Home Now For A Fortnight

It is two weeks since we returned from Melbourne.  During that time my footy team continues to rack up losses while Trish's team does a little better.  It seems even at this early stage that neither of our teams will be heavily involved with any finals this year.  But there is still a long way to go.

The weather has returned to Sunshine Coast usual, that is high 20's during the day and high teens or low 20's overnight.  This afternoon the pool was over 25° and great for a cool off after doing stuff around the house and in the garden.  The lawn sure needed a mow!

I am well and truly back on the bike and riding daily.  I have managed anything for 22k's to 14k's in any one day.  It just sort of depends on what I feel comfortable do on that day.

I finally got the mower back today with the replacement coil and I am $90 lighter.  I was chatting with the next door neighbour and he said he has a spare mower if ever I need one.  There were a few utterances of poor language when the spring that holds the whipper snipper spool in place sprang off to who knows where.  Having a Bunnings a few k's away proved very handy in this case.

Trish continues flat out with the Arts Centre and seems to have something to do with them most days.

We have set up a couple of the Computer Guys and their wives for nights out.  Last week it was a local Indian Restaurant which was extremely busy with take away (school hols of course) and not overly expensive.  It was a great night out.

I run an Ethernet over powerline (EOP)setup to stream movies from the office to the media player.  This process uses your home's electricity wires to move internet or network stuff around the house.  I grabbed a refurbished setup a couple of years ago and it worked perfectly.  I now suspect refurbed is not the way to go when I noticed wifi was being used to stream local files rather than the EOP.

eBay to the rescue and two new EOP power setups are on their way.

Plenty of great stuff to download and watch.  The TV series 'Waco' was enjoyed and we have a couple of our detective series to watch too.

Life's pretty good right now.

Still Blowing A Gale Here

Cyclone Iris is currently sitting off Mackay north of us.  When I say 'north of us' it is around 900k's away which is around the same distance as Melbourne is from Sydney!  Despite being so far away, we are not immune from the strong winds associated with the cyclone.  So here it continues to blow strongly coming in off the sea.

As the wind is off the sea it means repeated showers between the sunny breaks for us.  We still have a strong wind warning for this part of the world.  This is not ideal cycling weather and with a new bike sitting under the verandah out the back it is a little frustrating.

I keep an eye on a website called Ozbargain.  This is a website where if someone spots a good deal whether it be online or otherwise they can 'post' it to this website.  From time to time they also have free apps from Google Play.  Usually these 'paid for' apps are just that, but in an effort to boost sales they provide them at no cost for 24 hours.

One such app is "Speed Viewer" which uses the GPS settings on your phone to pinpoint exactly where you are and at what speed you are travelling.  My attention was grabbed when I saw "Cycling" on it today.  I was intrigued so I downloaded the previously "Pay for App" at no charge.

This was yet a further reason to defy the inclement weather and give the new bike and the new android app a try!  So I did make it out for a short ride just before another shower scudded in to the area.  My bike speedometer said I did 4.7k's but the GPS powered app said a little over 5k's.  I guess the second GPS reading is a little closer to being accurate than the speedo reading which is calculated via your wheel size.

But the app also ties into "Google Maps" with a link you can email to yourself. A small screenshot of my shortened bike ride appears above and the link below will take you to the full detailed web page.  It is pretty nifty.  Oh, and the bike went perfectly!  If you click on the link below, it takes quite a few seconds to load so be patient.

http://www.gpxscan.com/gpxgooglemap_v2.jsp?gpx=f587e52c4fcd480e970ac538d68faa2d&share=share

On The Road Again!

Let's start with the weather for a change. 

Most nights as we head off to bed sometime after 10pm the outside temp is still around 25° and a bit sticky.  Though the days remain at around 30° it has been extremely windy ... and wet with showers almost daily. 

Up until the last few days anyway when we now may get a rogue shower from time to time.  But with cyclonic conditions prevailing off the coast bringing sheets of rain further north of us, the wind has been blowing consistently, day in and day out.

Not ideal bike riding weather at all.

The bike rear wheel saga continues.  The replacement wheel when I eventually got to pick it up didn't fit.  Into the middle of all this came Easter with holiday makers and heaps of traffic.  The place where I get the bike sorted is around 15 minutes away in a shopping homemakers centre.  So weekend visiting isn't a good idea.

Everything is kind of back to normal today with the end of the holiday break, so I took everything back yet again to the bike shop.  He agreed with me that replacement wasn't right and asked me what I wanted to do.  I asked could he do a deal on a new replacement bike.  He immediately cut $50 off the new price ($349) and added the $20 I had paid for the secondhand wheel. 

So I now have a new bike with new everything, brakes, tyres, tubes, gears, the lot!

I picked it up this morning and within an hour or so of getting it back home I have moved over my favorite bike seat, sorted out the carry basket, speedometer and bigger and better bell I always prefer.

As usual the move didn't go altogether smoothly but all seems great now.

Still no news on the mower at this stage.

