Swooper Season

 Had to get out on the bike this morning. We are supposed to be doing some practice for the World Cycle champs as bikes will be the only way to get around with all the road closures but we have been out of it with bugs.  It is also swooping time. I have noticed the few maggies that reside right here have been going the cyclists as they pass. Sure enough as I open the garage door there is one waiting for me and he had a go as I was leaving.  The worst attack was in town at a notorious corner where I have had trouble before. A bird with perfect timing landed on my back and pecked the helmet all in one action.  The ride was 13km and slowish butb it's a start.

Cold Day

 There was a hint of Spring last weekend but that has been blown away here with cold winds and rain today. I was thinking of a ride but today is more of a stamp day than an outside day.  There are always people out there walking the dog as they have no choice it seems.  I got a stamp delivery from the last auction I was in.  They give you a bit of a description and a few photos of some pages of the Lot on offer and there are thousands of lots so they can't do too much detail.  This was one album only but with a fair bit of repetition. The first page was the advertised one and is good, with mint blocks of four and printed selvage as well.  The next eight pages are 'neat, well structured', their words, and they contain eight pages of the same stamp.  I got my money's worth though, as the first page alone is over $600 in book valuations.

If you sold them one at a time you would get $100s back

Arriving

 This book is the first of a three volume set especially produced as part of the Victorian 150th year celebrations back in 1984.  So that was 38 yar ago and now they are probably already thinking about Victoria's 200th year party.  It does not have a story line but is more a chronological listing of immigration events, about how people got here and where from. I picked up on a few anecdotes like the three German engineers who were suspended from the Board of Works because they would not sing God Save the Queen each day when the Boer War was on.  Now during my time at the Board for over 30 yar we were never asked to sing the national anthem.  There was also the story of Franz Stampfl, a legendary athletics coach, who we met at the Melb Uni track in the 1970's.  Not long after that he was made a quadriplegic when a car hit his car while staionary at the lights.  Reading thru this stuff is a bit of a slog.

Asher Helping Hand

It doesn't matter what the activity is, as Asher will be ready to help out.   All the lemons have been picked up consistently out the front so we now have a huge haul of 20 large lemons on the tray.  She had to pick some and retrieve others, as well as carry some out the front. Over at the beach she had her own rubbish bag but that soon changed to collecting shells.  I notice she is getting less fussy about dirty feet and rough surfaces as she was walking all over the rocks bare foot today.  The coughs and colds we have here seem to be abating again hopefully it will last this time.

Dolphins and Gannets

 The video clips can often hold some hidden gems.  As a rule if you see the gannets in their dive bombing mode then they are obviously after fish however there are most likely dolphins in the area as well.   I have only seen gannets doing two things. If they are not dive bombing then they are sitting on poles or rock groynes sunning themselves.  This clip has both the dolphins and gannets but I did not see them at the time of taking it.

Asher Pirate Captain

 Yesterday's phone typing seemed to work ok however I have unloaded the camera today so can do a video update.  It was a long day and we have another boot load of cardboard and packaging to take to the recycle shop.  We got Asher out into the parkland outside our door in Williamstown. Officially it is known as Jawbone Reserve and is a marine park as well, with a volunteer care group which seems to have been curtailed by COVID in the last three years.  I have ideas of trying some snorkel along here some where but access looks tricky.

Asher Kinder Surprise

 Set off at 8:45am to pick up some furniture on the way to Asher's kinder.  I can't believe we are running around in our old Pascoe Vale neighbourhood again.  We got her over to  Williamstown and unpacked the side tables in time for a play at the playground.  Lunch was squeezed in before heading back to her house.  This is my first blog entry via this tiny phone keyboard. Debbie has made some pumpkin soup and we are ready to head back. 

The high beam

Aged Care Minefield

 Debbie has been working her way thru another 3 or 4 hours of phone calls today, all related to Aged Care. Working out the previous Home Care services between, Govt depts, Hospitals and Respite carers was a lot of navigation and now there has been a switch to permanent care nusrsing homes and the whole thing starts again, including an in person interview at centrelink, to prove she can represent her mother.  We got a letter which gave us a rating for a home care package however it was supposed to be for a Nursing Home rating so the wait starts again for that letter.  

