At Last, Some Wet Weather!

January is usually one of the wettest times of the year around here.  But it has been very dry since the middle of 2012.  Today there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon as wet weather has set in.  So far we have had around 25mls or an 'inch' in the old scale.  But we need heaps more.  There is hardly a blade of grass on the front lawn.  The last time it was mown was before we went to Melbourne for Christmas.

So today's steady soaking rain is very welcome indeed.

I was just about to jump on my bike for my morning bike ride when the first drizzle began.  Right now there is steady rain still falling.

I helped a guy buy a laptop recently.  He got one with an i5 processor, plenty of ram, 750GB hard drive and a 1GB video card.  It had an RRP of around $800 and he got it for $660. It was a Windows 8 machine as well.  Along with it he bought himself a wireless modem router.

He asked me to set his laptop and his wireless network up for him.  Windows 8 doesn't have a "Start" button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen which is where people have always accessed all things for their computer!  So the first thing I installed was a Start Button for Windows 8!  From there on things were easy.  Today I popped around to his place with his setup laptop and together we setup his Local Area Wireless Network.  Now he has a wireless network to which is connected his old and new laptops as well as an old PC he has.  He can also use his mobile smart phone now as well to access information, updates etc from his network. Finally his wireless printer can now be accessed all over his home.

The guy is also the plumber who works for St Andrew's Care which provides free services to us pensioners!  I had told him we were probably after a new mixer tap for our kitchen.  To show his thanks for my help with the laptop he bought me a new mixer tap.  I now have only to ring St Andrew's Care and he will fit it for me at no cost to us.

Yesterday two other guys from the Computer Club popped over to get some movies and see how I was able to obtain movies.  It was lots of fun.  One of the guys had a new Windows 7 laptop.  I was able to help him out with software for it as well.  One of them brought me a can of home brew mix while the other makes his own spirits.  He is going to get me a bottle of his bourbon.

Brian over the road just bought a new 2TB hard disk drive and I piled all my movies etc onto that for him.  This morning I popped over to his place and set it up for him.  Now I can easily update his movies etc onto the new hard drive and then transfer them wirelessly to his hard drive attached to his media player.

Last night we journeyed with friends to the Curry Bowl Restaurant for a night out.  The food was a big hit with everybody.  We got home around 10:30pm after some extra drinks at Ian's place.  It was a stinker yesterday so Trish and I spent the best part of half an hour relaxing in the pool prior to heading off to bed.

Along with today's rain has come much cooler temperatures.  It is a pleasant change after so much relentless hot weather.  The decision to take the gazebo down late yesterday afternoon was the right thing to do.  More wet weather is expected over the next three or four days.  And the ground certainly needs plenty of rain!

Farewell Termites!

It is a little cooler today, a couple of degrees less than yesterday's warm 32 degrees or so.  The wind is light and blowing from the east, straight in off the sea.

Regretfully the wind is across from the new housing development so our home needs to remain locked up with windows and doors shut to keep the dust at bay.

Is it any wonder we enjoy it here.  These couple of photos were taken on my ride this morning.  The top (above left) photo is of Pumicestone Passage right near our popular fish 'n chip lunch spot.  It was a beautiful morning when I took this photo.  All up it was a 13.5k bike ride for me.  Meanwhile Trish has been bike riding as well and she did over 40 minutes as well this morning.

The second shot seen here is a narrow pathway I follow away from the beach just as I head for home.  It is a very pretty part of the world.

Not a lot of other news about right now.  Trish stayed awake last night until it was 6 all in the fifth set of the Wawrinka Vs Djokovic tennis match.  I adjourned a little earlier at 2 sets all.  The water for my pre-bed swim in our pool was sensational last evening, around 28 degrees in the water and just delightful and cooling.

It is a little noisy right now.  The Pest Control people are back today drilling holes to fix the two 'breaches' in our termite protection.  Our patio and driveway are both built 'above' the termite protection barrier which allows the little animals entry into the home.

Holes are being drilled along near the front door as well as all along the back wall of the house and the soil beneath is force flooded with chemicals which kills termites. This will act as a barrier and keep the little pests out!

Click on all photos for a larger view.

Summer Heat

We have continued to move between the TV (with the tennis and cricket being shown on it) and the pool the last couple of days.  Yesterday was a little warmer than usual but the ceiling fans and the pool keep things under control. It was a little sticky though with the humidity level up.

Friday afternoon we interrupted our sport viewing and ventured around to friends Ian and Kerrie for drinks.  We sat under their gazebo in the back yard chatting away and enjoying a few drinks.  As it turned out, my missing the One Day Cricket Match between Australia and Sri Lanka wasn't a problem as Australia played very poorly.

I had Computer Club on Saturday and was busy with laptops, android phones and android tablets.  One lady had a new Windows 8 laptop, the first time I had any experience with the new operating system.  It could take some getting used to as it was different to anything I had worked with before.

You can install a small program which makes Windows 8 operate like Windows 7, i.e. with a start button and regular Start Menu.  I think that is what I would be doing.

I do like power boards with individual switches.  This gives me complete control over everything I have plugged into them.  I can determine what is on and what is off. I have a couple of large 8 plug power boards with individual switches which I use for the Computer and add ons and another one for the TV and entertainment equipment.  I noticed a 6 point one for around $20 when we were in Melbourne and nearly grabbed it as a spare .... but didn't.

