Under my Nubrella...ella...ella...

For many years I've lived my life as a tightwad. But this week I did something extremely rash and impulsive. I had what I call a "Trademe Moment" (Trademe being the New Zealand equivalent of E-bay). Actually it's not the first Trademe Moment I've had but it's certainly one of my more expensive ones.  It happened once before when I bid on a Ladyshave Barbie which turned out to be some 12 year old snot who had attacked his sister's Barbie doll with a vivid and glued some hair on her pits. I genuinely thought it was a limited edition collector's item. Boy, was I mistaken! I don't even want to think about where he got that hair from! Anyway, that only cost a dollar - which I thought was very reasonably priced for a possible future antique.

So anyway, I was browsing Trademe and came across a Nubrella. I've been searching for the perfect brollie for years. I went straight to the official website HERE and by the time I'd finished watching the video I wanted that contraption more than anything in this world! Okay, it was a little expensive by the time the exchange rate and postage kicked in but it would be an investment. The Nubrella is a HANDS FREE umbrella that never blows inside out! According to the video, if I have a Nubrella, I'll be able to: Ride a bike! Drive a tractor! Push a baby stroller! Talk on my cell phone! Pull a wheelie suitcase! Quite possibly all at the same time!

It arrived today - within 48 hours of ordering it. Impressive. I had told all my friends at work and on Facebook that I was getting it. They laughed hysterically, quite possibly because they were overcome with jealousy and weren't sure how to deal with their emotions.  One of the first people I showed it to was my Mum. I knew she'd appreciate a great invention when she saw one. Funny thing is, she became hysterical too. I would have thought an 84 year old woman would be able to control her emotions and I really didn't get what she was spluttering about Agent 86's Cone of Silence at all.

As luck would have it, there was a sprinkle of rain while I was visiting my mum. I was hoping for a downpour but a sprinkle would do for a test run while I went out to her front garden to steal feijoas from her tree. She lives on a main road too, so that would give the general public the opportunity to be exposed to something new and innovative.

In just one fluid movement...

Okay, maybe two fluid movements...

Stylish!

Okay, so maybe the website neglected to mention that this contraption may not be best suited to the extremely claustrophobic...but I got my breath back eventually. Note the nifty harness which enables the user to wear the Nubrella with HANDS FREE!  Fitting through the screen door took a bit of negotiation but it was worth it to hear the toots and shouts of joy from passers by when they saw this vision of modern technology step out in front of them.

Note the handy dandy feijoa picker-upper doofer* I borrowed off my mum.

I am using my HANDS (and a doofer) to pick up feijoas in the RAIN!

Mother load! And it's all thanks to my Nubrella!

Oh, there is one other fabulous thing about the Nubrella. Once the sun comes out and you finish using it, simply pack it away into this nifty not-so-little carry bag that can simply be slung over the shoulder.

Ummm...It seems that the inventor, Alan Kaufman has a sense of humour ;-p

* Doofer - a word borrowed from Burger Fuel that I learned from K over the weekend.

The Fart in the Bucket

A few years ago I quite fancied the idea of a spa pool when Beloved informed me that he had just hit the "Buy Now" on a Trademe cheapie. It was just a matter of going to get it. I was prepared for the 45 minute trip each way. What I wasn't prepared for was the three hours labour required to dismantle it in the blazing mid-summer heat. It was a bit clumsy bringing it home too and Beloved couldn't seem to keep his eyes off the inorganic collection on the side of the road. Beloved had also implied that the spa would be up and running in next to no time. I should have known better. We'd had a similar experience with a chicken coop only that was four hours labour and all we ended up with was a pile of firewood left to rot in our back yard for a couple of years. It was money down the loo and I really think these people should have been paying US to do their work.

So the defunct spa pool sat outside our laundry window for weeks. Weeks became months and which eventually stretched into a couple of years. I think he eventually flicked the thing off to another unsuspecting buyer on Trademe, only they didn't have to dismantle anything. It was gone within five minutes.

We also have some carpet rolled up in our garage that I bought from a friend. It was in excellent condition and just the colour for our house. Three years later and it's still sitting there with hay bales and some of Beloved's Trademe junk cluttering it. I don't know if it will ever be unravelled.

So you'll appreciate why I was cynical when Beloved announced that we'd buy another spa. He assured me that this time it would be the real deal. It didn't help that he started trawling Trademe again. Once again he hit the Buy Now on a bargain.  I told him I wanted no part of it so he took M with him to drag it home. It was a portable Softub which he fitted in very nicely on the lower front deck in FULL view of the entire neighbourhood. I quickly formed an opinion:

"That thing is like comparing a lounge suite to a bean bag! That thing is not a spa pool, it's a Fart in a Bucket. There is no way I'm getting into that thing" I was even less impressed with the front row seats offered to my neighbours.

Eventually I succommed and gave it a try, secretly. In the dark, so that the neighbours wouldn't see. It wasn't too bad. It has four jets and if you hold your hands in front of them you can even get a bit of upper body work out. It's nice and warm and I have to admit that I quite like it.  I've googled it to see how we can make it look nicer. Check this out:

The Softub will make you HAPPY! It will save your marriage!! You can tip water over your husband's head and he'll be too happy to get mad.

The Softub is inside the house! And look how happy the people are. See how she laughs as she pours a watering can over her partner's head. That looks like so much fun!

I don't think it would be so much fun to clean up after playing with watering cans and a Softub in the house so we'll keep it is for now and I'll just keep sneaking out after dark. There are a couple of downsides though. We have no shelter from rain but I've gotten round that by holding a sheet of polystyrene over my head during inclement weather. Clever huh?

The other hitch was when I forgot about a meeting at our neighbouring school and just as I was about to get out, a heavy flow of traffic streamed past my house. Not wanting to give passing motorists and children an eyefull, I had to stay hidden under water for an extra 45 minutes.