What Car to Buy in Australia in 2018

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As of 2017 Australia no longer has local car manufacturing. The last manufacturer that pulled out is Holden, and they have been suffering dramatically since then. The “iconic” Holden Commodore is so unpopular since being moved overseas that they have had to stop manufacturing it (source)!

As you look at what cars to buy in Australia in 2018 Holden, they come near the bottom of the list of cars to buy. Not least of which because in 2012 they received $275 million from the Australian government that was never paid back, and when they closed down manufacturing in Australia in 2017, they transferred $150 million to GM in the USA.

Enough complaining about Holden, here are the 12 cars manufacturers that, according to AutoExpertTV, you should look at buying in 2018:

  • BMW
  • Honda
  • Hyundai
  • Isuzu
  • Kia
  • Lexus
  • Mazda
  • Mitsubishi
  • Porsche
  • Subaru
  • Suzuki
  • Toyota

New Ikea 2019 Catalogue

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It’s always an exciting time of year when the new Ikea 2019 catalogue comes out. They are always full of interesting new European designs and furniture, and inevitably lead to a trip to the store.Already today we had the book

Already today we had it out looking at some options for our daughter’s bedroom. There are many different options for furniture and furnishings, and it’s fun to see what’s new …

Are there any new products from Ikea that interest you?

IKEA Furniture Assembly Service in Adelaide

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While some of us find he assembly of IKEA furniture and accessories an easy exercise, it is not easy for everyone.

mystica-Screwdriver-battery-powered-electricThere are quite a few services out there that have cropped up to help with get their flat pack furniture assembled. This can include furniture from:

  • Ikea
  • OfficeWorks
  • Super Amart
  • Freedom
  • Bunnings
  • etc.

There is such a demand for assembling IKEA furniture that they even offer it as a service directly at the checkout counters at our local IKEA store in Adelaide. The prices vary from a starting fee of $70, up to 25% of the total retail price for things like wardrobes and kitchens.

Full details of the service offered by IKEA can be found on their web-site here.

Is this a service that you would pay for, or do you find most flat packed furniture to be easy to assemble and build?

Preventing Gluten Cross Contamination on the Stove Top

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Since my daughter was diagnosed with Ceoliac Disease we have been learning about cooking gluten free. You see, Ceoliac Disease is actually an autoimmune disease where the body starts to attack itself if she eats even a tiny crumb of gluten.

Gluten is found in many every day foods, and avoiding it not only involves not eating the foods, but also preventing the food, or crumbs / pieces / contamination from those foods, from coming in contact with any of my daughters food. This actually proves to be quite challenging at times.

We have learned over time what meals and ingredients work well for our family, how to prepare food in a way to avoid the foods touching, and how to serve in the correct manner / order to prevent utensils, bowls, crockery, etc from coming in contact with each other.

There is one area however that I continue to struggle to achieve 100% certainty of no cross contamination, and that is using our cook top …

Close pots and pans on a small stove top

Our cook top you see is a standard 60cm wide, four burner budget stove top. Unfortunately the stove knobs take up about 12cm of the stove top, leaving less than 50 cm for me to cook on. If I am cooking a 100% gluten free meal that’s not a problem, but if I am also cooking any gluten containing food on the stove top, it’s hard, if not impossible, to prevent the pots and pans from touching. Whenever the pots and pans, or cooking utensils touch, it greatly increases the possibility for food cross-contamination to occur.

The obvious solution would be to just not cook gluten containing foods, but our eldest son has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, also an auto-immune disease, and the best way to manage it is with a special diet. His diet unfortunately does not always align well with our daughter’s gluten free diet.

Our next option would be to upgrade the stove top to a larger cook top. Unfortunately this is not possible as, although you can’t see it in the photo, there is not enough room to the left or right of the stove top unless we either remove overhead cupboards, or take away the wall oven.

ARGH!!!

Remodelling the entire kitchen to meet our kid’s medical needs seems rather excessive, but we are feeling rather frustrated at the moment…