RipView

I was riding thru Queenscliff the other day and I spied a sign which said RipView Bistro down a road  had never been down before.  We drove down there today and there is also a small rustic beach side shack type cafe as well.  We went into the bistro which has a view of the Rip. Turns out it is a bowls/croquet/tennis club. The food was OK just your standard club house fare but quite good and the prices were low. I have never had a steak sandwich before for $17.  Will try the beach shack next time.

Food must be OK if Grandpa eats it

Chkdsk

I got out a USB drive that I will bring along on the trip. I had previously used it in Europe and elsewhere and there are 600Mb worth of videos and photos on there.  As well there is over a Terabyte of unused space for more trips.  I moved it from one machine to another and the second one said "corrupted file system disk drive unreadable".  When I put it back the problem was still there.  All is not lost. Type CMD to find the Command Prompt.  Right click it and select Run as Administrator.  Then use the Chkdsk command in repair mode eg chkdsk /F E:  where E: is your USB drive with the errors.  Fortunately for me the system files on the drive were repairable and I have not lost anything.  Many files were already copied to other drives but not all of it.  Always use the 'safely eject USB button" before removing any media. These drives can die for various reasons.

It was grim but then brought back to life

Wind Pond

I put up a short video previously of a calmness that descended on the beach, so by way of contrast, the wind has been blowing and I should try to catch the days when our doors start to fart. On those days I have to to get a wedgie into the door as the farting is loud. This morning the sun was out and the surf was up but I am not sure if you can get the wind action as I filmed from inside the windows.

Beach Tidy

I went on a short beach inspection mainly to get some air as when you are sitting in a heated room for a while it can fog your head.  It is cold lately so a few steps outside and you are suddenly out of your lethargy.  Our beach is temporarily oozing with  sea grass.  There were a few bottles I picked up and one syringe still with its cap on, but other than that it was reasonably clean. The best section at the moment is the small corner at the first groyne not that it is sun baking time but maybe as a reading nook.

I put this inside a bottle inside a bin

The No Grass Beach

Madonna Del Ghisallo

The Giro went thru Madonna Del Ghisallo last night and finished down in Como for the first time since the 1980's.  The Chapel to the Bike Riders lives on that hill, more like a Museum than a church though. There is the entry fee museum in the same spot.  We rode up to here in 2013 from Como. The view is amazing and the ride is only a taste of what those hills are like.

Finish Line

Name enshrined

Inside view

Garden Bare

There is not a day lately that there is some trip related activity that needs doing. Tonight is the last night I can put out the green bin.  A round of mowing which I have not done for months has already mostly filled it, however I took down every plant that was still standing and a few piles of nicely fermenting detritus that was laying in heaps.  It seems there is a Winter planting schedule that we deliberately skipped. This may never happen if we are knicking off OS. Just saw a flock of black cockatoos go past my window. Flying bricks seem to fly slowly.

before

after

into the bin

Trail Update

Took the Mannerim to Queenscliff rail route today and return for a total of 26km.  Hostyle has not been riding for a while so did well uphill into the wind on the way back. We stopped at the projects along the way. The trail diversion for the Swan Bay water channel is in operation however it is not a channel but a water pipe.  The other spot is at the bottom of Queenscliff where a rejuvenated wharf is being built with $2.5 million of your tax paying dollars. And the liberal lady lost the seat despite the cash splash in favour of the Labour lady.  I'm sure there will be plenty more money in three years time.

How far are we riding?

Taxes at Work

Tides Revisited

I plucked another Hugo off my shelf and found the following passage and I quote

 "He stood up from his desk and walked over to the sleekly streamlined, room-long tide-predicting machine. Inside the machine a wire ran through many movable precision pulleys, each pulley representing a factor influencing the tide at the Earth's hydrosphere, for which the machine was set; at the end of the wire a pen drew on a graph papered drum, a curve giving exact tides at that point hour by hour.

This is a reasonable description and Fritz Leiber must have seen a tide machine some where to be able to put this into his book. However in the next passage he starts giving credit to a German. Well I never!  Let's emphasize again the English invention of this machine particularly with Edward Roberts involvement.  There was a German machine listed in 1916 but the Roberts one was built in 1908 and had the largest number of factored component wheels at 40 where as the German one only had half that number at 20.  So There.

After traipsing the back blocks of Liverpool we uncovered the Tide Predictor 2013

Photo taken previously in 1999

I suspect that the machine was put back onto a different shelf after the Coast TV show visited Liverpool. Nicolas Crane has a lot more clout than us and had them get it off the shelf and put back together for a demonstration on that episode. In our case they unwrapped it so we could see it.

SunSet City

This is SunSet Season and we have been getting a few of late. I went for another walk today to make some more hay in the rocky reading nook on the beach.  The breeze was slight but conditions were still.  The sun having proceeded south is now over the water from our Clifton Springs perspective and that makes a big difference.  The cloud cover needs to be sparse . I have attached photos from recent evenings

Last Week

This week

Yesterday

.

