Yearly Archives: 2017

Random Rants

The Postal Vote: be ye not afraid!

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The Plebiscite Postal Vote is almost upon us and you can’t turn on a radio or television without almost immediately being subjected to discussions of it.  Don’t even think of going on the internet, let alone social media, as everyone screams their two cents in unadulterated rage at the other side.

 

The Pony Postal Vote

Now me, I’m going to take a different tact.  I’ve got a message for two of the most vocal groups against gay marriage – those groups being Ocker Aussie Blokes and Christians.  I’m not going to try to convince you to vote for gay marriage – I know you are not going to – there is no point me yelling at you.  My message is why you shouldn’t be afraid of gay marriage.  Because guess what?  Even if it doesn’t happen this time around, eventually it will happen so you had better get comfortable with the concept.

 

To the Ocker Aussie Blokes:

Guys, if there is one group that should be in favor of gay marriage it’s you guys – think about it:

  • For every two guys that get together, that means two less guys as competition to pick up that hot chick at the end of the bar. You should want more guys to turn gay!  Imagine if you were one of the few straight guys on earth – yeah maybe TV might suck more but you’d have women literally lined up around the block waiting for a shag!
  • Women getting married – that’s pretty hot! How are these lesbians going to pay for their weddings?  Two women getting married means two wedding dresses and those things are bloody expensive!  Maybe they will make a saucy video and put it online that you can watch for a small fee as a way of raising the cash eh?  Even more hot girl love on the net – boo-yah!
  • Girl couples everywhere! To build upon the last point, lesbians being able to marry means they will feel more socially accepted for their sexuality.  This means that they are more likely to freely express affection in public.  Imagine being on your lunch break, eating a sandwich, to look over and see two girls going the pash, even engaging in a bit of light petting.  What a wonderful bloody country this will become – I’ll damn well be voting for it!

 

To the Christians

  • Everything that happens is part of the Devine Plan. No getting away from that.  So if it does happen, it means that God meant for it to happen.  So don’t get upset, just accept it’s part of the almighty’s divine will that your little human brain cant comprehend.
  • It will make gays easier to spot and subsequently judge. You won’t have to hunt them out anymore, checking closets in case there is a nest of them ensconced somewhere in your neighborhood.  They will be out in the open, holding the hands of their legal spouses.  Makes it a lot easier to target them to give them fliers about The Truth and tell them at length how they should be living their lives.
  • More room in Heaven, less in Hell. In The Book of Revelations it gives the dimensions of Heaven which is about half the size of the USA.  Given the population boom, you don’t want to go around saving everyone.  If everyone gets into Heaven it’s going to be standing room only – forever.  Not even room to swing a harp!  You don’t want those sodomites in Hell stretching out with plenty of room laughing at you do you?

 

But to both the Ocker Aussie Blokes and The Christians, let me give you this last piece of reasoning.  You know why you shouldn’t stress if Gay Marriage happens?  Because if it does happen it means we won’t have another bloody plebiscite postal vote that costs over ONE HUNDRED MILLION OF TAXPAYERS DOLLARS because our pollies are too afraid of pissing off the wrong special interest groups and getting voted out!

 

As I said before, gay marriage is going to happen one day.  Just like equal rights for women and equal rights for indigenous people, there is no stopping the march for equal rights for the LGBT’s – it’s inevitable.  So let’s just get it over with eh?  Then you Ocker Aussie Blokes can get back to getting pissed in front of the footy and ranting about how bloody foreigners are ruining this country, and you Christians can get back to telling your children that the invisible man in the sky loves them but will make them burn in unbearable pain for all eternity if they love the wrong person.   And the rest of us can just get on with it because gays getting married isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference to anybody else’s day to day lives.

 

Related Articles

Ask Trev: I’m gay and I can’t find love – help!

Tales of the Trev: The day I learned to have empathy for all women everywhere

Random Reviews: Live Show Review: An evening with Henry Rollins

Meaty Goodness!

