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.

On Our Way Again

Here is a photo of the gigantic Asia Mall in Manila.  It was a very pleasant part of our recent trip to Manila and the Philippines.

So we have returned to Caloundra and I have been reminded of how much I dislike overnight flights.  Despite a couple of sleeping tablets, I really only managed to doze.  Trish believes she got a couple of hours sleep during the 8 hour flight from Manila to Brisbane.

Neither of us has pulled up overly strongly after the trip.  I have dropped around 5kgs and still not a total 100%.  Trish is worse than I am having suffered yet another relapse!  She says she is OK but I know differently.

And we are on our way again, this time we are flying down to Melbourne to spend Christmas with the family today.

It seems I didn't give the garage remote to the neighbour who keeps an eye on our place while we are away, instead I gave him the remote to the car.  He has pressed the remote key to open the garage, the garage hasn't opened but he did open the car boot .... and activated the boot light.  So it has been on for around 2 weeks.  The car battery is as dead as!

It has been recharged at $20 a pop but there is no guarantee it will start upon our return from Melbourne. Kim is collecting us from the airport in Melbourne and will drive us out to Kate's in Berwick where we will be staying.  Needless to say we will drive via Springvale and the Vietnamese restaurants there.  Fortunately, both Trish and I have our hunger back!

This time I am taking the new 'old' laptop I was given so I will be able to compute almost as usual.

I have put all the Messenger pieces together and have created a single lengthy blog post on the trip to the Philippines.  Over the next few days I might even go back and add a few more photos. You can relive the trip in the post below.

We expect to return to Caloundra a day earlier than we had planned, on Sunday Dec 30th.

As much as we will enjoy being with the family, I am sure neither Trish nor myself will sorry to get back home for a prolonged period of time.

Our Trip to the Phillipines

Fri: That's the view from our hotel room in Manila. Great to be met by Peter and Vecy, made things so much easier. 

Hotel room is small but WiFi runs at 45mbps. 

Vpn works great and can watch Foxtel 501 and the cricket. Quiet day today checking out surrounds. Out sightseeing with Peter and Vecy tomorrow. It's true what they say about traffic in Manila.

Sat: The photo above is Fort Santiago, built by the Spanish 500 years ago. It was the scene of numerous major events from the time of the Spanish, the British, the Americans, the Japanese and eventual independence. It has scene many gruesome events. It was an interesting visit. Eating here you will find it difficult to find local food. There is Chinese, Taiwanese and others, but Filipino is hard to find. Last night we ate Taiwanese and found it cheap and good. Tourist info is hard to find. We can't find a decent tourist map of Manila but we found there is a hop on hop off bus which we hope to check out tomorrow. Today we will walk again and check out our area to the south of the hotel.

Mon:  As the photo shows the traffic in Manila is nearly always heavy. We were on our way to eat when the photo was taken. We've been looking to book a day trip to Corregidor after the wedding when we return here. Tourism isn't a high priority here. Some of the reviews of the day trip paint an unpleasant picture. You get there via a 90 minute boat trip on small narrow seats. One reviewer suggested sea sick tablets. Lunch would be provided but again reviewers are less than complimentary. It can be great when you get there but at $70 per head it sounds risky. On Sunday we visited the largest shopping mall here called Greenbelt. It was not only huge but packed to the rafters. Another interesting experience to add to our list. Grab is the Uber of Manila and it works great. It was around $3 for the 4km trip. Picked up where you want and delivered back to the hotel. We may try and visit China Town today. I'll talk more about how this place is missing out big time on the tourist dollar.

Tues:  Took a ride to Manila's Chinatown yesterday. A 10k ride took the best part of an hour. We hit 60kph once, rest was stop go, few road rules but not an accident to be seen. Interesting to see the other side of Manila. Poverty and unbelievable living conditions. Our meal last night was Filipino and fantastic. Adobo and a spicy baked fish. From there to a bar where I chatted with 4 older guys from Saudi. They had 3 buckets of 6 stubbies in front of them. Had a great chat. Today meeting with Peter for lunch. Looks a bit wet outside today so hopefully a little cooler rather than the low 30's.

Thurs:  Tummy bugs have hit us the last couple of days, nothing serious but enough that I didn't eat for 24 hours and today was very quiet when it caught up with Trish. I came good in time to get to Peter's Buck's night for beers, fried chicken and local fare last night. The venue was 6ks away which took me 90 minutes to complete via narrow single lane back streets through very poor areas. It was quite an eye opener. Trish is still not eating today which left me to spend the day at the hotel using my VPN and Foxtel app to watch the First Test from Adelaide. Phone plans are interesting here with it being quite expensive to call from one network to the other. Data is the most important as you contact from network to network by Viber or Messenger. I will change to Trish's network so we can easily call each other. So we head to Tagaytay tomorrow, a 60k trip which should take a couple of hours by a Grab car if the traffic is OK.

Fri:  It's pretty here in Tagaytay. Trish is feeling better and may even eat something later. The wedding is on in 40 minutes, that's the backdrop for the ceremony. 

Just beautiful. It took 3 hours to do the 60ks here from Manila. Traffic is unbelievable.

Here we are into our final day at Tagaytay. Trish is feeling much better while I have had a minor relapse. But we had a great Filipino meal last night with Vecy's Filipino family, Peter, Jarrod, another airforce mate and ourselves. Trish was careful with what she ate but I wasn't. 

Sat:  My tummy concerns from last week reappeared but all seems on the improve now. We will get out for a bit of a walk after lunch after hitting the credit card machine. 

Now getting back home to Australia is four nights away and after our health issues here that can't come too soon. 

But the weather here is cooler than Manila with an ever present breeze. 

We are fairly high up in Tagaytay and the view over the lake is fantastic.