Targaryens

I am trying to workout timelines for this lot.  The Story of the Targaryens book, Fire and Blood, came out in 2018. I have not read it and do not own a copy. In the case of Game of Thrones, I read all the books before the story finished on TV however as we know, it departed from the books storyline and to complicate it further, the last two books are not yet published, some 17 years after the earlier volumes. GRRM has promised the next one this year.  Back to the Targaryens, that book was set 170 years earlier and published before the later story has been published and now the earlier story has made it to TV as well.  Confused?  Should I get the 2018 book and will the TV version matchup?  

The 170 year gap will ensure no characters from GOT will ever be born in time to feature in The House of the Dragon.  The oldest one from GOT I can remember is the blind Maester in the Night's Watch who was Aemon Targayren. He may have been 100 yar old but that still leaves him 70 yar short of the Targaryen storyline.  Laura gave me a copy of the complete history Westeros and I have got the lineage from it below.  The only other printed link I have read is the short stories about Egg (Aegon the unlikely) & Dunk.  AegonV was Aemon's younger brother and these short stories are about Aegon as a boy and would be around 100 years before  GOT.  Aegon was the unlikely because he was the fourth son of a fourth son but still took the throne.  Maybe this story will also be told.

This photocopy doesn't do the detail justice. GRRM eventually had to commit this to a database

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Watch Steps

 I have had a sore throat for four days now but it does not seem to be spreading elsewhere. Hooray. So if you are just laying low, doing a few stamps, then my watch will rattle and suggest I get off my arse. It gives you a 'not now' button but does not give up that easily.  So I was scanning around and put in an order for $20 for a few stamps from England. These are from Steve Irwin London and I am just testing the timing of the delivery.  Then the watch goes off again. I think it is remembering to last week when we were walking thousands of steps on bush tracks.  So I went down the beach for a short 2,500 steps and the watch was very happy about it, telling me all the stats about heart rate, calorie burn and recovery times.  I did pick up one dog poo bag on the path.  You can whinge about it but if it is half way to the bin then at least it is not on the beach.

Internal view of Sunset

High Tide pummeling

The Uplift War

This is the third book in this trilogy. I was reading it as part of our travels in QLD so it was a stop start effort with time gaps where I had to get back into the storyline.  I may have mentioned this is another galaxy wide affair where puny Earthlings are at the bottom of the ranking order of planets not like Star Trek where the Earth is at the forefront of affairs. Since I mentioned Star Trek,  these TV series have been progressing on the streaming channels like Netflix etc.  After three series of Star Trek:Discovery Paramount decided that they could make more with their own service. OK, but then they weren't ready, so only the US got the latest shows.  There were many complaints, so the shows are now available in Australia. We signed up to Paramount+  this week for $80 per year, so now we are back in business eg Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek:New Worlds and Star Trek:Discovery.  We have been watching a show on Paramount called the Bridge Australia. It is a reality thing in the back blocks of Tassie where a group has to build a bridge out of logs.  Lots of good scenery in an area where the Pieman Dam flooded some small valleys.

Most of these characters are recent descendants of intelligent life forms eg Humans from Apes or aliens from birds, just your normal science fiction stuff.

Winter Yachting

After last night's rain things have cleared up nicely even with some sunshine and dry enough to do some mowing.  I spied a yacht race off the port bow just now. It seems yachties are still active in Winter and this race is part of a series in and around St Kilda but this last one is a destination style rather than an out and back. The Geelong yacht club host the finish for them.  I hope they don't huff when they luff or jib when they jibe or even lose the bosun over the side.

Beach Walk No 578

The Sun has come out so I was keen to see what state our beach was in now after three weeks of away stuff.  The tide was high and a slight breeze was enough to cool the walk, even though the Sun was warm. Also it is a slow walk when you are looking for small items of plastic etc. Paul Stork's wife Helen is an environmental scientist and they tell a tale of very very fine plastic micro fibre particles not seen by the eye, that are spreading thru the environment, such that they are getting into the food chain.  There's always something.  Also Oysters are a sea water cleaning system but they retain the plastic in their system, as do we, so don't eat them.  My pickup bag was full by the time I finished, including straws, rope, bottle tops, wrappers, plastic bags, a bucket handle and uniquely, an underseat bicycle pouch.  Mine is falling apart but I wasn't going to use this one,

Bagged Up

This outlet can wash down some stuff

Final Spike

 Flower heads have been dropping like rain around here in the last few weeks.  The garden man did call in while we were away to give the olive tree a good cutting but that was the only job done and now the paths and beds are covered in petals and other detritus making it very slippery. Also in checking the state of the orchids, which are now starting to wane, Debbie found an ancient potted plant with a new spike protruding. Now this has to be the latest of late bloomers and it seems that Grandpa is the one that gave up on this pot, as nothing was happening, year after year. I guess it just needed a change of location.  I have plucked another load of lemons for the tray out front in this never ending lemon drink season.

