I was recently approachedby ABC Radio National and asked if I would be a guest on the show Life Matters, hosted by Jacinta Parsons. They were doing a story on Kidults – adults who still enjoy the passions they had as a child. They were familiar with the extent of my Transformers Collection and the Transformatorium from my appearance earlier this year on Channel 10’s The Project and thought I would be perfect for their show.
The other guest on the show was to be Dr Katriina Heljakka, a researcher in the toyification of culture, toy design and the hybrid and transgenerational dimensions of ludic practices.
Despite being on the radio weekly on The Big DJ Trev Show, I was a little nervous about going on National Radio live on air across the country, especially since I was battling a headcold and didn’t want to sound sick. However my family assures me I did ok 😉
Click on the link or the image below to visit the ABC Radio National Website to listen and enjoy!
Hope you enjoyed my latest interview about my collecting. Are you an adult who collects something from childhood? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
Many, many years ago I was trying my hand at stand-up comedy. Though I had always found it easy to be the funniest guy in the room, I often had trouble transferring that skill to behind the mic.
In the late 90’s I tried a skit out – ‘Big Angry Trev the Feminist’. In it I would berate the men in the audience at length in satirical ways, one of which was to physically attack them. For this I used Toby.
BEHOLD MY MAGESTY!
Toby, procured at a sex shop for about sixty bucks, was a 1 foot long, huge rubber cock. Where the name Toby came from I can’t remember, but I called it that once and the name stuck. In my skit I would run out into the audience and hit men over the head with Toby, yelling random arguments about how men in society are always metaphorically beating women over the head with their phallus’s at any given moment, so now it was their turn.
Some comedians had advanced animatronic puppets -my budget was much lower
The humour was supposed to work via the men nervously laughing or getting embarrassed by my actions, which would then lead me into more tirades while the rest of the audience would laugh at my victim’s obvious discomfort. It didn’t work. I was playing to Uni crowds after all, and more often than not the guys I would attack Toby with would take Toby out of my hands with zero discomfort and pretend to fellate him (note by now Toby had become a ‘him’ rather than an ‘it’). Between this and actual feminists in the audience being somewhat unimpressed by my portrayal of being one of their number, the act soon died and Toby was retired from showbiz after only half a dozen outings.
No autographs!
Retired from Showbiz? Yes. Retired from life? Absolutely not! Toby had become something of a mascot of the household and, given my propensity to constantly have mates over as well as throw a big party every few months, Toby gained something of a cult following amongst my frequent visitors.
Toby also came to live in the fridge, my thinking being that ‘who wants a big sweaty cock sitting around in the heat?’. It was amazing just how many housemates over the years were perfectly fine with this! So, unless busy with his social obligations entertaining guests, Toby always had a prime position on the top shelf of the fridge, which he inhabited for well over a decade. This went on for so many years across so many share-houses that it became normalized practice. If someone new to the social group expressed surprise or puzzlement about there being a giant rubber cock in the fridge, they would be treated by others with bemusement. ‘That’s Toby’ they would be informed matter-of-factly, as if it was perfectly natural for a foot-long rubber dick to live in the fridge next to the cheese and margarine.
Rug up Toby – its a bit chilly, you wouldn’t want shrinkage now would you?
In 2003 I travelled overseas to do Stand Up Comedy and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland – a dream come true! As I was staying on to backpack around Europe for an extra year after the festival concluded, all my worldly possessions here in Australia went into storage. But a couple of friends volunteered to babysit Toby while I was away. Toby enjoyed his time there, especially when they started making little costumes for him to wear and photoshopped albums of him!
Sadly Toby has since met his end. When my fiancé and I got pets circa 2008, poor Toby was no longer the cute baby of the household and was carried around and coddled much less, though still got a bit of attention.
Napping with our cat on the couch.
When we had children of our own several years later I didn’t think appropriate to store Toby in the fridge next to our infants milk bottles, so he lost his longtime home and got stored in the farm shed instead. A year after that when I randomly unearthed him, rats had obviously been at him and the rubber was gnawed in a dozen places up and down his shaft (ouch!). Thus, after 15 years, Toby was put to his final rest.
