Flu Jab

Had the jab today and a bit late in the season we were too.  No chemists here to get it done so had to book into the doc's.  We were given the full four variety so there will be no winter blues this year. We had some time to spare earlier so checked out a few shops in town.  Bought something called citrus goo remover.  My stamp soaking does not work on some of the self adhesive stamps. You are meant to spray this stuff on the back of an envelope where the stamp has been stuck and then it will easily leaver off.  We shall see.

Loose Stamps

I have completed a review of all the so called spare stamps that I had previously put aside. These are flat loose stamps free of their paper baking. I would have soaked these in a warm bath about 30 yar back to get them free of the original envelope.  However after the recheck I have added over 200 of them to the database which now stands at 1476 stamps in the collection. So to move forward, there are two parts - 1st  the mint stamps waiting in the year books and 2nd the huge number of accumulated paper backed stamps thrown into boxes and bags over the years. In digging around deep in that pile some very old books have surfaced that I cannot remember whose they were.

The written inscription says 'To Roy  June 8  1906'

Probably 1000 to 2000 in this box

Bath Time

Pepys Diary

Started reading one of the Pepys Diaries of which I have three.  We just finished watching the Kit Harrington 'Gunpowder" show last night and very gruesome it was. Pepys was born just after the Guy Fawkes plot but even 60 years later Pepys is worried about papists and gunpowder and fire. The great fire of London occurred two months before this diary started.  He gets lost in burned areas and it is still smoking and hot.  At the end of the year he tallies his pay which comes to 2,986 pounds which was 573 less than his previous year.  This is about the same pay as I got in my first year being $8000 and that is 350 years later. He is an administrator for the royal navy so gets a good pay.

Originally a coded shorthand

Corio Bay Watch

There is always something happening out there and this morning it was Dive Bombers. Gannet feeding time and you would not want to be a swimmer or paddler when this was going on. I remember watching shear waters do it in WA but this is outside the front door.  When they get free of the water its back up and another steep dive.

Gannet Dive

Pascoe Gardener

Managed to put in some time to get the cat run spruced up for the moggy.  Along with all the digging was a bag of  clay softener, then there were a couple bags of mushroom mix and an exploding block of fern tree pressings.  On top of that there was three bags of mulchy stuff.  Then the plants went in as well as the water feature and the the black lady. Then three more bags of the mulchy stuff and finally four large bags of soil which looked a lot like the mulchy stuff.  Last thing to go in was the stepping stones.  It's the best cat run I have ever seen.

The triangle garden

May Beach day

Went over to the beach from 2:00pm until around 4:00pm.  The calmness of the day meant you could sit on the beach even if it was only 19 degrees.  There were walkers, spear gun swimmers, stand up paddlers and personal trainers using the beach.  I thought it would be deserted although everyone was well distributed. But you could hear all the conversation up to 500 metres away.

May 26th swim record

Three Parks

It was a sunny day so went for a ride of 20 odd km checking out some of the local parks. First we went to Drysdale Reserve. Seems like the nomenclature people can't think up a new name.  This area had some crazy log ladders that we could not quite work out.  Then we found the Drake's Bushland that I missed last time.  No signage, no nothing, here. Just a paddock with an over grown lake.  Next it was Drysdale Reserve, this was the second one with the same name but this was a big area with two lakes.  We missed the other lake but maybe next time.

Drysdale I

Another broken shed

Drysdale II

Old Album

Checked out yet another brand new Coles store. This time at Leopold but it is more with K-mart, Bunnings and 30 other shops in a large mall.  One of these new malls must be ripe for a picture theatre.  Scanned another old album today as well as the shopping trip.  This is a nana album but it seems a birthday of mine was in there amongst others like Nagambie camping.

21st  maybe

Nagambie - I think

Where is this?

Collendina Report continued

Had a barbecue feed on the new "Behemoth 1000B with internal flood lighting".  An impressive machine while we are still making do with a Webber Q.  I think it will be a summer project to get our barbie situation under control. In the mean time the new van at the back is totally installed and ready to go but there is no-one in it and there are no locks so we let ourselves in for a tour. A small but snug space.

