Enough of this bike business, after lunch it was down to the beach to make Dad (aka Mark) & Dad (aka Rob) push the S.S Inflatable around the shallows while the kids bounced up and down with the waves. Should have taken a video of this, so when the kids are older we can ask for pay back!

And what’s a trip to the beach without building (and more importantly, demolishing) a few sand castles!

This effort is nowhere near as obstrusive as the Jeep’s home grown touch screen PC/media player/GPS, and I’ve tried to keep a factory look and feel as much as possible.

The bits that I’ve added are:

• Nokia CK-7W bluetooth car kit
• GME Electrophone TX-3400 UHF Radio
• RFI AP-454 glass mount antenna
• UDC Holden iPod interface

I actually installed the bluetooth kit a few months ago. A pretty straight forward install. I just bought the factory button from a local Holden dealer and attached a new plug into the wiring loom that’s sitting under a panel at the passenger’s right leg.

The 2.5mm socket above the phone button is for the phone charger. Good for those long weekends away! Its a bit unfortunate that the phone is upside down, but I wasn’t bothered trying to find if they also make one the other way up.

Last week I received my iPod interface from Vlad (http://udc.aus.googlepages.com/holden) and took to the factory head unit with a screwdriver and soldering iron to add seamless iPod support.

The only thing I did differently to Vlad’s recommended install was the way I routed the cable. Instead of cutting the cable and running it through to the arm rest compartment, I removed the centre console, drilled a 13mm hole, and threaded the mini din plug that comes with the kit through to the back of the head unit.

The insert to the compartment has only got three sides, which you can sort of see in the picture, It also has a false bottom, so its easy to drill out a hole big enough for the mini din plug through the console base, and then just check out a 5mm hole for the wire in the bottom of the insert. The compartment insert is screwed in from the bottom though, so I had to remove the centre console to get to it.

My Nano fits perfectly, but I’m not sure if the bigger iPods will fit nicely here.

And a close-up:

Last but not least was the CB install. This one was a little fiddly because of the tight space I tried to fit it in. Ideally it would have gone into the compartment above where it is now, but the radio was about 10mm too wide. I was going to take a few more photos of the iPod cable run, but that would mean removing the CB to get the console back out.

The GME Tx-3400 is a remote-head radio, so the main part of the CB is tucked up underneath the glove compartment. That caused the sound to be a bit muffled, so I used the external speaker that came with the Nokia car kit (The car kit audio routes through the radio speakers) and mounted it just behind the centre console. Much better sound!

The SS Rotomahana lies in about 40m of water, and although there is not much left of her, she still boasts two massive boilers which make for a cruisey little swim through, and there’s still quite a bit of the deck structure remaining, albeit rather broken up. And of course abundant fishlife. But at 40m, and Justin and I not diving with a deco mix, we had about 20 minutes bottom time, a 10 minute ascent to 6m, and a further half hour of thumb twiddling at the shot-line washing off deco obligations.

After the Rotomahana, next stop was a quick drop-off at Portsea for a fill, while Ocean Diver headed back to Sorrento to pick up some more passengers for Anchor Wall and he Arches. The wind and swell picked up a bit so after Anchor Wall we couldn’t head back outside the heads. The alternative was a rather slow scallop drift just off Rye. Having never had the urge to take a photo of a scallop before, I took this pic which shows quite nicely how this stingaree and scallop have buried themselves for camouflage from natural predators. Like divers.

And as usual, a few more pics in my Melbourne Diving gallery.

My weekend finished on Monday morning at Kilsby’s, with this trip’s second awesome dive at that hole in the middle of a sheep paddock. I tagged my camera along for a couple of the dives, but my photos just don’t do the dives justice. Definately more practice required at this sort of photography. And maybe another strobe wouldn’t hurt either!

Last weekend we pulled up a heap of bricks that were laid as pavers, and also broke up the concrete slab from the old laundry/shed. We also took off about 150mm of dirt where the deck is going to be, to allow enough clearance for the bearers. The deck will be the full width of the yard and will come out to around where the bike is.

Our efforts last weekend filled the first 3 cubic metre bin in the space of two hours. The next one lasted a bit longer as the day wore on, and the wheel barrow seemed to get heavier and heavier. On Sunday we hired a jackhammer to break up the foundations of the slab, and that finished up the bin.

This weekend I gave up on the 3m bin, and went straight for a 6m one. More bricks to lift up and shift into the bin, but we gave ourselves a little break every now and then by shifting a few barrows of tan bar. Much lighter than bricks. The tan bark was a good idea when we first moved back in, with the aim of keeping the mud and dust down. But the stuff sticks to Connie (our King Charles Cavalier) like glue, and end up all through the house.

We also demolished the temporary lean-to shelter that I built for the boat about three (maybe four) years ago. That lone tree in the middle of the yard will go soon, but I first wanted to wait until we’ve got at least a little greenery in the form of those trees along the wall. It was rather satisfying to make that planter box – actually doing something constructive after two weekends straight of shovelling bricks, dirt and rubble! The mound of dirt around the tree at least shows how much dirt we took out of the backyard – the whole yard used to be level with the top of the mound.

Kira, Ed and myself spent the better part of two hours running line between milk crates sitting on the bottom of the pool, whilst Jane did her best at task loading us, including simulated OOA scenarios, simulated zero vis (blindfolds over masks and taking off masks), crossed lines and loose lines.

