Diary July to October

-8">

Diary Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Tuesday 28th October 2008

It was a nice warm day today. I left the cleaning to Ruth and I continued with the job of sorting out the shed. I only had a few cartons to go through and I found one that was nearly all full of torn up confidential papers from years ago. It had been put in the shed because I did not want to dump it anywhere. I still don't know what to do with it. I would like to burn it. I swept the floor and re stacked the cartons and things I as keeping. Everything now fits easily into one corner of the shed. I put the old pump up boat back at the far end and put the gazebo on top of it. Scott and Andrew can have the boat or if they do not want it, it will be dumped. We might sell the gazebo. It has only been used a couple of times and is excellent condition. It was extremely hot working both in the shed and outside. The temperature reached about 26 degrees. We had lunch and Ruth settled down for her rest. I had a bit of a rest but also did a few other things. Gary H rang and asked me to put in an apology for him as he would be unable to attend the IPA committee meeting this afternoon. I left here at about 4-30 pm as the meeting was due to start at 5 pm. I was the first to arrive. The others arrived about ten minutes later. The meeting did not take long and as usual, a few of us stayed for a drink. I had a meal with Kerry and Ron before going home. As we are still out of food and did not get time to go to the supermarket today, Ruth asked me to bring a subway home for her meal. I bought one at Barrington Mall. It was Ruths lucky day. Subway of the day today was Turkey and ham. Her favourite Subway is Turkey and being the special today, only cost $3.90. I took it home for her. I was just in time for the beginning of Coronation Street.

Monday 27^th October 2008

It was really warm when I got up this morning. The sun was shining and it really turned out to be a great day.

I did not do much cleaning today. I did the dishes and cleaned the shower. I started on a job I have been intending to do for quite some time. Clearing out the shed at the back of the house. I want to dump just about everything and keep only personal things and anything of value.

I had just started when Scott arrived. He helped a bit but he and Ruth kept diving in to everything to so what was in each box of goodies that we came across.

I have put about 80 per cent of the contents out in a pile near the caravan and I want to get a trailer later in the week and dump it.

Some of the items can go back inside when everything is cleaned up. Some things had to go back in right away just in case it rains over night – unlikely as it is supposed to be a great day tomorrow.

We stopped for a late lunch at about 2 pm. Andrew rang Scott to see what he was doing and he decided to come around.

He had a great time examining everything in detail as well.

It was getting on to about 3 pm when Ruth went down for her rest. A, S and I went around to Nerollies house to visit her and Bruce.

We spen about an hour and a half there. We had a cup of coffee and Bruce took a photo or two.

We came back home and Ruth was up and about. A and S took off. Soon it was time for Ruth to watch her quiz programs.

We decided to have fish and chips for dinner as there was nothing else to have. We went down to Halswell and bought our meal and also a rigger to wash it down with.

It was then tv for the rest of the evening.

Sunday 26^th October 2008

We had quite a lazy morning. After breakfast, Ruth made a few phone calls and I spent some time using the Laptop on the net.

Wqe had just started cleaning up and before long, it was about 12-30 pm. Nerollie rang up and said that she was on the way around with Bruce. Ruth is in N Z for a period and living in Auckland. Thes days, he spends about 6 months in Raratonga with his new wife and the rest of the year in Auckland. It is too hot for him him Raratonga during the summer.

I have not seen Bruce for a few years and it was good to catch up with him. They had already had their lunch. They had a cup of tea with us while we had a snack.

It was after 2 pm when they left for home. Ruth went down for a rest and I did for a short time also.

It was about 4 pm when we went for our usual afternoon drive to Tai Tapu. We stopped first at Halswell and filled a rigger.

We did not have a very elaborate dinner. Food supplies are low again. I got out some pre cooked sausages that I found in the laundry freezer and we had those with a few vegetables.

That was the end of the day.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Diary Saturday 25th October 2008

Saturday 25th October 2008

The day started off being not very good. We were expecting the rain that had been forecast but the day improved as it went by.

As I had mowed the lawns yesterday, I went around them and trimmed the edges. I noticed that our potatoes have grown a lot since we left for Queenstown, so I put another car tyre over a couple of them and filled the space with soil and compost. A few of the other potatoes (the bigger plants) I piled up with soil and compost and hopefully they will produce some more potatoes.

There was not a lot else happening here. Scott arrived at about mid day and he stayed for lunch. Ruth cooked us scrambled eggs on toast and we all enjoyed the meal.

Ruth went down for a rest. Scott wanted me to try his car out so we drove down to Halswell. Ruth wanted some margarine so I bought that while I was down there.

We came home and Scott and I sat down outside chatting in the garden. Rain was threatening and it was overcast but very warm.

When Ruth got up, we had afternoon tea and then Scott went on his way. Ruth and I left and went to the Supermarket in Lincoln Road. We had seen that they were selling asparagus cheaply so we went and bought a kilogram of it and it only cost us $3.00.

We came home and began locking up the house. It was beginning to rain and I don't think the weather is going to be very good for the next few days.

We had the remainder of the salmon for dinner. Once again, baked in foil in the oven. It was Delicious.

Diary 24th October 2008

Diary Friday 24th October 2008

It was another nice day today. After breakfast, I got out the lawnmower and gave the knee high grass a good mow.

After about 45 minutes, they were not looking to bad. I had started on the job fairly late in the morning, and when I had finished, it was almost time for lunch.

Ruth had done most of the ironing. I did the shirts and that was that job out of the way.

After lunch, I moved the caravan from its parking position and gave the grass underneath a mow.

When I had finished, we both tucked down for a rest. That was really the end of the work for the day. We didn't go anywhere during the day.

For dinner, we had more of the Salmon and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We have some left for dinner tomorrow night and that will be the end of it.

Ruth spent quite a bit of time in the garden during the day.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Diary October 23rd 2008

Thursday 23^rd October 2008

We are back to reality today. The first day back home after a weeks holiday.

After breakfast, I took my library books back to the library at Halswell. All except one were due back yesterday.

As there is a days grace, I did not have to pay a fine. I also picked up the book that I had on hold – there was an Email a day or so ago that it was ready to be picked up – LinuxFormat No. 111.

I was back home after about 15 minutes away from the house.

Soon, we had lunch and just after 1-30 pm we left here to attend the funeral of Keith Roper. It was scheduled for 2 pm and the Crematorium in Wairakei Road.

When we arrived, there was a sign at the gate that the car park was full. It is the first time of seen that.

We were almost the last to arrive and there were a few people standing at the back of the hall. Bill Martyn (John's son) saw us and came over. There were still a few seats right at the back, so we sat there.

We stayed for about 15 minutes after the service. We spoke briefly to D and J. We also spoke to Chrissy, Dianne and Dorothy (the other one).

We returned to the car and I phoned Andrew as we intended to go there for afternoon tea, but there was no reply to either is cell phone or his land line.

We stopped at Riccarton Mall and paid an account at the Farmers and then we bought a few things from Pak and Save.

We returned home and unpacked the groceries and then left for Halswell where I filled a rigger – the first for over a week.

Scott was coming over for dinner after work, but first, he was going home to Lyttelton to pick up Joey (the budgie – he had been looking after it while we were away).

We were just moving inside when Scott arrived. Ruth cooked a piece of the salmon – using the method of wrapping it in aluminum foile with a few pieces of vegetables and baking it in the oven.

We enjoyed a really nice Salmon dish with vegetables, followed by Strawberries and Ice Cream.

As soon as we finished, Scott headed off home and it was then time for t.v and we were off to bed at about 10-30 pm.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Diary Wednesday 22nd October 2008

Wednesday 22^nd October 2008

Today is the day we leave Queenstown. I got up at about 6-45 a.m = early for me. I had breakfast and typed up yesterdays diary. I saved it onto a flash drive and kept it to be uploaded to Leathmac later.

We all got stuck into cleaning the house before our departure. Last evening, John and I had taken the Wheelie Bins (Rubbish Bins) up the drive and left them on the footpath for the disposal men this morning. After our cleaning up, we had more rubbish and we carried it up to the street. We were just short of the top of the drive, when we saw the disposal truck going by. We thought we had missed it but it disappeared down the street picking up the bins on the other side of the road. We put what rubbish we had in the bins.

By a little before 10 am, we were ready to leave. Andrew wanted to re fuel his van. We had not refueled our car since leaving Cromwell. We had driven all the way to Queenstown and everywhere since and we still had plenty of fuel to get back to Cromwell. Our plan was to split the fuel costs (and accommodation) 50 50. We had started with a full tank of fuel. John and paid for the top up at Cromwell. We were going to pay half each at Cromwell on the way home and on arrival at Christchurch, I would pay to top up the tank.

As it turned out we struck one little problem at Cromwell – the garage did not want to split the payment. I paid for it all and later, John bought us a large fillet of Salmon at the Salmon Farm on the way home. It cost $36.00 and was easily half of the petrol that we had bought.

I am ahead of myself. We left the house, Andrew and Wenlin in their van and the rest of us in our car.

When we got to the bottom of the hill, Andrew turned towards Frankton. We went in the opposite direction. It only took a fee minutes to return the key to the Police Station and then we were on the way, setting Sarah for Cromwell.

As we passed through the round a bout at Frankton, Dorothy saw A and W's vehicle at the petrol station.

We continued on our way. We had suggested to them that we have lunch at either Omarama or Tekapo.

About 45 minutes after leaving Queenstown, we were at Cromwell. After re fueling, we were on our way, typing Omarama into Sarah s memory.

It was about an hours drive to Omarama, and on arrival, I turned right and went and stopped outside the tea rooms. I only stopped long enough to type our next destination, Tekapo, into Sarah and we were on our way.

On our arrival at Tekapo, we parked in the village. Ruth sent a text to Andrew and found that they expected to arrive in about ten minutes time.

We found ourselves a table, right at the end of the premises looking out towards the lake. After about 5 minutes, I went outside and waited for A and W to arrive. After a few minutes, they arrived and we all went in and bought our lunch.

After about 45 minutes, we set off. I typed in Fairlie, our next town into Sarah. A and W were ahead of us as we left.

At about the beginning of Burks Pass, we encountered a small van. I remarked that Andrew would not be able to pass it until we had got clear of the pass. He must have heard me and the next thing, he passed this vehicle and we got stuck behind it.

The vehicle was one of those pests that drive slower than you want to travel, but speed up whenever there is any possibility of passing it. We were stuck behind it for miles. Andrew disappeared from sight.

We eventually passed this vehicle and not long after, we arrived at Fairlie. We turned here for Christchurch, and just after leaving the town and going around a right angled left hand bend, we saw a Police car ahead. The lights were flashing and the officer on the road near the vehicle directed us into the curb.

It was a breath test. We were amused – the Police Officer was quite amused at catching a car full of geriatrics and soon we were on our way.

While we were with the Police Officer, the pesky van (who had been crossing a vehicle width across the white line on right hand bends) sailed past.

Again, we were behind him for miles. When I eventually found a place to pass, he sped up to well over a hundred k's as I passed.

When we arrived at Geraldine, we saw Andrews Van parked opposite our favourite motor camp. I stopped to talk to him. W was curled up asleep in the front seat. Andrew and been stopped by the Police Officer also.

Andrew told us that he was going to have a nap also, so we set off, setting Sarah for Ashburton.

At Ashburton, we stopped near Ashfords factory, set Sarah for J and D's house and off we went.

I had decided to turn off highway one at Kirks Road, Templeton. This would avoid all of the traffic by going through Hornby.

I had just made the turn, watching the road, traffic and railway line very carefully. About a hundred meters after the turn, I noticed that Sarah was not trying to calculate a new route and I think she had been directing us this way.

We arrived at J and D's house just on 5 pm. A few Kilometers from their house, the road was wet and it was obviously there had been rain a short time ago.

We unloaded their gear, said farewell and set off home, arriving at just before 5-30 pm.

We got a scare when we found the gate behind the caravan wide open. We thought that we might have been burgled but when we went inside, everything was in order.

All the cats appeared, and were glad to see us back. I suggested we go out to dinner, but Ruth was too tired and we decided to get a takeaway and eat it at home.

We took all our gear inside and did a quick sort out to get some sort of order about the house.

We then left for Barrington, bought a Subway and a bottle of wine and returned home.

At 6-45 pm, we were watching t v and having our Subway and glass of wine.

Ruth opened the mail that Mrs. Smeath had collected for us and we found a letter informing us that my old Mate Arthur Breen had passed away about two weeks ago. Although I have only seen him a couple of times over the years, since he left the Police not long after Ruth and I married (and spoken to him on the phone a few times lately) It was very sad to receive this news. Both Ruth and I liked him very much and we are very sad that he has gone.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Diary Tuesday 21st October 2008

Tuesday 21^st October 2008

It is our last day here today. Tomorrow, we head home.

It was quite late when we had all finished breakfast and morning tea and it was getting on to 11 am before we left to go into town.

It was a very nice warm sunny day. Andrew took his van. I gave him the key to the house and we took the garage remote. Wenlin gave us instructions to be back at about 1 pm as she and Andrew were going to cook a dish for us for lunch.

We all left at the same time - A and W in their vehicle and R D J and I in ours. I parked down the road from the Police Station in the Pay and Display almost at the Lake front. I paid for the parking via Text and we had until 1-06 pm to be back at the car.

We set off and walked down to the edge of the lake and up towards the Main Wharfs. John realized he had left his camera in the car so he went back for it. We waited for him to return. It was very pleasant in the sun and we did not have to wait long.

We strolled along, taking photographs from time to time.

We reached our intended destination, a point a few hundred meters along the Lake on the way to Glenorchy.

On our way, we had noticed the Earnslaw arrive at the Wharf and it was unusual to see her head straight in without turning around first.

We went to see what was going on. She was re fuelling. The coal truck was there and it had backed up to the side of the ship. A shute as put out from the truck and coal was being poured into the ship and crew were shovelling in down inside. It was something we had never seen before.

I noticed a huge concrete block on the upper forehead deck. It was about one cubic meter. It was lifted by the ships crane and moved a few meters towards the centre of the ship. It must be some sort of ballast to tilt the ship to enable the side to be low enough to match up with the coal truck.

We saw a sign across the road from our arrival point - at a road that was leading up the hill.

We crossed over and read the sign and found that there was a walkway. The one mile power station was only five minutes away so we set off there.

We saw the 60 kilowatt generator that had been built around 1923. It had been restored recently. The generator was fed from a pipe, I suppose about 30 centimetres in diameter from a point 150 meters above.

We read the information there and found that previously, the town had been lit by gas from the local gas works. There had been a move to build the electric generator but costs and other factors were preventing it.

Then, around `1923, there was an unfortunate explosion at the gas company. The building collapsed and the roofs blown off nearby houses. That was the end of that and there was apparently no alternative than to build the generator. What an unfortunate but convenient incident.

We set off on our walk back to the car. Half way back, we received a text from A and W asking where the Supermarket was. We directed them to the one we had been using - Fresh Choice.

By the time we got back to the car and drove home, A and We were there and had started on our lunch.

It took quite a time to prepare and it was about 3 pm when we sat down to the great dishes they had prepared.

By the time we had finished lunch, and headed back into town, it was about 4-30 pm. Andrew took us all of us in his van.

We parked on the Pay and Display near the Pig and Whistle Hotel. We could only get an hours parking.

We all walked into the shopping area. J and I left them and we went into the Internet Premises and I sent another instalment of this exciting story to Leathmac.com

This time, their P C behaved perfectly. I had logged in, retrieved by document from my flash drive and had it safely installed at Leathmac.com in probably less than 10 minutes.

I think the young woman who I gave the money too thought it was too much for us and that we had given up.

We could see no trace of the others. I rang Ruth and found - Guess what - they were at the Casino.

We went there and arrived in about 5 minutes. John and I sat down and enjoyed a beer. I particularly enjoyed it as he paid for it.

Not long after we had finished, the others decided it was time to go. We went back to the car and it was about 6 pm. We had exceeded our parking time but we were lucky and had not been caught.

Andrew and Wenlin had been to the fancy Chocolate and Ice cream shop. They had scoffed one each and no longer felt hungry.

On the way back to the car, we all went and had a look inside. D bought some of their chocolates.

When we got home, Andrew and Wenlin began preparing the meal. It took some time and they asked if we minded having a later dinner as they no longer felt hungry.

That was ok by us. J and D suffered while we watched coronation street. After that was the quiz show and by about 9 pm, we all sat down to dinner.

The dish was Japanese curry and once again, a magnificent meal.

Some time after the meal, we had coffee and D shared out some of the delicious chocolates that she had got from the chocolate shop. Wenlin had bought some fudge also, so we did well for ourselves.

It was a nice starry night and a night or so ago, Wenlin had asked me about how to get directions from the Southern Cross. Andrew had pointed it out to her but could not tell her how to find south from it.

I took her outside and explained it to her. Of course, the southern cross does not point south. It can be pointing anyway. They key is to bisect a line from a star on the opposite side of the sky to the southern cross - about 9 times the length of the cross - to the inner pointer. That point is south (within a degree or so).

That was the end of the evening and we all drifted off to our rooms.

Diary Monday 20th October 2008

Diary Monday 20^th October 2008

It was another nice day today. Today is the day we leave the house at Maxwell Place. We had to be out by 11 am. We have to more days left in Queenstown. We had only been able to book four days in this house but we were able to book the house at Limerick Lane for another two days. It is only about a five minute drive from Maxwell Place.

We had our breakfast and then we all got stuck in to cleaning the place ready for the next guests.

By a little after 10 am we had everything clean and the car was packed. By the time we had left and arrived at the Police Station to hand in the key, it was just before 11 am.

We were unable to move in to the Limerick Lane property until 2 pm. We set off on our drive to Frankton - we wanted to explore around the yacht club and golf course that we could see clearly from the house window across the Lake.

As we crossed the bridge where the Main Road leaves Frankton for places South, we noticed that the Motor Camp at the Waterfront (where the Road turned to the right to enter it) - had disappeared. A huge construction is going on there. Probably a large hotel I suppose.

It did not take loi9ng to drive to the end of the Peninsular. We drove around a block to see some of the houses and then around the Golf Course. We drove back and into the Yacht Club where we parked the car and walked along the Lake Edge. There are a couple of Jetties there, so we walked to the end of one of them.

We tried to see the house at Maxwell Place across the Lake but although we could see the general area, we could not identify the house.

We set off back to Frankton and we stopped at the Shopping Complex. I wanted to see if Dick Smith still sold the small binoculars. I had bought a pair years ago. They were small, cheap but very good indeed. I had lost them at Nelson about three years ago. John and a similar pair with him on this trip. His were expensive good quality ones and they had reminded me of the ones I had lost.

While J and I went in to Dick Smith's, R and D went into Postie Plus. I found that Dick Smith's still sold the binoculars. They are now $24.00 instead of the twenty dollars I had paid years ago.

I bought a set. I have since tried them and they are very good for the price.

When we came out and went back to the car, the girls were not there. To kill time, we went into Smith's City and looked around for about twenty minutes or so.

We went back to the car and R and D were still not there. We went to Postie Plus and here they were - lined up at the counter with half of the shops contents chosen amongst them and handing over the money.

We loaded their new stuff into the car and drove to the other end of the cart park - it is quite a large car park - where we knew there was a little Café.

We parked the vehicle and went inside. We got a very nice light lunch. I had a bacon egg and tomato toasted sandwich. I did not worry about a drink as I had my drinking bottle in the car. Ruth decided on the same option.

By the time we had finished lunch and driven back to Queenstown which is a distance of about 8 kilometres, it was just after 2 pm and time for us to get the key to the Limerick Street house.

I collected it from the Police Station. We had decided to go to Bunnings to look around before going to the house. We looked around for it. The girls had seen it on the way into Queenstown a few days ago. All they could remember was that it was on the right hand side of the road and not quite in the shopping area.

We soon realized that we had no idea where it was - especially when Dorothy said that she thought it was back almost at Frankton.

I stopped and checked Sarah's memory banks but when she could not help, we went to Limerick Place

_.

We opened up the house. R and D went inside and upstairs. I opened the garage and drove the car inside and then John and I moved the gear inside. J and D are in the downstairs en suite. We have taken the middle bedroom upstairs - A single bed each.

Andrew at Wenlin were due at around 5 pm so we left the end bedroom with a double bed for them.

We all have a good view from out bedrooms, across the town and down the Lake to Walter Peak.

We had afternoon tea. We had planned to go to dinner at the Pig and Whistle after Andrew and Wenlin arrived.

It was a lovely warm sunny afternoon. Ruth settled down for a rest - J and D and I sat down and started reading.

I was getting to hot in the lounge and it made me sleepy. I went to the spare bedroom and lay down on one of the bunks for about half an hour.

Ruth told us a little after 4 pm that A and W had sent a text saying they were at Cromwell and were about to leave. That put them about an hour away.

Some time after 5 pm A and W arrived. We showed them where to park their van - across our garage but clear of the street and we brought their gear inside.

Wenlin had brought tons of food and did not seem interested in going out for dinner. She had planned to cook us a Chinese dish and soon set about the job. Andrew and Wenlin at the same time, prepared a French stir fry with tons of vegetables - some of them I did not know what they were.

We all enjoyed a magnificent meal and a few drinks. We switched the t v off when we sat down for dinner and it did not go back on during the evening.

At abut 1030 pm we all started heading off to bed to prepare for tomorrow.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Diary 19th October 2008

Sunday 19^th October 2008

We are lucky and the good weather continues. We had breakfast and did a few routine jobs about the house and at a little after 10 am we left for our outing.

We had planned to go to Glenorchy today. I stopped briefly in town and parked the car not far from the Internet Premises.

Ruth J and D waited for me while I went into the premises ( I had to walk down the street a bit as I had parked outside the wrong place).

The same young fellow was working there. Apparently, I was supposed to have kept the scratchy card that he gave me on my last visit. It held a log in number that can be re used. I thought it was for one time only and I had thrown it away.

He gave me another. He was busy with other customers and told me to use a P C at the back of the shop.

I tried a couple of P C's and I could not get any sign of life out of them. Fortunately, the young guy had dealt with his customers. He put me on another P C and this time, I logged in without any trouble.

There was no trouble getting the P C to accept my Flash Drive and in no time at all, I had uploaded yesterdays diary to Leathmac and I had finished. The young guy was surprised how quickly the job had been done - even more so when he saw the results on line.

I went back to the car and we set off for Glenorchy. It was a very enjoyable drive. It was a warm sunny day. There was not a breath of wind. The Lake was bright blue and like glass on top. There was still a fair coating on snow on the mountain peaks.

I suppose the driving time would be about 40minutes. It probably took about an hour as I was not in a hurry and we made a couple of stops. The first was when Andrew rang. Cell phone reception was poor and we just had time to tell him we would ring him from Glenorchy and then we lost contact. We stopped for about ten minutes for photographs of the mountains also.

We stopped at the lake jetty at the end of what I suppose is the main street of Glenorchy. There was a chill wind blowing then and the lake surface there was a little choppy.

We were going to feed the ducks but the two solitary ducks - about 150 meters away totally ignored us.

We drove back to the shopping area and as I was heading back to the car, I spoke to a couple who had just arrived. They now live in Queenstown but are from South Africa. They are half way through their Residency Proceedings. Her husband is three years older than her - she is 55 years of age. They have no children here and they are dreadfully worried that they will not be allowed to stay. They were a nice couple and I really hope they are allowed to stay. They are so much safer here and they are so pleased they are living here. They reckon it is the best place in the world and they believe Kiwis have no idea how lucky they are to live here.

We bought an ice cream each and enjoyed that before we set off. We drove off in the only direction possible - in the same direction we had been travelling before entering the town.

About five minutes up the road, we came to a road junction. On our last visit, we had continued straight on. We stopped and had a discussion on which way to go.

J and D had not been up that road but were not fussed on which way to go. We turned left and headed towards Kurow and the Routeburn track. A few minutes later, we came to another junction - both metal roads - one to Kurow, the other to the Routeburne. J and D and Ruth and I had not been to the Routeburne. Both were 9 kilometers from where we were. We headed off to the Routeburne.

When we arrived, there were heaps of people there. Quite a few older people, who, like us, must have gone there like us - just to view that area and then to return to civilisation. A lot of the younger people I would say, were probably there for a least a day tramp - maybe longer.

John met one young couple who had just arrived after walking the entire track from the other side.

We tooks some photographs and then went to the wooden swing bridge across the river. We set off across. Dorothy decided to turn back after a few meters as the swaying of the bridge was stressing her artificial hip and she was worried that the joint could be thrown out.

The rest of us continued on and walked along the track for about ten minutes. It was a very enjoyable walk and I would not have minded at all spending an hour or two walking there. This is one walk that is only an hour.

We headed back to the car and soon, we set off on our return journey to Glenorchy.

When we arrived there, we went to the Restaurant / Café and bought a late lunch. The prices there were surprisingly cheap. Ruth bought quite a large plate of this little triangle sandwiches for $3.00 - although heer pot of tea cost $4.00. I bought quite a large slice of some picnic loaf - similar to a slice of bacon and egg pie. It was only $5.00 and was fill of sausage, egg, other bits and a little garnishing. It was very nice.

When we had finished our meal we set off for home. We were almost back at Queenstown, when we found a nice little sheltered bay. There were a couple of boats there with water skiers and several other people.

We parked on the shingle beach and lay down on the warm shingle for about half an hour relaxing and enjoying the activity about us.

On our return journey, we noticed that the snow on the mountains had very noticeably disappeared. Half of it had gone.

Our next stop was the Supermarket at Queenstown. We made a few small purchases and then returned to the house. By this time, it was getting quite cold.

Ruth and Dorothy cooked a nice meal. Steak, vegetables, bean salad. Dorothy chopped up some potatoes and made chips under the griller. With a glass of Reisling, it was a feed fit for a king.

We retired for the night at about 103-30 pm.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Diary Saturday 18th October 2008

Friday 18^th October

We were up and about around 8 am this morning. It had rained hard during the night and the sky was very cloudy. The Remarkables had received a light coating of snow during the night as had the other nearby mountains.

We had our breakfast and sat around the house and it was about 11 am before we left the house.

The weather improved before we left and it was quite a pleasant day. At about 10 am we saw the Earnslaw heading down the Lake towards the end of the Lake at Frankton. We have never seen in there before and it steamed right past our house. We took several photographs of it.

We noticed that this part of the lake was very calm, whereas, the other branches of the Lake were covered in white caps. Perhaps it was too rough to take its usual journey to Walter Peak.

When we left here, we drove into town and parked the car in the same location that we had done the other night when we went for dinner at the Pig and Whistle.

It was Pay and Display, so I paid for an hours parking via text message.

We walked into the shopping area. I found an Internet Premises. John and I went in and the girls went on their way. I paid a couple of dollars for half an hour on a terminal and sat down to do the ten minute job of transferring the last couple of days of this diary to my Web Site.

Problem - the p C would not recognize my Flash Drive. The attendant tried it on his P C and he got the same result. He tried it on his Laptop and it worked fine. I had my other Flash Drive with me, so I got him to transfer my files to it, in case the drive was faulty.

I went back to the other machine, and I received the same result. The attendant gave us another P C and soon, everything was working.

In no time at all, I had my exciting episodes of our Queenstown trip published on my Web Site Blog.

