Sunny Melbourne

 We got off the second plane at 4:30pm yesterday and the slight breeze  and overcast sky meant 9°. However today is bright and all sunshine, who needs to go to QLD.  You do if you want 26°. The sea water was pleasant to swim in. The hotel pools were very cold.  Overall we had good weather this time around. Some mornings were cold and all the evenings were cold but during the day it was T shirts and thongs.  We had a small car on Maggie Island. The guy said don't worry about fuel, just bring it back as is. It wasn't a jeep, it wasn't a mini moke. It had no doors, it had no roof.  The maximum you could drive in one straight main road would be no more tham 10km. We did that out and back each day, so around 50 to 60km total.  

the old pier at Picnic Bay

Everything was unloaded here up until 2002 after which it all moved to a new port at Nelly Bay.

Townsville airport blog

I am having coffee numberthree at the moment in airport number 1 today. There are two more airports to go today as well.  The last night always seems to be restless, especially this time with a broken watch. Will the 6:00am alarm work? In time for the 7:00am breakfast queue. This has to be finished in time to wheel the bags to the ferry terminal for the 7:45am boat. This has to arrive without delays to get the taxi in time.  There were no taxis at the rank, so had to order one, even though we were told there would be some there but there are taxi shortages.  At the airport our bags cannot be directly routed to Melbourne as there are baggage handler shortages.  At least the planes are flying, so far.

evening light



Grand Designs stilt house

Walk and Beach

It  has been a fast week here but fairly physical.  Our usual late afternoon idea of sitting seems to have been forgotten but we are probably out of holiday practice.  We did some walks today instead of the second snorkel trail as the water clarity was poor. I did go in to test it with my mask but could not even see my feet. Tonight we will be eating in as we have been to the same restaurant for the last few meals.  Tomorrow is a long day of travel with a 6:00am start.  Time for a rest. The only casualty seems to be my watch which may have had water in it.

Track to Hawking Point

Balding Bay

Snorkel Trail No 1

 There are two snorkel trails that were put in after our last visit here. They are buoys on top of and below the water. It takes a fair effort to bring snorkel gear on the trip so we wanted to at least give it a go. The water turbidity was not good. We swam thru all five buoys but could only see the reef on the approach to the first buoy.  We dawdled at this spot on the way back. There were some good zebra type fish and quite a bit of coral.  It was not very colourful.  We have identified the second trail and have a plan to try it at the lowest tide tomorrow. Again the water did not look very clear as we could look down from a side road.

The snorkel beach

Too tame

Brain Coral on land

Maggie Island

 Found our way over to Magnetic Island this morning. First tip is make sure you ask for a Seniors Ticket as Julie reminded us, it was half the price.  We picked up our car straight away and headed off to the North of the island as we could not get into the room til later.  There are a number of walks so we tried the Fort walk at a steady pace. We spent two hours wandering through the fort's WWII ruins. Then we made it to Horseshoe Bay for a shared hamburger lunch and a walk on the beach.  The Clancy's got a late ferry back to Townsville so there was time for a 7:00pm booking at our Pepper's Hotel for tea.

command post

Alma Bay

Swim Up Bar

 We rode over to the Casino Hotel to try out the Clancy's pool and swim up bar.  They have been using scooters to get around town so we followed them back there.  Our bikes were meant to go back today but they closed up at 2:30pm, so we were a bit short changed on our two days of usage. However Debbie convinced the bike man to let us keep them until Sunday and he would pick them up. Easy.  There were a lot of extras using the pool as day pass people but of course we just said we were with Clancy's and used it anyway. 

The pools are colder than the Sea

Two Hour Ride

Leisurely ride that is.  We toured the Strand at a slow pace this morning then turned around for a coffee stop at the Rockpool Pavilion.  There are stiff cool  breezes blowing here so it can get cold even though it is 24°.  This is where the freebie public pool is.  We walked up to Kissing Point Fort where there are extensive views and an artwork trail.  This turned a corner round a bluff and got us out of the wind.  There is still a working army barracks next to the historic stilt barrack buildings.  The art works are modern and there must be 50 of them. We stopped at quite a few and found our way back to the Rockpool via a history path which has plaques embedded in the track telling the history of Townsville.  The area is also hosting a freebie Arts Festival which we may check into tonight.

