Simon Rumble's blog

Rip off Australia

In Britain before the crash, "Rip off Britain" was a common trope for newspapers, comparing prices for identical products with the prices charged on the continent or across the Atlantic. There must be something about booming economies because Australia sure suffers from being ripped off.

We're in the market for a baby bike seat for Louis so we can transport him to and from childcare when Holly goes back to work. The WeeRide comes well recommended, as it allows the baby to go on the front and can be switched between bikes easily -- handy for drop offs by one of us and pick ups by the other.

From the Australian vendor, this seat costs AU$169. From a US vendor it's US$59.99. At today's exchange rate that's AUD$66.90. Now sure, we have GST so add 10% and it's AUD$73.59 but we're still looking at nearly $100 difference, more than double the price.

What really gets my goat, though, is the book industry in Australia crying poor while I can buy Australian-published books cheaper from overseas than I can buy them here, including delivery and exchange rate conversions!

Here's Luke Nguyen's Australian-published cookbook. According to Booko, Book Depository UK can deliver it to me for AUD$37.57. The cheapest Australian supplier, $59.97. So it's cheaper to ship it to the UK, then ship it back than it is to ship it from Australia. Insane.

Meanwhile, Australian wholesalers and retailers complain about parallel importing destroying their businesses...

Immigration in context

the issue of the boats (full set)

via batteriesredux.blogspot.com

Next time you're arguing with a redneck that refugees arriving by boat aren't a problem, show them this graph. See that huge ramp up? That was Howard.

The remainder is an excellent examination of the issues. Probably too many words for the average swinging voter though.

Fat Man in a White Hat

I discovered Bill Buford having watching Fat Man in a White Hat, a seemingly-truncated BBC4 series broadcast earlier this year. It featured a passionate and highly-articulate American guy who'd thrown in his job and moved his family to France to learn all about being a French chef. I enjoyed the two episodes and looked the guy up to find more. Turns out he's an amazingly good writer in the headlong experiential gonzo style.

My first stop was Heat, following his journey to learn Italian cooking. He starts out at Mario Batali's restaurants working his way up from dish pig to ever more important stations. It's a fascinating account of the life, the culture and the flavour of high-end kitchens, from the perspective of an enthusiastic outsider. The man clearly has a saint for a wife, obvious when he talks about how he brought a whole pig carcass home to his small New York apartment to process. The book is excellent, and the man is an amazing journalistic talent.

Next I read his account of English football hooliganism, Among the Thugs, which is slightly less accomplished but still an excellent experience. Buford has a great way of describing the scene and everything he experiences in it that places you right in the action. His conclusion about football hooligans is depressing, but likely very true. His descriptions of life in English terraces pre-Hillsborough are enlightening.

Strongly recommended.

Musical OCD

This came from my mate Mike, as a profound quote from his mate Dave.

Women do not understand mans need to accumulate music, they seem to think it has something to do with a desire to listen to it.

This got me thinking about one element of my musical OCDness.

There's a really really annoying song on the otherwise excellent Vampire Weekend album Contra. The annoying song has that autotune vocal mangling so popular with the kiddies' shitty pop music these days, and is really out of place from such an intelligent band and so long after the studio technique has been used, abused and discarded by serious musicians.

Anyway, all my music sits on a server at home and so it's just files in a directory. I could delete this track in a millisecond and never have to endure the annoying track again. But then I wouldn't have the whole album. There's just some part of me that, regardless of the fact I never want to hear the song again, can't delete the track. So instead I scramble for the remote whenever the track comes on to fast forward it. Holly laughs every time.

Cute ALP attack ad ripping off Rocky Horror

Uncle Arch's Cookbook

One for the breakfast menu:

Banana Rolls

Cut bananas and peel, wrap each in a piece of bacon and dip in eggs and crumbs
Cook in a quick oven for 10 minutes.

From a sister housewife in NZ.

via unclearchs-cookbook.blogspot.com

I managed to score a copy of Uncle Arch's amazing cookbook, a collection of clippings from 1930s-40s womens' magazines compiled by a bloke who enjoyed cooking and had to feed his family. It's fantastic! Susan is now exploring the cookbook and blogging about it on her new blog.

One of these days I'm going to make the Pea Pod Beer recipe.

Snatching a draw from the jaws of victory

Well I suppose a draw is good enough but we were 2 up! A good game for neutrals: 6 goals, Sydney up 2-0 at one point, then down 3-2 before equalising in the end.

Download VIDEO0017.3gp

Download VIDEO0015.3gp

To Enhance Flavor, Just Add Water

Just to see what spirits themselves are like with no alcohol burn at all, I diluted a number of them with plain water by three to one, to cut their alcohol levels to the equivalent of a low-alcohol wine. All of them remained plenty aromatic, a couple of English gins spectacularly so. With a bit of lemon juice and sugar, they made an odd but pleasant drink: an aqua-gin.

via nytimes.com

Food nerd guru Harold McGee on diluting for more flavour.

I've never been a fan of brewed coffee but maybe that's just because the kinds of places that serve it (business hotels are the worst) use terrible beans and bad technique. I might try one next time I'm at Mecca.