It looks like four flowers so far

Josephine Falls

 Now that I am back with some better monitors (Note to Self: Set up a dual monitor system at Williamstown) I can start to sort thru a few photos.  When we were heading back to Cairns we stopped off at some Falls at the foot of Mt Bartle Frere. These were well watered with cascades and plunge pools. We had no time on this occasion but I found this slomo phone video amongst the photos. I should put some contemplation music on it but the sound of the falls will have to do.

Asher Dungeon Master

 You never know exactly how these sessions are going to go. I might just hint that one of the toys which happens to be a dragon named Harry might get locked in a dungeon.  That was it, and away it goes for the next hour until you are looking for something else that might quiet things down like drawing and colourins.  Then there is always food.

Library Book Reading

 Debbie's voice was on the way out again, so we thought that just a half days Estelle sitting was the most we should try. In the meantime we have booked an appointment at one of those Respiratory clinics that have been set up.  As for the Estelle visit we took her to the Watsonia Library where they were having a book reading session. Now these are a lot more than books, as it includes music and songs combined with the books as well as acting out the pages.  All in a librarian's day. Mind you she could do with the exercise.  There must have been 20 ankle biters running around.  A lot of them did their own thing and about half, being the older ones, played along.

The Not Fish Tank

It wasn't until the last 5 minutes that she started to get amongst it

Williamstown Circuit

 Debbie has gone off to a Bookkeeper's Reunion so I spent some time getting the bike out on a short circuit of the town.  It was a 33min ride in cold winds for 8 km.  I  am making a list here to check out the following,  

• town hall
• library
• maritime museum
• steam train museum

at some stage when we are lounging around.  Other points to note were the Seagulls (VFL) playing just down the way.  The Titanic restuarant is still where I remember it, however is under seige by developers, as every space along those streets is crammed with new apartments. 

Years ago we were getting ready for the 200km ride around the Bay and just for practice we started at this tower and finished at the Point Lonsdale Lighthouse 5 hours later. Just for Fun! 

Nudi Branch Snorkel

I have concentrated on the GoPro underwater videos I took last week.  Overall they are good quality and mostly too big for display online however I cut down a few to feature the turtles we saw. The first clip is during our first snorkel and the second film is my last snorkel three days later.  This second clip is at a slower pace trying to get the subject in the centre.  Maybe if I am not going fast then they are not going fast.  The turtle was encircling me not the other way around.

This must have been an omen. It was a beer I had on the first day.

29° and Hail

What a difference 3,000 km makes.  We left Cairns in good sunshine and arrived in Melbourne to be stuck on the tarmac for 45 minutes because of a lightning strike, not by baggage handlers but by lightning. Once the storm had cleared they let us off. But then the bags did get lost as they started coming out of different shutes.  We did get to use the brand new Airbus A321-Neo.  It must be a sign of frequent travelling if you can start to recognise the planes you are using.  Back at Willie we have fired up our front loading washing machine for the first time. While that was churning, we walked to the supermarket and back including the shopping, in 20 minutes.  

Flying Fish Lagoon had been closed for months but reopened this week.

Cairns was absolutely packed everywhere you went as it was at all places in the FNQ.  Restuarant bookings, accommodation bookings and even bicycle rental needs to be done in advance. The place has fully recovered from any adverse pandemics and more so.  Everything is busy but there is still space to do your own thing. 

Palm Cove

 As  with a lot of these posts I seem to be referring back to previous visits.  We drove into Palm Cove  and there was that vivid dếja vu again. Last time it was blustery, overcast, raining on and off and we just turned around and drove out. However I recognised the Palm Cove sign. The weather makes the difference with a sunny day and good visibility across to Double Island. This one has cabins and is only 10 mins across to it. The surroundings are more rock shelf than coral but it also connects across to another small island called the Scouts Hat.  The mainland does not have snorkel potential. It is clouded with mud from mangroves and silt from the shallows. Your best option is steep sided islands straight into the sea.

