Collendina Report

Went back for a visit to the Klyes and also ran into the Carney's.  Paul is looking OK after some heart bypass work.  We had some lunch at the Queenscliff Brewhouse which is a bit pricey but if you like beer tasting then this is the place.  Back at Collendina we did a tour of the changes. The hedge directly across from our van has been replaced by a replanting and don't delay too long there as a wayward magpie is doing the Spring Swoop.  Around near the pool we checked out the new Cafe de Collendina which looks quite good with its aspect looking out towards the pool.

Note Magpie stick

Not open today come back in January

That's Invigorating

Went down to the beach again and this time decided to wade in.  I had to walk out past the end of the groyne to get groin deep.  So another example of Winter Water in Victoria.  I didn't stay long.  From the position I was in I could look back to the house for a selfie.  At first the shallowness was half warm water but when you got out past the rocks it was cool.  Yesterday I spied a bag of poo that was left in an obvious spot so I left it.  Sure enough it was still there today and a group of school teachers ignored it so I moved it to the bin topside. That bin is a stinker.

Groyne wade

Beach report

It was reasonably calm on the beach today. Around at the Dell the sea grass has abated so it is possible to see the springs agian. They have been hidden by piled grass for months. I brought a bag for the rubbish clean up but there were only a few wrappers and some short rope segments.  I went back into the hinterland areas and found a few flowering shrubs i hadn't seen before.

Not sure what these are called.

Orchid bloom

I could say that we have had a huge burst of flower power either side of our back door, all based on the research we had previously undertaken down at the nearby orchid farm last year.  Basically find the right spot with some Winter sun and do not move the pots, as the plants will find and grow and bloom towards the sunshine. We did get two good stalks but the new ones below have been bought. If they look like this next year that will be the test.  However there has been a big development near the back fence where the new apricot tree has blossomed. Does that mean apricots in the first year?

Too spindly yet for bearing fruit

Ocean Eyes

Today was the last of a raft of appointments being an eye examination and a pocket gouging.  Hopefully BUPA will bring this bill down below $1000 but we wont know until I pick up the two new pairs of glasses which are bi focaled, polarised, transitioning glasses and maybe I will be able to see out of them.  In the end the test said there was not a lot of change. I did get some photos done which captured an image of a floaty with its tail that I notice occasionally when I am looking at a white background, like a book.  The optometrist says just ignore it.  At least we can go for lunch as part of this trip, like to the Olive Pit.

Sticky Stamps Stuck

I have had a few posts about stamps but this time the Post Office has put sticky tape all over the envelope. I have a theory that they reinforced the envelope by completely covering it in tape. They could obviously feel a cable inside and maybe thought it might puncture and snag on their equipment.  I have been jibbed of two stamps. I have attempted getting tape off stamps before but it is permanent. Each year I do get the annual stamp pack so they will arrive in the next few months anyway.

 

Geelong Showgrounds

Got the bikes out again with good sunshine so decided to try a ride into Geelong but not from Clifton Springs. We drove to the other side of Drysdale near the Curlewis Driving Range. This still gave us a fair ride. We followed the rail trail to the show grounds which had its weekly trash & treasure. This is a big venue with many stalls.  It had numerous junk food options nut I had my eye on Botanical a cafe near the botanical gardens.  The food was good. We had a half steak sandwich in sunshine when we started and spitting rain when we finished. It was a 30km round trip and now that we have done it there must be 50 cafes in that area.

Spring Wattle

Treasure for sale

Botanical

AnyTime Gym

Went to the Anytime always open 24 hrs 7 days a week gym today.  So don't go on a Saturday morning although it wasn't that busy. Twenty or so people had plenty of equipment and the bike machine was freed up . I did my 30 minutes moving from level 10 to 15 and down to 5.   I have guest access for two weeks and with the no sign up fee for one day deal last week, we saved $100, so now we only have to pay $780 for the next 12 months for just one membership.  Those machines are never the same as riding on the road. I kept the speed at 30km/h without too much trouble. Bur keeping it over 30km/h on the road is way harder. So not worth the money when you can just go out your front door.

Stepper

Griggs Creek

Went out for a short ride of between 10 and 15km down to the Jetty Road beach then back uphill via the Griggs Creek Path which is all new estates, with sculptures, playgrounds, frog pools and barbecues.  This tested out the new filling which must be working as I have not felt a thing since it was put in.  When the Sun comes out take advantage so the lawns got mowed as well.

