After Debbie's Remnants

The effect that the remnants of Cyclone Debbie had on our area of the Sunshine Coast has not been a problem for us or around Caloundra at all.  It saw us receive around 125mls of rain over a 24 hour period.  Though it is a lot of rain, for it to last out over 24 hours indicates the rain was steady rather than torrential.

This screenshot of the local weather radar was taken late Thursday afternoon. The arrow is Caloundra.

Rain can be localized on the Sunshine Coast especially around the hinterland areas where it can be hilly and subject to a higher rainfall.  Areas 70k's to the north of us experienced well over double the rainfall that we got here.

The wind did rise substantially for an hour or so from the north on Thursday night around 6:30pm.  The palms round about us were swaying and it would have been uncomfortable to be outside.

It is now Friday morning and the sky is crystal clear and there is a very strong wind, this time from the south.  Being from the south means it is cooler, something we have really been hanging out for.  It has blown away the terrible humidity which has been dogging this area over the last fortnight or so. For the first time in around 6 months, the back sliding door is closed to keep the cooler wind out.

A strong wind warning has been issued by the local Weather Bureau.

The main damage or clean up required is the pool which has quite a few palm spikes from next door's palms.  That won't get tidied up until the wind drops in the next day or so.

The eerie bit is that it appears the former eye of Cyclone Debbie, (now a deep low depression) passed right over us and that coincided with the strong winds from last night.

Debbie Comes To Town

The remnants of Cyclone Debbie have found their way to the Sunshine Coast.  The first of the rain arrived around 10pm on Wednesday with a huge flash of lightning and an enormous clap of thunder.  The power went off for long enough so that everything needed re setting!

The heavens opened and it rained solidly for an hour.  From then on until now (around 10am on Thursday) there have been intermittent heavy showers which are expected to go on throughout the day and into tomorrow.  There is around 65mls in the gauge as I type.

There is a little wind outside but nothing at all dangerous.  Just lots and lots of heavy showers rolling through.

We farewelled friends Janet and Mick from Newcastle yesterday after spending 4 nights with us.  It was great to catch up and compare notes on what we are involved with as far as our TV downloading and watching.  Mick has become an Apple convert and now has his Apple Computer and Apple TV.  The software available for his Apple PC and the method of sideloading on his TV box are a little different to what is available on the PC and Android Device.

We had many discussions and even more drinks.  Our evening meal at the local Miss Hoi Ann Vietnamese Restaurant was enjoyed by all as was an extremely pleasant afternoon at the Mets Club in town, it's the one which overlooks Caloundra's famous King's Beach.

We had a trip to recently updated "Mary Cairncross Reserve" which was just beautiful.

Our pool was a popular spot as well with hot and steamy weather throughout their stay.

Mick and I did a bike ride together and just had a great time enjoying each other's company.

Today we have had the window tinting replaced on our bedroom and the kitchen.  The original tinting was a cheap substitute but was done at the right price soon after we moved in.  It has served its purpose and it has now been replaced with a superior product which will hopefully reduce the heat which pours through the respective windows.

My SPMC program I have on my Nvidia Shield was playing up so I have re set it up.  It is currently working much better and slicker since re doing it.

I continue to work on my Android Box "How To" website.  A couple of pages still need finishing off but hopefully what I have done already is enough for people to get started on their own if they want to give it a go.  http://afterwdtv.blogspot.com.au/

I was looking forward to a an alcohol free day after Mick left yesterday morning but then Trish reminded me of our "Drinks" night that evening with friends.  At the time I really wasn't looking forward to it but as usual that all changed after I had had a couple.

It was so still and stinking hot and humid around at Raelene and John's place during drinks.  There wasn't a breeze and it was stifling hot.

We headed home around 9pm, and soon after Debbie rolled into town!

To Ride Or Not?

Following the deluge overnight into Sunday, the decision to ride or not has usually turned out to be 'not to ride' over the last few days.  The photo shows the view looking out to over the sea where the current rain is trending from around 7 am this morning.

