New Year For New Car

Yesterday (Friday) Trish and I headed off to pick up the new car.  We believed the hail damage was around seven or so small dents on the roof and on one side.  At around $100 to repair each dent, we reckoned we would get it sorted sometime in 2020 for well under $1000.

So during the final sorting of signatures and payments, the car salesperson mentioned the small dents on the bonnet, dents we knew nothing about.  Our new car had been fully detailed and any even very small imperfections really stood out.  So over we went to where the car was waiting for us so we could have a closer look.

There would have been at least double the number of dents now easily seen on the polished finish. So at around $100 per dent for removal, the cost would have been doubled to what we had expected.

When sorting car insurance prior to picking it up we found some insurers would not touch the policy because of the hail damage.  Those that would cover it would not do 'new for new replacement', but they would only do 'market value'.

The car dealer quoted us $2,000 to remove all dents and then they would be legally be able to sell it to us as a new vehicle.  This would qualify us for new for new replacement, something we felt more comfortable about.

As we are about to head south to Melbourne, the new car would only be sitting in our garage.  Now we expect to collect our 'new' car early in 2020.

Even after paying the $2000 for dent repairs, we are still getting a $2,500 discount on a new car price.

Waiting, Waiting!

At the moment of writing, we continue to be the owners of 2 vehicles.  We would have expected the damaged Honda Jazz to be on the back of a tow truck by this time of the day but it stills sits out front waiting. It was due to be collected between 8:30am and 12:30pm today.

We've sorted things out and now just await notification from the local Honda dealer that our new car is ready to collect.  We suspect it will be around Wednesday but it may be later in the week.  Our insurers had arranged to have the Jazz collected today but we still haven't seen any sign of a tow truck.

The guy over the road has lost his older Prado to the wreckers as it was written off.  The guy next door does parcel deliveries for Australia Post and he is awaiting for the insurers to get back to him.  He seems to think the roof of his delivery van will need to be be replaced.

The photo above shows one of the supports at the front of his pergola of the guy next door.  When you click on the photo you get a bigger view and you can easily see how the hail has belted and marked the timber during the recent storm. You certainly would not have wanted to have been caught not under any cover during the storm.

A brew went on on Friday and I have been busy bottle washing today.  As it is now well and truly into summer the daily temperature (and humidity level) has risen substantially.  The pool was around 28° this morning first morning and we have had a couple of days around the mid 30's which is pretty hot in this part of the world.

It went at around 1:30pm

Decision Made, Deposit Paid

We have now purchased a new car, though slightly hail damaged.  It has a few dents which we feel we will have fixed during 2020 when the current rush (and higher prices) have subsided.

Eventually it came down to a 'top of the range' Honda Jazz' or a slightly hail damaged $3500+ reduced in price Honda HRV (but at the bottom of the range).  Though the HRV had fewer bells and whistles it drives perfectly, is brand new and a 2020 model.

We took the top of the range Honda Jazz for a test drive and were immediately impressed with the ride and comfort of the car.

We are now busily driving the old hail damaged Jazz to use all the fuel in it prior to informing Youi that they can have it and in return forward us the payout.  Most likely we will inform Youi on Monday for them to collect the Jazz that afternoon.  This allows a full 48 hours for the insurance money to come through.

We are not in  hurry to get the new car as we have the Sonata for around town driving.

As it turned out it was the Kona that eventually got the sale over the line.  As soon as we mentioned that we were also looking at a Kona to the Honda sales person, it raised the possiblity that a smaller SUV could suit our purposes.

So we set off for a second Test drive for the day, this time with a Honda HRV.

It was a line ball decision between the upmarket leather seats and all the bells and whistles of the Honda Jazz and the Honda HRV.  It was possibly that the SUV was a more versatile vehicle with extra room easily accommodating 5 passengers that tipped the decision its way.

It is a reddish orange color and should be a perfect fit for us.  Being a "Honda" and that it was at the same price to us as the Kona was a determining feature in our decision.

With massive savings available on slightly hail damaged vehicles, Caloundra Honda has sold around 200 damaged vehicles since the recent storm.

It's a "Write Off"

It seems it is around $100 per dent for the Dent Removal guy to pull a  dent out of a car's roof damaged by a hail storm.  As we had around 100 small dents on the roof of the Honda Jazz, that made the possible insurance bill close to $10,000.  And this is too expensive on a 10 year old car with a market value of $6,400.  We have a couple of weeks to make up our mind as to what we want to do now it has been declared a "Write off".

The tank is still half full of petrol so we continue to mull over what we will do and we continue to drive the car. But we think we will go for a marked upgrade in vehicle.  We were a little miffed over not buying a new car when we bought the Jazz so this time we will go for something new.

The Jazz had been great, cheap to run easy to park but it was 10 years old.  The air con kind of worked, there was no cruise control or other comforts you now get in a new car.

So today we went looking at new vehicles in the Honda, Hyundai and Toyota ranges.  Trish had expressed an interest in an SUV or something to flit about town in.  We also loved the Jazz so today we looked at a Demo upmarket Honda Jazz, (a marked improvement on what we had), a couple of cars in the Hyundai range, the i30 and the Kona.  And we looked at Toyota where we checked out an upmarket Yaris and a run out model of the Corolla.

We certainly gave them the message we were on the lookout for a 'deal' of some sort and demo models would be a good starting point.

So at this stage it seems the front runners are an upmarket Demo Honda Jazz or Demo Hyundai Kona.  The Kona Go is registered as a "demo" but has never been used as one.  It has done 20 or so k's and costs around $26,900 new.  They would do it for us at $24,500 with a final set price still negotiable.

It is a bigger car than the Jazz but would make a very handy replacement if and when our other car, the Hyundai Sonata, begins to give us trouble.

So what else is news?  It has been extremely windy making fire conditions even more volatile.  Rarely we would get winds from the north west but that has been the regular everyday wind for the last few months.  I reckon I miss a bike ride or two most weeks just because it is windy.

After the recent storm (which has killed our Honda Jazz) there was shredded palm leaves all over the place.  With the hot weather these leaves have all dried out and fly about in the wind ..... and in to my pool.  Keeping the pool clean has been a consistent everyday task exacerbated but the uncommonly strong winds!

But beer brewing, bottle washing and bottling must go on! It takes no heed of the weather conditions.

Despite our recent misfortune we continue to enjoy our lives on the Sunshine Coast.  Now we have the excitement of a new car not far away.  But this does mean my beloved 2006 Hyundai Sonata Elite will soon shift to the drive way while the new car takes pride of place in the garage and away from errant hail storms!

Stormy Weather

We needed rain extremely badly in this part of the world but not the 35 mls we got in 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon.  The long dry spell meant the grass crackled under our feet and despite it being November, the yard seemed more like Melbourne at the end of January!

The storm hit mid afternoon on Sunday.  We had missed the warnings to get the car under cover and to batten down the hatches. It was all over in 30 minutes but the wind blew and the hail belted down.  It isn't the best photo taken through the closed window and flyscreen but the pool looked like it was in the middle of the ocean.  There were waves as huge hail stones, some getting towards the size of golf balls belted the house.

It came from the southeast so we had some protection from other houses around us.  With the strong wind and the large hail palm trees had their fronds shredded and palm tree bits floated down upon us.  As large hail hit the stones in the back yard with great force, stones were catapulted into the pool.