Meat Review – Rump & Ribs in Rylstone

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Ok, let me clarify something from the outset:

Rump & Ribs in Rylstone is a review of the food available at The Globe – a restaurant on the main street.  It is NOT to make fun of that couple that just moved in on Piper street.  You know the ones, the Spratts?  Where the woman has a bulbous arse and the bloke is painfully thin?  This is not about them.  And shame on you for assuming it was and body shaming them, not cool!  Comments along the lines that he looks like the lovechild of a skeleton and a xylophone and she looks like someone shoved an air compressor nozzle up her datehole and set it to ‘mega inflate’ are juvenile, unkind and all such commentary will be deleted from this blog.

Ahem.  Anyway…

Back to the matter at hand

As I’ve stated in other meat reviews, any dish that serves up two distinct species of farm animal on the same plate immediately gets my attention (see my review of the E-I-E-I-O Burger in Melbourne).  Whilst I was all tasted up to grab a mixed grill which always satisfies this craving, I couldn’t go past their specials board which had Rump & Ribs up for grabs.

Bones of a pig on top of the arse of a cow

This was…. ok.  The ribs had a sweet BBQ flavoring which wasn’t too bad but the steak came with nothing on it but the ribs.  The steak also came out as two smaller pieces which was quite odd, made it seem they didn’t have a full sized steak on hand rather than it was an intentional culinary decision by the chef.  Also I asked for medium and got medium-well which is always an irritant.  If you are paying $30 for a meal where the star of the show is a steak, the steak should be one whole piece and cooked the way you asked for.  That said it wasn’t too bad, the salad made for a crisp counterpoint and refreshed the palette between meaty bites.

 

Other meals available at The Globe

Surf’ n’ Turf

Once again, this wasn’t too bad.  The sauce was fairly creamy and the prawns were done in an interesting fashion, encased in a long cone resembling a parsnip.  I do like big thick juicy prawns with a surf’ n’ turf to complement the steak and feel the meal could have benefited from going that more traditional route rather than the novel.

Sirloin Steak

My wife had this and like me she ordered medium and got medium-well (for a place that does medium to perfection check out my reviews of The Kings Hotel in Bathurst).  Also her pepper sauce had way too much bite, like they had not refined it enough and had left whole peppercorns in there.  The ‘yeah, it’s alright’ motif continued with this dish.

Kids Meals

What? Why is everyone looking at me?

The Globe does quite well here.  The kids meals are big and they can pick which meal they want by colouring in an accompanying menu sheet which is a novel idea.  The meals also include a drink and for $2 extra they get a desert.  The Globe gets a great big tick from a satisfied parent in this regard.

 

Overall

Look, there is quite nice food to be had at The Globe but nothing stellar.  However being one of only two places to get a meal out in Rylstone at night, it’s not like you have a lot of options to go elsewhere.  Despite this lack of competitors they still provide decent meals at decent prices, the restaurant feels comfy with a big wood heater going and the barman has been super friendly and helpful the few times we have been there.  You might not get dazzled but what you will get is a pleasant meal out with your family and on a cold winters night who could ask for more.

 

Oh, and leave the Spratts alone will ya!  It’s their dietary requirements – he can eat no fat and she can eat no lean – it’s not their fault!

 

Got a review of The Globe of your own?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Meaty Goodness!

Meat Review – The Kings Hotel part 2 – Steaky Goodness!

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A bit over a year ago I did my first review of The Kings Hotel in Bathurst and lauded both the quality and most definitely the quantity of their meaty meals.  In particular The Cajun Surf & Turf, Rack of Pork Ribs and my personal favorite The Kings Kilo Steak!

Well here we are again and we are going to look at 3 more offerings, this time of the more subdued kind but still all impressive beef steaks in their own right – The 300gm Rump, the 350gm Sirloin and the 400gm T-Bone.

Makes for good reading!