When I had told the young attendant what I was doing, he was very surprised. He wants to create his own Web Site. He asked to have a look at mine and when he did so, he was very surprised. He was even more surprised when he saw the entries that I had just put up, displayed for anyone to see.

I want to go back tomorrow to publish another days record of our trip. The same young guy told me that he would be there and I would quite like to deal with him.

When we left the Internet Establishment, we walked around a bit and could find no trace of the girls. I phoned Ruth and guess what - she and Dorothy were at the Casino.

I told Ruth that we would see her there soon. We went back to the car. We found that the time we had paid for expired in six minutes.

I drove off and parked closer to the Casino, once again paying for the Pay and Display via text.

I thought I knew where the Casino was but a short time later, I found that I didn't. I stopped and asked a shop keeper and a few minutes later, we were in Sky City Casino. There was no trace of the girls. I phoned Ruth again, and she said she was as the Casino. I then found out that there are two Casinos, and we were at the wrong one.

Off we set - after getting directions from a Casino Staff member. We found R and D. As they were not ready to leave, I went to the bar and ordered a couple of beers for John and I. When they were poured, I went to pay for them - I always use my Credit Card for everything - I found they only take cash. I had to go and get some folding stuff from Ruth to pay for the drinks.

A short time later, we left and we had agreed to go to Subway - have lunch - visit the Supermarket afterwards and then go home.

We arrived at Subway ok. John and I were ahead of the girls. I went to the cashier and asked to transfer $30.00 from my Credit Card to my Subway Card - something I do from time to time. It is a regular transaction that takes about 1minute. The young lady did not know how to do it and asked another girl.

It turned out that she did not know how to do it either and got out an instruction sheet. I realised that I was holding things up and I told her not to worry about it and I would do it another time. She was a nice girl, and trying to be very helpful, she rang her boss. She started again on the transaction. I could hear the "donk" sound - that whinging sound computers make when they don't know what to do. I told the young lady about six times to forget about it and I would do it another time. She eventually abandoned the operation.

By this time, Ruth and J and D had almost finished their Subway and there was a long queue of customers waiting to be served. I decided to go without.

By the time they had finished their meal, there were not many customers lined up, so I waited in line and bought my Subway also. The very helpful young lady said I could do my transaction as she knew what to do now. I told her that I had held her up too much already and I would do it another time. I paid for my Subway in the normal manner and sat down to eat it. I got a lot of harassment from R,J and D about causing all the trouble. To make matters worse, Ruth went up and put some money onto her Subway card without any trouble.

Our next stop was the Supermarket where we bought food supplies - milk - meat for dinner tonight and for tomorrow night and such.

We then returned to the house. I did not set Sarah for the journey and we were almost home when I took a wrong turning. No one noticed until we found ourselves at the end of a no exit street. There was no room to turn and I had to reverse up hill for about 150 meters.

It was getting quite chilly by the time we had arrived home. We had afternoon tea and Ruth and I had a rest for a little while.

For dinner, we had a very nice stir fry - with all the meat and vegetables cooked together. With the nice boiled potatoes, it was a very nice meal.

Later in the evening, we all watched the Third Test - Netball - N Z v England. It was a massive victory for New Zealand, as had been the first test about ten days ago. The second test had been a massive victory for England.

That just about ended a very enjoyable day.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Diary Friday 17th Octobr 2008

Diary Friday 17^th October 2008

When we woke up this morning, it was very cloudy and looked like it was going to rain. The day got better as time went by and it turned out to be a very pleasant day.

The house is comfortable and our bed was extremely comfortable. We had a relaxing morning and by the time we had finished breakfast and tidied up the house, it was about 11 am when we left.

We went to Arrowtown and the first shop we called at, I had a very unpleasant experience.

I knew it was a very expensive tourist shop. Still - Ruth and Dorothy may have bought something - especially Dorothy as she might well have got something for one our her grand daughters.

I picked up what appeared to be a pair of socks. I could not believe the price - $339.00. I gave them to Ruth and told her to get them for me.

The old guy at the counter about 15 meters away, said something about wanting to buy the items. I laughed and said that I was thinking of it. He came over and I though he was excited at the sale. It became obvious he was extremely annoyed. He snatched the items away and said that they were very expensive and not to be touched. He was really angry. I was also angry at this stage. Ruth asked me if I knew what price they were. I told her loudly, yes, $339.00, I wanted them and to get them. She told me not to be mad. I told her they were only $339.00 and to get them as I wanted them. Mr Grump pushed past me and disappeared muttering and grumbling.

I decided I would disappear too as I was that mad, if I said anything, things could get out of hand.

I have met some rude arrogant people but I have never experienced anything like this. It was completely un called for.

I had done nothing to cause this outburst. Admittedly, I had remarked that there was nothing for sale as there were no prices on anything. Nothing that I don't normally say. I can't stand shops that do not have prices displayed.

I concluded that the poor guy must be having a hard time with the economic down turn. He probably has a large bank overdraught and needs money to pay for his overpriced items. I can only conclude that he is badly stressed - still - it is no way to treat a group of people who had every intention of buying something from his shop.

It was a contrast to other business people I met there - all were extremely pleasant.

We walked around the town, and along the river that was behind the shops. We went to the little bakery that we had visited for lunch on our last visit.

We had lunch there today also. Very pleasant and I had a magnificent lunch. The price was only $9.00 and only $16.00 for both of us.

We left Arrowtown after lunch. We stopped at Lake Hayes and took some photographs and then we went on and stopped at the Shopping Centre at Frankton.

I looked around Dick Smiths and the Warehouse. Dorothy and Ruth bought a few items at the Warehouse. I returned to the car and waited for them while they went to the Supermarket for some milk.

When they arrived back at the car, we set off home. We had afternoon tea and Ruth and I settled down for a rest.

Ruth and Dorothy are just beginning to prepare the Salmon for dinner.

Diary 16th October 2008

Diary 16^th October 2008

Today we left home for Qeenstown. I was up early for me - getting up at about 6-45 am.

By the time we had finished breakfast and loaded the car, it was getting on to 9 am.

We left home a little after 9 am and we arrived at J and D's house at 9-20 am. It only took a few minutes to load their gear into the car and then we were on our way.

It was a nice day although we were expecting bad weather. As the day progressed, the expected bad weather did not arrive and during the entire trip, we only experience a few drops of rain.

Our first stop was at Geraldine. We had taken the direct route, turning off Highway One at Rangitata. We did not stop long at Geraldine. Just long enough for John to take the driver's seat. Ruth and Dorothy seemed quite happy in the back.

John drove on the next leg. We stopped about 40 minutes later at Fairlie. We were going to have lunch. It was early, just before mid day. We looked at a couple of places but did not see anything that we liked the look of, so we set off, with John still driving and about 45 minutes later, we arrived at Tekapo.

We stopped and had a nice lunch there. Our total time there was something like at hour.

I took over the driving again. Our next stop was the Salmon Farm where we stopped, fed the Salmon and bought a nice large fillet of Salmon which will be our dinner tomorrow night.

Off we went again, not stopping until Cromwell. We refuelled the car there. A few minutes later, we were on our way again. I continued driving at about 5 pm, we were outside the Police Station at Queenstown. I picked up the key to the unit, Unit No. 4. I had an idea where the house was but I typed the address into Sarah and in five minutes, we were there.

The house is magnificent - very new - three levels and with a large deck from the lounge with a fabulous view of the Lake.

We found that there was no lock up garage at this home - just a parking deck just clear of the street - a wooden deck suspended over open space which I have not really wanted to look under.

We took all our gear inside and prepared for our stay. After about half an hour, we had a cup of tea / coffee, and after that, a beer. I had put some cans in the freezer as soon as we had arrived so they had chilled nicely.

At about 6-30 pm, we went into town with the intention of getting takeaways for our evening meal. We did not feel like preparing our own after the journey.

We drove around and did not see any premises that looked interesting so we parked the car an called in at the Pig and Whistle Hotel.

We gout ourselves a nice cheap meal there. Ruth and I had a Pork Roast - J and D an English Hot Pot.

Our meal was very nice and their meal looked really nice also. I might try one of those at our next visit.

We did not have anything to drink there. As soon as we had finished, we came home. I had saved our location in Sarah's memory, so I clicked on that and Sarah guided us home.

We settled down to T V for a while. I had another can and soon it was time to settle down for the night.

Diary Wednesday 15th October 2008

Wednesday 15^th October 2008

It was a nice day today but by all accounts, the weather is packing up tomorrow – the day we leave for Queenstown.

There was not a lot of activity here this morning. Ruth had an appointment with her hairdresser at 11-30 am.

She was busy doing washing and preparing things to be packed for tomorrow.

While she was away, I did a few computer jobs downstairs. We had lunch when she came home and as usual, she settled down for a rest.

While she was resting, I washed the car. It is now clean inside and out as I did the interior a day or so ago.

When Ruth got up, we took a drive to Halswell. I topped the petrol tank at the B P at Oaklands, and I bought a litre pack of oil. I think the engine could do with a splash or two before we leave. I checked the tyre pressures while I was there and adjusted them all, including the spare. On the way home, I dropped off two LinuxFormat Magazines at the Library. One is due back today, and the other in a few days.

When we arrived back home, I put a little of the oil into the engine – it did not take much and I have put the rest aside. I will take it with us, just in case we need to top up the engine while we are away.

We had a nice meal and we have just about packing things for the trip. The case is not closed yet. Food stuffs are in a bag.

John M phoned in the early evening. His friend Keith has been operated on. John is hoping that he will recoverer ok and he and Dorothy are still coming on the trip. We hope to meet him at his house at about 9 – 9-30 am in the morning.

We should get an early night as we must be up by 7 am – early for us.

For the next few days – publication of this diary will be intermittent.

Andrew and Wenlin leave today for for Vanu a Tua today and they return on Saturday.

They are hoping to come to Queenstown on Monday to spend the last couple of days with us.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Diary October 14th 2008

Tuesday 14^th October 2008

Cleaning day today – Day two – upstairs. It was a really nice sunny day.

When we had finished the cleaning, we had lunch and just as we had finished, Andrew and Wenlin arrived.

They spent about an hour here and then went on their way. They were going to Danny's house.

We had our afternoon rest and then we set off to Pak and Save at Riccarton Mall. The cupboards were pretty bare and we had to get some food.

We stocked up on groceries and by the time we got home, it was almost 5 pm.

We put everything away and we had just finished, when Scott arrived. We were just about to have a drink in the garden so Scott joined us.

After about half an hour, the sun went down behind the trees and we went upstairs and had a glass of wine out on the deck.

Scott stayed for dinner and we had a nice meal of red cod fillets and vegetables.

Scott stayed for quite a while and it was about 10 pm when he set off home.

Tomorrow is the last day here before we leave for Queenstown. We have not started packing yet so tomorrow will be a busy day. Ruth has an appointment at the hairdresser at 11 am ( made quite a while before we planned this trip to Queenstown).

Monday, October 13, 2008

Diary Monday 13th 2008

Diary Monday 13^th October 2008

Cleaning day today – Day one – Downstairs.

It was a nice day – too nice to be inside doing boring jobs like cleaning.

I went out side for a while and I disassembled the scaffolding that I had put together the other day. Among other things, I wanted to measure the length of it when assembled so that I can get some timber to wooden platform to use with it. The planks that I have are too old and decayed and not safe to use.

When I had finished, I went on with the cleaning.

As usual, we both had a rest in the afternoon after lunch. I continued with my cleaning jobs when we were up and about.

When I had finished, I gave the car a good clean inside. I will wash the outside tomorrow and refuel it ready for our trip to Queenstown on Thursday.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Diary 12th October 2008

Sunday 12^th October 2008

It was another nice day today. I rang J and D this morning, to finalize a few things for our trip to Queenstown on Thursday.

It was about mid day when we left here. We went to Blacks Pets at Opawa to get some fish food for our gold fish. Apparently, you can get a container that is put into the water and it slowly releases the food – in this case – enough for about 5 days.

On the way home, we stopped at Mitre 10 and Ruth bought some items for the garden – including a statue that holds globe above shoulder level – the globe is powered by a solar light. We also bought a new spade to replace the one that was broken recently. There are a few other things there that we need and we will return after our Queenstown trip and get them – Among other things – Some weed poison that is going cheap. We intend to use it on the stamped concrete at the front of the house – weeds grow in the grooves – and on the tar seal at the front of the garage and down the drive.

Ruth had a gift voucher for Mitre 10 so the total bill was not too horrific.

We visited Countdown just down the road – we bought a bottle of wine for tonight and a very few groceries – bread – cauliflower and such.

We returned home and had lunch and settled down for a rest.

Later in the day, we took a drive to Tai Tapu. On our return journey, we filled a rigger at Halswell Tavern and we came home to enjoy a nice drink in the sunshine on the upstairs deck.

We had a very nice dinner, chicken casserole that Ruth had slowly cooking away in the oven.

Diary October 2008

Saturday 11^th October 2008

It was a glorius sunny day today. The temperature rose to about 24 degrees.

At about 10-30 am, we left here and went to the fair at the Anglican Church at Halswell, which is opposite the tavern.

We met Rand and Beryl Din... there. We have not seen them for quite a while. It was good to chat with them and catch up on what has been going on.

I have promised Ray a copy of Puppy Linux to try. His son, Geoffrey, now an I T tech is using Linux and has conquored Knoppmyth and is running it at home. Ray is about to upgrade the memory in his laptop which only has 256 megs of ram.

Ruth did not do too well on the Chocolate wheel, only winning a booby prize.

She bought some really good books for a dollar each.

We came home and had lunch. As usual, we had a rest.

Later in the day, I went down to Oaklands and bought some petrol so that I could mow the lawns. I filled a rigger on the way home so that we could have a drink afterwards.

I came home and mowed the lawns and by the time I had finished, it was getting on to about 6 pm.

It was really hot outside and although the sun had gone downstairs, we had a drink on the deck upstairsand lingered before finally cooking dinner.

We had a scratch dinner but it was very tasty.

It was getting late when we finally settled down to tv.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Diary October 10th 2008

Friday 10^th October 2008

The weather is starting to get better. It was a very warm sunny day today.

I had a fairly stress free day.

I put the lower level of the scaffolding together, just to make sure there is not going to be any problems with it.

Everything is looking quite good.

While Ruth was having a sleep this afternoon, I went down to Halswell – to the Bank and the library. I was only away about half an hour.

I got rid of everything on the downstairs computer yesterday and replaced the OS with Pclos. This is still my favourite.

I read the Police Association Magazine today. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I noticed that there were a few days available in a unit at Queenstown next week.

I logged in on line and the space was still available. Ruth and thought about grabbing it.

We were supposed to be going away any time in the caravan and J and D were waiting to hear from us – we were thinking about either a few days at Moeraki or perhaps, just at South Brighton. I should have phoned them about it yesterday.

We decided that if J and D would come to Queenstown we should go. I rang them and they are coming.

I took the booking for a total of 6 days from next Thursday. There is one small problem – we can have one unit for the first four days and then we have to leave and move into another.

That should not be too much of a problem. I checked with J and D before confirming the booking and it was ok with them.

Splitting the costs 50 50, it should be quite a cheap trip. We are only taking one vehicle.

It is just as well it is not going to cost too much as we have put a deposit on the unit at Nelson and we are going there for four or five days in early December.

Diary October 9th 2008

Thursday 9^th October 2008

The weather was quite good today. I did not work all that hard.

I finished clearing up around the side of the house where the concrete blocks had been.

I shifted all the old timber – some to go to the dump and some of if I might keep.

I moved the long pieces of scaffolding and cleaned them up. I want to begin using it shortly. Some of the nuts were rusted onto the threads. I used crc and worked them loose.

That was about all I did today.

Ruth went out shopping and was away for a couple of hours.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Diary Wednesday 8th October 2008

Wednesday 8^th October 2008

It was quite a nice day today. Being Wednesday, Ruth had an appointment at mid day for her weekly meeting.

We left here at about 11-30 am and I dropped her at the Cranmer Centre, just before mid day.

She wanted me to pick her up at 1-45 pm. It was not worth going home, so I had a look around Harvey Normans Computer Division for about half an hour.

I left there and went to South City. I had a quick look around the Warehouse and then I bought lunch at the Subway there.

I had my Subway Roll in the car and it left me 10 minutes to get to the Cranmer Centre to collect Ruth.

I only waited about two minutes and she arrived.

We went directly to Riccarton Mall. We needed to restock the kitchen cupboards.

Ruth wanted to go to the Farmers first, so I left her there and I went to to Dick Smiths shop and spent about twenty minutes looking around there.

I tried to ring Ruth to see where she was and at the same time, I received a text from her telling me she was at Pak and Save.

I went and met her there. She had almost finished the shopping. There had not been much fish at the fish counter and she had not bought any.

I had noticed that Salmon was a bit cheaper this week, so we went back and got a slice each for dinner.

We got two nice pieces for a total of $8.00.

We came home, stopping at the Pharmacy to collect some more medication for Ruth.

As it turned out, they were out of stock. We paid for the drugs and she will collect them tomorrow.

We went home and unpacked the groceries and Ruth settled down for a rest.

It was getting on to about 5 pm when she was up and about. Just in time for her to watch her quiz programs that were on between 5 pm and 6 pm.

We enjoyed our meal – salmon fillets with vegetables.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Diary 7th October

Tuesday 7^th October 2008

Cleaning day today – day two – upstairs.

That was about all I did today. After we had finished the cleaning, we had lunch and Ruth settled down for her rest.

When she got up, she went to the hairdressers – keeping an appointment she had made some time ago.

She was not back until about 5 pm.

John M rang while she was out and gave us an update on his Australian trip. He got back yesterday.

Most of the North Island has been hit by high winds today. Trucks have been overturned and quite a lot of damage was done. Everything was ok here.

Marion sent a text to Ruth telling her that some of her garden structures had been brought down by the wind.

We went down to Halswell at about 6-30 pm. The sky looked very black towards the south west. We were only down there for about 16 minutes. I met a guy who said that he had just come up from Ashburton and it was raining hard there and the wind was very strong.

We were just setting off home when it started to rain – I see on the weather forecast that there is a cold front coming up from Antarctica, so it is following the one that has just arrived. The weather might be bad later in the week.

Monday 6th October 2008

Monday 6^th October

The weather was not to good to start off but it improved as the day went by.

I started the cleaning and when I had finished the shower, I went outside. I have been planning on shifting some old concrete blocks that have been on the path near the back of the house for quite some time.

The dump charges about $165.00 a ton for dumping and thirty or forty old concrete blocks are fare to expensive to dump at this price.

I shifted them to a neat pile behind the small shed. When I had finished, I attacked the old concrete BBQ that is on a concrete pad in the middle of the back lawn.

We have not used it for years and have wanted to get rid of it. I would like to use it but apparently the council regulations now are no outside (or even inside) fires.

In about an hour, I had disassembled in, only breaking a few blocks at the bottom layer. I stacked them with the other blocks.

I decided that the concrete pad was to go also. I attacked it with my small but very heavy hammer – a small sledge hammer – about the size of a carpenters hammer but many times heavier. I bought it to use for driving in the caravan awning pegs.

At first, I did not think I was going to break the concrete. After several really heavy blows, cracks began to appear and soon, chunks were breaking off.

It took a lot of energy. After a while, I had to stop for a break. I had several sessions at it during the day and by about 5 pm, the job was finished.

The broken concrete is still in a pile, right on top of where it had spent the last I suppose about 25 years.

I don't know what I am going to do with it. I will have to get rid of the broken concrete I suppose.

Having finished the concrete work, I did the downstairs vaccing for Ruth who had done the rest of the cleaning by herself.

I think I have also sorted the problem with the downstairs computer. For about a week, there is no way I could acess the internet from it. The router would not let it through. I even tried a few Linux Live DVD's without success. Previously, it has always picked up the Internet from Live Linux discs.

The usual cause is Mac Filtering turned on when the Mac number of the Network Card was not entered in the router.

I had checked this and I was sure that I had turned off Mac Filtering. I had even replaced the Network Card today and it would still not connect.

I checked Mac Filtering again and guess what – it was turned on.

As I could not find the Card Mac address, I turned the filter off and bingo – back on line.

The next step is to find the Mac Address – enter it into the router and turn filtering back on.

At the moment, the Router will allow any computer to access the system and it is not secure. I will have to rectify this as soon as possible as there are so many wireless networks about now.

We had a nice meal at dinner time – the rest of the meat loaf that Ruth had prepared yesterday.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Diary 5th October 2008

Sunday 5^th October 2008

We were up a little later this morning. It was raining when we got up and it was not a very nice day.

I had a few jobs planned but I lost interest. It was only just raining at about 1030 am and I suppose I could have done something, but I did not bother.

The only work done was a spot of ironing.

Later in the afternoon, we took a drive to Tai Tapu, stopping first at Halswell to fill a rigger and to get a bottle of wine from the Supermarket.

We went directly home from Tai Tapu. We spent about 15 minutes, looking around the garden, and I lopped off a small bush that was starting to become a problem.

It is now down to ground level and it should not be too difficult to get rid of the root or stump.

We found out what had been happening in Wyn Street on Friday. There was no crime – apparently an old gentleman had been found dead in his house – or his sons house – I am not sure – apparently found by his son. Foul play must have been suspected but apparently his head injury was caused by falling.

It was a little too cold to have a drink outside. We settled down inside and finished off the meal that Ruth had put into the oven earlier in the day – not that much – a Meat Loaf with vegetables. It was very nice.

We had just finished when A and W arrived. They spent about an hour here and took us for a ride in the Rav 4 that they have just bought as a second vehicle – mainly for W to get to work. It seems like a nice little vehicle.

Scott dropped in earlier in the afternoon but he did not stay long and left when we went for our drive.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Saturday 4^th October

It was quite a nice day today. Later in the morning, I finished off the job of trimming the lawn edges.

It took quite a while. When I had finished, I moved the caravan from its parking position.

I mowed the grass under neath and trimmed the edges around it also.

It was not a very bush day. Andrew came around and spent about an hour here and then went on his way.

After lunch, we had our afternoon rest. At about 4 pm we went for a short walk, stopping at Nerollies house for about an hour.

Micheal was home – also Andrea and her friend and the children. We had a cup of tea and when we had finished, we continued on our way around the block until we were home.

The strong north west wind had stopped. It was quite warm but the sun had gone.

We had a drink out the back and lingered as it was quite pleasant. While there, I rang Lorna and spoke to her briefly.

The time was getting on when we came in for dinner and by the time we had cooked and finished our meal, it was about 8-30 pm.

As usual, tv from there on.

Friday 3^rd October

It was a nice day today. Later in the morning, I went around the garden and trimmed all the lawn edges.

I only finished about half of them and the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.\

Later in the afternoon, we went to Bush Inn. We have not been there for ages. We went into Smiths City and Woolworths Supermarket.

We bought a couple of bottles of wine there and then checked out Count Down supermarket across the road as we had read that they had a wine sale there.

There were no bargains going – the wine was quite expensive.

We headed off home. When we had set off on our journey, we had seen the Police working in Wynn Street. They had cordon tape across the road and there were a couple of Police Cars there.

On the way home, we came into Downing Street (the same street the Police had been at – but from the other end.

They were still there, and the Cordon tape was across the road, closing off entry to the area.

We expected to see something on the news about it but we were disappointed

We sat out on the deck upstairs and had a drink and then prepared our meal. We were lazy and only had a pitsa.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Diary 1st and Second October

Diary 2^nd October

I have been having no end of trouble with my router and network over the last few days. Everything had ground to a halt and no matter what I did, I could not get the router to connect.

After a couple of hours of struggling with it, I succeeded about mid day today in getting the Laptop back on line.

I booted Ruths Laptop and both hers and mine were working well on the Internet and over the Internal Network.

I thought I had solved everything until I went downstairs and found the P C in the computer room – now running Mandriva Linux was doing exactly the same as my Laptop had been doing for the last few days.

I have not figured out what is wrong.

I mowed the lawns this afternoon and that was about the end of our exciting day.

Diary 1^st October

At about 1230 pm, we left here to go and see Dianne and Bill. We were long overdue to go to their house and install some software on their computer.

Before going, we went into the Halswell Library and picked up LinuxFormat No. 109 which I had ordered some time ago.

We went directly from their to D and B's house, arriving almost right on the agreed time of 1 pm.

We had lunch before leaving.

Installing the Software did not take long and I gave Bill a lesson on how to use the program.

Not much of a lesson, as I have not used that Windows Program for about three years, but I was able to get things under way.

We had a cup of tea with them. Ruth had taken her Laptop to show them. It picked up their network right away, but we could not gain access as the wireless network was protected.

Before we left, we gave them a bit of a lesson on using Youtube.

We went directly home, only stopping at Nerollies house house to pick up a CD. We spent only a short time there and had to rush off as a hail storm came over and Ruth had washing on the line. We made a made dash to rescue it.

It only took about 2 minutes to get home and we rushed to the clothesline and rescued the washing.

It was a very brief storm. It had virtually stopped when we arrived home and there had not been much hail here at all even though we are only about three hundred meters away "as the crow flies".

We left home right away after getting the washing in and we went to BP at Oaklands and topped up the car fuel tank and then returned home for a drink before dinner.

We had fish fillets and vegetables for dinner – The fish was Dory as there was nothing else at the Fish Counter at Pak and Save. It was very nice also.

Tuesday 30th September

Cleaning day today - Upstairs. Once again, nothing much happened during the day.

Later in the afternoon, after the cleaning was finished had we had both had a bit of a rest, we went to Pak and Save at Riccarton for a grocery shopping expedition.

We expected it to be extremely busy there today as it is the school holidays.g the day.

Later in the afternoon, after the cleaning was finished had we had both had a bit of a rest, we went to Pak and Save at Riccarton for a grocery shopping expedition.

We expected it to be extremely busy there today as it is the school holidays.

In fact, it was one of the quietest times we have seen there. We also noticed that there was very little traffic about.

When we had finished, we came home and unloaded our supplies.

When we had finished, I took a quick trip to Nerollies place and returned the spade and garden fork I had borrowed the other day.

It was a little after 6 pm but as it is now day light saving time, really only just after 5 pm.

The sun had gone downstairs, so we sat on the deck upstairs and had a drink and then prepared dinner.

It was very pleasant sitting out in the sun on the deck.

We had salmon fillets for dinner with vegetables. It was a very nice meal. We have bought some more fish and it should do for dinner tomorrow night and hopefully the next night.

In fact, it was one of the quietest times we have seen there. We also noticed that there was very little traffic about.

When we had finished, we came home and unloaded our supplies.

When we had finished, I took a quick trip to Nerollies place and returned the spade and garden fork I had borrowed the other day.

It was a little after 6 pm but as it is now day light saving time, really only just after 5 pm.

The sun had gone downstairs, so we sat on the deck upstairs and had a drink and then prepared dinner.

It was very pleasant sitting out in the sun on the deck.

We had salmon fillets for dinner with vegetables. It was a very nice meal. We have bought some more fish and it should do for dinner tomorrow night and hopefully the next night.

There was no red cod or hoki at the fish counter so we got something else - Ruth bought it - I am not sure what it was.

Monday 29th September

Cleaning day today. Day one - Downstairs. Nothing of note during the day.

