Rain Clears ..... Finally!

At last we have some brighter weather without the rain.  Just over 200mls has fallen in this last episode, that is another 8" of rain in the old scale. So far the total for 2013 is over 900mls, or 36".

Again our little house escaped unscathed, no damage and all the water gets away as planned.  Actually since we have added the drain to the new concrete area, storm water now gets away about the best it ever has from our little spot here on the Sunshine Coast.

Yesterday we finished up having lunch at the local Bellvista Tavern.  The meal was OK and there was heaps of it.  Both Trish and I had the Chicken Schnitzel along with a "Parma Topping" and pepper or mushroom sauces.  I had a beer and Trish enjoyed a wine.  When we eat this way at the local Tavern it all goes on a "Tab" and you pay via credit card at the end of the meal.

Leftover roast chicken in bread rolls was more than enough for tea last night.

We watched 'Silver Linings Playbook' last night where Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress at the Academy Awards.  It was a great story and she was excellent in the movie.  Jackie Weaver was in it as well.

Trish headed off to Stitchers this morning (Weds) and left me to do some bottle washing for my next home brew bottling.  I wanted get the bottles dry because there was a little sunshine about outside.  Unfortunately when filling the laundry trough with warm water I couldn't turn the hot water tap off.  Warm water continued to run from the tap.

I managed to turn the hot water off at the hot water service.  However I had to get the tap fixed so I rang the plumber guy I do movies for.  Then I rang St Andrews Care to get them to pay for his labour.  He should get around later this morning and fix it.  Hopefully the tap only requires a replacement spindle and should be straight forward enough to fix.

I had to turn the water back on again for my shower and then off again after I finished!

I managed to get the bottle washing done OK.  I bought even more bottles and another mix of the Black Ale I like yesterday when Trish and I were in Caloundra.

I also had a chat with the guy in the Home Brew Shop about sanitizing the bottles.

Nowadays most home brewers mix up a litre or so of the sanitizer into a spray bottle and then give each bottle a good spray and a whisk around with the sanitizer.

The sanitizer is such that it doesn't require a quick rinse afterwards.

So right now all is out in the backyard drying slowly!  I will probably bottle around Saturday!

This afternoon I have the Final of the Ryobi Cricket One Day Cup being played at the MCG between Victoria and Queensland.  The forecast for Melbourne doesn't look too good so I am not sure how much cricket there will be.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Update:  Terry the Plumber just called in and all is now fixed!

More Rain

The rain commenced overnight.  By 7:30 this morning we had 51mls in the gauge and it continues to rain down outside.  The pool overflow is taking the excess water away from the pool and the new concrete area and the drain we had put in continues to work very well.  The sky is grey and the rain continues to tumble down.

We have been told to expect around 200mls in this lot with perhaps another system to again bring rain later in the week.

Needless to say it isn't cold and I have the ceiling fan whirring above me as I type.  As you could probably guess it is quite humid with all this rainfall.

The picture (click on it for a larger view) shows that poor old Caloundra is right in the middle of it all.

Trish has an Arts Centre Association Meeting this afternoon while I will watch the cricket again from India.  Our team sure has a fight on its hands to stay in this match.  My remote control finger is recovering slowly from a battering it received yesterday switching between NAB Cup AFL matches and the Test Match in Chennai.

I have a BeCA Public Meeting to chair next Monday.

It looks like today will be spent inside again.  I managed to get a brew on yesterday but the next task will be to find some fine weather to get the refill bottles dry after I wash them. I still need another 5 empty bottles so I have the full quota required for a bottling.  I don't foresee this as a huge problem to solve.

Quiet Sunday

Computer Club was busy again yesterday with helping people with their laptops and computers.  One lady I was helping was after TV Series files.

To get your own downloads of files you need several things.  You need the links to see what is available, you need to know what is worth downloading and what isn't, and you need the bandwidth in your Internet Plan to give you the capacity to download.  If you have a 2GB plan, you only have enough to download 1 movie!  For any realistic downloading you probably need a minimum of 20GB per month.

I have re-jigged the right hand side of this blog with several new sections.  "Finding Good Downloads" lists 7 sites I visit daily just to see what is available.  I check both the movies and TV shows.