Sadly not all 3 steaks were mine.  My mother-in-law chose the rump (which I suspect was due to it was the cheapest and she was trying to be nice to the person paying) and my wife chose the sirloin.  Personally I went the T-Bone – I know everyone has their own opinion on what is the best steak (porterhouse, scotch fillet etc) and whilst I love them all with a passion the T-Bone is hands down the cut of choice for me (for my mother’s awesome recipe for T-Bone steak see HERE).

Left to Right: Sirloin, T-Bone, Rump. Now THIS is the kind of 3some I dream about!

It’s hard to know what to write about these steaks as they were all the same – damn good!  When you asked for medium you GOT medium (so neither burnt nor raw like many supposed chefs seem to think ‘medium’ is) and the meat was thick, fresh and juicy.  Certainly hadn’t been sitting in a freezer for a month.  Also they, to my expert eye, seemed to be the proportions advertised.  When working as a night-porter in Dalhousie Castle in Scotland many years ago I was absolutely disgusted when a chef there told me some of the tricks he used to pull to make a 350gm steak look like a 500gm – a shootable offence in my opinion!

I was disappointed that my wife and mother-in-law didn’t leave any scraps on their plate for me to scavenge as I am used to having a BIG meal whenever I visit The Kings but that attests to how much they enjoyed their steaks.  The sauces were all good too, I went the pepper, my wife the mushroom and my mother-in-law the gravy.  All very nice indeed and excellent to dip your chips in.

 

So yes, if your tastes run a little more tame then I can heartily recommend these three steaks which would probably receive top billing at any other establishment.  But honestly, if you end up at The Kings do yourself a favour and get either The Kings Kilo Steak or the Cajun Surf & Turf – hands down two of the best feeds you will ever have!

Steak, Steak, Steak, Steak
Steak, Steak, Steak, Steak
Luverly Steak!
Hobby Farming

Permaculture – Building a No-Dig garden

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Weeding – truly the bane of the gardeners existence!  They steal the nutrients from the soil meant for your other plants, they grow prickles to sting you, spread fast and frankly are a pain in the posterior!  On my last farm I had a 23m x 7m giant veggie patch and while it went great guns the first few years, I spent the last couple of years managing the weeds more than I grew food for my family.

So here on our new farm I’ve decided we are going to be weed free and to that end I am installing no-dig gardens.  I’ve started with two plots for plants I am transplanting from my old farm that need to get in before spring – Asparagus and Comfrey.  The whole idea of a no-dig garden is exactly how it sounds – no digging!  No digging plots in the soil to plant in and no digging endless weeds out over the years.

Though time consuming, no-dig gardens are simple to create and they save a lot more time in the long run as well as providing a nutrient rich patch ready for planting.  I have outlined the step-by-step process I went through below.

 

Note: This process goes through at minimum 5 layers.  I like to do one layer a day.  This means I can give each particular layer a good soaking which results in the new garden getting a good soaking 5 days straight.  This aids immensely in it breaking down quicker.

 

Step 1: Choose your site.  You can really build a no-dig garden anywhere (even on grass or concrete) but I chose a spot that was dirt and fairly bereft of weeds to begin with.  Then your plants have the option of burrowing further if needed down the line.

And thus we start with an almost barren wasteland

 

Step 2: Cardboard and barriers.

And this is why I hoard cardboard after a move

A lot of people use newspaper but I prefer un-dyed cardboard.  Firstly it is much thicker which means it is much harder for weeds to grow through from below, secondly it will take longer to disintegrate and thirdly there are less dyes and inks to seep into the ground.  Lay your cardboard down in the shape you want your garden to be and then use logs or bricks to make some walls around it.  Soak the cardboard.

 

Step 3: Put down a fairly thick layer of straw.  Lucerne is best and pea straw isn’t bad.  Personally I have acres of stubble so I just mowed a ton of that and stuck it in. Wet it down.

 

Step 4: Put in a layer of fertilizer.

Until I can source some local animal bums I have to go back to store-bought

Chicken  manure is certainly the best as it has all the nutrients a new garden will need.  I like to mix it up a bit with some cow manure as well.  Put down a nice thick layer and once again water.

