Tidying Up

By 10a.m. this morning I had completed my 12.6k bike ride, washed all my home brew beer bottles ready to bottle the latest brew and had a quick swim.  It isn't too hot a day today but there is a fair bit of cloud about and a top temp is expected to be around 28 degrees.

Our small house on a small block is great for our time of life.  We have minimal ongoing maintenance to do and a fantastic back yard with a pool and a lovely shady area.  For the climate here, our backyard is ideal.

However the area is small with limited storage space and only a single garage.  We squeeze as much out of each square metre that we can.  The garage has hooks everywhere with odds and ends hanging from them.  It has some 'home made' shelving which, though serviceable, doesn't look a million dollars.  It can be a bit of a squeeze getting things stored away.

It isn't easy to cart stuff from the boot of the car through the garage and into the house, especially with several bags of heavy bulky grocery shopping.  You are forever rubbing up against brooms and other items hanging along the garage walls and you need to be careful not to knock them off.  Then there are my fishing rods as well!

As of today all of that has changed.  One entire wall of the garage has been cleared of hooks which previously held mops, brooms, cleaning implements, lights and who knows what.  Even my fishing rods have been moved.  Now as you carry those bulky items into the house from the boot of the car you have nothing to knock against or partially block your way!

I am forever looking at ways to make brewing my beer easier.  I have a 'tree' on which I put my bottles to dry.  It is great as I can easily carry all my newly washed bottles and the tree in one hand to place in the sun to dry.  As good as the tree is, some water still pools in the neck of the bottle and doesn't all quite drain away as I would like.

The bottles don't quite sit erect enough to drain every last drop.

This isn't a problem on hot days but when the cooler weather comes it makes drying the bottles a bit more difficult.

Soon after we arrived up here I found a small piece of security grill which I have now 'setup' as a bottle drying rack in the garage.  It is kind of suspended from the wall and works perfectly.  When placed in this drying rack the bottles sit more upright and therefore drain much better.  It will be ideal when drying bottles in the cooler months.

An added advantage is the height I have set the drying rack at.  I don't have to bend over to put bottles on and off the rack.  It is fantastic on my back!  I reckon what I have done is sensational.  Regretfully Trish isn't quite as excited about it as I am.  I guess she sees it as more junk cluttering up the garage.  I don't!

The rack comfortably holds all my bottles for a single brew with some space left over.

After the bottles have been washed and left for 5 minutes to drain, they are transferred to the 'tree' and placed outside to dry!

Today is the final day of finding some sport to watch on TV on the weekend.  The AFL footy gets underway on Friday and we are looking forward to it all getting 'officially' underway!

Laptops!

I assisted a couple of people at the computer club with their purchase of laptops recently.  They seem pretty happy with their purchases but have needed some follow-up help to get the laptops doing what the people want them to do.

The new laptops require anti-virus, other Malware programs, Microsoft Office in some cases and all their photos etc brought over from their old laptop to the new one.

Then also they require help with Skype, setting up their network, emails etc.

Since Thursday I have done 3 of them, each with their own little hassle of something which didn't work properly.

I don't like to be paid for doing what they want done, instead I suggest they add a 'donation' to my "Tab" at the local Home Brew Shop.

People have been so thankful that I now have a balance at the Home Brew Shop of around $130.  Another person just left an envelope at our home with $50 in it.

One job next week will be to head to the Home Brew Shop and update my supplies. I would suggest $130 at the Home Brew Shop would buy me enough beer mix for around 4 months!

I tell them they should buy a laptop with at least an i5 processor in it.  Most come back saying that usually a laptop from Myer, Harvey Norman etc with an i5 is over $1,000.  Yet all of them have picked one up with an i5 processor in the $600 range.  Dick Smith often have specials over a weekend so they are worth keeping an eye open for.

Another got her laptop from JB Hi Fi.  The price on it was around $750 but she told the guy she only wanted to spend as much as her solar energy rebate cheque of $637.  She bought her i5 laptop for $638!

Today I am off to Computer Club for more computer stuff!

Tomorrow I expect to be a bottle washing day and I will possible bottle the latest brew around Tuesday at this stage.

A New Day, A New Brew!

What a difference a day makes!

Much of the last 24 hours has been spent recuperating!  Another 11 mls of rain overnight put a stop to any thought of bike riding this morning.  There was a quite a heavy shower outside when I checked the weather soon after 6am this morning.

Today is Trish's birthday and we won't go into what age she is but our financial arrangements take quite a turn in response to this birthday.  Trish is at her craft group Stitchers this morning and I recently had a call from her saying she and a couple of the ladies are heading out for a cheap lunch at the RSL to celebrate.