My footy team played Trish's footy team yesterday with a 1 point result going Hawthorn's way.  I was always a bit scared that a defeat was on the cards as several of Geelong's crucial defenders are injured and with retirements from last year they really are just a group of kids playing there at the moment.  They were vastly undersized and inexperienced for some of the opposition's older and stronger players.

The fiasco with the cricket in South Africa continues.  The sooner it is all over the better.

This week will be busy again for Trish with the Arts Centre.  I have Community Association business this evening.

But at least daylight saving has finished down south which means the whole of our part of Australia is in step again!

Home Again

So we arrived back on the Sunshine Coast around 2pm on Tuesday.  Our flight departed Tullamarine around 35 minutes late but we managed to catch up around 15 minutes of time so we weren't that late.

Our trip from Kate's place to Chris' for our last night (Monday) took about 25 minutes longer than we had hoped for owing to very heavy stop start traffic.  We are now convinced there are minor traffic hassles where we live after experiencing from Kooyong Tennis Courts to the West Gate Bridge traffic snarl. It was bumper to bumper and stop start but perseverance and patience won out in the finish.

My highlight from our week in Melbourne of course was being able to go to the footy.  On the Thursday I saw Richmond and Carlton play with Carlton who finished near the foot of the table last year able to keep up with last year's premiers until around midway through the final quarter.  Richmond eventually won reasonably comfortably with several late goals.

Arj and my grandson James went with me to that game and we all had a fabulous night, despite Carlton's loss. During the half time little league match James seemed to be trying to work out how he could possibly get onto play on the MCG with the other kids.

On Saturday it was Hawthorn vs Collingwood at night.  We got across to Kim's place in St Kilda Saturday lunchtime and then all three of us headed for the footy that night.  Hawthorn won comfortably.  We used Uber to and from the game, one of the huge advantages of living where Kim lives in St Kilda.

I grabbed a bus on Sunday for my team Geelong's match against Melbourne with my side just winning at the end.  It was nail biting stuff I tell you and nearly destroyed the whole idea of a week in Melbourne to watch footy.

Then after the game I hopped a train to Springvale where I caught up with Trish and Kim for tea at our favorite little Vietnamese Restaurant, the Hoa Tran.  It is so popular you may be able to make out the crowd waiting around outside the restaurant wanting to get a table from the photo I took.  To say the food was great was an understatement.

We manged to make the car just as the downpour began.  Kim then drove us back to Kate's.

Finally Pat and Graeme, long time friends, popped around for a chat and a coffee on Monday morning.  They make an effort to see us every time we are down in Melbourne so we reciprocate when we have our own car.  We spent a very pleasant morning together.

Monday evening Kate drove us to Chris' for our trip home.

It seems the lawn mower's problem is a faulty coil which is a come and go sort of a problem.  It is most likely this was the problem from back at Christmas time but instead at that stage it was given a huge service.  I have decided to pay the $90 for a new coil and keep fingers crossed it now lasts for a few more years.

My bike wheel cannot be replaced with a new one as they no longer make them.  They have a second hand wheel for me which isn't in perfect shape but still in much better condition than the current one. I pick it up tomorrow.

So we have arrived home to humidity, showers and warm sunny but windy weather.  But it was nice in our own bed last night.

Our trip to Melbourne and for me to get to the footy was great.  We saw our kids and their families and all had a great time.  But home is nice!

Off To The MCG

Here we are in Melbourne on a lovely sunny Thursday. The opening of the AFL footy season is on this evening and I am heading there later this afternoon with my son-in-law Arj and grandson James.  They are both mad keen Carlton barrackers and we have our tickets and balcony passes and are ready to go.

Arj and James are both at school today but are getting away nice and early so we can get the best possible seats in the MCC members section.

I am heading in again on Saturday night with Trish and Kim for Hawthorn and Collingwood (again into the members area) and I am seeing Geelong and Melbourne on my own on Sunday afternoon.

We return to Chris and Wendy's home Monday night which is around 10 minutes drive from Tullamarine Airport for our flight back to Queensland on Tuesday.  So it is three AFL matches over the weekend for me which will have to do me for the 2018 season.  But you never know!

We are hoping Kim will be well and truly over her virus come Saturday.  She was laid up for a day just as she began a new job.  Putting on a brave face she made it to work the following day.  Hopefully the improvement continues into the weekend and the trip to the MCG.

We are kind of hamstrung a little without a car but usually unless there are extenuating circumstances we get Kate and Arj's second car as long as they don't really need it.  However we are loathe to drive it unless we really have to.

The nights here have been delightfully cool and it is strange for us to be sleeping under the doona.  At home it is possibly just a sheet or nothing over us.

The lawn mower refused to start again on Friday so it went back to the repairers.  They loaned me a mower and I got the lawn cut.

There are two broken spokes and a severe buckle in my bike's rear wheel.  I am guessing it is a result of the prang I had last year into that gate.  But I have ordered a new wheel and all should be 'all is go' when I get back home on Tuesday of next week.

So that's about the news at this stage.  The photo shows Kate's patio with the clear blinds they had installed.  Yes it is the perfect place to dry clothes on days like today!