The Heat Is Back

The tropical heat has returned and not without some hassles.  Hot air from all up north has settled over much of Queensland giving us some very hot weather indeed.  I did manage 17km on the bike before 8am this morning and believe me, that won't happen again.  I reckon I didn't stop sweating till an hour after the ride.  And somewhere in there was a swim.

On a couple of nights we had had a weak thunderstorm which has dropped a few mls of rain, just enough to cool us down for a good night's sleep.  One night was an absolute stinker but the new air conditioner in the bedroom meant it didn't worry us one iota!

During this very hot spell the air con in the lounge goes on early afternoon.  We set it at 27° and arc the ceiling fan up.  It is super comfortable and despite being set so high, you can feel the cool right up the corridor to the front door!

Several Community association reps attended a Traffic Parking Forum on Monday and it was heavy work.  The mayor and all the Councillors were there along with other dignitaries.  I gave a 15 minute presentation on our Community Association's views and got out of it relatively unscathed.

I am out of practice for that sort of stuff and as my 72nd birthday is just a few days away I find age is beginning to catch up.  The air con was set so low we nearly froze our bits off!  Then when we left we hit low 30's and high 60's humidity.

On Tuesday I had to write the day up and put a post on the Community Association website.  Again, a couple of hours of pretty heavy work.  But I did get another brew on as well.

So today was bike ride day.  Believe me tomorrow will be much shorter than the 17ks I did today.  And the front lawn may get a mow as well!

I signed up for Foxtel again today, this time I am paying a little more per month but I have the deal for a year rather than just 3 months.  We get Foxtel, HD and the Sports package for $39, a special going for anyone at the moment.

The time says it is almost time for me to sort the BBQ for tea so I had better finish up for now.

Quick Update

Our bout of gorgeous cooler weather is about to end.  Days have been around 30° but overnight has been down as low as 18°.  The cooler overnight temperatures sure has an impact on the pool.  One morning as I jumped in after a bike ride it was 24.9°.  I sure noted the cooler temperature.

But Sunday it is forecast all is to change with mid 30's on the way for much of the week.  It looks like that air conditioner was fitted just in time.

But the rest has been humdrum stuff.  The sparky has been back and we now have the two 'power circuits each on a safety switch of its own.  This means if something goes bung, we should still have power to one half of the house. Nowadays, all houses are setup like this evidently.

It has been a busy week for me with the Newsletter but it is all done and dusted now and ready to print off.

I have computer club this morning and a Forum on street parking to get to on Monday.  Somewhere along the line, probably Monday, another brew will go on!

More Kodi setups were attended to this week with very happy customers at the finish of it all.

We are seeking quotes and ideas to cover the lounge 2.4.x 2.1 window.  Possibly consider shutters at this stage.

All Is Cool!

We now have an air conditioner in the bedroom! 

During the recent bout of extremely hot days and nights it would have been handy to run just to cool the bedroom down a little before we retired but with the current cooler weather it isn't necessary.  We still get to our 30 or so during the day but as it gets later in the day it cools and eventually drops to around 19° or so overnight.

But the installation didn't happen without any mishaps.  It seems the safety switch for the power isn't functioning correctly as the electrician discovered yesterday.  It is working OK now but couldn't be fully relied upon.  The sparky will be back to sort it all out in a day or so.

And then I went to vacuum the pool but there wasn't enough suction.  I tried several things but all without luck.  Eventually I cleaned the filter cartridge and it became immediately obvious what the problem was.  The cartridge needed a clean so badly the water had found trouble getting through at all.

One cleaned filter cartridge later and the vacuum was back to full suction.  But then an ominous yellow light came on saying the pool needed heaps more salt.  Trish made a quick dash to the local pool shop and two bags of salt later the pool was clean and the salt chlorinator was working perfectly.

I did have a quick swim afterwards.  I had misread the pool thermometre and thought it read 28.5°.  It actually read 26.5°.  It is quite interesting as to what a difference 2° can make when you first get in!

So it was a day of fits and starts!

That night I had a Meeting to chair which went longer than normal.  This morning there was a report on the meeting to do as well as finish of the first Newsletter for 2018.  Everything just seemed to come at once!

But all is now over and done with and I can settle back to my life of ease!