Make sure you end up covering all of the straw by the end

 

Step 5: A second layer of straw – this time a minimum of 20cm thick, 30 if you have the resources.  Wet the straw down.

 

Step 6: Another layer of fertilizer.

More poop!

At my last farm I had a never-ending supply of fresh animal dung but here I am having to buy it (until my goats and poultry drop enough for my gardening needs) so I went a cheaper route and mixed it with a bunch of potting mix specifically intended for raised garden beds.  Once again water.

150L for $20 – fairly economical

 

Step 7: Let all this break down.  The longer the better.  Personally I only had a week to let mine do so before my asparagus started coming back to life and needed to get into the ground.  But even in that short period you will see the height of your no-dig garden lower as the straw starts to decompose and it will be ready for your plants.

The finished products!

 

And that’s it!  If you would like to add more layers feel free – the more the merrier!  Personally I will be adding some more potting mix around my plants when I put them in and then some straw around that to act as a mulch which will result in 7 layers all up.  But to start off, simply follow the above instructions and you will have some nice new patches ready for planting.  Once again, you can build anywhere you like and the best part is you don’t have to lift a shovel or pull your hair out over weeds down the line – happy gardening!

 

Got any other tips about no-dig gardens?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

Ask Trev!

Ask Trev: “What’s Big Angry Trev’s weight loss secrets?”

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This question comes from Anonymous in Aberdeen:

‘Hey Big Angry Trev, I see all over the internet you showing off how you’ve been losing all this weight!  Well how about ya share the secret how with the rest of us eh?  Or is it all bullshit and you’ve had a bunch of airbrushed photos done like all the other celebrities – thought you were better than that man’

 

Well, this reads more of an accusation than a question but I guess what this person is asking is ‘How have I been losing weight?’  It’s true, I’ve been losing nearly a kilo a day recently.  I didn’t even realize until my pants felt loose that I was dropping such weight and now it’s quite evident as you can see from this unaltered picture:

If you say this picture doesn’t turn you on then you are a damn liar!

So how have I been doing it?  Well, no real secret formula that any doctor wouldn’t recommend anyway.  It’s just been a change in lifestyle.  Since moving a few weeks ago I have:

  • Cut out alcohol and energy drinks
  • Eaten more often
  • Eaten smaller portions

That’s pretty much it!  But let’s take you through what I am eating in an average day:

 

7.30am

Coffee – no diet should exclude coffee – EVER!

Cup of coffee with milk and 2 sugars

 

8.30am

Breakfast

Two slices of toast with vegemite and a glass of orange juice

 

12.00pm

Lunch

Sandwich: 2 slices of cheese, 3 slices of ham and a healthy dollop of Dijon mustard – all on light rye bread and with a pint of water.

 

3.00pm

Afternoon Tea

A banana, a few crackers or cruskits and a can of sugar-free coke

 

6.00pm

NOT what you should eat, but what you certainly want to (recipe HERE)

Here I can’t provide a regular photo of what I have as what I have changes nightly.  What I can say is what has changed is not so much what I eat but what’s it’s made of and the portion sizes.  And that is because lately my wife has been doing the majority of the cooking.  Why does that make a difference? Well, let’s compare what we put in both our mashed potato recipes:

Her:

  • 3 Medium Potatoes
  • Skim Milk
  • Margarine

Me:

  • 4 Large Potatoes
  • Full Cream Milk
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Butter
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Gravy on top

So with her cooking it’s proved a lot healthier (and she has the skill of making healthy food delicious which is something I had never thought to master) and because the portions are smaller it means I am eating a lot less, since I also used to eat the leftovers on my kids plates as well.