Carnivale comes to Collendina

the barbie has eyes

Country Drysdale

Rode to the PO to get some mail however I took a detour just to be different. It doesn't take long to get on to dirt around here. When you ride past broken down milking sheds and horse whisperer's (There was a guy there making a horse go backwards) then you know you must have moved to the country.  I was looking for Drake's Bushland but it must have been so bushy I missed it.

No cows today or ever

Road to the Post Office

Cassell's National Library

Grandpa acquired six volumes in his travels which were part of a weekly series.  I started reading the first one which contains two travelogues.  These particular books were published in 1894 but the stories within are much older.  Paul Hentzner was a German lawyer who undertook a Grand Tour of Europe in 1597. The journey lasted 3 years. He wrote it all down in Latin and published it in 1612. Two hundred years later the section describing his journey through England was translated and re-published.  The Cassell Publishers were gathering various historical journals and diary's and reselling them at 3d per week in a series of thin blue volumes.
I did a tour of the 'Tower of London" as did Hentzner in 1598.  I was told things like how it housed a zoo as well as prisoners and where they were kept.  Hentzner saw the zoo in action and witnessed the Tower in full use. He counted 30 heads on spikes as he toured the grounds. The jewels and the array of weapons were there, the same as for us.  There was a security check at the door where he surrendered his sword for the tour, picking it up on the way out.  I didn't have a sword but I did get a security check.

Like a 19th century magazine subscription

SeaShore Jog

It was time to try a jog again so I went down to the shore first thing this morning.  It was a little brisk but cleared out the cob webs. The first thing I noticed was the very heavy blue drum had been moved by the tide and was back out on the water but minus the shell fish that had been growing on it. I continued on but could not get across to the Dell without getting wet feet.  It was a short run of only 20 minutes but no sign of any foot trouble.

Blue Drum

A gathering of grass balls

Salty Funghi

Australian Territories

When I started collecting stamps the whole class was interested in every stamp no matter where it was from, myself included.  After a while a limit was needed, so the focus became just Australia and it's Territories.  I threw New Zealand in for good measure.  In order to maintain some worldwide feel, philatelists often pick a theme running through all countries, like aviation or trains etc.  Bicycles on stamps and maps on stamps are two unique themes that I have never seen any where else.  As I was adding the 1982 component into the collection, I got sidetracked by two stamps from the Australian Antarctic Territory.
I had two pages of these as well as Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island in the old album from years ago.  So a week later I now have a new album dealing with the four Territories containing a total of 97 stamps.  Between the four territories there are over 2000 stamps that have been issued.  That's a lot more collecting.

First ever AAT stamp

1980 Album

Scanned yet another album today. This was one of Nana's and I had no idea of what was in it. Turns out there were wedding photos of mine.  Not sure who took them but they still have good colour.

Speechifying

Knees Up

Dance Floor

Such hair

Living on the Edge (Water)

We must be getting a sense of routine here, as I have spent the afternoon doing some PB admin, adding 15 new customers into the system, which had been put on hold for 5 months while we were shifting.  At the same time it can never be normal here, as I look into our courtyard and a 'Superb Blue Wren'  is down there catching bugs.  I have stopped applying the EFUDIX. I lasted three weeks and one day of twice daily coatings of my forehead.  I was probably a bit liberal with the amounts as the area was getting a unbearable and you are supposed to stop at the ulceration stage.  I don't take selfie's much but trying to zoom in on your own head is tricky.

Getting under your skin

Some Melb PB Customers

Happy Refugee

Started reading this while waiting for planes, buses and bicycle deliveries.  Just because you arrive by boat doesn't mean you can't get on with things.  For some reason I have never really heard or seen this comedian anywhere. The book is written in a bit of a stop start fashion, more like a series of notes jotted down, maybe like this blog.  One of these days I might make it to VietNam.  I like his saying about two choices "Now and too late".

Anal-ysis Why Doctor's are always late

This is a rule that we needed as we did not want to mess up an appointment made months ago. Our bags took forever to turn up.  The five minute shuttle bus took 15 minutes because some numbnut got off the previous bus without his bag. So he was discussing this with our bus driver.  Returning from trips is different now with a 1.5 hr drive to contend with. We were only 15 minutes late but yes the doc was running 30 minutes late.  Well that's better than a finger up the bum.  We made it back at 5:00pm taking exactly 12 hrs.  We had some pumpkin soup which went down well.

