The Heater Is On!

We arrived in Melbourne mid afternoon yesterday and after being collected by our daughter Kim we went to catch up with 'the lad' Chris and family. They live quite close to Melbourne Airport and we always drop in as soon as we arrive in Victoria. It is great to see the grand kids again and visit family. Emily looks rather proud of herself in her new 'fairy dress' that Trish gave her and Andrew just loves the drum kit he made for himself as a part of a school assignment. We enjoyed our roast pork meal very much too!

We left there about 8:15 and drove over to Kate's arriving there soon after 9pm. After a long chat it was time call it quits and head to bed.

This morning we caught up with Kate's two, James and Charli. Charli looks pleased to see me again and James below just loves his banana. as I type the heater is on and we expect today's top to only reach 19, a huge change to the weather we have been experiencing back home. It is grey and overcast outside. This evening we are off to Drouin to have a Christmas function with friends.

Something strange seems to be happening to my Blog Page as far as the layout is concerned and my "counter"! I use "Firefox"as my web browser, it is much safer to use than Internet Explorer. However recently the 'Counter' disappeared. I even had problems getting to the website that gave me the counter! So I swapped it around the other day and got myself a different one. If I look at my page in Internet Explorer (I.E.), I can get the 'old' counter to work and I can get to the Counter's home page too. I used to be able to get the 'new' counter to work too, but now I can't see it either when I use Firefox. At one stage I could get both counters together in I.E. but nothing in Firefox! This is weird!

I have put the "Statcounter" one back again. In Firefox you don't see it but in I.E. you do!

Down South

We are due to fly out this morning at 11:50 our time from Maroochydore and due in Melbourne at 3:10 in their Daylight Saving Time. We are due to be collected from the airport by our daughter Kim and we will spend the early part of the evening with the lad Chris, his wife Wendy and Andrew and Emily. We will then drive to Berwick where Kate lives by about 9 pm. A warm day is in store here with a real hot one tomorrow. Melbourne is expecting a few showers and tops in the low 20's for the next few days.

Christmas with all the family will be great and I am looking forward to getting to the Test Match cricket after Boxing Day. It will be good to catch up with friends too but I am certainly looking forward to getting back to the heat and the pool from early January. The scene here is at the "Bellvista Lake", looks pleasant doesn't it?

The Christmas routine begins Friday night when we journey down to Drouin for a night with friends.

My next post will be from Melbourne!

Getting Packed

We have had westerly winds the last two days and though the weather is still warm, the humidity has dropped. Yesterday I saw we had a top temperature of 31 but the humidity level was only 21%. It was quite pleasant sitting outside and jumping in the pool from time to time!

We again rode this morning. Then it was to the Chiropractor to sort out a few aches and pains.

I also grabbed 30 minutes or so and began packing for the annual Christmas trip to Melbourne on Thursday. They are having cool days down there so I packed underwear, socks, long trousers and other articles of clothing I don't wear at this time of the year in Queensland.

Melbourne is expecting temps in the low 20's and showers every day for the next week. It is one place which really needs the rain though!

Sunday's News

Summer has arrived with a bit of a vengeance the last day or so. The local weather station is situated at Maroochydore Airport about 30k's north of us and right beside the beach. Therefore temps recorded there tend to be a little cooler than what we get at Bellvista being 4k's from the beach. And yesterday was one such day. The usual summer's day sees the top temperature reached late morning before the sea-breeze kicks in. There was only a slight sea breeze yesterday and we really didn't get any of it all. Therefore the day remained HOT! Maroochydore recorded 35 degrees. At 11 pm the temperature was still about 27 outside.

We rarely use the air conditioner here but yesterday afternoon was an air conditioner day. Generally the ceiling fans are enough to move the moist air around effectively cooling everyone! However we both slept well under our ceiling fan last night! The pool got to 27 yesterday and we spent most of the day beside or in it! Despite it being about 26 degrees at 7 am this morning I headed off for another bike ride, this time I just took my time. The early morning shade from numerous trees makes the ride a pleasant but warm experience.

Upon arrival back home it is into the pool, clothes and all! A refreshing swim soon has things cooled down again and it is time for relax pool side. Needless to say, the installation of the pool several years ago was a great investment for us!

This is a new community here at Bellvista and the developer Stocklands has arranged for the creation of a local Bellvista Community Association. I have attended a couple of meetings and I have suggested the association requires a presence on the internet. I have created this temporary web page for them. It is very much in 'draft' form at the moment and still requires some features to be finalized. For example, the new logo isn't finished just yet!

Thursday's News

Things have been busy since my last post. I have completed yet another bottling and my reserves of beer are getting back to where they should be following John and Barry's visit several weeks ago. The hot weather up here hasn't helped my supplies either! This is not my best photo either!

I continue to ride most mornings clocking up at least 10k's per trip. This is always followed with a swim. Now the Magpie swooping season is over I can move into some other areas again. One of my favorite spots to go to is Little Mountain Common. At about 7 am half the area is covered in shade makes makes cycling very comfortable. I also ride past a small pond pictured below! It is all very pretty indeed.

There are other pretty spots I ride through too. It is just great riding through the trees in the cool of the early day!

We had a drive down to Caboolture to visit a new business taken up by our former neighbours, Andy and Naomi. They have recently taken over a Pet Supplies store. The current economic climate is making things tough for them. However they hope to get through it all unscathed.

Then on Wednesday I spent much of the day helping a Computer Club Colleague setup his new PC. Needless to say I had a great time. Trish went to her "Stitchers" Christmas lunch yesterday too.

These are the last blocks for sale on our estate. Prices are around the $300,000+ mark! Great views from here though!


Today is a bit of a catchup day. Most days are bright and sunny with temps in the high 20's. How "hot" it gets depends on the level of humidity. The pool gets to 26 degrees most days. Monday was cool with about 26 but it has been steadily warming up since. Rain is expected overnight Saturday. We get severe weather warnings most afternoons but generally the storms do not happen! We do know that the storms tend to build up over the days so eventually the storm will come.