Walking Adventure

Update two for today is about the walking. The  rain came in solid but we are here and now and a year ago we did not do any walking on the island.  We waited til midday but the rain was still drizzily.  The walk up is the steepest road I have seen, as opposed to climbing, like on Lord Howe. We had bought our  sandwiches and drinks and headed off. The road was put in during war time for the construction and the  grooved concrete is for traction.  We saw a woman in her eighties very slowly stepping back down.  Now there was 10 broken bones in the making.   Once on top the visibility was limited. The actual facility was more than a lighthouse. It was an airport tower with obvious radial viewing sectors for spotting Japanese aircraft.  We did not stay long.  There was no lunch spot anywhere along the way as the one spot we stopped at saw green ants starting to bite.  So we went all the way back down where someone  had taken chairs from somewhere and left them under a sheltering tree on the beach.  Lunch was still a wet affair and after 30 minutes the rain was now driving in under the canopy.  Time to go back to our room.  Two bedraggled bikini girls were hobbling along with us, one with cut feet and the other trying to keep the clothes dry by not wearing them. 

Swimming Adventures

 On our first snorkel yesterday the water was cloudy but we got the word on much clearer conditions however the currents were running harder.  My face mask was leaking so we swapped it with one of theirs but kept my flippers.  At the opposite end are where the turtles are currently feeding.  Immediately entering the water my flipper broke, so I left it behind and went with just one.  The water was clear. I should have good video of fish, large shells, swaying coral and turtles.  I also had the camera on an extension arm that is not meant for water.  It was on the way back that the wrist band broke and both the camera and arm sank.  The depth was retrievable but in going down my remaining flipper came off, which also sank. I decided to go for the flipper first as the currents were strong and my feet were scraping coral.  In the meantime Debbie turned around and while I got the flipper back and repositioned, she located the camera and dove under to get it.  Back on shore my feet had little red marks over them so we walked back to the beach shower to rinse them off. 

Back in the room Debbie noticed the Whale Tale necklace she was wearing was missing.  It is not in the water as she had it on after the snorkel. So retracing backwards I saw it laying on the path near the shower.  We are waiting for the rain to ease before walking to the summit area for a lunchtime view.

It's in amongst these rocks that we filmed the turtles and lost the camera. Note necklace in place. It survived the currents and the dives but not the walk back.

Carn the Roys

 We are back at Fitzroy Island and my first mission to get the same room as last year has worked because the balcony in 322 has the best view.  The hot water seems to have gone missing though but we are told they are working on it.  Islands are always awkward to get to and you want the best experience for your trouble however I would rate the water clarity as poor so far, which is the main reason we are here. Last year we could see a long way underwater. We went for a quick snorkel after we checked in.  The fish were teeming and the coral was sprouting as ever but you had to get quite close to get focused.  There was plenty of sunshine and at 27° you can't complain. We have just finished dinner at the Zephyr restaurant with lamb backstrap, potatoes and greens.  Julie has been shepherding us around various restaurants for the last three days so we are keeping up the standards.

Jimmy Rum's cocktail bar

beach  seat

balcony view

Beach Bicycles

We hired bikes from the bicycle shop for a half day usage starting at 10:00am.  It is only 5 kms from one end of Port Douglas to the other so our wanderings around would have been a 10km ride with lots of stops over two hours.  There is an old sugar train line that we followed for a while. It went thru an area nicknamed crocadile alley.  We could not see any of them or any telltale body parts.  We also went on the hunt for a stinging tree marked on the map. These are notoriously painful but again could find no sign of it.  We had phone photos for comparison but  no good.  We took the fast way to return all along the beach being low tide and the be[reeze at our backs.

Travel Day

 I can shorten a long days travel by saying that we got up at 6:00am and got to our hotel in Port Douglas at 5:00pm via car a plane and a car.  After that Tim & Julie shouted us drinks and dinner at the Yacht Club for a late Debbie Birthday surprise. That birthday just keeps going.  The usual fan control and air con wrestle occured during the night until we got a combination happening. This morning it was a coastal walk around the point with breakfast rolls on the way back.  The main street shopping was for yet another hat for me and a pair of thongs for Debbie.

Soul Origin

 We seem to stop at the same places each time we are inside the airport. We are sitting at Soul Origin for coffee and toasties at 9:30am. The drive was straight forward but car parking took 15 minutes plus the bus drive to the terminal. The keyboard on this machine is hard to see, I need to turn off the illuminated keys when it is daylight.  Boarding is 10:40am so we are in plenty of time. This trip will test the battery life.