Mill Pond

Went down for a stint on the beach and mainly did some reading as it was so calm. I could not hear any noise at all except people talking on boats.  The water made no noise. Not even the faintest lapping sound.  On the way back I checked out the pipe police who have been around for a few days now, running cameras through the drainage system.  I remember an MMBW guy who drove a claustrophobic cart down some narrow pipes back in Gaffney St when I was about 10 yar old.  There would be a robot for that now.  The pipe police said things were looking fairly clear but you would not have thought that when the storm dumped a river down the street a few weeks back.

End of a TV Era

Well I correctly predicted Daenerys demise even the way she would go by the pointy end.  The involvement of Tyrion, Greyworm, Ayra, Sansa and Jon, and who might actually have stabbed her, meant I was slightly off but these were minor points.  What is going to fill the void?  I am glad the Book of  Brothers survived which means a spin off recounting the deeds of the Hedge Knight and Egg the King to be, is possible. I noticed that Brienne of Tarth dropped Sansa at the end in favour of the new King Stark,  Brandon the broken.  I hardly recognised Robyn Arryn the 10 year old breast suckler. Australia already has a Brandon Starc who has reached the heights.  In 2017 HBO started prequels. There are up to five known series to have been started, but only one has reached the completion of a pilot. This being set thousands of years earlier, during the first men and their falling out with the Children of the Forest. With reconciliation and building of the Wall.

Dragon Rider

Brandon Starc 

Holey Skull

Went back to the surgeon so he could check his handiwork after 6 months. He said it was a big hole that has healed well and there is no further action required. He did checkout a few other watch list spots and applied a ray gun to them which emitted a cold ray that freezes the skin and any marks that might be there.  I would like to find a qualified dermatologist in the area who might do some ultra freeze themselves rather than going to the surgeon.

Sunny Days

The beach weather is back so a few outside jobs can be done. I can report that the new grass has been sown and mown. Also the last of the Olives have been plucked and there are none left of the 30kgs I got off the tree.  The final strawberries are ripening but every time we look there seem to be a few more popping out.  Also the Orchid theory that was put into practice one year ago is starting to blossom. We have two spikes from pots that have not flowered in some years.

Popeye and Olive Oil

a spike in Orchid growth

 

Left Hand of Darkness

This is the 1970 winning Hugo. In a lot of ways it is more an outdoor adventure story than science fiction.  There is the matter of the main character being a visitor from space to a planet populated by people who have no gender most of the time.  Whereby at the right time and place, a couple will change shape to accommodate being male or female this time around.  The visitor is trying to lead them to the light ie the Left Hand of Darkness is really the Light in Yin Yang terms.  A good read.

StarGazing

It was meant to be cloud gazing as in green southern lights reflected by particles interacting with magnetic phenomena.  It was not the most ideal timing with the Moon still high but we were not going to make the drive to the Barwon Headland at 3:00 am. 8:00 pm was still a good time and the lights we did see must have been some sort of floating fishing village, as there were a lot of them and after seeing the Ashley Marie the other day those lights would stand out.  This morning I spent an hour up the tree again retrieving another 5 kilos of olives.  Whatever is left will just fall off. Those Taylors should be able to get some good brews going with this lot.

Does this boat have French doors?

                                                                     Moon Face

GOT

The Greatest Show on TV has been going for 10 yar now and I have seen every minute and read all the books (except two) and now am facing the last episode.  I have two prediction scenarios.  One where Tyrion turns against and the other where he stays true. The simpler one takes us full circle in that the Lannister Right Hand previously killing the mad Targeryren King now kills the mad Targeryen Queen thereby Jamie (Kingslayer) is now usurped by Tyrion (Queenslayer).

My more complicated ending sees Daenerys tying Jon to a stake for death by Dragon with the Unsullied holding everyone at bay. However Jon does not get burnt not even singed, she then gets Greyworm to run him thru but the Starks break free. Arya kills Greyworm and throws his spear at Daenerys but Tyrion jumps in the way saving her but dying in the process. Sansa gets her chance by using the pointy end to kill Daenerys.  Not sure how Sansa gets to King's Landing.

Eddard

LexMark Toner

Our laser printer is showing the Black cartridge as running low on toner.  The messages have been popping up for a while and the timing of when to stop ignoring this as opposed to not printing at all is key. The other cartridges are low but not yet giving error messages. I checked the Lexmark costs and they are $350 each or $1400 for the four colours. I found this before for our Canon printer where the Ink cartridge can be bought for a fraction of the cost if you hunt on the Internet. I went to Ebay and found a guy who would sell them all for $350, so a 75% reduction.  They were an identical match so I bought them and they took two weeks to get here. I only replaced the Black cartridge but a note in the box said if an in compatible error comes up just open and close the lid 5 times.  I did that but no good. 

I go back thru the Ebay rigmarole to get in contact with the seller. Turns out I ordered CX310 not CS310 toner.  So I go thru the Ebay return sequence where I generate a label and pay for a courier to get the unopened one's back to the supplier, but I have to take them to the Post Office first. In the meantime the printer is running lower and this Ebay guy has CS310 prices almost the same as Lexmark.  So I start all over again outside of Ebay and found the InkStation web page will sell all four for $293 and no delivery charge.  I made sure they were CS310 and they were delivered in 2 days and were genuine Lexmark. Not sure what the moral is here except pay attention. 