 

9.00pm

The most g-rated nightcap ever

Cup of soup

 

So as you can see, I’m not exactly starving myself.  Also I’m not eating super-mega healthy either.  But what I am doing is eating throughout the day which keeps my metabolism going, rather than just eating a huge lunch and dinner and nothing else.  Also I’m only having a beer on a Friday night instead of 3 or 4 every night and no energy drinks whatsoever.  Combine this with the smaller portion sizes and I’ve been shedding kilos like a mangy wombat does lice!

 

Oh, and exercise?  Well, yeah, ya gotta move your arse to shrink it.  But as a hobby farmer and father of two I never sat still long anyway so I don’t think that has contributed much to my weight loss.  At most it may be that since I haven’t been smoking the last few weeks, I’m not sitting down for 5 minutes an hour to light one up so I’m doing 1/12th more activity per day than before.

 

So yeah, go lose some weight!  It’s really not hard.  And if you can’t seem to manage it there are always other options.  If you are a guy just grow a huge beard to balance it out and give you that husky lumberjack look. If you are a gal, just have the fat liposuctioned out from where you don’t want it and then stuck into your breasts where everyone will want it – both easy fixes!  Good luck y’all!

 

Got some weight-loss tips of your own?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

 

 

Meaty Goodness!

Meat Recipe #8 – Roast Lamb with Seasoned Vegetables

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Who doesn’t love a big roast eh?  Well, vegetarians I guess, and people with eating disorders, those in a coma etc… well, lots of people.  But lots more people love a roast, especially in winter!

Be still your beating taste buds

So here is a simple recipe for Roast Lamb with Vegetables that is certain to fill your tum.  All the ingredients will be seasoned in various themes of yummy goodness but I’ve even made that easy too.  Just follow the below instructions below and eat hearty!

 

Ingredients:

  • 1.5kg roasting lamb
  • 4 medium potatoes
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 large carrot
  • Frozen peas
  • Olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Minced garlic
  • Rosemary
  • Mild Paprika
  • Honey
  • Balsamic Vinegar

 

Preparation:

  • Peel & quarter the potatoes and the onion
  • Peel the large carrot and cut into sticks
  • Take a mixing bowl and fill the bottom with a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper
  • Put the oven on to preheat to 180 degrees

 

Seasoning:

  • One by one take each of the ingredients (the lamb, potatoes, carrots & onion) and roll them around in the mixture of oil, salt and pepper. Sit each to one side.
  • Mix up some minced garlic and rosemary and rub generously all over the lamb.
  • Roll potatoes in mild paprika
  • Roll carrots in honey and place in fridge
  • Pour balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and put onions in to soak. Place in fridge.

 

Method:

  • Place lamb in roasting tray that allows circulation of heat all around the lamb. Set timer for 90 minutes.
  • At the 45 minute mark put the potatoes on an oven tray and place in oven
  • At the 60 minute mark put the carrots on a separate tray and place in oven (otherwise all the honey that slides off will contaminate your potatoes and obscure the paprika seasoning)
  • At the 70 minute mark place the onion in next to the potatoes.
  • At the 80 minute mark put some peas on to boil

 

Serving

  • Cut the lamb into nice slices or chunks (depending on your culinary audience) using an electric knife and place on plate.
  • Divvy up the vegetables, providing some butter
  • You can provide gravy if you like, though with all the seasoning it shouldn’t be necessary
  • Enjoy!

 

And there ya go.  A roast recipe to warm the cockles of you and your families gullets this winter.  Happy eating!

Got your own roast lamb recipe?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Transformatorium

Titans Return Trypticon – the simple hip fix!

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Trypticon – the big bad!  The latest Titan Figure for the Titans Return line and the biggest Decepticon toy ever created!

However this titan has a titanic problem – his hips!

 

Though they are cropping up far less (still occasionally however) in later waves, the first batch of this toy came with some major issues that were in turn causing major damage to a pretty expensive toy.  These problems were:

1: The springs in the hips were far too strong and causing damage to the workings inside.

2: The teeth on the ratchet system for the hips were too big and would more often than not lock together instead of sliding over one another.

