The blog title and theme is Home and Travel Gallery.
This week there will be more of the former and less of the latter. In other words not much travel this week.
Monday 12th February
Heatwave conditions.
Need I say more? Stay indoors. Stay hydrated and turn on the air conditioner. Even with the AC on it was still a bit sweaty in bed waiting for sleep to come crawling out of wherever it has been hiding and throw a blanket of siesta over my mind.
Tuesday 13th February
Heat wave conditions.
Somewhere around 35° during the middle of the day.
Living on the coast we do get a sea breeze so conditions are not as bad as 60 klms and more inland where temps were in the mid forties. I suppose the humidity there was not as high as on the coast.
Our internet has been intermittent for some time. It has become much worse this last week. In fact it came to a grinding halt today. Hmmm! All the lights on the modem say we are getting signal and wireless is working. All lights green. The laptop and the desktop can connect wirelessly but say there is no internet. Both mobile phones are set up to switch to wireless connection as soon as we are in range. Both say there is no internet signal. That is four devices all registering no internet. I dragged out the aging Apple iPad. It also would not connect. There is no internet signal despite the modem saying otherwise. Five of 5 devices all with the same problem. I called Telstra and they did their usual tests, remotely, from wherever they are located. They told me I had internet I told them I did not. We turned the modem off and on…several times. I unplugged power…several times. I unplugged the modem from the splitter box and connected directly to the wall socket. No change. I re-set the modem…several times. No change. I kept saying we had an electrical storm on Sunday night and the real problem began after that. I told them I thought the modem was faulty.
The technical help person, probably located in The Phillipines referred me to a higher level technician further up the evolutionary tree. We repeated everything we did before. This technician referred me higher up the tree to a top level technician who declared they had reached the level of expertise or ability and declared I need a real live technician to visit us. Yay! That is what I was asking for. I think the modem is faulty. By the time we had finished, the modem ECO light was red and the Internet light was red…constantly. Earlier, before I called I would have a signal for awhile then it would drop out and the red lights came on then suddenly the signal would return then drop out again and then come back. After three hours they admitted defeat and just as a precaution warned me that if the technician discovered the fault was in my equipment they would bill me. The only “equipment” I own are the laptop, the desktop, the two mobile phones and an iPad. As far as I am concerned the modem is their property.
I received a text message to say the technician would arrive on Thursday between 8am and noon.
After the call was finished I saw I had a missed call from the Commonwealth Games Driver Section. They left a message. My day at Games Central tomorrow morning at 8am to get my uniform and accreditation has been cancelled and I have to reschedule.
Grrrr!
Tonight we had the annual general meeting of our village. Just as we arrived, close to 7pm, lightning struck very close by. So close the strike and the thunder were instant. The lightning shorted out our security gates, leaving the exit gate open and the entrance gate unable to be opened. Lightning flashed for another two hours and dumped a heap of rain. The temperature dropped enough that we could sleep with just a sheet and no need for air conditioning.
Wednesday 14th February. Valentines Day.
Another heat wave day.
We drove to Australia Fair Shopping Centre so we could park the car underground and go inside to walk around in the AC. Lots of other people had the same idea. The food shops and coffee outlets were busy busy busy. This shopping centre food court is located opposite The Broadwater and has high glass windows to show all those people still walking around in the heat outside while we are comfortable inside.
All too soon we spent money on groceries and returned home to a hot house.
The AC was turned on again.
Thursday 15th February.
Another heat wave day.
At 6am Donnis and I went to The Broadwater for a walk followed by a swim in the lagoon. There was a misty haze over to the east where the sun was wrestling with the salty residue from yesterday’s wind and sea spray. By the time we left the beach the sun had won the battle. The haze had all but disappeared and the sun had a distinct bite to it. Time to go home, hide in the house and wait for Telstra.
Telstra arrived mid-morning and confirmed the modem was faulty. It was replaced but still no internet. The techie made a call to the exchange and they re-set the port and viola, we had signal. Yay! It was working like a charm.
