Blame It All On Oswald

It Sunday morning on a Public Holiday weekend and the last weekend of the Summer School holidays.   Yesterday was Australia Day when we celebrate the Arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. We have numerous outdoor celebrations and Citizen Ceremonies and  a good time is had by all.

Earlier last week the Weather Forecasters we saying that the Sunshine Coast was heading for its driest January ever as we had had less than 5mm of rain to date.  Then on Tuesday Oswald arrived over the horizon - well actually in Far North Queensland.  Oswald was a Tropical Cyclone which after crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria   hit the pointy  north bit of Queensland where hardly anybody lives and faded out to an intense low pressure system and headed south.

This where the "fun" started.  It has caused extensive flooding as it made its way slowly south.  The highway to Cairns and Townsville has been cut and there has been major flooding.  Oswald has been having so much fun that he hasn't stopped.  It has just devastated Bundaberg about 200km north of here and is forming tornadoes  as it travels south.

In Tewantin it started raining Friday morning and hasn't stopped since.  We have had about 150mm of rain and have been promised another 300mm over the next couple of days with local flooding.  All outside Australia Day Activities were cancelled,  all the Sunshine Coast Beaches  are closed and I am sharing my big armchair with a wet Louis.  As I have nothing else to do I  might as well update my blog.

After the demise of my old shopping bike I went in search of a new one.  My local bike shop promised delivery in a few days of a suitable bike but this then turned out to be two months.  I did a Google search and found a similar bike available in Maroochydore  about 40Km away and drove down to try it out.  It was perfect.

 Those of us blessed with the genes passed down from our Welsh grand parents will appreciate the maker.

 
 I spent a few days converting it for shopping and it now looks like this.

 I have used it for all my shopping over the last week but even with mud guards it will be staying in the garage for the next few days.

I was asked to give a talk at my local computer club a couple of weeks ago and decided to demonstrate  a program called The Gimp which is similar to PhotoShop but free.  The talk was to show a few tricks to repair old damaged black and white photographs.   Some time ago one of you, I think Alan, sent me the following photo of our mother.

As you can see it is quite badly damaged and during my talk I ended up with this.

 

Needless to say like most image manipulation programs the result is all fake but fun to do.

After the talk to mainly elderly ladies they said that they prefered the original as it had more charm.  I shall print both and mount them side by side.

Now it is time to check around the house and garden as we have just had a huge gale.

It Ain't Half Hot

Australia is in the grips of its hottest spell of weather ever.  Yesterday the average maximum temperature across the whole continent was well into the thirties.  In Tewantin we have had about a week of thirty plus maximums with no relief in sight.  Fortunately my house is well insulated and reverse cycled air-conditioned and I am sitting in my lounge with Louis beside me in a nice 25C environment.

I am writing this blog today as I have just had really uplifting experience.  On Sundays I do all my washing and clean through the house which then gets left to itself for another week.  If I am finished in time I sit down to watch and listen to the UK Songs Of Praise television program.  I was a choir boy from 1948 until 1953 and have always loved choir singing even though my voice never made the transition from boy soprano to anything worth while.

Today it was the 2011 School Choirs Semi Finals where six school choirs had to sing one hymn of their selection.  The best three would go into the final which I hope to see next week.  Each school was terrific.  The top three comprised one from England, one from Glasgow and one from Edinburgh.  The Edinburgh Choir gave a magnificent rendition of "Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer", better known to the Welsh as "Cwm Rhondda"  or "Bread Of Heaven" which would have rivalled a South Wales Mail Voice Choir.

I was mesmerised for 30 minutes listening to six fantastic choirs made up of high school students and it was a shame that three were eliminated.

This week has probably seen the  demise of a good friend, my cheap shopping bike.  I was returning from my Wednesday shopping expedition when I felt the handlebars give a little.  I stopped and investigated and found that there was quite a lot of play in the folding mechanism of the handlebars but as it seemed stable I rode home no wishing to boil the five litre cask of wine in my basket.  At home, having safely put the wine in the fridge, I tried to adjust the folding mechanism which actually broke as I did it.  This bike cost about $150 four years ago and apart from last weeks puncture had been totally reliable.  Spare pares are not available for these cheap chain-store bikes and I cant see a way of fixing it safely so I shall recover any useful bits and put the rest in the wheely bin tomorrow.  I bought this bike when Margaret was ill and it made many trips to the hospital and nursing home.  After Margaret's death this little bike encouraged me to buy my $2000 plus Bike Friday which has contributed to me making it through the last two years and helping me to look forward to the future.

The offending mechanism.  To fold the handle bars down you slide the little clip on the left and pull down the black knob on the right which controls and "over centre" latch which had stretched and subsequently broken.

I am looking at buying another cheaper bike, about $500, for shopping as I couldn't bear to have the Bike Friday stolen.

Into Another Year

Last year was a settling down year as I had no major trauma during it.  I have come to accept that I am no longer as fit as I think I should be and am not over exerting myself.  My GP has me on a monthly examination routine with blood tests every three months, a major check up every six months and an annual eye test.  This is to check my type two diabetes and my AF.  Luckily I am keeping OK although my blood sugar levels are creeping up which is normal as diabetes is a progressive disease.

Helen went home early in December and I have settled back into my normal life style except that I had several more MOW deliveries as Christmas approached due to several other volunteers going off on their summer holidays.  MOW closed over Christmas and we had to deliver frozen meals to cover the break.  They actually start deliveries again today but my first scheduled round is on Friday,

I have been doing my normal Saturday Morning bicycle ride with the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club and also using my cheap bike for shopping around Noosa and Tewantin.  The computer club was in recess in December but starts again this week.

I spent Christmas Day at Joan and Bill's as I have done for the last two years.  It was even quieter than last year as Joan is jut getting over a broken bone in her foot which has taken ages to heal.  I enjoyed their company but I think Louis was a bit bored.

Since Christmas I have done couple of bike rides around the Noosa Hinterland and had coffee in Cooroy.  I think that I am riding well up to about 50Km but get very tired after that.  Today I went shopping at our local Aldi Store just for small items but got sucked in to buy one of their specials.

That is a Queen Size Quilt  bun-geed onto my shopping back which contains two Quilt Cover Sets and dog food.

Note the front tire is also flat and I had to walk the last 2Km home.  It's over 30C at present so it was a warm walk but interestingly enough I quite enjoyed it.  The flat tire is now fixed and Louis is begging for his lunch to goodbye and Happy New Year to you all.