When we had finished cleaning, we were out of food and had nothing for dinner.

We decided to have fish and chips - something we have not had for about 6 months - and prior to that - it would have been a couple of years before such a feast.

I went down to the Chinese Fish and Chip shop at the end of Sparks Road. I was surprised to find it closed. It was 6-15 pm and the sign on the door informed me that the shop closed at 6 pm.

Although I go down to the Mall regularly, I could not remember if there was a fish and chip shop there or not.

I went down and found that there was one near the Post Shop.

I got our meal and then stopped at the Tavern and filled a rigger. I am not having fish and chips without a pint of ale.

I went home and although the sun had gone down, it was very mild outside.

We sat out in the garden and had our meal and drinks there and then returned to the lounge and settled down to tv for the night.

Sunday 28th September

It was very cold when I got up this morning. It was only 9 degrees in the lounge

It was back to the gas fire and heater for a short while. Not for very long. The sun was shining and it soon warmed up. After about twenty minutes, it was time to turn off the heating.

After breakfast, I spent some time in the garden, and I finished clearing out behind the end of the shed and clearing up the foliage I had cut down yesterday or the day before.

After lunch, while Ruth settled down for a rest, I took her Laptop out to the caravan to do a couple of maintenence jobs.

Things did not work out to well. I wanted to copy the HD partition that had its sytem backup data onto a DVD.

I set everything up properly and it the button to save - Windows winged and said that the disc was full. I had a look at its properties and saw the same result.

I replaced it with another brand new disc - Same result.

It was a case of Windows telling lies again. I put the same discs into my Linux Machine and it reported new discs ready to use.

The next step, but at a later date, is to send the lot 3.3 gigs across to Linux and I should be able to burn the disc from there. I put this down to the MS piracy prevention.

I have no intention of trying to Pirate anything - just to protect what I have paid for if and when things go wrong. Hard discs eventually fail.

Scott came around for a short period during the afternoon. He washed his car and was going to take us for a drive to Tai Tapu in his car. He had forgotten about the daylight savings starting today and he had to get away to attend to other things.

We took a drive to Tai Tapu as usual - leaving at 4 pm. Being the first day of daylight savings time - it was I suppose really only 3 pm.

We stopped at Halswell Tavern on the way and filled a rigger.

On the way home, we returned to the Tavern and got a couple of cans of G and T.

We had a drink outside for about half an hour before the sun went and we were forced inside by a chill wind.

We had a nice dinner - Dolmio Mince, potatoes and vegetables and are now settling down to tv.

Saturday 27th September

When we woke up this morning, there was a howling north west wind. One of the worst we have sen for some time.

I was worried that the trees across the fence might come down on the house.

When I came upstairs, I could feel the house shaking with the force of the wind.

We did a bit of ironing this morning. Other than that, not a lot of work.

We went down to Barrington Mall with the intention of buying another spade for the garden and some compost.

We bought nothing and decided to look elswhere before parting without our money.

We came home. We just had time to get the washing in and soon the rain started.

That was about the end of the day.

Friday 26th September

Another nice day today. After breakfast, I cleared out the undergrowth between the shed and the fence. I have finished along the side, but I still have a bit at the end to do.

I also cut away the vegetation along the top of the fence that was coming from the other side. There is a nasty piece that has very sharp spikes. Like very small rose bush branches. They are a nasty things to deal with.

I have succeeded in getting my network working quite well, thanks to a book I got from the library a few days ago - "Guide to Linux" - a very handy book.

I now have my printer working on line as well. The Library book had a live C D - Linspire Five - another Linux Live Disc.

Linspire is the Linux version that came with Ruth's computer, but not with ours. I got the Windows version as the price was about the same.

Linspire looks good. It picked up the wireless settings on the Laptop without any difficulty at all.

While I was working in the garden, Ruth went to Halswell Mall and did some shopping for groceries.

Our food supplies were getting low.

Thursday 25th September

It was a nice warm sunny day today. We were a bit late starting any work. There were a few phone calls after breakfast and Ruth spent quite a time talking to John and Dorothy, Andrew and also Nerollie.

I got back into the job of digging up the vegetable garden. After about an hour and a half, I had finished the job.

After lunch, I started cutting away the elderbery plants that were growing up between the horozontal fence boards.

I have not finished that job yet but I have made a lot of progress.

While I was working, the next door neighbour, Des climbed up on the fence and chatted to me.

He has been cutting back a lot of foliage on his side. The good news is that when I told him I was concerned about his really high trees - the ones on our western fence cut off all our late afternoon sun and the really high trees there and also the ones behind our house might one day fall on us, he told me that they were going soon.

He seems really serious about removing them - or at least - lowering them. We can't wait until they go.

Quite late in the afternoon, we both had a rest and it was nearly 5 pm by the time we were up and about again.

We took a trip to Halswell and filled a rigger. We came home and had a few drinks and a nice meal.

It was Coronation Street tonight and it was soon time to settle down to tv.

Wednesday 24th September

There was no need to light the gas fire this morning. It was quite a warm day and I spent last night in summer night suit for the first time this season.

I did not do any work about the house this morning. At a little after 11-30 am we left home and I dropped Ruth at the Cranmer Centre in Armagh Street for her weekly meeting.

When I had left her, I went to the Public Library in Gloucester Street. I took back the books that I had picked up last week. I hardly looked at them. They were all about Microsoft Windows and I find them of little interest these days.

As usual, I parked in the Car Park Building in Oxford Terrace.

When I had dropped off the books, I went to the Computer Section and got a new pile - mainly Linux - HTML and Wireless networking.

I returned to the car and headed off to Andrews house. I had remembered that he was picking up the mechanical digger today to tear up his garden and lawn.

I stopped at Subway in Hills Road and got a sandwich for lunch and then went to his house.

He was busy working with the hire machine - it is very small - a drag line type bucket digger and weighs just under a ton.

He was well on the way to having the job finished. I had my lunch (he had already had his). I watched him working for awhile and I took a short video on my cell phone. It was quite an efficient machine and seemed to be doing a good job.

I left and set off home. When I arrived, I washed the caravan thoroughly and when I had finished, I gave it a good spray with "30 Seconds" mould killer.

I did not do the roof - only a few really thick bits of mould. I did along the seams on the roof and around all the moldings and joins on the sides.

When I had finished, I parked it back on its usual spot.

During the next few days, I will give the inside a good clean and sort out all the gear. As soon as we have a good spell of warm weather forecast, we will take off for a few days - possibly to Moeraki.

It was just after 4 pm when I had finished work and came inside.

I lay down for a rest and about half an hour later, Ruth arrived home. I had been waiting for her to call for a ride from the bus stop.

She had done a little shopping. She put that away and soon, it was time for her T V Quiz Programs.

We had a nice meal later and are now watching tv.

Tuesday 23rd September

It was a nice day today. After breakfast, I went outside and cleaned up from yesterdays work.

I had to sweep out the garage and give the patio area at the front of the house and the parking area at the front of the garage a good sweep and tidy up the bits that had been spilled on the way to the trailer.

Before I started work, Andrew dropped in and returned our broken tools. Nerollie called around with Feleshas boys so it was quite an eventful morning.

After lunch, Ruth settled down for her rest and I went over to Aylesford and picked up the caravan. The auto electrician had replaced all the earths on it.

The total price for the warrant of fitness and the auto electrician was $106.00 - not bad really.

On the way to pick it up, I stopped at Barrington Mall and registered the caravan so that I would not be liable to a traffic ticket on the way home.

Not long after I arrived home, I went down to Halswell Library and picked up a book that I had requested a couple of weeks ago - Linuxformat No. 109.

It was about 4 pm. Ruth was in the shower. I hopped in right after her. We were due at the I P A A G M that was scheduled to start at 5-30 pm.

The ladies had been invited along and after the meeting, we were to have a little "finger food" and a few drinks, supplied by the I P A.

The meeting did not take long and soon we were all enjoying ourselves, but not before Alex de korts grandson gave us a short account of his recent trip to Australia. He was the I P A sponsored person for this years International Youth Group. He obviously had really enjoyed the trip - the group was in Surfers Paradise when we were there.

After the meeting a few of us stayed and had a meal.

Gary had Lesley stayed but only had coffee. They had been satisfied with the finger food.

At about 8 pm, we all left and went off on our separate ways.

We went directly home and were soon watching t v. Ruth of course, had made sure that Coronation Street was recorded and she just had to see that.

Monday 22nd September

Perhaps it is the first day of Spring today. The sun crosses the equator on its way back to our part of the world on the 21st -22nd September.

Ruth did the cleaning downstairs. I attacked the pile of od vegetation that has been lying in the garden for a few months.

I shifted to outside the garage and by the time I had finished, it was lunch time.

When I had finished lunch, I hired a trailer from the local garage. I brought it home, loaded all the vegetation onto the trailer and took it to the Transfer Station.

I only had the trailer for about 1.5 hours by the time I returned it to the garage.

I also took some junk from the garage to the dump as well - mainly old cartons that have mounted up over the last few weeks.

We enjoyed a drink before dinner and then settled down to t.v.

Before I started the work outside, I had to borrow a Garden for from Nerollie - Andrew has ours at his place. I hope he does not break that also.

Sunday 21st September

It was a nice day today. It was uneventful.

Andrew rang up feeling a bit guilty. He broke our shovel while doing his gardening. Then, while digging up a rose bush, he broke the spade as well.

He has offered to buy a new one but I have told him not to worry in the meantime.

I might look around a second hand shop or somewhere similar or perhaps see if I can get a new handle for the spade and fit it my self.

As usual, we went for a drive to Tai Tapu later in the afternoon.

We stopped at Westlake and fed the ducks, and at the Halswell Tavern to fill a rigger.

I did not have to pay for the rigger. I had not stamps on my card and this being the tenth stamp, qualified me for a free rigger.

We had a drink outside before dinner - the second time this season for drinks out in the garden.

Saturday 20th September

It was a nice day today. The sun was shining but it could get a little cooler at times with the chill breeze.

I had booked the Caravan in for a Warrant of Fitness and I was due at Aylesford at mid day.

We were expecting Scott to arrive this morning, but he did not turn up, although he did arrive later in the afternoon.

After breakfast, I prepared the caravan for the trip. I checked the lights and found that two of the front marker lights were not working. I took the lenses off, and saw they were working, but they were very dim.

I took the bulbs out and cleaned up the contacts but it made no difference.

The parking lights and indicators were working. I got Ruth to come out to watch the brake lights and they were working.

Then, I tried the brakes with the park lights on and at the same time, the indicator lights. I asked her if they were still all working and if they had got dimmer. She said that they had "a bit".

When I got to Aylesford, I told Bill about the marker lights. He replaced the bulbs which were quite black and they worked fine.

When he checked the brake lights, indicators, parking lights, there was a problem. On of the indicator bulbs was working when it should not have. When everything was on together, they virtually went out, indicating a very bad earth.

He checked the connections at the lamps, and also at the plug at the car, but could not find the problem.

The caravan has to go to the auto electrician on Monday to have it repaired.

Bill locked it up in his yard and he will take it to the nearby Auto Electrician that he deals with on Monday.

I came home and had lunch. We had just finished when Scott arrived.

He picked up his new (second hand) car yesterday and he wanted to come and give it a coat of wax.

He took Ruth and I for a drive in it before Ruth went down for her rest.

A short time later, Andrew arrived. He wanted the gardening tools again.

He told me that he has put a bid on Trademe for some gardening tools. The auction closes tomorrow and he hopeful of winning the auction.

I don't mind him using the tools, but it is inconvenient for him to have to come and get them and to bring them back.

After about half an hour Andrew left and a short time later, Scott also went on his way. Scott said that he might call in tomorrow morning.

We had been invited to J and D's house for dinner tonight. John suggested that we come over some time in the afternoon - whenever convenient.

We got ready and were on the way about 3-45 pm. We wanted to stop at Pak And Save at Riccarton to get a bottle of wine to take with us and also, to get some flowers for Dorothy.

Ruth has not seen their house yet, as she did not come with me last week to help them move in.

We had just arrived at Pak and Save, when Ruth realised that she had left her medication at home and also her cell phone.

While she went in to do the shopping, I went back home and recovered the items and went back to Pak and Save. As soon as I arrived, I phoned her using her cell phone (I had left my cell phone with her) and told her to come to the same location that I had dropped her at.

She was just leaving the check out as I rang and she was at the car in a couple of minutes.

While she was coming, I programmed Sally to take us to J and D's house.

We were soon on our way. I thought Sally took us a route that was rather long - right to Bush Inn along Riccarton Road - along Yaldhurst Road to Withells Road, and then back up to Merrin Street.

I had thought about going that way because it was easier so I obeyed her directions.

Sally is set to "easiest route" and that was certainly it. I will change that now to quickest route and see how that works out.

We arrived at the house at about 4-40 pm. Chrissy (their daughter) was there and she left after a few minutes.

J and D showed us around the house. What a contrast to the day a week ago when I had first seen it - as we all moved in their possessions. Everything we unloaded was in the garage and all the rooms and it was chaos. The house was dark and musty as it had been unoccupied for a little time.

Today, the house was bright and cozy, with all the furniture in place.

We had a few drinks and enjoyed ourselves. It is quite some time since we have seen them both.

Ruth had taken her Laptop to show them. They were surprised how small it was when she took it out of her bag.

We turned it on and showed them pictures of our recent trip to Australia.

They do not have broadband in the house, so we could not connect to the internet.

After about 15 minutes, we turned it off and put it away.

Dorothy had prepared a roast meal. She had done a good job and the meal was excellent.

We had coffee right after that. The time was getting on and soon it was 10 pm and we set off home.

We were almost home, when I decided that we would go to Halswell Tavern to see if we could get a cup of coffee at the Restaurant.

It was closed, but the main bar was still open. We could not get coffee so we had a glass of wine.

Ruth tried a couple of Pokies and came out with a profit of thirty dollars. We were only there 20 minutes.

We came home and soon we were settled down for the night. It was only about 11-30 pm.

During the last two days, I have redone the family tree data base on this web site.

Not a big job in itself - only a few clicks of a mouse in "Gramps" the linux genealogy program.

I found that Dreamweaver (the windows program I use to prepare the web site) has no batch processing facilities to produce template pages.

I was surprised to see after searching the internet that indeed this facility is not in the program and each template page must be done one at a time.

I had to prepare every page, one at a time. One page for every person in the data base, plus a few other pages.

Each page was only a few mouse clicks but it took a long time.

If I had not done the pages manually, each one would appear exactly the same - but minus the blue boarder column you see on the left of this page, and the blue row at the top.

It probably would not matter that much, but I would prefer to have all pages the same.

Friday 19th September

Ruth was busy doing piles of washing this morning. I was lazy and really did not do anything at all.

I decided not to do any digging after yesterdays rain.

There was nothing much happening to record. I started the job of updating the Family Tree Data Base on this web site.

Scott came in on his way home from work. He stayed for dinner. Ruth had prepared venison shank casserole and it was a very nice meal indeed.

Scott had just picked up his new car - he has been without a car for a week.

He was keen to be on his way and left right after dinner.

Thursday 18th September

We are back to winter today. It was cold and wet and remained so all day.

It was a quiet day around home. Ruth had an appointment with he optician at Barrington Mall at 1045 am.

She went by herself and she was not back until after mid day.

We had lunch and not long after, we settled down for our usual afternoon nap.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Halswell Mall and bought a few things from the Supermarket, stopping first at the bank to attend to a few matters.

After the supermarket, we stopped briefly at the Tavern to fill a rigger and then I went down to the B P Petrol station and topped up the car petrol tank.

It was getting onto 5 pm. I wanted to go to the library. The quickest way is back along Halswell Road and turn left into Sparks Road.

Ruth wanted to go via Milnes Road which is further so that is what we did.

We were only at the library for a very short time. I wanted Ruth to get a pin number for her library card.

I did not expect it to be long. It was no time at all - about 30 seconds and we were on our way.

We came home and not long afterwards, it was time to start dinner. We had a very nice meal - fish fillets and vegetables. It was the remainder of the fish from last nights mystery fish.

We had bought it at Riccarton Mall a day or so ago. I had asked for Hoki fillets. I had seen a huge fillet in the cabinet and it was much closer to me than the salesman. I chose it and the salesman had difficulty reaching it.

It was sold as Hoki - but I am sure that it was not. It was very white - thick and wide. Somehow, I think a more expensive piece had got in with the Hoki fillets.

After dinner, the usual routine - T V. It is getting near time to head off to bed.

Wednesday 17th September

It was another nice day today. Sunny and warm all day. We did not do much around the house this morning. I decided to have a day off gardening.

Ruth had to be at her meeting in the city at mid day. We left at about 11-40 am and she was just a few minutes early when I dropped her off.

I went to the library after dropping at the Cranmer Centre. I parked in the Farmers Car Parking building.

I had received an Email from the Library yesterday, that LinuxFormat Magazine No. 108 which I had put a hold on, had arrived.

I had a quick look around the library computer section, chose a few books and took them to the check out.

I picked up the LinuxFormat Magazine and set off home.

I stopped at Barrington Mall. I had a look around the Warehouse and then bought a Subway Roll for lunch.

I took it home and ate my lunch and had a quick look at No. 108 while I did so.

I went outside and mowed the lawns after lunch. It did not take long. They had certainly grown in the last week.

I finished off the paper work to reclaim my $99.00 from Acer (Cash back for the purchase of Ruth's Laptop).

I walked down to the Pharmacy, posted it off and went home.

I had a quick rest and then read the Computer Books until Ruth arrived home at just before 5 pm.

Her mother had phoned to talk to here at 4 pm. Ruth rang her back later after dinner.

Tuesday 16th September

The warmer weather has arrived, although apparently bad weather is forecast for tomorrow.

It was a warm sunny day when I got up. It was fifteen degrees in the lounge.

After breakfast, I got stuck into the vegetable garden, digging in the compost.

With breaks in between, I probably spent about three hours working there. I am about half way through the digging and the worst is over.

After our afternoon rest, we left at about 4-30 pm and went to Pak and Save at Riccarton. We bought groceries, hopefully for the best part of the next fourteen days.

We didn't seem to buy that much but it cost a fortune - $20.00 was for xmas vouchers.

We came home and unpacked. It was getting on to 6 pm and the sun was down behind the neighbours trees. It was nice and warm so we spent about 45 minutes having a drink outside.

We threw a quick dinner together and are now watching tv. It was Coronation Street tonight. Others following.

Monday 15th September

It was a nice warm day when I got up this morning. The sun was shining and there was no need to light the gas fire.

We were just about to have breakfast when Kate rang us. Kate and Paul leave New Zealand on Wednesday - at about 4 am - Another couple departing permanently - well, for about 5 years. Paul has got a job over there after leaving his employment in Christchurch recently.

We had breakfast, and had just finished when we received a phone call from Brenda.

Ruth spent some time talking to her. I went out into the vegetable garden and began moving barrow loads of compost from the heap and spreading it around the garden.

It was a warm sunny day and for the first time this season, I was in summer clothing. After about an hour, I ran out of energy. I rested and at about 3 pm, after lunch was over and another attack at the task, I had almost reduced the pile of compost which would have been about four cubic meters, to almost nothing. All that is remaining, is vegetation that has not been there long enough to decompose.

I suppose that in all, I would have spent about 3 hours working.

For a long time, I have wanted to try the method of growing potatoes in car tyres. I have a few here and I am determined to have a go this year.

A few left over from last years crop had started to sprout and had their heads above ground. I dug the best one up - it was about 270 mm long. I dug a hole in a vacant spot in Ruth's flower garden. I filled it with the compost and put a car tyre over the top. I planted the potatoe plant and put a car tyre over the top. This is not exactly the method, but it was a pity to waste it and at least, I will have one off to an early start.

I planted three other small potatoe plants in the vegetable garden so we will see what happens.

Tomorrow, I will buy some real seed potatoes and plant some of them in the car tyres.

After lunch, we left here and went for a drive. I wanted to see some of the Godwits at the Estuary - as I mentioned on my blog site, they arrived back last week, after an 11000 k not stop flight from - I think Siberia.

We parked the car at the end of Estuary Road and walked to the Estuary. The tide was fairly low. There were not many birds near by.

I had the binoculars with me and I think I saw a couple in the distance but I am not sure.

We left and drove a short distance and parked the car at the end of Halsey Street. We walked across the sand hills and onto the beach.

The South Brighton Motor Camp is in Halsey Street, about 500 meters from the beach. We stayed there about February of this year.

We have not been on the beach there since about April of this year. We had taken a walk along the beach to see what we could see of the sewerage pipe line that has been driven under the Estuary and is being sent underground out to see, for a distance of about 3 kilometers.

Nothing seemed to have changed since the last time we were there. The vessels out at sea seemed to be in the same place.

We walked along the beach - about 4 or 5 hundred meters until we reached the two markers which when lined up, indicated the direction and location of the pipe line.

We climbed to the top of the sand hill and looked down on the open area - a large hole that had been dug - lined with steel girders which must give access to the pipe. There were several pipes lying around. I could not work out how things were working at all.

We went back to the car and phoned Andrew. He was out for a walk but told us to go to his house and he would be back by the time we arrived.

Fifteen minutes later, we were there. Andrew was in the garage.

He had just received two suites of body armour (replicas from the days of the knights of the round table) - he had ordered them some time ago and is to sell them as part of his business venture.

He took us inside and one suit was fully assembled and the other was lying in bits on the floor.

Wenlin does not want them in the house. They frighten her. A and W (probably W) has given them nick names. I can't remember what they were.

They each stand on a wooden base and one has his right hand holding a pike / battle axe - about 2.5 meters long (but in the vertical position).

Andrew showed us the work he had done in his back garden over the week end. He had dug the ground, sprayed all the weeds, levelled the soil and laid weed cloth and covered it with bark. They had placed paving stones in the middle. They have been working hard.

We had a cup of tea with them and at about 5 pm, we headed off home.

We stopped at Barrington Mall. Ruth went into the Supermarket to get some milk. I filled a rigger. We had worked hard during the morning and early afternoon and though we deserved it.

We came home and cooked dinner and settled down to T V.

Sunday 14th September

I was up at about 8-30 am. The weather is getting warmer.The sun was shining and it was about 13 degrees in the lounge.

With the sun shining, there was no need to light the gas fire or turn the heaters on.

With the curtains open, the room warmed up quickly.

I am still having my Rolled oats for breakfast. I had them and did a bit of work on the Laptop.

Nerollie rang at about 10-30 am and wanted to come around for a cup of tea.

She arrived a few minutes later and spent about an hour here.

When she had gone, I did the dishes and mopped the kitchen floor and went outside. The day was really warm. I attacked the large compost heap at the end of the vegetable garden - mainly rotted lawn clippings.

I removed all the rough uncomposted material from on top. Underneath, it was just like digging into soil. The pile is about 4 feet high and there are plenty of worms.

I began to spread it out over the garden ready for replanting.

I got quite a lot shifted but ran out of energy. I cut away the unwanted vegetation in the corner - nothing like it had been last year.

I dug over the soil there. It is very light and fluffy and it is ready to plant.

I have some old car tyres here and I want to try the trick of growing potatoes in the car tyres - putting another tyre on top as the plant comes up.

After lunch, Ruth had her rest. At about 4 pm, we took our usual drive to Tai Tapu, trying out Sally (Uniden Navigator on the way. I marked a couple of locations - the Packing Shed - and the Tai Tapu Hotel.

The new program is completely different and I have to learn again how to use it.

We were home at about 5 pm. The sun was still shining and it was warm. We wanted to have a drink outside but the sun had gone down behind Skenes big trees so that was the end of that idea.

We had a light meal and a couple of drinks. As usual, we spent the evening watching tv and each of us using our Laptops on occasions.

Saturday 13th September

It was another cold grey day. After breakfast, Ruth tried out her Laptop again and is making good progress sending Emails.

At about11-30 pm, I washed the car and gave it a good clean out inside. Only tidying up and putting the vac around. Perhaps tomorrow, I might clean it more thoroughly inside.

As usual, a rest in the afternoon. I also spent a little time tidying up some of the pages on this site. Ruth spent some time on her Laptop also.

Later, we went to Halswell and bought a few groceries, filled a rigger and bought a bottle of wine to have with our dinner tonight.

We went directly home and soon, it was time to start getting the dinner on. Of course, the roast pork had been in the oven all afternoon.

It did not take long to get the potatoes and vegetables prepared and get things under way.

Andrew and Wenlin arrived at about 6 pm. We had a few drinks and we wee soon enjoying the feast - roast pork and potatoes - superb crackling, and vegetables and a little wine.

Scott had not been able to make it. At about 9 pm, A and W were on their way home. I rang Chris H and told him about the new updated map of N Z for our Unbidden Navigators. When I had received my update prior to leaving for Australia, I thought that I had loaded it onto the SD card and I had tried it, finding that it was no different.

Today, I deleted it, examined the Unbidden C D's carefully, and made sure I installed the new version.

What a difference. The graphics were of higher quality, a superb co lour scheme, and the ability to drag the map around the screen, something that I could not do on the other version. I also found that GPS co ordinates can be used in place of an address - extremely handy when going to Rural areas (they must of course be on a road). There is also a function to record a track, save it and play back later. I am not sure if it will be possible to export it and use it with a Navigation Program or not - I hope so.

The purpose of the call to Chris was to see if his new version was the same. I found that he had only received the Australian update and he was dead keen to see it.

He asked if it was too late to come down and it was not - we are generally up until around mid night. He decided to come down. He also wanted to have a look at Ruth's Laptop.

About twenty minutes later he arrived. He certainly liked the look of the new software.We will have to go out for a drive together some time to see it working properly. I had only tried it on our trip to Halswell and back.

He tried Ruth's Laptop and was very impressed. He liked the clear graphics and the all round performance and capability.

He is of course, a professional I T Tech. When I had first asked him about it around a month ago, he had heard of them but said they would be of no interest to him.

I had asked him to see if he could find anything out about them. He rang me about a week later and told me that he had been surprised to hear that tech's himself were buying them up.

They will never replace a large more powerfully laptop of really serious work but really only professional people do that.

Remember that if you are considering buying an Acer One Laptop - the small one with the 9 inch screen, 120 gig hard drive and 1 gig of ram, remember that you need broadband and you need an external usb dvd writer. I have all that and it is an ideal machine. Ruth loves it and she is fast developing into a computer person.

Chris had to get off home. Not long after, around mid night, we settled down for the night.

Friday 12th September

I was just having a cup of coffee after breakfast this morning when I got a call from John M.

Today is the day that he shifts into his new house. A few weeks ago, we had offered to give him a hand to shift, but he seemed to think he would be ok for man power, but suggested that we might help out on Saturday morning to sort things out.

This morning, he seemed quite glad of my offer to give a hand today. He was expecting the moving truck (Driven by Sean), to be there at 10 am.

I quickly got prepared, and I was there a few minutes before 10 am. John had Bill's little covered trailer attached to his car. Sean arrived with a covered truck (I suppose about 5tons), Brian had his van, Keith his car, and of course, our car.

We all got stuck in to moving the packed cartons and boxes into the vehicles. The very heavy stuff went into the truck.