Boat City

Stained glass lens

Rock Fish

WaterMark

 This is a huge pub that is right next door to our hotel. Already we have eaten there three times so is very convenient to our location. We are resisting all the breakfast locations in favour of our kitchenette.   The food was constant bite size grazing since 1:30pm and finished off with pizza slices.  We met Tim and Julie for the luncheon chat and will team up again tomorrow.

an extra witchitty grub snack

Townsville Scooterville

 We walked 2kms into town to find the bike hire shop. The guy seemed surprised we were picking up bikes but I had the paperwork.  They are fancy mountain bikes but will do the job for us.  On a short tour of the Strand we noticed artwork additions that were not there 12 yar ago.  The Siren looks interesting as it will  change colour according to the temperature. At 5:30 pm is will take a bluish hue as currently the temperature is maxing out at 26°.  We took a short dip to prove you can swim in Winter. There were a few others swimming but mostly baking. The common option for travel are scooters and they are everywhere.

old townsville

sand groomers

Morning Sun

We have to work out sleeping with the aircon again but we did get a reasonable sleep except the previous occupant left the alarm clock set for 6:00am.  We are high up on the 12th floor with a balcony that allows Magnetic Island to fill up the view.  The room is good with a small kitchen but the shower could be a bit stronger.  We have done a wander to the shops for some breakfast food and have eaten out on deck.  I have paid a small fortune for two bikes but now we have to go get them.

Maggie in the background

Weigh Station Crash

It all went so smoothly last time, not so this time.  The auto weighing pads stopped working.  We got in a queue to have the bag tags activated.  This meant a staff member scribbled orange texta all over them.  We went back to the first queue for bag weighing but was told it was another activation queue.  Getting this so far.  Please jump forward to the weighment pads.  We were glad to get out of the 200 metre queue.  Having found our way to the weigh station, they would not take our bags because more immediate flights were a priority.  So we waited on the side and eventually our flight was accepted.  No phasement mode is fully engaged as I am now in the bar sipping Mountain Goat beer.  PS I was pulled up at the screening station for a suspicious item. Turns out the hand weigher I carry has a handle that looks a bit like a gun from the wrong angle. No Phasements.

                                               PS The airport WIFI works really well here..

Airport Fare

 We have a three hour wait for our three hour flight, so 6hrs before we get there. I might be putting up some more posts at this rate.  I have checked out some of the works here.  I thought the new overpass being built may have something to do with the new train line, but I think not.  The train approach is via Airport Rd which is the newer road into here. I can also tell you a new station will be built as part of the project. I did hear rumours of a station underneath that was put in at construction time in the 70's but I guess that is too out of date.

Neither here Nor there

 I have now read a few of these Bill Bryson travel books. This one came from the Clunes Booktown fair and is the last of the books we got from it.  It is about travels in Europe and covers many places that we have also been to. There is a sameness about his books, about a haphazard travel routine and always getting into awkward situations.  We have forgotten what it is like to travel of late, but with this guy it was always churchs, museums and pubs.  He did do some walking at least.  I don't think he mentioned the seaside once.

                               One church we did go to in Copenhagan was up the outside of the steeple.

Doctor Free

 Went on yet another outing to the Docs this morning however on exiting I have no further appointments for any reason. Hooray.  The older you get the more doctors you end up seeing. It must have been back at the start of the year where a series of appointments started and they multiplied.  Not sure how long this free period will last.  It all seems well timed to go to QLD this week.  I notice masks are now removed from Tullamarine but last time I was there a lot of people were ignoring them anyway.  Even the doc acknowledged that some normalcy was returning.

wispy

Beach Clean No 275

With a low breeze and a small amount of Sun it didn't take much to convince myself to get outside for a short beach inspection.  It has been two weeks since the last one and have been mostly cooped up with a flu bug. I have been hearing people are now preferring a Covid dose rather than this flu bug and I might agree with them. The beach clean up is never much different. I picked up many items to fill my bag again. The most spectacular was a nicely chromed tube that may have been part of a bicycle. The biggest issue was rope, at least 20 pieces. Otherwise there was the usual plastic caps, straws and wrappers. The barrel is still down there but needs to be a two person retrieval.

50000 reads

 I am continuing the isolation phase for this flu bug thing but I did go out yesterday for a birthday outing. The weather has fined up a bit ie its not raining.  This Blog has been going for some years now and the stats page has ticked over the read count of 50000.  It seems to me this is better than so called 'Likes' where you just push a button.  To register in this count, you have to go to the page and open up an article for reading.  Hooray this has been done over 50000 times for this blog.  So there must be an interest in it, which means I will need to keep a commentary going about what ever happens during any given day.  Today seems a bit slow. I can tell you on a calm Sunday in Winter, fishing boats are still out there, even kayak fishermen. Go fish.

Campbell Point House

 So at the end of a dirt road,you pull up at a huge wrought iron gateway and type in the code and proceed down a long long tree lined avenue to a water front chateau type mansion. The stables are to the right, the lake house with the horizon pool is to the left, the topiary gardens and marble statues are spread to the waters side.  The three storied mansion is dominating the centre.  No not France, it is the Bellarine Peninsular.  We arrived for High Tea at the mansion. The usual eggytine sandwiches, scones in the middle and cakes on top.  There were 36 of us in the ballroom 32 of which were female.  Now that is a different birthday outing.  