“Goodbye my beloved child, I shall weep for thee”
But the legend of Toby lives on! And it would be nice to think that there is, like his original purpose called for, a bit of Toby deep up inside each and every one of us.
Got something to say about this post? Or perhaps you are a friend of Toby’s from the old days? Pop it in the comments section below!
Well it’s been a bit over a year since I did a Househusbandblog post and with good reason, I got forcibly retired from my position.
Yes with both the children now school age and a second income being desirable, I once again full-time entered the workforce. No more watching 500 funeral insurance ad’s a day for me!
But with the lockdown that accompanied the pandemic, like many others I started working from home. This meant I was once again thrust into the position of Househusband, albeit one that still had to get on the computer from time to time to fulfil his work obligations. Now that the lockdown restrictions are easing and I have had to physically return to work 5 days a week, I’m going to voice an opinion that hasn’t been heard much over the last several months.
I liked the lockdown. I enjoyed it!
Yep! I was happy to be back at home – I really was! Despite being the social butterfly in my late teens and 20’s & 30’s, in my 40’s as a Dad, husband and hobby farmer I’m quite fond of the hermit lifestyle where I only see my personal family unit and rarely venture out. I still had to physically go into work one or two days a week during the pandemic but the rest I never left the farm. No rushing around in the mornings trying to get myself ready. No packing my lunch. No drive to my job. I could simply get my work done at home at my own pace, grow my isolation beard and occasionally change out of my pyjamas if I had a Zoom meeting (and even then I considered pants optional).
And the beauty was that my wife was working from home most days too! No long commute for her in the mornings. No getting home really late because of the long post-work drive. Our children’s school was quite clear that for continuity they wanted our kids to either attend school every day or none at all. Since there were days both my wife and I still had to go into work this meant the kids attended school. And since they were at school full time, it meant that my wife and I got some ‘us’ time on our lunch breaks the days we were both home. We could sit together and have a meal and a cuppa without kids screaming that they were hungry or thirsty or tired or bored or annoyed or that their sibling hit them. It was the most one-on-one time we’ve had in our marriage since we became parents! It was beautiful and it was something neither of us took for granted. And when our kids came home on the bus, because I had gotten so many househusband jobs done during the day it meant I had more time to spend with them every afternoon. It really was a win-win situation, especially since we weren’t short on toilet paper.
Isolation is natural in the bush
As for being physically stuck at home…. well…. it’s not so bad when you live on 125 acres in the middle of nowhere. During the bushfires we spent so much of the summer evacuated and wondering if we would ever see our beloved property again, it was a joy to have an enforced couple of months in the autumn upon it. Caught up on all those farm jobs that had been going wanting for so long. And with no children at home for 7 hours a day it meant I didn’t have to stop mid-task to wipe a nose or bandage a boo-boo. I completely sympathize with those during this pandemic that live in big cities – living in areas where you dared not venture out of tiny apartments must have been claustophobic to say the least. But when you’ve got huge areas of bushland on your own property you can walk around without risk of meeting another soul – being stuck at home is really a non-issue.
Wasn’t hard for our kids to social distance from the rest of the world
So yeah, I liked the lockdown. Staying at home on the farm was wonderful and I enjoyed every minute of it! More time on my property, more time with my family – where so many are hating on the Chinese right now I’m inclined to send them a thank you card! My heart goes out to all those during this pandemic who have suffered stress, gotten sick, lost loved ones, lost jobs, felt depression stuck at home etc. Just because I didn’t experience it personally doesnt meet I don’t understand or indeed sympathise. But for me it was lovely to return to the hermit lifestyle a very welcome respite – I hope some of you were also able to find a ray of positive sunshine in your lives during this crisis as well.