 

There have been quite a few fixes to these problems crop up on various Transformer sites and youtube.  These have ranged from cutting the springs in half to address the strength issue to filing down the teeth of the ratchet.  Some people have even removed the spring and half the ratchet altogether and replaced them with cardboard disks in order to turn the hips into a swivel system.

Well I am here to give you what I believe is the easiest answer to the spring and ratchet problems and guess what?  No cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts is necessary!  Follow the below instructions and your Trypticon will be ready to start smashing bots instead of his own hips in no time!

 

Before I start I would like to thank Grant in Blacktown and Michael in Melbourne for this.  Grant was the one who came across the method of fixing the spring and Michael created the solution to the ratchet teeth issue.  Well done guys – you both rock!

 

Tools:

1 Screwdriver

1 Pair of Scissors

1 Marker Packet

1 Black Marker

 

Method:

Step 1: Remove Trypticon from his box.  Note that his legs come unattached.  Do not attach them yet.  Even if you believe your Trypticon may be one of the ones sans the spring/ratchet issues I recommend being safe rather than sorry. Use scissors to cut the ties and take out the legs.

 

Step 2: Take your screwdriver and remove the two screws from the teal bracket.  Loosen the 3rd screw on top and remove the bracket completely.

 

Step 3: Remove the two screws from the black ratchet cover.  Be ready because the ratchet is underneath and the pressure from the overpowered spring will launch it sky high if you let it.  Have a finger ready to suppress its firing.

 

Step 4: Remove the two parts of the ratchet and the spring.  Now do the same for the second leg.  You should end up with a bunch of parts looking like this:

 

Step 5: Now to solving the problem.  First the spring.  No need to cut it, all you need to do is squeeze it.  10 minutes of compressing and relaxing the spring in your hand will take a bunch of the tension out of it.  Do one spring for 10 minutes and then see if it feels weaker than the spring you haven’t touched yet.  If so then you have done it right.  Personally I find watching an episode of Rick & Morty to be a good timer.  Half way through the episode change to the second spring.  Yes your fingers will get a tad tired (if you are a hardcore Transfan you have probably spent a hefty period of your life doing repetitive hand movements anyway) but persevere.  Once done replace the springs.

 

Step 6: Take your marker and draw an outline of the smaller ratchet piece on the plastic.  Then cut it out with your scissors.  Repeat.  This should leave you with two thin, malleable plastic dics.

 

Step 7: Take one plastic disk and put it on the smaller ratchet piece.  Then place the larger one on top.  The teeth of the ratchet will mush it into place where it will provide that bit less friction for the ratchets future operation.  Repeat with the second ratchet.

 

Step 8: Place the ratchet back on top of the spring and push down into place.  Put the ratchet cover over the ratchet and tighten the screws.  Reassemble the teal piece over the top making sure that the side with the 3rd screw hole is facing towards the back of Trypticon’s legs – it does make a difference when attaching to the main body.

 

Step 9: Attach the legs to the side of the body.  Rotate head and arms and stand up.

 

Step 10:

Go play with your awesome new toy without fear of it breaking itself!

 

And that’s it!  As stated – no cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts necessary.  Once again, many thanks to Grant and Michael.  I got my Trypticon the day he came out in Australia which almost garunteed he was one of the faulty batch and thusly I had been afraid to open him.  Now I can have some worry-free, titan-sized fun, as can you!

Got any other tips on how to fix a faulty Trypticon?  Write them in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Toy Review – LG43 Trypticon vs Titans Return Trypticon

Video: Comparison of LG43 Trypticon and Titans Return Trypticon

Hobby Farming, Tales of the Trev

A letter of thanks to my former farm

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My dear former farm,

Though I have left you, I want to thank you for all you did for me over the past 6 years.

You taught me many things about caring for the land.  How to put back more than I took out.  The art of growing a tree in the right kind of dirt, the ways of composting and mulching to improve and protect the soil.  The planting of windbreaks, of nut trees, of fruit and vegetables for my family.

