The bane of my life!

We have had a week or so of storms, with more to come. The poor dog does not like them so we keep a close eye on her when it is too noisy with the thunder. We had a beaut a few days ago, and for the first time we had hail. It was only small, but on the Sunshine Coast, they had hail the size of golf balls and tennis balls. Have a look at this...amazing...you will have to put up with a fifteen second advertisement first......

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/selections/hail-was-apocalyptic-size-4935562.html

 

 I will try and load up this video I took.

 

The sky was black to the east, the sun was out to the west and the thunder was still
rumbling around overhead.

We go food shopping every 3 or 4 days, getting fresh meat etc. When I lived in this area about three years ago I used to shop at this Woolworths Supermarket in Mayfair all the time. You can see some trolleys in this pic too, and often when you go back the chains are all locked up or tangled...a real nuisance.

 

 But over the past few visits, while at this house sit, I have been really disappointed. The level of service has gone down. When we went the other day, at about 9.30 am, some of the aisles where full of people packing the shelves. I wanted some fresh fish for dinner, but they stuff they had looked really old. Most of it had been frozen and thawed out. Half of the trays were not labelled or named or priced. In the end I bought some hoki but it had been frozen and was not nice. They also had some huge pieces of fish, which was fresh. Each piece must have weight around a kilo. I asked if she would cut one up for me, but no, she was not allowed to cut it. A bit crazy I thought.

One of the things I really really hate about some of the supermarkets here, are the shopping trolleys. Lots of places in Aussie have these now, and I hate them with a vengeance. They have a locking device and you must put in a coin to release it. It is designed to make the shopper take the trolley back to claim their coin again, because so many people just leave them out in the car park. This is another case of insulting the honest ones or those that put the trolleys in the right places all the time anyway. I hate it how the whole world is geared for the crooks, making the life of the honest ones much more complicated.

 

 

Anyway, there is a Coles supermarket at Wynnum Plaza and they don’t have these security gadgets, so I am going to go there more. They also have nice fish.

Picnic in a thunderstorm.

Yesterday we had a family picnic. It was our youngest son’s wedding anniversary, so a little celebration was arranged. They decided to have a picnic, there are quite a few of us, and quite a few children, so Cleveland Point was chosen, right on the beach, safe for the children and plenty of free barbeques to use.

All spread out ready for a good picnic lunch.



Dads playing with the kids. The storm is looking worse.



What will we do if it rains?

As you will know if you have been reading this blog, we have had storms on and off for the past couple of weeks, some of them rather severe, as is the norm for this neck of the woods in spring. The forecast was for possible storms so we hoped for the best, packed up our goodies and headed off.

Cleveland Point is a lovely park area, not very big, but with great facilities and used by thousands of people over the summers. Today was no exception, the car park was full, and there were people everywhere. We got a car park and lugged our stuff over to the barbeque area, sheltered, with good seats tables and barbeques to cook on. Our family spread itself all around, on blankets, camp chairs, kids and dads playing ball and us ‘older’ girls chatting.

There was an ominous cloud approaching and we were keeping tabs on it on the BOM site. It got blacker. It got closer. The wind picked up, coming off the sea towards the land, and the clouds were coming off the land towards the see…..a recipe for a storm.



The storm is moving in fast.

With barely a minute to spare we moved blankets food bodies and chairs under the shelter before the thunder started and the rain came in buckets. It just poured down. Everybody was running for shelter, even a bridal group trying to get some wedding pics had to run for their car before they got drenched.

Kids huddled up in a blanket to keep dry and warm.



If you didn't hold down the bread and plates, they went everywhere.

Water seeped in everywhere.

It poured down, it lightninged and it thundered, and the wind got stronger and blew the rain sideways under the shelter, the seats and tables all got wet, but the intrepid men of the family continued cooking the sausages regardless. The kids huddled together in a blanket and moved bags from A to B to stop them getting wet.

Sausages and meat patties being cooked.

Then it passed and the sun came out. We got a couple of towels, dried off all the seats, moved bags back out, got the chairs out again, and as the wind died down started eating some rather yummy sausages and salads. The storm passed out to sea, but there were some very impressive bolts of forked lightning all around, as the thunder slowly rumbled off into the distance. Eventually a ragged rainbow appeared over Moreton Island.

