Only one more week left of driving the bus until two weeks of school holidays, looking forward to it. Haven’t been up to much the past couple of weeks, it’s been raining a lot and the humidity is high of course and today when the sun came out it felt quite miserable. 32C and 75% humidity.

I went out on the bike this morn but forgot to use my tracker, however I didn’t go far and was only away for about an hour so I guess maybe 15Km at the most. The ride was fairly uneventful which I am glad to say and having the camera record my trip is something I quite like now. I don’t necessary keep all the recordings but I might keep one or two of interest.

 I’ve been shopping online from China and got a new handlebar bracket for the mini camera which makes a big difference to the stability; a lot of the vibrations have gone. It took less than two weeks to arrive. I also bought a rechargeable air pump which I can use on the bike and the car.

Looking forward to the cooler weather, after this weekend it should drop to below 30C, it seems as if summer just doesn’t want to end and because of this I think I will rip off the Eastern walls of the house and insulate them this winter. Even this morning the wall was getting quite warm. Most of the house is insulated and this will hopefully make a significant difference come summer.

So I guess no news is good news…..I know I could rant a little at the state of the world and the Trump madness but I figure what’s the point….life is too short and I would rather create some AI images instead and so here are a few……….

Cyclone Alfred has finally gone away and it is such a relief. There was so much misinformation given to us over the this time and I feel it caused a fair bit of stress not only me but many folk in Ipswich.

We were given a flood map that showed my house and many others in the affected area and so the stress goes through the roof.

That map then disappears and the media tell us that this could be quite the event and residents need to prepare. I moved a lot of things from the shed up to the house just to be on the safe side.

We are not seeing much rain and yet the messaging persists. Then on Sunday morning around 2am the rains come and it’s battering down. At 7am I go with a neighbour for a drive to look at the river and the creeks and there’s not much to tell.

We then get an evacuation order by SMS which is not good and more people are thinking “What the Fuck!” What are they not telling us?

Shortly afterwards a new flood map appears and the prediction is for a river level some 8m below the initial estimate, we want to believe this but don’t.

So another sleepless night waiting for the worst and I was so relieved when I got up on Monday to find no sign of water. The river had peaked at 4am below the revised level of the previous day.

Information is key. Too much information is confusing. Making shit up because you don’t know is just wrong. We are told to listen to the local authorities in a crisis like this, but when the information does not marry with what we see on the ground it’s downright dangerous.

This morning I began to move items from the shed at the bottom of the garden to the deck at the back of the house. Some of the boxes are fairly heavy so I used the trolley to bring them to the bottom of the stairs, however picking them up from the floor was a wee bit difficult.

This brings back memories of the 2011 floods. Back then I had no idea what to expect and to be honest it was traumatic. Two years ago when there was flooding nearby I had flashbacks and felt quite ill. This time feels different, in a good way. This time we have had no rain, the weather has been dry and so I know that at some point we will feel the force of the cyclone but the consensus from the neighbours is that we will be OK, even though the council has issued projected flood maps. This is why I have moved things out of the shed, just in case.

The cyclone has paused briefly around 200 km of shore and so all the weather updates have changed and with each update it looks like we might be OK, but because it’s a dynamic situation nothing is for certain. The prediction for landfall is now tomorrow afternoon instead of the middle of the night so I guess that is better. But I will close all the windows tonight when I go to bed.

My first time to experience a cyclone, although I did go through the tail end of a Typhoon in China many moons ago and that was pretty mental.

It’s currently about 400km off the coast travelling about 12 kph. It’s due to make land on Friday morning and they were predicting it to come in just north of Brisbane but I’ve just heard that it will be to the south. So nothing is definite.

I’m around 40km inland and I’m hoping that the ferocity will have disapated by the time it reaches Ipswich, we have had our fair share of floods and storms over the years.

So today I’ve cleaned up the garden of anything that could take flight. I’ve tied the BBQ down as well as chairs. I went up to the roof to remove some foam packing from under the solar panels to allow the rain to flow better because I think that caused some flooding issues last time we had a major rain event.

I went to the shops earlier to grab a couple of small items and discovered that the shelves in Aldi were bare. Luckily they had my buscuits that I wanted 😁

My neighbour has just sent me a message which says that my house could get water through it in the worst case scenario so that’s not good. Tomorrow I’ll maybe go to the shed and move a few more bits and pieces to higher ground. I won’t know until Friday or Saturday if what they are predicting will come to pass.

Out on the bike this morning, not too hot when I set off and today I headed west for a change. I haven’t travelled this road for over eight years, mainly due to the fact that the roads can be a bit scary, however this morning it was OK.