Anything made out of plastic was shredded.  The wind weather vane doesn't look the same any more and the plastic covers on the BBQ under the pergola were smashed. Solar powered Christmas lights were destroyed, the power plug powering the pool filter as dislodged and the few plants we have in our little backyard may need replacing.

Trish's little blue Honda Jazz has small dents all over the roof.  Hopefully "The Dent Guy" will be able to pull them all out so it is again as good as new.  We expect it will be a toss up as to whether we fix it or it goes to car insurance.  We are also hopeful the solar panels on the roof have escaped damage as well.

The hail was blown into corners around the house and built up during the storm as the photo left shows.

The worst bit was the mess that was left afterwards.  As you can imagine the pool will require several vacuums and more to get it back to its pristine condition.  But the water level is full as you could probably guess.

We saw reports on the storm on our local news and it seems there were other places on the coast which fared much worse than us.  We saw cars stopped on roads with huge holes in their windscreens caused by the hail.  Goodness only knows what other hail damage they received on top of that.

Now around 20 hours or so later the place is pretty well cleaned up.  The pool filter has been cleaned once and is hard at work again.  Already dust and dirt is settling in the usual spots ready for another vacuum later today.

And tomorrow the guys are coming to install the new bench tops, dishwasher, oven and cook top. There will be an electrician and a plumber along as well.  I will ask the sparky to have a quick check of the solar panels for me as climbing ladders at my age isn't a wise thing to do.

Our neighbour will do the painting of the cupboard doors and more while we are down in Melbourne for Christmas.

Another exciting experience on the Sunshine Coast!

Kitchen and Bathrooms to be Updated!

That $550 we saved from the previous post has now been well and truly spent.  As our small house gets that little bit older things need to be 'updated'.  We still have the original new fridge we bought when we first moved in here over 17 years ago.  The dishwasher is the original as well.

Then bench-tops have aged, become scratched and lost some of their lustre.  The bench-top in the bathroom and the en-suite have been marked as well.  And what was fashionable 17 years ago is dated today.

One place we went to for a quote said they didn't do jobs like ours but they had a guy who may be interested.  His quote to replace bench-tops and arrange for all sinks or basins to be taken out and then refitted along refitting with the cook top and the oven was around $400 cheaper than the original so we went with him.

As you can see from the photo the new sink, kitchen tap and dishwasher have all been delivered.  The new cook top, oven and fridge arrive on Monday!

They all virtually get fitted at 'no' cost as the originals would have had to be taken out and then refitted when the new bench-tops go in!

Today we've been selecting bench-top colors and we seem all ready to go.  Now we wait until the guy lets us know when he can do it.

I had the bike serviced and now I can actually stop when I want to.  All other wires and things have been adjusted and everything is OK again.  Those bloody magpies are giving me a rest nowadays and I now ride between 11 and 12 k's at a go and weather permitting 5 or 6 times per week.

I say weather permitting but it isn't the rain that is the problem, it is the consistently strong winds.  I rode one day this week when the wind was fairly up, another day it was blowing a gale and I see tomorrow is expected to be almost gale force and around 35°.  The winds are usually from the west and can blow in heaps of red dust from Queensland's interior.

Today was around 32° but with the westerly wind, the humidity level is down around 22%, not the 65% we usually have in November.  Even though it was 32° today, overnight it was down to the low teens!  This afternoon the pool was around 26°.

So what else is new?  The rest of it is same old same old!  We are driving down to Melbourne at Christmas.  We will leave around the 15th of December and get to Melbourne late on Tuesday 17th.  We will grab a couple of nights in Newscastle on the way down.

My Community Association stuff is all but finished for the year.  I finished the Newsletter today so that is it for 2019.  We have our Xmas break up on Saturday and it should be heaps of fun.

Then there are the new bench-tops and that is just about it.

I am fully recovered from the root canal, new posts, crown and the cost of it all!  And I should be selling Vodafone Android TV boxes.  I've set a few up now for friends around the place.  I now have heaps using my Plex Server and enjoying movies and TV Series.

There's a guy named Ken Burns who makes TV Documentary series in the U.S..  These include The Civil War, The Vietnam War and several others.  Each series wins top awards.  The series usually has 8x90 minute episodes.  If you get the chance to watch Ken Burns Country Music take the time and check it out.  I am not a huge Country Music fan but I found this TV series absolutely brilliant!

We are both well and enjoying our spot here on the Sunshine Coast!

$550 Saving Washers!

Despite unfounded rumours which have arisen because I haven't had a Blog Post for around 2 months, both Trish and myself are both well and continue to enjoy our Sunshine Coast lifestyle.

Since my last post my computer has again crashed (my own fault) and has been fully reloaded and we have moved from a very dry winter into spring.  Again it has been dry but a stormy night recently which yielded almost 4" of rain has got things back and green again.  However another stormy 4" of rain would not go astray as the place dries out again.

So the spring cleaning has been all but completed.  Windows have been washed (though they all look dirty again after a couple of days), the concrete pavers around the pool have been cleaned with chlorine (3 parts water to 1 part chlorine and then 5 minutes later a hose down) and are looking great again.

Needless to say new solar lights around the top of the fence are up again and working OK along with the cheap set we bought however long ago and also are still working after well over 12 months.

The other big job has been sorting the pool.  A couple of bags of salt and around $40 worth of pool chemicals got it all back again looking inviting and crystal clear.  It'll get to around 25° later on today.  With the extremely dry and windy weather, the pool always seems dirty with red dust blowing in from the Queensland interior.

As the photo above shows, there is a ledge about 60 cms below the water level which goes all around the pool which I guess is to provide strength to the fibreglass pool shell.  But it is a great place for this dust to congregate.  So I get the broom and brush along the ledge to move the dust.  Regretfully while sweeping just under the pool light, it was wedged upwards breaking the plastic where the retaining screw pinned the light to the pool wall.  The light just floated to the surface with the waterproof power cord still connected.

So we were up for a new pool light and upon making inquiries I was told they don't make that type of pool light any more and to supply and fit a new light would cost $550!  And on top of that we would have to wait a few weeks until the pool water warmed up enough for the installer to hop in the pool and install it!.

As you can see from the photo above I decided to try to re fit the light myself. and all it needed was a 37c stainless steel washer from Bunnings.  I did leave out it took around 10 goes and about 5 hours of messing around in the pool to get the excess electrical power cord to store the correct way so the light could be slipped into a bracket on the pool wall and the retaining screw (and several washers) again put into place.

I help a few people around here with TV shows and stuff and I also help them set up their TV boxes.  The best TV box is the Nvidia Shield at around $300.  An older guy I help (and a Vietnam Vet) bought a Shield and I would pop around to his place and keep it going for him.  Unfortunately Mick passed away recently (possibly respiratory problems most likely from being sprayed with Agent Orange).  That Shield has now come into my possession giving me an extra gadget to play with.

Trish has been down to Melbourne to catch up with family.

I continue to mess around with Plex and now have quite a library online.  I am very choosy with whom I share this library as so many people now have access to Netflix, Stan or one of those.  For most people this is more than enough choice.  The stuff I get comes from Netflix, Stan, stuff from the BBC and other various sources.  We are never stuck with out anything good to watch.  Currently we are watching "Sanditon" which has just finished on BBC1.

A week or two ago we watched (and enjoyed) "A Confession" which I see is on Channel 7 soon.

Our community involvement continues to keep us busy.  I am still ducking swooping magpies on my bike rides which are no longer every day and over 15k's a trip.  Now it is more like 11 or so k's up to 5 times per week.  Computer Club remains a great source of fun for me and I have gained some great friends from my weekly meetings.

