"Cooking"

No mention will be made in this blog today to last night's Swans Vs Geelong footy match.  At one stage the knife was in my hand and sitting just above the arteries on my left wrist!  But I resisted temptation.  After all it is just a game!

We have a weather guy here in Queensland named Josh and he is the Channel 10 Weather guy.  Josh loves catastrophic weather events.  "A cyclone is now forming off Fiji and it might head east and it might strengthen to Category 9 and it might cross the coast into Queensland and 4,000 people might die!"

He is just drooling over the possibility of an "El Nino" later in the year which has a 70% chance of happening and may cause devastation to the farmers in the outback!

Last night there was no doom and gloom, just the possibility of a light shower or two but nothing more in his evening weather forecast.  So overnight we have had well over an inch of rain!  It poured down there for a while washing out any thought of a bike ride this morning.  Had Josh have known we were going to get a storm or two he could have predicted flash flooding, sand bag your home, move everything above the floodline, he would have loved it.

It is quite overcast out side and we could get another shower or so later on.

With no bike ride this morning and with Trish safely arrived down in Melbourne for the next 5 nights I was able to get on with my "cooking"!  Well the first task did involve the big stainless steel pot and a fair bit of mixing.

I put a brew on this morning and used the big steel pot to mix the ingredients all together.  The brew is almost bubbling in the garage now and it only went on around 5 hours ago.

Next, the big steel pot was used for my perennial favorite whenever Trish goes away and I stay home, "Curried Sausages".  I have used a couple of sachets of mix, 8 snags, 4 potatoes, a couple of onions and 2 carrots and it is simmering away.  It smells pretty good.

Needless to say it later on it may get a teaspoon or two of Springvale Chilli Oil just to give it a lift

Before serving I will add a couple of handfuls of peas and the casserole will be my main 'fare' for the next few days.

I have discovered that a non-stick pot would have been a better choice for my casserole rather than the stainless steel one.  All has now been transferred to the non-stick variety and with some elbow grease and a scourer the stainless steel container is back nice and shiny in the cupboard.

However the Noodle Shop at Golden Beach which sells a version of Char Koay Teow may get a run as well one night.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The hot water service has been replaced.  They electrician arrived to check out the possible blown heating element and found the problem was a little larger.  It seams there was a leaking seal which must have been going for some time.

Many of the interior parts around the heating element were rusty and eventually the flow of moisture built up so there was a major short circuit 'blowing' the unit.  The photo gives a hint of the trouble. It looks reasonably OK in the photo but the rust damage inside was just too much.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

In an attempt to remove one of the rusted bolts so the unit could be repaired the bolt broke off.  And that was prior to him attempting to undo the rusted bolts!

There was nothing more to do than get a replacement.which was delivered around lunchtime on Tuesday.  The plumber fitted the new unit before the electrician came back to wire it all up.

The shower was lovely and warm this morning though!

On Monday I had received a call from the the company from whom I had purchased the laptop online.  He was wanting to confirm the delivery address.  According to the 'tracking' advice I was given the laptop was collected just after lunch on Monday around 20k's south of Brisbane and was delivered to our home by mid morning Tuesday.

I was in my element!  A new Windows 8 laptop to setup.  It is all done now (by lunchtime Wednesday) and ready for Trish to use.  She will keep me informed on any further software she may still need.  The old laptop will stay setup for the time being until we are sure the new one is OK and we don't need any important files from it.

The new laptop did a huge update to its Windows 8 and then late on Tuesday afternoon it did another huge update to Windows 8.1. The move to Windows 8.1 took several hours.  The download was enormous, I would guess well over 3GB.  You wouldn't want to be on 2GB download a month plan and have a laptop upgrade to Windows 8.1!

We continue to get top temps around 25 to 27.  It is just sensational (and above average).

It is the first "State Of Origin" Rugby League game tonight and we are around to friends for drinks and watch the game.  Trish flies to Melbourne for 5 nights tomorrow. I am staying home and have footy on 4 of the 5 nights.  The 5th night is a Community Association Public Meeting.  We are having a Wine Tasting after the meeting hoping to get a few extras along. 