 

 

The BOM site now showed a second storm coming our way, and it was moving fast. We decided to pack up and head home before it arrived, but it was so fast I was amazed to see the rain coming in a massive curtain across the bay. You could see it hitting the sea and stirring it up. Once again, under the shelter, which by now we knew was rather inadequate for such a downpour, we packed up and kept as dry as we could. Finally, as the second storm headed out to sea we headed for the car and a dry house.



Storm is moving out to sea.

A ragged rainbow appeared over Moreton Island.

 

We did have a nice afternoon. Family times are always good. I couldn’t help giggling as I sat in the middle of the shelter, with kids cramming in trying to get dry, everyone holding down the paper plates and cups as the wind blew them everywhere, my glasses covered in rain spray, and everyone a bit damp. In our hot climate everything dries out fast and we don’t get colds etc. But we will all remember our picnic in the thunderstorm for a while.

You can see the sheltered picnic areas in the park.
Each has several large free barbeque plates for the public to use.
The second storm is coming. Time to head home.

 

JFK

Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. There seems to be still endless theories about how he was really killed, but his memory lingers on. We sort of have a fond feeling for this man who tried to do good things.  It’s one of those happenings when you remember where you were when this was unfolding. I remember where I was.  If you  were alive at that time do you?

 

 

 

A slightly pooped pooch.

 

Well, not really. But we try and take Ellie out for a walk most days, sometimes it doesn’t happen, but she is not a dog that needs lots of exercise, being older and living in an upstairs area, she is up and down the stairs often, and out into the garden. We were told taking her to the shops and back was about her limit, so we just amble around the blocks close to this house sit and she really enjoys getting out and having a good sniff all around.

She certainly recognised her lead, and when Peter picks it up Ellie is there tail wagging and ready to go.

 She is such an obedient dog, and so easy to care for. She has been very well trained, and that makes the life of a house sitter so much easier.  Here is a pic of Peter and Ellie, in a rather nice little spot around the block, under a tree, where there are some lovely flowers growing in the front lawn.

 The Brisbane City Council, has what is called a kerbside collection each year. What it means is that every household can put rubbish out that cannot normally go into a rubbish bin, stuff like old building materials, old baths or toilets from renovations, old tv sets or computer screens, old furniture that is no longer needed. For many households it is really hard to dispose of these things, so once a year they are allowed to put it out by the road and a special truck will come and collect it all and take it to the tip.

This stuff can sometimes sit out by the kerb for several days, and anyone is allowed to help themselves to it, so, often someone will come along and take what you have put out. That’s okay, it’s good recycling, and the items are still very usable.

Typical Queensland sunny day, blue sky, warm and fabulous.

 

So the pics here today are what I took on our walk the other day. The collection truck, on a typical suburban street around this area, keeping in mind that this is a well-established area, and  probably about fifty years old, and a baby magpie that we found. It may have fallen out of the nest, although we couldn’t see any evidence of any parents, and usually the parents are quite aggressive and protective of their babies. We are not sure if it could fly yet, but it was being hassled by some other birds. We kept an eye on it for a while and it seemed okay, and decided to leave it there, hoping the parents were nearby.

 

Dash cams and binoculars.

We are thoroughly enjoying our time at this house sit. The house is very easy to care for, and the dog is obedient and also very easy to look after. One of the best things is the large deck, where we spend lots of time.

A few weeks ago I bought Peter a little present. He has drooled over dash cams for the car for ages. He has looked at them, compared them, researched them to death on the internet, so finally I took him down to the Good Guys, and bought him a dash cam for the car.

He was tickled pink. We checked out the different models they had and he chose what he wanted. It was not too expensive, although we had to buy a sim card to record on, and that was about $35 extra. He took it home, read up the instruction book, and fiddled to his hearts content. There was a problem getting the sim card in. He said there were no instructions, and oh dear, he split the sim card trying to force it in the wrong way, so back to Good Guys we go and get another one. Peter was also having trouble downloading from the dash cam to his computer, but the salesman showed him how. He was recording and transferring and watching, a happy little camper.

 

 

 This is not the brand we had but looked like this.