So that's about it, we are both well but slowing down a little bit.  I get a bit of pain from my back most days but nothing I can't handle.  I have recently had a root canal and new crown on a tooth.  After getting the bill I think and extraction is the way to go in future!

Roll on summer time and the pool getting warmer.

Topsy Turvy Weather

There isn't any rain involved but the temperatures up here sure do fluctuate from day to day.  A glorious 29° yesterday and a freezing 19° today.  I say 19° for today but that doesn't factor in the wind chill factor.  At 1 p.m. my phone tells me it is 18.5° but feels like 13.5°.  There isn't a cloud in the sky, but finally the cold southerly wind is beginning to die down. 

The photo above was taken a week or so ago and again gives you an idea of how it may look nice outside but looks can be deceiving! This photo was taken one morning and again we had just had a cold wind change go through.

If Melbourne gets a cold weather outbreak, a day or two later we can expect a chilly southerly change up here as well.

Even though we are not travelling any where at the moment, Trish has had a second bout of a head cold.  Usually if she isn't moving too well, we are away somewhere.  But not this time.

And I have still managed to escape catching it.

We haven't seen any rain for some time and the front lawn is beginning to die off from a lack of water.  But this can be a dry time in this part of the world. Summer is usually when we get all the storms and the rainy days.

And really, that is about all the news.

With spring not far away we are beginning to get our heads around tidying up outside, cleaning down the pavers, pressure spraying the border paving blocks and just generally tidying and cleaning up.

The front garden has been done and even the brick letter box has had a pressure spray.

I was given a brew in thanks for some help I gave someone.  Every now and again you expect a failure when you are home brewing and this one didn't seem to brew properly and took almost two weeks instead of the usual 7 days.  It eventually got bottled and after a couple of weeks it was ready to try. 

I managed three or four bottles before I gave up and decided to tip it all out.  This has put me a brew down in the total I should have.  Another brew will go on this week and this will mean I have caught up again and supplies will return to normal.

I've got a new hearing aid coming along in a week or so with thanks to a government subsidy and our health insurance.  Trish has reluctantly decided to toss out her food mixer.  When we think back to when the current food mixer first arrived it turns out it was almost 50 years ago!  So we suspect we are due to get a replacement.

I still manage three or four (and sometimes when the weather is warm enough) even up to five bike rides per week.  I tend to wait until it has warmed up enough and I have learnt to go for the 'feels like' temperatures rather than 'actuals'.

Keeping up with movies and TV series continues to keep me busy.  With so much stuff available on Netflix and the other providers nowadays you could get by with not downloading.  But it is nice to have access to almost everything that is out there.

One of the guys at Computer Club has just got back from a cruise which took in Japan.  I was interested to hear him talk about how awfully hot and humid as well as expensive Tokyo was. It was so hot they frequently would head back to the ship for some air conditioned comfort and where meals were supplied.  They found a basic lunch for both of them at around $80 was a bit on the steep side, especially when food on the ship was at no charge!

As usual our news remains the same old same old.  Trish is heading down to Melbourne in September while I will stay up here.  The colder weather doesn't do anything for me down there but we will both be heading down south over Xmas and I am again hopeful of getting down for the early (and warmer part) of the footy season in March.

Nowadays Melbourne is about as far as I feel like travelling while I have lost much enthusiasm to travel overseas.  Despite this lack of enthusiasm, I still keep my eyes open for cheap airfares to Malaysia though!

The Time Had Come

And it happens to all of us, eventually the time comes.

Back in the days when we were 'rich', that is prior to the GFC, though careful with our money, if there was something we wanted, we bought it.  And so it was with my Bose Home Theatre Speaker system.  It cost close to $2000 when I first bought it, the Bose 'Mini' Speakers and the huge Optimus Sub Woofer which included all the power to run the mini speakers.

If you check today's prices for a similar modern day setup the price nowadays is closer to $1250!

On top of the speaker setup, you also needed a 'tuner/amplifier'.  All together with an OK tuner/amp and the great set of Bose speakers, you had a pretty awesome home theatre setup.

Except we live so close to our neighbours, so close that if they sneeze next door we hear!  On top of that I've now got hearing aids and 99% of the time I wear wireless headphones to hear the TV clearly enough!

So my Bose Home Theatre setup sort of just sat there gathering dust with wires everywhere  (I mean everywhere!) just waiting to be used!  Even a whole section of our home theatre cabinet was set aside for the tuner/amp!

It would be a Herculean task to move the cabinet on which the TV sits if ever you wanted to do so.

We had coils of Bose Speaker wires everywhere, hidden behind couches and stuffed down behind the home theatre unit. Every now and again Trish would suggest we move the TV unit or that we do something about all those wires!

It just so happened that all the major electrical retailers here recently had huge sales on and each them had loads of soundbars on special.  If I was going to retire my Bose system, I would want something reasonable to take their place.  But then again I wear hearing aids, we live on a tiny block of land and usually I wear wireless headphones to listen to the telly!

So I grabbed a mid range sound bar during one of those 'specials'.  It took a minimal amount of time to disconnect the Bose setup and move major pieces out of the way.  Then there was the tuner/amp to disconnect and put away.  The longest time was spent rolling up the metres and metres of wiring and putting it all away on a shelf in the garage.

Out came the new soundbar and the huge amount of polystyrene everything was wrapped in.  There was a sub-woofer as well which just needed 'powering on'.  It connected to the soundbar automatically using Bluetooth!  You powered it on and it automatically connected to the sound bar!, There were no wires, nothing!

Connecting the TV audio to the soundbar was a breeze, I just ran an optical cable from the TV to the soundbar.

By removing the tuner/amp I now had a whole section of TV Cabinet for my android TV boxes so they now could be stored out of the way from atop the TV cabinet.

But the big job was yet to come.  I use a 'Universal Remote Control' to run all my devices. So to watch stuff off Plex on my Nvidia Shield I need to power on the TV, the new soundbar, and the Nvidia Shield.  I need the TV then to go to HDMI 3 which is where the Shield is connected to the TV. Finally I need to be able to control the volume level on the soundbar.

With the universal remote control I press 1 button! The TV turns on, the Shield turns on, the soundbar turns on and the TV switched to input HDMI 3!  However because I removed the tuner/amp from my setup, meant I now had to reprogram the Universal remote Control so the Sound Bar would do the stuff the tuner/amp used to do.

And as is Murphy's Law always on this sort of thing, it didn't just work straight out of the box!

With some appropriate inappropriate language and some trial and error it wasn't long until everything was working as required.  And now everything in the lounge room is so much neater and tidier!

Of course the sound bar doesn't produce the sort of audio that the Bose speakers and tuner/amp did.  But to my half deaf ears, it sounds pretty good to me!

All in all it was a task which needed to be done and we have ended with an acceptable home theatre setup!

Let me know if you want a 2nd hand set of Bose mini speakers, an Optimus Bose Sub Woofer, around 100 metres of Bose cables and a lower end of the range tuner/amplifier!

Looks Are Deceiving

In this part of the world we have around another fortnight of colder weather to go prior to things beginning to warm up again.  The photo was taken this morning but looks can certainly be deceiving.  Though you can see glorious blue sky, what you can't see is the bitter southerly wind.  Despite it being mid morning, the temperature is still to get to 15°.  It is expected to get up to 19° later on.

Last week when we had our visitors from Newcastle spending a couple of days with us it was mid 20's under our pergola up the back.  It was delightful.