I should try taking a photo with the computer. Can you do that?

Photo Finish

 There has been a big push to get things done before we go to QLD tomorrow.  The Pure Bookkeeping stuff has been over the top, as usual before we go away.  For some reason it has been more intense this time around and it's only for a 12 day absence, not like the five weeks that we have done before COVID.  So after all the wee hours efforts, there will be product announcements today and product launches while we are away.  These are the building blocks that will be used for a revisiting of Pure Bookkeeping in the United Kingdom and also for the first foray into New Zealand.  I have been going at the photo scanning for longer periods as well and as of this morning the last of the printed photos are scanned, except for those in frames.  There is also a large stack of negatives to work thru so I am not quite at the end yet.

I think this is Woolley St?

This definitely is but a few years later.

Grandeur

 I received my new wand scanner. If it doesn't work on Amazon then try Ebay.  This one was cheaper at around $100 but only claims to do smaller documents.  However I was not chasing a scanner with stitching software this time as I now know how to do that with photo software I already own.  This scanner works and I was glad to see a complete set of images when I unloaded it.  I have tested it on a complex map and a poster we brought back from Italy.  The poster is a thick parchment type of card so folding or bending would ruin it. The middle resolution of 600dpi  works well. The software handles the smaller files better and the zoom facility is still good.  The poster below was scanned in two halves with an overlap down the middle.  There is no way you can tell where it is joined.The scanner is portable with its own power.  You can scan anything in a library or a shop for later perusal. No more trying to fold paper over a flatbed scanner.

Beach Clean No 203

There was no breeze and the tide was lower so I ventured across with the trusty rubbish bag.  I wore the more solid bushwalking shoes from yesteryear.  The idea was that I might go further out into the seething grasses but even with these on it was dodgy.  I could walk across the tops a bit more easily but with the lower tide I could get around to the sandyside for access.  I got the usual stuff but also a dangerous perforated can, very sharp.  The biggest item was one only sandal, in good condition.  Otherwise lots of wrappers, rope and cigarette butts.

nasty can

petrified egg ?

Nasty Spiky Fishy

Codename Suzette

This is not a happy read.  There are so many threads running through this true story you could run a knitting mill.  The surviving daughter of Suzette did indeed go on to become a knitting instructor.  Before that her mother, a co-ordinator of different resistance groups in wartime Paris never lived to tell her story.  She was part of the so called red orchestra named by the Nazis who were on the hunt for them.  Most of the time it was French police pressured by German invaders doing the arresting.  The main storyline revolves around hiding Jewish children from the Germans. 

note preferred transport for quick getaway

resistance fighters on stamps

Lunch Outing

 I think I spoke too soon about our small heaters.  One of them has become intermittent, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  I think they might be a one Winter design although this one did not make it thru. We do have another one for comparison.  So on our way to Bunnings we stopped off at the Drysdale pub for a luncheon. It's always good value there and they can usually get you in.  There was a mother and son pair next door who just had to join the conversation about us going to Port Douglas this week.  The mother is a flibberty jibbet.  She was going to live in Port Douglas and lasted only three days so they bought her a retirement village unit near here in St Leonards but that is now on the market after a few months.  There is no sign of Beryl's unit selling yet.  PS I have the replacement heater on now and we are still way ahead on the gas bills.

Bay Calm

Long Forest

 I was checking thru various files yesterday making sure copies of stuff from my old computer made it across to the new one. There was a directory there of photos from Debbie's old phone. These photos also had some video clips in there as well. I got these three clips together and joined them up into a short film.  They were taken in 2012 at a park called Long Forest. I can remember walking with Sasha and Maxim thru Brimbank Park and I deliberately started taking a course thru trees and bushes.  Those two were stunned that you could go off the path.  We arranged to go bush a few weeks later in a reasonbly cleared setting. 

                                                   

                                                       I wonder how big these kids are now?