A few of the hills along the way proved a bit challenging but overall it was a good ride and a lot of it was away from traffic which was even better.

Not much going on, another week closer to my travels, I have a long weekend and so back to work Tuesday. Happy Days!

Tomorrow I plan to work in the garden; many weeds need a killing and a bit of maintenance to the stairs on the retaining wall and generally just tidy the place up and fill the bin to capacity.

Unseen forces manipulate your day,
Unseen forces make you do what they say, 

Unseen forces rule the world,
Mind you It could be gravity it could be magnetism,
It could just be plain old pragmatism.

Forces of nature can provide or destroy,
We are no more than a soft cuddly toy,
Earthquake or tsunami,
Floods and drought,
There is no doubt who’s in control.

In world affairs who really cares,
It’s all smoke and mirrors,
Being sold to the highest bidders,
We are mere pawns in a desert,
The one percent rule the roost,
Powered by the American War Machine,
Greed and power is King,
With a Turnip in power with no clothes,
His Entourage vast and submissive,
Licking and stroking an ego that’s infinite,
With the stroke of a pen another child dies,
With the stroke of a pen we are told more lies,
With the stroke of a pen new rules are imposed,
We are told what to think,
We are told what to say,
Speech is not free.

Of course I blame the accountants and academics,
Living in a virtual fantasy world and being able to control mine,
Theory and reality are not one and the same,
They need to get out more,
But it’s forced upon as,
We are guinea pigs,
An experiment that’s going bad,
Just look at The mental health crisis,
It can only make you sad.

This Utopia is in the mind,
This Utopia is marketed,
This Utopia will never come to fruition,
Instead unrest is coming direct from the right,
The left have gone too far left and a balance is due,
Why do we have to waste time on pronouns,
I’m offended; and yet I lose,
Be what you want but don’t let your stupidity affect my life,
You can’t say black if your white,
You can’t use the word fat,
You’ve just got to be nice,
But I am, my use of the word is true,
You’re arse doesn’t fit in the seat and it’s built for two.

Unseen forces,
My language is curtailed,
My life could easily be derailed if I said….It!
We live in an illusion of freedom,
And world leaders have the cheek to criticise China,
At least there it’s obvious.

But the biggest unseen force,
The one that Trumps all,
Is the rise of stupidity,
The downfall of all,
Social media is the cause of course,
Creating so much rumour and discourse,
But It’s a disease that we can not appease,
There is no cure,
And so the truth is inverted,
The lies justified,
Say the wrong thing and you’ll be crucified.

Unseen forces too many to control,
I could rant all day,
Got to keep the time keeper at bay,
So best put your head in the sand,
Wear blinkers,
Have tunnel vision,
Live in a bubble,
Close your mind and take care of your own behind.
Ah ignorance is bliss…..

,

Second week back at work and no time for the bike, so this morning I went out for a wee run and I was accompanied by my new toy…..a mini camera which I can fit onto the handlebars.

A bit shoogly at times because the roads are fairly rough, although I do have suspension on the front forks. I’ve got a 128GB card in it and this morning’s wee jaunt only used about 7GB, however it records in five minute bites instead of a continuous video but it’s OK because if you want to edit you only have a small file to play with. So about 90mins is around 7 GB, looking forward to taking this on my next trip so I can do a bit of Vlogging.

I really notice the difference not going out a couple of times a week, my fitness levels have dropped, but when the cooler weather comes back I’ll get out during the day between shifts. It’s still hot today, the air was thick and the UV high so not the best of days but it was still good.

Yesterday I picked up a free Futon from Gumtree, I’m going to use it downstairs and I’ll move the Ikea Daybed back upstairs again and put it in the spare room just in case I get a visitor…..well you never know….stranger things have happened.

I had to dismantle the Daybed and carry it back upstairs and by 2 o’clock I retired to the aircon and took it easy listening to YouTube music. Back to work in the morn, but I will be having a wee dram for me Ma who moved on 21 years ago which I find staggering…….I cannot believe 21 years have passed.

Only one day left of the mammoth summer holidays and so I went out on the bike for a long run, I really didn’t have the energy but I headed out anyway. I didn’t fuel up well yesterday and I knew it would be difficult.

My legs were beginning to complain after only half hour and at every turn I’m thinking I should just go home, however I persevered and stopped at my local café for coffee and cake and was surprised to see that I nearly covered 40km, but it wasn’t easy.

I had nothing in the fridge to eat so the only option was pizza and I know the rule I’ve set for myself but I thought “I’m still on holiday”, so pizza it was.

The last two weeks have been fairly hectic. Next door asked me to help with the repairs on their the outside landing and stairs and I’ve been knocking a wall down.