But both top temps in the 20's and our visitors have now left to return to work and home in Newcastle.  Janet and Mick bought a caravan from a nearby Coolum manufacturer around 12 months ago.  The 12 months means it is now warranty fix up time so they brought the van back up here to have it worked on.  It was booked in for several days to ensure the work could be done properly.

Mick suffered a nasty fall recently and has damaged a couple of his ribs which made almost any movement hesitant and painful.  Fortunately it did not affect his ability to raise the odd glass or two.  But it was great having them and we enjoyed their company and friendship very much.

The chap over the road is a long time Caloundra guy.  He knows the place back to front and has been a handy contact for when we first arrived and was able to advise us where to go and who to see. Bill makes the alcohol as well is a handy friendship to have.

His i7 laptop had slowed dramatically so I took it into Computer Club where a guy replaced his 1TB hard drive with a 480GB SSD drive.  The difference in how the laptop now runs is unrecognizable from its' earlier state.  It is amazing.  Now it is lightning quick to open up and use. Bill had to join Computer Club before George would do the work.  Still for under $150 he will get heaps of future work out of his older i7 machine.

Another happy customer!

Trish continues to cough and splutter a bit but nowhere as bad as she was a fortnight ago.  She now knows what a bee sting is like suffering her first sting yesterday at an Arts Centre Association function.  The spot where she was stung is still tender today.

Our footy teams continue OK which means we are both contented this morning.

So that's about it again, all is well on the Thomas front up here on the Sunshine Coast!

Home Again!

We've been home for a few days now and settling back into my own beer supply, my own bed and everything else that goes with being back home again.

Despite a very nasty cough, Trish is well and truly on the mend now and doing all the Arts Centre Association stuff she loves to get involved with.  I have been readying myself to come down with that nasty cold as a pass on from Trish but up until now I seemed to have possibly dodged a bullet.

We left the Gold Coast and our super little apartment mid morning Friday and drove home via The Malaya Corner Restaurant in Sunnybank (photo above), this time for some take away for our tea.  The 2 meals we had from this Sunnybank Restaurant were the two best meals we had while away.

We didn't make it out for an evening meal on our last night at the Gold Coast, the lunch and a few beers at the Kurrawa Surf Club being substantial enough to ensure a very light evening meal for us.

Upon arrival back at our home in Caloundra we were greeted with almost 150mls in the rain gauge, a massive 6" of rain during the few days we were away and during what is meant to be the 'driest' season of the year.

There has been a few intermittent showers since we've been home but nothing unusual.

So it is back to the same old same old.  I did manage a bike ride recently but I am now committed to bike riding when the weather suits.  Despite being mid teens during the bike ride, the wind chill factor makes the ride less than comfortable.  Today I did a walk instead for around 3,000 steps according to my watch which was about 2.4k's.

So the 12000+ steps we did one day while on the Gold Coast would have equaled around 10k's of walking!

So far I have helped an elderly lady Computer Club member set her NBN and associated WiFi telephone handsets up and all working OK.  Another Computer Club guy has just connected to the NBN and has bought an Nvidia Shield so I have been around there a few times working on his home network.  That seems to be working OK.

Our Newcastle friends, Mick and Janet are in town.  Their super duper caravan was bought from a manufacturer in Coolum, around 30k's north of Caloundra and it is due for its 12 months first service.  They also have several warranty issues which require attention so they decided to drive up with caravan in tow and sort their hassles out.

They popped in on Monday while the van was being serviced.  The van then goes back to the factory again for several days late next week while the warranty work is completed.  They will stay with us while the warranty issues are being attended to.

Mick recently took a nasty fall which has knocked him about a bit.  He also has a head cold which has only worsened his state of health.  And he is also on the final stages of new work project which only requires the i's to be dotted and the t's crossed. 

He is looking forward to a few days R and R over the next week or so!

So as you can see, life continues to meander along for the Thomas family here on the Sunshine Coast!

One New Phone On Order

Day two yesterday (our first full day) on the Gold Coast was spent with umbrella in hand.  Needless to say, by carrying an umbrella all day there wasn't even a hint of rain.  Though it remained overcast and windy all day.

So with brolly in hand we set off to check out Pacific Fair Shopping Centre.  It is a huge place and not very well set out.  It seemed every time we wanted to go to a shop it was at the opposite end of this huge Shopping Centre.

In Big W they had budgie smugglers on special.  I always wear a pair under my boardshorts when bike riding.  After a bike ride when the weather suits it is straight into the pool, shorts T-Shirts and all so bathers under the board shorts are a must.  At $5 a pair it was too good a deal to pass up.

So we wandered around Pacific Fair from end to end racking up the steps on my Fitness watch.  At the end of the day I have a new 'steps' record of around 12,000 steps.

We made our way back to the hotel room after lunch to enjoy a quenching ale and to rest up a little.  Unfortunately Trish's phone slipped from the table onto the floor smashing the screen.  As many of you know I tend to buy my phones from China and limit my budget to under $250.  At this price if something goes wrong I haven't spent an arm and a leg on the phone.  For us a $250 phone from China has all the bells and whistles you get on a phone here at twice the price.

We found a smashed Xiaomi screen repair place at Pacific Fair but the Indian chap we spoke with said the repair would be around $150 even if he could get a new screen for this model. We were better off buying a new phone.  Being from India he said Xiaomi phones were one of the best brands available in his country and he highly recommended if we were to buy a new phone, grab another Xiaomi!

These phones do everything we could possibly want so why should we pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a phone with all the bells and whistles, many of which we don't want or need!  The downside is if something goes wrong, (like a smashed screen) you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

So Trish will have a new Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 phone in a few weeks from a world renowned manufacturer.  The phone with the busted screen still works fine and being a Xiaomi phone we spent a little time yesterday working out the old phone's sync to backup.  So when Trish's new phone turns up we log into her Xiaomi account and download her backup onto it.  She will get back all her contacts, all her pictures, all her apps and all her messages.

We hit a Greek place for tea last night.  It was OK but not anything as good as George's Greek Tavern in Caulfield.

Day 2 (today) at the Gold Coast showed us some patches of blue sky though the wind continued to howl and there were showers scudding through all day.  So this time we went the other way (without the umbrella) and into I guess what you would call Broadbeach South.  It was another walk around looking at what was happening.  There were plenty of eateries for us to check out as well but we finished up with lunch at the Kurrawa Surf Club which is where I grabbed the photo above.

Carlton Draught at $5-50 a pint was a huge windfall!

The 12000 steps from the previous day had taken their toll and the hips were a little painful after a longish walk.  So in between the showers we headed back to the Avani Residences to recuperate and possibly enjoy a few more ales!

Trish has a bit of a cold too which slows things down a little for us.

So we reckon it might be Persian for tea, something a little different!

We head back to the Sunny Coast tomorrow and we expect to arrive home around midday or so.  But already we have decided to pop into Sunnybank's Malaya Corner where we'll grab some take away which will be prefect for our first evening meal back at home tomorrow.

Of all the meals we have had while away for this short trip, our lunch at Sunnybank on our way down to the Gold Coast has been our most enjoyable of all the places where we have eaten.

Everything Is Perfect Except ......

So we've made our way down to the Gold Coast and we are staying on the 28th floor of "Avani Residences".  The view is sensational. The room is quite compact but it does have everything you need (except Foxsport).  The beds and facilities are great and the position seems pretty good as well.

