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..

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!