Footy Bonanza

Brisbane had to overcome a blistering start by the Blues but they did do it last week.  I would have them ahead at the end although the MCG and the crowd  will be against it. I think there were more Carlton supporters than Brisbane last week in Brisbane.  I have had more birthday calls this morning and some special delivery chocolate.  This would have to be the warmest GF day since 1987. It was 31° that day when Carlton beat Hawthorn.  I have just finished the lawns here and it is 26° already at 10:00am.  We have a GF crowd of  three coming to watch the game here, how cozy.  We don't have a lot of space so maybe just as well.   PS my monitor images are still inconsistent. The isolation cable I need to chase this problem has been cancelled so I have reordered it from someone else.  I also got two other cables delivered to attach old speakers and they have failed as well. It's hard to get good help.

Estelle did candle blowing via the phone.

Ice Cream Day

OK Winter is over the Sun is out so it must be time for ice cream.  There was two tubs at Williamstown so I tested one out this afternoon prior to the guests arriving over the weekend.  I have just come back from a Tim & Julie lunch at the Middle Park Hotel.  It's a good thing the  Government have declared a Public Holiday for my birthday so that people like Josh & Alison could also make it.  Haven't seen them since their wedding.  The hotel is well appointed and with very attentive staff. Also close to the beach on a warm day.

Grandpa's Orchid

 We have been given a number of plants from time to time. The conversation goes, "We can't do anything with this, you have a try."   It seems to come down to position and sunlight. There is a bit of feeding and watering going on but the orchid man down the road says find its position and don't touch it for at least a year.  The back courtyard has bloomed and around 20 orchids have run their race, died off and now been cut back. In the middle courtyard,  they are playing catchup. The last stalks from Grandpa's pot have opened up this morning. There are about seven of them here.   We turned attention to the Western courtyard as well, moving some pots into the Sun. The weeping cherry is on the bloom.

The plant lady is till going strong

The last batch for this year

blossom weeper

2nd Swim

I went for another swim as conditions were holding, that was yesterday. Today the breeze is stiff but I went back to get some pesky throw aways that had been left behind by people, all brightly coloured.  There were four items but the booger board has now been claimed so I was left with two bright green balls and an orange T-shirt that has been hanging around for 5 days.  These sorts of stuff draw the eye from 100 metres.  There were two people who went in but they did not last long in the wind chill.  I also got a fair haul of small plastics.  I still have to practice with this video camera. I did get a short clip of the new hazards that are poking thru now.  Not just rocky ridges but with many sharpish mussels sticking up as well.  These have gone from a bare rock to fully covered in mussels in just one year. No wonder the mussel farm thrives about 1km off shore.

Biking is pedalling

If you are not pedalling are you riding or being driven?  We have seen E-bikes a lot and they are  most likely going to takeover.  We met a neighbour in Port Douglas when we were there as we were riding at the time. We had a short chit chat but he did not mention anything about bikes.  I saw him again the other day with his wife on their new E-bikes.  The bikes are a German brand called  Kalkhoff and each one was $4500.  He spent  $10000 all up, as he could not lift them, so had to get a specialised bike rack that extends a ramp to the ground so he can roll them onto the back of the car.  He says he rolled along at 17km/h before but now he can roll along at 20km/h.  I think I am doing around those speeds without really trying so does that mean I don't need E-bikes yet. 

Not an E-bike to be seen with this lot

Cool Swim

 The tide was up, the Sun was out, and the breeze was low.  All three of the tick boxes for me to try the swim. What about water temperature?   I can't really measure that until I get under.  It wasn't too bad.  The swim was a stop start effort. The sea grass beds are harder to avoid as they are more extensive.  Also I broke my flippers in QLD some months back so I was trying old fashioned toes to kick with. I was using goggles not my normal mask as it was leaking.  I have to get familiar with the Kogan camera again so I think I was turning it off more than on and I didn't see a single fish.  At least it's a start.  I do need a new snorkel set.