From our apartment window we can see Pacific Fair and the Gold Coast Casino, all within quite easy walking distance.

The free WiFi is even better than my NBN connection at home so there are heaps of pluses

But the weather is terrible with frequent heavy showers passing through. Last night as we were walking home from a quick bite to eat we were caught in a quick shower.  The rain drops were as big as so it didn't take long to get wet.

I was able to grab a carton of my preferred Cricketer's Arms Session Ale on the way down to the Gold Coast as well.

Lunch at the Malaya Corner Restaurant in Sunnybank on our drive down was to die for.  Char Kway Teow and Beef Rending, two huge serves which we had trouble finishing.  Malaya Corner is just on 100k's from our place in Caloundra so we don't manage to eat there very often. Thus we only sought a small meal for our evening fix.

There's a "Street Food" restaurant 50 metres away from Avani Residences which sells Asian Food.  They charge like a wounded bull but it is so handy and suited us perfectly to get to between showers.

Today we will grab a couple of umbrellas from Reception and check out the local spots.  The Light Rail station is around 200 metres away as well.

So off we go!

It Could Be Worse I Suppose

So the forecast for the next three days here on the "Sunshine Coast" is 90% chance we'll get some showers.  It is not the best outlook for three nights away on the Gold Coast but it could be worse.  It could be school holidays or worse still it could be "Schoolies".

As the photo left shows here on the Sunshine Coast the 90% chance of showers has already proved to be accurate even at 9 am.

But it will be a few nights away in something a little nice and a little luxurious.  The eateries on the Gold Coast are much more cosmopolitan than where we live so this seems a another advantage to heading away. The photo below was 'borrowed' from their website!  It was one of those specials on Trip Advisor or something with a $100 per night off deal!

It has been some time since I have posted but really there hasn't been a lot of news.   Earlier this year in an effort to extend the bus service to further out and service new areas around 6 stops in our area had been closed in order to streamline services.

We have quite a few older folk who moved here back in the early 2000's and selected their new home site on its proximity to a local bus stop.  So the closure of them was a huge loss for many older residents who had depended on a bus service to get into Caloundra for shopping or to access doctors and other services.   Now a trip into Caloundra entailed a long trek to get to the remaining bus stops or an expensive taxi fare.  So there was a lot of very upset people around!

Our Community Association along with the local ALP candidate stepped in for the fight.  The local candidate threatened to withdraw from pre selection unless something was done about it.The local bus stop issue now seems to have been resolved with the Minister responsible stepping in and telling Translink to sort it all out.

So a huge win for the local candidate and for the Community Association with a new dedicated bus service just serving our area to be implemented.  All 6 stops previously closed are to be re opened!

As NBN services begin to become available across this end of the coast I have been out and about helping people setup home networks or get their streaming and playback stuff sorted.

Trish remains very busy with organising markets and renovations for the local Arts Centre Association.  They got a good deal on new block out blinds for the "Centre" so guess what, we are getting new block out blinds as well!  But then the 'verticals' have pretty well had their day so the new blinds are really needed.

We both remain healthy and active though the cold mornings have curtailed my bike riding markedly.  If it's not 15° and reasonably calm outside by 9 am the bike doesn't get out.  With very cool mornings followed by gusty winds it means I haven't ridden for a couple of weeks now.  I do try and get out for the odd walk every now and again though.

And there is usually a bottle wash or sort out a brew around as well.

Our few days away will be good and break the time up a little bit.  We are looking forward to it despite the gloomy weather forecast!

And Then It's Gone

I could be talking about any warm weather because that's all gone now.  We even ran the heater for 4 hours the other night with blustery cold winds giving us a hell of a time.

Back at the end of April I mentioned in my Blog that my PC was taking some time to start up.  I have a Dell PC and it comes with 12 months warranty. mainly on a 'remote' basis.  That means you ring them up, the Dell Tech gets access to your PC and even though he may be overseas they can still carry out processes and fix repairs.

So that's what I did to solve to slow startup.  I reckon he worked on the PC for an hour and I saw on my screen something about "restore health" going on.  Towards the end of the process it said several problems had been rectified so on the surface all was good.

The chap would send me an email if problems continued, he was sure all was OK and we hung up.  But I noted the writing on the screen was very hard to read, almost as if it had been written with one of those dot matrix printers.

So I had a try to fix, all unsuccessfully I am afraid.  And to top it all off I decided on a "Windows Restore".  It turns out the restore had most likely gone from one version of windows to a slightly different version.  The restore process didn't work and on top of that the PC would begin to start but after 20 seconds it would crash.

But we have some pretty clever people at Computer Club, with one of the guys doing a full reformat of my PC.  So I lost everything but luckily I keep regular backups.  It is just about all back together now with just a few bits and pieces I will add as I go along.

I haven't ridden the bike since earlier in the week.  It has been bitterly cold with a gale force wind at times.  Then the PC died so I was trying to fix or else putting all my stuff back on after it was fixed.  But this post is being done on the PC and it is going along quite speedily.

Trish has been busy with getting Fairs up and running and doing heaps of other things.  The Community Association has the odd issue or two bubbling along which have required some time. And in the middle of all that the PC died!

I continue to mess around with a program called Plex which I am beginning to fully understand.

My footy team continues to plow along with another big match on tonight.  Between the footy on TV, the cricket from England, the tennis from Paris and heaps of videos to watch 24 just isn't enough hours in a day!

But I am pleased the PC starts up beautifully nowadays!

Not So Sunny On The Sunny Coast

The bike has been stuck under the back veranda for well over week now because we remain in the grip of a strong S/E wind bringing continual showers on and off to our part of the world.  This morning we got 13 mls which is a lot when compared to other recent totals.

Most mornings have seen a mere between 1 and 7 mls but this rain falls around dawn and across the day with short and sharp showers.

Both of our affiliations with local Community Groups has kept us busy recently.  They have reorganized bus routes in our area and upped the number of services incredibly.  But instead of doing the rounds of the community, the bus route now goes directly along the main road and right through our estate.  It has seen 6 local stops closed which has disadvantaged many elderly locals.

When we moved in to the area the 50+ years demographic was above 50% with many buying homes near a local bus stop.  These bus stops have now closed and these 50 years+ residents are now 65+, many with extreme mobility problems.  The decision to close local stops now mean the majority of people have a good 1 km walk.

Needless to say I remain busy with my tech stuff.  Plex has become my go to application for watching stuff I have 'acquired' on my Nvidia Shield.  It works well and now means I am getting some excellent use out of the old PC.  The more I use it, the better I am finding it.  It is great fun.

Recently we had a 250GB SSD hard drive installed in Trish's laptop.  It is around 5 years old now and was needing a boost up.  A guy at computer club removed the 750GB mechanical hard drive and installed the speedier SSD drive.  It now loads super fast and responds very quickly.  It was $45 to cover the cost of the SSD drive and $15 for an enclosure for the old drive.

I will get the same done to the old laptop I was given.  By replacing the hard drive with a 16x faster SSD drive will give it a great boost.

At Computer Club I often get asked what browser I use when surfing the web.  I like many of the addons which I can install in Firefox but Firefox updates so frequently many of the addons I like to use can't keep up with the updates and won't work on the latest Firefox versions.  So I use a version of Firefox called Waterfox.  It is usually around 6 months behind in development to Firefox, and therefore all my preferred addons still work great.