27 Again Today!

The weather continues to be glorious in this part of the world.  We are expecting 27 or so today and then another few days with temperatures around the same.  There is hardly a cloud in the sky and it is a beautiful rich blue color.

As a general rule Trish cooks the evening meal and I wash the dishes.  I did think the dish washing water was a little on the cool side last night and we verified that this morning.

It seems the heating element in the hot water system has called it a day.

I reckon it stopped working some time last week as I have noted the shower hasn't been as boiling hot the last few days. So I wasn't completely surprised when we noticed the hot water wasn't as hot as it should have been. 

I have contacted the Aged Care Program people here at Caloundra and one of their contractors will be in contact with me to effect a repair.

I have to pay for the part and the Care Group pays for the labour.  It is a great deal.  Usually the contractors are semi-retired guys and do easier 'light' work as a part time job and earn a few dollars on the side for themselves. The job has been marked "Urgent" so we expect/hope it to be done today.

It brings back memories of when we lived in Victoria and there was a massive gas plant explosion when gas supplies were cut to all Melbourne homes for days!  We didn't have a shower down there for quite some time during that episode.

At least you could have a shower here this morning and it wasn't icy cold.

ACER

I have been 'at' Trish for some time to update her old Dell Laptop.  At almost 4 years old I thought a new laptop update shouldn't be too far away.

Then as I was checking some computer purchase info I stumbled across the original invoices etc for the Dell laptop.  I was amazed to see the invoice date as July 2009, meaning it was almost 5 years old rather than 4!

Some laptops last 2 years, others 3 or 4.  But 5 years virtually trouble free is really pushing your luck.

So we have a new ACER laptop on the way.  I jumped online, went to the MSY website and downloaded their pdf of specials.

What we have just ordered has the latest model 4th generation i5 processor, 2mb graphics card and a 750GB hard disk drive.  It is an "ACER" and currently this model has a $89 "Cashback" offer.  It is supposed to weigh 2Kg which is lightweight.

By the time you add delivery fee, 2% for credit card fees and delete the cashback, we get out of it all up for around $650 which is a pretty good deal.  The RRP is $899.

I noticed the price of the old Dell was $999.

End Of The Week

I managed to get the beer bottling completed this morning so I now have another 60 stubbies (or equivalent thereof) added to the collection!

It has been a busy week for the postman.

I visit several cheap buy online websites each day just to see what is going on.  Ozbargain is a favorite which you can find here:  https://www.ozbargain.com.au/  Anyone can add something to Ozbargain, you spot what you reckon is a good deal and you can put it up on Ozbargain.

Catch Of The Day (https://www.catchoftheday.com.au/index.php?) is another one you can spend a few minutes wandering through as well.

The last one I check out is T-Mart (http://www.tmart.com/ShopWays/Daily-Deals.html?label=122169).  T-Mart has heaps of cheap junk.  It is somewhere over in China and always has 'free' postage'.  If it costs $5 for a schooner of beer at the RSL, I reckon I can afford to buy some of this cheap stuff online from T-Mart.

My 'new' $8-95 watch arrived today.  No instructions came with it of course and you never have to change the battery.  You see a new battery costs $10 so you might as well buy a new watch!

It didn't take long to work out how to use it and it has a bright easy to read and simple face.

It has a stop watch, an alarm, a date function and a second 'time' section so it could be set for a second time zone.

And all for less than $9!

Yesterday my new 1 metre $1-10 USB phone charge lead arrived.  It is ribbon style and you 'know' its working because pretty red lights go off when there is any activity along the lead.  You never know when you might need one of these! .... Probably never! 

My digital battery tester is due any  time now as well.  You use these to confirm your AA or AAA battery is fully dead before you toss it out.

Another $3-32 well spent!

Delivery takes around 3 weeks before your item arrives.

This adds to the excitement as you never know (or you have forgotten) what is in that padded envelope that just arrived with T-Mart written on the outside!

Click on the pics for a larger view.  No Friday Drinks today so I might wait just a little longer before cracking one.  My team is on the TV in the footy tonight.  I wonder which version of this side is going to turn up, the desperate top flight team or the chasers or finish up chasing the other team all over the park!