One More Sleep To Go

It is Thursday morning and we really have the best part of two full days still to go before we depart our home around 4pm for Brisbane Airport and our flight to Barcelona, via Dubai.

I left the teaching service all those years ago following a stress related illness.  Once you have had an episode the stress illness lurks within you for the rest of your life.

Something quite minor can set it off again while something which you suspect could set it off passes you by without any problem.

I have been to my Chiro several times with a very sore shoulder and each time she has endeavoured to fix it only for the pain to return a day or so later.

Then the 'tension attack' struck yesterday. I awoke around 4 am hot and sweaty and feeling quite strange.  It lasted for an hour or so until I began to feel better again.  I had experienced a relatively minor re visit of my stress related illness.  I took my regular tablets and a muscle relaxant I have.  I even dozed off again later as I recovered. However when I did get up and dressed, I felt quite washed out.

I am sure that once I get to the airport all will be fine again.

We managed a quick trip to our GP who suggested my painful shoulder was most likely caused by tension.  I am now on some very light medication.  My shoulder still hurts a little bit but I just don't care! I again feel I am in control.

It was a weird feeling!

So the bags are almost packed, final washing of sheets etc is being completed and the fridge is being emptied of stuff that won't last the couple of months we are away.

Once we arrive in Barcelona on Saturday afternoon we head off first thing Sunday morning on our 9 day tour of Spain.  We have some basic internet access on the bus so we will be able to receive and send emails. Hopefully there will times when we have free internet access at different spots all along our trip.

We are both taking our phones.  I will remove my SIM card when we board the plane and only use it on wifi.  We have a travel sim which Trish will have in her phone.  Hopefully we can work out how to set it up when we are away.

As well a our phones we are both taking our "computer tablets" and Trish's laptop.  So we should be well served electronically while away.  Our black spot will most likely be on the 24 day cruise.  Kate and Arj have excellent internet so we will be back and fully online when there.

I now have some more packing to do.

Getting Closer

Needless to say I didn't enjoy watching my footy team get a belting on Monday afternoon.  It could be a good time for me to go to Europe for 2 months and get away from the footy!

We have had a couple of warm days and I have managed a couple of bike rides the last two mornings.  The weather forecast is talking about 15º as an overnight temperature in the next few days and this is a real change from what we have been getting.  The pool was mid 20's this morning but still quite pleasant for a swim after the ride.

The quilt will get another run soon I would guess as the weather begins to cool off a little as we head into winter.

Despite a couple of trips to the Chiro, my left shoulder has been aching recently.  Hopefully today's trip to see her and the huge crack my back made will provide me with some relief.

I had a No. 3 haircut yesterday, a little shorter than usual but hoping to last a full two months!  And the height adjustment on the lawn mower went down a notch yesterday.  The one notch lower meant a whole extra catcher full of grass clippings.

Trish is off to the hairdresser this afternoon.

I will get my suitcase out later today and ready to commence packing.

I have handed over the Community Association website and Facebook Page to someone else to do.

It is getting busy!

Drizzle Again This Morning

The dampish weather continues. Though I did plan to get up early this morning, do a bottling and then have a bike ride.  But soon after I began the bottling, the steady drizzly rain began from overcast skies.  It was quite sunny yesterday with a top in the low 30's.

Very high humidity is a feature of the weather the last few days.  The bike ride didn't happen this morning but I will hopefully give the pool a vacuum when there is a break in the weather. More showers are expected throughout the day.

We are off to a luncheon today to celebrate the 60 years of marriage between our very good neighbours, Edna and Brian.  However it should not be a long and extended lunch as I guess the family will adjourn to continue the celebrations. We will return home and watch some more of the footy on TV.

The BBQ lunch on Friday at Ian and Kerrie's was great.  I always manage to get out of the driving so I wasn't encumbered by a need to be careful with my drinking.  However it wasn't a 'huge' day for me as far as the drinks go but it was extremely enjoyable.

On Friday afternoon we did get our email from Kate saying "Skype?" which we did again via the Skype App on Trish's phone despite being out at Kerrie and Ian's home.  Some of the others popped over to where Trish was talking and said Hi as well.