112 Mls later (4.5")

At last we had some decent rain. 

We are in the middle of the 'wet' season here so we expect it to rain, usually in the form of tropical downpours at this time of the year.  Over the last 3 or 4 days this has not been the case.  It has been periods of rain with no major storms or sudden downpours.  But wet (and very cool) it has been. We have had well over 4" of rain in fact!

One day we managed around 23° as a maximum temp which is around 10° cooler than usual.  The ceiling fans have gone off and in some cases the front door shut and the windows closed owing to the cooler weather.  In between showers we look at 80%+ humidity which means the towels never get quite 100% dry!

The sun is back today and we are looking at around 28° but there remains a blustery wind out there. With the rain comes dust falling with atmosphere.  Now the pool badly needs a vacuum but as it is down to a temp of 23° no one is bursting a boiler to get in for a dip!

The local Community Association gets back down to work today after a 2 month layoff as we have our first Management Committee Meeting tonight which I am chairing.  This means a busy day tomorrow getting everything up onto the Association's website which I oversee.

The air conditioner installer is here right now beginning the installation.  The sparky will be here in an hour and we can expect to lose power for a short time as the new air con unit gets 'wired in'.  Hopefully all will be up and running around lunchtime.

When we bought the little Honda around 15 months ago the driver's floor mat had a rip in it where it is secured to the floor to keep it in place.  We asked them to fix it which they did but it was only a temporary fix.  The mat actually needed replacing.  We grabbed a pair of replacement mats on eBay and they arrived late last week.

It is nice being able to step into the car normally rather than trying not to tear the mat from where it is attached.

Over the last week or so I have done several Kodi boxes and 3 or 4 PC's which have Kodi running on them.  Needless to say I have loved every minute of it.

I expect to get back on the bike tomorrow as soon as the place dries out a little and the wind drops.  But we will have to wait and see.

Finally, Some Rain

Days of relentless sunshine and accompanying humidity can eventually become quite tiring.  We had a mere 30mls of rain across all of January which is right in the middle of 'the wet season' here on the Sunshine Coast.  Our temperatures here seem to be closer to Brisbane's temps than the Sunny Coast.  Here the temperature is taken at the Sunshine Coast Airport which is around 1km from the beach and has the benefit of on the coast sea breezes.

We live around 4k's from the beach so despite still being close and getting a great sea breeze, it is usually a few degrees warmer than the 'official' Sunshine Coast temperature.  Yesterday it was 35° in Brisbane and felt just like that here at home.

But overnight we have had a "Melbourne Cool Change" go through.  Today will be much closer to 25° compared to what we had yesterday.  And with the cooler weather has come some rain, 35mls in fact, more than doubling the 2018 rainfall total.

Despite the cooler weather the house remains quite warm.  The ceiling fan is whirring overhead as I type.

The Air Con in the living area got a run late yesterday afternoon.  The afternoon sun shines on the the living area so it still warms that area despite the sun blinds across the back of the house.  We run the air con at 26° which is great when used in conjunction with the ceiling fan.

We have decided to have an air conditioner fitted in the master bedroom as well.  We can manage the hot weather in this room as it usually has cooled off enough when it is bedtime, especially with the ceiling fan.  But as we get older there will come a time when one of us is laid up in bed so we will need more than just a ceiling fan for warmer days.

Via our "St Andrew's Care" affiliation, the cost of the unit and the installation are discounted.  Monday is the 'magic' day when the new unit is to be installed.

I did another Kodi setup yesterday and left one local resident very happy indeed.  I am doing another today.

We ate out at the Kawana Bowls Club earlier in the week as the photo above shows.  Despite being an inexpensive meal it was spoiled by the quality of the food.  The lining up and being served individually wasn't much fun either.

My back is much improved , so much in fact I managed a 17k bike ride yesterday.  The wet weather will keep me off the bike today.  I put another brew on as well the other day and I expect to bottle wash on Sunday and do the bottling early next week.

Beer should be stored in the dark for the 4 or five weeks as it matures after it has been bottled.  Finding appropriate containers for the larger 1.25l bottles makes it a bit of a challenge.  But some inexpensive frosted colored plastic storage containers and a can of black spray paint creates the perfect storage container!