Riding, Walking, Downloading and Watching!

That sums it all up really!  I didn't ride today as we had thunderstorms and almost an inch of rain earlier on.  But it all dried out this afternoon so we walked around 3,200 steps (according to my smart watch).

I nearly forgot another few things I get up to, mixing, bottle washing, bottling and drinking ... my home brew of course.

After this morning's downpour the pool is now full again and with the water temperature remains around 22° or 23°. There are possibly only a few more swims left in the season after a bike ride.

It's a little sad when the highlight of the week is Pizza on "Cheap Tuesday" or Fish n Chips for tea.  But they become the week's highlight. Another highlight was when the BBQ ran out of gas and I had to drive to Bunnings for a refill, big day that one!

So life just ambles along nowadays.  I get to mow the lawn for a spike of excitement or even vacuum the pool whether it needs doing or not.  Or I jump online and find a few more titles to download and add to my online library.  My doing this gets to put a smile on a few friends faces and I get a buzz out of that. I even tidied up the floor in the garden shed which needed doing badly.

Both Trish and I are guarding our $750 each from the Prime Minister and mull over what to buy!  EBay gets a good look most days and I only buy really worthwhile stuff, like another 4TB portable hard drive for the movie and TV Series library stuff I have.  Trish grabbed a great grater adapter for her recently purchased food mixer.  Thanks Scott!

We will finish the latest series of Bosch tonight, a fantastic TV series.  Then it will most likely be "Anne with an E" or something else I have grabbed from online.  My brother down there in Victoria calls it "Channel Les" which I rather like.  People say 'Have you got this series Les?"  If the answer is "No", I usually add, "Give me an hour or so and it will be available".  That's the sort of challenge I enjoy.

So we are both well if a little bored.

Finally it is beginning to cool off.  Even recently it has been to bed with the fan on low and just a sheet.  We've possibly had 2 nights where we have slept under a quilt so far this year.  With the rain this morning and then mid 20's this afternoon, it will be warm and humid again overnight I suppose.

The problem with my thumb and pointer on my right hand continues.  An MRI exposed swelling around the top of my spine putting pressure on some nerves affecting my right hand.  I am looking at dry laser or needling to try and improve it.  It has improved albeit so slowly over the last few months.

My hearing aid has needed to be replaced in my 'crook' ear and boy it has made quite a difference.  Now I have to remember to wear them both!

So that's it for the Thomas family in Caloundra.  Both of our organizations are in lockdown giving us a spell from that stuff, a spell I am rather enjoying I must add. 

Flu jabs must be due soon I suppose.

Whoa, it's after 4 pm and alcohol beckons.

The Coronavirus and Living in SEQ!

Well I guess it is the same as everywhere else.

In some ways we are fortunate in that we are retired.  I guess it is the same here as it would be anywhere else in Australia.  In some ways we are fortunate in that we are retired and don't have some of the issues people need to cope with who have a job to go to.

So large groups of people both indoors and outdoors are now banned, unless you are a school of course.  Are schools just glorified 'baby sitters'?  It seems so!  Ah well, let's sit up straight and absorb it.  The Prime Minister states that children are less likely to catch Covid 19.  Bad luck for the school staff though but I guess they are 'expendable'.

Trish's Art Centre Association is continuing to remain open but numbers attending have dwindled.  The same can be said for my Computer Club as only the diehards now make the effort to get along.  I'm guessing this will possibly mean our Community Association will need to modify how it operates and our Management meetings should continue but I suspect our Public Meetings will be put on hold!

The internet continues to hum away so a major interest of mine continues unabated!

So now for a summary of everything.

We have enjoyed visits from our daughter Kate and the grandchildren.  To say the grandkids had a ball up here would be an understatement.  Between the beach and the waves and then back to the pool here at home seemed to be the daily program.  Theme Parks, sight seeing drives and other tourist things were put on hold and it was back to the beach and back to the pool for them!  And for the week they were here the sun stayed away a little making days at the beach great.

And then a couple of weeks ago there was another knock on the front door and it was our daughter Kim making a surprise visit for Trish's birthday.  Wow, what a wonderful surprise it was.

It seems any of our planned trips down south will be all put on hold until Christmas. With travel advice restrictions coming in to force and the virtual shut down of AFL footy because of the Covid 19 curse, travelling any where seems a bit pointless right now!

While Kate was here she talked us into updating our outdoor setup under the pergola.  You can see the outcome in the photo above.  Yes it does get a bit wet at times but give the material 15 minutes or so and all is dry again.  It wasn't cheap either so you would expect stuff to dry quickly.