But ah yes….a snag!!! Isn’t there often a snag? The whole idea of these things is that they sit attached to the windscreen at the front of the car so the driver can twiddle the knobs and do what you have to do to work the gadget. But……here in Queensland it gets really really hot! And what happens in the heat? Yes of course, it expands. So the little doodad that the camera slid onto would expand and the attached camera would fall off.  It was still attached to the windscreen by a connecting cord, but It happened all the time. After a few days he got totally fed up with this, so took it back to the Good Guys and asked for his money back. I have to say that we have bought a few things from The Good Guys and the service has always been top notch.

Anyway, he had his money back but no pressie from me any more. But we solved that problem. Meandering around the Wynnum shops he found a pair of binoculars. He bought a good pair when we were in China but they have seen the kiss of death, and packed up. He bought these binoculars home, and he is a happy little camper again.

Watching the birds and planes, anything with wings will do. There was an acrobatic
plane practicing yesterday, really good to watch too.

 

The brand is Bresser , made in Germany and were not expensive. He sits on the deck watching the planes coming and going, and watching the birds…(the ones with wings) and in general, is having a great old time with them.

Thai food and dancing in the rain!

You know the song…singing in the rain, well this is the same but different. We have been having lots of storms and nice showers, some heavy some light. The rain has not been constant, but lovely for the gardens anyway. I was watching a young visitor to one of the neighbours and talked to her and took these pics. I was thrilled to see a child outside running round getting wet in the rain, and she was dancing as if there was not a care in the world. I thought it was just lovely.

 

  

 

We have also had some interesting cloud formations rolling across, and with this house sit having a fabulous second level deck, we can get a good view for quite a long way. This was taken at sunset, and in the bottom pic the cloud is reflected in the glass table.

The pink of sunset and below reflected in the glass table.

 

Last night we decided to have dinner out, so went to Mon'sThai shop in Tingalpa. They have just changed management and been taken over by the May's Thai chain. The restaurant is only small, but had a few tables inside and out. Prices were about $20 per mains, not cheap but not over the top.

They were doing a roaring trade with take away food, and the chef was working away furiously in the kitchen. One thing, being a small shop we could see right into the kitchen and it looked very clean. That’s always a good sign.

Well we waited for quite a while to have our order taken. They were so busy with takeaways. Then they brought out Peter’s calamari rings, okay but not wonderful, too chewy for me, but then I have trouble chewing hard things anyway.

 

We waited again for quite a long time, maybe half an hour before the mains came out, and Peters came out first, and by the time I got my mains Peter had almost finished his, they didn’t come out together.

Peters dish was okay in size but not very big, and had lots of potato in it, probably part of the recipe, a yellow curry, but still not heaps of meat in it. My satay dish was a better size and certainly very tasty, with quite a variety of vegetables too. We had also ordered coconut rice, which I just love!!!

So the food was quite nice, but I wasn’t impressed with the rather long wait. Maybe next time we will order takeaways and bring it home, even then we noticed the people waiting for takeaways had to wait about 30 minutes or so, or maybe we will try somewhere else.

Blame the door!

Ever walk into a room with some purpose in mind, only to completely forget what that purpose was? It turns out, doors themselves are to blame for these strange memory lapses. Psychologists at the University of Notre Dame have discovered that passing through a doorway triggers what's known as an event boundary in the mind, separating one set of thoughts and memories from the next.  Your brain files away the thoughts you had in the previous room and prepares a blank slate for the new locale. Thank goodness for studies like this. It's not our age, it's that Stupid Door!

Having some bad hair days.

I needed a hair cut. The area around this house sit is not new to us, we lived in this area some years ago, so know the shopping centres fairly well. The Manly Wynnum area is lovely to live in, everything is close by, and all the services you need are here.

The other day I mentioned going to Carindale Mall to find a post office. Well I also tried a few hair salons for a cut. The prices they charge! I only have short hair and it only needed a trim, but the prices ranged from $35, which is not too bad to $55, and even “$65 as long as we don’t have to wash it.”

Nope, not for me. The next day I went to Mayfair, to Bojays, and they wanted $55 for a trim, and remember this is at pensioner rates too!