Kewarra Beach lunch stop

Barnacle ladder

double island and the scouts hat

Josephine Falls

We had to swap our car with another one today at Noon but we had just enough time to check out these Falls.  They are on the slopes of Bartle Fere the highest hill in QLD.  You can swim here as there is enough room in the larger pools and there is also natural slides if you want to skid on your bum across the rock face.  We are now back in Cairns at the Mantra Trilogy. We are going back to the Flying Fish pool which has been closed for months but reopened again this week. Also the tides are out and there is no water to be seen. The whole area looks barren, muddy and bleak when the tide is out.

Slide Pool

Bumpy Slide Pool

Flying Fish Lagoon

Tidal mud bath

South Mission Beach - Revisited

 Last time we were here the Kennedy track was completly socked in but we went back again today with plenty of sunshine.  The track comes out on a wide beach but only if the tide is out which it was for us.  The walk to the waters edge is 500m at least but at high tide there is no sand to walk on. The Hermit crabs are large here and at low tide they are high and dry.  The bicycle track network is good and in places gets away from the rods. This may be a good way to surprise the cassowaries by coming up quietly as we have not been able to find one so far.

crab poo

Chocolate Banana

 Mission Beach is a village type of location. We were here some years ago during a dry season extended wet spell, if you can understand that.  Today the rain abated and it was a swirly windy day. We walked into the village area this morning and found that the main laneway had had a fire last year which took out three eateries. There are still lots of choices.  After the morning coffee and bacon and egg toastie we went to Clump Mountain. This was a four km circuit that took us to a high view of Dunk Island and Hinchinbrook Island.  We had lunch at the top and then came down for a bit of beach combing.  We tried for an hour to sit by our pool here but the breeze drove us inside even though the Sun was trying to get out.

We have been on the hunt for Cassowaries but have not been able to find one

Dunk and Hinchinbrook in the background. Before we came this time I read the book "Confessions of a Beachcomber" a thirty year run of island life observations in the early 1900's. Dunk Island was bought last year by the Atlassian guys (of IT fame) for $23 Million.  The resort there was broken by a storm some years back. If they fix it up I might try staying there.

Frozen chocolate covered bananas are all the rage here

Mission Beach Rain

We have made it to Mission Beach and the last time we were here it rained for 8 days. It is raining now and has been all day. We need our nophasement hat on today.  When we got to the Europcar place we found it had closed at noon. We rang them up but that was it no car.  So we went round the corner to the A1 car rentals. They helped us out but we had to take two cars, one today and we have to swap it for another one on Thursday and bonus it is $1000 cheaper than Europcar. We are in the Castaways hotel and we are in a room where the deck view is hindered by a roof directly opposite. Debbie was not happy and complained immediately but this is the only room, everything is booked.  Hopefully the weather will improve.

Lenticular Cloud Day

Sunset view Night

Early Morning Snorkel

I couldn't leave without giving the swim another go.  The best place is to the south of the main beach. I got in the water at 8:30am and immediately it was a winner.  A groper the size of a car was cruising underneath me. I followed for a while until I veered off to follow a turtle but it was circling me and all the while you are surrounded by the octpuses garden. It was a quick 20 minutes for the swim as checkout was 10:00am and everything was still strewn around the room.  We are on the 12 noon ferry so have 90 min for blogging time while we wait.  The room was a full kitchen, balconied, sea view style and was $400 per night and we spent $200 per day while here on food, drinks etc.  This was the package option which gave us $100's off including ferry crossings, glass boats, snorkel gear and kayaks all thrown in.  This place is being renovated by a developer named Gamble. He bought it for $9 million and is now putting some of his hard earned into the place. 

Coral Shore

NudiBranch Beach

The nudibraches are small critters that live in the coral. They are 2 cms long roughly and can be seen on a clear day about 5 metres down.  Not today as it is a bit overcast and misty but warm. We walked to the Secret Garden which was only 10 mins and rather underwhelming. I guess is was built with the rainy sesason in mind.  We then proceeded to the Nudey Nudibranch beach. We swam to this one yesterday and now we have walked it. There is a lot of sand at low tide and huge mounds of dried clinking coral at the back. Lunch was under the trees again but we retreated to the deck a for snooze until it passed.  I have discovered that when typing this on the deck I get a five bar wifi strenght but inside it is only one.