This Pirate ship dropped anchor nearby

Starfish in the shallows

Digging for fruit

I haven't done this much digging ever.  I had to get the spade out again.  About three yar ago we put in an apricot tree.  The neighbours have a tree in a similar position and it hangs low with apricots.  Ours had some type of  tree eating bug in its root system, so we are having another go. This time it is apricots and nectarines.  I dug holes along the back to space them out from the lemon tree.  Debbie has mulched, composted and watered the new additions.  Now we have to ward off bugs, birds and beastly wind.

More shovelling

I went across for a late stroll a few days back and found a large rubber section that had been torn from its bolted mounts. Most likely a fishing boat. It looked like a section of skirting that had come off and was buried deep at the waters edge.  I brought the spade back and started to clear the sand. This was one of the harder cleanup jobs I have found. The incoming water would bring the sand back in. Then I was stirring up the sea grass caught on the other side.  I was tiring quickly and thinking about my toes.  Eventually I got one end clear but could not lift it out so pressed on until there was a bit of movement. Hooray. I needed a breather after that.  Carrying it up the hill was ok as it was reasonably lightweight.

buried and curled over

trusty spade 

Auction Run

 Overall I got two lots from the three auction run that I used in the last two weeks.  Yesterdays was a new one for me and the most sophisticated yet.  I went in largely just to see how it worked. I will try again next time and try a screen capture of the whole thing.  They have a live camera trained on the auctioneer in one corner.  There is a scrolling list of bidders as they make a bid. I am still not sure if the leading bidder is at the top or bottom of that list.  The bids come from in the room, from a bank of phones off camera and from registered internet bidders.  The screen pings each time a bid is made. There is a horizontal scroll across the screen where moving dollar amounts are displayed for you to click on. There is also the personal tally window tracking my amounts.  A week ago I started with $80 which was the estimate.  At the auction start it had risen to $170.   I was ready for the first bid but hit the $190 instead of the $180. It did not matter as the ping noise went off 5 times in succession taking it well over $200. I was watching the scrolling bidders window, from phone then room then phone then room. All the while the auctioneer is waving and pointing and calling the current total. I hit the $290 button.  It stayed current for maybe a second then pinged its way up to $360 in moments and was knocked down to a room bidder.  The whole sequence took 60 seconds.  This auction seems to be too well known attracting many bidders and bidders with money.  I watched for 10 minutes and saw thousands of $ spent.

I went and filled the rest of the whole now we can sit without falling in

Negativity

Working thru the next stack of photos, it is a mixed batch of a few colour but mostly B&W and negatives. However somewhere along the line there has been fire damage.  I noticed just a few photos yesterday that were burnt around the edges. Today I found the worst negatives that I have seen.  Buckled and bubbled due to heat and others just melted.  I wonder how many were destroyed. I have seen some of these negatives as quite good positives, so they must have been stored elsewhere.  I gave the negs a go anyway and as usual there are just a few that I have never seen before.

Image rescue

Never seen this one

Bernie Clancy working the opal mines

Country Living

I added another 150 photos to the scanned list this morning and I am having trouble recognising anyone from this old chocolate tin that was crammed full.  There are hints that these Clancy ancestors hunted and fished in and around the upper reaches of the Yarra.  There are trips to the snow and work being done with grapes and some drinking at the Launching Place Hotel.  I can see Bernie Clancy in some,  amongst an array of other characters.  

I think that is Bernie Clancy unloading grapes

The Lynch Boys. Don't forget the spare tube.

Possibly a fire drill

Now that's a hat

Mr Parted Hair appears in a few of these

Marjorie ? - Swimwear of the Day

Late Finds

 We are gearing up to handover original photos and USB's of photos in the next week or so. Yesterday I was poking around looking for documents and uncovered a mixed bag of more photos, must be a few hundred. I spent 2 hours scanning a huge bag full.  There are negatives as well and some more frames which I will look at tomorrow. There are  photos I have no idea about, both B&W and colour.  I do know something of these three. The 'Debbie Protrait'  I think is destroyed. I could be wrong but I remember Paul Stork wasn't happy with it.  The 'Laura  Relay Run'  came from a newspaper photographer and the 'Debbie Trophy Holder' was also about running at the Coburg Little Athletics. That has to be the highest pedestal I have seen.