I was doing a little re-organising of things yesterday and decided I needed an at least one 4 point individually switched power board so I headed around to our nearby Bunnings store.  I found a four point one at $16-20 which was around the going price from what I had seen.  Below that was a twin pack, two 4x switched power boards for $16-60!  Needless to say I grabbed them.

The photo is lifted directly from the Bunnings website, 2 of these for under $17!

Both Trish and I have completed our bike rides today.  I did around 13k's while Trish did a good 30 minutes on her bike. We both had a quick swim in the pool to refresh after the ride in the morning bright sunny warm weather.

Yesterday we had a brisk northerly blowing all day instead of the recent easterly wind.  The pool did not require any cleaning this morning, it was still perfectly clean.  Had the wind have been back to the east and blowing dust in off the new housing development, the pool would have needed cleaning a couple of times!

Warm Friday

The last few days has been typical Queensland summer weather.  The top temp has been either 29 or 31 degrees while overnight has been down as low as the high teens.  All very pleasant.  Regretfully there has been little or no rain at all.  So far we have had 8mls altogether for this month.

As the weather warms the wind swings from the east to the north.  Recent easterly winds earlier this week mean we have been getting a lot of dust from the new land development across the road. 

This means we need to be careful with the doors and windows being open when the easterly blows.  Today we have a northerly so the dust isn't an issue.

The PC is running beautifully since its recent problems and hasn't missed a beat. Hopefully it will remain like this.

For the last few days we have been moving between the TV and all the sport, the pool, and in front of our computers.

Trish's Friday Group Quilters doesn't begin again until next week.

We did pop out for a little shopping expedition yesterday.  Trish grabbed a new bike, down to $249 from $449 from our nearest Goldcross Cycles store.  She had a good ride on it this morning and loves it.  After riding her other bike which was around 5 years old and hadn't been used regularly, this one is a dream to ride.  She is on a bit of a fitness trip at the moment and bike riding is an acceptable method of exercise.

I needed to go to Maroochydore for a couple of things.  I wanted to check a couple of things with my phone and our nearest Virgin Mobile shop is there.  The best news I got was that when my 'contract' period is over I can pop any SIM card into it and it should work.

We bought lunch at the Food Court at the main Maroochydore Shopping Centre.  For the first time here on the Sunshine Coast I found some Char Kway Teow available from the Chinese eatery there.  Next time however I will order Singaporean Style CKT as they 'doctor' the dish for Australian tastes.  The cook is from Singapore so he knows how to cook it properly!

Later we popped in to the larger Maroochydore Aldi store.  They had a great bucket and mop deal going and we found a few other odds and ends there as well.

This morning I have been around to Terry the plumber's home and I have spent around $800 dollars for him.  He looks like he is going to buy a new laptop for around $700 and a new wireless modem router for around $90.  I guess I will be helping him set it up if he grabs them later on today.

We have drinks this afternoon so I will be away from the telly and the cricket and the tennis.  I will need to keep up with scores on my phone.

24 Hours Later

I am again happy and contented.  The PC took an extra 24 hours than first expected but it is now back home and running OK.  There are a few times over the last few months when the PC freezes during startup.  This happens around once every two or three weeks.  A restart gets it running fine again. Needless to say, when the tech guy first re started the PC after replacing the blown power supply it froze on startup.

This led the tech to want to see what the problem was.  He has managed to fix this sort of problem with other PC's previously with just a good clean up inside, dismantle the pieces, clean everything and then put it all back together again.

So the PC has had the power supply replaced and had a good clean out inside.  Dust and humidity spikes are major contributors to computer problems especially around where we live.  The replacement power supply was $110 and I was charged a further $66 for labor.  I reckon I have done pretty well!  It is repaired and I have had a major clean up as well.

Trish is back into the full swing of Stitchers again.  They have their first meeting for 2013 today.  At a major Committee Meeting on Monday Trish has been offered either the Secretary's job or the Vice President's role for the whole Caloundra Arts Centre Association.  She is thinking about what she will do.  It is quite a feather in her cap to be offered either position.

Movie and TV Show downloading has been quite frenetic the last few days with lots of new series restarting, especially on the UK's BBC.  This wasn't helped by the end of my Internet Month.  Having been in Melbourne for two weeks of the last month, I had heaps of download available to me.  I managed to get through 95% of my monthly quota!

They had a "Curries" night at the Bowls Club last night.  I had a curry while Trish had roast lamb.  My serve of curry wasn't overly generous and Trish found her roast lacking flavour. 

A cool S/E change swept in on Monday afternoon.  Yesterday was a cooler 28 degrees and today we are looking at around 29.  There was no need for the ceiling fan while we slept last night.  The pool has slumped to 24.5 degrees overnight.  It was almost 32 degrees in the pool on Monday!

They are suggesting 35 degrees for Saturday but a cooler day should follow.  The gazebo will go back up again for that.

Usually January is one of the wettest months.  So far this year we have had a mere 7mls of rain such is the dry weather we have been having.  With everything so dry the dust off the new estate nearby is a constant problem when the wind is from the east.  Doors and windows need to be closed just to keep the dust out on these days.

There will be more tennis and cricket on TV today so that will keep me happy!