It is no fun to be caught in a sudden squall or ride on pathways where two inches of rain fell last night.  There aren't things called 'mudguards' on bikes any more so riding in damp conditions isn't much fun with water spraying everywhere.

One morning it did fine up a little and I got out for an hour or so later in the morning and did over 20k's.

In the morning I look out at the road and it appears dry-ish, I check out the back yard and all around the pool is still wet.  There is a stream of water flowing through the pergola at the back heading to the stormwater drain and the sky looks like the photo.  I then tend to think that today riding isn't a great idea.

The lawn needs a mow but there is no way it will be dry enough to do.

With all the rain (around 6" this week) the pool fills and overflows into the stormwater taking some of the salt with it.  I put a couple of 20kg bags of salt into the pool yesterday to make up for a hot summer's use and the recent loss to the storm water outfall.

We used Trish's Club Birthday vouchers last night and went with friends to a local Club for a meal.  It was a case of don't worry about the quality, feel the width.  The meal was sizeable but a little overcooked.  Several schooners helped wash it down though!  It was an enjoyable evening.

EBay has sparked up with several overdue deliveries coming through.  I got some new ear bud head phones at around half RRP.  My cheap (and no longer on 'special') $8 backup watch arrived.  I had broken the pin which holds the watch band in place on my original cheap $6 watch.  A replacement pin had cost $6!

Eventually the 'overseas plugs' power board has arrived.  It works great and it means I can plug my two units with overseas plugs easily and safely into the power board and not worry about adapters.  Arj had bought something like it when in Saudi and I had been keeping my eye open for something similar.

Trish is waiting for some Bluetooth headphones to arrive so she can listen to stuff on her tablet.  Hopefully they will arrive today.

Yesterday we sorted our final accommodation requirements for our upcoming trip to Beau and Jess's wedding in Bali.  We are staying with the whole group for the first 3 nights, then another 3 nights near the wedding venue to the south of Bali, and for our final 8 nights we have booked the Hotel Horison in Seminyak.

We found this one online and Jess who knows Seminyak well said it was a great choice.  Click here:  http://www.horisonseminyak.com/ At $60 a night with breakfast included it seemed a great deal. It is close to the beach  and to shopping areas.  We head off in around 4 weeks time.

Friends Janet and Mick from Newcastle arrive Saturday after lunch and we look forward to catching up and having a great time.  I suggest alcohol and fine eating will be involved.  Mick enjoys his cricket and with the 4th Test beginning on Saturday (as well as round 1 of the AFL season) we should have plenty to keep us occupied.

We Wanted Rain Didn't We!

Both Friday and Saturday had been steamy and hot but did not yield any significant rain.  A possible storm was in the forecast but was more likely to be on Brisbane's southside, not 100k's north where we live.

I was busy watching the Test cricket from India on our satellite PayTV.  It was a gripping match and I was fully involved when the first wave of rain came through just as we were eating our evening meal.  Around 20 minutes later we had had 16mls dumped on us and that seemed to be it.

When checking the weather radar the Sunshine Coast was clear except for a small storm cell not far from us. It was all the good colors, red, yellow and black but quite small in size. 

Then the PayTV Error message (photo above) appeared in the midst of my cricket match viewing even before the rain started just before 8pm. It was a sign of what was to come.  The satellite TV signal was being blocked by heavy storm clouds!  And it stayed that way for the next hour as the small but colorful blob on the weather radar settled itself on Caloundra.

The rain pelted down, the pool began to overflow and the backyard to flood.  Windows were hastily closed, towels were out to mop any spills. You had to leave doors open or you would have cooked in the steamy conditions.  It was amazing, it seemed the rest of the Sunshine Coast was almost totally clear of any bad weather except for the storm cell right above us.

I reverted to watching a live stream of the cricket on my tablet as the photo above shows.  The lightning flashed and the thunder thunder cracked about us.  I swear there was an almost instantaneous lightning flash and thunder crash right outside the back door!

By 9pm the rain eased and I saw we had had a total of 117mls (or almost 5") in the rain gauge.  By this morning it had eased out to 121.5mls.  Around 25k's to the north of us, Sunshine Coast Airport received less than 4mm during the same 24 hours!

