Warragamba dam which supplies most of Sydney's water supply is now over-spilling and those low-lying suburbs where the river passes through are all getting flooded. Never seen it so bad before.

Whole week raining - at least the rain will clear up on Wednesday . Cannot do any washing for the whole week!!

This is as close as it gets to Malaysia during the raining season. Best chance to convince your wife that the flooding now is just like in parts of rural Msia.

I personally quite enjoy the slightly gloomier weather, it's the best to sleep in or relax for the indoor person I guess.

For those living in Sydney and had their passports expire, can it only be done if we go to Canberra? Any options to do it online? Was hoping to renew it back in Msia but with Covid this is now not feasible.

The last time i renewed in Canberra was 9 years ago - i had to call up and booked an appointment beforehand. We drove down the night before and stayed at a motel. You hand in your application around 9am and collect after lunch. They only do a limited number a day. The procedure is probably different now with Covid. Mine is not due until June next year.

Looks like weather is clearing up now where i am. It is now a lot brighter compared to this morning. Got a Tuesday night dinner with my retiree friends group at Wewok Kingsford tonight. Hopefully we will get a few days of sunshine from now.

Thanks for the info, probably a good excuse to travel and explore Canberra a little. A day trip might be good - anything nice to check out in Canberra?

Hope you're enjoying the weather - nice sunny day today. Time for you to go out and makan more. Personally itching for good cendol but nothing here beats the roadside cendol in Msia.

Looks like the sun is finally out today!!

I have been to Canberra so many times i have forgotten the places of interest now. In the nineties, Canberra opened their casino before Sydney's Star Casino so every time we had visitors in Sydney (from Msia), we would drive them down to Canberra to visit the casino. Most of these visitors were not interested in visiting the tourist venues in Canberra and just wanted to spend time in the casino .

I quite like the War Memorial (it is a war museum) because as we get older, we learn to appreciate life during war a lot more (older people tend to reflect more on how their lives has changed compared to younger days). There is also the Telstra Tower where you have to drive through some winding road before you reach the top of the mountain. Parliament House is quite pretty and you can go inside the Parliament to have a walk around - you might want to drive through all the different embassies (it is quite near the Parliament) as well as visiting the old Parliament. There is a place where they have everything built in smaller denominations (Cockington Green??? - cannot recall the name now). Been to Canberra so many times as i used to love to drive long distances but now old man don't enjoy driving far nowadays .

I need to make a time to have yum cha with you - maybe if it is okay, we can go next week on Easter Saturday at Zilver at around 12noon? Take your partner along (if she wants to go along) and i will see if my wife wants to join us. Don't bring anything up what i have written in LYN as she doesn't know i have revealed so much of our personal life on LYN

Thanks for the suggestions on where to visit in Canberra. Will note down the places and also do some research on makan places there too. Won't be able to visit Canberra anytime soon either. Highly doubt we can travel out of Aus for the next few months anyway - so passport renewal can wait. I also hate long distance driving, especially alone as I tend to get sleepy when bored driving down a straight highway. Driving to Taiping/Ipoh was especially boring back in Msia as it was a uneventful drive. Would be great if I could nap through any long drives.

Lunch next Sat sounds good - both missus and I will be going. Looking forward o this meet-up. I'll do my best to remember regarding LYN topics. Also don't mind going earlier if that helps with the lunch crowd too.

Good that you can attend on 3 April Saturday around 12noon Zilver. Usually Saturday is not very busy but being a super long weekend, it might be slightly busier. I have been there quite a few Saturdays yum cha and it wasn't very crowded. My wife and i would normally walk around Chinatown after lunch and do a bit of shopping. We have been eating quite a lot out in Chinatown in the past few weeks .

I don't think you will be able to travel until next year (earliest) so no need to renew your passport. At the moment, the Aust govt won't allow us out unless it is an emergency (compassionate) or if you are relocating for longer than 3 months. It is so difficult to travel overseas nowadays and with the need to quarantine, visiting loved one overseas is close to being impossible.

See you on Easter Saturday

NSW is giving A$100 to be spent to revive businesses caught up in the Covid downturn

https://www.news.com.au/travel/nsw-governme...ea7a13f49ef0c96

My wife and i got the 4 vouchers each worth A$25/voucher per person. Two vouchers each can be spent on restaurants. Most of the restaurants we go to are on the list of approved restaurants. Since retirees eat out a lot, this is a good thing for a cheapskate retiree like me .

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Mar 27 2021, 06:07 AM

Tq bro for informing,....

Good morning Kagenn, daylight saving has ended and we are now 2 hours different from Peninsular Malaysia now. Days are slowly getting shorter now.

Nice to meet you and your wife yesterday - my wife says you are very good looking. She was initially apprehensive about meeting someone she has no clue about but last night she told me you are a nice couple. If we had kids, they will probably be your age .