Sean had a ramp from the ground up to the deck of the truck. I was surprised to see how well heavy appliances (Fridge for one), rolled up the ramp - one pulling from the truck and a couple pushing and guiding from behind.

It did not take very long at all. By a little before 1 pm, we had taken the first load (all vehicles) to the new property, unloaded them, returned to the house, loaded the final heavy load.

While John and the others set off with the final load, I went to Subway at Hornby and bought some lunch. John was stopping at a Bakery to get lunches bit I told him I preferred to look after myself.

I arrived at the new house not long after the others. It did not take long to unload the vehicles.

We were just about to have lunch when Diane, Chrissy and her friend arrived. The real estate woman who handled the sale, was there and she had bought a large tray of goodies for J and D for dinner) - tonight's dinner.

We all sat down had lunch. Diane and her friend made tea / coffee and we all enjoyed half an hours relaxation after our efforts - except for Keith - he had to be off to other things.

When we had finished lunch, Brian headed off. Chrissy was starting to plan where everything was going. D. told me that she was not allowed to interfere - she only owns the property.

As Chrissy said, it wa women's work from now on. I set off home. I knew Ruth would be settling down for a rest, so I went to Dick Smiths and Global P C on the way home.

I timed my arrival home and arrived at 3-45 pm. Ruth was just getting up and about.

We had afternoon tea. Ruth got out her Laptop, turned it on by herself, logged in and sent a couple of Emails - all without (hardly any) assistance at all. She is learning.

We are just about to have dinner - More Red Cod fillets and vegetables. The day is just about at an end.

OR IT WAS

Having just typed the last sentence, I published this page. We had dinner and not long after we had finished, Andrew and Wenlin arrived.

They spent a couple of hours with us and then headed off to Borders for Coffee or something.

We have invited them and Scott to dinner tomorrow night (which is now tonight - Saturday). W and A are coming - we are not sure about Scott.

Thursday 11th September

It was an uneventful day. The weather was not good. We did not go out and there was nothing of any note.

A bit of ironing during the morning. Ruth had a session on her Laptop and is getting the hang of it.

We stayed up late watching replays of 9/11. It went for about 4 hours. We had not realised that when we started watching. We turned the hd recorder on to catch the last of it. It was after 1 am when we turned in for the night.

Tomorrow is of course, the anniversary of 9/11. It will be the 12th September here, but 11th September over in the USA.

Wednesday 10th September

It was another dull grey day, but not all that cold.

Being Wednesday, I had to take Ruth to her mid day meeting in town.

Ruth did the washing and we did a bit of tidying up around the house. After our late morning tea, we set off and I dropped Ruth at he meeting in the Cranmer Centre, just before mid day.

She wanted to be picked up at 1-45 pm. I came directly home and had lunch.

I did a bit of I P A work, and at about 1-40 pm, I left to pick her up.

It was reasonably sunny when I arrived, and she was sitting outside enjoying the sun.

We went to Pak and Save at Riccarton and did a fairly major shopping exercise.

On the way into the Mall, Ruth bought a bag - probably not a computer bag - but similar - and it should be ideal for her new small Laptop and accessories.

By the time we had our groceries and set off home, time was getting on a bit.

We brought in the washing and did a few other jobs and just had about 45 minutes for a rest before it was time for Ruth's T V Quiz programs, although we did take a walk down to the Pharmacy - I wanted to Post a C D to Dawnae and Ruth had some cards and things to post.

We enjoyed our 40 minutes rest, when we got back. It was warm and sunny for the last part of the afternoon and the temperature must have been getting up around 20 degrees.

After our salmon fillets and vegetables for dinner, we watched Winston Peters in Parliament - Giving his explananation for his so called misdeeds - which in my opinion, pale into insignificance, compared to some other members over recent years - several who should have been before the court on criminal charges.

We have not heard the outcome, but it is expected that W P will be dismissed from his job as minister of foreign affairs tonight, or at the latest, in the morning.

Tuesday 9th September

Cleaning day today two - upstairs. It was a cold dull grey miserable day and wet most of the time.

We did not go anywhere and there were no events of any note.

Monday 8th September

Cleaning day today - Day one - Downstairs.

Ruth went out at 11 am for an appointment with the Optician. She may as well not have bothered. He was away and his wife did the job.

She went in and apparently nothing much happened. She paid ten dollars as far as we could tell, for nothing.

The letter she had received was that the pressure test was to be done - that one way they fire a jet of air into the eyes. She rang back and asked about it and from the sounds of it, she may as well over spoken to our cats.

I am going to have words with these people.

It was a dull cold over caste day. The only bright spot was when Ileft for ten minutes to take my library book back to the library at 5 pm. Linuxformat 107 which was due back today.

I came home and before dinner, I ordered the next three Linuxformat Mags from the Library (put them on hold). It is good being able to do these things from home on line.

I sent an Email to Garry thanking him and Lesley for last night. We phoned the hospital to see how Norma de was getting on. Garry had told us last night she had been ill and in hospital for awhile.

We found that she had gone home on Friday. We rang Garry to let him know and left a message for him as no one was home.

He rang back later. He then called Alex and phoned us back to give us an update.

Sunday 7th September

It was a very uneventful day. Nothing much of note. Just before lunch, Ruth had a turn on her new Laptop. She spent a bit of time sending a text to Dorothy and just getting used to the feel of it.

At about a little after 3-30 pm, we began to get ready for our appointment. Garry and Lesley have invited us to dinner tonight.

We were scheduled to be there at about 5 pm. I took the Laptop as Lesley wanted to see our MP3 files are created. She needs some for her mp3 player. They have not got their Laptop at home at the moment.

We also took Ruth's new Laptop with us to show them. We arrived a little after 5 pm. I fired up the Laptop and created some mp3's from one of Lesley's Cd's.

It turned out that there was not enough room on her small player. She had a lot of photographs on it. I put them on my 2 gig flash drive and left it with her for awhile.

We had a very enjoyable evening. We had a few drinks before dinner. Lesley and prepared a magnificent roast (boneless chicken, nicely grilled on top and served with cheese sauce, which I thought tasted very much like horse radish sauce - one of my favorites).

Some time after the wonderful meal, we had tea / coffee and snacks.

Like me, Gary is very interested in anything about the second world war. He showed me some model aircraft that he had purchased in England. Very small, but very nice models - A Lancaster, a Spitfire and a Hurricane three of the British stalwarts of the ww2.

Before I left, Garry loaned me a folder with information about the Spitfire. I will look after it very carefully and I am eager to examine it.

At about 10 pm, we headed home. Before turning in for the night, Ruth fired up her Laptop and read the message from D and J.

Thank you Garry and Lesley for a wonderful evening.

Saturday 6th September

I was a little later getting up this morning. I thought I was getting up early for me, but I was about half an hour late.

I had my rolled oats for breakfast and this time, I stirred in about half a dessertspoon of Golden Syrup. I found the dish quite nice. It is a bit bland without something to give it a list.

I want to get away from eating margarine. I am convinced it is not doing me any good. After the rolled oats, I had two slices of toast and instead of using margarine, I lightly spread manuka honey over each piece. I usually pile it on, but I spread it has thinly as I could.

Ruth got up and when we had finished breakfast, I made a call to Chris Cole (nephew - as there are two Chris Coles) and Ruth phoned her mother.

By the time we had finished it was very late in the morning indeed.

Andrew and Wenlin called. We haven't seen them for a while and we enjoyed their visit.

They stayed and had lunch with us. Ruth prepared a very nice dish of scrambled eggs with a couple of slices of Polish Sausage which Andrew called "Poor Mans Salami". I don't know if W has had scrambled eggs before, but she seemed to enjoy them.

Ruth showed them her new Laptop and they were both quite impressed.Of course, they both wanted to try it out.

While they were doing so, I added its Mac address to the wireless router.

I later found that it would not log in to the wireless network. The wireless was working fine and picked up the neighbours wireless networks - their Identifiers are turned on. As ours was off, the small machine could not see it.

I turned it back on and it was fine. That is probably our it is supposed to work.

I will set it to connect to Leathmac - Like the other Laptop and it will probably work when Ident is turned off.

Not long after they had gone, we went for a walk around the block. It was getting on to about 3-30 pm and Ruth wanted to go to Riccarton Mall to change an item of clothing that she had bought yesterday. It was far to small. We also wanted a morning paper.

We set off, and we seemed to be ages at Kmart. Ruth could not find anything to substitute her purchase and she left without changing it. While she was looking around, I bought a set of headphones for her - Sony. Quite cheap at $15.00 but they will be good for her small Laptop as it does not put out a great volume of sound.

We stopped at Pak and Save and got a bottle of wine and a couple of items and then we set off home.

We had a rest for an hour and soon it was time for the news. We are watching it now and it is almost time to get dinner. Red Cod fillets and vegetables tonight.

Friday 5th September

It was a fairly uneventful day - mostly. It was raining when I got up. We didn't go out until late in the afternoon. I think it rained the best part of the day.

I did a little bit or ironing and helped Ruth make the bed - and mopped the kitchen. Other than that, not a lot happening.

When Ruth got up from her rest, we set off into Smiths. We had found out that her new Laptop had arrived.

We stopped at the Pharmacy to Post some letters. She had to buy some stamps from inside the Pharmacy. I waited in the car. When she was at the Post Box, she met Robyn from next door and chatted to her for a few minutes.

She got back in the car and it was just starting to rain - Apparently it had not rained as hard as I thought as her washing was almost dry and we had to return home and rescue it.

Having done so, we set off again. Soon, we were at Smiths and picked up her Laptop.

While we were at Smiths, we bought a new back door key and also had another key cut for the car and another for the front door - Mainly I think - because keys could be cut for $1.00 - a special - but one sided keys only.

We came home and later - I am not sure if before or after dinner, she unpacked the Laptop and we fired it up.

It took a short while while it set itself up. I did not bother creating any user IDs at this stage. The wireless worked without any trouble, and soon the machine was on the Laptop.

I had to turn on my station identifier and turn off Mac Filtering to gain access.

I put them back to standard but forgot to add the new Laptop's Mac address to the wireless router - so it will not be allowed access again at next boot. I will have to fix that tomorrow.

We had a nice meal of Red Cod fillets and vegetables. Ruth was tired and did not want to use the Laptop again. She will try it tomorrow.

Thursday 4th September

It is just after 9 am and I have been up for a while now. It was a mild night and I changed to a summer night suit for most of the night. I put the winter top back on when I got up.

It is still quite warm in comparison to what it has been. It was 13 degrees upstairs when I got up.

It is a dull overcast day and it is raining. I turned on the gas fire for a few minutes, Hopefully, we will only need it for about 45 minutes.

At about mid day, we went to Pak and Save at Riccarton Mall. It was time to do a fairly major restocking of the cupboards.

It was still raining and the mall was extremely busy. We found it difficult to find a parking space anywhere. Just recently, they have closed down the car park area in Rotherham Street, and today, I noticed that a large are of the top level of the car park was closed off an it looks as if something is to be built there.

We eventually found a park. We went to Kmart for a while before going to the supermarket.

I bought a small bag of rolled oatsl while I was there and I thought I might try microwave oats for breakfast. It is cheap and is supposed to be good for you.

We went home with our groceries. We unpacked and had lunch and then settled down for a rest.

At about 4-30 pm, we went to Halswell Mall. I filled a rigger and we enjoyed a drink before dinner.

We had nice salmon steaks for our meal with of course, vegetables and potatoes. It was a fine meal.

Wednesday 3rd September

Another warm day today. No need for gas fire this morning. It is the day of Ruth's weekly meeting.

After our routine jobs, we had morning tea and then we left. I dropped Ruth at the Cranmer Centre and headed off home.

I remembered that I was going to drop in and see Chris. H. at his workshop. The plan was to talk to one of his workmates about a small P C that he had bought recently - possibly the one that I am interested in.

As it turned out, that person was away, so I could not see him. I had a cup of tea with Chris and spent a very pleasant 45 minutes there.

When I left, I went to Dick Smiths at Riccarton Mall and picked up the new replacement 12 volt power cord for the GNS 8400 (Uniden Navigator - Sally).

It was directly home from there. I had lunch and then got stuck into touching up the edges of the lawn. About 45 minutes later, things were looking not too bad.

I had just started, when Nerollie rang and asked me around for afternoon tea. I had to decline as I had to finish the job. Bad weather is forecast for tomorrow.

It was a brilliant day. Warm and sunny and the temperature reached a maximum of 21 degrees.

I had just finished, when Scott phoned. He wanted me to drop his Laptop and Camera into his office. He had left them here on Sunday. He is going to be given a Photoshop lesson tonight. It was a little after 3-30 pm.

I expected Ruth to call, asking for a ride home. She had not called, so I set off to drop Scots gear off. I thought by the time I had done so, it would not be long before Ruth rang, asking for a ride home.

I had just passed the Medical Centre, when I saw Ruth walking home and she was with Loren, the girl next door. She had taken a bus home.

I picked them up and dropped Loren back home. Ruth took her shopping in (milk and such) and we headed off to see Scott.

Ruth had been into Smith City and had looked at the mini laptop. She had been tempted to buy one, but was worried that I might have already bought two - one each.

She seems keen on the idea of having one, so I took her to Smith's after dropping the gear off to Scott.

She had been keen on buying a white Laptop. When she noticed that the other one was dark blue - not black, she changed her mind.

She made her purchase, but they did not have any in stock. They will have to get one in and it will be a few days before it arrives.

The idea of buying it from Smiths today, as it is a special sale for customers only (account holders). She scored quite a good coffee percolator as a free gift with it.

We came directly home. A few routine jobs followed - bring in Joey - bring in the washing and probably a few others.

We were soon settled down watching Ruth's Quiz programs.

We had a very nice dinner - Hoki fillets - mushrooms, peas and potatoes - a glass or two or wine and we are now settling down to tv.

Tuesday 2nd September

It was very mild when I got up this morning and I don't think that I lit the gas fire at all.

The day got better as it went on and it was bright and sunny and reached a peak temperature of 20 degrees. A taste of things to come.

Ruth did some cleaning during the morning. I went outside and got stuck into mowing the lawns. They have not been done for ages and were looking very scruffy.

I had almost finished the job and was in the last minute at the back of the house when the mower ran out of petrol.

I went down to the B P Petrol station after having morning tea, and bought some more petrol to top up the mower.

I finished the job.and I move the caravan to mow around underneath.

I was a bit tired after that job. When we had finished lunch, Ruth went down for her rest. She went downstairs for her sleep as there were workmen next door and there was quite a lot of noise coming from their machinery.

After that, it was the usual routine - tv - meal and more tv.

Monday 1st September

It was a nice day when we got up this morning. We had decided to go to Hanmer for the day. The idea was to leave a little later than we usually do when we go there for the day, and to have dinner at the Bridge Hotel at Kaiapoi on the way home.

We finished our jobs and a little after 11 am, we were on the way. Our first stop was the BP Petrol Station in Sparks Road. I refueled the car and I planned to refuel it again when we arrived back from Hanmer. I wanted to see what sort of mileage per litre I was getting on a trip. I have been keeping records since I bought the car in January and I know that around town, I am getting around 9.6 kilometers per litre.

After filling the car, our next stop was Subway at Barrington Mall. We bought a sandwich each for lunch and then set off.

It was a nice day and we enjoyed the drive. We listened to a Mozart Cd on the way. Just after leaving Waipara, I noticed something in the small mirror on the left hand mudguard - the one that is set to show the edge of the road marker.

It looked as if the petrol filler flap was open. I stopped and checked but it was closed. We started off again, and I could still see the image. We came to a few curves and I then noticed that at times it disappeared, and then reappeared when turning back onto the same course.

I finally realized, that was I was looking at was the shadow ofSunday 28th the car behind us. I have never noticed it before.

When we arrived at Hanmer, we went to the Picnic spot at the entrance to the forest. We got out the picnic chairs that we had taken out of the caravan and we sat down and had our lunch. We had taken some juice with us and a bottle of wine. We decided that we would not drink the wine but keep it to later.

When we had finished lunch, we went and parked the car and entered the Pool Complex.

We enjoyed our time in the water and after about an hour or an hour an a half, we got out and set off to get back into our clothing.

We went out to the car and had a drink of the juice. We went for a bit of a drive around to see if there were any changes in the town. We did not notice a lot so we set off on the journey home.

It was about 5-45 pm when we arrived at the Bridge Hotel at Kaiapoi. We ordered a roast pork dinner each and we sat down and enjoyed a jug of ale between the two of us.

The roast meal was very enjoyable and we could not resist the temptation so we had a glass of wine as well.

I have forgotten to mention, that before going to the hotel, we went to Countdown and got some breakfast food and a loaf of bread as we remembered that there was no bread left at home.

When we left the hotel, I stopped at McDonalds and had an ice cream sundae before driving home.

It was a very mild evening and we noticed that the outside temperature was 15 degrees as we were driving home.

I refueled the car just before arriving at home. The total distance traveled was 296 k.

I can't remember the time when we got home, but it was by no means late. We watched t v for awhile and finally went to bed at around 11 pm.

Sunday 31st August

After our late night last night, we were slow getting up this morning. By the time we had finished breakfast, it was soon time to go to the Airport to pick up Andrew - or more specifically - meet Andrew and give him the electronic keys to the staff car park so that he could get his van - it had been left there by Wenlin before they left for their trip a few days ago.

We got to the Airport a bit early. I went around to the Customs Building as I wanted to leave the Linux Discs for Bill T.

It was locked up like Fort Knox with a sign on the door that the place was closed until Monday.

We sat in the car park for about 15 minutes, enjoying the sunshine. We had just set off to see if their was any sign on him at the Terminal Building, when we received a text from him that he was there.

As soon as we arrived, we saw him standing outside. We picked him up and dropped him at the Airport Staff Car park in Orchard Road.

We waited until he had got his van started and driven through the gates and we set off home.

We stopped at Countdown at Bush Inn Shopping centre and bought a few groceries.

We received a text from Scott asking if he could come around and show us pictures of a car that he wanted to buy.

We told him that we be there in about twenty minutes time. By the time we had got our supplies and driven home, he was here waiting for us.

He showed us the pictures of the car and it looks like a nice vehicle. We had lunch and he took off to look at other cars.

About an hour later, he was back. He was driving the car he was interested in as he had it out on trial. He took us for a short drive. It seems a very nice vehicle indeed. It is a Mitsubishi of similar design to our vehicle. It is one of those "half pie four wheel drive vehicles".

Ruth was about to settled down for her rest when Andrew called and said that he and Wenlin were coming around to see us before we left for our Sunday drive.Scott had left to return the car to the car yard.

We had our rest, and W and A arrived at about 3-15 pm. Wenlin had very kindly bought us a couple of bottles - Gin and Rum from the Duty Free Shop using her staff discount.

Shortly afterwards, Scott arrived again. We all had afternoon tea and it made us really late going for our drive.

It was about 4-30 pm when we left. W and A stayed and apparently drifted off to sleep in the lounge. They were very tired after their return from Samoa.

Scott did not want to come for a drive with us and he spent the time on the internet on my Laptop - He had left his here but did not get it out of its bag. Perhaps he likes PCLOS.

We made a brief stop at Halswell Mall. Ruth a couple of bottles on tonic (for the gin) and I filled a rigger.

I drove faster than usual on the way to and from Tai Tapu. We checked out the hotel and it was really busy. There were about twice as many cars there as normal.

It was after 5-30 pm when we got home. I rounded up Scott and Andrew and got them to help me lift the spa pool out of is location and place in on the concrete in the BBQ area. I hope to sell it on Trade Me.

We went inside and had a few drinks and Ruth threw together a dinner at very short notice.

There was no time for a roast, but the frozen meat balls and sausages that we had been meaning to use for some time turned into quite a good meal after being thawed in the Micro and thrown into a dish in the oven and left for awhile. Together with the potatoes and vegetables, it was a nice meal.

Not long after dinner, they all left. Ruth and I settled down to t v I had an early shower first.

We were up late and had a night cap of G and T in bed before finally settling down after mid night.

Saturday 30th August

It was quite a nice day today. Not a lot happening. When Ruth went down for her rest, I went to Smiths CIty. I took with me a live Linux DVD disk and I tried the small Acer Aspire One Laptop to see if it would boot from the USB.

It worked fine but I found that it would not pick up the wireless network I did not expect that it would do so.

While I was there, I checked the setting sand I found out what Wireless device was attached, and the name of the wireless driver.

On the way home, I dropped in at Noel Leemings and I found that they were selling the same item for quite a bit cheep er.

Why I had got to Smiths City, was, that we had received mail that next week, there is a Customers Only sale, and the Acer was on Sale for $50.00 cheaper than other stores.

I found that Noel Leeming were even cheaper - about thirty dollars cheaper.

I am not sure what to do - Not to buy - Buy one each for Ruth and I - or just one - perhaps for Ruth.

I came home. We have to Pick up Wenlin from the Airport at about midnight tonight. We have seen in the paper that the Russley Hotel is closing and it is a farewell party tonight. We have been tossing up whether to go or not.

We had spoken to Nerollie. She used to work there with our mother and she had thought about going also, but she had since let me know that she was not going to go.

I have had many occasions there in the past with people I worked with at the Airport.

We decided that we would leave here at about 9-45 pm and stop in on the way to picking up Wenlin.

And that is what we did. After dinner, we had our shower early and at a little aft4er 9-30 pm, we set off.

When we arrived, there were millions of people about, and also, three Police Vans with team Policing units. I am not sure if there had been trouble or not. I know the even had been advertised on the radio all through the week.

We went to the interior bar. It was quite crowded, but we found that the bar was closed.

We went to another bar, not too many people present. The bar was open but they did not have much alcohol left. A big tall important looking guy at the bar said that there was not much left. I asked the girl behind the bar if they had Eftpos and they did not. Ruth said she had some money, so I ordered on of the wines that they had - a type I would not normally buy.

The big guy told me not to worry about paying and it would be on the house. I said that that would be nice and remarked that I wondered if the nice lady would agree.

She did not and asked me for ten dollars. Ruth passed me the money, whereupon the big guy said - don't worry - put it on my tab. She accepted and I thanked him very much. I figured he was management.

He disappeared and I am not sure if he was or not. We saw a Christchurch personality there - Jim Hopkins. I came across his father, Canon Hopkins in the 1980s while working in the Police. Just to clarify - his father was a well respected Church person and in no way a criminal.

The entire establishment - apart from the sports bar appeared to be dying. It would - without any grog. I met a couple there that used to run the food premises near the Airport where we used to buy our lunch. We spent tent to fifteen minutes chatting to them.

We let and went to the Bishopdale tavern with the intention of getting a drink. Some young people were leaving. We asked them if the bar was still open. I was informed that it was not. As you would - I expressed my viewed as to why they would close in the middle of the day. The young fellow I spoke to kindly gave me a tip - Go to the Russley closing down party. He was dismayed when I said that we had just come from there and it was dying.

Apparently, he and his fiend were going there and asked us if by any chance, we were going back. I told him that we were not. He put his hand through the window and said that it was nice and warm in the car and they were dying to get to the Russly. They wanted to know if we were going back. I told him that he would have to die but thanked him for his assistance.

Ruth winged a bit. It was not the party she had expected. I stopped at the bar on the main street, but it was closed.

We decided to go the the Chateau Commodore, near the Airport. We were there in a few minutes and the bar was open.

I ordered drinks and the bar lady asked me what room we were in. I pretended that I did not hear, and gave her my credit card. She accepted that and we sat down and spent the next forty five minutes enjoying a quite drink in very nice surroundings.

There was a young fellow sitting near us with a laptop pc. He was obviously not a real computer person as I saw from the logo, that it was an Imac - or is it an Apple Macintosh.

He had headphones on and was jabbering away for the entire time we there. I would say he was either on a chat program like ICQ or on phone calls via Skype.

At 11-45 pm, we received a text from Wenlin telling us she had just landed.

We stayed another ten minutes and the computer geeks battery must have died and he took off.

I told Ruth that I did not think that we sere supposed to be there and that I thought if was only for house guests - telling her what had happened at the bar.

We had to leave so we went back to the car. We sat there for ten minutes and we received a text from Wenlin that she was ready. We replied, and took off. Three minutes later, we had her in the car and we were on the way home.

I stopped briefly to see if I could find a customs officer to hans some disks to for Geordie - customs officer - I used to work with when I was there and who I was talking too last week at Riccarton Mall.

It would have been easier to find a pork chop in a synagogue. I gave up and went back tot he car.

We took Wenlin home. We saw her safely into the house and then set off home.

We took the scenic rout along the river - Locksley Avenue. When we got closer to town, I tossed up whether to go through the city, or take the route via Linwood Ave, Aldwins - Ensors, St Martins etc - or through the city.

I asked ruth and she did not reply. I chose the city at the last moment. We went down Manchester Street. It was just after 1 am.

We were amazed at the crowds outside the bars like the Loaded hog - queuing and waiting for admission.

Soon, we were home. After a quick snack, we were off to bed, thus ending our day.

Friday 29th August

It was a fairly uneventful day. It was a bit colder this morning when we got up.

After breakfast, I did a little ironing and other than that, there was not much else done.

After lunch, when Ruth went down for her rest, I went to Smith's City. We had received a letter from them today, informing us of a customer only sale next week.

Included in their advertising, was the little Laptop computer that I have been keen on.

It will be going cheaper that ever at their sale. I had a look at it, and this time, I was able to give it a run on the internet (broadband wi fi) and it was just like being at home.

I was very impressed and I also found out that if it is connected to a full size monitor, there are plenty of hi res settings that can be used.

They also have a usb dvd attached and I will be allowed to take along a Linux Live DVD to try out. I would like to do that in the morning.

I stopped at Barrington Mall on the way home and go the milk - we are almost out.

I stopped at Robbies and had a pint and then went directly home.

Nerollie had left a message that Andrea had tried her Laptop and once again she could not get the wireless connection to operate.

I went around. This time, it did not connect straight away, but by doing the usual, I had no trouble in getting it on line.

I arrived home just on 5 pm and watched Ruth's favorite quiz show with her.

She had prepared a beef casserole for dinner and it was very nice indeed.

We have just finished dinner and are settling down to t.v.

Thursday 28th August

It was quite mild when I got up this morning - 13 degrees in the lounge.

It was a nice warm sunny day all day.

We did not do a lot around the house today. Later in the morning, we took a walk. We stopped at the Pharmacy to renew Ruth's medication, collecting the prescription from the Medical Centrex next door.

We continued on around to our old house in Leistrella Road, taking note of all the changes that have occurred over the years.

We retraced our steps, and we were not far from home, when we met Nerollie who was taking her dogs for a walk.

After chatting to her, we went home and had lunch and then settled down for a nap.

At about 3-30 pm, we headed off in the car and went to the supermarket in Lincoln Road, on the corner of Lyttelton Street. We had seen in the paper that frozen peas and frozen vegetables were going cheap. We were only able to get the peas, as all the frozen vegetables had been sold.

We decided to buy a rigger. We were roughly half way between Barrington Mall and Halswell Mall, so we continued on and stopped at the bottle store at the Halswell Hotel.

Would you believe it - the place was closed. I then remembered that when we had been there a few days ago, we were given a notice telling us that they would be closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Police had caught them supplying liquor to a minor. The culprit had been refused service at the restaurant, but was served at the bottle store. According to the notice - it was not a real offender - but an undercover person working for the Police and Licensing people.

