Well, that foray back into the workforce didn’t end well. I thought I could dodge an old injury in the packing shed, but after seven long days, liked a long lost friend, my ulna nerve reminded me why repetitive work is SO yesteryear. Still the $1200 made was welcome news to my emaciated bank account.
So, what does a boy do to pass the next three weeks waiting for the border to South Australia to open. Obviously, he spends money he doesn’t have on things he doesn’t need (unless he has these Crocodile Dundee fantasy scenarios which he’s SURE he’ll encounter – one day.)
Now with the amount of subscribers to this website, both of you would need to be gazillionaires to attract the attention of the corporate dollar. So when I give a shout out to a product or service, you can be VERY confident their is no money changing hands – regrettably.
Belle Forte “Glassware”
How many of you out there thought you had a special way of packing your glassware in the van, so that it wouldn’t end up as shards in you hands or feet, and find you back in K-Mart every three months looking for replacements? So…..most of you? Me too. BUT now there is a solution. There was this story about a young dude who built a company that made quality ‘not glass’ ware and sold it for a million bucks. UNBREAKABLE ‘not glass’ ware. Now, check out the photo below. Which one is glass and which one is not?
This is seriously good. Definitely not that cheap plastic BBQ drinking vessel. Check out the cut glass design, and it’s thick ladies and gentlemen. Now at $50.00 for a set of four, not cheap, but you’ll only have to buy once, and as they say; “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten” There are lots of different styles and colours. You can get these via Amazon and their is a local distributor based on the Gold Coast (see the website). Oh, the champagne glass is the real deal.
WATER TANK
Now, back to the Crocodile Dundee fantasies. At SOME point ONE day, I might need more water and diesel when crossing the vast emptiness of inland Australia. The first purchase was an extra 40 litre water tank, from Outback Equipment, not for the van, but for the car. Cheap as, $50.00 and fitted perfectly at the back of the roof rack. Getting the water to the glass cost another $10.00 in bits, but check out the look!! SOOOO like I’ve been a four 4WD warrior for YEARS…..not months…and not a warrior come to think of it.
EXTRA FUEL TANK
Emboldened by the (apparent) ease of on-line shopping, I went looking for long range fuel tank options. Now the traditional method is all underneath and tres expensive. Minimum $1400 for second hand and install. BUT, there’s another way. They make special hard plastic diesel fuel tanks for the footwell of the rear seats, again from Outback Equipment. That’s right, it sits on the floor of the backseat traversing the tailshaft centrepiece and strong enough to put your feet on. An extra 40 litres and get this – $198.00!!! Now, sure I could have read about the attachments required, but that was more money I didn’t have, and anyway, how hard could it be?
Mmmmmm…..now I’m the first to admit that mechanical adeptness is not in my back pack. That, combined with a terror of not being able to undo my mistakes, makes any engineering task as pitiful as complimenting the police taking you to the station, on a job well done. It fitted onto the floor perfectly. “How good it that?” I say. (hate you Scomo). But then I realized or assumed, actually more assumed, there was some plumbing required to get said diesel from the tank into the car. Now my brain can only come up with ONE plan for situations like this. More than one is just not possible. So, without reading the instructions, $100 later, I had a marvel of artisan engineering that would deliver the fuel into a jerry can.
Unfortunately lateral thinking had gone AWOL so, a few days later, the awful realization that a $12 hand pump would get the fuel directly into the tank was a groan of disappointment heard for miles. However, my mistake still looks impressive and actually works so I can be both chuffed and embarrassed at the same time.
Huge announcement in my next post. Look out for it.