Here Comes The Showers

After of few weeks of sunny skies the "Sunny" Coast is in for a few showers.  The large High Pressure area is headed to New Zealand so our winds have gone around to South Easterlies blowing onshore from the sea and bringing with it the inevitable few showers.

After a 'fine' morning this morning, the clouds have rolled in and we have had a shower with just enough rain to wet the road surface at this stage but that is all.  With the cloud, the sun has disappeared and the temps have tumbled from the low 20's to just a whisker under 20.

When Trish headed south for 12 days I had a list of chores to get through while I stayed back at home on my own.  So far I have cleaned the pavers, washed the cars including cleaning the windows inside and out, mowed the lawns and mopped the floors.  I still have to clean the inside of the living area windows.

Though not 'huge' jobs by any means getting them done along with my daily bike rides, over to a friend's to do some stuff on his computer, getting involved with Community Association stuff and any resultant update of the website life, has not been quiet.

I also have my daily computer series of tasks as well (of course!).

Tomorrow Friday I have a mate coming over to have a look at Kodi on my PC during the morning.  Hopefully the inside of the windows will get done as well and Trish wants me to head into town to get a couple of books she has reserved at the library.

Then of course there is sport to watch on the TV.  As well as the cricket coming from the UK tonight we have all the footy games coming up live over the weekend.

Keeping myself well fed hasn't been a problem either.  My tastes are fairly simple and I certainly haven't gone hungry while the 'boss' is away.

So as you can see it is the same old stuff and life goes along quietly.  I have watched many of the TV western and war series I have been saving up for when I am on my own.  I have enjoyed them, especially Band of Brothers which scores around 9.6 and is almost the top rating TV show ever.

Hopefully the showers clear away but the forecast says it will be wet early next week when our caravaning friends Russell and Irene arrive in town after being away from Melbourne for a couple of months.

A Glorious Friday

Yesterday, Thursday, Trish jumped on a plane in Brisbane and winged her way down to Melbourne for 12 nights.  We bought a couple of tickets almost 12 months ago to fly to Melbourne.  They were very cheap and seemed too good a deal to miss at the time. 

They were a total of $160 for return flights for both of us.  That is $40 per person each leg of the trip.

When we bought them our daughter Kim lived in St Kilda and we were going to stay with her.  Her unit is right on the tram route with stops right outside her door.  Whenever we stayed there we didn't need a car.

Since then Kim has moved in her job to Perth in Western Australia and the unit is being rented out.  So we lost our accommodation.  This didn't suit me as it would now mean we would have to impose on others and we didn't have a car so we weren't at all independent.  I decided not to go.

It actually was cheaper for me not to go as the car parking in Brisbane for 12 nights was well over $100.  We lost my $80 flight fares but saved $100 on car parking!

On Saturday Trish is catching up with Kim who has arranged to be in Melbourne for her work which is headquartered there.  Trish will stay with two other lots of friends while there before heading back to Chris and the family prior to flying home Tuesday week.

We have had howling westerly winds for much of the week and though sunny looking, it has been bitterly cold.  I didn't ride because of the cold on Wednesday and missed Thursday as I was in "Sick Bay" following a wonderful drinks get together with friends.

But today Friday is gorgeous.  It is a true shorts and T-Shirt day with temps in the mid 20's.  That nasty westerly has left us alone.

I had decided to do a few jobs getting ready for summer while Trish was in Melbourne.  Today was the day I would give the pavers a 1x chlorine to 2x water sweep over and then give them all a gentle hosing down.  The mix kills the buildup of moss and mildew and allows it to be all hosed gently away.  This treatment is also non damaging to the pavers!

They looked great when I had finished.

With all the wind and now with muck from the pavers being washed into the pool, it was about time I gave the pool a vacuum.  This I did.

It has been almost 2 months since I had manually cleaned the pool filter.  The style of filter we have requires the filter cartridges to be manually removed and you hose all the gunk out of them onto the front lawn.

I opened the top of the filter compartment and removed the large cartridge for cleaning.  What I had overlooked was the automatic pool pump was due to come on in a few minutes!  While I was hosing out the filters in the front yard I noticed heaps of water gushing out of our storm water drain onto the street.

The new pool pump cycle had started, the empty and open filter compartment filled with water and then overflowed all across the back yard!  The photo above shows the water level in the pool by the time I ran back up the sideway and turned the pool pump power switch off.  The water level isn't meant to be anywhere near as low as that.

Of course had it have continued for some time the pump would have overheated (as there was no water to pump) when the water level dropped below the level of the skimmer box. During the brief few minutes the pump was operating the water level dropped around 4" or 12cms.

The pool is being topped up again from the house water supply and again the backyard is drying out.

I have computer club and plenty of footy on tomorrow.  Tonight I have pizza for tea!

A Little On The Busy Side.

We have been enjoying more typical weather since I last posted.  Lovely sunny days, top temps in the low 20's but often with a cool blustery wind.  Get out of the wind and the days are glorious.

We were out for lunch at one of the local Surf Clubs catching up with friends on Friday.  Trish has been busy with the Arts Centre Association and getting prepared for her trip to Melbourne on Thursday for almost 2 weeks.

The footy was great over the weekend with both our teams having great wins in difficult situations.  The games were on at the same time on TV so Trish watched on free to air TV in her sewing room while I had access to my game via the pay TV in the lounge.