Birthday Scone

Birthday Dolphin Day

 Debbie is used to 4 day birthdays but we have had to cancel most stuff due to this dumb bug I have. But we are trying to make sure I don't extend it to anyone else or to myself, before we nick off to Townsville next week.  We cancelled two outings with friends here and also a family gathering on Sunday but it is still a bit of fun here. We have had four deliveries via different doors into our place today. All have a flower theme and a bottle of grog. Miss Lilly Pilly is a high quality florist that I used for the yellow roses yesterday and she has shown up again with another delivery.  Debbie has spent 6 hours working the Pure Bookkeeping message today but we finally broke away from it to do a short walk on the beach.  If you run your own business then mere birthdays don't stop you working. The conditions were good and she retrieved a nice shaped wooden flotsam for garden usage. I needed a rest at the top, on one of the cliff benches and who should join the party but a pod of dolphins.  Trying to catch dolphins in a photo 200 metres out, good luck.  

skin care

flower in a box

gather your own garden ornaments

Just Passing - Happy Dolphin Day ( I think there were 64 dolphins)

No anti biotic for you

 I am onto these doctors now. Previously at the slightest hint of a green phlegmy cough you would get some anti-biotic and hey presto the problem would be gone in days. But it seems these days not so easy.  Because I had a long weekend in the way and then tried a telehealth phone consultation that did not connect, it was eight days into a cold/flu episode before I got thru to the doc.  I described the whole thing and was told to soldier on as I was thru the worst of it anyway.  The enphasis is now on the annual flu injection as the main prevention. Previous over subscription of anti-biotics is lessening its effect and allowing certain bugs to stiffen resistance. So we have to go back to hot lemon drinks with honey or buy flavoured Hypol mixture like the pre anti-biotic days.  The doc said another week and you will be fine and I will put this phone call down to medicare. Thanks!

Docking Station

 I have been putting off on getting a new computer.  There are numerous issues that I am putting up with but todays was a break through.  There have been a few annoying problems like the screens flickering and turning off, the machine going into sleep mode despite it being set to three hours and most things taking longer. A diagnostic message got to the heart of it 'The power supply is degraded and can no longer supply enough power'.  Now that is a sutble problem that explains all those issues.  My laptop is constantly at 100% power and always plugged in, yet the ticker was now saying 49% and was still dropping.  I have put in an order for a new power supply and come up with another workaround which is to use two old power supplies and hey presto my battery is charging again.  I would have had to undock until the new supply arrived but this way all the peripherals are still engaged, hopefully for long enough, as the input is now being shared.  

Amazon Phishing

Got an automated call from Amazon saying that an authorisation for the purchase of a new iphone was OK and would be happening soon, if this is not your purchase then press 1 to speak to our representative. This is where I hung up.  This scam was reported in the UK with variations. If you wait on the line you will get thru to a fraudster.  They will always ask for details to compare with their transaction which of course never existed. They say sorry for the mistake can you answer a few questions. The more answers they get the deeper they go. Some people have even given over remote access to their computer, in order to fix the 'Security Glitch" at your end that started this whole problem.  Never give out information unless you start the transaction.

Clear Air

 Rain would not let me get outside yesterday however we at least walked around the block this morning.  That was about as far as I was going to get but I did get some deep breaths going which felt better than the indoor heat and stuffiness you can get. I stopped to get a photo of the Orchid yard. Those flowers are really spreading themselves now. We need to be careful about washing on the line as it could easily interfere with their progress. 

25000

 I have been cooped up trying not to get wet rained on and wind blown on.  Asher could not have picked a wetter start to her van usage than this weekend. But then again, if the first long weekend available is wet then that's Winter for you. In the meantime I could not visit to see their set up but I have been doing a few stamps and the 25,000th one in the database ticked over today, all held in 30 volumes. That particular one is nothing fancy, a Precis butterfly.  I have tried one of these sets previously and am missing one, so I gave it another try and again I am missing just one. It will turn up eventually.

Nine Tomorrows

Asimov has put a collection of his short stories together in this volume. I got it at the Clunes book festival. Tom Cruise was in a film where he was an officer in the pre-cognition department. I can't remember exactly but he arrested people before they committed crimes, as they had a Multivac that predicted criminal behaviour. Now I know where that idea came from, as Asimov was describing it in the 1950s.  The stories are varied enough. There is also a whodunnit framed around a scientist who had invented the transporter room, as in Star Trek beam me up Scotty. He was murdered before he could present his theory and it wasn't a fururistic maid either.