We went to the New World Super Market and bought a few cans and a bottle of wine.

We came home and had a nice meal - steak and vegetables, washed down by a few drinks.

Wednesday 27th August

I got up a little later this morning. It was not cold - about 11 degrees in the lounge.

By the time we had finished breakfast and done a few routine jobs, it was getting near time to take Ruth to her weekly meeting.

We had morning tea, and not long after, we set off. I dropped Ruth at the venue just before mid day.

I came directly home. I had lunch and then I went to Nerollies house. Andrea had phoned me a day or so ago and said that she could log into the Wireless Network at home with her work computer, but for some time, she had not been able to log in with her own laptop.

I had arranged for her to leave it out, but I had forgotten to ask her for her password.

I contacted her and obtained the password. Guess what - it logged in and connected without any trouble. She has been trying for some time and could not get a connection.

I phoned her and told her and arranged for her to call if she found that she could not connect later.

It was working fine and I was watching streaming video without any trouble at all.

I had a cup of tea with Nerollie and then I left. I refueled the car. It was only about 120 ks since last fill, but I like to keep the tank topped up. The bill was just short of $25.00. I went on to New World, and bought a bag of potatoes as we have nearly finished all of ours.

To keep up the tradition, I bought a couple of other items and came home.

I took out the monitor cable from the P C downstairs. I turned off the Laptop, connected the new T V monitor to the Laptop with the cable and turned everything on. I received a response from the T V - no data link.

I think I have a duff cable.

It was late when Ruth phoned me and wanted me to pick her up. I picked her up from Barrington Mall. We bought a Subway sandwich each and brought it home and that was our meal - washed down with a can and a glass of wine.

Tuesday 26th August

Cleaning day today - Day two - Upstairs. We were late getting started due to us both talking to John and Dorothy on the phone. John rang just as I was about to start my jobs.

It was a wet day but not all that cold here. The wet weather was causing havoc in North Canterbury.

When we had finished the work, we had lunch and Ruth settled down for a rest.

I went and saw Dick Smith at Riccarton Mall and had a look at Global P C on the way home.

Ruth was about to get up when I got back at 3-30 pm. We had afternoon tea and I turned off the P C downstairs and changed the monitor for Andrews IBM. It worked fine. It is probably my monitor that has given up the ghost.

It was soon time to leave for the monthly IPA committee meeting. I entered the building a little earlier than usual. Only Ron and Gary were present. The rest of the members arrived about 10 minutes later.

The meeting did not take long. We had a couple of drinks and I stayed for a meal with Ron and Garry.

I dropped Garry home when we left, as it is not far out of the way. Gary has invited us for dinner on Sunday next week and he is going to get Lesley to phone Ruth to work out the details.

I arrived home at 7-30 pm. Ruth told me later that she had heard on the news that there is big trouble at Christchurch Hospital. Some swine has been watering down the Morphine that is meant to be issued to patients to relive pain. An intense Police investigation has started.

The weather has hit North Canterbury very hard. Amberly and Cheviot are flooded. Kaikoura is isolated by road and Rail slips north and south of the town and the inland road to Hanmer is closed as well.

I heard on the news that a farmer was taking his cows across a creek - one version was that they were washed away - another that the bridge collapsed and the cows were washed away.

He lost 200 animals. One broadcaster put the cost at $1000.00 dollars each - another at $3000.00. I think the first figure is more likely. Some of the poor animals managed to save themselves.

Monday 25th August

Cleaning day today - Day one - Downstairs. It rained hard overnight and it rain all day. It was not particularly cold though. The temperature in the lounge when I got up was 11 degrees.

According to the news, there is some "weather thingy" stuck over North Canterbury and also parts of the North Island. Heavy rain has caused problems. The 6 pm news was showing flooding around areas north of Waipara. The heavy rain had caused slips just south of Kaikoura - around the area of the two sets of Rail Tunnels. The road and rail lines had been closed for a period. While watching the news reel, a large rock about the size of a car tumbled down onto the road.

Amberly is again being threatened by flooding and may have to be evacuated. This happened a few weeks ago while we were in Australia.

When I went to bed just after 11 pm (a bit early for me) I heard that there were rain warnings out and 300 mm of rain is expected over the affected areas during the next 24 hours.

I had just got into bed when reports came in on the talk back program that there had been a brief but severe earthquake around Napier. The time of the quake would have been 2325 - 2326 hrs.

Reports came in that it had been felt in Palmerston North and Wanganui.

A Police Sergeant in Napier was interviewed and said that as far as he knew at that stage, there had been no reports of damage or calls for assistance although power was out in some areas.

Our day was uneventful. My computer downstairs has given up the ghost. For some time now, the Monitor has been changing colours at different times. It is happening often.

I had tried shaking the video cable at the back of the monitor but it had not done anything. I gave it a wobble at the back of the box (computer) where it enters the video card and the screen went black. I think that either the video card or the cable has failed. I don't think it is likely to be the monitor.

No real big deal as I can get a video card from the junk shop quite cheaply. If the monitor has failed, I have Andrews IBM monitor here which I can use and its video cable is built in.

There has been a daft judges decision yesterday. Two people in the north island have been charged with murdering a 14 year old boy - who was on his own properly having a party.

The court has allowed the offenders names to be published in all media except on Web Sites.

How ridiculous can you get. A senior media person spoke on the radio about it and believes that the combined media may fight this decision.

Most of them run Web Sites and Blogs and they are not happy by any means.

Sunday 24th August

Surprisingly, it was quite warm when we got up this morning. It was about 11 degrees in the lounge.

It was a fairly lazy day. A bit of ironing in the morning and that was about all.

It was a very wet day and the forecast is for more rain for quite a while.

After our afternoon rest, we went for a drive to Tai Tapu, stopping at Halswell Mall to fill a rigger and to get a bottle of wine and a few supplies from the New World Supermarket.

It was raining hard but it was not cold. There was a note at the hotel that they would be closed for a few days this week. Apparently, they had been caught supplying a minor with alcohol.

The drive to Tai Tapu and back was uneventful. There were quite a few cars outside the hotel, but we did not go in.

We came home and had a nice steak dinner, with a couple of sausages, washed down by a few drinks.

Saturday 23rd August

It was quite a nice day when we woke up. We had arranged for Scott to be here a little before 10 am and we were all going to go to the Blenheim Road Motor Inn for breakfast. It was another treat for Scott seeing that we had not been here for his birthday a couple of weeks or so ago.

Scott arrived on time and just on ten o'clock, we left home and soon, we were at the premises.

We only had to pay for three breakfasts, as our discount card was full, so one of our meals was free.

The prices here are cheap - $14.95 for breakfast - and it is one of those all you can eat places. Fruit, cereal, toast, coffee, fruit juices, bacon, eggs, sausages, hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs, beans, tomatoes and heaps of others.

We enjoyed the food and it was soon time to leave.

We went to Riccarton Mall. Ruth went to Pak and Save for a few small items. Scott and I went to Noel Leemings and I showed Scott the small Acer Laptop that I am thinking of buying. It has a 120 gig hard drive and I think it is a better buy that the Asus eee 900 which only has solid state hard drives with a maximum of about 20 gigs.

After looking at the stock there, we met up with Ruth and then came home. Scott stayed for awhile and then went on his way. He wanted to see a panel beater - someone had hit his car a few days ago and surprisingly, the Insurance Company is going to pay for it, even though he does not know who the culprit is.

We did not worry about having lunch. Nerollie came around early in the afternoon and spent about an hour here.

I took her home and Ruth went down for a rest. I was going to go to the Library, but I decided instead to look around Harvey Normans to see if the were selling the small Laptop that I am interested in. They are not.

I came home and spent a bit of time on the P C downstairs and then had a quick rest also - only for about 15 minutes.

We had a very light meal for dinner - soup and a sandwich.

We had had a really lazy day and settled down to a couple of drinks and T V. It is the second last day of the Olympic Games.

Friday 22nd August

It was a very mild morning and it got warmer as the day progressed. It was very warm and sunny nearly all day.

Ruth and I emptied the Spa Pool this morning. It had filled with rain water. It is about time we got rid of it. I cut through the pipes and it is going to be moved and hopefully sold. I would like to buy a new one but they are so expensive, I doubt that will happen for quite a long time - if ever.

I could not move it out by myself and I hope to get Scott to give me a hand with it when he calls in the morning.

Ruth and I each had an appointment with her hairdresser at 1-30 pm.

We went down a little before time. My hair was cut first and as Ruth was going to be there for over an hour, I came home. She was to call me when she was ready.

I wanted to get home as soon as possible as I had arranged with an electrician to come this afternoon and replace the faulty switch in the dinning room. It has finally given up the ghost and we are sick of going without decent lighting during meals.

I have been putting if off, as I know that it is going to cost a lot of money. It is a complicated job. There are three switch on the plate and wires going everywhere. I can't buy the same type and replace one wire at a time as that model are not sold any more.

The existing switch is much larger than the new types and there will probably be a gap on each side of the new switch when it is replaced.

Ruth did not call as she had decided to walk home and enjoy the nice sunny day as she strolled home.

The electrician arrived at about 4 pm. It took him about twenty minutes. He had a special plastic plate that went under the new switch and there are no gaps as I feared there would be.

Ninety dollars later, he had gone. At least is was nice to be able to prepare dinner under decent lighting.

Thursday 21st August

Just before I got up, I heard on the radio that it was minus one degree outside - that slowed me down a bit.

I came upstairs. The sun was shining and it was not as cold as I expected. I only had the gas fire and heater on for about half an hour.

The Laptop had finished its update and everything is working fine.

There was only a few routine jobs this morning - ironing was one of them. At about mid day, we went to Halswell and fed the ducks at Westlake. I refueled the car and then we came directly home.

While Ruth was having a rest, I decided to get rid of PCLOS on my downstairs computer.

I reinstalled PCLOS recently - I can't remember if it was before I went to Australia, or since I have been back.

I was not happy with the install and I wanted to try the new version of Ubuntu which was on the DVD in the latest LinuxFormat Magazine - the one I had got from the Library just after I got back from Australia.

One thing I had achieved in the last day or so was getting my internal network working.

I had finally succeeded in setting up Samba - almost properly and each P C could see each other and transfer data - "Sometimes".

I took the bull by the horns, installed Ubuntu and right away, there was an improvement in the network. I am seriously thinking about ditching PCLOS from the Laptop and replacing it with Ubuntu.

There is no KDE desktop - It could be installed but it is about time I got used to using Linux without it. There are heaps of users that won't use Kde at all.

Wednesday 20th August

It was not a bad day today, after the frost was over and it warmed up. I had the car booked in at Martyns Garage for an oil change. I was to be there at 12-30 pm.

At about 11-30 am, we left here and I dropped Ruth at her weekly meeting in town.

I went directly to the garage - a little early. I had coffee with Bill and the workmen while they were having lunch and at 12-3 pm, they started work on my car.

About 45 minutes later, with new oil, oil filter and a new air cleaner (and nicely painted tyres), I left.

I went to Subway at Papanui and had lunch. As soon as I had finished, I left and I was soon at the Cranmer Centre, a few minutes before Ruth was due outside. It was just on 13-45 pm.

Ruth came out and we went directly to Pak and Save an Riccarton and did a fairly major shopping task. Before going there, Ruth went into Farmers to change a shirt that she had bought for Scott - It was the wrong size. While she was there, i went to Dick Smiths.

About twenty minutes later, I met Ruth and we went to the Westpac Bank and did a couple of jobs.

We finished at Pak and Save and we went directly home and unpacked everything.

For the last few days, my Laptop has been playing up and I could not get on the Internet at all. Just like it was when I got back from Australia.

It was probably my fault, as I had been experimenting with Wireless Programs - Like i had been doing in Australia.

The result was the same. I could connect to the router, but neither the Wired or Wireless Network would pass any data.

I had no choice, so i re installed PCLOS again. I did the same after I got back from Australia - Abd as I said - No big deal in Linux.

Twenty minutes later, I was up and running - All my personal files were intact and I could do just about everything.

Before I went to bed, I started the update files routine. I went to bed at about midnight. It was not quite finished. I would have only had to wait about 15 minutes for it to finish, but I left it and settled down for the night.

Tuesday 19th August

Cleaning day today - Day two - Upstairs. It had been snowing overnight and there was a little on the ground when we got up.

Scott telephone at 7-30 am. He was snowed in at Lyttelton and wanted to know what it was like here. He had been unable to get the car up the hill last night because of the snow.

I haven't found out yet if he got to work ok or not.

Monday 18th August

Cleaning day today - Day one - Downstairs. No other activity.

Sunday 17th August

As we were up late last night, we stayed in bed until quite late this morning.

We had our breakfast watching the games on T V.

We got a few routine jobs done. Nerollie rang and asked us what we were going to do. I told her that I hoped nothing as we were having a relaxing day.

Very little was done during the day. When Ruth got up from her rest, we took a drive to Tai Tapu, stopping at Halswell on the way. I filled a rigger and Ruth bought a bottle of wine from New World as we had consumed the one we had for tonight - last night when we got back from the restaurant.

At Tai Tapu, we stopped at the hotel and had a couple of drinks - a final end to Ruth's birthday weekend.

We came home and I cooked a light meal while we were having our drinks.

The games are still on and that is what we watched during the evening.

Bad weather is forecast for tomorrow. Snow is predicted.

Saturday 16th August

We were up quite late last night watching the games.

We had breakfast and watched some of the games while we were having our food.

Just before lunch, I washed the car. That was about all we did. As usual, Ruth had her rest in the afternoon.

Scott came around just after Ruth had got up. We had not got him a birthday present before we went to Australia. We had bought something for him and he came around to collect it.

He had not been here long, when Andrew and Wenlin arrived. Scott did a few downloads while he was here and soon he was gone. It was a little after 5-30 p.m. that Andrew and Wenlin left.

As soon as they had gone, we began to get ready for our dinner outing.

At about 6-30 pm, we were ready to go but it was a bit early. We had a glass of Cointreau while waiting. I had put the camera battery on to charge for awhile at about 6 pm.

After we had finished our drink we left for our dinner engagement at the Charlotte Jane. I left the camera battery in the charge, and I plugged it into the inverter in the car. That way, it could charge for another twenty minutes while we drove to the venue.

We were a little early when we arrived. We went inside and sat down at our table.

It was a very nice location and we had a seat in a bay window. I believe we had the best table in the restaurant.

The menu was not as advertised in the Entertainment guide was not listed. We had a very nice prawn entree, followed by a very nice fillet steak on potatoe mash with spinach garnishing.

The food was very nice indeed. Everything was very expensive. Ruth had a glass of wine and I had a Steinlager. The cheapest bottle of wine was $41.00 and I am not prepared to spend that sort of money on drink.

After our discount (buy one main course - get one free) the total bill was $86.00.

When we left, it was only a little after 8-30 pm. We came home and had a bottle of wine here and watched the Olympic Games. It was after 1 am when we settled down for the night.

Friday 15th August

It was cold this morning but the day improved as time went by. Ruth did some ironing today and I ironed my shirts.

Just before lunch, I washed the car. It was quite pleasant out in the sun and the car is looking quite good now.

When we had finished lunch, Ruth settled down for a rest. It is her birthday tomorrow, so I left here and went to Riccarton Mall.

I went to the Farmers and brought a small present for her. I went into Pak and Save and got a bottle of milk and also a birthday card for Ruth.

I looked at the goods at Bond and Bond. I saw a small Laptop there which I thought was the Asus 900 eee. This has been a Laptop that I would like to buy. It is cheap at around $750.00 and the one I was thinking about had no hard drive but was fitted with a solid state hard drive with a total capacity of about 20 gigs.

This one was in fact an Acer. It has a Sata hard drive - 120 gigs. It is the same size as the Asus - about a 9.5 inch screen. It weighs only a kilogram and has wi fi and a video cam. It is a very nice machine indeed. I would have loved to buy it.

I came home. Ruth was up and it was time for coffee. We made our final arrangements for dinner tomorrow night. For a long time, we have wanted to go to the restaurant - Dorothys. We were going to go there for Ruths last birthday. I rang them before going to Riccarton and they are closed until about early November.

We looked a a few places to go and finally decided on the Charlotte Jane Hotel.

I phoned a made a booking for 7-30 pm.

We had dinner - the rest of the Hoki fillets and that was the end of our exciting day - Except, now we are watching the Olympic Games.

Thursday 14th August

It was not raining today and was quite sunny. Later in the morning, I cleaned the windows of the car - inside and out. They were very dirty. When I had finished, I cleaned the inside and put the vacuum cleaner around.

After lunch, Ruth wanted to go to Riccarton Mall. She seemed to want to go by herself, so I stayed here and had a relaxing afternoon.

I had a look at the new version of Ubuntu Linux, which was on the disc that was in the magazine I picked up from the library on Monday. It is a live DVD and Ubuntu can be run without installing it.

It looks very nice indeed. Mandriva Linux (also live) was on the same disc and I had a look at that also. Both are very nice.

I brought Joey in at about 4 pm and then brought in he washing. It was getting very cold outside.

Ruth arrived home at a little after 5 pm. We made a quick trip to Halswell and I filled a rigger and we had a drink before dinner.

Last nights dinner was salmon - tonight - Hoi fillets.

Wednesday 13th August

It was quite a nice day today, but quite cold when we got up.

We had just finished breakfast, when Lorna rang. I was talking to her for quite a while.

When I had finished talking to her, I did the dishes and by the time I had done the dishes, it was time to take Ruth to her meeting - after having morning tea of course.

I dropped Ruth in town a little before mid day. I came directly home and had lunch.

By the time I had done a couple of jobs, it was time to go and collect her again. I arrived at about 1-45 pm, picked her up and then we went directly to Andrews house as we had told him that we would be there between 2 pm and 2-30 pm.

I had a cup of coffee with Andrew. We picked up Joey (the budgie - Andrew as been looking after him while we were in Australia - and the gold fish which he has also been looking after).

We were soon on our way. I stopped at the garage and spoke to Bill about the oil that had been blown out of the car due to the removed oil filler cap.

The oil was causing an awful smell. He said that it would not take long to go away. He agreed that it would not be a bad idea to get the engine steam cleaned, and he gave me that name of a place at Woolston to get it done.

From there, we went directly to Pak and Save at Riccarton. We got food to replace our dwindling stock and set off for home.

We diverted to Barrington Mall to get a bottle of wine. There had been nothing at the right price at Pak and Save.

As we walked into the Mall, we meet Diane M. She had seen us going by and called out to us. She was there with Bev.

We chatted to her for about 5 minutes. We picked up our wine and came on home.

It will soon be time to cook dinner. We are having Salmon tonight. We got a couple of pieces from Pak and Save. We also got some Hoki fillets for tomorrow night - hopefully - there will be enough for two meals.

Tuesday 12th August

Cleaning day - Day two - upstairs. It was cold and raining most of the day. It doesn't take long to do upstairs and we were finished by about 1 pm.

At about 4 pm, we took a trip to Halswell to get something for our meal. I was going to get some fish but there was nothing there at a reasonable price today.

We decided to have scrambled eggs. We both like them. I bought a couple of slices of shaved ham to chop and and put in with them. On the way home, we realized we had forgotten to get a few mushrooms, so they were missing from the egg dish when we had our meal.

While we were having a rest this afternoon, I gave the command to PCLOS to update the entire system.

About two hours later, the task was completed.

Monday 11th August

Back to reality. It is cold and wet - and Cleaning day - Day one downstairs. We were late starting our work.

We had a rest after lunch and then I finished my jobs. At about 3-45 pm, I went down to Halswell and picked up the LinuxFormat Magazine No 107 - July 2008. I had requested it weeks ago and it arrived while I was in Australia. The library would only hold it another day.

I was only away about 15 minutes. When I arrived home, I mopped the floors and that was the end of work for the day.

There is not much food in the house and we did not really have anything for dinner. I usually keep some frozen pies in the freezer. I buy them when they are going for about a dollar each at the supermarket. I sometimes have one for lunch.

Tonight, we had the old pie cart feed - pie, pea and pud (potatoe) and also slices of beetroot.

I don't know why, but Ruth did not do the peas, and instead we had cauliflower and broccoli.

It was still quite a good meal.

I have not got my Laptop to connect to the Internet, so I reinstalled PCLOS - not a big deal on Linux. It is usually up and running in about twenty minutes, with most programs running.

Before doing so, I backed up all my home directory (it contains all my data and everything I have saved or put there. I just copied the directory to my usb hard drive.

I need not have bothered. Twenty minutes from start, the new system was up and running and everything was in place exactly as it had been on the old install.

Sure, I have some programs to reinstall to get it back to how it was. It is simply a matter of clicking each program in the repository and the latest copies are installed. No hunting for cd's and dvd's that contain the programs - usually one disc for each program.

Sunday 10th August

We slept in this morning – it was fairly late when we got up. We had a lazy day and at about 3-30 pm, we went to Halswell Mall. I filled a rigger and we got some food from New World – Fish for tea and a few other things.
When we had finished lunch, I went down to the garage to have a look at the car to see if I could find what the problem was with it.
The first thing I found, was that it would not start. There was no sign of life at all and it seemed that the battery was dead flat.
I pushed it out and parked it at the front where I could have a good look at it. As soon as I opened the bonnet – I saw right away where the oil was coming from. The oil filler cap was off and there was oil everywhere. It would seem that when I topped the oil up just before we left, I had not secured it properly.
I disconnected the battery and connected the charger to it. I cleaned away as much of the oil that I could by wiping it away with paper towels.
By the time I had reconnected it to go to Halswell, it had been on charge for about three hours.
I was relieved when it started immediately. I had about half a litre of oil left from the bottle that I had bought just before going to Australia so I put that into the engine before we left. That brought the level to approximately where it should be.
When we had finished our shopping, we took a drive to Tai Tapu. As usual, we had a look at the hotel. It was really busy. I have never seen so many cars there.
We came home and had a few drinks followed by dinner. This fish that I had bought – Hoki – was really tasty.
We settled down to watch the Olympic Games. They had started in Beiging, China, the day before I left Australia to come home.
I have found that I cannot get my Laptop to connect to the Internet. Neither the Wireless link, or the Ethernet link will connect.
I have tried everything but no matter what I do, it will not go on line.

Saturday 9th August

To day is the day to leave for home. Bill had to be away early for a sale at Boonah. As he was leaving around 6-30 am, I had told him last night that I would not be going with him and I said to give me a shout at about 6 am and I would say good by to him then.

Sure enough, at 6-15 am, he came in and we said our goodbyes. I thanked him for having me for the week which I had enjoyed very much. He was probably being very polite and as he had said on numerous occasions, he would like me to stay another week.

I was up at about 7 am and after breakfast, I did the final packing for my trip home.

We were about to leave, when the phone rang and I took a call for Dawnae. It involved a detailed message for Bill, so I got the lady to talk to Dawnae. She thought that she had got the wrong number when I answered the phone and told her that Bill was away.

She spoke to Dawnae and Dawnae took notes to relay to Bill. I had to ask the lady the name of the person that Bill was to contact.

When we had finished the conversation, at Dawnaes request, I phoned Bill on his cell phone. All I got was an answering service that had not been set up. Dawnae thought that Bill should have answered, so she rang him on her cell phone, and got the same result.

She wrote me a note and said that we would have to visit him at Boonah on our way to Ipswich.

We set off and soon we were at Boonah. We had a look at the park that we had visited the other day to see if there were any kangaroos visible. There was not. Dawnae said that they are usually there and probably will be the next time she looks.

We stopped at the location of the Market – exactly the same sort of setup as is common around New Zealand on Saturdays.

We headed for Bills stand. As I was about to leave the street, I saw a huge fellow clipping his GPS navigator to an extremely large motor cycle. I had a chat to him – he and his wife were about to drive off. I spent about ten minutes talking to him and we discussed information about Gps things.

I caught up with Dawnae and Bill. We were only there a few minutes. Once again I said goodbye to Bill and we were on our way.

We stopped at the shopping complex at Yamanto on the way. Dawnae went into Dick Smiths and bought a small video player to replace the one at home that was not working.

We moved on and stopped at McDonalds for a snack and then we drove for another few minutes and we stopped at the Railway Station.

Dawnae came with me to the platform and then we found that we were on the wrong side. We had to retrace our steps, walk under a subway under the tracks to the station on the other side, as that is where the trains going to Brisbane leave from.

There is an electronic machine there to get a ticket. I might as well have gone to Mars and tried a machine there. It was impossible. It takes Credit Cards and notes but not $50.00 and that is all I had.

A young woman with a toddler (she is used to traveling on the trains) tried to help us but she had no success. Another local couple tried to get a ticket for themselves and they could not get it to work either.

The train arrived after a very short time. I said farewell to Dawnae and got on the train without a ticket.

I told the guard what had happened. He didn't seem interested and just told me to tell the staff at the station I got off at.

That was the Central Station. I found the ticket office. The clerk asked me where I got on the train. I told him, paid the fare and after waiting for about 15 minutes, I was on a train to Brisbane Airport.

It was about a 15 minute journey to the International Airport Station. I had to produce my ticket to leave the railway station and enter the Airport.

It was getting on to 4 pm and I attempted to book in early, so as I could get rid of my large case and only have the Laptop to look after.

The plane was almost full, and being on standby as a discounted customer, I was not allowed to check in and I was told to come back at 5-15 pm. I was stuck with all the luggage until then.

While waiting, I thought I would buy something to eat on the plane. I saw a large bread role (wrapped) and it was labeled cheese and bacon and some other ingredient. It sounded nice so I bought one. I also bought a bottle of Bunderberg Ginger beer and I drank that before boarding the plane.

At 5-15 pm, I was paged to the Check In counter. I was able to board the plane. I chose an aisle seat and requested one about row 25 which is the row we were in on the way to Brisbane. I was given the aisle seat in row 29 which is almost at the rear of the plane. There were only two rows behind me and I am sure this is the best part of the aircraft to travel in.

I had communicated with Ruth by text while waiting and she told me that it had been snowing in Christchurch and although it had stopped, it was very cold.

It was a lovely day in Brisbane – the best day that I had struck since I had landed in Australia.

As we prepared for takeoff, the crew announced on the p a that the flight time would be 2 hours 50 minutes. The usual time is 3 hours 30 minutes and on our way to Brisbane, we were told because of the jet stream head winds, it would take 30 minutes longer and it did.

As the plane was full, it took about an hour for the staff to get to our seat with the food trolley. I asked for two bottles of wine – they are very small – only 250 mills in each bottle.

I think the hostess thought I was under age. She asked me if they were both for me. When I told her that it was, she said that I was only allowed one.

Soon after, I ate my bread roll and enjoyed the wine. What I thought was a nice filled roll, was a stale bread roll with nothing in it at all.

About 45 minutes from Christchurch, the hostess asked me if I would like another bottle of wine. I declined.

We were in the terminal at Christchurch Airport half an hour early – it was about 11-15 when I arrived inside the customs area.

It did not take long to get to the customs desk. I knew that I would have to see Maf as I had been staying on a farm.

I got my luggage loaded onto a trolley, saw Maf and told the officer where I had been staying and about Bills sick cow. I told him that I had scrubbed all my shoes and that I had them all in a bag right on top of the case.