We have been keeping our eye open for deals on new recliners.  Mine is showing big signs of wear and tear.  It is showing some wear on seams with the leather surface being worn away.  The leather suite is getting to 10 years old now and with hot sweaty bodies the recliners, especially mine, are past their best.

The best quality recliner chairs around in shops right now are Lazy-Boys.  They are expensive but are built with top quality materials, and the best mechanism.  Over the weekend they had a big sale and we bit the bullet and have ordered a couple.  We have gone away from leather to less expensive material covering.

I haven't been over the moon with the way the current leather suite has worn.  Because of this and a substantial saving in price, we have opted for material rather than leather.

We have selected the best quality coverings and in a cinnamon color.  It will be brighter, colorful and still fit in with the remaining leather 2 seater lounge which we will keep.

We have selected two different models of chair and in different sizes.  Trish has selected the top photo model, while I have selected the lower photo model.

The only down side is they have to be built and we won't get them until almost Christmas.  We have added a full 5 year warranty to each chair on everything, stains, rips etc.

On a different topic I put a brew down on Friday, will probably bottle wash later today and bottle later in the week after Trish heads to Melbourne to catch up with family and friends on Thursday afternoon.

I continue to play around with Kodi on my PC and I am becoming more impressed the more I investigate.  It is an amazing program!

Now I am off for a bike ride.  The temp outside has just topped around 18° and is warm enough for me.

My Latest Pastime

After a balmy weekend we awoke this morning to sunny but cool and crisp windy weather.  The warm north westerly has given way to a very blustery south westerly and unless you are rugged up, the wind just blows straight through you.  I gave up on my bike ride after around 7k's this morning, it wasn't worth it.

It is one of those "is 23 degrees but feels like 14 degrees" days.

The bike continues to make a funny click noise but it is much improved since I gave it a good oil.  The Community Association Meeting went on an hour longer than expected on Monday night but it was truly worth while.  We received great news from both our Councillor and the Sunshine Coast Airport Management Team member for our residents.

Right now it seems all the hard work we have put in is showing some positive results.

Late in July I was online and saw an Android TV Box for sale at around half price.  Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered, but lots of owners of media players like I have have been experiencing problems.  My media player is now an old model and the manufacturer no longer supports it with firmware upgrades.  So I have been keeping my eye open for a possible replacement to play all my files.

I have paid $70 for the Android TV box delivered which is half the current price.  I should have had it by now but they sold out before they got to my order.  I have since been told it should be sent around August 18.

I have previously heard of XBMC, a media program you can install on your PC.  The latest incarnation is called Kodi.  Kodi has been extended to work on a range of devices.  It now works on all sorts of Android devices, as well as Windows, Mac and Linux. So as the pic above shows you can get it to work on your laptop, your tablet, your Android or OS phone, even on your TV.  I think I read somewhere you may be able to install it on a Samsung Smart TV.

My new Android TV Box comes with Kodi installed.

Kodi is 'open sourced' which means it isn't owned by a private company and modifications can be made to it easily by anyone.  You can also have a huge variety of addons which can do numerous things.

I have downloaded and installed Kodi onto my PC to give it a try.  There are heaps of YouTube videos on how to set it up, how to install addons and even some great addons for you to try.  What the Android TV box tries to do (and different addons have different degrees of success) is access a variety of on line video streams from all across the world.  Everything comes via the internet so you need a decent connection and plenty of download speed.

I added the IPTV Stalker addon this morning and managed to get it running at almost 100%.  I can now access almost 750 channels world wide via my PC.  The quality varies of course.  There are sports, movies and many others.  There is HBO, Cinemax, Sky Sports, CBS, History Channel, and heaps more.

It is amazing!  Needless to say, I can't wait till August 18 and my unit is sent.  Then it is another wait for it to arrive from overseas! 

I Felt The Earth Move!

I had finished eating some reheated spaghetti after a fairly busy morning at Computer Club on Saturday.  I had filled my glass with icy cold home brew and had sat down to watch the footy which was due to start at 1:40 pm.

The game had just started and a couple of minutes in it felt like someone was shaking my chair.  The TV began to wobble on its table and it all went on for few seconds.  SE Queensland had been hit with a 5.7 earthquake.

It was scary.

It appears our concrete slab on which the house has been built has cracked after some lengthy period of dry weather several years ago.  This has caused three bricks to be broken as another crack in the outside wall of the house follows the cement between the bricks for around 2'.  This crack is now an inch longer!

I have had it checked and told the problem is cosmetic rather than structural.

My earlier post saying Trish had gone to Lake Cootharaba for the weekend wasn't correct.  She and 35 other ladies from Stitchers had gone on a 'retreat'.  They had a ball.  All food and accommodation was supplied and all around 20k's away.

She slept well last night.

It is a beautiful day today with a top temperature around 26°.  Needless to say there is a northerly blowing.  Tomorrow we revert to the usual winter southerly and the temp will drop back to around 21°.

The pool is a chilly 17 or so.  In mid winter the pool gets down to 12°.

My footy team won OK but Trish's team didn't fare so well.  That match was a tight game with all players under great pressure every time they got the ball. This led to some uncustomary mistakes with kicking and caused turnovers throughout the game.  It was a top tight game of footy!

I have a Management Committee Meeting tonight to chair so I won't be able to sit back and relax till after 8:30pm.

My bike is making a bit of a clicking noise coming from the hub between the two pedals.  I have oiled it which has improved it.  The part may have dried out a bit from lack of use while we were overseas for two months.  I gave it another good oil this morning but it isn't easy to get the oil to exactly where you want it.