Despite, thankfully, not losing our home like so many other poor souls, our family was affected by the unprecedented bushfires this summer. We had to evacuate our home for an extended period – twice, with the flames getting to within 500m off our back fence and 200m off our side fence. These were scary times for us, like many others across the state. If it wasn’t for the RFS fighting the fires tooth and nail for months on end, I have zero doubt our property would have been consumed and they have our families eternal thanks.
Image taken from the cab of a fire truck on our road the night we had to evacuate. (Photo Credit: R. Oldfield – NSW RFS)
These fires affected our entire family unit. We had to cancel our sons birthday party and all my wifes family coming for Christmas. We had to spend Xmas itself at relatives homes instead of in our own. We had to tear our farm apart to try and make it as fireproof as possible, and we are still now trying to put it back together. We had all our most treasured personal belonging stashed in three other people’s homes and likewise for our animals three more. We stressed and fretted and on one night drove for our lives as the police came down our road on their loudspeaker ordering people to evacuate, our animals and children in tow. We sat up until 1am at my mother-in-laws house watching the reports come in about a house destroyed on our road, wondering if it was ours and if we would have a home to return to. We consider ourselves fortunate that all we lost in the end was a few fridges and a deep freezer full of food (a waste of good ducks though).
So yes, we were much luckier than many, but the NSW fire season was truly a horrible month for our family.
So the RFS saved our home, but what saved our sanity? Easy to answer – community, friends and family. Without these people my wife and I would have descended into madness long ago, and ours is a tale of how people pulling together made what was a terrible experience so much less worse than it could have been.
Here are some of the examples of how we were helped by truly wonderful people:
Community & Emergency Workers
*The Grader Drivers that came to our property on two separate occasions and put in fire break lines everywhere they could, in an effort to stop any grassfires that might make it in onto our land.
*The local branch of the RFS, who provided constant updates and were always able to answer any questions we sent to them, even at 2am while our road burned.
*The local member who posted constant updates and videos about what the fires were doing in our area for weeks on end and was an excellent source of information. I may have been a Greens voter all my life, but there is a National’s member who has earned my vote!
*My sister-in-laws friend taking in our chook and 8 of our ducks for a full month and caring for them, despite never even having met us before.
*Our neighbours across the road and next to us keeping an eye on our property in case there were spotfires while we were evacuated.
Grader driver putting in containment lines in our back paddock
Friends
*My friend Jordan driving over a hundred kilometres and spending 3 hours in 40 degree heat evacuating all goods from the Transformatorium shed into the main house (we thought that the firey’s might be able to save the house but would probably let the shed burn if they had to). Then in the hot sun helped me clean out gutters, that had never been cleaned before, of dead leaves and other flammable material.
*My boss and friend Toni from work storing my 3000+ Transformer action figure collection in her loungeroom for an entire month, despite it meaning she could hardly move in that part of the house.
*Our friends Lisa and Scott taking our pet goats for extended periods on two separate occasions and feeding and watering them every day despite the heat.
*Our new friends and neighbours down the road, Bill and Lynne, feeding the poultry we couldn’t evacuate, even though it meant a daily drive closer to the fire front.
*So many of our close friends messaging us with comforting words and emotional support, yet allowing us the space to breathe when we had to.
Family
*My brother-in-law Matt driving over a hundred kilometres with his chainsaw to cut down every tree within a 5m radius of our farmhouse, then staying the night so the next day he could seal breaks in our guttering so they could hold water in case of ember attack.
*My sister-in-law Jo storing so much of our personal belongings, taking our fish for several weeks, and making us Christmas dinner
*My mother-in-law Noelene putting us up for long periods – twice – while we were evacuated, looking after our dog and storing even more of our belongings (my wife’s family rules!).
*Our children, so young and yet so brave. Being evacuated twice, missing out on birthday parties, missing out on spending Christmas in their own home. That’s a lot for a 4 and 7 year old to cope with and they both took it in their stride.
*And more than anyone, my beautiful wife. By my side we spent so much of our summer trying to fireproof a farm that had never before been threatened by flames and was a tinderbox ready to ignite.