 

The necessity of you made me do something that my family had tried in vain to get me to do when I was a younger man – learn to properly use tools.  When you need to constantly build fences and animal enclosures, pirate ships and cubby houses, scarecrows and fire pits it forces you to finally learn how to use drills and circular saws and everything in between.  As for farm equipment, everything from the use of a humble shovel to mastering the subtleties of tractor usage became a daily activity.

 

You provided me the true experience of food.  Just how incredible so many things taste when they are straight out of your garden and grown by your own hand, rather  than having been grown on another continent and then shipped thousands of miles, put in cold storage, handled by dozens of people etc etc.  I never knew just how intense simple things like watermelon or mandarins could taste when it’s so fresh and been grown right!

 

You brought back to me the pride of properly caring for livestock.  To see the ducks growing, the chooks laying and the goats frolicking in their field in their thick winter coats – all given plenty of food, water, space and shelter to keep them at the peak of happiness and health!

 

You reminded me of simple pleasures that I had forgotten from living in the big city for so long.  Things like there is a night sky absolutely full of stars, the joy of swimming in a dam on a hot day or climbing a tall gum tree, the relaxed freedom of rambling around a paddock in a clapped-out ute.

 

You were the first farm that was truly mine.  When standing upon your ground everything felt right, I felt truly at home.  I felt a connection to the land that fellow farmers and country folk can relate to but rarely speak of, something almost spiritual.  Something sadly that your average gardener of city-dweller can never truly understand.  Just like someone cannot truly grasp the feeling of parenthood until they become one, nobody cannot truly grasp what it feels like to stand on the ground of your own farm, feeling the earth beneath your boots and surveying how you have shaped and changed and molded the land around you for the better.

Thank you for everything you taught me and gave me.  And most importantly thank you for giving my two children a safe place to spend their first few years of life – no matter how far away we may go there will always be some Mallee dust in their veins.

 

It broke my heart to leave you, but I know we leave each other better than we found one another and I never forget the life lessons you taught me.  You will always have my thanks and my love.

Transformatorium

Moving your Transformers Collection – Part 2: The actual Move

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In Part 1 of Moving your Transformers Collection we looked at packing your Transformer collection safely in order to get it ready to move to its new home.  In part two we are going to look at the moving itself.  What method you use will depend on whether you are moving yourself or having movers do it for you.

 

If Hiring Movers

The sign may be battered, but at least your toys wont be.
  • Ensure you mark all pertinent boxes with FRAGILE. Even in plastic crates if something of sufficient weight is put on top the lid can break.  Don’t think that most 30 year old G1 toys can take the strain of the weight of a couch sitting on them – not even Brawn.  Also have marked on the outside of the box which particular Transformers are in there in order for easier sorting when they reach their destination.
  • Make sure all the boxes are taped up at the top to prevent lids coming off or cardboard boxes opening when being lugged by removalists.
  • Word up your removalists about your collection. Most movers are younger blokes so are well aware what Transformers are.  I worded up mine when moving from Melbourne to Swan Hill and unbidden they did a visual sweep of the truck before leaving after unpacking.  Because of this I ended up not losing one of my Leader-Class Movie Brawl’s shoulder cannons that had managed to fall out of a crate.  I was very grateful for this unasked for courtesy.

 

If Moving Yourself

Where is Motormaster when you need him?
  • This is where I am for the current move. Moving a thousand kilometers with a whole hobby farm to pack up on top of my 3000+ TF item collection means we are using a 40 foot shipping container which we pack ourselves.  As such you need to know how to stack your TF boxes.  I use the following method:
  • Furniture and heavy boxes (such as full of books) make up the bottom half of the layers
  • Strong Transformer Crates (such as plastic ones) make up the first upper layer
  • Weaker Transformer boxes (such as cardboard ones) make up the second upper layer
  • Light items that cannot damage anything underneath make up the top layer
  • Make sure all Transformer crates and boxes are secure. Your ratchet straps will be more useful affixing large pieces of furniture to the wall so this can be achieved by simply wedging the boxes tight enough against each other that movement is all but impossible but at the same time they are not crushing each other.
  • When unpacking at the other end, do several visual sweeps of the truck or shipping container to see if any items have fallen out.