I did get another brew on this morning.  This one is also a 'gift' and is an Australian Black Ale.  Again it is one I have never tried so a new taste sensation is in store.

There was such a head on the brew after mixing and stirring this morning I ladled some of the froth off so I could get the lid closed!  It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Click on either photo for a larger view.  Then click on the "X" in the top right hand corner to return to this page.

Our sun shelter in the backyard impressed our recent visitors.  Mick said on first look he thought it could get very hot under the tin roof.  He was pleasantly surprised at just how cool it was when sitting there.

As this photo shows there is a blind at the western end of the shelter to keep the hot afternoon sun at bay.

As you can see when it rains the water just runs off the roof and over the new blind leaving some marks.  These marks wash off fairly easily.  A guy came out today and quoted for a pelmet to cover the blind and I gave him the go ahead to get it done.

Hopefully the new pelmet will be up and providing protection for the blind in around a week.

I have another meeting this evening around 5pm.  It should be over by 7 as I am keen to back home and settle down and watch the cricket again from South Africa.

Friends from here where we live returned to South Africa to live a couple of years ago.  We both have installed "Whatsapp" on a phones and had a good old chat last evening.  They live around 80k's north of Cape Town where this Test Match is being played.  It was good.

Whatsapp let's you send a SMS type message via the internet from phone to phone..  It worked well.  This is no big deal here in Australia but when you begin to send SMS messages overseas it can be costly.  Via Whatsapp the cost is greatly reduced!

Recovery Mode

I am in recovery mode for two reasons.  Another great day with our visitors yesterday and a very hectic public meeting for the Community Association last night.

We took Janet and Mick for a great lunch at Headland Gold Club yesterday.  We again had the old faithful, the Parmigiana, while our friends had a steak and seafood.  Our meal was again scrumptious.  They enjoyed their meals as well.

We had a few beers but not too many.  I was vary wary of the meeting I had to chair last night as I knew it was a hot topic.  How right I was.  We had around 80 at the meeting which is a huge crowd for us.  Many were extremely angry and just wanting to vent their frustrations on someone.

We managed to get through the meeting OK.  We were short handed as a couple of our Committee Members were away and their wives who pitch in and help with tea and biscuits were unavailable.  I am not sure how we did it but we managed to get through OK.  Someone from Stockland had borrowed/pinched 15 or so of our chairs so it was literally standing room only.

The local press were there as well which kept the pressure right on me chairing the meeting.  I was still 'hyper' when I got home and took an hour or so to settle down again.

Janet and Mick left to stay overnight in Brisbane several hours ago (just before lunch Tuesday) and then will travel on to the Gold Coast for a week on Wednesday.  It was great having them stay but as usual will be nice to get our house back again.

I need to put another brew on tomorrow though.

We were going to ride this morning but 10mls of overnight rain put a stop to that.  The pool is full again and the garden has been watered.

It will be a 'rest' day tomorrow for me.  I have two laptop computers to finish setting up for people on Thursday and then a third one to do on Friday afternoon.  The Home Brew slate I have set up may get a boost.

Often people I help with computer want to pay me.  I suggest they go to the Home Brew Shop in town and leave some money on my 'account' there.  This makes a pleasant surprise whenever I need to buy new supplies, it doesn't cost me anything.

A Busy Weekend

With a night out last Wednesday it was decided we wouldn't worry about Friday Night Drinks.  As we had friends Janet and Mick arriving lunchtime on Saturday this was a good idea.

I had been having problems getting this brew to finish so I could bottle it.  I eventually bottled on Saturday morning and even then it felt it could have been done a day or so later.  This was a brewing period of 8 days when sometimes it is OK to bottle after 5 days.  But this bottling was done first thing Saturday.  I arrived late at Computer Club but managed to see all those who needed help.  With guests arriving around lunch time I left Computer Club early.

You can guess what we got up to when our guests arrived.  The photo will give you a clue!  Janet is still recovering from major surgery she underwent following a nasty clash with cancer.  She wasn't her usual self but fortunately is on the way to full recovery.

As we don't wash the wine bottles out, they are not in the photo.  Needless to say we had a great Saturday.  Sunday wasn't quite as joyous as we recovered from our Saturday together.  But a lovely breakfast in town, a walk along the boardwalk and then a cruise through Sunday's markets made for a pleasant morning.

We enjoyed a few quiet drinks and a swim Sunday afternoon before walking to the Bellvista Tavern for tea.

Today Mick and I have completed a 13k bike ride and soon we will all be off to Headland Golf Club for lunch.

I have a Public Meeting to chair this evening for the Community Association so I will need to exercise some self control this afternoon.  The meeting should be pretty full on with all the recent helicopter activity and I expect some very angry people to be in attendance.