I took the case to a bench, opened it and removed the bag of shoes. He was satisfied and thanked me for being organized to save time.

I was then on my way out of the building. While I had been waiting in line at Customs, my cell phone had burst into life. I assumed it was Andrew who was to pick me up. I could not answer it as it was too difficult to get it out while moving in line with all the luggage.

Andrew was in the waiting area and it had been him that had called. He had seen on the Internet that the plane was early and had come out. I was lucky as otherwise, I probably would have had to wait about an hour.

His car was outside and in no time at all, the luggage was inside and we were on our way home. It was cold – very cold – Two degrees according to the announcement that had been made on the plane.

Ruth was up when we got home. Andrew came in and stayed for about half an hour. I opened my case and gave the present for Wenlin and himself that Shelly had got me to bring for him – I had opened it of course before going to the Airport.

I had bought a bottle of Quantro at the Airport. I opened it and sampled it. Andrew declined and set off home.

It was after 1 am by the time we went to bed. Luckily, Ruth had warmed downstairs up with the oil radiation heater (electric) so it was quite pleasant downstairs.

Ruth had sent me a text a few days ago, telling me that she had noticed a pool of oil under the car when she was at Halswell. She has not driven it since she got home. It has remained in the garage.

Tomorrow, I will have to see what the problem is.

Friday 8th August

As arranged last evening, I got up at a little before 7 am. Bill of course, was up much earlier. As it turned out it was something after 6-30 am when I got up.

We had breakfast. I looked in my case and wondered where all my clean clothes had gone. It was only a few days since I have done the washing.

I did the washing and put it out to dry. Bill wanted to go to a tomato grower he knew to by some tomatoes. His supply has run out.

Before we left, Bill had noticed a cow (one of the ones that is feeding a calf) was lying down. He thought it unusual.

He got on the phone and found that other animals in the area have been unwell.

We went and checked the animal. Even I could tell it was having difficulty getting to its feet.

It did so reluctantly and with obvious difficulty. Bill put some water in a trough and gave it some hay. It ate a little and remained on its feet while the calf took a feed.

We left and went back towards Ipswich for quite some distance. We turned off the main road and after a short time, we were at the tomatoe growers property.

Bill bought several boxes of tomatoes. While there, we went and examined a new shed that had been built. It is about one hundred meters long and 60 meters wide with a twenty meter overhang. At each end of the overhang, is a roller door so vehicles with trailers can drive it, park and later drive straight through and out the other end.

When we left, we took a site seeing tour towards home. We passed through Kalbar and Bill stopped and showed me a photograph of is property in the Rea Estate Agent – It is on the Market.

We went into the local shop and the lady gave me a booklet – a freebie issued by the local council with information about the area. We were on the road where we had taken the cow and calf a few days ago. I knew the area we had left the animals was some sort of ____vill. Everyone I spoke too, including Bill said – Harrisville, but it wasn't.

The lady in the shop told me it was Teviotville and I remembered that indeed, that was the name I seen on the road sign.

We stopped and looked at the monument to the first surveyor, who in 1839, had formed a survey baseline through the area for the first survey of Quensland.

Bill had been brought up in the area and he showed me the school that he attended. There is a building on the corner, not far from the school, and once, Bill had thought it the biggest building in Australia.

Bill drove through his brothers property, not far from the school. His brother now leases some of his land and has a job on another farm somewhere.

We got home a little after 11 am. We picked up Dawnae and left for Shelly and Daves Property, which is near Boonah, at the small settlement of Mt Alford.

Shelley was not there. We were to meet her at the local hotel for lunch.

Dave showed us around the property. He gave us a stubbie each and we enjoyed that as we looked around.

Dave is a fan exotic birds and he showed us his collection. All outside in large, well maintained cages. He is licenced to keep exotic birds. Apparently, it stayed quite awhile before moving off.

We all left and went to the hotel. We met up with Shelly – had a drink and ordered our lunch.

I had a nice plate of Nachos and chips and it was very enjoyable. We stayed for quite awhile, and had a few drinks and a chit chat.

I found that in 1962, Dave had joined the Police in Britain - Sheffield I think – He spent some time there and then moved on.

When we left, Dave stayed. We dropped Shelly at a nearby house and then headed off home. Shelly has given me a present to take home for Andrew and Wenlin.

We traveled through Boonah on the way home. Dawnae stopped at what appeared to be a park. She told me that there were normally lots of "Skippys" there, but there were none today.

Bill has gone out to do something on the farm – probably check on the sick cow.

Thursday 7th August

Some time later in the morning – later here is about 9 am, I went with Bill for a journey "up the road". He wanted to see someone about farm business. The journey involved a trip to Aratula, turning north, and a short while later,east, to a property somewhat behind Bills propery – as viewed from the road in front of his house.

Unfortunately, the person he wanted to see was not home. Apparently, he had told Bill he would be there, but probably expected us earlier.

We continued on, almost in a circle, and was soon back at Bills property. He continued on, and went into the road where we had been a few days earlier – where we had checked the fences and retrieved the water trough and other equipment. He wanted to check that the gate had been locked by the people who had been there the other day. It was.

We turned back, and when we got to the road named Cunninghams Camp Road, we turned into it and went to the end. It was here that the explorer had camped before heading over "the Gap"

We returned home and had lunch Bill wanted to start his tractor to put an implement over 3.5 acres he has ploughed and is prepareing to plant out with lucern. Apparently, he has done it earlier, but lost the crop.

He has a little trouble with the tractor. The battery was flat. He put it on charge for a couple of hours. He spent a bit of time bleeding the fuel line and the tractor burst into life.

I watched him do the ploughing for awhile.

There were still a few logs lying outside that had been cut to length with the chain saw the other day.

I split them, turned a little of it into kindling and too it all inside. As it turned out, we did not need a fire during the evening, although Bill lit the electric heater.

Wednesday 6th August

At a little after 8 am this morning, we all left here – destination the town of Warwick. The journey was to take about an hour.
It was a nice sunny day, but cool. The journey was to take us to the other side of Cunninghams Gap – the area I mentioned a day or so ago.
Bill was going to attend the stock sale. We found a car park without any trouble and we entered the area.
Apart from the animals in pens, there were a few rows of general items spread out on the ground for sale.
I didn't see anything of interest or value. There were a couple of computer printers – one a Lexmark Z32 and of no interest to me.
It was just like being at any of he markets that can be found around home on the weekends.
Soon the sale was under way and some of the livestock seemed quite cheap. The auction started with small birds – quail for a couple of dollars – a pair of coloured parakeets (I think that is what they were) went for $70.00.
There were chickens and geese and I don't think anything was all that expensive.
As the auction progressed, I saw baby goats go for ten dollars. Adult goats were about seventy dollars.
We went to the area where pigs were being sold. A lot were sold for about $170.00. Dawnae told me that a guy sitting near us who held a note book and lifted it up and down very often, was buying for the freezing works. The pigs were being sold in groups of six and I suppose he was buying the lot.
It did not take long at all for about six pigs to be brought in, sold and removed from the pen, to be replaced by another lot.
As time when by, the pigs in each group that were brought in were getting smaller and smaller.
Before the pig auction started, I saw Dawnae holding a baby goat near where the goats were being sold. I thought she had bought it. It had a little woolen waistcoat on.
She had not bought it but she and Bill were talking to a lady who they new and the animal belonged to her.
I took a number of photographs while we were there.
We left before the auction was finished. I did not see any of the cattle sold.
Bill drove us into town – it only took two or three minutes. We parked the car and strolled along the street.
D and B looked at several shops and we had decided that later, we would go to lunch at the local club.
Dawnae bought several items at Crazy Clarks. She got some nice music cd's fllor between $2.00 and $4.00 and several small items there.
We went across to the Mall and Bill bought about 4 shirts – looked like business shirts for $4.00 each. When they got home, the label said that they were 100% cotton.
At the mall, we went to Woolworths Supermarket where we got a few food supply items and then set off for lunch.
Bill had a steak and I had roast beef and vegetables. Each meal was only $5.00. We had a couple of beers each and they were also quite cheap.
By the time we had finished it was time to head off home.
At the top of Cunninghams Gap, Bill stopped the car and we walked along the track for awhile.
Bill went on ahead of me. I thought he was following me back. Apparently, he went to the Monument a short distance on. I missed it.
When we unpacked at home, I had another look at Bills weather station. I flicked the switch from normal mode to setup and found we had our wireless connection.
They were the main events of the day.

Tuesday 5th August

It was a nice day today but not as warm as would have liked.
I gave Bill a hand this morning to load the cow and calf onto a truck and we took the animals to there new home. It is out Boonah way. The distance was about 25 k.
We had one little problem loading. When the truck was back hard against the ramp, there was a small gap big enough for the cow to brake a leg in while stepping into the truck.
We closed the gap by shifting the truck slightly but then, the sliding door of the truck could not be closed to secure the animal.
Bill got me to take the drivers seat and he he got behind the animal and forced into the truck. When he called out, I moved the truck forward a few inches and Bill slammed the door.
He was inside with the animal and the securing pin had jammed the door tight.
He couldn't get out. I got a large rock and hit the door several times to force it across. The animal was getting agitated and it was getting dangerous for Bill. I hit the door in the right place and it came open. Bill hopped out and the securing pin was put in place.
We set off on our journey. By the time we had delivered the animals and returned home, probably about an hour and a half had passed.
Later in the afternoon, we attempted to set up Bill's new wireless outdoor weather station.
Bill had mounted it and made the plug in connections but had gone no further.
Try as we might, we could not establish a wireless connection to the main unit in the house.
We left it for awhile and I went with Bill to Aratula. He refueled his car and bought some diesl for the tractor.
We returned to the Weather statation, but we could not get a connection.
I read the manual again and discovered a small switch – it has two positions – set and normal. The manual says that once set as been pressed on the main unit, another I d will not be issued until the wireless switch is moved.
We will have to try this tomorrow as it had started to rain. Tomorrow, we are going to Warwick.

Monday 4th August

Bill wanted me to go with him this morning to Beaudesert. There is a stock sale there every Monday and Bill takes his tomatoes there to sell. After this sale, he will be out of tomatoes so it will be the last one for awhile.
I would like to go and have a look at Beaudesert. We passed through there on our last visit to Dawnaes place. It was quite awhile ago now. When I heard he was getting up and 4-30 am, I lost interest and decided to stay here.
Dawnae had a prior engagement – Every Monday she play crockay. I decided to stay here, so I was alone for quite a bit of the day. Dawnae left at 8-30 am and before she left, I went with her to the gate and gave her a hand to let some cows out of a holding pen.
Then, I was by myself. I did my washing and when it was done, I put it out to dry. It was quite warm and sunny, so I took a walk to the creek when I had been with Bill yesterday. The dog, Keira came with me. Before I left, I closed and locked the gate that leads into the house area, so that the cows could not get in.
I spent about an hour there. I did not see any water there yesterday. There could have been some but I am not sure.
Today, I noticed water about 100 meters away. I walked along, and from there on, the were sections of water and some of it was flowing along. There was no sign of water in the other direction. Bill told me it goes underground from here on.
I lay don for awhile on the grass. Everything was dry. The dog was fossicking about and she came over and nudged me to get up.
I stayed there for awhile and then went to go back. I could not find the dog anywhere. I whistled out and called but there was no trace.
I was a bit worried she might have got lost but I thought that it was very unlikely.
I opened the gate to get to the house area and there was still no trace of her. As I went into the house, she came out to meet me.
Bill arrived back at about 3 pm. It had been a successful trip and he had sold the last of his tomatoes.
Dawnae arrived back at about 3-30 pm. I brought in the washing and most of it was dry, but some of the heavier items were damp.
It was not long before it was time for a drink or two and tv. At about 7-30 pm, we had our dinner. I think Dawnae said it was lasagna or something like that. It was very nice and I think mince, with bits added and covered with melted cheese.
Whatever it was, it was extremely nice and I enjoyed it.
They really have a good life style. I am amazed how much equipment is needed to farm a property like this.
It was Saturday, that a new calf was born. Bill has decided to sell the cow and calf and at about 5 pm, he was waiting for an interested buyer.
The buyer arrived a little late, after phoning first to apologise for not being on time.
The animals were sold, and Bill is going to deliver them to their new home tomorrow.
The destination is out Boonah way – about 25k

Sunday 3rd August

It was a beautiful warm sunny day today. I was up much earlier than usual. It was 7 am when I got up. Bill had been going to get up at some ridiculous hour but decided to get up at 6-30 am.
After breakfast, I went for a walk with Bill to the far end of his property at the creek that runs parallel to the road but 440 meters from it.
He told me that the boundary fence was on the other side of the creek. Recently, a Real estate agent told him that the creek had previously been further away – the creek had moved closer to Bills house and the boundary fence should be further away.
The Real Estate guy had left the info with the measurements of the property. The exaxt distance from the gate to the far boundary was 439 meters.
I measured the distance on GoogleEarth and it seems indeed that cuts right into the next paddock.
We returned to the house and a short while later, I gave Bill a hand to lift some farm gear a short distance.
We then drove to a nearby valley where Bill has some cows somewhere out in the bush.
He had some more equipment he wanted to bring home. The same sort of stuff we had shifted before. Each piece was a section of a portable animal pen. They were each a bit bigger that his small trailer and made of about 50x50 mm aluminium box section. They were quite light. We took them back to his property and stacked them with the others.
I went inside and did some work with Dawnae on the PC. She wanted to download and install openoffice, I set up the download and as it was going to take about 2,5 hours, we left it and went on with something else.
We later found the download had crashed and we got nothing. Later, I downloaded Firefox and installed that for her.
Bill wanted to go back to the same place we had been before and bring home a water trough.
We went back and parked and prepared for the job. Apparently, a Queenstreet Farmer owns the property and is going to build a house there. He has a caravan set up and he lives there on occasions, but is not presently there. He also has a very large workshop – shed – much larger that a standard double garage.
The first thing we had to do was get the water out of the trough. It was a circular trough – about 900mm deep. Similar to a smal Spa Pool – almost 2 meters in diameter.
All Bill had to do, was unscrew the locking rim of the bung. This is on the inside. As soon as it was removed, the water started to pour out. After about ten minutes half the water had gone, and we were able to tip it over and quickly get rid of the rest.
The pool was very light. We dragged it to the fence, lifted it on top and tipped it over to the other side. We then dragged it to the trailer. It slid easily over the grass and there was no effort at all, lifting it onto the trailer.
It was soon secure ready for the trip home. Bill was going to show me the rest of the area, so we detached the trailer and set off. From the road to where we were was almost four wheel drive territory. From now on, it was definitely that.
In about ten minutes, we were at the end of the track. We left the vehicle (which is a four wheel drive) and walked. Bill could see where pigs have been routing around in the mud.
Someone has built a pig trap there. It is a cage about 4 meters square and about a bit over a meter high. An entire side is hinged from the top and swings back and forth. It is has been opened by pushing in side and it is secured parallel to the roof by a hook. Strong cord is strung from side to side in the middle. At the end furtherest from the opening, there is a tray of pellets. It must be something pigs like.
The idea is that the pig enters for a feed. He pushes past the cord which is right across the middle. As he does so, this pulls on the hook that secures the door and it drops down. The pig would be trapped.
It is of very solid constructon. About 50 mm galvanised pipe and very heavy steel mesh around the frame.
The creek zig zags around and during our walk, I suppose about twenty minutes, we crossed it three times. We were able to step from boulder to boulder without getting our feet wet.
Bill was looking at two fences in the area and also looking for his animals that were in there somewhere. The terrain had changed and there was a lot more bush about here.
It was very pleasant and I enjoyed the experience. I took several photographs during the day. It is quiet and peaceful and I can see why people like living in the area.
A bit further on, there is a range of hills. To our right, they were almost vertical cliffs.
To our left, there was a large "U" shaped gap as though a giant had taken a huge bite out of the hill. It is known as "Camerons Gap". Apparently, he was some early explorer and the first person to cross to the other side of the hills.
As we returned, I noticed the name of the road running off the one we were on. It was Campsite Road.
I asked Bill how it got that name and he said that it was named after "one of Camerons Camps".
We had a late lunch – about 2-30 pm. Later in the afternoon, I spent a bit of time with Dawnae on the pc. Bill was off somwhere.
After that, it was much the same routine as at home. About 5-30 pm – a drink or two, tv, and later – dinner – and then t v again.
It was getting colder and Bill started up the log burner. Dawnae had prepared and delicious dinner.
It has been a very enjoyable day.

Saturday 2nd August

It was cold when I got up. I turned on the heat pump and it seemed to be quite efficient.
I was up earlier than usual, as we had to leave the unit today and we wanted to be on the road as soon as possible.
It was 7 am when I got up. We still had half a dozen eggs left and Ruth prepared scrambled eggs for our breakfast.
By the time we finally left, it was just a little past 9 am. Early for us, almost an hour earlier than we had planned to be on the road.
After one false start and finding ourselves heading back to Noosa Heads, we set off in the correct direction. We had planned to take the coast road, highway 6 to Maroochydore. I had hear about this place and we expected it to be something out of the ordinerary.
It was a nice drive, but what a grotty place when we got to the city centre. We had no time to explore, so set off to Caloundra. Again, I was disappointed. We typed in Lisson Grove, Brisbane and set off. I had not been using Sally previously.
Sally took us there without any trouble and we spent a bout 15 minutes looking about that area where we have stayed on a couple of occasions.
We left there and went to the large shopping mall at Toonbul. We had a light snack and I looked around Dick Smith's Shop. They are nowhere as well stocked as N Z. I bought a Vodophone recharge pack for $2.00. There is no time on it but it can be loaded from credit card. I still have my old Nokia Vodophone and this card could come in handy.
To by a pack in N Z costs $30.00 although it includes $10.00 worth of calls.
We left the mall and set Sally for Brisbane International Airport. It was only about 8 k away.
We refueled the car at the Service station right next to the Airport and then drove and parked the car in the Avis Car Park.
We left our luggage in the car and set off on foot to see where everything was. Ruth had twenty minutes to wait before she was able to check in. I bought a Rail ticket to get to Ipswitch – just over twenty dollars. It will cost me $5.00 more for the return as the fares go up on Monday.
We had a look at the entrance to the Rail Station and then returned to the car and got Ruth s luggage.
We got Ruth checked in and I returned to the car and got my luggage while Ruth waited in the Cafeteria.
I handed back the Rental car and the total cost of the hire was $403.00 for the ten days.
Unfortunately, I left the bracket and power cord for Sally in the car but I only realized that later when I was on the train.
Ruth came with me to the station. We said goodbye and she left to catch the plane home and I waited for the train to take me to Ipswitch.
By this time, I had found that I had to get off at Central Station and catch another train to Ipswitch.
I was soon on the train and then got worried when the p a system kept saying this was an express train to the Gold Coast with limited stops – Bowen Hills and Beanleigh were about all.
At the first stop I saw some railway people on the platform and they assured me the train would stop at Central.
Sure enough, it did – and on Platform 5.
Ten minutes later I was on the way. I sent a text to Dawnae telling her was on the way.
A few minutes later, Bill rang me and said Dawnae would be at the station at about 6-20 pm. The train was to arrive a little after 6 pm. It was arranged for me to wait at the exit.
Dawnae was about right on time. It was good to see her again. I loaded my luggage and off we went.
I got D. to stop briefly at a liquor and I got thirty cans of Export for $40.00.
Soon, we were at the house. I took everything upstairs and met Bill again.
We chatted and had a can. It was quite a cold night and Bill had a heater on.
About an hour later, we enjoyed a really nice meal that Dawnae had prepared.
I suppose it was about 10 pm or after b y the time we turned in. Early for me – Very late for D and B

.Friday 1st August

Another nice day. After we had finished breakfast and cleared up, we left the unit and headed down to the beach front not far from here – not Noosa Heads. We think this may have been the area we stayed in last time but it is so long ago, we can't remember.
I refueled the car. The tank was only about half full. We had a good look around. We spent about an hour and a half walking along the river waterfront. We took photographs, and spent some time sitting on the park benches under the trees. It was nice spending time by the river, watching the boats and picnickers.
We drove back to the heads. We parked at the far end of the Main Street, the only parking spot I could find.
We locked the car, and walked along the track to the beach. We continued along the beach to the mouth of the river. I suppose about 800 meters along the beach.
We had to wade through water about knee depth to get around the rock protection wall to gain access to the river beach.
About 100 meters from the mouth, a guy was fishing. I spoke to him. He as lived here for quite a few years but is from Ashburton. He only recently sold his house there.
We left the fisherman and sat in the sun on the river beach for about 15 minutes and then set off back to the car. We only had one hour parking.
We returned to the Motel. It was far too late for lunch. We had a cold drink and settled down for a rest.
We got ready early and went to the Noosa Slc for dinner.
At first, I parked in the Main street and we walked a short distance to the premises. I was not exactly sure of the location and layout but I knew within about 50 meters where it was.
We entered the premises, and checked in. It was a bit grotty, but I think mainly because the entire ground floor was closed for renovation, and upstairs was being extended.
I found that we could park in the car park and there was plenty of room, so I left Ruth to look after herself, and I went and brought the car to the premises.
We each had fish of the day – fillets with baramundi and salad. It came with potatoe mash which Ruth had – I substituted fries.
The meal was very enjoyable – I wished we had baramundi at home.
The only thing was, Ruth did not seem to have any salad. There was plenty on my plate for both of us. I did not query the issue and we were both satisfied. The salad was also very nice.
By the time we had eaten, had a drink, and returned home, it was about 8-30 pm.
We are just settling down to a nice Riesling and finalizing packing for tomorrow.
This time, everything except the Laptop has to go into our cases – Ruths case ready for the plane – and mine ready for the train journey to Ipswitch where I am to meet Dawnae and Bill.

Thursday 31st July

It was a nice sunny day when we woke up this morning. It was quite cold but the day warmed up and for most of the day, it was quite pleasant.
For the first time since I have been here, I was able to walk around in shorts and jandals.
After we had finished breakfast and tidied the house, we returned to the Noosa Civic Mall. I found the Internet Terminals – not in the mall but outside.
I sat down at a machine after being directed there by the attendant. It was different to the last time I went to a kiosk in Surfers. Incidentally, that was the first time I had ever used a public terminal.
Everything seamed strange on this terminal. I was expecting to find the Word Processor open office that I use all the time.
It was missing, so was Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
I clicked on a few items. There was a different Word Processor and one of the icons brought up what was obviously a Web Browser.
I plugged in my USB Flash Drive, and once again, I found that Control c and v did not work and I had to copy and paste by using the menus on each program.
Having pasted the last couple of days of this Diary into a Blank Email form, I put the Email address on (it goes to the Blog Site), and hit the send button. I checked my Blog about a minute later, and there it was for my thousands of readers (or more like both of them) – to see.
It did not take long – I was only there about ten minutes. I then saw signs on the Terminals. Some parked Windows – the one I had been using was Marked MacIntosh. No wonder if was different.
I paid my two dollars and went off somewhere to was my hands after touching a dreaded Mac.
Ruth had been looking about the Mall and had bought Potatoes for dinner. We are only buying a little of everything while we are here. We don't want to be left with food as Ruth flies home tomorrow.
We drove to Noosa Heads, parked the car in a public parking area, and walked to the information centre to get directions to the Public Park with the walk along the cliff overlooking the sea.
It was only 1.5k up the road from their office, so we returned to the car and drove to the park. We eventually found a car park and went for our walk.
It was quite warm and we enjoyed the walk. We saw a Koala Bear asleep high in a tree.
As we progressed along the track, and one stage, in came down to beach level at a nice beach of golden sand.
We walked a few meters across the stones that lay in the way to get to the beach and we spent about twenty minutes there. We lay down on the sand in the sun and if was very pleasant. I had to put my hat over my eyes to shield the bright sun.
We reluctantly left the beach and continued along the track for about twenty minutes and turned around and returned to the car.
We thought we would have a Subway Roll for lunch. We drove down the Main Street but could not find one.
I set Sally up to the nearest street I could see in the vicinity of the Noosa Civic Shopping Mall and off we set.
We got close, but it took us an age to find it. We got our Subway. A foot long Meatball Subway sells here for about 6 dollars. We bought one, had it cut in half and we had that for lunch. This is the one Subway that get toasted. They are very nice but quite "messy".
While Ruth was finishing her meal, I went across the car park to Dick Smith's Shop. There were a few things different, but all it all, I thought our local D.S. Shops are better stocked.
I saw some videos of trains around the world - $5.00 each. I would have liked to have got some of those.
We returned to the Motel. We wanted to go and try the Spa Pool. I found where it was – there is another swimming pool – heated – on the other side of the tennis court and the Spa is next to it. The swimming pool was quite warm but the Spa was cold – much colder than the swimming pool.
We went back to the Unit and settled down for a rest. At about 5-30 pm, a drink or two and it was soon time to prepare dinner.
T V wasn't too bad tonight. Ruth went off to bed a little earlier than I did. It was getting on to midnight by the time I went to bed.
We have only one more day here in Noosa – Ruth flies home on Saturday and I travel to Dawnae's for about a week.

