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!

Testing 1,2,3!

Yes we are still alive, well and kicking.

At last we've had a few mls of rain, around 30mls in total I guess with the heaviest being 11mls overnight last week.  The lawn, the gardens and the pool all got a top up and a water.  But there hasn't been any showers to mention for 3 or 4 days now and the grass is beginning to yellow off again!

It has been low 30's almost every day over January with just the odd day dipping below 30 in February.  By the time I am finishing my bike ride at around 7:30 am, it is nudging 27° and it's pretty sticky! 

I don't think this summer has been as hot as some others we have had up here.  There was only one day we turned the lounge room air conditioner on so far and that was yesterday!  Not that it was a hot stinker of a day, it was that we put together a flat pack computer desk for Trish and we needed something to keep tempers cool!

But the two of us together sorted it out.  It is only a cheap thing, something where Trish can spread herself out a little bit when doing her sewing or Secretary role work for the Arts Centre Association.  Now she can easily access the fan controls and get more value from the ceiling fan as well. It is an Aldi Special.  The most difficult part was putting the drawer runners in the correct way.

But the illustrations from the Instruction Booklet helped a little bit along with some calculated trial and error.

We tossed out an older 32" TV, a small computer table on wheels and the table which held the TV.  The TV went to the tip but the other two items were collected by a neighbour this morning off our front lawn.

I'm still doing my Presidential chores for the Community Association, keeping the website up to date and getting the first Newsletter for 2019 ready to print.  We've had our first Management Committee meeting for the year and the follow up onto the website has occurred.  We are dropping from 8 newsletters per year to 6 and that just takes some of the pressure off.

Most days are around 33° in our small hot backyard, the pool got up to 32° one day and I continue to bike ride most days.  There is a brew on (as usual) and I will be bottling on Wednesday.

Our NBN internet connection continues to fly along and we always have too many TV series to watch.  There are some good movies in there as well.  We especially enjoyed "Bohemian Rhapsody" so get along and see that one if you get the chance.  BBC in England has been busy with new episodes of Vera, Silent Witness, Call The Midwife and Endeavour which has kept me busy downloading.

And there is heaps more downloads that I grab on the way past as well.

Trish is out and about a fair bit during the week with here CACA stuff.  School holidays are now well and truly over so it is safe to drive into Caloundra again.  Just so you can compare, Caloundra over Christmas is a bit like a poor man's Rosebud down in Victoria.  It is crowded and very very busy.

Travel plans for the year have been put on hold a bit while we get over our trip to Manila and the associated bad tummies we picked up.  It took till around mid January before we were totally over it.

We are driving to Melbourne for the first two rounds of the footy which is all we have thought about at this stage.

But we are both well pretty busy and enjoying ourselves here on the Sunshine Coast!

Another Week

It is getting a little like Darwin up here, the weather forecast hardly changes from day to day.  Max around 32°, Min low 20's and plenty of sunshine.  And that's the way it has been almost every day.  We did manage a ml of rain overnight some a few sections of lawn don't crackle beneath your feet until around lunchtime when the little bit of rain we had has all dried up.

The water evaporation rate out of the pool means a top up from the hose every three or four days.  The pool is around 30° most afternoons and 27° first thing after a bike ride.

Now I have downloaded and begun to use a 'new' bike riding app called Openrider.  I have downloaded a picture of the screen and as you can see it gives you the speed you are doing along with your current distance travelled and average speed.  Unlike the pic, my screen is all kilometres.

I have found the 'Average Speed' readout a bit of a trap as I push myself to better the average speed each and every trip.  I now aim for an average speed of around 18.5 kmph.  I did an average speed of 19.5 kmph on a 15k ride the other day and it almost killed me.  On top of being absolutely (very tired) straining to maintain the extra speed also has thrown my back out!  I am back to the Chiro again early next week.

To cart my backup bits and pieces around with me I have bolted an $8 plastic box from Bunnings onto a KMart Bike carrier rack.  I have since decided to upgrade and bought a pannier carrier bag and a new pannier carrier rack.  The bag has zips everywhere with bits that open up to provided added storage.

The side bits unzip and a 'pannier' bag (or deep side bag) opens up for added storage.  The new carrier rack has added guards so the pannier bag is kept away from the rear wheels.  I bought both on eBay.  I nearly fell over when the carrier rack was delivered.  There were heaps of nuts and bolts in a plastic bag and no instructions on how to put it all together.

But as you can see I got there with great help from Trish.  If Trish hadn't have been there is suggest the bike rack would have finished up in the pool!

We are both well (except for my crook back) and getting involved with our local Community organizations again.  I almost have a Newsletter to do but we have decided to cutback on Newsletters to 6 per annum rather than the previous 8.  It just takes some of the pressure off needing to get something done.

