Life Goes On

We could sure do with a drop of rain. We arrived home from Melbourne on July 20th. Over the next few days we recorded 12 mls of rain. Since then we have not had a drop. The lawns and gardens are beginning to show it too.

Though not under water restrictions here in Caloundra, our Brisbane cousins have their dam capacity now at under 17% and severe water restrictions are in place. Many people around here have also become water conscious and nowadays just don't water their lawns and gardens in 'sympathy'.

Despite a cool morning (8/50 degrees) we set off on our daily ride albeit a little later than usual after it has warmed up a little to about 20/72 degrees. (Fahrenheit figures are for the West Texas connection!). We did about 10 k's today through some very pretty pathways beside now dry creeks and over bridges. It is an extremely pleasant way to begin the day (as these photos show).



We had a kookaburra land on the garden shed today. This is good news. Developing areas such as ours with few established trees etc seems to scare the birds away. It seems now as the area becomes established again, the trees are growing enough to attract the birdlife back.

Footy was great over the weekend.

Not A Lot Happening

All continues quiet on the Sunshine Coast front!

Downloading movies off the internet continues at a frenetic rate. Converting .avi files into DVD files continues. Surfing the internet to find more movie download sites continues!

Watching the footy most of the weekend on TV continues.

Enjoying beautiful sunrises such as this one continues.

We are slowly ramping up our bike ride distances and this morning I clocked over 11 kilometres. Magpie swooping season is almost here when parent birds swoop bike riders and some pedestrians to keep them away from their nests and new born young. You get one heck of a fright when a magpie swoops you, you don't see it coming and all you hear is the sound of bird wings then a high shriek. They tend to fly past you from behind almost touching your bike helmet. More aggressive birds will peck you on the head or around the ears as they scream past you.

Trish recently bought a cyclist's safety flag which she will put onto the rear wheel thus creating some protection from low rear swooping birds. I will use cable ties attached to my helmet again.

I will put a few photos up of our defence strategies when the swooping season arrives!

Lateral Thinking?

A mate sent me this yesterday. I love the logic:

No Nursing Home for Me

About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a princess liner.

At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone by the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room.

I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady.

I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told that she owned the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the last four cruises, back to back.

As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to say hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship for the last four cruises". She replied, "Yes, that's true."

I stated, "I don't understand" and she replied, without a pause, "It's cheaper than a nursing home".

So, there will be no nursing homes in my future. When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day.

I have checked on reservations at Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:

1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.

2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast in bed every day of the week).

3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night.

4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.

5 They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.

6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.

7. T.V. broken? Light bulb needs changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience.

8. Clean sheets and towels every day and you don't even have to ask for them.

9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.

Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go? Princess will have a ship ready to go so don't look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship.

P.S. If you die they just toss your body over the side of the boat.

What A Glorious Day!

A max temp is expected here of about 25 today. Not a cloud in the sky!

A perfect day to wash the bottles getting ready to bottle the two lots of home brew I have brewing at the moment. Two brews means twice as much bottle washing is required but I have got that down to a fine art nowadays. A little over an hour and 60+ bottles have been washed, rinsed, sterilized and then rinsed again. Currently they are drying out in the backyard!

It is amazing how a bright sunny day can put a spring in your step and make you want to get out and do things.

As we both still have a few signs of our colds we waited till the sun was well and truly up before heading out on a shortish bike ride. Trish hasn't ridden for almost 6 weeks so we are easing back into it gently. Her knees were a bit wobbly when we got home yesterday! Today she was certainly better.

Movie downloading continues. Last night I downloaded the Academy Award winner "The Departed" and tonight I am aiming for "Notes On A Scandal". Trish has put in a request for Robin Williams in "Man Of The Year" so I guess that will be overnight tomorrow!

Our new neighbours will only be there for about 6 weeks. They are originally from Switzerland and are returning home to work for his father. This has been a long time family commitment for them.

When they return to Switzerland, the house will be available for the wife's father to move in and live there permanently. Meanwhile the house on the 'beach' side of us which has been empty on and off for 6 months is being prepared for sale as well. It is always great to know there are neighbours about. It makes everone feel a little easier.

Quietly, Quietly.

Not a lot happening.

A couple of shortish bike rides is about all. I continue to busily download movies from the internet. The quality is quite reasonable (at least as good as what we get on satellite pay TV). We recently enjoyed watching "Mr Brooks" with Kevin Costner. A couple of nifty surprises at the end of the movie ensured we enjoyed it very much.

Movies are usually downloaded as an .avi file. These have been converted from the DVD format to make them easier to download because of the file size of a full DVD. A converted .avi file is about 20% of the size of the original DVD. I then use a program called ConvertXtoDVD which takes about an hour to create the DVD files and then burn them onto a DVD disk.

Most of the downloading of the movie occurs overnight when my Broadband Plan gives me a special 'off peak' download allowance. I have found another little program called Internet Download Manager which allows me to 'program' the movie download to happen after midnight.

Let me know if you want either of these programs and I will get them to you at no cost.

Today we purchased a quick to fit bike rack so we can take our bikes a little further away and enjoy some rides along the coast. The rack model we bought sells quickly so we had to get in early in the month to ensure we got one.

My new home brews are bubbling nicely and I expect to be bottling early next week. I guess bottle washing is on the agenda in the next day or so.

A cloudy day today but with temps about 24. They are expecting up to 27 on Saturday.