Wednesday 30th July

We woke up to a really nice sunny day and it was quite warm. The weather forecast is quite good for the next few days. Typical – We leave here today.
It was a little before 10 am when we were ready to hand the Motel Key back and head off to Noosa.
When we got to the Smith Street turn off, which leads to the Motorway, Sally was telling us to continue another few kilometers ahead.
I disregarded, and turned into Smith Street. The roadworks there are causing a lot of congestion and it took quite a long time to travel the first few hundred meters.
When we had cleared the roadworks area, we were off. I had set Sally's destination as Lisson Grove, a street not far from the Brisbane Airport. We have stayed in a Motel there a couple of times.
Probably about two thirds of the way to destination covered, I noticed a Motorway turn off to the Sunshine Coast. I almost took it but decided against.
As we got closer to Brisbane, I saw the Airport turn off. I almost took it, but again decided not to. I remembered previously doing this, getting confused and had quite a time to sort things out.
I continued on, wondering what had happened to the Toll Gate. Well, we missed it and the road took us right into Brisbane.
Sally, of course, was still attempting to take us to Lisson Grove. We drove along the Section of the river that we had taken a Ferry trip on, during our last vist. I knew where we were and we had walked along the section of road. I knew weof were close to the Casino. When Sally told us to turn right, we probably probably passed it.
We followed Sallys instructions for quite awhile. With my limited knowledge of the Geography of Brisbane, I knew we we going in the right direction. After some time, I saw a road sign for the Sunshine Coast. I took it and from there on, I had given up going to Lisson Grove. For awhile, Sally was telling me to turn right. As we continued on, I saw a road sign for Sandgate. Lisson grove was not far from Sandgate Road.
I found a spot to park. To do so, I had to turn off the busy road on which we were travelling. For miles, there had been nowhere to park. There were no signs but if a vehicle stopped, it would close off the entire lane.
I reset Sally for Noosa heads. We continued and after quite some time, Sally directed us off the Motorway. We found a road sign and it showed Noosa heads 49 kilometers away. I thought we should have been closer. I stopped at the University, which was the only sign of civilization around. A young student was playing basket ball against himself in the gym and doing quite well. He was a local and when I asked him the best way to Noosa, he just about had a heart attack and said he didn't know where it was.
I checked the Reception. The lady there had be in Australia two days. She was from Germany and didn't have a clue.
I saw a young woman getting into a car in the carpark. She has only been here two days but she was quite helpful.
We continued on and not much later, we were in Noosa Civic. I parked and asked a man if there was an information centre in town. He told me there was, he had just been there. Like us, he had just arrived and was a stranger to the area.
We went into the Mall and I got the address of the Palm Grove Complex from the Information Counter.
We bought some fish for dinner. The woman in front of me bought some fish called Basa – and it was only about 11 dollars a kilogram. I asked her what it was like and she said that it was very nice.
I bought enough for dinner for tonight and also for tomrrow night. Later, when we had our dinner, it was very nice indeed.
We stopped at Subway and bought a roll each for lunch. We sat out in the bright sun outside and ate or lunch. He was a change to be warm.
We had a bit of trouble finding Ivory Palm. I did not ask the lady for the street number.
We found the road without any trouble and drove along looking for it. We passed a roundabout and there were Motels after Motels but not what we were looking for. I found the road name had changed. We turned back and eventually found the place.
We checked in, paying the remainder of the required money and settled ourselves in the unit.
It is very nice indeed, with our own balcony next to the swimming pool. After we had set up camp, we had a drink out on the balcony and then grabbed a quick half hour rest. We left and went to Noosa Heads. We wanted a bottle of wine. After walking up and down the street, making an enquiry at the Information Desk, we found a wine shop. It was not the sort of place we were looking for so we set off "over the hill" in the direction given us by the lady in Information and we found what we were looking for. We got a bottle of Riesling and half a dozen cans of Carlton and set off home.
It was about 5-30 pm. We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed a drink. I turned the tv on and it came alive. Problem – Not one of the remote controls would have any effect.
It is a sharp tv and the only sharp remote was for the stereo system. I rang the office and I was not happy when I was told there is nothing that could be done until tomorrow.
I voiced my disapproval. He asked me if I could control it manually. I had tried and I could not get it to work. I told him so.
He rang back a short time later and told me his maintenance man was still here and he would have a look.
In the meantime, I found that I could change channels manually, but it was difficult.
The man arrived about half an hour later. He was a nice young fellow. He had found a sharp remote in his truck. He tried it and it worked. He asked me if I had searched around for it. We had of course, behind all the cushions, in drawers, cupboards and around the bedroom.
I gave him a hand to lift up the heavy two seater chair, and the missing remote was underneath.
Probably my fault, but it should have been found by the cleaners.
As it turned out, we could not find a lot on tv even with two movie channels.
We went to bed and after turning off the light, Ruth tried out the tv in the bedroom.
It was high up on a bracket facing down towards the beds. We watched it for awhile and then closed down for the night.

Tuesday 29th July

It was a sunny day today but if was very cold.
I am not sure if I have mentioned yesterday, that I broke a large dinner plate. I put in in the drying rack after washing it. There is not much to hold it in the rack and it fell out and smashed on the tiled floor.
I went and saw the Reception lady and she told me that as it was one of the older plates, she would not worry about charging for it.
She also told me that maintenance men were going around all the units this morning changing the light bulbs for energy saving types, and also, changing the shower rose heads.
The workman arrived a short time later with the manager. He replaced the plate that had been broken and the workman did his jobs. He was not here long.
At about 11 am, we set off for Coolangatta. It is a nice drive and takes I suppose about half an hour.
We went into what appeared to be an unimpressive shopping mall. While Ruth was looking around, I found an Internet Kiosk. I put in my two dollar coin for twenty minute access and prepared to send the first part of this correspondence to my Web Blog.
I had it prepared on a USB key ring. The first thing I found was that Gmail does not seem to accept copy and past.
I eventually tried Yahoo Mail, and I was able to do it there.
A few minutes later, I checked my Bl, and there it was – Success.
I just had time to dash off a couple of very short Emails and then my two dollars ran out.
We went back to the car, as we were on a one hour park and time was nearly up.
Ruth decided she wanted to visit a shop she had seen. She set off on foot and I shifted the car to a two car park on the beach front. It was about 100 meters from the Surf Club.
I left the car and went inside the explore. The dining room and bar look out across the sea and the high buildings at Surfers Paradise could easily be seen.
I phoned Ruth and told her to come in when she was ready.
I was not feeling well and I did not want a large expensive meal I would not have enjoyed it. We had a couple of glasses of Riesling and and Steak Sandwich. It was a good cheap meal.
We spent some time there and I headed back to the car to wait for Ruth When she arrived at the car, we decided to head back to the unit. Although it was a sunny day, there was a strong chill wind and it was not pleasant at all.
It was probably about 4 pm when we got back. We had a quick rest and then at about 5 pm, we went and explored the park at the end of the street. It borders the canals and at one place, there is a very narrow strip of land, about 6 meters between two canals and there is a large pipe under the ground connecting the two.
The tide was coming in and there was a large swirl at the pipe entrance as some of the water was held back.
It was very pleasant in this park. There were some birds, about the size of a thrush, with a yellow stripe on its wings. Some of them would come up and take bread out of our hand.
We came back home, and after watching the news on tv we prepared our meal. The rest of last nights chicken with vegetables.
That has just about ended or stay at Surfers Paradise. We leave for Noosa in the morning.

Monday 28th July

We only have two more days left in S P. We leave for Noosa on Wednesday. It was a cold day and the weather forecast was not good. We have not yet been to Seaworld and that was to be the highlight of RuthsRuth s

We discussed what we were going to do today and she said she wanted to go to Seaworld. We set off, and I thought about it and said I would thing about going to.

We went to the ticket office. Using Auntie Helen s Gold card for myself, and the Entertainment Book Gold Card for Ruth, we both got in for a total of $76.50. Quite a good price really.

It was cold moving around the Park. At times, it rained a bit. We enjoyed the day – the highlights being the underwater viewing of the large fish and animals (from a tunnel we walked through – we could see through huge glass windows that formed a wall holding back the water).

Also special, was being entertained by the dolphins and their instructors – the ride in the Gondola across the entire park, an the ride (two) in the Monorail was threads its way around the entire park.

We left at about 4 pm. I set Sally for Australia Fair Shopping Complex. I knew where it was, but with the busy roads and right hand turns across the four lane main road, she gives plenty of advanced notice about what to do.

We parked and went to Woolworths Supermarket. We got a large cooked chicken for dinner tonight and also for tomorrow night. We also got some potatoes as we are almost out of them.

I got a bottle of wine and we set off home. We found the car ok and 15 minutes later we were back in the unit

We cooked dinner and settled down to T V. While doing the dishes, I broke a large dinner plate. I suppose the Motel will want the earth for it.

Sunday 27th July

After the busy day yesterday, we decided to take it easy today. We slept in, getting up at about 9-30 am.

We had breakfast and tidied up a bit. We went for a short walk around some of the nearby streets. We discovered a Park at the end our street which we have not yet explored. Just a few hundred meters from here, there is a bridge across a canal with boats everywhere. Many houses have boat ramps at the back.

Another few hundred meters along, we came to another Canal. There are heaps of them around here.

We came back to the unit for lunch. Later in the afternoon, we drove to the main shopping area of S P. We parked along the waterfront (angle parking – Pay and Display).

We only had parking for ninety minutes. It was enough time to have a little bit of a look around.

We bought a few small things from Woolworths Supermarket, and some wine and a few cans of ale from a liquor out.

We took a few pictures near where we had parked the car. We went back to the unit.

The Spa pool was empty, so we did a quick change and enjoyed ourselves there.

Later, we cooked a light meal and settled down to T V on the movie channel Police Academy and the same but version three.

Saturday 26th July

It was a sunny day when we got up this morning. We received a text from Andrew. I had sent him one yesterday and he had only just discovered it. He told me that he had sent an Email to Dawnae as I had requested.

After breakfast, we left to look around Pacific Fair Shopping Complex. I wore shorts and a summer shirt and also a jersey.

It was quite pleasant and it was not long before id took off the jersey.

We did find anything of interest there – Except Tandy Electronics and the Australian outdoor shop which had a good range of Astro Telescopes.

We came home and had lunch, followed by a short rest. We left for oasis Mall whee we parked the car and I used by N Z Phone to see if I could connect to the internet via 8011G wireless. I found the oasisfreehotspot and I could read the front page. I could read the part about if a member, login and also, if not a member, click here to join. There was also a link for information, but I could not get any of them to work.

I examined the internet terminals there – a kiosk. It is coin operated and there is a two dollar charge for twenty minutes. I found a usb slot in the panel, so I will put this diary onto a usb flash drive and maybe tomorrow, Email it to a secret location, whereupon, almost immediately it will appear on my Blog Site.

The main purpose of this trip was to explore the area across the road where there was a food court. We had dinned there a few times on our last trip. There is also a very small bar there.

Nothing had changed much – except prices – but that was to be expected. We may go back for a chinese lunch sometime.

We returned home and after doing a few routine jobs, while waiting for a couple to get out of the Spa Pool.

I went and checked, and the young woman was just getting out and her male friend was about to also.

I went back to the unit – we quickly changed – and went to the Pool. The young guy was still in it. We thought we would frighten him off and asked if he mind us joining him.

He had no objections. We hopped in and chatted to him. After about ten minutes,he was gone.

A short time later, an older guy – probably around my age entered the pool area . He had togs on and a towel wrapped around him. He sat down at a table nearby.

I called out to him to come in, adding that he would freeze sitting out there.

He accepted, and joined us. We chatted to him for about twenty minutes. He was from Dunedin and comes here regularly. Apparently, he was in the hospital umbrella, involved with catering – or was – he took early retirement and now works part time. I didn't catch what he is doing now.

Ruth wanted to return to the Casino tonight and would not take any notice of my objections.

As planned, we returned to the unit, showered and prepared our evening meal – fish (deep sea cod) that we had bought yesterday.

We had a good meal and got ready for the Casino trip. When we had been making our way home this afternoon, we drove around the Casino, past the entrance and Car parks, to familiarize ourselves with the layout.

Tonight was the Rugby test – Bledislo Cup – Australia v New Zealand. It is the first text match that Robbie Deans has faced as the New Australian Coach sitting taking office. I don't take much interest in the game, especially since it was commercialized several years ago. However, like a lot of others, I don't think J Henry should have been replaced as coach of the All Blacks following the recent World Cup loss. The Kiwis got nowhere near the finals. Even I could see that Henry's ideas were not very good.

Deans has worked miracles as coach of the Canterbury Team and in my view, like many others, he should be the All Black Coach.

While preparing for our Casino trip, we were watching the pre amble on T V.

I decided when I got there, I would watch the game – support Dingo Deans and the new Canterbury team.

We arrived at the Casino – and struck the first problem. Apparently, there are three car parks with several levels. Everything was full and I could not find access to higher levels. There were about twenty million cars, driving around looking for parks.

I dropped Ruth at the entrance and went to the furtherest away car park. Nothing had changed. I gave up and decided to go back to the Motel – Ruth could phone me when she was ready.

When I arrived, I realized I did not have the key and there is a $55.00 call out if a key is lost.

I went to the Reception with the intention of phoning the manager from the direct line and asking to be let in.

There was a young Malaysian there – booked in for a couple of weeks, and he could not access the Safe to get his key and instructions.

He told me he had phoned the Security and was on the line to them. He also said the Guard was on the way.

I spoke to the Security person who was on the phone and I was told that if I was lucky, the Guard may let me in without paying.

He arrived a few minutes later. Not a chance - $55.00 to get in.

I returned to the Casino and tried the car parks again. Things had changed, more cars.

I gave up, and I drove to Pacific Fair and parked in the Car park. There seemed to be no way they could lock it. I asked a bus driver it it closed and he was of the opinion that it didn't.

I walked back to the Casino and went inside. The entire population of S P and New Zealand was there. Everyone spoke to was a Kiwi – including a young woman working there.

It took me half an hour to find Ruth – and then she told me to go away – she likes to be alone there.

The second half of the Rugby game had just started and I watched it to the end. I think the A B's may have crossed the centre line once. They were having a hard time. I saw a kiwi tackle an Australian who was chasing a ball – miles from it. I think it resulted in a penalty which cost A B's.

The new Canterbury team were victors – 34 19 – Congratulations Dingo Deans.

Ruth would not let me stay with her long. I did not feel like fighting through the crowds to get a drink. There were not many people at the Cafeteria, so I bought some more beer battered chips and I ate them.

I could not get Ruth to leave and even the worry of the car being locked up at Pacific Fair all night did not faze her.

I went and sat in an area that looked something like a T A B – with one of those large (about 9 feet x 7 feet) tv screens with lots of large tv screens around it. I watched tv obout 5 different screens and channels at once – all except the big horse racing tv – it has sound.

Ruth eventually turned up and was ready to go home. We left the building and it was very cool outside.

We walked back to Pacific Fair, running the Gauntlet of all the drunks – including one who asked if he could get credit on his cell phone at the Casino.

I told him I didn't really know what a cell phone was and to ask the Casino.

We waited at the traffic lights for a green pedestrian lights, and crossed to the other side, while all the traffic departing the Casino waited for us. Our next hurdle was to get to the other side of the road to Pacific Fair. Four lanes of traffic.

We waited until the road was clear in both directions and stated out. We got to the Median Strip in the middle – It is about 18 inches high – possible more. I stepped onto it and jumped to the road on the other side. I saw Ruth on top and I saw her start to step down. Then I heard a yell. I looked around and she was lying on the road. She had tripped and tried to save herself by putting her hand out and had shave some of the skin off. Fortunately, she broke nothing. We walked on to the Mall Car park – passed two drunks who were apparently waiting for a bus and through the darkened area into the car park.

The car was till there, we got in and drove out and set off home, feeling very grate full that got there safely. It was about 1-30 a.m.

We had a G and T. I turned the T V on and there was a good program – So an hour and another G and T later, we went to bed.

Friday 25th July

It rained hard all night and was still raining this morning. While we were having breakfast, the rain stopped. The forecast was for clearing weather but packing up tomorrow.

As the weather seemed to be clearing, we set off for Sanctuary Cove. I set Sally and off we went. She took us there without any problems.

There has been a lot of building done since we were there last, and it would have been a lot harder to get there without Sally.

The blue line ahead shows our direction hundreds of meters ahead. The direction of the next turn and distance to it is shown in a separate window. I can relax and not have to look for road direction signs at each intersection.

We arrived all right and parked in the car park. We walked into the Marina town. I was amazed that there were so many electric vehicles (Golf Cars). They were everywhere. There were special parking areas for them.

There was a cold wind blowing and it was almost raining. It was not such an enjoyable visit as our previous ones.

We had a drink in the bar that we had been in on our last visit. We spent about an hour there.

We went back to the car after taking some pics. I told Sally to take us to Harbour Town Shopping Centre which was on the way home.

We set off and at one stage, Sally directed a right hand turn which was wrong. I am not sure what happened. I think sometimes, it loses data for a bit and gets confused. After this incident, we had no trouble.

We parked the car, and we took note of where it was parked so that we would have no trouble finding it.

The last time we had visited here, there was an electrical storm with thunder and lighting and torrential rain. At least, today was a bit better.

The shopping complex was not at all like I remembered it. There was nothing of interest there and it was quite disappointing.

We got a few things from the supermarket and went back to the car. We could not find it.

It took us about twenty minutes of walking all over the place before we found it.

We set off home, setting Sally for Santana. We were home a little after 4 pm.

We had a kip for about an hour, and then watched tv and prepared a meal. We had bought some nice deep sea cod fillets for dinner and we had them with vegetables.

After the meal we settled down to watch t v with a drink or two to finish the day.

Thursday 24th July

Day two in Surfers Paradise, but our first full day.

It rained hard most of the day and also rained most of the day. It stopped briefly at times.

At about 10 am, we left here and went to the oasis shopping mall. We parked the car on Level 1A and went exploring. We looked around the mall and went to Woolworths Supermarket and bought food and cleaning items to last the next few days.

At about 1 pm we decided to go home for lunch. We set off with our trolley and headed back to the car. The trouble was – where was it. We found a sign pointing to Level B 1 and B2. We went there and got to the car park and we were utterly confused. Locals we spoke to looked blankly and didn't have a clue. They just park where they usually do and didn't know.

We went back to civilization in the shopping area. We asked a Mall Workman and he came and helped us.

We had both pushed the supermarket trolley around a couple of levels of car park without finding the car.

I walked around the entire mall – outside looking for we had entered so that I could work fr there, but without success. It was raining hard and I got soaked.

I eventually found the car. I picked up Ruth and we went back to Santana for lunch. We had bought a nice cheese and bacon and pineapple bread role for lunch. It was about the size of a dinner plate and like a pizza, but was bread.

We had one each for lunch. I put some chopped up tomato on my and it was very nice.

We had a sleep and later, at about 3 pm, we went back to the mall and parked the car. Ruth wanted to visit Jupiter Casino and we might as well do it on a wet day.

We got the Mono Rail which goes from the Mall to Jupiter.

I had a boring 3.5 hours waiting for Ruth. During that time, I had a couple of drinks and a plate of beer batter chips which I enjoyed very much.

When Ruth came out, she claimed that she was even – she had not won or lost any money.

It was still raining very lightly and quite cold. We decided to walk back to the Mall. There was a nice meandering track with an overhead cover across the river.

The trouble was, when we got to the other side, we were at the Convention Center and it was across the other side of a very bush 4 lane road.

We saw a young couple walk away, heading where we wanted to go. I said to Ruth that the looked like they knew their way around. They were heading to some traffic lights They must be locals.

We stopped behind them while waiting for the lights. The young woman asked us if we knew our way around. They were looking for Valentino Restaurant. Another couple of lost kiwis and they thought it funny when I told them that we had been following them, believing they would get us to safety,

Fortunately, I did know where the restaurant was and I was able to tell them that it was around the bend on the left, as soon as they had crossed the bush road.

As it turned out, we all got to where we were going safely.

We entered the Mall, and once again had difficulty finding the car, but it did not really take long.

We had left it far to late to get anything for dinner, so we repeated last nights meal. A Subway Sandwich. The same young fellow had served us last night and he remembered that Ruth had a Turkey Subway, and asked if she would like the same. He was a very nice guy – black as the ace of spades, and perhaps from Aarika somewhere.

I ducked into the liquor shop and got half a dozen cans of Carlton (beer). We came back home and we have found a better method of getting from our parking place in the locked secure garage, to our unit, without having to walk miles and go outside.

We came inside and enjoyed our meal and drinks while watching T V. T V seems a bit useless though. It is hard to find anything good to watch.

Wednesday 23rd July

We were up at the usual time this morning.

It was not a nice day at all, and a southerly is forecast for this afternoon.

After breakfast, we finished packing and prepared to leave the house for ten days as we were due to leave for Brisbane this afternoon

Andrew was due at 1 pm to take us to the Airport. The last hour really dragged as we waited for him. At 12-30 pm Ruth phoned to make sure he had not forgotten about it. He was just about to leave.

Andrew arrived about 1 pm and at about 1-15 pm we were on the way to the Airport.

Andrew dropped us at the front of the terminal and had to leave right away as he had things to attend to.

We went into the check in area and quite a large queue had formed and it was obvious that no one was working at the counter. After about ten minutes, staff appeared and the queue started to move.

We checked in and our two suitcase disappeared into the system.

We went upstairs to the cafeteria and got a snack. Tea/Coffee and I ordered a chocolate and raspberry muffin that was on display. I got a muffin but it was obvious that it was another flavour. Ruth had one of the bananas that we had taken.

When we had finished, we went downstairs to the ATM and took out some money, so that Ruth would have some when she went home.

O

We went back downstairs and paid our departure tax - $25.00 x two,

We then entered the departure lounge and went through customs and Security.

While waiting, I bought two bottles of gin – with the advertised discount, it was around forty dollars for the two. I had told Dawnae that I would take a bottle to her place.

We waited patiently and eventually boarded the plane.

As we were waiting, the weather was closing in, and I wondered if we would get away.

The take off was about 15 minutes late. The captain came on the intercom and told us the weather was not much better that Chc and he expected head winds and that would result in an extra 30 minutes flying time – and it would be a bit bumpy.

He was wrong about the bumps.

Against Wenlins advice, we bought something on the plane. Ruth got tea and I got a small bottle of wine.

We finished our bananas on the flight.

Before leaving Chc, and while we we waiting for Andrew to come, I phoned Social Welfare and informed them that I was leaving the country for weeks – as all people over 65 who receive GRI are required to do. I know most people don't bother but I do. I also got them to Email me an acknowledgment – which they did.

As usual, we had to fill out the Arrival Card for the oz government. The question about drugs was very clear-r – Includes medicine – If unsure – put a cross to indicate – but it was clear that we had to click the yes box as well – and I insisted that Ruth did also.

We told the Customs person at the counter what we had done, and I was told that he would send us to the appropriate place.

As we worked our way passed the Customs person, clearing passengers in line to enter the arrival hall – He directed us to a Customs person in the search area.

She asked us what we had, and a few simple questions. She thanked us for telling them and sent us on our way.

We entered freedom, and went to the Avis Counter. A very obliging clerk was expecting us and in no time at all, we had completed the paper work and we were ready to take possession of the vehicle.

He had upgraded us and the car we got is a Mitsubishi and quite a big car. It has an aeroplane thingy across the boot – I think it must be a connector to tow skate boarders.

It was raining hard but quite warm when we went outside. We found the car without difficulty. I don't think the remote locking system is working properly, as it only unlocks the drivers door.

We stowed the luggage in the boot. I set Sally up and decided not to spend time anchoring the holding bracket to the windscreen. I asked Ruth to hold the unit. I entered Santana, the name of the Motel we were to stay at and set off.

It was not long before I realized that the external rear vision mirrors were not set correctly. They were both down far to low and I could not see behind at all. Everything seemed ok in the parking bay. I decided that as soon as possible, I would stop and adjust them. The problem was, there was no where to stop. I found that by getting my head down as low as possible, I could just see vehicles that were close behind – on the right hand side of the vehicle.

We were soon on the road crossing that large bridge than spans the river and leads onto the M1 Motorway and the Toll Gate.

Somewhere along the road, I had to stop for a traffic light. I opened the window and pressed the mirror upwards, and fortunately, it moved and I could see.

It was raining hard. I can't remember if this happened before the Toll Gate or after.

We saw the Toll area approaching and I followed the truck in front of me. The trouble was, he kept going without slowing down and I suddenly saw all the Toll Gates out to my left. I had to keep going and we were suddenly passed the area without paying and were then a running fugitive.

After awhile Sally started to mis behave. When I set Santana, I did not mention Surfers Paradise. Maybe there is another one. She kept wanting me to turn off the Mi to the right.

At one point, following her instructions, we were heading back to Brisbane. She was obviously trying to bring me back on track, as after about 3 minutes, she told me to do two right hand turns, and I was back on the M1.

When we got to the point that we had gone wrong, she told me to turn right again. I did so, but disregarded the next right hand turn, which would have taken back to Brisbane again.

A short distance down the road, I turned left onto a busy road heading in the correct direction.

After a minute, a block of shops were coming up on our left. I pulled into the parking area and inquired at the liquor shop.

The young guy working there was very helpful. He told me to continue in the direction that I had been, and I would soon be back on the M1.

We set off, but before doing so, I canceled Sally s instructions and made sure I selected Surfers Paradise, and entered the destination as Santana.

We were soon back on the M1. This time, I stayed in the left lane of the two that were marked straight ahead by overhead lane directions.

From then on, we had no problems. Just one minor one. As we approached our destination, I knew we had to turn across the median strip somewhere, and head back a short distance to make the final turn to our destination. Sally, said, turn right, followed immediately by then turn right. I made my first right turn and found myself entering the Gardens. I did a u turn in the driveway, headed back and turned left. Sally had meant a "U" turn.

A minute later, we were at Santana. It was locked up like Fort Knox. It was raining and I could not find a way through the Security Gate. I kicked and shook it, and then read the sign that said, "Push knob to open".

There was no one on duty at the Reception. There was Comm Phone there. I picked up and it a few seconds, I was talking to the staff. There was a security safe there. I was given the instructions to open it and there was an envelope there addressed to me with full instructions – where to park – a key – and the number of our unit.

The manager came down and spoke briefly to me.

Soon, we had parked the car, and lugged our luggage miles up and down steps, through the rain and settled into the unit.

By this time, it was about 9 pm or after. We went back to the car and went to get food. We finished up with a Subway sandwich and we bought bread, milk and one or two essential items from the Mini Supermarket next door. I also bought a couple of small bottles of Gin and Tonic from the liquor store.

We went back to Santana and had our meal. That just about ended our first day in Surfers Paradise. Much like a wet day in Christchurch, only slightly warmer.

Tuesday 22nd July

It was not all that cold when I got up this morning. I lit the gas fire for awhile but it was not going for long. It was raining for awhile but got better about mid day.

We went to Andrew's house, taking Joey (the Budgie) and the two gold fish. Andrew and Wenlin are going to look after them while we are in Australia.

It was quite a nice day as we drove over at about midday but rain is not far away. Bad weather is predicted overnight and for tomorrow.

We leave at 3-45 pm tomorrow so I hope we get away before the bad weather hits.

I took the route to his house along Locksley Avenue. The sun was shining and I enjoy the drive along the river. We passed the Arawa Canoe Club. It was on the opposite side of the river (we we attended the party on Sunday afternoon).

When we arrived at Andrew's house, he was just unpacking a brand new 500 gig usb drive. He had bought one for himself a few months ago This was for Danny. He of course had given Andrew the money for its purchase - fare enough seeing it was for him - and Andrew was loading some files for him.

We did not stay long there. Just enough time to instruct him on how not to kill the bird and the fish.

We stopped at the Palms on the way home. Ruth went into the Mall to get something from the Supermarket. I dropped into Westpac to pick up an Insurance Booklet and while waiting for her I went to Dick Smith's.

While there, I looked at the Acer eee 900 - or is it the 9000. It is a very nice little laptop and very popular This little P C gets excellent reviews and at $750.00 would be a good buy.

By the time we got home, it was after 2 pm. We had a light lunch and settled down for a rest for a little over an hour.

We got up, took a couple of bags of old bread, and went down to Halswell. I topped up the car fuel tank - We had travelled 170 k since the last fill.

I checked the oil before going to the petrol station. It was getting down so when I paid for the petrol, I bought a litre of oil - Cost $12.00.

We left there, and went to Westlake to fe

ed the ducks. We had to be quick as time was running out and I had to be at the IPA meeting at 5 pm.

When we had run out of bread, we went home. I did not have time to change. I dropped Ruth at home and left directly for the meeting.

The meeting did not take long. There was onot much to discuss. We set the date of the AGM for 23rd September.

Tony had brought a guest - A member from Southport, Brisbane.

After the meeting, he stayed and had a drink with us. I got a bit of information from him that will be hand tomorrow.

Chris C. brought my spare hard drive and its case back. He had not been able to get his pc to recognise it.

I stayed and had a meal with a few of the members. Ron P usually stays, but it was his wife's birthday and he left early to take her out to dinner.