It's a gas

This idea of removing natural gas from our lifestyle seems a bit premature to me.  It's natural, we have the same infrastructure to use it and have huge deposits lasting another 40+ years and that's without looking for more.  The price is driving up just so people will stop using it.  Imagine the hue and cry if we were still making gas from coal.  Nevertheless our Winter heating is inefficient. The outlets are in the roof for one thing. In Essendon our heating came from floor outlets. The controller here allows for a one third partitioning of the house and generally the gas was heating two thirds for 10 hours a day.  Debbie spied these el cheapo portable heaters. So when she is in her small room all day, that is all that needs heating. Currently she is spending 12 to 14 hour days in a huge rewriting of Pure Bookkeeping procedures.  So we have received our Red energy bill and for the last 60 days this year, we have used ⅕ or 20% or hardly anything of what we used in the same period last year. The cooking is the same and the hot water is the same.  We brought a large pot of water to the boil in Williamstown last month on the electric cooker there and it took 30 minutes. I should have started a wood fire outside.

Compare todays small column on the right with last years equivalent on the left.

2 out of 3

 So if the weather stays day on, day off and day on then I guess we will take it.  It seems we are moving from La Nina which has kept us cooler and colder for the last three years to the El Nino warmer cycle.  Well it was warmer and calmer on the beach today when I did the trash trawl, garbage gallop and rubbish run.  A tidy bag was collected as well. There is still plenty to gather in the murkier sections but it is hard to get to. I spied a beer can and a poo bag tossed into the bushes. I got the can out but the poo bag is still smoldering.  Maybe next time.

24 hour change

 You can never get two days the same. The weather kept improving all day yesterday to an amazing calm. For some reason this can bring the dolphins and they were so close to shore, the closest we have ever seen.  I had to get some prescriptions renewed so I got the bike out this morning as yesterday's calm was still ok, all blue sky with a slight breeze. One hour later I am coming out of the chemist and a freezing wind gusts in with sleeting rain. I ride to the nearest shop awning for a 10 minute stop but I am already wet.  I got lulled by yesterday's weather and did not bring a raincoat.  

Camellia drop season

 We have passed the mid Winter point which means the camellia drop zone becomes a slippery slide if you are not on the lookout.  As for ailments and catarrh, this Winter has not been as bad as the last few.  I took the rubbish bag across the way as the Sun was shining and with no breeze around.  Progress was better this time as there had been a cleanout of some of the wrack.  It did not take long to fill the bag also leaving some trash behind as it was just too deep in the green stuff.  There is an example below of the smaller pieces I have picked up. There were three or four of these but the tag for most prolific this time around was for pieces of rope.

Polystyrene Ball

Camellia Alley

New shoots on the ferns

Brothers in Arms

 No not the song, although I did go to a Dire Straits concert one time. This one is the book of that title and it precedes the last book of the Vorkosigan series by two volumes. This is the one where the twin clone was introduced.  So technically they are brothers and choose to band together instead of one replacing the other.   I can count 16 books in this saga, three of which won Hugos.  I have those three plus another three volumes.  That leaves 10 more volumes to find. It would be good if they marched thru the door in the order they were written.

Three Generations

 Another day another 100 photos added to the ever increasing set of files that are building up here. The scanner was running hot before I got this lot converted to bits and bytes.  I have found a shoe box which seems to be in six parts one for each child.  So today's lot were in the Debbie section.  I think the Laura photo was after a dance concert she was in.  The Debbie one is during a ride to QueensCliff where there were dress ups inside the fort.  The three generations one might be from a retirement village party.

Poison Path

 They say get the Round Up poisoning happening on a windy day so that it will dry out on the plants as quickly as possible and before the rain can dilute it. That also means lugging around the 5lt container at a cold time of the day.  Nevertheless, the courtyards, paths, walkways and even the street gutters all got a sluicing before the container started blowing air.  The Sunsets are as red as ever here, especially now that it is tracking back toward us. I have used the phone to record last night's edition. It is a bit jumpy when you try to zoom in. 

 I checked out installing a zoom tool in the blog photos.  Google provide this free basic service but third parties will sell you extras. So you can buy MagicZoom for example at £29 but you have to install style files, javascripts and other code into the HTML version of your BLOG.  

Amazon returns

 We used to have an Amazon locker down near the Library which I have used before however maybe because of the new Library it was taken away.  That means in order to send back my dud wand scanner I have had to drive almost into Geelong to find their pickup service.  I have not given up on the wand idea as I have the software that can do the job, all I need is a cheap scanner with no software to get me the images, as now the documents need to be severely folded to get overlap on each image. I have now used six images to reproduce a complete topo map as below.

There must be a magnifier tool for blogs somewhere around as Windows will let you zoom right into the detail of these types of files.  Again the joining of the six pieces is seamless. 