“Lets go to Wynnum,” said Peter, so off we went. And what did I find?  Lucindas’ in the Wynnum Plaza at the most affordable price of $21.95. How do the other places justify charging such huge amounts?

I was delighted with the trim, and will go back there next time too.

 

You gotta see this...follow the link.

I can't work out how to embed this into my blog, but you've got to see this. Follow the link to see an ice tsunami....amazing.



http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/13/us/ice-tsunamis/

Bang! Crash! Boom!

We have had some stormy weather this past week. This is storm season here around Queensland, most years we often get storms in the afternoons and sometimes they hang around for a week or so while the weather patterns waffle around. This week we have had some whoppers, but for some reason, our little house sitting area missed most of them. But on Wednesday night we got rain, it was wonderful to hear the rain, we stood out on the deck watching it coming down in buckets. It didn’t last long, but it was a good heavy shower that lasted maybe 30 minutes or so. The grass loved it.

Well, yesterday it was our turn. Late in the afternoon it started rolling up from the south east. A great wall of grey cloud.

 

Then came the rain and wind.

An hour later is was clear and we had a brilliant sunset.

The weather people in Australia are the Bureau of Meteorology. They have a very good website with radars that show all the weather coming, and it’s easy to see the storms brewing and moving across the country. Considering that generally weather forecasters are berated day and night, I reckon they do a pretty good job and are mostly accurate. And all through the storms, the planes come in, every minute or two and land at the Brisbane airport not far from here...



You can see the massive line of severe storms coming our way. You have to
look hard to see Brisbane City on this map...that is our area....

There is also a Facebook page called Higgins Storm Chasers. I follow them on Facebook if there are storms about too. They have some fabulous pictures sent in by all and sundry who keep up to date with this Facebook page.  Here are one or two of the pics from yesterday from Higgins Facebook page.

 

It's not so easy to see the refracted light in this pic, go to  his Facebook
page and see it....its amazing.

RARE* Rainbow with light refraction! This is only the second time in my life I have witnessed and captured the phenomenon... both times as the sun was setting behind me after a storm!

 How does this occur??? The change in speed that occurs when light passes from one medium to another is responsible for the bending of light, or refraction, that takes place at an interface, in the case water droplets or rain.
 Photo taken north of Canungra SEQLD this afternoon.

 Image © Jeff Higgins

You can see the refracted light better in this shot...amazing?  Yes!

 

 Poor Ellie, the dog here we are caring for is not happy when it is thundering. The storms we get here can be vicious, tropical type storms, with great flashes of forked lightning and massive cracks of thunder. Poor Ellie was sitting on Peters feet, her little heart going nineteen to the dozen. She will often head for the bedroom and hide under the bed.

 Anyway, we have had a couple of beaut storms, with some wonderful rain. Short sharp bursts, but enough to do some good.

You know, lightening is one of the most wonderful things ever created. I had a really bad fright when I was 14, when walking home with my best friend, we were standing on a corner when lightning hit the power lines above us, exploded the transformer beside us and all the power lines fell around us with lines spitting and sparking. The sound of the electrical transformer blowing up is impossible to describe, a boom like a bomb and the blue of the electricity exploding above us. It took me many years to get over that, and get used to storms again.

But I have been really fascinated by lightning, and know it serves a very important function in nature. Check out this video, showing blue lightning, red jets and sprites.

 

The video shows all kinds of lightning, even some from a planes cockpit.

It has taken scientists many years to work out just how lightning works, and they still don't know that much. But what they do know is that the lightning also goes above the clouds. We can't see that, but with satellite's they were able to study storms from above.

And one of the things they have found out is that it is lightning that keeps the electrical field around the earth topped up. For many years they wondered how the magnetic field around the earth kept its power without going flat. It seems to be a bit like a battery, and needs constant topping up. Apparently it is lightning that zaps up to the magnetic field and constantly feeds it electricity. Pretty good eh?

 

Post Office . . .gone AWOL.

We went to Carindale shopping centre yesterday. Its one of the biggest malls in this area. They have all the big shops like Myers and David Jones, along with lots of boutique shops, and all the usual supermarkets etc, lots of coffee places and has large wide airy walking spaces, in general a nice place to wander around.