I left for home about 7 pm after a good roast lamb dinner - mint jelly, gravy, roast potato's - vegetables and some other nice dish which I am not quit sure about what it was.

I took Garry H home. It is not far off a direct line to our place.

I was home in time to watch Coronation Street.

It will soon be time to head off to bed. Andrew will pick us up at 1 pm tomorrow to take us to the Airport.

Monday 21st July

Cleaning day today - day one - downstairs. The house only gets a lick and a promise as we are off on Wednesday for oz.

It was a nice day today and we wish we had been leaving today. The weather forecast is not good for the next few days.

We took a quick trip to Halswell at about 4 pm - after a short walk. We need to get some fish for dinner tonight and also for tomorrow night.

Apart from a few last minute items, our packing for the trip is finished.

N.B, While we are in Australia, this diary will continue on my blog site. I can send it directly to their by Email.

To get there, click the My Blog links at the top of the main page. There is a note on the main page with this information. If you do not see it, click the refresh button at the top of your browser.

This link will take you to the Blog. Click here

Sunday 20th July

We were around the house all morning. There was not a lot of activity. We had two birthday functions to go to during the afternoon.

We had an early lunch and Ruth went down for a rest. While she was resing, I put my clothes for the tip into the case that I am taking to Oz. I packed up the Laptop and sorted out all the computer bits that I am going to take.

I have to be careful as the Airline restricts the weight of luggage to 20 k. I have just about everything in the case now and I still have between 5 and 10 ks to play with.

I got out my old waist belt bag and I put another bag onto its belt. I will be able to carry cell phones, my electroinic navigator and its bracket on this arrangement.

At 2 pm Ruth and I left here for the Arawa Canoe Club (located on Kerrs Reach). We had been inivgted to Bret L.s 60th birthday party.

There were several IPA members there and there were also people from the canoe club and the Hoon Hay Scottish Dancing group. It was good to talk to all, including the people that we had not met.

We enjoyed the three hours there and Brett and his wife put on a fantastic spread of food. The hightlighs of this feast, were the salmon on small slices of bread (rolls like garlic bread) and also, the slices of ham sliced from an extremely large cooked and decorated ham. It was still warm and obviously had not been out of the oven long. It was magnifient. Thank you very much Brett and Jenny.

Soon it was time to leave. Our next stop was Chrissy Martyns house. Dianne had invited us to Bills 70th birthday party. We had told Dianne that we would be late in arriving. The party started at 4-30 pm and we arrived at 5-30 pm.

John and Dorothy were there - Also Dorothy and Gordon T. There were a lot of people we did not know and it was nice talking to some of them also.

It was a thorougly enjoyable time and we had not seen Dianne and Bill for ages. Bill spoke to me about some P C matters and I told him that I would arrange to visit him when we get back from Oz and have a P C session.

Also, at Bretts party, I arranged with Alex De. to arrange a visit for a pc session when we get back. He is not into computers but he and hsi wife want to buy a new Laptop and they need to know a bit more about preparing digital photos.

We are going to be busy when we get back.

By the time we left this party and got home (only about 7n minutes from home), it was about 9-30 pm. We watched tv until about midnight and then ended the day.

Saturday 19th July

It was a fairly quite day today. Not much happened. We are keeping a low profile until we leave for Oznext week.

We have even decided not to really have any or very much wine or beer between now and the time we leave.

Andrew and Wenlin came around during the evening and spent a couple of hours with us. Wenlin is on days off until Tuesday.

During the afternoon, I got some clothes out and put them aside ready for packing for the trip.

Friday 18th July 2008

We woke up to a grey miserable rainy day. It was not all that cold though. We were around the house most of the day.

I did the ironing this morning. Later in the afternoon, we took a drive to Barrington Mall and I picked up my trousers from the Dry Cleaner.

We continued on, or to be more precise, we wet off to Halswell and we got a packet of breakfast food and we new that it was not sold at Barrington Mall.

We got the packet ok and found that it had gone up one dollars since the last one we bought - About a twenty five per cent increase.

We stopped at Nerollies on the way home and had a cup of coffee with her. I got some lemons off her tree, so we will have lemon juice on our fish fillets tonight.

Ruth is watching her T V programs and it will soon be time to start preparing our meal. Another day has gone.

Thursday 17th July 2008

We left home around mid day and went to Pak and Save at Riccarton. More food was needed as the cupboards are bare.

We did not stop anywhere else and we did not buy a lot as we leave for Oz on Wednesday next week.

We came home and unpacked the groceries. We had a late lunch and settled down for a bit of a rest.

Soon, it was time to close down the house and prepare a meal. Coronation Street tonight.

Wednesday 16th July 2008

It was a cooler day today, but at least it was not raining.

Vic came around this morning (he phoned yesterday). It was just half an hour before I was to leave here to take Ruth to her weekly meeting. I was going to register his Gold Card from the Entertainment Book.

We all had morning tea and I entered the details of the card into the sites computer. It was rejected and informed me that the card was already registered.

I did not do it when I gave the book to Vic. Vic thought for a bit, and said that perhaps his son and law had done it.

I tried to access his Email from here but we could not gain access. He is to ring me tonight as I requested the remote computer to renew the password and it was to be Emailed to him.

I had a quick look at his new car - A small Ford bough new from Avon City Ford. It is for personal use and not Taxi.

Vic set off home and I left to take Ruth to her meeting. I dropped her off and came directly home.

I had lunch and I had just finished when Nerollie rang. She wanted to tell me something, so I said I would go around and pick her up.

I did so and we had a cup of tea here.

After about ah hour, she went off home.

I went downstairs to the computer room and I created the Linux Partitions, formatted them and installed PCLOS on that computer.

I had read the instructions while having lunch and it worked fine. Everything is working well.

I found that VNC is working from the Laptop to the AMD (the downstairs P C) and I can access all the files.

I have connected my USB hard drive to that P C and I can transfer files back and forth from that also.

Ruth arrived home at about 4 pm. We had intended to go to the Supermarket as we are running low on food. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

After Ruth's quiz programs on T V, we prepared a nice meal and are now settling down to T V.

Tuesday 15th July 2008

It was another nice day today - Cleaning day - today - Day two - Upstairs. After lunch, when ruth tucked down for her rest, I went into 52 Hereford Street. I was armed with the locks that I had bought yesterday, and the glass panel that I had taken from the display cabinet.

The young officer on the front desk let me in (Graeme D. was busy with a client and this officer had been there last week when Graeme had let me in to get the panel).

The first lock that I tried was too big and although it would fit through the hole in the glass, I could not get it to clear the other glass panel.

The officer who let me in, helped me to lift the glass panel into place. When I tried to fit the other lock, I realized I needed a screw driver. He went and found one and after some time, i fitted the lock.

I went back and asked him to assist me to lift the panel back and he obliged. It almost fitted, but did not clear the other glass panel. He helped me lift it out, and after five minutes making a slight adjustment, it wa read to go back.

I left the keys to the new lock with him for Paul V or one of the other members of IPA to collect.

On the way home, I stopped at J. Bull. I returned the lock that did not fit and got a refund. Thanks James Bull and Co and the officer at 52 Hereford who helped me.

I came home and Ruth was up a few minutes later. I tried a few times this afternoon to set up PCLOS on the downstairs computer, but I struck a few problems. Nothing serious. When it is installed, the home directory is on its own hd partition. This means that when the system is re installed, all files in the home directory survive. I wanted to get it right and I am taking my time. I think that when I tried to install PCLOS, it was picking up some of the files from the old Fedora install, and it was not working properly.

I now need to learn how to use the custom install, and create my own partitions. It is not hard, but I have not achieved it . I have actually achieved creating them, but not formatting them.

Once I have perfected this technique, reinstalling Linux is no big deal. I know it is possible to have data on a separate Windows partition and it will survive a re install. I used to do it all the time.

However, re installing windows, is quite a task. Once the O S is installed, all the original software disks have to be found, and the programs re installed also.

With Linux, once the install is done, it actually works quite well. Then, no hunting for discs for programs. Just choose the required packages from the list on the P C, and download them.

Everything, up to date, and legal and free. It is even automatic.

Actually, PCLOS 9and other Linux versions), run quite well of the DVD and it is surprising what can be done, just running from the DVD without installing it at all. Especially with a USB hard disk or USB DVD writer attached (preferably both).

We have had a nice dinner, watched Coronation Street and Ruth is watching some daft quiz program on T V.

It will soon be time to tuck down for the night.

Monday 14th July 2008

It was quite a nice day today. It was cleaning day - Day one - Downstairs.

While Ruth was having her afternoon rest, I went to the Locksmith in Sydenham (James Bull) to sort out a lock for the IPA display cabinet. Before going there, I discussed the problem on the phone and it sounded as though they might have something.

I took the glass panel in and they had two locks which would fit in the hole in the glass but apparently, it depends on other factors connected with the other glass panel in the display cabinet as to whether they would be suitable.

I paid for both locks with a proviso that I could return one or both if they they were not suitable.

I set off home and I stopped at Barrington Mall on the way home. I got some milk and I dropped my trousers into the Dry Cleaners so they will be fresh for the big trip to Oz next week.

I came back to the house and we finished the cleaning. We were a bit lazy and only prepared a very light easy meal.

Nothing else happened during the day - except that I backed up the computer downstairs and I am ready now to re install a new version of Linux - Fedora is going and will probably be replaced by PCLOS.

Sunday 13th July 2008

It was quite warm when I got up this morning. It was about twelve degrees in the lounge. I lit the gas fire for a short while, but it was not really necessary.

It is now about 9 pm and although we lit the gas fire briefly when we got home from our afternoon drive, I don't think that it was really necessary.

Scott has had trouble with his car. It broke down at the bottom of the hill at Lyttelton last night. He has been in touch with John H. and he went over this morning and saw the car. It seems serious and it has been taken to the garage. Scott has a loan car from the garage in the meantime.

Ruth and I were around here all day. We did not do a lot. At about 3-30 pm, we left for our usual drive to Tai Tapu. I stopped at the Halswell Tavern and filled a rigger. We came home and started to prepare for the evening. A and W and S were coming for dinner. Scott arrive shortly after we got home.

Not long after, A and W arrived. The roast pork was cooking in the oven. Soon, it was time to prepare the potatos and vegetables.

We all enjoyed a drink during the final preparation. It was soon time to settle down to our meal. A and W had brought a nice bottle of Villa Maria Riesling an it was marvelous.

The meal was really good, but this time, the crackling did not turn out like it should. To finish the meal, we had the Foodinaminute Sticky date pud with maple syrup and whipped cream. A meal fit for a king.

Scott was on his way pretty soon. Not long afterwards, A and W left for home also. I gave Sarah to Andrew to use from now until we get back from Oz. We leave here on the 23rd of this month.

It is not yet 9 pm and the end of a good but uneventful weekend.

Saturday 12th July 2008

It was quite warm when I got up this morning. It was eleven degrees in the lounge. I put the gas fire on for a short while, and it was soon time to turn in off.

It was off for the remainder of the day. It is now Nearly 9 pm. We have not turned in back on and it seems quite warm here.

Scott was supposed to come around this morning, but he contacted us and said that he was going for a walk with Andrew instead.

Later in the day, we got a text from him saying that is car had broken down. Apparently, Andrew was going to his rescue.

Andrew, Wenlin and Scott are coming here for dinner tomorrow night.

Friday 11th July 2008

We were around home most of the day and not a lot happened. We did a bit of ironing this morning and, other than routine jobs, nothing else was done.

After we had finished our customary afternoon rest, we went for a short walk around the block. It was a clear day outside and probably not too cold. However, I convinced myself that I would be cold without a jacket, so I put on my Australian 'Silly Solly" jacket and we set off.

At first, I appreciated the jacket. We stopped in to visit Nerollie. Felesha and and her children were there. We spent about half an hour there and then set off. As soon as we left, it seemed quite warm and I wondered why I had worn the jacket.

We came home and apart from the usual, T V and meal, that was the end of the day.

Thursday 10th July 2008

It was quite a nice day today. We were around home until about mid day. The gas man was due today to deliver a new cylinder. I unlocked and opened the front gate so that he could get in easily.

We did a few routine jobs around the house. We left then to go into town. We had decided to go and visit the Canterbury Museum. There is a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition on that I wanted to see. Also, the Paua house, that was until recently located at Bluff, had been re created in the Museum and all the Paua Exhibits were being displayed in the exact location in the house that the had been in at the original location in Bluff.

On the way, we stopped at Barrington Mall and visited Paper Plus. I had been in a few days ago to buy a USB flash drive - 2 gig that was allegedly being sold for $15.00. I was told when we went in that the circular that had been delivered here was for a sale that had been last week.

I read it yesterday, and it was not. This particular sale started today. I got the Flash Drive and we set off to the Museum.

As it was the school holidays, I had told Ruth that there would not be any kids there. As far as I knew, the only went to the Museum on School trips. I was wrong. There were thousands of them there. I had forgotten all the care programs that operate during the school holidays for the children of working parents to be looked after.

I found that the Leonardo exhibit contained only exhibitions made from his drawings The admission fee was 15 dollars each and I did not consider it worth that for us to both visit, so we gave it a miss.

Also, there was a twelve dollar admission fee to the Paua house - and a queue about 20 meters long to get in. I rapidly lost interest and gave that a mss to.

Still, we enjoyed the visit to the museum. We left and Ruth said that she wanted to look at a shop in New Regent Street. I dropped her off near by and I went and parked somewhere, returning about 15 minutes later to collect her. She was standing where I had left her.

I was going to go directly home but I still had the glass panel from the IPA cabinet in the back of the car. I stopped at the fancy big lock smith (Ross Gault) premises to get the matter sorted.

The workman examined the glass, checked his stock, and produced a lock which would have been ok but it would not fit. It was the smallest he had and to fit it, would require a trip to a glass merchant to get the main hole in the glass enlarged and two smaller holes drilled to bolt it in.

Smith and Smith Auto Glass were opposite. I went in and they could not help. They had a branch out near the Airport that could deal with the matter. The lady showed me there own display cabinet and it had a similar sort of lock on it. She told me that their branch would have to make a new piece of glass 9must be hardened glass), and the edges would have to be smoothed and the holes drilled. That sounded expensive. I gave up and I will have to see what other method can be used. The lady suggested trying hardware stores for a lock that would fit.

On the way home, we stopped at South City Mall. I went into Paper Plus there and bought another 2 gig flash drive. At 15 dollars each, they are cheap enough. Ruth got some bananas from New World while we were there.

We came home, and had a very late lunch. It was after 3-30 pm. We had a quick rest and then it was time for Ruth's Quiz Shows at 5 pm. We had a nice fish fillet dinner with vegetables and then it was Coronation Street followed by other programs.

Wednesday 9th July 2008

It turned out to be a nice day today. It looks as though the rain is over for a day or two. I see more is forecast though.

At about 11-30 am we left here and I dropped Ruth at her meeting in town. She wanted to be picked up at 1-30 pm.

I left for home and on the way, I stopped at the Police Station. I saw Graeme, the Station Sergeant, and he took me upstairs to level three. I wanted to get the glass panel out of the IPA display cabinet. At the last committee meeting, I said that I would sort out a lock for it, something that has been an ongoing problem for about two years.

Having picked up the glass panel, I came home and had lunch. On the way, I stopped at Nerollies house and asked her if she wanted to come over for coffee and a spot of lunch.

She was going to but was in the middle of an on line poker game and she did not want to leave the table.

After lunch, I rang John M and after chatting for about ten minutes, I left to pick up Ruth. When I had done so, we went to Pak and Save and did the grocery shopping.

By the time we got home and finished unpacking the groceries, it was probably about 4 pm. We had a quick rest and, as usual, at 5 pm, Ruth started watching her quiz programs and afterwards, we had a nice meal - fish fillets, vegetables and potatos and a little wine.

Tuesday 8th July 2008

Cleaning day today - Day two - Upstairs. The weather is improving slowly and I was able to hang out the rugs and things on the deck and they did not get wet.

Later in the afternoon, we were going to take a short walk to the Medical Centre. Ruth wanted to pick up a prescription from the Doctor and replace the dwindling medication that she is on.

She had brought the advertising in from the letter box and we were lead to believe that paper Plus were selling two gigabyte flash drives for $15.00.

We decided to go to Barrington and get one. Ruth also wanted a card (greeting - birthday - or something).

We stopped at the medical centre, picked up the prescription and dropped it into the Pharmacy. She could not get everything as stocks are low on some things, and she will have to go back tomorrow.

We went on to Barrington Mall. The lady at Paper Plus told us that the advert we had been looking at was for last week and the price this week for the flash drives is $39.00. I politely declined and winged about old adverts being delivered.

Ruth got her card and on my Auntie Helens Gold Card, we got twenty per cent off the price. It was the fist time I have used it.

Ruth also picked up the video that she wanted from the Warehouse. Mr. Bean on holiday was selling for ten dollars.

We came home and settled down for the evening. Ruth took a phone call from Garry H while we were preparing our meal. He and Lesley enjoyed their visit on Sunday and he rang to express is appreciation - Thanks Garry and Lesley.

Monday 7th July 2008

Cleaning day today - day one - Downstairs. Not much or anything of interest happened today.

Sunday 6th July 2008

It was a cold miserable day today. Scott came around at about 11 am. He was here for lunch. Ruth was busy baking and preparing things for this evenings dinner. She made a couple of date loaves. Scott took one home when he left.

Ruth also made a Sticky Date Pudding which was soaked with Maple Syrup. I had got the recipe from Food in a Minute (TV). I am on the internet mailing list and each week, the recipe of the week is Emailed to me.

Ruth also made some pumpkin soup. I had chopped up a pumpkin yesterday and it had been sitting in the fridge.

We had some of the pumpkin soup for lunch.

Scott's car was having battery problems. We got some tools and he disconnected the battery. We connected the battery charger and he cleaned the battery terminals. I think he will have to replace the battery.

The headlights were faulty and when the bulbs were taken out, each one had a burnt out filament.

After Scott had gone, we settled down for a rest. We were expecting Garry and Lesley here at about 3-30 pm.

We were up and about at 3 pm and just about 3-30 p.m, they both arrived. We came upstairs for about twenty minutes, and then we set off for an afternoon drive. This event had bee pre panned.

I gave Garry a demo of Sarah in action. When I left here, I set the destination as Westlake. It was almost directly on the way, but it was much too cold to get out of the cart there.

On arrival, I reset Sarah for the Packing Shed Restaurant at Early Valley and off we went. When we arrived at our destination, we continued to the end of the road, as we usually do. We saw some Highland Cattle in the paddock at the end of the road. As it is a dead end, we turned around and headed off to Tai Tapu. I did not use Sarah on the way there.

As usual, we went around the loop road, passed Heaton Rhodes Homestead. We soon arrived at the Tai Tapu Hotel.

We went inside and Garry and I had a pint of ale and Ruth and Lesley had a red wine. We were fortunate enough to sit in the alcove by the gas fire - the first time we have done so this winter.

We spent about an hour there and then headed off home. Garry and I had another pint before leaving. Garry had very kindly paid for the fist round of drinks. I got the second round but it did not cost as much as the girls did not have a second drink. Also, they had both brought around a bottle of Riesling and some goodies for supper. It was very much appreciated.

As we left, I hit Sarah's remote button (the Home button) and she began to direct us home. She wanted us to turn left at golf Links Road and go down the Main Road to Halswell. This is not our normal route (although it is the best route for people who want to get to their destination as quickly as possible. I disobeyed, and continued on our way. Within 200 meters, Sarah had plotted our new route.

We arrived home at a a bit before 6 pm. We came in and lit the gas fire and stated to prepare the potatos and vegetables.

We had another glass of wine while preparing the meal. I gave Garry and Lesley a demo of the MP4 player - a video or two.

Soon, we were seated at the table an enjoyed the roast pork and vegetables. We probably made a mistake by putting brussel sprouts on the table. We forgot a lot of people don't like them. Apparently Lesley didn't but politely said that she might from now on.

The sticky date pudding with Maple sauce and whipped cream was very tasty and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

After finishing the meal and clearing up, we had coffee and sat chatting. I showed Garry and Lesley the Laptop in action, using PCLinusOS I showed them our to rip a cd to mp3 and I demonstrated Google Earth.

Lesley has an MP3 player but has not been able to put anything on it. I hope I get the opportunity to fix that in the near future.

Probably at about ten pm, G and L left for home. That ended a brilliant afternoon.

Saturday 5th July 2008

It was a cold wet miserable day.

I had booked the car in at Martyns garage for a new warrant of fitness to renewed. The current one expires on Monday. The appointment was at 10-30 am.

I left here on time and I was at the garage at about 10-20 am. As usual, Bruce did the examination. The car passed ok but he found that the headlights had been set up far to high and he lowered them to comply with the regulations.

I went off home and I stopped at Barrington Mall. The registration for the car also runs out on Monday, so I renewed it for six months. I also got a new holder for my drivers licence - one of those plastic ones that attaches to a key ring. My container as been broken for quite awhile.

I met Andrea and her twins in the two dollars shop. She asked me to come around one night and set up their computer system so that she can log into the network at home with the company's laptop.

It was bitterly cold and wet and a real storm was starting just as I was returning to the car.

Chris had phoned last night and it had been arranged for me to go around to his house at about 8 pm. We had a few computer things to discuss and look at. He has bought a new large LCD TV and I was to have a demo. I was also to get Sarah back from him.

I chopped up a pumpkin during the afternoon. I weighed out 750 grams of the pumpkin and cooked it and peeled it after it had cooled. Ruth is going to make some pumpkin soup tomorrow.

After dinner, at about 7-30 pm, Chris pho0ned to say that he and Christine were going out to done and warned me to make the visit a little later.

When he ran off, I did not expect that he would really want to go ahead with out plans when he got back from dining. I had a shower and put the night suit on and settled down for a quiet evening.

Chris phoned at about 9-30 pm We discussed calling off this visit, but we eventually decided that it was to go ahead.

I popped my day clothes on over the night suit and soon I was at his place. It was raining hard and bitterly cold.

He had Sarah all packed up for me. I saw his new T V and watched bits of the "Bee" DVD which really shows off the T V's capabilities. I had taken my Laptop with me. I had left it running while I traveled to his house.

I copied a data cd of some files I had for Chris. By the time we had finished, it was nearly mid night. We had previously agreed to keep the visit short. It is unusually about 2 am that I get home when I have visited him.

I managed to get back into the car without getting entirely soaked by the rain. I came inside and I had a quick snack (toast) before going downstairs. It did not take long to change as I already had the night suit on.

Friday 4th July 2008

When I got up this morning, the lawns and garden were still covered in hail and a lot of it remained all day.

We did not do much today. Ruth did the ironing. I was going to do some of it but by the time I cam to do it, she had finished.

At about 2 pm, Ruth left for the hairdresser - She had an appointment at about 2-15 pm.

She was away about an hour and a half.

Nothing else of not during the day. Another nice fish meal with vegetables and potatos.

Thursday 3rd July 2008

We were around the house until about shortly before mid day. It was not a bad day. We left here and went to Riccarton Mall. We parked at the first level, this time very close to the Rotherham Street entrance.

Ruth wanted to go to Briscoes. I walked through the car park with her and while she went there, I went and had a look at Dick Smiths shop.

After about 15 minutes there, I went to Briscoes and met up with Ruth who was just abut to leave.

We walked through the Mall and stopped in at the Farmers. We were probably there for about half an hour - Ruth bought herself a Top for half price (about ten dollars).

She walked off to Pak and Save while I went back to the car and drove down to our usual parking area at the P and S end of the Mall (miles from where we were).

We got our groceries and set off home. It was after 2-30 pm when we arrived home and we had not had lunch. We had a cheese and bacon roll each with a tomato filling.

We had a bit of a rest and then it was time for Ruth to watch her Quiz Programs that start at 5 pm.

We had a nice red cod fillet dinner with vegetables and a few drinks.

Then it was time for Coronation Street. Some time later, probably a bit after 8-30 pm we could see flashes of lightning - reflecting through the windows. Then we began to hear thunder.

I went out onto the deck and it was not raining. I saw a good flash of lightning. There had been a lot of traffic going by and I suddenly realised that the traffic had stopped but I could hear the roaring which I thought was traffic noise. I called Ruth out and we listed the the loud roar. At first, we though it my be a Tornado coming. It appeared to be in the distance across the road and very loud.

It got louder, approaching from behind the house. Then, the hail started. It was a real shower. In about five minutes, the road outside was covered and after 15 minutes, the back lawn and garden were well covered. The cats did not seem to be very happy.

The bad weather had been forecast and was not unexpected. It did not seem all that cold inside though. We did not have any heating going either upstairs, or later downstairs when we went to bed.

Wednesday 2nd July 2008

Another hard frost today. It remained cold all day but at least it was not raining.

I dropped Ruth at her meeting at mid day. She did not want to be picked up. On the way home, I looked in at Harvey Normans Shop in town. I bought a small set of speakers for the mp4 player (and maybe the Laptop). They were seventy dollars but going for half price. At thirty five dollars, they were probably good value. The are powered by four aaa batteries but can be used with a 6 volt power pack (not included). I have one but I found I will have to change the plug on the end as it is too big.

When I left there, I had a look at Noel Leemings Electronic products and them came home for lunch. It was quite sunny outside. I was going to hang Joey (the bird) outside but he would not have been in a sunny area and in the shade, it might have been too cold for him.

I found the speakers did not work very well as I did not have four batteries fully charged and they only lasted a few minutes. I put them on the charger and I will try tomorrow.

I did not go anywhere. I stayed here and at 5-30 pm, Ruth sent a Text asking me to pick her up at Barrington Mall.

I went down and picked her up. We discussed having diner at Robbies but decided against it. We went into Subway and bought a sandwich each. I filled a rigger and we came home and had our "takeaways" at home watching tv.

Tuesday 1st July 2008

There was a mighty frost this morning and the temperature in the lounge when I got up was only 5 degrees.

It was a bright sunny day most of the day, but it was quite cool outside. I had the lounge door open for an hour or two around lunchtime as I got quite warm doing the cleaning. As soon as I stopped though, it was soon time to shut the door.

'While Ruth was having her afternoon rest, I went to Dick Smith's shop at Riccarton Mall. I wanted to buy another mp3 player, similar to the one Ruth has, but with an FM radio receiver in it.

On the internet, Dick Smith had a special on with exactly what I wanted for $20.00. There were only a few left at some stores and that was back at the beginning of June. Those stores were in the North Island.

There was another one, almost similar, being advertised for $30.00. Although, it did not mention an FM radio, I thought that perhaps it might have one inside.

I soon found when I got to the shop that it did not. They had one model (with 2 gig memory) and FM radio, but it was almost $60.00. I did not want to pay that at this time.

There was another model, but with 4 gig memory and FM radio. That was far too expensive for what I wanted. That much memory was really too much for that design in my view. It would be nice in a bigger screen unit, but in the small unit, I feel it would be a bit of a waste.

I came home empty handed. We finished the cleaning and went for a brief walk to the Pharmacy to post a letter.

Then, it was time to shut up the house and prepare for the evening. We had a nice dinner, no drinks and while I was watching T V, I tidied up the music in my MP4 player and ripped another CD to MP3. It was one that I had already done, but it had been done in the.ogg format and will not play in the small units.