The 8th link is to TVFreeload, another great source for downloading TV shows.  You must register to enter the TVFreeload site. 

"Movie/TV Series Reviews" lists the sites I visit to see what is being recommended to watch.  Probably the best link is to the TV page of the UK's 'The Guardian' newspaper.  Crime Time Preview is OK too.  Metacritic is a US based website that gives 'scores' to new TV shows and I find this a handy site as well.  Of course there is also Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) as well which gives reviews and viewers 'scores' for TV shows and to Movies.  Anything with a score above 7 on IMDB is probably worth watching!

The 3rd new section is "Turbobit".  Turbobit is a Russian website that stores uploaded movies and TV Shows and you need to pay to have full speed access.  It isn't the biggest file storage website around but with a bit of a search you may find a Turbobit Link to a file you want.  The 04 Turbobit HowTo is a link to download a pdf document which shows how you may be able to download from Turbobit without paying!

The 05 Mediafire etc link will allow you to download another pdf file which can tell you some other download for free 'tricks'.

Last night's "Casserole and Cocktails Night" has caused both Trish and I to look forward to a very quiet Sunday!  Both of us are moving very slowly this morning.  It is extremely humid with the promise of more heavy rain tomorrow which isn't helping us either.  We have already had a couple of brief showers today.  It has brightened a little outside.

I am hopeful of getting another brew on this morning if my inclination to do so returns!  Plenty of cricket and footy on TV again today and I am just in the mood to sit down and watch it all!

All Is Quiet

It is Saturday morning and things continue relatively quietly.  We did venture to the RSL with friends Kerrie and Ian on Wednesday night.  For your birthday the RSL gives free meal, a free drink and free cash for the pokies.  Kerrie also has a February Birthday so we all set off to use up our freebies.  A great night was followed by a quiet and sombre Thursday.

The hot weather has left us and now daily tops are around 30 degrees and around 20 degrees overnight.  This has made a dramatic effect on the pool temperature as well.  The temp is around 22 degrees in there most mornings.

So far this year we have had around 30" of rain which is enough to half fill the pool!  The excess water (and salt) drains away into the street.  Therefore the chlorinator was telling me to toss another bag of salt in on Friday to replenish the salt level.  A bag of salt costs around $8.

I felt my hearing aid wasn't working properly so I popped into my Audio Clinic to have it all tested and adjusted on Friday.  When I jumped back in the car to drive back home I dropped the volume back on the car radio!

Lots of cricket and footy on TV at the moment so plenty to keep me occupied.

We have a casserole night on tonight in lieu of our Friday drinks yesterday.  It should be lots of fun!

Time to head off to Computer Club!

Did You Hear About The Horsemeat In Tesco Burgers?

Within hours of the news that Tesco's  'all beef hamburgers'  contained 30% horse meat, these quips hit the Internet:

o   I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse … I guess Tesco just listened.
o   Anyone want a burger from Tesco? Yay or neigh?
o   Not entirely sure how Tesco are going to get over this hurdle.
o   Waitress in Tesco asked if I wanted anything on my Burger … so I had a £5 each way bet!
o   Had some burgers from Tesco for my tea last night … I still have a bit between my teeth.
o   A woman has been taken into hospital after eating horse meat burgers from Tesco. Her condition is said to be stable.
o   Tesco are now testing all their vegetarian burgers for traces of unicorn.
o   I've just checked the Tesco burgers in my freezer ... AND THEY'RE OFF.
o   Tesco now forced to deny presence of zebra in burgers, as shoppers confuse barcodes for serving suggestions.
o   Said to the missus, “These Tesco burgers given me terrible trots."
o   To beef or not to beef. That is equestrian.
o   A cow walks into a bar. Barman says, “Why the long face?”. Cow says “Illegal ingredients, coming over here stealing our jobs!”
o   I hear the smaller version of those Tesco burgers make great horse d'oeuvres.

These Tesco burger jokes are going on a bit. Talk about flogging a dead … Agggghhh NO! NO NO NO!  

And last but not least —

Have you tried Tesco Meat Balls? — They’re the dogs bollocks!!