As this was the first time any of us had dived together, and we didn’t really get much time to discuss communication beforehand, there was some confusion going on, but for the most part I think we managed ok. It also didn’t help things out when our sequence was changed for every exercise. Certainly something to be discussed at length before getting wet at Mt. Gambier next weekend!

I definitely have to say that the GUE Fundamentals course I did last year went a long way to preparing me to be a lot more comfortable and confident with what the rest of this course is no doubt going to bring.

We did see plenty of Wobbegongs and Port Jacksons (below), as well as a number of cuttlefish and a couple of morays amongst other fishlife. The weather was also kind enough to let us into Spider Cave as the last dive on Sunday, but surge stopped us from getting too far. Pics of the weekend are in my Jervis Bay gallery.

Even though to winds were squalling and the waves pounding outside the heads, Mick and Lyn managed to find a quite spot inside the bay for us to anchor on Sunday night.

On Monday there wasn’t much to do other than sight seeing at the local museum or national park, so a few of us opted for a walk to the cliffs above where we were diving over the previous couple of days, and I took the opportunity to photograph some plantlife.

First up, the view of our house from the street. The street frontage hasn’t changed at all really. Still looks pretty shabby and in desperate need of a new paint job. We’re slowly getting to that bit.

Stepping out to the side of the house, you can see the added storey. Looks much nicer all freshly painted and such. That’s what I spent a week of my life doing – patching, sealing, sanding, priming and painting the second storey weatherboards before the scaffolding got taken down.

View from the back yard. Or what’s left of it, amongst my dodgey old lean-to boat shelter, a couple of overgrown palm trees (if anyone wants a palm tree or two, bring a shovel and a trailer) and a huge pile of dirt left over from digging foundations. The doors is the entrance to my workshop, and above that is the balcony coming out from the master bedroom upstairs.

The boys from M.K. Millar Constructions laying the Tasmanian Oak floorboards, working frantically to prepare the house for plastering before the plasterers arrive. Picture taken from the courtyard, looking into the new living area through a sliding door.

Just off the study into the ceiling cavity is the data and electrics room. On the left is the mess of data and A/V cabling. Almost a kilometer of cabling including around 40 Cat6, 10 Cat5e, 12 RG6, and 24 speaker wires. Just beyond that is where the electrical switchboard will go, and to the right is the all the lighting wires along with Clipsal’s signature pink C-Bus Cat5 cable.

Smoko room. We decided Kirsty’s old couch could find a better home, but we figured we might as well leave for hte builders to use until the end of the job. Just like the palm trees, if you’re in need of a couch. Dire need. Come along with a trailer. You won’t need a shovel for this one.

Master bedroom, looking into the walk-in robe. We had to cut the upstairs ceiling height from 2700mm down to a rather low 2400mm to fit the roofline into the “building envelope” to avoid having to go to town planning to build the extension. So to add a bit more headroom in the master bedroom, the centre of the ceiling is raised back to 2700mm. It’s actually ended up looking quite good.

The kitchen got delivered today, and looks pretty good. Stone benchtops and two-pack paint finish. Aside from a couple of minor problems, and that the door contours aren’t exactly what we asked for, it looks pretty good. When the pantry door closes, another cupboard door opens itself. Might have to get them to fix that one!!

The plasterer is still hard at work. Most of the upstairs and the the whole kitchen has been plastered now, but there’s still a fair stack of plasterboards to go. Definately not a job I envy.

This is a photo from the entrance hall, looking at the stairwell. I thought about cancelling the stair order, and just leaving the ladder there. Much cheaper, but it might be a bit tough to get the furniture upstairs. By the end of tomorrow, the ladder will hopefully be replaced by a proper staircase.

The bathroom vanities also got delivered today, and the one in the ensuite upstairs has been installed already. I was pretty much over looking at cabinets and benchtops and doors and handles and things, so the bathroom vanities get the same handles as the kitchen.

I think that’s enough photos for one post to bore anyone still reading. And I’m also all out of things to caption any other photos with.

Kirsty and I arrived on the island the Sunday before, along with our immediate families and a few friends. Others arrived on various days during the week, whilst those on the island partook in many a merry affair. Watching sunset from One Tree Hill with cheese and wine in hand was an event we were told not to miss. So much so in fact that we did it twice.

My own photos on this trip are a little light on – I didn’t need to take that many photos, we had a photographer doing that for us! Well okay, she was only there for the wedding day and the sunset cruise aboard Banjo Paterson on teh Thursday night. But I was just having way too much fun the whole week. So to any of our guests that took photos, we’d love it if you could send them to us!

Work started about 10 weeks ago, and after a small delay with some badly time downpours flooding the backyard and turning it into a mudpit, the Mark from M.K. Millar Constructions and his team finally managed to get the footings in and could start working on a solid timber base instead of squelching around in the mud.

Here are some of the latest photos of where its all at. We thought that once the plans were finalised and approved the hard part was over. But that was the easy bit! It’s all the little things that are a real pain. Plumbing and light fittings, tiles, kitchen layout and cupboards, window types. The list just keeps getting longer!

The framing starting to take shape. Below is the view from the new (downsized) backyard into the kitchen window.

The last photo below is from the master bedroom upstairs, looking past where the balcony will be, and into the bricked garage and workshop area. As you can see, one of the builders has a permanent marker and a sense of humour!