Ours is just one example of how families and entire communities came together to support each other during this horrible time for our state and indeed for our country. If ever there was evidence that the spirit of empathy and generosity is still well alive in this land, it’s been well and truly presented this summer.
So to all our friends, all our family, all the community and all the members of the RFS, on behalf of our family
Here in NSW we are facing an unprecedented level ofBushfire danger. ATotal Fire Banhas been instituted for the entire state, aState of Emergencyhas been declared and some parts of the state have a danger rating of‘catastrophic’– a rating that has never needed to be used before!
Living on a fairly remote farm that backs onto a huge state forest, our family has been very concerned. So much so that we have instituted our ownemergency fire planshould worst come to worst.
There are plenty of official sites that can guide you through how to come up with your own emergency plans, and I heartily encourage every reader to visit the sites relevant to their state as well as download the relevant apps. What I’m going to share here is some of theevacuationprecautions I and my family have taken, in the hopes it may provide you with someideas of your own. In particular – ouremergency bags.
We have several emergency bags packed. The whole idea of these is that they are pre-made and ready to go, saving valuable minutes if you need to get out fast. Our emergency bags are packed with such items that can stay in them forever –notitems that we will have to remove a few days later because we need them. Hopefully these bags will hang on hooks for the rest of their lives unused, but better safe than sorry.
Clothing for the day
Despite the heat,long clothingisessential. Should you end up in an area with sparks flying through the air, you don’t want those sparks touching your bare skin. So long sleeved tops and long pants are the order of the day and they should be natural fibres like cotton, not synthetics that have the potential to melt onto your skin.
Leather bootsare also the most preferable footwear to have. In our case my wife and I own heavy duty leather boots but our children don’t, so we would put them in their most suitable footwear and carry them if required.
We have a bag packed specifically with clothing to change into at a moment’s notice. Again, every minute you can save counts.
EvacClothing Bag
Chances are you might not be able to return to your home for a couple of days until the fire has passed. So you will need a few changes of clothes, but taking into account you should notover packas space in your vehicle will be at a premium.
For each member of our family we packed the following:
*2 T-shirts
*1 Jumper
*1 pair of Long Pants
*1 pair of Shorts
*2 pairs of Socks
*2 pairs of Underwear
*1 pair of Pyjamas
EquipmentBag
There will be specificequipmentthat you may need when fleeing from a bushfire. All this should be kept together and easy to access if needed.
In ours we have:
*One torch with fresh battery
*One small fire blanket
*One first aid kit
*One tube of burn cream
*One pack of face masks
*One pair of fire resistant gloves
*One battery powered radio
Pet Bag
If you have pets you naturally are going to want to take them with you. In our case because we have two pet goats this would entail hooking up the trailer. But for most people your pets may consist of a dog and cat (which we also have). So when packing make sure you have enough pet food for a couple of days and leads for every animal – you don’t want to escape the fire just for your cat to run away or your dog to go hungry. A dish to put water in is also advisable.
Food & Water
Chances are wherever you evacuate to will have food and water available. But again that motto – better safe than sorry. Have a bag packed full of food that does not need to be refrigerated and can keep you all going for a day or two. Pre-packaged food likemueslibarsand biscuitswill serve you well, as well as bags of nuts. Also tinned food such as ham, salmon, tuna and so on. Take as much water as you can reasonably fit. Because we would be taking autewe can afford to take a 25 litre container in the back.
MiscItems
These are items that you don’t need to survive but will be incredibly hard to replace should you lose your home. This includes forms such as birth certificates and passports, as well as more personal items such as jewellery and family photos. What you pack in this bag is up to you, but one of the bags you may need to give the most thought too. Also, because these are items that youcan’tstore in anevackit permanently, make sure you know the location of these items in your house so they can be collected up quickly.
So these are just a few different suggestions for what to take if you need to evacuate and a possible way to have them prepared. Again, I encourage everyone to check out the official sites in order to get even more guidance and information about the best way to go about this, but hopefully this blog willgive you a good starting point on advisable things to pack.
Got any other tips on what to pack in case of Bushfire? Pop it in the comments section below.
