comfortable chair was the lowest priced.

We now have an Ikea store around 40k's away and very near Costco. I bought the office chair from Ikea.

We have a minor hassle with the little Jazz.  A piece of trim which runs along either side of the roof was lifting from near the windscreen (photo above).  I noticed it a couple of days after we bought the car.  I was able to push it back into place but I would remember to have it attended to prior to the warranty period running out.

There were a couple of other very minor things which required attention so just prior to the end of the warranty period I took it back to the car dealer for attention.  The foreman told me that the lifting trim problem would not be covered under warranty (rubber items were not included in the car warranty) and that there was a clip from it missing.  He would try glue to re fix it.  If that didn't work it would be replaced with a new one but at my expense.

The glue didn't work and today the whole piece of trim lifted off the car and peeled back.

The car came with a money back no questions asked 7 day warranty.  The lifting trim problem would have been enough for me to return the car during the first 7 days as Honda parts are pretty expensive.  A couple of hundred dollars for a piece of trim and fitting would not have been an exaggeration.

So today it was back to the dealer and the salesman to sort something out.  I expect a call from him tomorrow.  It was indicated to us today that it shouldn't be a problem.

After Some Respite

After such a long hot and dry period, we have just experienced some milder weather and even some rain.  Not a tropical downpour like we would expect in this part of the world, but brief heavy showers lasting up to 5 minutes.  It would pour for a few minutes, then the sun would return and things would be back to normal.

But 6 or 8 of these heavy showers managed to yield 12mls one day and a further 10mls the next.  The wind has swung to the south east and the top temperatures have reflected that wind change and dropped a couple of degrees.  More importantly the nights have cooled that little more as well giving the house a chance to cool down overnight.

But the hot weather is back today and for the next couple of days before the South Easter re establishes itself Monday afternoon.  35° on Sunday doesn't sound too good but the air con will get a good work out and indoors will be the place to stay.

I attended a major new road opening on Wednesday as our estate continues to develop with new roads opening up and house building going on everywhere.  The Minister for Main Roads was there and he came up for a quick hello and a chat.  I managed a talk with his minders on the needs of the area but he was a busy man. I even managed a quick chat with the Mayor.

It was good fun networking and getting the needs of our community across to those in attendance.

But not a lot of other news.  The pond in the photo above is usually full of water but with the dry it is almost dried up.

The new phone works great and I am able to load it up with all the apps I want.  The camera is reasonable but serves the purpose for my needs.  The photo above was taken with it but tarted up using program on my PC.

I rode around 70ks this week which was good as I missed Wednesday's ride owing to the New Road opening. There is another great bike track along the new road, a ride I aiming to do tomorrow before it heats up too much.

I have bottle washed and all ready for a bottling, most likely Monday morning.  With 27° as an overnight minimum forecast for Sunday into Monday that could be a good idea instead of a bike ride.

So as you can see it is the same old ... same old!

It Remains Hot Here!

Usually this is the wettest time of the year.  You get your few hot days as the humidity builds and builds.  Then all hell breaks loose, the skies open up and the tropical rain just pours down.  Then the summer cycle begins again, hot, hotter hottest, the skies open up and everything cools down again with a storm!  But not this year.

The usual tropical rain cycle hasn't arrived at all this year and we are just getting hot, hotter and even bloody hotter.  There are just no thunderstorms to clear the atmosphere out and cool things down a little.  Brisbane experienced its hottest January night ever this year.  They say the sea water temperature is currently 26°.  The wet season further up north had been delayed by a month and has now arrived but is only effecting the very north of the state.

Most days it gets to 34° in the backyard, and usually it drops to around 23° overnight.  It is registering around 30° by 9 am!  It is like this every single day.  The front lawn has all but disappeared because of the lack of rain.  In January we had a little over 50mls (2") but 40 mls of that fell in the first week of the month.  Since then we have received virtually nothing and we still get the 34° every day and very warm overnight!

Most year's the air con gets used 2 or 3 times over summer and only on exceptionally hot days.  This year we have had very few exceptionally hot days but there has been no cooling off days either.  The air con goes on almost daily as the house just doesn't get a chance to cool down.  The cooler sea breeze has deserted us as the current sea temperature is so high!