Ride On

 The neighbours are off driving their way across the top of Australia for the whole Winter.  So the father in law has brought in the big guns to tidy the grass. I have not seen a ride on mower used for a house block before but they do have more grass than us.  As for cleaning up, I took the walk across to the beach again and the wrack is racking up. It a carpet of black along the entire length.  There was also plenty of washed up litter and I did not get all the way before turning back as my feet were starting to get wet.  Went across to Collendina for an evening barbie and investigated the scene of the stolen bird bath.  Daniel had chosen a bird bath from Nana Beryl's as a momento and someone stole it yesterday.  For the benefit of the doubt, it was being moved around the front lawn area due to gardening staff getting access for hedge trimming and mowing etc.  Eventually it went so far forward towards the roadside edge that someone thought it was placed for disposal.  They have put a plea on the Collendina Facebook page to have it returned. 

Ride On

Rubbish bag No 392

Digital Maps

I have been working on how to get an accurate digital copy of a large format map into a single file. I bought a wand scanner two weeks back which did not work.  The concept was good.  Literally waving the tool across the paper on a flat table to get the best coverage.  The package was battered and seemed like a secondhand item, which Amazon assured could not be the case. Amazon are taking it back and refunding me.  But I still want to get the job done.  Reading more about it, I have tools already for the job.  I paid for an all singing all dancing photo editor with my new computer.  If you treat scanned map segments from a flatbed scanner as photos, and tell the editor that you want a panorama made out of them. Voila a complete map in a single copy.  This was a small map joined from two neat halves.  The test will be a full topographic map with maybe up to six pieces. The editor also lets me draw on the map so I can show the order of checkpoints taken.  The actual route in this case was to use the road network as much as possible then vere off when needed.  

with route added

I did this rogaine with James 30 yar ago, at age nine.  That means I have a few years yet to get my legs going again before Asher might want a try at this stuff.  We got 2nd place in a family category and walked about 10kms to get our 380 points.  I walked about 5kms the other day but that was on a pavement.

Customs House Hotel

We had a rendezvous setup for outside the Village at the playground.  I am not sure how you can walk passed the Village, the size that it is and go to the next playground.  Somehow that is what they did.  So I said to just keep walking and we would meet up with them at the Customs House.  Debbie and I took a short cut route through the botanic gardens and then through the farmers market. Both of which were on our list to be ticked off in the area.  We got to the lunch at 1:00pm just behind Bill, Shane and Paul who had walked for 22km to get there.  The food was good but two meals were delivered late. There is a large mural in the back rooms showing a lively port with ships being unloaded.  We walked back to the village which was 2.7 km and about 30 minutes.  So this means you can do a lunch or a visit and just walk to get there and back in a reasonable time.

Willie Orchids

 I came prepared for another lawn mowing session but the yard here was looking fairly tidy and the edges were also reasonably neat.  The selfie tomatoes are still spreading but not taking over.  One think we did last time was to reposition the main orchid pot from the back to the front. This breaks a rule about never moving them from a position they like but there are at least 10 spikes on this one pot alone and there are another five or six spikes out the back.  Will have to wait a year to see if the front locale results in orchid spikes.

The Japanese maple is now in the ground and the orchid has taken the vacant pot

Fijian Asher

 Asher and Kaia are back from their Fijian adventure and if you ask Asher what was the best part she says going in the pool 16 times. Kaia was sleeping it off so we did not ask her.  The Fiji hairstyle looks like a winner though with the beaded plats or is that more Jamaican. Estelle called in as well for a visit so all the girls were having a cuddle. We even got a Fijian present which is a turtle on our fridge door.

Two hours play time is not enough

Post Cards

 Did some more box diving this morning and came up with some post cards written in the 1970's. Not sure how it is that postcards you have written and sent to other people eventually make their way back to the writers.  One is sent to Tim & Brian and describes a walk on Magnetic Island that we did 47 yar ago and we repeated that exact walk with Tim & Julie only last year but it never dawned that I had been there before. Another one was to the departed Big Dave which some how ended up in one of Beryl's boxes.  That one was sent from Tasmania and basically says we can't be bothered putting detail on this so can you go and read the last letter that was written.

A huge port area has been built in a new loaction on Magnetic Island so the above pier is falling into disuse but it is the one we hopped onto from the boat 47 yar ago.

Forts walk 47 yar later