One of the guys at Computer Club strongly recommends the new Microsoft Edge browser because it is so nippy and speedy.  I am not a fan of Edge and its few addons but read where a new version of it is incorporating much of the workings of Chrome.  In its early stages of development it is being called Edge Canary which you can download and install.

Being heavily based on Chrome you can sort of install many of the Chrome addons.  So it is easy to add ad blockers, Real Debrid, backup addons, select search and many other search programs.  You can even create "Search" links for yourself.  With many download websites now being blocked by the government, proxy websites have sprung up everywhere.  You can now create your own search for one of these proxy websites which is handy when you are looking for a particular movie or TV episode to download.

As the new Edge Canary browser is still in development it still has a few hassles.  But overall it works quite well and seems so much faster than other browsers I have tried.

As per usual we are both well and loving where we live.  And we hope everyone is also happy and content with their life and health as well.

It Has All Changed!

The cold wintry and wet weather that recently swept across Melbourne and Victoria has made it's way to the Sunshine Coast.  Though today is showery with a cool breeze, the sun has been out and warmed everything up a little.

But yesterday we shut the house up to keep the cold southerly out.  Trackie daks, warm tops and socks were the order of the day as we battened down for our own cool day.  The high teens was as much as we saw Sunday morning but as the cold southerly wind died down a little the place began to warm to the low 20's.

I managed a swim for the first day or so of May but swimming is now well behind me.  I will have to wait until AFL footy Grand Final Day in September before I make it back into the pool again.  The breezy and cold outbreak has also put a halt to bike riding in the shorter term.  I now wait till after 8 am and the sun has begun its work prior to even considering heading out for a ride.

But things cruise along as normal with not a lot happening about the place.

Mow the lawns, put out the rubbish bins, do stuff for the Community Association, mess around with my Tech stuff and learn more about Plex.  Though I still keep up with Kodi stuff, Plex has become my go to application to play back movies and TV series.

Speaking of which we have just completed watching the BBC police drama series "In The Line Of Duty". After some ordinary stuff to watch lately the TV series was real shining light.

Of course there is another home brew on and a bottling is due this week sometime.

The best restaurant we found up here back in the early days was a place called Spirit Of Tibet in Mooloolaba.  But as Mooloolaba went ahead, rent prices forced the guy out.  He setup briefly at a couple of other places but was never open for more than a few weeks before something or other happened.

As it turns out he has opened up again but this time in the strangest of places which is partly why we found him so hard to find.  He runs his restaurant as a part of the Forest Glen Big4 Caravan Park (photo above).  It is a great size, heaps of space and the food is just as sensational as ever.

Three other couples I have met from Computer Club and ourselves checked it out the other night.  The food was a resounding hit for everyone with people who are not that fond of spicy food absolutely loving it!

The trouble is the restaurant is a good 30 minutes drive away.  However our friends enjoyed the food so much we will all get back there again.  We had some great nights there when it was in Mooloolaba and everyone we have taken there just loves the food.  He makes a tasty but spicy chilli sauce which needs to used carefully.  But boy it is nice.

The Computer Club group are a great group to go out with.  All of us are retireds and have come from interstate to live around Caloundra.  Previously occupations included the merchant navy, hair dressers or driving trains and then moving into lead lighting. They are a diverse group.

And we all enjoy watching our movies and TV series as well.

Trish and I are both well and keeping pretty busy.  Life is pretty good actually!

Still Swimming!

Anzac Day has come and gone but the pool still gets a work out after a bike ride despite getting closer to winter.  With a water temperature still over 22°, any swim, as short as it may be, is still 'do-able'.  But rest assured, I am not in the water for long!  Usually Anzac Day is the swimming cut off date but with nights still being a little warmer than usual, it is taking a while for the pool temp to get to under 21° so swimming is still an option.

Showery weather has returned for today taking any bike ride off the agenda but leaving me free to play around with my tech stuff.

The next Newsletter for the Community Association has all but been completed and it seems I can knock one up to a first edit stage in less than 4 hours.  And now we have only 6 editions per year the pressure has come right off.

I did a 16k bike ride the other day but that distance is a rarity nowadays.  Most days I ride between 12 and 14k's which is more than enough.

My right arm continues to cause me some discomfort so I gave the doctor a visit on the advice of the Chiro.  It seems I have torn a muscle between my elbow and my wrist and I have no idea what I did to tear the muscle.  Time will eventually cure that.

I have another brew 'on' and will bottle it tomorrow.

We both remain fairly busy, Trish with the Arts Centre Association and me helping people out with video and computer stuff.  Our older friends Brian and Edna have decided their laptop was getting slower and slower so I took it to Computer Club where one of the guys reformatted it for them at no charge.  It took another 3 or 4 hours for me to put everything back on it and get things working OK again for them.

But they are happy now, Kodi loads quickly for him and he can keep up with all the latest movies and TV series such as Game of Thrones.  I will do the same with Trish's laptop this weekend.  However the guy will replace the laptop hard drive with a 256GB SSD drive and then load up Windows 10 making it heaps faster than it was previously.

I am not convinced the recent Bios update to my PC has improved it at all, it seems a little touchy nowadays when starting up.  But it ALWAYS starts ... eventually!

The wet showery weather has returned today so I am stuck inside.

If you are not into Tech stuff then this won't interest you.  I have been messing around with Plex, a program which arranges and then allows you to stream your own media anywhere across your home network or even to fiends via the internet.  I haven't mastered this last bit just yet but I am finding the messing around and discovering how it works very interesting.

I have resurrected my old PC and I am using it to power the Plex setup.  Previously I was running Plex from my Seagate Cloud NAS drive. But because of a lack of processing power there were some aspects of the program which just didn't work.  But by using the old high i5 powered PC, it works heaps better.

And isn't my footy team doing well!  I am very pleased with the way things are going at the moment.  Trish's team had a bit of a scare last weekend but all finished happily ever after eventually.

My brother and his wife are heading to Borneo, Kuala Lumpur and Penang in June.  It is a relatively short trip but we have been in contact with ideas on where they can eat!  Our daughter Kim and a girl friend are there at the moment sending back heaps of photos of food.  But then that is one of the best things about visiting Malaysia.

So as the rain comes down here on the Sunshine Coast it is time for me to get back to my playing with my tech stuff.   I hope this hasn't been too boring for you!

Home And All Rested!

We are currently safe and sound back at home on the Sunshine Coast.  We are back in our own bed again with access to our own small ensuite.  The weather is sunny but it is rapidly cooling off with today expected to get to around the mid 20's.

Our trip via Warragul and then on to my sister's place in Omeo saw us begin our return journey by road from Melbourne.

But I did manage to catch up with a couple of fellow teaching colleagues Gordon and Anne Atkin who recently moved from Hallam down to the Warragul.  It meant they could downsize to an easier place to maintain but still remain relatively close to appropriate medical facilities.  You see Anne has had Parkinsons for well over 10 years now and being close to medical support is crucial.

It was great to catch up even be it for a short time only.

But then it was a further 300k drive via mountain roadways to Omeo to catch up with my sister Judy and Peter.  Omeo is in the Victorian Alps and within 50 or so K's of the winter snow fields.  It has been around 15 years since our last visit to Omeo so much time was spent discussing numerous topics and enjoying numerous ales.  The photo above shows the view from their veranda towards some of the mountains over their 20 or so acres.

A $10 lunch at the local pub for was enough to fill two people let alone just one of us.

But it was great to catch up and I'm guessing that by now they are on the road with their caravan in tow for their regular 6 months spent on western Queensland near Isisford where daily temps will be around 28° and not the cold, snowy and wet 6° of Omeo.