Every 3 or 4 days it is necessary to top the pool up from the tap.  Without the regular thunderstorms to do the topping up 'naturally', the home water supply is needed to keep the pool at the right level

The occasional home brew and the pool are my first lines of defence against the consistent hot weather!  I still manage my daily bike ride and if anything I am riding further each week.  This morning I did 11k's and when I got back home I put a brew on.  Yesterday I just rode and did 20k's.

Any heavy chores need to be done by 9 am and wearing a hat is a necessity.  The swim before bed is now a nightly ritual.  This morning the pool was 28° and this afternoon it should get up to around 31°.

The new phone is great as is the Nvidia Shield TV box.  The international surge protected power board I bought in Melbourne at Christmas to plug my overseas devices into kept turning itself off so I have reverted to the 80c style power adapters you buy on eBay and a regular power board. The turn off hassles have disappeared!

There have been some great movies to watch recently.  Movies which have won big awards already have disappointed us.  La La Land was disappointing, Moonlight was dreadful but we really enjoyed Silence, Hidden figures and The Founder.  Lion was OK but nothing to write home about.  We still have a few more good titles to work our way through.

The photo above is from "The Founder".  The movie tells about how the MacDonald's chain of food stores was started up from the original MacDonald's to eventually a became a world wide sensation.

The two MacDonald brothers came up with the original concept but were not prepared to expand on the idea.  This other guy saw the potential in the original store and began the MacDonalds food store chain franchise as we it know today.  He became very rich, much richer than the original brothers who created the concept.

Its an interesting movie, one to put on your "Must See" list!

A Thursday Update

I usually begin with a weather report.  We are beginning to get sick of 33° days with 60%+ humidity.  Overnight it now is around 23° but this rises quickly once the sun comes up.  Our moderating afternoon sea breeze has deserted us and the air conditioner (even though it is set to 27°) is getting a fair bit of use.  The pool toggles between 28° and 32° from overnight to late afternoon.

Even the locals who have lived here all their lives are saying this is one of the hottest and driest summers they have ever known.

Despite the blinds across the back, the living area at home gets quite warm.  Thus the air con goes on around 4pm.  The late night swim and ceiling fans at least means we get a good night's sleep.

February is the month for my birthday and as a reward the local clubs of which we are a member send out some freebies.  Things like a discounted meal, a drink for free, $5 worth of pokies money are the sort of things you get.  So last night we had our tea using a set of freebies at the "Caloundra Mets Club".  This club is at the eastern end of the main King's Beach in Caloundra. As the photo shows it overlooks the beach.

The photo was taken with my new phone which I purchased from China.  It is a Xiaomi brand and is a lot dearer than what I usually pay for my phones from China.  This phone (a Redmi Note 3) gets rave reviews and is considered as great value at around $240 delivered.  It has 32GB of storage and 3GB of Ram.  It is compatible with all of Australia's mobile phone bands and works with any provider.  I now see the 4G sign in the notifications bar!

As with most new phones I spent a lot of time learning my way around it. I found a thing called "Talkback" which is a mode you can put a phone into for people who are blind and want to use the phone.  It speaks to you tells you what is on the screen. So a blind person won't accidentally swipe the screen, the swipe action is automatically turned off!

Foolishly "Talkback" got turned "on".  The swipe action across the screen was automatically disabled and no longer worked.  It was now impossible to navigate anywhere around the phone using the finger swipe motion.  A quick restart I hoped would clear it up.  After the restart there was the message "Swipe Up To Open".   But the swipe motion had been disabled.  Panic set in fairly quickly!

Eventually the internet came to the rescue.  I have never heard of doing a double tap and then a two finger swipe to get things moving.  After another 5 frustrating minutes or so and I was able to get into the phone's settings, find where "Accessibility" was hidden, and eventually turn Talkback 'off''.

Deep relief and several home brews soon followed!

Overall I am delighted with it, heaps of storage, heaps of ram, works fine, loud, excellent screen resolution and quite fast.  I see why it has the good reputation that it does.  Reviewers say it compares very favorably with phones well over double the price.  However, also as the reviewers say, the camera isn't anywhere near up to the standard of your top of the line models.

But I am delighted with it so far.

Watching the cricket from New Zealand on Pay TV will be the main focus of today along with the intermittent duck out into the pool for a swim.  I guess loading up the new phone with lots of apps will be on the cards as well.