A Quick Trip To Melbourne

My cousin who passed away on Friday night is to have his funeral on Friday August 19th late in the morning at Fawkner Cemetery in Melbourne. I have flights booked to Melbourne on Tuesday and I plan to return home on Saturday.

Direct flights to Melbourne out of Maroochydore start at $265 one way. We usually pay around $100 if we book way ahead. Return flights are similarly priced. Flying out of Brisbane with Qantas saves over $200 return!

I arrive in Melbourne from Brisbane on Tuesday around 4:30pm and will be collected by my brother and stay with him Tuesday overnight. I will get to our daughter Kate's home Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon will see me head to Hallam and visit Gordon and Anne Atkin. I will most likely catch up with our other daughter Kim for a meal in Springvale that evening. Thursday will be spent making quick visits to friends around the Berwick area and I will head out for an evening meal in Clayton with Kate and family!

I will attend the funeral Friday morning and enjoy a few 'afters' with relatives. Then it will be to Chris and Wendy's for Friday night and finally to Tullamarine Airport for a Saturday early afternoon flight back to Brisbane.

I hope you enjoy the joke in the post below.

US Recession

I hope you get a laugh out of this one! It gave me a chuckle or two.

The recession has hit everybody really hard...

My neighbour got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

CEO's are now playing miniature golf.

Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.

A stripper was killed when her audience showered her with rolls of pennies while she danced.

I saw a Mormon with only one wife.

If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.

My cousin had an exorcism but couldn't afford to pay for it, and they re-possessed her!

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

A picture is now only worth 200 words.

When Bill and Hillary travel together, they now have to share a room.

The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now managed by Somali pirates.

And, finally....

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Hotline. I got a call centre in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

It Was A Text Message

My cousin Phillip passed away last evening in Melbourne. I am still to book flights down at this stage but I will wait until there is some confirmed news on when arrangements will be.

Phil passed away at 7:20 pm Friday night. He did not survive an operation to remove a growth from his liver. His brother Garry along with Marie were with him. Garry lives around 160k's north of us and drove down to Melbourne to be with Phil during the operation.

I expect to possibly fly down to Melbourne on Tuesday and maybe stay with my brother Tuesday night. Then hopefully I can get to Kate's and stay there Wednesday and Thursday nights. Finally I would stay with Chris and family on Friday before flying back home on Saturday.

All these arrangements are still to be confirmed.

The loss of Tiger Airways flights into the Sunshine Coast has meant a huge increase in airfares. I guess I will paying twice the price I would have expected to pay. It also means there are no cheapish direct flights from the Sunshine Coast so I will be forced to travel to Sydney and then onto Melbourne. It appears my best bet is to fly to Brisbane on my return on Saturday.

Continue To Wait

It is rapidly approaching "Decision Time" with my cousin. He remains unconscious. He was due for a brain scan today where a decision on which way they would go would be made. Phil left instructions not to be revived is his quality of life would be too affected.

It is possible he could be left to allow nature to take its course.

Trish is busy at Quilters this morning and is out to collect more Census Forms this afternoon.

I will sit at home and wait for the phone to ring!

A Quiet Day

The phone still hasn't rung with any news, all I hear is that things are the 'same', no better but no worse. We can continue to keep our fingers crossed.

People who have visited us here know of all the electrical equipment I have around our TV setup. There is the TV itself, a set top box so the TV can have all the digital channels (these come built in to TV's nowadays), we have the Amplifier which looks after all the audio and speakers, there is a DVD player and the Austar PayTv receiver. On top of this we have a HDMI switch so I can connect everything to the TV via HDMI leads and an audio switch to send the sound from each of the components to our wireless headphones. And of course I have the WD TV Live Media Player as well to play back all the downloaded movies and TV shows!

This is eight items and each one has its own remote control!

To make things easier I bought and setup a Harmony Remote Control which takes over from all the other remotes. I bought my original one on eBay but later (pre GFC) bought an upmarket model for almost $300. I have since bought a brand new same model replacement again off eBay but only paid $85 for it.

You can get much better models nowadays but my older model does all I need it to do. A mate had a 'top of the line' Harmony One remote he wanted to sell for $50. His wife didn't like to use the Harmony One so he hardly ever used it.

Yesterday I grabbed it off him. Unfortunately he cleaned the plastic soft touch rear of the unit with Eucalyptus Oil which has had a detrimental effect on the plastic. It has become sticky so I will cover that soft touch back panel with 'contact'. To get me through until I get the new plastic contact I have used some plastic packing tape and it works fine. However the clear plastic contact will be better.

The new remote is certainly a step up from what I had been using. It has 'touch screen' controls and seems much more intuitive than the one I had. I have it all set up now and I am delighted with it.

Another glorious day today with a cloudless sky and an expected top temp of around 23 degrees. I am spending the day quietly today, no rush, do things when I want and just move along slowly!

As you can see from the photo left it was an extremely pleasant day today for a bike ride. Trish has organised a bus tour today for 25 ladies from Stitchers to Cooroy to the the old time movie theatre, a lovely lunch at the Cooroy RSL and some time in a couple of craft shops there. She was a little disappointed with the roll up but it will still be a fantastic day for those who go.

Last night Trish popped out for 30 minutes to help a non English reading Polish family fill in their Census form. As last night was Census Night she will begin in earnest to collect her area's Census Papers tomorrow.