My body was very tired this morning, yesterday’s work in the garage made its presence felt. I wasn’t sore but my body knew that it had been through an ordeal.

Just a short run to get out and about, followed a well worn route with a few hills and all the while knowing that it would lead me to a double shot latte 🤗

The sun was shining, the humidity high…. Over 75% this morning. Once moving the air was refreshing and I never really struggled although my legs were very stiff for the first 10 kms or so.

The Coffee was good, no dramas too report and so for the rest of the day I’m not going to do a lot. Back to work tomorrow and so I’ll rest today. Start my new book, have a Siesta and drink more coffee ☕

Well it’s something that I have been meaning to do for a long time and yesterday I got things underway. Insulating and lining the garage to cut out the heat of the sun. Even today in the morning sun the heat was beginning to get up there. In summer I guess you could fry and egg on the asbestos wall.

The Eastern wall is not very straight or flat. The house has moved over the years and the wall has not got a distinct curve in it which made it a bit tricky at times. I couldn’t fix the studs directly to the timber frame and so I put blocks in so that I had room for the insulation and at the same time tried to straighten things up a little. Around the window I created a sill and made that look a whole lot better.

I went out early this morning to get some better timber fix screws and yes, what a difference it made. The hammer drill/screw gun made short work of them and with very little effort put in by myself. Yesterday was a lot more difficult due to the screws I was using.

Yesterday I got half the wall done and today I managed to do the framing on the rest and even got one sheet put up. I would have got more done yesterday if I hadn’t run out of screws.

I’ve got the gyprock to do and I could do it tomorrow but I think I’ll give my body a rest because I’m feeling a bit worse for wear. My back needs a good stretch or massage too.

Even if I do one sheet each day next week between the bus shifts, yes I think that is doable and not too stressful. Once I’ve got this done I’ll maybe get started on the repair of the retaining wall behind the garage which will be a big job which I’m not looking forward to.

I’ve lived in this house for over twenty years and the pigeons have certainly tested my patience. When I first moved in they were roosting under the eaves. The house is two storey so it wasn’t easy for me at that time to get up there and so it was weeks before I shifted them and cleaned up the shit.

Under the house is the garage and storage area, the house is built on stilts, and so there were many access points for determined pigeons.

One day as I drove into the garage I saw two pigeons looking at me from one of the overhead beams, looking as proud as punch and no doubt saying “Ha Fuck Off!”

I tried in vain that night to get rid of them. I chased them with a big stick, threw things at them and they just flew around shitting as they went.

I tried to find all the access points and blocked them up and eventually got them out but they hung around for days. I started to hose them down and that seemed to work although I could hear them up on the roof clattering about.

They soon got the message and migrated across the street where I used to see them sneak under an opening in the eave but I couldn’t care less because they were gone.🤗

Years later I got solar panels and they just love solar panels and it wasn’t long before they came over for a swatch. They liked what they saw and crawled underneath to nest. At first I didn’t realise because they had been so quiet. Clever buggers!

I couldn’t get up onto the roof and so all I could do was to use the hose, but they were just out of range and just laughed at me. A couple of weeks passed before I could borrow a ladder to get up to the roof. Not a fan of roofs. By this time they had moved in and were building their dream home but I as the big bad wolf brought my hose and washed the whole house down. I can’t say I was proud of myself but I can’t have them nesting underneath the panels as the shit is toxic and goodness knows what it would have done to the panels and the corrugated roof.

I used plastic gutter guard which is like netting to cover the sides and thick foam to seal the top and this worked quite well, however the foam began to disintegrate and debris was building up behind it and it was causing problems during really heavy rain which has been fairly common over the last few years and so this week I threw away the foam and tried plan B.

I first got some small bolts and attached them to the edges of the panels using Liquid Nails, left it for 24 hours and then got more gutter guard and clipped it onto the bolts and secured with a washer and nut. A few more cable ties to stitch it together and I think it looks pretty good. Not sure how it will survive the first storms of the season but I know that the rain will flow off  the roof better since the foam is gone and I’m confident at the moment that the pigeons will be kept out, mind you I’ve said that before 😝

I got the train to Indooroopilly this morning and cycled home. I thought I’d head to the city for a change as I haven’t done this in years. Last time was for a charity event from Brisbane to Ipswich and for my $50 donation I got a hamburger when I crossed the finish line. I can remember that I was absolutely knackered and struggled to cycle the short distance home, this morning I felt OK.

It took me just over two hours or so and I’d forgotten just how many hills there are 😝

I enjoyed it and I will definitely do it again. Next time I’ll go into the city centre rather than start just outside. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope with this run this morn so I chose the shorter option.

I treated myself to a pizza and I know I didn’t get over the 49km mark but it’s been a while so I thought what the hell.

Off to Rockhampton, sitting at the departure gate, the flight leaves at 2pm. I brought the car and parked it at the long stay car park which is much more convenient. It’s $99 for the weekend which is pretty good.