A couple of messy small showers passed through this morning putting any bike riding off and by the look of the backyard and the pool, there was some tidying up for me to do!

It's all done now and beginning to dry out.

Computer Club on Saturday was good with the usual photographs and email problems.  But everyone seemed content at the end of it all.

With cricket on TV again today and with the Aussie Rules footy beginning this week we get the feeling cooler times are not far away.

Our friends Mick and Janet from Newcastle are visiting next weekend and staying for 4 nights.  I fear alcohol will be involved along with eating out, and chatting.  Mick is keen on his techno stuff so we will have plenty to chat about.

I get asked lots of questions about android TV boxes so I have decided to put a small website up with some basic info and plenty of links for anyone just beginning to get involved.  It is a work in progress right now.  (CLICK HERE)

Tuesday

Again, things cruise along pretty comfortably (but still a little warm) for us here on the Sunshine Coast.  The weather has returned to bloody warm with over night temperatures back to 22's and 23's and over 30 as a top during the day.  We have just about had enough of the heat here in Caloundra as has all of Queensland.  Almost 87% of this state is now declared "drought affected".

That 'could' change with stormy skies outside as I type but it will be hit and miss.  Hit and you will get a good drenching with rain, miss and you won't get a drop!

It is belting down in Brisbane but only cloudy here on the Sunshine Coast.  The pool requires a top up and the lawn has all but lost its greenness from a storm a week or so ago.  So 50mls of rain wouldn't go astray.

The new glasses continue great and bike riding still happens almost every day.  I still aim for between 60 and 65 k's per week.  This is about 5 lots of 12.5k's.  Last week I did in excess of 100k's,  I managed over 26k's one day but that nearly killed me!

I do have a bottle washing and a home brew bottling lined up for later this week.

As our trip to Bali and Beau and Jess' wedding from around mid April to early May gets closer we are beginning to plan stuff out a bit more.  We will have the best part of the final week on our own as others fly back to Melbourne.  We have accommodation sorted for the first week there and we are beginning to look at the final week.  My sister will be in Bali for a couple of those days so we still need to confirm what she wants to do.

It sounds like it is trying to rain outside but we can only cross our fingers we get a decent drop!  I just grabbed a photo for the blog and rain is looking pretty good!

And finally, this phone I bought from China, a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (and comes with excellent reviews) is really great.  Not bad for under $250 delivered!  I am still waiting for several items I have bought online.  The stuff from overseas seems to take an eternity to get delivered.  It seems to get to Australia OK and quickly enough but then can take heaps of time to get delivered here.

We have the test cricket back on TV as of Thursday so my watching duties over the next days are sorted nicely!

I Can See Clearly Now .....

You really don't fully appreciate what a new pair of glasses does for your sight until you get them.  It is then you appreciate that perhaps you really did need to get them done.  I felt my sight was OK with the old glasses, that was until I picked up my new ones yesterday.

It has been an 'as you go' week.  Nothing particularly outstanding or really worth adding a special post for.

Trish's birthday came and went.  We aren't into gift swapping any more, if we want something nowadays we just go ahead and buy it.  Our Vietnamese meal with just the two of us on Wednesday was really nice.  Lemongrass Beef and Fried Noodles with Chilli and Chicken were both great.  The Vietnamese fried rice was pretty good too.  There were even enough leftovers to enjoy the next day.

Very early in January I ordered a mini keyboard as in the photo above.  They are handy and lightweight to use especially with an Android TV Box.  The mini keyboard gives you access to the "A" key, that's they key you need to adjust any Audio Sync Issues in Kodi.  A few quick taps and lips and words are back in sync again.

The Nvidia Shield box controls don't have a keyboard but there is another more roundabout way to adjust the sync. But the keyboard above is a very handy and lightweight addition and works via a receiver on the Nvidia Shield.

Delivery was expected by late January, but it never arrived.  I contacted the shop in China and they said don't worry, we will send you another one.  This time I paid $5 extra for faster and special delivery.  It arrived in a week or so and is in use as per the photo above.