Right now Kate, Arj and family are enjoying their school holidays and are in Sri Lanka for a week.

I have bought my self a new toy. It is this retractable garden hose which you can see in the photo above.  With the very small backyard as we have, this sort of thing was a handy way to just be able to pull out the hose and then have itself wind up and be put away almost on its own accord.  They have been relatively expensive to buy though and I was having problems justifying spending around a $100 on a garden hose.

This one was on special at under $40 and has a 20m length of hose.  Now I have it setup the quality of the hose itself isn't great and I wouldn't want to be regularly extending it to the full 20m.  Our little backyard is only 10m across so I reckon it will suit our needs just perfectly.

I am not sure how the harsh semi tropical sun will treat the plastics over time either!

There is plenty of footy on TV over the weekend and we are beginning to look at packing as well.

So there is plenty to keep us occupied.

Kim seems to have settled well into Perth W.A. for her new position.  She is so excited by the challenge and is looking forward to it enormously.  Kate had nowhere to leave her cat when they went overseas so Kim took it on.  We are pleased to say the cat survived the flight to Perth and is enjoying living in a house where she can now get outside again!

Kim is renting the St Kilda unit out. She and Trish had a long talk on the phone yesterday and we caught up with most of the gossip!

7 Sleeps To Go!

Things are getting closer and closer prior to our trip away to Europe and Saudi Arabia. 

You can download a pdf of our Itinerary HERE.

We have had around 6" (150mls) of rain the last three days!  Much has come in extremely heavy showers lasting an hour or so.  Today is sunny and extremely humid as you can imagine after all that rainfall.  Despite the current sunny conditions, there are still a lot of very dark thick clouds about.

So some more forecast rain is not far off.

But I managed to get my bottles washed this morning and shortly I am off to do some work for the Community Association.  Then it is home and out to friends Kerrie and Ian for lunch and drinks!

I bought a hang on the wall retractable hose yesterday.  I am not convinced it is a good buy though the price was excellent.  I came with bolts to attach it to a brick wall, I was planning on attaching it to the fence.  However the dimensions of the fence poles do not fit the dimensions of the wall bracket.

We will give it a go and see how it works.  I need a 'click hose connector' to finish the job properly and being Good Friday, nothing is open!

I haven't ridden for several days nor have I braved a swim in the pool.  With more rain forecast I probably won't get a swim or ride for the next few days.

The footy is back on TV so that is one saving fact for this weekend. And there is Computer Club in the morning!

A Soggy Easter!

And an even soggier Wednesday!  As I made my cup of coffee this morning around 6am I checked that we had around 12mls of most welcome rain overnight.

It is now 8:30 am and I have just returned from removing the 'high water' plug from the pool's skimmer box just before the pool began to overflow.

Trish offered to take a photo of me out there which I politely declined because of what I was (or more accurately wasn't) wearing!  I am pleased to say the plug has been removed allowing the water to escape more quickly!

At 7:30am this morning there were 27mls of overnight rainfall in total in the rain gauge as I emptied it. Now, just an hour later, there is another 67mls in the gauge. That is over 80mls of rainfall in around an hour!

Now just a few minutes later the rain has eased considerably which should allow much of the water to get away ..... I hope!

Rain is expected to hang around till after Easter.  This isn't god news for the Sunshine Coast as one of the state's premier holiday destinations.

I did manage a bike ride yesterday morning but not this morning.  We continue to get our heads around the fact we head off overseas for two months in around 10 days.  Our thoughts are swinging to what to pack, getting medicines ready etc.  Our day to day program has quietened off quite a deal.  Now it is more 'steady as she goes'.

We are trying not to think too much about the 14 hour flight from Brisbane to Dubai, the first leg of our trip away.

My downloading has shifted to a quieter mode.  Several series I have been getting have now been discarded, I would probably not have watched them anyway.

Trish is at Stitchers this morning and if the weather clears, I may pop around to mate's place later and help him out with some PC stuff.

My back is a little tender right now and I am trying to protect it as much as possible until it settles down following a trip to the Chiro on Monday.  It improves daily!

I have updated the rainfall chart (HERE).