I Should Be Back "Online" Late Tomorrow

Our 'Air Con' day yesterday (Saturday) was very pleasant.  We had endured an oppressive night on Friday with a low of around 26 degrees and plenty of humidity.  The air con went on around 9 am yesterday set at 27 degrees and stayed on all day!  After Computer Club I came home, found my way to my chair via the "Waeco" and watched Tennis and then some TV.

The outside temp dropped to 27 around 7:30 pm so it was then we opened the house up.  It dropped to under 24 degrees overnight and was much cooler.  I even woke and dropped the fan speed back as it was a little chilly under the sheet.  It is warm again today but at least the house cooled down last night so there should be little need for the air con today.

The PC has been diagnosed with a blown 'power supply'.  A replacement has been ordered and will be fitted Monday morning.  Then the computer will be further tested to ensure all components are unaffected and should be available for collection later Monday afternoon.

The warm weather meant Friday drinks poolside were enjoyed by all.  The others arrived around 3pm and didn't leave until well after 8pm.  It was enjoyed by all.  The photo shows John enjoying the hospitality, his home brew and the pool!

We loved the tennis on TV yesterday with Hewitt and Tomic both winning great finals. Today we have the One Day International cricket match from Adelaide beginning early afternoon.

The nominations for this year's Academy Awards started me into a downloading frenzy the last day or so.  The other night we enjoyed "Skyfall" while last night we watched "Argo".  I also have Les Miserables, Lincoln, The Sessions, Hitchcock, Django Unchained and a couple of others to watch.  However with the tennis now on who knows when we will get to them.

The third Mrs Brown's Boys episode for series 3 should be available soon as well.  We will find time for that!

Shock Horror

The worst possible thing has happened.  I went to turn on my PC Friday morning and ..... nothing!  It appears the 'power supply' has died.  A replacement power supply will be fitted Monday and hopefully I can get it back Monday afternoon!  Then there will be a bigger update on the last few days.

The heat has really hit the last few days and is forecast to go on till Monday when we can expect some relief.  The overnight temps are around 26 degrees which is unseasonally hot for here.  Days are around 33 and humidity is about 65%.  The pool is a popular spot.

However at 8 am this morning even the pool was just under 29 degrees.

The air con will be on today and we will plant ourselves in front of the TV and watch some tennis.

Our Turn For Summer Heat

Slowly but surely we are sliding back into our Queensland lifestyle.  The Test Cricket is now over and things are beginning to get back to normal.

I am often the butt of jokes when I am asked what do I want for Christmas when we trip down south. I usually answer gift vouchers would be fine by me.  This year I received 4 gifts for Christmas, 4 gift vouchers totalling around $160 in value.  I was after a 3TB external hard disk drive so I could store my entire downloaded movie collection in just one place.

3TB external hard disk drives usually cost around $160 as a RRP.  However JB HiFi had them on special at $118, a saving of over $40.  Needless to say at that price I snaffled one up straight away.  Quite a bit of time since our return from Melbourne has been spent copying files all over the place.  It took well over a day just to move all the movie files but now everything is backed up and in place.

The second day home my computer looked like it didn't start up properly.  Actually it did start, what didn't start was the PC monitor.  The connection from the PC to the monitor has always been a bit 'iffy' and this turned out to be the problem.  The HDMI Mini 'adapter' had failed.  This was no problem as I had several DVI cables which would do the job just as well.  It took a little messing around, numerous rude words and some time on my back under the computer table adjusting cables but eventually it all worked.

I am back on the bike again doing my 12+ kilometres per day.  The weather has been delightful with temps around the high 20's and the wonderful sea breeze coming in each afternoon to cool things down.  Most nights we don't even have the bedroom ceiling fan on.  However the hot weather many southerners have been feeling is expected to hit us today with a top around 35 degrees before the sea breeze comes in again later in the afternoon.  Then we are in for a week of 30+ temperatures and amazingly for this time of year, no rain.

The other $42 left from my Christmas vouchers bought me three boxes of new home brew bottles.  I am continuing to get rid of 90% of my older home brew plastic PET bottles and replace them with new ones. The new ones only need a quick rinse out and they are ready to use.  A new brew of Lager was mixed this morning and should be ready to bottle early next week.

Click on all photos for a larger view.

Our daughter Kim and her new friend Mick (living here in Queensland) popped in for a quick visit on Sunday prior to Kim jumping on a plane to head home to Melbourne and work.  It was great to see her in our neck of the woods.

