Finally a Water Problem Solved

When we built our latest house in 1989 we specified that we wanted a large deck to be able to have breakfast or lunch 'al fresco.' The result was great but the good old Queensland sun made it impossible to sit out there. At that time Queensland schools had their eating areas fitted with shade cloth tents. So we had one fitted on the deck, it still was not very satisfactory but we put up with it for  number of years.

House with Shade Tent (Drawn Carol-Ann Bohlen)

Eventually we consulted our architect neighbour next door who designed an extention of the roof over the deck. This was a vast improvement and we were finally able to eat out on the deck... if it wasn't raining! As soon we had a tropical downpour, which we frequently have here in Queensland, the extra water from the old and now the new roof just couldn't cope and the deck floor was wet every time. Fortunately luckily it hasn't rain too often here until 2012 when the weather pattern changed, probably courtesy of global warming. So the deck was once again unusable for a lots of times.

House with Roof Extension (Drawn Carol-Ann Pickvance)

 Last week, we called a plumber who suggested installing an additional 2 drain pipes down onto the garden, which he installed a few days ago.

Addition of two downpipes

Early this morning we awoke to one of the tropical downpours I mentioned above. I jumped out of bed and went investigating. Result! I walked out onto a dry deck. We waited years for this to happen, so today we're having lunch on the deck, come rain, hail or shine. Cheers!

Finally a dry deck

More Storm Damage

The horrific weather we've experienced last week caused another bit of damage I never even realised. Yesterday, Energex, our power company, waltzed up, setting up barricades in the street in front of our house. One of the supervisors knocked on the door telling us we would lose electricity for an hour, just as I was in the middle of reading my on-line newspapers, as I do every day. OK! We switched off all 3 computers we run all the time and I grabbed one of those funny things with words in it, like we  used to do before computers. A Book! But as the action progressed, the blogger and I grabbed our cameras and started to snap away. We also had other action going on in the yard with tree loppers removing our fallen trees as you'll see on Diane's blog.

The broken cross bar at the power pole

The huge winds we had, not only knocked over trees having them crash onto our rotary clothes line, but it also snapped the cross bar at the power pole outside our house leaving the wires precariously dangling up there.

The power company arrives to fix the problem

Within no time, we had a fleet of vehicles blocking the street, including a huge cherry picker. Safety signs went up, the area of the power pole was cordened off and the men got ready for action.

The snapped cross bar hangs precariously up there

The linesmen are in the basket of the cherry picker getting ready for the fift.

The offending item is removed by the Energex technicians.

And a new steel cross bar is installed. This one should last a few years. As they promised, power was restored within the hour. I closed my book (for a read tonight in bed). Happily turned on my iMac and my MacBook and returned to my overseas newspapers.

All's well again in the street.

(Photos by Bill and Diane)

What's Happening in the World

Society seems to get more violent every year. People are much less tolerant of each other that they were a generation ago. What’s the cause of that, is it television, lack of parental control during childhood and adolescents? Lack of respect for others or other people’s property? Whatever it is we see more violent acts every night on news bulletins. Take Road Rage for instance. How many of you have been at the blunt end of verbal or even violent abuses on the road. I have. Some years ago, when I legally entered a roundabout, being the first one to do so, a young P-plate driver who was at least 50 meters away when I entered the roundabout, sped up to me followed me shaking his fist and pointing his middle finger into the sky. He followed me to the next red light, then jumped out of the car and was about to come up to me when he saw that I had stopped next to a police car in the next lane. That seemed to change his mind and he snuck back to his car and started to behave himself.

A couple of weeks ago we saw an incident on the news, where an irate driver overtook an ex-policeman, then backed up and hit him. He did this several times before he eventually jumped out of his vehicle and jumped onto the other vehicle smashing his windscreen, all very nicely captured on the ex-policeman’s car-cam.

He ended up in court where he claimed the footage shown was a fabrication. Other people also came forward who had been harassed by the same driver.