Haven’t flown domestic for ages. I got my baggage ticket at the check in terminal but then didn’t know where to go to drop my bag so I joined a queue and got the usual happy Qantas staff member.

He said there was no need to join this line as I had checked in and the baggage drop is up at the end. I’m the only person in line. He made me feel so special when he decided to help me, prick! Fat gay men seem to be a prerequisite.

Up to this stage he had done nothing apart from feeling superior and being a prick. Qantas staff must go to a special seminar or maybe they just hire ignorant pricks. I never fly them if I have choice, I find that customer service is not in their repertoire.

Let’s see how the air crew goes.

Well I’m on the way home after a great weekend. James and family looked after me and we even indulged in some wonderful whisky.

Went to the beach, although the wind nearly blew away the hair that I have left. The fish and chips were delicious, just ask the seagulls.

I had my first drive in an electric car and was pleasantly surprised. It is so quick when you sink the wellie, and the breaks are great too coupled with the regen.

It goes like shit off a shovel!!

I’m on my way home and I’m just waiting for the check in to open and then I’ll go for a bit of lunch. I’m flying business class on the way back but I’m not sure how much better that is from flying peasant class on domestic.

The customer service was way better in Rockhampton which made the flight process a lot easier.

The only thing that went wrong with me journey was the chicken wrap that I bought for lunch. I had that and a latte and just before I got on the flight my stomach started to growl and 10 mins before the flight boarded I was sat on the loo trying to encourage what ever had possessed my innards to leave forth with.

It didn’t listen to me but I did manage to expel some.

On the plane I had a cup of tea and a packet of nuts, very nice. However, just as the plane began to descend the pressure changes fired up my bowels once more and for a moment I thought that life as I’d known it was over.

Lots of controlled breathing and talking to my innards as we approached the airport, telling them to just wait and chill and all will be well.

As we got closer to the ground I suddenly felt better. We landed and it was an eternity to get to the gate. I was champing at the bit, eyes watering. As I emerged into the terminal I spotted the toilets and made a B line for them, secured a cubicle and began to breathe easy once more.

I suffered this another twice before going to bed, my guts were in turmoil. I have never had an experience like that since I travelled through Burma and had a dodgy curry.

PS

Rockhampton was great and if I’m lucky I might just be able to move there one day, I haven’t totally given up on that idea 🤔

Last week was wet and seemed to drag and to add insult to injury I got a throat infection and the snot factor was intense. I’m popping more pills than I have done in a long time which I am not happy about. I have three different types of anti-histamine which I rotate but they don’t work as long as the recommended 24 hours……I’ve used them too much and so sometimes I just take Panadol, even although I was told by a chemist that there are no active ingredients within that help with reducing snot but I disagree! Even if it is the Placebo effect that’s kicking in that’s ok with me.

Friday was the last day of school for two weeks, Easter Break, and April will be a very lean month I think because there seems to be many other public holidays. I’m happy with that. Friday night I was in bed by 8:30 drugged up with one cold and flu tablet and I was out like a light, bad news was that I woke up around 3:30am and could hardly breathe through my nose and my mouth was as dry as an Arab’s sandal.

Saturday was spent on the couch watching TV and sleeping and taking drugs topped off with a whisky when it got dark. I started watching Breaking Bad, it’s still good after all these years and then I watched a new movie called Black Bag….It’s worth a watch…British Spy movie.

Sunday, Today, I got up at 5:30am and felt not too bad. It seemed that the plague that I had contracted had moved on and so I headed out on the bike and for a change I put the bike on the car and headed to Fernvale, a small country town about 30 km’s or so away. I wanted to cycle another part of the BRVT “Brisbane Valley Rail Trail” to Lowood. It’s only 8 kms but when you are on gravel with my bike that is quite sufficient. I was going to move to the main road which was adjacent to trail but it was too busy.

When I got to Lowood I went for a quick explore and I think I will return and do this again but I’ll try and plan a route where I can use the roads because my bike and my arse do not like the gravel trail.

At 2 mins 50 you will hear and see a bat colony

So two week holiday, I have few things planned. I need to do a few jobs around here but next weekend I’m flying up to Rockhampton for the weekend which I’m looking forward to. Got a cheap flight so I’ll leave the car at the airport and have a drink on the plane.

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.

Anticipation,
So many warnings,
So much hype,
Listening to too much shite,
Australian media,
The drama machine,
Blood pressure rising,
TV evangelists getting clicks,
Meanwhile the populous get sick,
Stress and worry,
Alfred seems to be in no hurry,
More time to prepare,
It’s a waiting game for some,
Already Alfred has many on the run,
I’m a Prepper too,
But how much do you do,
Nothings certain,
The path unknown,
Trying to be practical,
Controlled panic,
Once it arrives the reality begins,
Instincts heighten,
Hopefully clarity arrives,
And if we all survive…

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.