We set off to begin our long trek home to the Sunshine Coast with our first stop at Parkes, a drive of around 700k's.  Then it was another 800k's to Warwick in Queensland and a final 300k trek back to Caloundra.

The drive after a hectic 3 weeks away proved extremely tiring.  But given a couple of days resting up at home and getting back into the run of things and back to normal.

I am back on the bike knocking over around 14 k's a day and most times looking for the pool for a cooling off swim upon return.  The pool is around 22° which means any time spent under the water is fairly quick!  With a very cool breeze this morning I declined a trip into the pool being more worried about what it would be like after leaving the pool than when I was in the water.

Somewhere along the way I have done something to my right arm.  I describe it as tennis elbow that has slipped to my forearm.  It can be a little painful and I am noticing it now as I type.  There is absolutely no strength in the arm if it is raised above shoulder height which makes getting my coffee cup out of the head high microwave oven a bit of a chore.

I'm back to the chiro tomorrow.

I usually have a little concern about what will and what electrical items won't start up after almost a month away.  My PC keyboard has been a bit 'iffy' lately with some keys requiring a double push to get the correct response.  It seemed worse upon our return from being away despite it being over 8 years old.  And I had a 2GB external hard drive that would not come up when plugged into the PC.

The keyboard has been replaced but the 2TB hard drive was eventually recognized so (touch wood) it has again gone back onto my Seagate cloud drive to give me an extra 2TB of cloud storage.  I keep backups of my very favorite Movies on that drive but will keep my eyes open for a super good 2TB hard drive deal and possibly replace it.

Recently my 6 month old Dell PC did an update of the operating system (Windows 10) and an upgrade of the Bios, the underlying computer system which first is used as the computer starts up.  I have never had a computer which has had an update of the bios.  So the next morning I was a bit worried when despite pushing the power button, nothing happened.  I did it again, still nothing.  So I turned the power off, let it sit for several minutes and then powered it up again.

This time a Dell Support Assist program began and because of the failed boot up, it carried out a 10 minute check of the whole PC.  It found everything was OK so it then restarted and operated perfectly.  So this morning, with fingers crossed I powered up the PC and hit the 'start' button.  Thankfully everything now seems to be working OK again.  I don't think I will agree to any more Bios updates on the PC!

Trish is back into the swing as President of the Arts Centre Association while I am beginning to get my head around an upcoming edition of the Community Newsletter.  She had meetings today and I have a meeting to chair tomorrow night.

It didn't take long for things to get back to normal!

As The Rain Pelts Down......

A top temperature today of around 15 degrees is the first really cold day we have experienced since leaving the Sunshine Coast around 3 weeks ago.  Our drive down to Newcastle from home was fine except for the 100 or so kilometres of roadworks going on along the Pacific Highway between Ballina and Grafton. 

Along this stretch speed was limited to 80k's and there were many very large trucks as well.  Once stuck behind one of these large trucks, that was where you stayed!

But then the road opened up to be dual highway for most of the rest of the drive all the way down to Newcastle.  When roadworks are completed in a year or so it should be dual highway for the 1000k trip from Caloundra to Sydney.

Our two days in Newcastle were great catching up with friends.  After two nights there, it was time for our longest driving stretch, just under 1000 k's for Newcastle to Attwood, a norther suburb of Melbourne where we spent a night with the Chris Thomas family.

It sure is great to catch up with family and friends which has been the major focus of this trip (as well as to get to a few AFL matches and use my MCC membership).

We have been staying with Kate Arj and the grand kids for much of the remainder of our time here.  Arj, James and I all went to a footy match together and saw Richmond and Carlton along with around 85,000 others.  The next night it was back to the MCG again this time with grandson Andrew a fellow Geelong barracker.  We went home unexpectedly very happy after the game.

Needless to say eating Asian food has been high on the agenda as well.  The local huge Fountain Gate Shopping Centre nearby has a small eatery called China Bar which sells our favoured Malaysian dishes.  So the occasional quick trip to Fountain Gate has resulted in yet another sampling of crispy skin chicken or Char Kway Teow or Chicken Curry and Rice.

Speaking of Asian food we have also managed trips to Clayton and Malaysia Garden as well as to Springvale where we find fantastic Vietnamese food and all so inexpensive.

Trips to Indented Head where my brother lives and Drouin where other great friends now reside have occurred as well.  I have had too much to drink on numerous occasions and it has been a great time for Trish and me.  Our stay here has been interspersed with AFD's (alcohol free days) days of doing very little.  Perhaps we are beginning to show our age or that at last that we are maturing!

The family BBQ which we had at Kate's along with Arj's great BBQ skills was a day to remember. Our youngest daughter Kim attended along with Brad and it was really great to have the whole family together.  However the following day was a very quiet one for us.

One day to remember was the day we went out to lunch with my brother Geoff and Jeanette while staying with them at Indented Head.  We were going out somewhere for lunch.  After around 30 minutes or so we arrived at GMHBA Stadium, the home ground of my AFL footy team, Geelong. There was a small cafe there where they sold OK meals and there was the possible chance we may run into a Geelong footy player.

As we entered the cafe there sitting at several tables were Joel Selwood, Scott Selwood, Paddy Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins and another 6 or so of the players from the footy team.  We were all gob smacked.  I loved being there and being so close to many of the players.  It was a special occasion.

So our time in this part of the world is coming to a close.  Today is pretty cold and wet as the photo above shows but Trish and Kate and several others are off to Arj's singing gig tonight at a restaurant here in Berwick.  Possibly the terrible weather today will keep some others who were coming away.

I am doing the baby sitting with James and Charli tonight but then my footy team's match is live on TV so I will have to watch it I suppose.  Tomorrow the weather is expected to clear a little with some sunshine as Trish, Kim, Brad and I are again to the MCG this time to see Trish and Kim's team Hawthorn play Footscray.  If the weather is OK it should be a fun day.

We are back on the road again Monday morning but this time heading for home via Omeo where my sister Judy and Peter live. After a 350k drive to Omeo we will have a two night stop over before finally heading on the road again but this time back north again on Wednesday.  We hope to arrive home in Caloundra before lunch on Friday.

We will have achieved many of the aims we set out with when we first headed this way a few weeks ago.  I have caught up with my brother and sister and managed great times with good friends as well.

As one gets a little older these times we can spend with family and friends becomes even more important.  However the lure of warmer weather, our own shower and en-suite and our own beds is becoming more attractive the longer we spend away.

Stinker Before Hitting The Road!

With 34° as a max today and then 35° tomorrow, we are getting a last blast of summer here on the Sunshine Coast prior to hitting the road tomorrow as we head to Newcastle. We expect to arrive there Wednesday morning.  As mentioned earlier, morning peak traffic between here and Brisbane and the hour gained with daylight saving as we enter NSW makes the first day's travel a little messy.  We are aiming to cover around 600k's in the day.

Because of the heat today will be a lock the house up and give the air con a run on 26° with the ceiling fans on High sort of day. 

Not a lot of news in this part of the world.  Haircuts, lawn mowing, sorting out what to pack, getting the Waco ready have been a few of the smaller things that have mounted up over the last few days.  A small bout of gastro hasn't helped me either.

Trish is acting as CACA President at her first "Committee" as I type so she was quite hyper getting sorted before heading off.  I have a BeCA meeting this afternoon and as it is a holiday in Victoria today, for good measure there is a final practice footy match on TV this afternoon.