Mon:  That's a local Tagaytay Shopping Mall in the photo, a quite upmarket sort of a spot. So all the wedding guests have departed and gone their ways. We bid them all farewell this morning leaving us the final group to head off which we will do tomorrow. I have managed to sort the taxi driver who drove us here to come back twice so far to drop others at Manila Airport for their trip home or elsewhere here in the Philippines. We walked well over 1.5ks to that shopping mall for a quick look around before traipsing another 1.5ks back to the hotel. It seems I may have recovered somewhat following from this morning's severe tummy hassles. But as we are about to head out for a small evening meal only time will tell. We suspect we have the least expensive room in the Lake Hotel. It is 6:30pm right now and there's another wedding on, yes on a weekday Monday. Our room is almost shaking from the loud music and the yelling of the female MC. Oh what the guests had to put up with on Saturday night. Yeah, you're right, I've complained (hoping to get moved to a better room) but have been assured the celebrations will be over by 8:30pm. So we'll duck out for a very quiet and lengthy bite to eat and get back around 8:30. Tomorrow it's back to Manila if our taxi man turns up at 10am.

Tues:  Driving from Tagaytay to Manila. Maps app says 16 miles to go and it will take 86mins. A 2hr 15min drive and we are back in Manila and as you can see we are in the process of booking into our hotel. Looks OK for $80 or thereabouts per night. 

Check in is 3pm and we are way early, the result of not knowing what traffic would be like getting here. Looks like lots of interesting places to check out by foot nearby.

Weds am:  Two more nights to go. Good morning from Manila. It took around 2 and a half hours to complete the journey from Tagaytay through some heavy traffic. This hotel in Manila is the best we have stayed in for sometime. Plenty of multi national power plugs, heaps of room, a couch, nice bathroom setup, comfy bed, everything that Trish and I look for. And you can see the view from the 12th floor. It is in the middle of the University area and we have discovered one rule, alcohol is not available from nearby convenience stores. 

So the leftover duty free rum makes a reasonable alternative. Beer from the mini bar is a little over $2 a stubby so is still OK. We have both been careful with what we have eaten and have found a small Asian restaurant specialising in Asian Street Food which is cheap and the food is light. This suits right now. We had a walk around after eating last night and cannot believe the sea of humanity that met our eyes. There were cars of all shapes and sizes and a mass of people everywhere. It was an incredible sight to see so much going on at 8pm on a Tuesday! We made our way back to the great hotel and spent the rest of the night quietly. We will be out on foot again today, after testing the hotel breakfast.

Weds pm:   So far today we have been out twice for walking. It's pretty hot out there so we've welcomed coming back to our great hotel for drinks and a cool off. More importantly I found a 7 eleven that sold beer and at 49 pesos (or around $1.30) a can for 500ml Tiger Strong Black 6.7% I grabbed several cans. It is even difficult to walk along the street here because in some places there isn't a footpath while in other places the footpath is broken or so narrow there is room for just one person. Crossing the road is another new experience. You just decide to go and that's it. Slowly but surely you get across the road, putting your hand out to slow a driver down. I've usually got Trish in tow and she isn't a willing street crosser. Stop and you're gone so you just press on. So far we've made it OK. We are both looking forward to Saturday and getting home. Tomorrow I reckon we'll try Grab hire cars again and check out another nearby shopping mall. Any sort of luck I'll find another beer selling 7 eleven store!

Thurs:   I just hit the wrong bloody button and lost about 5 paragraphs of what I've typed. So this post will be in stages. We fly home tomorrow night around 11:30 PM. As we both haven't been 100% health wise, we are way under our budget. $50 for a late checkout seems a no brainer so that is what we will do. As you can see from the photo it is showery here today and heaps cooler. 
Last night we caught a Grab Car back to the first hotel we stayed at and a nearby Taiwanese restaurant which had some great food. We had prawns, dim sums and dynamite prawns. It was delicious. I only wish I felt more like eating. Despite being off color, I still managed a couple of 500ml cans of beer so I'm not really on my death bed so to speak. But it was good to get out.

Yesterday we got out walking a couple of times but 33 and 80% humidity made it tough work. We've now walked in all directions and still find it difficult to see stuff. Lousy footpaths, zillions of cars, incredible traffic and steamy weather is not conducive to sightseeing. We will check out yet another shopping mall this afternoon. It is an $8 Grab car trip away and should fill in the day nicely. Luckily we have a great hotel room, heaps of space, a comfy couch, neat bathroom with hot water, it's really great. And this is the least expensive place we've stayed! But isn't that the way! More tomorrow (before the cricket).

Fri:   Finally things seem to be on the improve regarding our tummies. Beside is a photo of last night's meal, pork sisig (great) and spicy chicken. The restaurant held 14 in the air con section and the bill including a jar of iced tea was around $6. It was enough for us to eat still remaining a little wary. Earlier in the day we went to the Mall of Asia. Now this is a shopping centre with everything.
The centre was huge. It had eateries everywhere, one was a version of McDonald's but it sold pretty good Chinese food. We doubled up on the pork dumplings. There was a technology section with shops selling apple, Asus, lenovo, Oppo and other brands. I drooled.
All the big brand names were there as well so it was a great place to check out. As many of you know, I buy our phones online and usually Chinese brands. Currently we both have Xiaomi brand phones, one of the largest phone companies in China and said to be bigger than Apple. There was a Xiaomi shop there as well so I checked out the latest models and grabbed a set of headphones
Understandably we are both a little squeamish this morning after eating out last night but having just had a light breakfast things have turned out OK. It is showery here again this morning but we are planning a quiet day today. We fly out at 11:30 tonight and get to Brisbane around 9:30 am tomorrow. Our 6pm late check out will mean I should get to watch a fair bit of the Second Test today. Next post will be from sunny (wet) Queensland.