Trish has a "Market day" to sort on Saturday so that will keep her busy.  There is a little tennis left to watch and there is some cricket as well.

With the Academy Awards not far away we are getting quite a few 'screeners' to watch.  Screeners are lower quality (but perfectly watchable) copies of movies which have been nominated for awards.  these copies are distributed to judges all over the world so it is no surprise some copies finish up 'online'.  Bohemian Rhapsody has been the best we've see so far.  The Green Book, Vice, The Wife, and there are more that we have enjoyed recently.

So all is going along nicely at the moment!

Heatwave, What Heatwave!

Interesting to hear that some places down south are featuring newspaper articles about heatwaves, extended days of temp temperatures over 30° with overnight lows around 24.  That's a pretty normal summer weather for us up here!  Humidity has usually been somewhere between 50% and 60% so not as bad as it can get.

The pool runs at around 29° mid afternoon and 26° or so first thing in the morning!

Our front lawn is yellow and the dead grass crackles beneath your feet!  So we need a drop of rain as well.  The pool needs topping up as well every 3 or 4 days as evaporation can be quite high at this time of year.

We have recently had the ceiling fan in the lounge replaced and the new model sure beefs out a huge flow of air which is fantastic while sitting back enjoying the cricket or Australian Open tennis on TV mid afternoon.  And the Waeco fridge just outside the back door full of drinks and home brew is handy as well.

As we flew to Melbourne this year we were pleased to receive Gift Cards as gifts.  I totaled up around $160 worth all up but one was for Rebel Sports, or Drummond Golf, or Supa Cheap Auto and BCF Outdoors.  These are all places I just do not go to and I have no need to travel there either.

Trish doesn't get to those places either so it seemed the gift card could not be put to any use at all.  Surprisingly, my $34 'smart watch' from China had some issues with the battery and recharging.  It was a great buy for the cost but it seemed it wasn't meant to last a long time.  BCF had cheap 'smart watches' for $30 but I have now been burnt with one for $34 from China.

So to the internet and over several days I checked around to see what was available from those stores.  I noticed a Samsung Fit2 Pro was available from Rebel Sports for around $200.  Bing Lee, an electrical store in Sydney had them for $149 and I later discovered Rebel had a 'price match policy'. So at around $99 from my own pocket and using the gift card and price match I grabbed one.

It does what the $34 watch did and much much more.  It just works so much better, much less hit and miss with apps and everything just works as it should.  A reputable manufacturer as well as good back up and support from Samsung I am very pleased with myself.  It works along with my Android phone which now has the Samsung Fit2 app installed and gives me heaps of fun and a wonderful new toy to play with.

Oh and by the way, my watch is all black and not the color in the photo above!

Back at Home Again in 2019!

So the Christmas and the New Year has come and gone once again as we embark on 2019!  We are both almost 100% again still suffering slightly from a hangover of around a month out of our own bed and still not quite 100% after our Philippines Tummy hassles.  Just as you reckon everything is great again and your tummy is all OK again, then you have another off day.

Our time in Melbourne was well spent getting to our favored eateries and enjoying ourselves. The tummy problems I spoke about above weren't enough to impact upon us while eating, if there was going to be a reaction, most likely it would hit us the next day.

Our family Christmas Day was a lot of fun for everyone.  There were lots of laughs, plenty to eat and great to spend time as a family once again.  Christmas with Arj's family was great fun as well.

We got down to Drouin and caught up with 'the crew' again and enjoyed a great meal all together.  We had laughs and remembered old times and ate and drank too much.  But then it was Christmas wasn't it?

On another occasion we caught up with good friends Graeme and Pat.  They have a very comfortable and cozy 2 bedroom unit in a 'gated community' in Berwick.  They are always good fun to catch up with!

I managed two full days at the Cricket test match on Days 1 and 3. The Aussies were pretty ordinary for much of the series but I did enjoy the days out.  Though $11 for a pint of "Wild Yak" was a little on the steep side.

With thanks to nephew Peter we had "Stand By" fares for our return flight to Brisbane.  And more good news, the Hyundai started first go upon our return.

Most days here are around 30° at the moment, not too hot but warm enough to head into the pool.  I have been back on my bike again the last couple of days clocking up around 15k's on either day.  This usually finishes with a dip in the pool for a cool off.  Another odd dip or two happens across the day again just to cool off and to enjoy what we have.

I am beginning to get my head around Community Association business for 2019 and have additions planned for the website for the next week or so.  This will then ensure I have enough stuff to put the first Newsletter together for 2019 sometime early in February!

So things are getting back to normal slowly but surely.