CS310

CX310

Nagambie Days

Nana found some loose photos laying around so I have scanned them and sent a copy way up North to Melville Is.  There were only a dozen or so compared to the heavy duty albums. I also walked down to the beach to see how the culvert redirection fared after last weeks rain.  There is no doubt about the power of water as it has overpowered the diversion and carved another channel across the beach.  So it will just have to be patched up again.

Cuddles

Nagambie Fun

Wash Out

Asher Saves the Day

There was much feasting on Mother's day but after two long days of effort I don't think we will be doing it that way again.  The traditional Sunday roast went down very nicely not to forget the apple pie and Heidi's bananarama  cake.  I have a video of Asher in action and with close attention she speaks.

Mantra Tullamarine

This is not a bad Hotel option if you need one close to the airport.  It is a bit cheaper than the others and has all the trimmings, like a pool, cooked breakfast etc.  Parking always seems to be an issue around Tulla so you have to pay $30 to use the car park next door.  We easily got a park in the street. There is a good view from our room on the 7th floor, of planes landing.  We are here in between baby watching and Mother's day eating.  I don't think I will need much to eat tonight.  This is good practice to get us into travel mode for next month. I used their bike machine for 30 min and the spa for 15 min.

They need to update their planes

Asher Attacks

We are having a long Asher adventure today due to the very long Harry Potter Show which I can't get my head around is a 6 hour show with a break for dinner at half time.  It would want to be a good show for that amount of time.  I went over to the Mantra to check in there and when I got back Asher was being lively and getting excited about Safron.  You can notice how aware she is now and using her hands to get anything into her mouth.

Rain

It started during the night and has kept on throughout the day.  I had an appointment for some physio in Drysdale which would normally be a short ride but the rain was bucketing and the gutters were awash so I drove. We haven't ventured down to the beach but we could see the run off on the correct side of the groyne so all the sand should be intact.

suddenly green grass

Bird Life

I have previously featured a few of the birds we have around the place but the Black Cockies and the White Cockies are two types where you want to get the flock outta here.  Fortunately from a raucous noise point of view there are no suitable trees right near our house.  But just down the way white clouds erupt over the golf course. I have seen the black ones in flight from my desk here skimming the roof tops at speed.

Distant Fire

We have seen this a number of times around the Bay where fires start up but two hours later they have died away.  We have had some rain here so the bush can't be that dry now, so that makes me think these are deliberate burning off using something to start it. Or not.  This one seemed to have a lot of smoke and not much flame.  Pt Henry is a bit of an industrial wasteland.

                                                   Looking towards the Pt Henry area

Dell Walk

The physical preparations are continuing with walks as well as bike rides.  Two days in a row we have walked to the Dell, this time with a stop off for coffee.  There is a certain type of cup made for non humans. There is no way I can get my finger thru the handle. It seemed funny for the white cockatoos which were all over the tree next door. We have been told there used to be a pool at the Dell. This is something I am going to follow up on.

Innocents Within

This is the true story of Andre Trocme a pastor who organised a network of shelters for Jewish refugees in France during WWII. The story has some aerial dog fight action and the downed pilots love interest as well. The Gestapo was on Trocme's trail and although often close they never actually caught up with him.  He returned after the war and lived on until 1971. The Israelis awarded him their highest medal.

Selvage Factor

On a printed sheet of stamps, the selvage is the margin at the edge of a sheet. The selvage can also be printed on, which can further distinguish the stamp if it is left attached.  I have defined some new terms in stamp nomenclature, of which there are hundreds.  The Configuration Number (CN) is a value given to a stamp configuration according to its position on a sheet. It is a measure of uniqueness.  From this you can calculate the Selvage Factor, which is a multiplier of the stamp's value. It is found from the number of stamps per sheet (SS) divided by the CN. For this to work you need to see the whole of an undisturbed sheet. 

I have two examples. My Bobcat config has a CN of 2 ie it only appears on the sheet in 2 locations and the Coral Island is a 5.  Therefore the Bobcat SF is 20/2 = 10 and the Coral Island SF is 15/5 = 3. So finally according to the catalog, the double Bobcat is worth $13.47 so now is $134.70 as it is 10 times harder to find with this selvage attached. Also the Coral Island now moves from $5.32 to $15.96.  Too bad I do not have the stamp in the top right corner. It has a CN of 1 and 15 times rarer than the straight stamp. 

Some stamp sheets are smaller and more manageable with 10, 15 or 20 stamps and there are collectors who buy whole sheets. However some contain up to 100 stamps per sheet, yet somewhere on the sheet will be a single stamp with the same config number of 1, equivalent to the whole sheet, just because of the selvage. Eg left centre below on this sheet

The 1 on the selvage is slightly obscured

My configuration above appears 5 times

I haven't looked for a sheet copy on this one yet