Thar she blows

NudiBranch Beach

More Water Works

 We travelled to the Northern end of the main beach late this arvo as the snorkelling is meant to be good as well.  I would rate this end as 2nd to the one we did this morning, although it was turtle town as well, with three large turtles. This island has a turtle hospital where turtles are rehabilitated. It also has a coral nursery as well, where corals are grown on tree frameworks installed on the seafloor. All very impressive. We just came back from the restuarant.  This is the high end food group eg a good feed for $120 for two but not a bad price for the quality and the location.

Swim up Bar

 You know its special when there is a swim up bar.  Cocktails $18 each but that seems standard enough. 

Snorkel Heaven

 I recommend Fitzroy Island especially if you are into reefing ie snorkeling on the reef. I have done some of the best snorkeling today when we swam around to Nudey Beach. It is a fair way but with 8 an metre depth of vision the clarity was excellent.  We started the morning having breakfast with the whales then it was morning tea with the fishes.  The numbers of fish are off the scale. The are canyons of coral so you swim beside the walls and follow back out again. There was one wall I came up to but it was more solid. I looked closer until you could see the movement in the wall, a solid wall of the same fish. We also took the glass bottom ride which they have given as a freebie.  This was also a good trip with much information about coral growth and quick recovery that ocurrs after bleaching.  Eg the bleaching converts everything into a rich layer sediment, just ripe for new growth. After just 10 years there will a 5cm depth of new coral.

View thru glass bottom

Fitzroy - Not the Lions

 We have made it across to Fitzroy Island this morning and along the way we passed Green Island. It was 46 yar ago that we spent the day there then came back to Cairns. This time we have three nights on Fitzroy Island and we have brought our own snorkel gear again. The package here includes breakfast, as well as some boat trips and the room turns out to be a full suite with kitchen again but we have not brought anything to cook.  Everything is pricey, eg drinks $10 each.  The Foxy's bar food is a bit ordinary so we have booked the restuarant for all three nights.

Cairns on the way out

Fitzroy on the way in

Cairns Hilton

 I picked this hotel as it is nearby the ferry terminal for tomorrow morning. It has been a long day and we are tired enough and there is always the flu bugs to deal with.  Right now it is 24° at 6:00pm.  We are going to wander along the boardwalk to see if there is an eatery that might suit.  The main Flying Fish pool is all closed off for a renovation. No phasement.  The Hilton gave us an upgrade to a huge room however we are here for one night only.

Make yourself at home

Airport déja vu

You have to get the no phasement ideology going early on trips.  It wasn't long ago that I was waiting here in the same spot due to airport issues.  The taxi ride was good but $75 seemed a bit steep. Our plane is delayed and so far they are not saying by how long. So we just wait.  They did send an email yesterday saying that we had been upgraded to a brand new state of the art plane. If this is the maiden flight maybe its having trouble starting. Otherwise we will just have to have more Krispy Kremes.  Years ago the airport was the only place to get these doughnuts. I can remember Daniel asking that we bring a dozen of them back with us.

Bike Track revisited

I rode across to the Williamstown Beach. It is 2km from our apartment to get to the cafe at the Western end via the bike path.  That cafe is a favourite haunt when we rode along here years ago and was still doing a roaring trade today.  I turned back at the beach half way point and headed into the wind and went as far as the old fishing fleet village. I think these were the last commercial fishers on the Bay.  The ride was about 9km in 30min with a stiff westerly. The wind is really meant to blow tonight.

Sip Sip Cino

Old fishing town

Paddle Pool

Asher Cino Queen

 Debbie has had the bug extension eg it is taking longer to get rid of.  I did the running around this morning delivering the food parcels to Nana Beryl who is looking her age. The physio lady was there getting her to go thru her paces, ever so slowly. Pam was surpervising the whole operation.  My next stop was across to Asher's house where we owe them some cash for the recent Williamstown upgrade. Asher was keen for some games and her mum who was not feeling great herself and was happy for me to take over for an hour so. We also had the morning coffee with pretend biscuits.  Having got back to Willie just now there is a conference call going on with home services Victoria with a view to locating permanent care for Nana Beryl.  Aged Care services in Victoria seem to be lacking. Don't ever get old.

Local Pizzeria for last night's dinner

Babycino