I’ve had all this time off and everything has been crammed into the past fortnight. I had the electrician and the Data guy moving points and then I removed the interior wall adjoining the living room and bedroom, it makes such a difference.

Removing the gyprock is messy, dust everywhere. The next challenge was the four hardwood studs, the old reciprocal saw went through one blade but did the job. I discovered a metal brace across the studs and luckily had a small precision grinder that dealt with that. When I finally got round to cleaning the place up and moving the furniture I’m very pleased with the results and can’t understand why I didn’t do it 20 years ago.

I still need to add architraves at some point

It’s been hot, and having the room opened up now the air conditioning seems to distribute the air more effectively, before this adjacent room would have been closed off getting hot and the cool air just circulated in the living room but now it is so much better.

Having the larger space feels so much better, not claustrophobic. This summer I have spent many hours inside because it’s been too hot and now it’s so much better.

I still have to tidy up downstairs, there are cables and things to fix. A bit more moving of furniture, some of it fairly heavy and so the next few weeks will no doubt fly.

Tomorrow I’ll go back to help Mick with the stairs, I’ll get there about 7:30 and try to finish before noon.

For a long time I’ve wanted to remove this internal wall but have been hesitant to do so, probably because I’ve listened to others telling me that it will reduce the value of the house and that it I was just being stupid.

I really need to have more confidence in my self and decisions and so with that in mind I have begun the transformation today.

Taking off the gyprock was very dusty and so there is a fine layer of white dust throughout, and so I wore a mask while I was removing it.

I’ll not do too much more until the Data guy comes to move the NBN and network connections. He’ll come on Tuesday morning because I don’t want to risk doing damage to the current network connections and hardware.

Cutting through the hard wood frame will be the next challenge and I think that will be thought through thoroughly before I do anything.

Up at 5:30 this morn and got to the train station at 6:45am. Get the 6:51 train to Ipswich and then the 7:05 to Rosewood and then back via Haigslea and Fernvale.

A couple of minutes after I arrived, a young guy on the other platform shouted that the trains had stopped due to a power outage. I checked my phone and sure enough he was right. I had fifteen minutes to get into Ipswich Central, which is only two stops on the train, however on the bike I might be in trouble.

When I arrived at the station the guard told me to go to platform 3 and they blew the whistle just as I got to the platform, luckily they held the train for me and I was on my way. My breakfast was not very happy at being jostled around so much and so it was good to just to sit on the train for 30 minutes to recover and let my stomach begin its job.

I never paid my 50c ticket this morning so I sneaked off the train, I was the only passenger anyway and I don’t think anyone was too concerned. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay it’s just that it was all a rush at Ipswich and I forgot.

It was only 24C this morning and it was very pleasant, there was even a bit of cloud cover which kicked in from time to time on the way back. I like Rosewood; it has a nice vibe about it. I took a new route today, first to Mt Morrow and then Haigslea which took me across the Warrego highway and onto Fernvale along some lovely country roads. This route was not as challenging as the Marburg road but the ride is quite a bit longer.

When I arrived at Fernvale I was thinking of coffee and then I thought that my stomach might not appreciate a double shot Latte at this point in time so I looked for a place to refill my water bottle instead. There is a Bike Hub/Information block where filtered water was on offer and free charging for you E-Bike is you have one. I stopped for 10 minutes and then joined the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (BVRT) The trail started as a concrete path but soon turned to dirt on the outskirts of Fernvale. The path for the most part was fairly well graded although there was a bit of erosion and ruts due to the storms and there were quite a few dead trees fallen by the path which I guess have been tidied up.

The gravel section lasted for around 20 KM I imagine, before we entered civilisation once more and the smooth concrete beckoned. For most of this patch I was escorted by Butterflies, Dragon Flies, and numerous small birds and I got whacked by a Cicada. For most of the trail the cicadas played their symphony drowning out everything but my thoughts.

When I got to Brassall and back on the concrete my legs were beginning to complain and I was dropping into very low gears to keep my cadence high, but I knew I didn’t have far to go to the Jasper Café where I could recharge with Latte and Danish.

The café is less than 5KM from home, however there are two hills to navigate and thankfully my legs held strong and I did not have too much trouble. When I got home I sat out the back and drank the remains of my water and felt remarkably ok.

Just under 60 KM from rosewood today but if you count my ride to the Ipswich station this morning I would have done about 64Km in total.

I ordered a Pizza, got changed and the rest is history. Pizza was delicious, 30 min siesta and after several cups of tea I feel grand. Mind you I will be having a lazy day tomorrow……