It was, that is, until 9.30 tonight. I cannot access the internet. The modem is firing on all lights, the laptop tells me I have internet but the little timer goes around and around and nothing happens. The techie did say that when everybody comes home from work or school the speed will slow. Slow I understand. Stopped is not what I am paying for. There was not even enough download to carry out a speed test.
Friday 17th February
Another day of heatwave.
Internet is as it should be. If the day pans out according to my expectations the speed will drop off late in the afternoon and become a sleeping tortoise by 8pm.
After lunch we drove out to The Spit to see the predicted big swells.
It was low tide and the waves were not as big as expected and the entire coast was covered in a salty haze while in the distance an incoming storm was building dark ominous clouds.
I apologise for the clarity of the photos. I would wipe the lens clean and by the time I focus on where to shoot, the lens would be covered with a fine salty mist. It was almost impossible to see through my sunglasses by the time we left.
Between the haze and the clouds the skyline was disappearing.
Although much cooler here on the beach the strong steady wind was blowing the salty haze onto sunglasses, camera lens, windscreen and skin. By the time we left we could feel the grittiness of the salt.
On the beach the usual hardy surfers, boogie boarders, kite surfers and Asian tourists were enjoying themselves.
The Spit as it is known to most locals is actually called Moondewarra Spit and is part of the Doug Jennings Park.
Recently council has spent a small fortune upgrading the northern end of the park including sealed carpark, sealed roads, fencing, pathways, dive exit sites, picnic facilities and a roundabout. At the entrance to the park, the roundabout and scattered throughout the park in strategic locations are basalt columns, some in an upright position while others are placed horizontally.
These columns have been brought here from an ancient volcanic site, Burleigh Heads National Park, which is part of the extinct Tweed Volcano. Some years ago a number of columns, as a result of degradation of the underlying soil, slid down the slope of the volcanic caldera and landed in a precarious and unstable position. Those six sided hexagonal columns were removed and relocated to this park.
The storm clouds rolled in, a little lightning and thunder announced a spattering of rain and the temperature dropped as did the humidity. We can look forward to a comfortable night without the need for air conditioning.
Saturday 17th February
Lesser heatwave day.
Only about 32° today.
I have been having some trouble with my original release iPad. iPad was released in Australia late May 2010. Mine was received in late August 2010. It cannot be updated any more. Its computing power for Internet is incapable of maintaining a signal. Battery life is still good and I can run Music and Photos but I am having problems in both areas. I called Apple Services on the off chance they could help. When uploading photos the iPad deletes previous photos or only imports the name of the new folder and either deletes a few photos or adds a few photos. After an hour the techie referred me to a local man who said he is a Case Support Manager. After asking a few questions, the same as the previous operator, he connected to my laptop and asked me to show how I import photos. Within a minute he explained what was wrong and how to overcome the problem. Photo problem solved.
Next came the Music. Sometimes it works other times almost all songs will not play and has a message saying it is unavailable. Once more I showed him via remote viewing and he was able to explain how to solve the music problem
What do you do when at least one person is suffering in the heat? Go to a shopping centre of course.
Today it was the turn of Robina Shopping Town. Originally I planned to go there and visit the Apple Store Techies but I no longer need to do that.
Instead we walked around in air conditioned comfort and did a load of shopping.
Sunday 18th February.
Still hot and a promise of huge seas from tropical cyclone Gita heading towards New Zealand encouraged me to go to the beach.
Down at The Spit the huge seas and low tide kept all but the silly out of the water.
I watched as a half dozen people thinking it was safe to wade suddenly got knocked off their feet by the undertow and were dragged, struggling out to the waves. A larger than usual wave washed them back towards shore, tumbling them over and over. We have been warned for two days to stay out of the water and all the beaches are closed but there is always somebody who will ignore the warnings.
FrankieG Home & Travel Gallery 