 

Keep a Record of your Collection

Don’t wanna lose any of these little suckers

If you have a large enough collection, you might not notice until it’s too late that somehow a rare and tiny Arms Micron or Decepticon Cassette got left behind.  To try and remedy this do a thorough check at both ends that all your pieces are present and correct.  However if even this is too time consuming at least have a complete list of your action figures so that you can make an insurance claim.  I do this in two ways:

  • 1: A typed list. How you do this is up to you.  I’d recommend an Excel Spreadsheet, though I personally just have a bloated Microsoft Word file, since when I started my cataloging many, many figures years and years ago I didn’t know how to use that program and it’s a bit late in the game to swap over.
  • 2: An online visual record. Having a typed list is all well and good, but what happens if your computer goes missing during the move, or the whole truck crashes and burns?  How will you make an insurance claim then?  By having a visual record kept online somewhere, it not only helps to remind you what is in your collection, but prove to an insurance company what you had should anything go wrong.  I use Photobucket and also have extensive albums on Facebook for this purpose.

 

By following the advice given in part one regarding sorting and packing along with the advice imparted above regarding the actual move, you stand a damn good chance of getting all your Autobuddies and Deceptipals to their destination without a single bot getting lost or damaged.  It may never be a stress-free experience (moving never is) but at least you won’t lie awake at night wondering if Springer’s Sword is lying on a roadside somewhere.  Good luck!

 

Got any extra advice to add to that above?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Meaty Goodness!

Burger Review #6: The E-I-E-I-O Burger

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I am a total fan of combining meats.  Despite my rather disastrous ’14 meats stew’ I tried to make a decade ago, I persevere with trying different combos to see what fleshes of what animals will complement each other on the palette.

Given this carnivorous mindset, I was therefore very happy in my wanderings to come across the E-I-E-I-O Burger.

The meats that dreams are made of…

 

That’s right – deep-fried chicken, double beef patties, double bacon and triple cheese!   These people don’t muck about! Old McDonald’s farm must be looking pretty sparse after they made a few of these babies! The ingredients were all done to perfection: the deep-fried chicken was not oily like it had just come out of a KFC or something, the patties were big and juicy and definitely home made in the good way, the bacon was plentiful, the onions was grilled excellently, the lettuce was thankfully negligible and the tomato was, due to special request, non-existent.

I was very pleased that they remembered to leave the tomato off as so many places either refuse, or otherwise forget, to make any alterations one asks for (I’m looking at you BAB Burger makers).  I’m not sure what the special sauce was except that it certainly shat all over whatever it is they use for a Big Mac.  It had a slightly smoky flavour with just the right amount of bite and it was that plentiful that I found myself having to use a napkin on both my hands and mouth after each bite.  Some may see that as a negative – I see it as a sign of a chef who isn’t stingy!

You magnificent Frankenstien’s Monster of a burger you!

What can I say – to quote Mr Jackson This was a damn tasty burger!  I mean it was REALLY friggin good!  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to savor it properly as we were running late for Transformers 5 so had to gobble it.  Given its size (much bigger than it appears in the above photo) this still took me 5 minutes of solid mastication.  At $18 and considering it does not come with any sides whatsoever its not the cheapest burger but it’s that good I would happily lay out the cash again.  If you find yourself in Greensborough Plaza in Melbourne then stop by Flame 400 near the cinema and gorge your tastebuds on a burger that has cow, chook and pig all under the same bun –  you deserve it!

 

Eaten this burger before or have another one you think worthy of mention?  Would love to hear about it in the comments section below!

 

OTHER BURGER REVIEWS:

The BAB Burger

Pulled BBQ Wagyu Burger

Cheeseword Cheeseburger

Tradie Burger & Truckie Burger

The TNT Burger