So we look forward to arriving in Melbourne later this week! The prospect of running into low 20's temperatures is a little inviting I must add.  It has been a very hot summer in this part of the world!

Not Having A Cyclone Part 2

The way the wind has been blowing over the last two weeks you could believe that Cyclone Oma is still with us!  The wind isn't as strong as it was when the cyclone was off the coast but it is still blowing at over 30k's per hour right now and it seems to have been like that forever.

We are getting rainfall totals of just several mls per day but it sure makes bike riding a lottery as to whether or not you will get wet as yet another brief shower blows in off the ocean. Yesterday I managed 16k's but got caught in a shower of rain.  Those 16k's were done around the local area here where the wind can be blocked just a little bit.

The pool has plunged to a cooler 24.5° which is still OK.  Regretfully the showers are not quite enough to offset the pool's wind powered evaporation rate.

We are beginning to get our head around travelling south to Melbourne for several weeks.  We didn't manage to catch up with everyone over our recent Christmas trip when we flew down.  This time we will drive.  The car has been serviced, some worn parts replaced and with 4 new tyres, it is ready to do the trip.

We expect to hit Melbourne late on Friday March 15th and make our way back to the Coast around Thursday April 4th.

Trish has become the President of the Arts Centre Association and she has her first real meeting as President on Monday March 11th.  Therefore we will set off for Melbourne around 8:30 on Tuesday 12th.  This puts the morning peak behind us but with daylight saving in NSW, it will actually be a 9:30 am departure.

Last time we travelled down the Pacific Highway 12 months ago there were long sections of roadworks and an 80kph speed limit, especially on the northern leg of the drive.  Hopefully it won't be quite as bad this time but we hope to do around 600k's as the first day's drive.

We share the driving as much as possible, however Trish seems to do the major share.  We are not sure as to how many more drive to Melbourne and back trips we have left in us.  Flying is certainly less expensive for us.

I've recovered from yet another birthday and Trish has her next in the next day or so.  We are both well and looking forward to catching up with friends when in Melbourne.  The odd spot or two of great Asian food will be welcomed as well when we hit town down there.

The Cyclone You Have When You're Not Having A Cyclone!

The garden hadn't been watered for several days and the pool water level was as low as it's been since the pool's installation. 

Everything was buckled down, the Waeco brought inside and the sun blinds rolled up.  All was ready for the possible cyclone, strong winds and indications of around 150mls of rain daily for several days.

So we should be midway through the 'cyclone' now.  We've had strong winds, the sea is a virtual washing machine and we've had a whole 4mls of rain!  The sun blinds are back down, the pool has been topped up from the garden hose and the Waeco is back outside again!

What a fizzer!

This morning I topped the pool up and it was extremely calm outside at 6:30am, good enough for a bike ride even!  There is a heap of debris in the pool though.

So the lawn and garden will remain dry and everything will be back to normal.  As the photo above shows it is another beautiful (but a bit windy) day on the Sunshine Coast!

But we sure need some rain!

Cyclonic Conditions to Hit the Coast

The weather bureau seems to be hedging its bets on what is going to happen with Cyclone Oma as it comes close to us on Queensland's SE Coast.  One thing for sure is it seems the prolonged dry spell will be coming to a close.

 It was easy to spot the weeds in the front lawn a week or two ago, they were the only green bits.  However a couple of new weeds which missed the weed spray a fortnight ago showed their heads yesterday.  So I went to dig them out.  The weeds roots broke off as I tried to pull them out.  A few centimetres down the soil is like concrete.  So a heap of rain won't go astray.

Our little house is one a a minority of homes on the Sunshine Coast which is above the 100 year flood mark.  Our street is also designed as a water escape route and as a result we have steep driveways so any flood waters can get away easily.

The wet weather is expected to arrive from tomorrow on into mid next week and the amount we get will depend on the unpredictable route of cyclone Oma.  But we have been assured it will be wet and could be extremely windy. The photo shows the sky to the south where the cyclonic conditions will come from.  Right now it looks pretty good doesn't it?

So the sun blinds along the back of the house will be wound up and the Waeco fridge will be brought inside.  The sun umbrella has already been packed away.

In the mean time it has been hot and humid.  Despite the cyclone being 1,000k's away, the sea swell from the cyclone has been buffeting the coast.  I suggest most Sunshine Coast beaches will be closed later today or into tomorrow.  Erosion of the coastline is the other major concern.  Both here and the Gold Coast depend quite a bit on tourism so restocking eroded sand to the beaches will be a high Council priority when the wind subsides and the weather returns to normal.

Even just checking the weather forecast it seems the amount of rain we may get has been cutback considerably.  What was 6" a day on yesterday's forecast is back to around 2" on today's forecast.

So with wet weather forecast I have bottle washed today and the new brew will go on tomorrow.  I have done almost 70ks in bike rides this week and have cut the daily ride back by a few k's daily.

The car goes in for its annual service next week getting it in shape for the drive to Melbourne coming up.  We expect to hit Melbourne on Friday March 15th and hopefully spend the night with Chris and Wendy before onto Kate's the next day.

We are expecting to catch up with friends we may have missed during our quick trip over Christmas.  It seems we will head home via Omeo arriving back on the coast around Thursday April 3rd.

New glasses will be collected next week with eye tests indicating my eyesight is deteriorating faster in one eye than the other.  That's what happens when you turn 73 I suppose.

Blowing a Gale!

Extremely hot days here on the Sunshine Coast are not that dissimilar to what we used get back in Melbourne.  95% of the days we get a north-easterly sea breeze around midday which puts a cap on how high the temperature will go that day.  The sea breeze manages to temper the top temps and keeps hot days warm but not always hot.

But when the wind blows from the north west so strongly it prevents the S/E breeze coming in, then we know it will be unpleasantly hot.  And so it was for a couple of days earlier this week.  Overnight Wednesday into Thursday we had a wind change from north westerly to a gusty south easterly.  And a strong wind change it was too and it is still blowing a gale outside now as I type well over 24 hours later.

It was much too blustery and extremely uncomfortable to bike ride this morning.  Even yesterday when the wind wasn't quite as strong I had second thoughts about heading out on the bike.  With the pool temp nudging 30° and the strong wind not only is the pool a mess with twigs, bits of bark and palm leaves, but the evaporation rate has increased markedly.

I manged to draw the short straw and was conned into helping out with printing 2,500 copies of the newsletter at the local MP's Office on Wednesday.  But on the plus side, the office was air conditioned so it wasn't quite the chore it could have been.

Things have been moving along slowly.  A bike ride in the morning, check out the latest downloads from the internet, a couple of swims in the pool across the day followed by a few home made beers after 4pm.

That is about the normal sort of day.  Maybe do some tidying up around the house, have a go at fixing this and tidying up that manages to fill the day in.  But then there is put a brew on, bottle wash and then bottle the stuff as well!

The PC did a huge update the other day and took around 5 goes before the update was successfully installed.  I was a bit nerve wracking watching the update get to 80% and then the PC would freeze.  Power off and then power on again (not recommended PC procedure) and then download, verify and install again ..... and get to 80% and freeze.  Power off, power on and so on and so on.

It was great to eventually see the update click over from 80% to 82% I can tell you!  Then it took another good hour or so to install the update and restart.  That Windows 10 Welcome Screen was a sight for sore eyes I can tell you.

So as you can see, not much has changed here on the Sunshine Coast.  Life sails along easily and enjoyably.  I hope yours does too!