CartoPhilately

 I have been honing in on specific stamp themes and have now joined the CartoPhilatelic Society at only $15US per year.  They have been counting  stamps with maps on, since 1955 and now have a list with over 40,000 stamps, which I now have a copy of .  Seems like there is no shortage of material to collect.  There might be some of those members with cartography education but maybe not too many. I thought I would get out my formal cartography recognition. It took me a day to track down where those old frames where hidden.  The box also had more old Clancy photos and I thought I had finished scanning that stuff. 

This is a scan rather than a photo from my phone

Maybe these guys are Firemen. The note on the back says 'Nell Clancy  Railway Reserve Wonthaggi 8/12/23

Beach Hole

 We spent an hour recovering from the garden exertions on our rock bench at the beach.  Now this is a quiet nook that needs a constant clean and maintenence check.  This time there is a gynormous hole that has been dug in the pursuit of beach fun.  It is so far up the beach that no tide has ever reached there so it has been left for others to fill in.  I have seen this before and needed a shovel to get the job done.  Debbie spent some time doing a slow kick around the edges but its going to need a shovel again.  Not sure when that will happen as we have come to the end of our seven days of Sun.   While Debbie was kicking the sand a turtle was uncovered, no doubt dropped by one of the diggers.  Beach bling is part of the beach ritual and this turtle is very similar to the neck turtle Debbie already has. 

So now we have an extra turtle

Yellow Plant Wall

 As opposed to the Yellow Brick Road.  For some weeks we have been looking for a break in the workload to ride across to some fields we can see in the distance.  They say you need to rest a field for a year or so if you have had canola growing in it.  That doesn't seem to be the case around here as we have consistently seen these bright yellow fields over the years. As well as the ride, Debbie spent three hours tilling the soil after yesterdays jungle clearout.  Later this afternoon she will not be able to move a muscle. You can get up close to these fields, as there is a bike path that stops flush with a boundary fence.

Garden Time

Well it seems Pure Bookkeeping has reached a stable place in its upgrade projects as there is time to get out into the garden. We have a rather overgrown veggie patch at the moment but before I can clear that area of its jungle growth there are two rose bushes that are to be dug up from outside the fence and moved to inside the fence.  Roses are red, they are prickly to, we are moving one bush no we are moving two.  The weed clearance was fairly straightforward but there needs to be a general tilling of the soil to sift out any dregs and get ready for some planting.  We have had a run of six sunny days in a row.  All this gardening does show some Spring fever.  

These succulents are taking over

Auctioneer

 The auction action has continued with some success.  I have had a run of three auctions and two are now done, with the third next week. Yesterday's auction does not have live online bidding but does allow pre bidding online but then shuts down in favour of the traditional in person hammer drop scenario.  Again I was leading with a $300 amount but was pushed back just before closing. They do allow you to contact by phone so I pushed it to $400. However they don't tell you if it is a waste of time, as the opposition already bid $400. So I missed it as there are no ties.  I went back and found many lots unsold, so for $200, I grabbed one of those that noone was fighting over.  The third and last auction in this run is next week. 

Beach Sitter

Not sure if Sep 13 is a record for crossing to the beach for a proper sit down.  Debbie's meetings finished at 3:00pm so we sauntered across the way for an hour or so of just sitting .  We were still talking Pure Bookkeeping but at least it wasn't in front of a computer.  My screens still have intermittent trouble and I have been on the phone with Dell while they work though it.  In the meantime I would describe our beach as messy with all the dried seagrass. That did not stop the crowds.  I counted around 30 people on our beach yesterday so the sea sand sun show must be starting early.  There were 10 of them in the water and swimming around.  So we went in but at best would describe mine as a wade and Debbie as a paddle.  Some would describe the water as refreshing others have a different opinion.  