 

 

I was on the lookout for a particular type of glass, and thought I would find it there. I also wanted to pay an account and thought I would do it at the Post office. Actually the Post Offices in Aussie are really good, they provide a huge number of services, not only postal but you can pay all sorts of accounts there.

We used to get to the Post Office from the car park easily, and as usual took the escalators up to level 2. The Post Office has gone! There is a car place there instead selling some sort of posh car! We asked where it was and was  told it was in Terry Whites Chemist. (You might think that is a dopey place for a Post Office....so did I)

We found Terry Whites Chemist and they told us the Post Office was just an agency in their other store on the ground floor. Well we walked almost the width and breadth of the mall looking for this small chemist hidden away.

‘Post office?’ I asked?

‘Yes….but just an agency’.

‘I want to pay an account,’ I said.

‘No, we just do postage. You have to go to a different place to find the Post Office now if you want to pay an account. There is no proper Post Office in the mall.’

How crazy is that! A huge mall, visited by thousands of people a week, and not a Post Office in the place!

One lady said, ‘I think people were getting fed up with the long lines at the Post Office that meant it blocked some of the shoppers from moving around freely.’

‘You would think that showed a need for the place here then!’ I said.

She just shrugged her shoulders and said it had gone.

That is the dopiest thing I have come across in a long time. Every mall I can think of has a Post Office attached somewhere, but not this one.

Australia Post needs to take a look at this one I reckon!

 

 

 

 

 

Planes and boats and trains......

Remember that song from years back?  Well here are the boats and planes, but sorry, no trains today.

The other day I spoke about the noises of a new house at night. Well this house sit has some really good day noises too. The best being airplanes going overhead.

We are pretty close to the flight path for all the planes coming into Brisbane airport. They don’t go directly overhead, and it does change a bit depending on the wind direction, but we get to see lots of planes coming and going.

This picture was taken not too far away, on the Manly foreshore. In the distance you can see right on the very left by the road sign some cranes from the Brisbane port, and on the other side you can’t see anything. That’s because it is dead flat over there.  It is the airport. So we would be about 5 kms as the crow flies from the runways.

It’s really interesting to watch the planes on their flight paths. When we sit on the deck and look west, there are several power lines in front of this house, and the planes look like they are gliding along exactly on top of one of the power lines. They all take exactly the same path. The noise is not too bad, it doesn’t bother us at all.

 

Actually the Brisbane airport is one of the busiest in the country and I heard on the radio that the Brisbane to Sydney run is the 7th busiest in the world. There's been lots of talk of building another runway, but its an expensive business, so the usual 'yes lets do it, but tomorrow', seems to be the plan at the moment. Brisbane is noted as one of the worst airports for planes being late coming and going because of the congestion.

Also along the Manly foreshore is this little inlet with boats at anchor. Some pelicans have set up house here. I thought these pics were nice.

This house sit is in a very pretty part of Brisbane. We used to live not far from here, so its a bit like home from home.

 

The average easy aussie lunch.

I know there are people from all over the world who read this blog. Often one of the questions people ask someone from another culture is about food. I know when I am in China they are really curious about what we eat. To them, rice three times a day and a bit extra for an in-between snack is the norm. So here is our lunch, an easy average Aussie lunch for the two of us.

There are several reasons we usually have this kind of lunch. It is basically nutritious. Two slices of wholegrain bread, one buttered and one with mayonnaise on it. Some cold meat and some salad vegies. In the summer we usually have a glass of cold low fat milk, good calcium content and protein. And then we usually finish off with an orange or some watermelon, vitamins, minerals and a bit of natural sugar.

 

 

 The other reason is this. It is easy. Why should I slave over a hot stove cooking stuff when I can slap two bits of bread together, slice up an orange, pour a couple of glasses of milk and eat it?  Makes sense to me!

And here in this home we are house-sitting, well, they have the epitome of indoor/outdoor living. This home has a lovely modern kitchen, and the whole wall is sliding glass doors that open onto a huge deck. The table and chairs on the deck are really comfortable too. And one other benefit, is that we are sitting on the second level, so we are up off the ground, with a lovely view of the area. We can see in the distance traffic heading north for the Gateway bridge, there is a large park to the south and we are tree level, so we get to see lots of birds around here too.  What more could you ask for?