On Wednesday this week the postman knocks on the door looking for Lee Thomas!  The parcel had been in the system and knocked and rolled around for two months so the print on the address label was wearing and hard to read!  So after 2 months the original mini keyboard arrived!  Now what should I do with it?  At $13 we are talking about big dollars aren't we?

I still have a couple of other parcels due to arrive.  One parcel is around a week or so overdue but should turn up in due course.

A brew went on this morning so we will have bottle washing and bottling duties later next week.

Sport has been fantastic on TV with the Aussie Rules getting into swing.  There was Test Cricket (and what a game) from India and even New Zealand Vs South Africa is live on Pay TV!

Kim is currently in Vung Tau in Vietnam enjoying her authentic Vietnamese food and the sights of South Vietnam.

I had a Public meeting to chair on Monday followed by a lengthy website update and finalization of the Association's Newsletter.  It is now ready for printing next week.

My Android TV Box keeps me occupied with keeping it up to date as well.

It is beginning to cool off with the occasional overnight temp now in the high teens.  It remains 30 or more most days but it is certainly cooler overnight.  This is reflected in the pool's morning temp of around 24.5°.  I have totaled over 100k's with my bike riding for the week.

New fantastic bike pathways (called veloways) have been completed across areas of the estate and link into the new development to the south where eventually there will be over 200k's of dedicated bike tracks.  Using the veloway is like using a freeway for bikes.  It certainly makes having a bike ride easier and safer for all.

So life continues to roll on as per usual.

Friday Update

Sorry but again this will be mainly about the weather and few other things I think of along the way.

It remains around 30° as a maximum everyday and with hardly a cloud in the sky.  The sky is a glorious blue but now the prevailing wind is a little cooler being from the east or south east.  The normal north easterly cooling sea breeze blows in daily again from around lunchtime.

They forecast possible showers overnight and then predict 1 to 5mm, enough to dampen the earth.  But the last two nights there is a rumble in the air around 9:30pm.  For interest's sake you check out the radar app on your phone and there appears to be a line of light showers coming through.  As the showers hit the coast they suddenly begin to change color, turning red, yellow and black, the colors that indicate heavy rain.

And down it comes, almost in sheets.  You get up and rush to close windows and doors and the rain just pelts down!  It is just what we need and as the atmosphere cools the ceiling fan goes from Hi to Lo and you begin to feel just a little cooler!

In the morning the roads are still a little damp and you check the rain gauge to see just how much you got.  This morning there were 35mls in the gauge, yesterday 44mls!  That is a little over 3" of rain in the old scale altogether.

The pool is full, the garden is flourishing and the rock hard front lawn is showing signs of softening just a little.  But another 150mls would be perfect!

Yesterday we drove back up to Headland Golf Club for lunch which was just beautiful.  The golf course itself looks a little the worse for wear following the lack of rain as the photo above shows.  This is the view from where we enjoyed our meal!  Not a bad for photo for a$200+ phone.

The clicking noise in the bike has been fixed.  It turned out to be the bearings in one of the pedals.  So the two pedals were replaced and all is good again.  I ride most mornings still and I am getting heaps of kilometres under the belt.

I bottled on Monday, replenishing my supplies of beer.  I was given another 1.125l bottle of alcohol on Saturday so my supplies of Bourbon have been replenished!

The cricket from India is back on again on TV tomorrow which is good.  The pool is a great 26° in the morning and closes out around 30° late afternoon.  My new Xiaomi Note 3 is just amazing value for the money spent.  I am very happy with it!

Our daughter Kim is currently in Vietnam and we get photos daily via Facebook.

And that's about it.  I could go on and bore you about my continued adventures with Kodi and SPMC, two Android TV Box addons I learn more about each day.  They are unbelievable.

I have been told more than once by people I have helped setup boxes, "Why don't more people do this?"

My answer is I don't know!  I guess to each his own, for some people it is incredible, to others just a distraction!  I am firmly in the 'former's court"!