Calm waters

                                                                     21°  at 3:30pm

Dymock's Data

Who's data is it anyway?  I got an email from Dymocks saying my info was stolen along with a lot of other people's, like 1.2 million customers.  The Australian Computer Society, of which I am a member, have been berating companies for a number of years about taking better care of data.  Pure Bookkeeping puts more and more 'stuff ' online and rely on companies like Google's security.  I turned on McAfee's dark web monitoring service and they sent me a confirmation that my email, name and phone number were out there.  I already get scam calls and scam emails, so I suspect it was known way before this latest issue.  So far I have found it fairly straight forward to spot a fake.  

Maybe scammers will read this and know I am onto them

Calm as Calm

 We have the exact opposite in conditions now. Not a breath of wind.  I prized Debbie away from her huge reworking of the Pure Work Flow system. This is a new utility, all based online, which she swore not to get involved with, as there are subordinates who can better do this part then her. Wrong.  If you want something done right you have to do it yourself.  Weeks and weeks of 10 hour days have been spent on this major revamp.  So getting her down to the beach for a short walk yesterday afternoon was a good thing.  We did not bring a rubbish bag and there was plenty of it.  I did wade in to get 6 golf balls that had gathered together.  There was also a small ray guarding them nearby.  I went back this morning with the trusty bag and picked up the major pieces we found.  A new one for the bin was a large CD carry bag. All the pages were clagged up and hard to tell if there were CD's in there or not.  Also the head of a wire broom, very nasty with sharp wires sticking out of the sand. 

golf balls

natural red sponge

Ray

broom head and bowl

I'll monitor that

 Today's activities have worked OK and not OK.  First up I had an online auction at 10:00am and my only bid was on Lot 19, so I need to be attentive for the first 5 mins.  My new laptop has a problem where both screens have an intermittent blackout for up to 5 seconds but each screen does it seperately and randomly.  It seems to start about an hour after starting the machine.  I waited til just 30mins before the auction before logging in.  There is a message that they are delaying the start for 30 mins.  This brings the start of the auction to the start of the blackouts.   Each lot remains biddable for 6 seconds and the blackouts are up to 5 seconds.  Sure enough the right hand monitor blacksout just after the auction starts but I have the bid window on the other monitor.  I was the only bidder when I checked late yesterday but overnight someone tried a late snatch and grab so I know I must bid to get it back.  Fortunately the monitor kept working and I got in a bid of $90 which beat off the opposition and won the day. 

I have now logged a call with Dell.  I was on the phone for 30 minutes. We checked the model numbers, the Drivers, the BIOS versions. Everything checks out on the laptop as for the latest versions.  So attention turns to the Thunderbolt docking station which is inbetween the monitors and the laptop.  I was supposed to get a program via email for updating the docking station but it has not arrived.  I told him I would monitor the situation.  That dad joke went over his head. While typing this my monitor has had a blackout three times in 15 minutes but not on the other one. 

Windows to see thru

Went across to the beach to checkout the damage and there was seagrass by the truckload especially gathered in the SouthEast corner, basically right in front of the incoming wind.  It was opposite at the other end with clear water.  It will take a while to wash this lot away.  There was plenty of rubbish to pick up even though I did just a few days ago.  On our walk back to the house the windows really looked murky so while I mowed the lawns Debbie hosed the windows.  Not sure how long that will last.

The Big Blow

 We have had 24 hours of wind here and it blew strong.  We could see the chairs being moved around on the deck across the road.  Right now it has calmed down to the point where I can go outside to check the debris field.  We have a lot of windows and they have that typical seaside coating at the moment but it is too early to get out the robot cleaner. Maybe in another six weeks.  The paths are strewn with congealed flower petals and for the second time in as many weeks I have half filled the bin with them. 

It's easier just to use a shovel

Falling Free

 I am coming to the end of this Space Opera, although this book was the very beginning. It is a separate story to the the life history of Miles Vorkorsigan about 200 years later.  This one is about bio engineered people specifically for the non gravity of space so their limbs are extra dexterous eg they can play an instrument with their feet.  This segues me to an episode of  'Strange New Worlds' we watched the other day.  This one literally is a space opera titled Subspace Rhapsody.  It would not be out of place on a Broadway Stage.  If you ever wanted to see Mr Spock break into song then this is it.