Our 'new' area at the back where we replaced the small garden has been wonderful.  When in Melbourne I was asked if the new concrete meant everything was warmer.  By mid afternoon the back fence creates shade so the new work has not made any noticeable difference to the comfort level of the backyard.  The pavers under the clothes line are in the sun nearly all day and they can sure be hot at this time of year.

We also have the gazebo up at the moment and this too means there is always substantial shade for sitting throughout the day.  By midday the shade from the gazebo gives us plenty of shade.  I use the beach umbrella to give us shade over part of the pool.  Yesterday I spent an hour hour or two just relaxing in my inflatable pool chair in the shade in the pool.  I repeated this after 4pm but this time had a lovely cold 'black ale' in hand!

Last night Trish and several of her friends tripped into Brisbane to see South Pacific.  It was a very enjoyable night for them.  I was forced to sit at home and watch Big Bash cricket live on TV.  I too enjoyed my night!

I didn't ride this morning.  Instead I was up by 6:15 am washing the car.  It was covered in 5,000 kilometres of road grime, dead insects and dust!  It was a much bigger job than I had first thought.  But the car looks fine again now.  It travelled those 5,000k's very comfortably without a problem.  The next job was to put a brew on and finally to clean the pool and the filter.  It was all done by 8:30 am and the following 15 minutes spent soaking in the pool was sensational.

Trish is out for lunch with 'the girls from Stitchers', I again will setup the umbrella and launch the inflatable chair into the pool and spend an hour or two relaxing and waiting for the sea-breeze to come in!

Car Insurance

I want to bring people up to date with a small tactic we tried yesterday regarding our car insurance renewal.  At the moment we are with Youi Car Insurance.  We found they gave us the best deal as we could select and choose the features we wanted for the kilometres we do.  When we first joined Youi our car insurance bill was cut by over $100 from our former insurer.

Last year our car insurance bill for the Hyundai was around $490.  Needless to say we were surprised when this year's bill was closer to $530+.

So I decided to give Youi a call.  We had already found an alternative company which could do our insurance for $440 but with a $600 excess, $150 more than we currently had.

By the time I had voiced my disapproval to Youi 'renewals' on the $40 increase, our revised bill was downgraded to $415 for what appears to be the same coverage as previous.  That is a saving of around $120 and all for a 10c phone call!

(Our phone calls cost us 10c as we use voip for some Australia wide landline calls.)

Trish and I are feeling much better after a full day at home recovering from our Christmas time away.  I will probably ride my bike tomorrow as the weather here is remarkable pleasant when compared to much of the rest of the country.  We didn't even bother with a fan over us last night in bed and I decided not to have a quick dip prior to bed as it was a little cool.

We expect a nice 29 degrees today but I will be spending much of my time in front of the TV watching the cricket.

Last night we watched Skyfall and the first episode of Series 3 of Mrs Browns Boys.  The movie was pretty good and we had plenty of laughs from Mrs Brown.

Home Again

Despite being totally worn out I will give a quick update on what has happened since I last posted on my blog page.

As you can tell we are now home having driven around 850k's from Newcastle yesterday.  Many of the northern NSW towns along the coast were very busy making our trip home a little longer than we liked.  We arrived home around 4:45 our time, or 5:45 Daylight Saving time.  Kempsey was slow but we were very slow stop start through Macksville.

Extensive roadworks north of Coffs Harbour also slowed us.  Then there were the ultra careful drivers doing 80 in a 110 zone with a stream of vehicles behind them which also made the drive a little longer.

We left Melbourne around 7 am on Monday and arrived 730k's later in Goulburn at around 4pm.  The motel was magnificently positioned within walking distance of clubs etc and also boasted a great shower.  The rest about the motel was extremely disappointing!  We didn't sleep well.

On New Year's Day we left Goulburn for Newcastle and arrived there around 1pm.  It was a leisurely drive.  It was less than leisurely when we arrived with friends Mick and Janet at their home. 

We were made to feel extremely welcome and had a great time with them.  Too much to drink and eat again and lots of laughs and chats.

On the following day Mick took us to a 'Company Apartment' situated overlooking Newcastle Beach.  It was delightful, a wonderful spot and a very comfortable residence.  Mick works for Arrium which was formerly a part of BHP.  Great view isn't it?

We visited a couple of the newer touristy venues situated along the river.  We believe we will possibly drive down again for a better look around Newcastle.

My computer started OK upon our arrival back home.  However it wouldn't start this morning.  Or it did start but there wasn't anything on the monitor.  I have been able to fix it but it took some time and some inappropriate language but in the end everything works agin.

There won't be much eating or drinking going on for a couple of days still I reckon.

I still aren't ready to give my daily bike riding a go just yet, more quiet time watching the cricket is on the agenda.

Click on each photo for a larger view.