That's It 'Til Next Season

The AFL season has now come and gone with the Grand Final played yesterday and The Eagles coming out on top in a tightly fought match in Melbourne.

My attention had been drawn to Cricket anyway with the departure of my team from the Finals race early in the procedure.  With PayTV now having rights to most matches we can enjoy many of them on the PayTV platform.  Those we can't access on PayTV we can enjoy via the Cricket Australia app which has been incorporated as a Kodi Addon.

Grand Final day meant an earlier than usual departure from the Computer Club to get home to plant myself near or in front of the TV to keep up with the Grand Final happenings.  The Home Brew went down very well and brought back memories of previous Grand Finals I had attended with mates back when we lived in Melbourne. A few cold beers was a major feature of those great days.

Around 8pm last night a row of thunderstorms rolled across the Sunshine Coast with a display of lightning and some serious thunderclaps.  Despite the grandeur of the show, we were left with just 1.5mls of rain.  This morning we still have the odd clap of thunder and we do have a very strong wind blowing.

This means a hold on bike riding for today with possible storms and windy weather.  I have recovered from a puncture the other day when I was about to set out on a ride and saw the front tyre was as flat as.  Nowadays you don't really repair a puncture, you just put in a new tube.  At around $6 for new tube, it is a genuine easy way to overcome a puncture.

My newer hearing aid started playing up yesterday so it will go in for repair.  With the Monday coming being a holiday, it probably means I will have hearing hassles for the week and beyond next weekend.  This is a pain!

The pool is up to the low 20's nowadays with the nights warming up considerably.  Mid to high teens are the current overnight minimums.  I had a quick swim on Thursday following a haircut given to me by Trish in the afternoon.  I swam up and back a couple of times but that was enough in the 21° water.

Our visitors have now arrived safely back in Newcastle with the caravan all sorted.  It was great having them here and I suggest they are delighted with their new acquisition.

The new computer is running beautifully.  My only regret is the lack of USB ports but I now have a couple of USB hubs along with 2 usb extension cables giving me ample access.  The given to me laptop is working great as well despite a low to mid powered processor and a sticky keyboard.  Both shortcomings are more than compensated by the extra 4GB of ram it has and the incredibly cheap $15 Logitech keyboard from the Dick Smith fire sale which works perfectly.

The old laptop has become a great backup to have 'just in case'. Also it is the perfect thing to take to Computer Club so I can actually now show people on my machine how to do things.

And my latest computer acquisition is a 2 year subscription for a VPN a Virtual Private Network.  More and more I am landing on websites to which the Australian Government has closed.  In Australia you are unable to access some websites, usually websites which access illegal downloads.  Your internet address supplied by your ISP tells anyone online which country you are in which allows the government to block certain addresses.

However when you connect to a VPN it re routes your internet address through to its servers which it has scattered across the world.  You can pick and choose which country you want to be connected to the internet through.  These countries do not have the same laws as in Australia so you can access all internet sites.

The downside is that your connection via those countries can be markedly slower.  I joined a VPN service yesterday and tried half a dozen or so countries.  Many are painfully slow but I found Brazil OK and Taiwan was marginally slower than my Aussie connection.

You can add your VPN to an android TV box as well via an app and 'pretend' it is connected via Taiwan.  The TV box can then look for stuff to play for you, unencumbered by government restrictions to banned websites.  The VPN is turned on and off from your android app or via your PC.  I can use the VPN service on up to 5 devices.

It seems pretty nifty and at about $1-50 per week, a handy service to have.

So that is about all of our news.  Our next getting away is later this week when we have three nights on Fraser Island.  There is a possibility we will be there at the same time as Harry and Meghan.  We have nights there as well as a full day bus tour planned.  It should be fun.

We are both well and getting on with things OK. The Arts centre Association keeps Trish busy and enjoying the company of many friends there.  Right now, life is pretty good!