Enjoy whatever is left of Easter.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 4 2021, 05:13 AM

Yeah, it'll be easier to chat with friends and family from Malaysia now. It was a nice catching up with you and the wife yesterday too - always happy to meet other Msians. Always up for another before you make a move back to Msia (if/when you do).

Lol thanks for the confidence boost! Yeah I know the feeling, we were also mingling around a little and it is pretty hard to mix with people whose values are vastly different (cultural and personal) - but I think we're slowly adapting.
Some colleagues are great people and they're a blast to work with.

Gonna be mostly house chores now - we're supposed to give the cat a shower and clean the house yesterday, so today is the replacement day. I gotta wash my car too - troublesome as ther's no car wash bay here.
Maybe dinner with our ex-landlady in Bankstown. You have a nice break too - I really miss these long weekends and Msian holidays.

Long weekend coming to an end now. Weather has been fabulous the past few days - wish Sydney was like this whole year round. When i was younger, i didn't feel cold even in winter - i could just wear a light jacket at night even in winter but as we get older, we can really feel the cold now. We prefer warmer weather now - Brisbane is nice for oldies but i don't have any friends and relatives there.

We will see if i have some time for another lunch - maybe we can go to Bankstown Pho An one weekend Saturday (i don't like going on Sundays because restaurants are usually packed on Sunday (lunches).

Looks like coming week may get a little showery.

Keep in touch.

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 5 2021, 05:32 AM

South Eastern QLD's turn to get bad weather.

This post has been edited by limeuu: Apr 5 2021, 11:13 PM

Weather's pretty darn cold now in Sydney, do keep warm people.

Would anyone know how different winter is in Queensland? I keep hearing that it's most similar to Msia and summer/winter are much more tolerable.

Is there the same issue with flies/mosquitoes there? Is the infrastructure on par with Sydney/Melbourne?

I was going to post this morning after i came back from morning walk to Coles but completely forgotten because my consolidation of the two super funds is finally happening today. I was so happy with the interest that the 2 super funds gave me from 15 March till now that i totally forgotten about posting - got A$21k for interest from the superfunds in the last 28 days. Even though i am now in a balanced strategy, that is fantastic but it is happening on the back of very strong markets (both internationally and overseas).

Now back to the weather - it is 9.6 deg in Randwick when i started walking there. Bloody freezing!! I had to wear my winter track suits and it still felt a little cold! Lucky the sun was bright and shiny!!

I bought a mid-sized Chanel for my wife last week and she is now asking for another Chanel bag after i told her about my super interest . I must learn to keep quiet now whenever my super jumps but i am the type of person who cannot keep quiet when good news come across. My share portfolio (outside super) has also jumped about 3% so never mind - lah .

This post has been edited by Garysydney: Apr 12 2021, 10:02 AM

Congrats,... bro Gary,...

You cannot talk about QLD as one place, as it is a huge state, that stretches a very long way latitude wise.

Generally you can divide it into 2. The southeast part is where the majority of population lives, and has a sub-tropical climate, essentially a long warm summer (9 months), and a short cool winter (3 months). It seldom gets very cold (average low teens), and also, seldom very hot either.

Very similar to places like Taiwan/HK, Florida etc.

The northern half is basically tropical, not unlike Malaysia year round.

Mosquitos and flies are everywhere in Australia...lol

Visit it lah, it's typical Australia, except without the crazy Syd/Mel costs.

Perfect retiree location....lol. In fact Sunshine Coast is the most popular retirement home location: spaced out, slow paced, cheap, and miles of beaches and sunshine, without the tourists! A top notch UQ University Hospital, and yet only just over an hour to Brisbane.

Definitely agree Queensland has the best weather for retirees.

I have no friends/relatives in Queensland otherwise i won't mind trying retirement there.

Weather is starting to get cold in the mornings now in Sydney and my wife is starting to get headaches (due to the cold) and allergies. I myself don't mind the cold (like now) as it is not really that cold yet. I start getting uncomfortable in mid-June when morning temperature starts dropping to single digit.

I remember when I had to fly to Brissie for work one winter. I went from 7c in Melbourne to 27c in Brisbane.

Walked out of the airport wearing my black puffer jacket looking like an idiot.

Melbourne is so cold during winter. Brrrrr....

I remember my first visit to Melbourne in late June 1981 (during semester break) and stayed at my friend's place in Clayton. At that time, we were all Uni students and we had all studied at Taylor's College previously (Taylor's was located at the bottom of Pantai Hill then). Most of the the students in Taylor's ended up in Melbourne while i went to Sydney as my sister applied for NSW universities for me (via UCAC in those days). Good memories. It was bloody freezing in Clayton (i think it was something like -2 deg in Clayton (morning temp) the few days when i was in Melbourne. We were young then and it didn't feel that cold.Now thinking back that was 40 years ago!!