We've had one of the hottest summers ever up here with very hot days and mid to high 20's overnight.  It has been a stinker and the air con has had a bit of a workout.  Pool temps of around 32° were really just too hot for swimming.  It wasn't bad for a quick swim before hitting the hay though!

With the new air conditioner in the bedroom we ensured a couple of very hot nights were OK for us!

With the outbreak of the virus and the resultant huge hit in our super savings, getting the new car and updating the pergola furniture will possibly turn out to be blessings in disguise.  They are now all bought and in use.

Having a couple of smaller supermarkets quite close to where we live means getting any sort of supplies isn't really a problem for us ... yet!

The fall out from the storm late last year continues.  Repairs continue all around the place.  We had our little car written off but others have had damage done to their homes.  Many tin roofs are dented meaning the whole roof is replaced.  A friend has had the metal window frames pitted from the hale and all to be replaced.  A couple of dents in your tin shed and insurance will replace it.

No wonder insurance costs will rise this year!

We are both well and doing quite well despite the situation with the virus pandemic!

And we hope you are too doing it all pretty comfortably as well!

Car Delivered .... Finally

Despite promised return phone calls that never eventuated, the bending of facts by the Sales Co-coordinator despite being too busy to get back to us, we have now taken delivery of the new Honda HR-V with all hail damage fully removed.

We first went in to pick the car up around mid December as I mentioned in my previous post.  A cheque was passed over, car registration completed and we were chatting away to the sales person.  I mentioned we were planning to have the hail damage (the 7 dents indicated to us on first seeing the car) when the sales person mentioned the dents on the bonnet!  We hadn't noted any dents on the bonnet!

We hastily headed over to see the vehicle which had now been fully detailed, all new and shiny! The detailing now revealed the hail damage was more extensive than we had first feared.  There were multiple minute dents across the bonnet that we could now see.

It was mentioned that they had a dent repair guy repairing many of the vehicles at the request of their new car owners.  So we joined the list, paid over an amount to have all dents fixed prior to our taking the vehicle.

The pickup date was set for January 2nd, soon after our return from Melbourne for Christmas with the family.

We contacted the dealer ship upon our return for the January 2nd pickup.  Oh no, you have the wrong dates said the sales coordinator.  Our salesperson was enjoying her Christmas break and was not contactable.  Your car will be ready Monday January 6th we were told!

The salesperson returned from her holidays on Tuesday 7th and rang Trish immediately.  Our car was to be ready for collection at 3 pm that afternoon. Being fully repaired by the dealership meant the car would be sold to us as a 'new' car an meant we could now get new for old replacement insurance.

Trish was very keen to drive it everywhere until after either the first or second trip there was a nasty white paint scrape on the back door where a car door had been opened onto it!  A little bit of polish soon had that all sorted.

Our trip to Melbourne was tinged with some sadness.  Eddie Riordan was a principal of mine when I taught at Hampton Park East.  We always got on very well and remained in close contact after we had both retired.  We always catch up with Eddie and Patsy usually for a Vietnamese meal at Springvale.  I rang on a Friday to set a date for our outing when Patsy answered the phone and told us Eddie had passed away early that morning.

Eddie had had body parts replaced, survived heart surgery and numerous other health issues so he had done well to get to 85 years.  Trish and I attended the funeral which was a full Catholic affair.  A couple of other colleagues were in attendance so we kicked over old stories from days gone by at the wake.

Christmas with the family was great and we caught up with everyone.  It was extremely enjoyable.  On the drive down we spent a short time with Mick and Janet in Newcastle.  It is always great to catch up with them.  Mick enjoys his beers and introduced me to Balter Doctor Sensible, a mid strength Pale Ale.  Very very nice I must say!

We drove to Melbourne this time and again used our now 12 year old Hyundai Sonata.  It handled the job perfectly and being a 6 cylinder car, passing triple layered B-Doubles was a breeze when traffic permitted!  Just put your foot down and off you go and all with space to spare!

Right now we are looking forward to Wednesday of next week when Kate and the two grand kids come to stay for 6 nights.  It will be pool, beach, eat and sleep for those 6 days.  We reckon they will love it.

Then a few days later Trish and a girlfriend are off to Melbourne and will keep an eye on Kim's St Kilda flat and the cat while Kim heads off to Bali.  They will have Kim's car to use and will get to the tennis for the Australian Open as well I am sure.

I will stay back at home and watch it all unfold on TV.

My sister and Peter live at Omeo Victoria which is in the recent zone for serious bush fires.  They are keen caravaners and loaded up their van and fled the area when they were advised to evacuate..  The fires were close to Omeo and we are hopeful that everything escaped the fires and their home on 20 acres is safe and sound..