New boat enclosure

Sun Filter

Dentata

For us the new dentist is a bit of a revelation. Who has ever had a jaw massage while sitting in the dental chair?  It is the first time for me and as well, there is a TV positioned on the ceiling for your entertainment while your mouth is being poked and prodded. I like the new technology in this clinic, such as the pen type camera that photographs the inside of your mouth for instant feedback and discussion on how to proceed with the problem tooth. When he broke some more off the tooth he decided not to charge me for that part of the repair. That is normally where the real pain hits, in the hip pocket. However I can't believe we only paid $65 for the two of us taking an hour of his time. For some reason BUPA chipped in $360 towards the bill.  We used to get $50 off if you were lucky. The other thing I notice is the recycling. Just bring in your old tooth brushes and tubes and they will make playground equipment out of them.

toothbrush bin

Mr Muk

A rather large filling fell out this morning during breakfast.  It was always going to happen and certain preparations had already been made before we left Essendon. Such as getting my dental history printed out, they even put an X-Ray in it.  We had previously talked to the Carney's, as Jennie had a massive job done by this dentist called Mucky Muk, at least that was the name in my head. When we get there his name is Ricky Muk.  My first appointment tomorrow is at Toof Hirty.  We walked across the road and made an appointment for the eye doctor to check my prescriptions. That job is going to take longer than the dentist. So three days in a row I have the dentist, the penis nurse and the eye doc.

Gaps and WhiteCaps

Cycle Stamps

I brought some stamps back with me from Barcelona and also Malta.  Both lots had the theme of Bicycles or Maps. I have had to remember my procedure for getting them into my database as I haven't touched this stuff for over three months. EG Had to look up the shortcut for renaming a file (F2) On closer checking in my catalog, nearly all of my purchases, being mint stamps, were actually worth less than their used equivalent.  I could have stuck them all on an envelope with my home address and they would have arrived as used and I would have been $10 better off but they don't look as good when used.

Spanish Guinea - currently worth 97c

West Berlin Stamp - Currently worth $10.79

Largercrantz

Haven't done much reading except for the last week when I went away, I quickly grabbed a book to take. However I took one I had read last year.  My marking of the pages must have been forgotten but I reread it anyway even though you get that deja vu feeling.  There are five of the Lisbeth Salander saga so far and an Eye for an Eye has some stock market manipulation going on at the end, so there is another book in the series.  It was the Spider's Web that I had not read but it turned up on TV the night before we left. After watching that film, other characters that had been mentioned started dropping into place. It is better to read these things in order.  PS There are a few Lisbeth Salander actors getting around which makes it more confusing. 

Cold Front

We drove out of Tulla into a cold front but thirty minutes later we emerged into some blue sky. That is the reality of it all.  The temperature was 10° but the bonus was that we got onto an earlier flight. Seems that if there is a chance of a delay then they will allow you to go earlier, even though we bought the really cheap tickets. Overall we had a good week away that seemed a lot longer, so having just done 6 weeks away and now 6 days away, maybe the longer versions can be shortened.

Beach yesterday

Planes today

Sublime Goldie

We have been here a few times during Winter but today at 28° would have to be the best day we have had.  We did nothing except hang around on the beach. There was a 1 hour effort to get some chicken wraps with a punnet of strawberries and our couple of piccolos and SunBeams (Jim).  We have used most of the restaurants across the road in our couple of years here. Omeros bros were very good with creamy oyster soup. Last night it was Crab Co with their big bucket of mussels. Tonight we are trying the hotels Grill Bar. Overall a few days in QLD during August is a good thing.

  

We used the pool from about 3:00pm

Burleigh Heads

We have not stopped at this beach before. Burleigh Heads is typical of that very wide fine sand beach that you get all the way along the Gold Coast.  It is hard to believe that in Melbourne a storm has swept thru with hail and 100km winds.  We stayed for around two hours in the morning and then headed back to Surfers but only after we bought lunch supplies and some travellers. We proceeded onto main beach proper but here the wind sprang a bit fresh. However we were fortified with sandwiches, piccolos and Jim SunBeams.  Some good beach hunting was also possible with the best ever scallop shells that I have seen.

Surviving the Hurley Burley

Shell friends

Grand Mirage

Not sure why you would call a hotel a Grand Mirage but we are in the Grand Mirage.  The beach was a bit cool with a nippy wind bowing but you can't do much better than this in Winter. When you get out of the wind then the temperature does go up. We have a water view from our small deck where the sun can get thru the foliage so we had a few drinks there after the webinar.  We seem to be caught up in one of those selling frenzy seminars where a micro cloth company is trying to get there wares out to the masses.