Car trouble means plane trouble

For the second time we have missed a plane trying to exit QLD. A couple of crashes on the freeway didn't help but Virgin new about that so gave us free flights on the next plane.  We were already up against it because there were extra forms and reports due to our first ever hire car bingle that happened three days back.  The no phasement rule applies.  Julie has rescued us with the Nana pickup but with luck we can still get to the doctor's appointment I have at 3:00pm.

Pina Colada

How good is a Swim Up Bar?  Took full toll of a 25 degree day by going from breakfast to beach walk to bakery lunch to beach walk  to pool swim up bar and back to room deck to typing this and that is the day summarised. A quick word on bonus points for the well oiled traveller is that the SPG scheme (Starwood Preferred Guest) (Sheraton) is combining with the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton schemes into one mega deal. Over the years we have stayed at each of these hotel chains. I recommend them all and there is a leaning towards an adult stay rather than family orientated.

Pelazzo Versace

This is Australia's most expensive hotel. We decided to go across the road to the Sheraton as it has beach access and is much cheaper. Now that the Mother's day crowds have gone we are having a quiet beach day after a quiet breakfast.  There are plenty of other food options over the road with restaurants and fast food. We tried the N3 Tapas place last night which was just the right amount compared to the huge Barramundi the night before at the Pub.

Bring your own boat

Pelazzo Versace

Tres Chicque

Gold Coast

Hard to believe Winter starts in two weeks. These are mild temperatures like 22 degrees right now at 4:30pm, but we are sitting on our room's lagoon patio keeping our feet out of the water because of the snakes we have been observing.  We hired bikes today and rode around 20km. There was some dirt track to negotiate but when we arrived it was nothing but wall to wall dogs. On the track out were six bags of packaged dog shit. This time we could not do it. We simply went in the other direction towards surfers. We spent 4 hours riding and stopping for a couple of swims and also the odd champagne or Wild Turkey.  The rest of the arvo was lounging around the pool at the swim up bar.

Life Guard

Swim Up Bar

Lagoon Snake

Sheraton Grand

After an hours drive we made it to the Gold Coast. We saw the aftermath of the games with the Athlete Village being dismantled as well as the beach volleyball stadium. Not quite as good as Melbourne (222 medals) compared to 198 this time.  The hotel here is huge. We have been out to the beach for a short half hour fix and hard to believe but the water has been declared warm and not by me.

It's warm It's warm

Criterium

Last night we had Nigella's Corn Flake chicken and tasty it was too. I wandered down to the Criterium circuit this morning and there they were old guys in lycra trying to ride fast. There is plenty of cycling infrastructure nearby including the Kedron path to Nudgee beach.

Nundah Criterium Track

Brisbane City

We toured the SouthBank area of Brisbane today.  We stayed outdoors for the walk along the bank. The beach area is a good mix of pools and sand and there were plenty of people lapping up the sun.  We had lunch at Puoppolo's which was three sharing plates of seafood and one of pasta for the four of us.  The walk continued through the gardens and finally returned via the Hop On Hop Off ferry along the river.  I had some trouble getting out of the car park when I scraped some paint. Hopefully they wont notice.

the Beach

Story Bridge

Sushi Edo

Haven't been to a Sushi train since I was in Kyoto.  We only waited 5 minutes for a booth but the place was fairly popular.  We had logged in quickly and the Sushi was arriving quicker than the train carriages. Natalie made it and between us we polished off 14 plates of sushi and for a reasonable $50. Right now I am sitting looking out through the CrimSafe mesh. It does not really obstruct the view in any way.

Two Cool Customers

Crim and Proper



Birtinya

Took an hours drive north to check out Birtinya.  That is after we had a late breakfast at Fuel & Co. They really fuel you up here because my breakfast was eggs and meatballs which means I did not really need lunch when we got to Birtinya. This is a very modern new suburb and everyone seems to have fibre to the home around here where others of us have to make due with twisted pairs. I'm getting a bit twisted about the NBN.  On the way back we had a quick look at the Nudgee Beach sunset but the tide was in so did not get out on the mangrove flats. The bike track looks a good flat ride along Kedron Brook for next time.

Breakfast Meatballs

Birtinya Style

Distant Glasshouse from Nudgee