I started to look into car cams and found they are actually not very expensive, so I went out and bought one. It only cost me $40, mounts easily on the windscreen and records out of the front wherever we drive. It’s fun too, watching the footage when you get home.

Our new Car Cam

If it Doesn't Rain, it Pours

For a few months now we have been complaining about the lack of rain here in Brisbane. Gardens were dying, Lawns were looking brown and shriveled and water tanks mainly empty. Everyone was hoping for rain. Well, it came with a vengeance, in the form of tropical cyclone Oswald that hit the north coast of Queensland and then made it’s way down the coast devastating coastal communities on the way with high winds and river floods.

Many homes destroyed (Picture Courier Mail)

It arrived in Brisbane on Australia Day washing out planned festivities and drenching the area with an abundance of rainfall. So much so, that the government decided to open the floodgates of our water dams to make room for the expected river water from the catchment areas.

On the way down the coast, ex cyclone Oswald caused seven tornados mainly in the Bundaberg area, wiping out dozens of homes and causing million dollar damages on land and on the seashore where boats were tossed about like match boxes.

A wet Noisy Miner bird took shelter under our balcony railing this morning

The worst is over for us as the low now moves into New South Wales on it’s way to Sydney.

We just inspected our garden and discovered one of our trees has taken out our Hill's Hoist, but nothing else, so we are pleased about that and feel sorry for the numerous people who’ve lost their homes, some of which had just been repaired or rebuilt after the last devastating floods in 2011.

One of our trees crashed into the washing line

Brisbane and Ipswich are expected to be flooded again tonight and tomorrow night with the amount of water coming down the rivers and a high tide at the same time. 

Happy Australia Day

It's Australia day today which will be celebrated in a soggy Brisbane. Heavy rain is forecast, a remnant of tropical cyclone Oswald visiting us from north Queensland. Which is a shame really as it is a long weekend and lots of people planned to celebrate at barbeques all around the region. Most official festivities have been cancelled. We do need the rain, though as it is very dry and our garden looks very sad, so at least the garden loves the rain.

Our son-in-law was on national TV this morning on Sunrise Weekend on Chanel 7, live from Hollywood. Bernie is an actor and together with lots of other Aussie actors resides in Tinseltown, together with our daughter Sonya and our grandsons Fox and Banjo whom you probably seen on Diane's blog many times.

Bernard Curry, who just returned from filming one of the leads in a new film called '3 Pegs', in South Africa, together with Brett Tucker (Spartacus: Blood and Sand) and David Hofflin (Alcatraz) have formed a band called 'Bernie and the Budgie Smugglers.' Instead of just playing in Los Angeles, this morning they entertained the whole of Australia with a few bars of 'We Are Australian.' We're proud of you guys. 

An Occasional Blogger

That's me, I guess. I don't post regularly.  Quite often I miss posting, what could be called mildly interesting stuff. But as we're about to embark on teaching blogging to students of the local U3A, I guess I should make a concerted effort to upload more posts, mainly to keep me from losing my ability to blog. So I will endeavour to concentrate more on uploading posts.

Another enjoyment I shall forgo while teaching students which is probably a good idea.  

Blogging for U3A

Most of our regular visitors know that Diane and I are very heavily involved with the University of the Third Age here in Logan City with the Camera Club. But we are also bloggers. Diane has recently been invited to join the management committee of the Logan Branch of U3A and has been asked to build a blog to promote the organisation.

So, for the last week or so, she has been very busy creating the 'U3A Logan Blog.'

Diane is creating the U3A Logan Blog

Check out Diane's new Logan U3A Blog where all the classes offered are listed. CLICK HERE


Besides the Camera Club, we have also undertaken to run courses in Blogging for members of U3A. These courses will be held over 4 weeks, with 2 hour classes, starting at the end of February. The response of the members was great, so much so the the first course is fully booked. We are planning to run another course sometimes in April.

Check out the short course we are offering on Blogging, CLICK HERE