A slow day with just one swimmer in the water

Jets for hire

North Shore Cafe

EKKA Day is a public holiday here. We took a short drive to a revitalised section of the Brisbane River.  There are indicators there that the area was a former industrialised warehouse location.  There is a small beach with proper sand but it is not suitable for swimming, more like sun baking and sand castles.  There are picnic facilities and many new apartment blocks.  We had a seafood lunch at the cafe which was very tasty. This is as far North as the river ferries will go before they turn back so could be a good outing from the city.

30 something kids

cafe view

seen better days

MontVille and BirdsVille

Montville is a quaint Ville on a high ridge on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It is a collection of artisan shops with cafes and restaurants thrown in. We had lunch at 'The Edge' with Lizzie and David as well as Laura and Rick. Then it was off to the gardens at Maleny where we also called into the huge bird aviary there. We must have spent an hour in there having an interactive bird experience, which means getting crapped on, getting chewed and getting bits of your clothing stolen. I would do it all again.

The Edge

Glass Houses

Friends

Macaws

A walk in Nundah

Made it to Nundah this afternoon in time for a 5km walk along the creek and thru the Nundah town.  It was blue skies and 21° and tomorrow is meant to be 22°. The EKKA winds have not materialised as yet. The hire car has made it OK this time as I have not scraped any paint off it so far. Don't try the lasagne at the Nundah Pub but their pizzas are good.

Asher slurps it up

A trip to Melbourne involves numerous stops these days.  First it was to Burnside for a Sunday Roast lunch with dessert prepared by the local chef at the village centre.  We showed a few photos and videos from our ride around Lake Constance.  Next stop was retirement village no2 but only to drop off a few meals. After that it was the Mantra Tullamarine to drop off our bags and then on to Asherville where the entertainment starts. I already had enough food for the day but at the Packo Pub it was Heidi's half price executive card that meant all seven meals cost only $64.  Now that's a bargain.

Stand Up Photo frame

At last I have spent some time on this photo frame which has been neglected for the last two years. The photos were faded, the glass was grubby as well as dusty and there were cobwebs around the legs and at the back.  I took each piece of glass and sprayed it front and back.  The photo selection is tricky when you have a few thousand to start with but need to get it down to 15.  In the end I picked them with a bit of colour and a spread throughout the different venues we visited. The walk down Piz Nair scored multiple photos from the same day and the number one slot front and centre went to the Iron Throne.

Wind Weather

A crap day has hit here and with it comes wind. A year ago I replaced the cordage on some canvas awnings which had been in tatters. I found some strong nylon which I used instead of the rope version from our predecessors.  When we came back, this was also dangling in pieces, so now I have used some wire today. I am glad there are no wind mill farms here. Although I was spying out the horizon thru the spyscope the other day and I can see the cutting blades of just such a device thru the saddle in the Yu Yangs.

Cycle Maintenance

On a long ride there is probably nothing more important than the seat.  It seems that the newish bikes (about two years old now) have harder seats than our originals. So Debbie's old seat might work best on the newer bike. It must have taken me an hour to get both seats repositioned on opposite bikes. It was awkward trying to use the garage floor as a workbench. Who would have thought the old roll top desk would make a good workbench. The angle of the seat may need some adjustment but she hasn't tried it yet.

At least it was at a good height

Sunset Scene

Winter presents us with the best time for SunSet viewing.  The Sun's track north during Winter positions it over the water as it is setting. This can add the stairway effect in the right conditions but mostly it's easily seen across the Bay than in full Summer where it sets almost at a right angle to our deck.  The last two nights have been good with just the right amount of cloud.  The prolific sunset seeker has not been here so I have taken the shots.

Two Nights back

Last Night

Meersburg Walk

I have sorted thru a lot of photos and now am spending some time on video.  We saw many things on our trip, some of which are not explainable.  EG when we got involved in a kind of spontaneous fashion walk. There was no camera crew except mine, no audience, no catwalk except the foot path. So what are these women doing?

Beach Return

When the tide is very low it is hard to resist walking down at the beach. This time I went down and turned back in an Easterly direction.  There was no breeze down below but up top it was blowy.  This side is generally much cleaner as people do not go here much, as the water is mostly covering this section.  There were more jellies here. I spent 10 minutes on a rock and you could easily have had the swimmers on.

Easterly

Westerly