Ben Galt

After 7 hours of bucks party shenanigans last Friday night, I found myself in the company of a fellow handyman (Liam), standing next to my car soaking wet, trying to answer the question, which window will be the cheapest to replace?

How did this come about? Well, I locked my freakin keys in it. An honest mistake though, one that many have made before. However this is not your everyday, run of the mill keys in the car mishap. I managed to go one up. I locked the spare key in there too, AND I left the interior light on.

In case you hadn’t realised, I’m skilled!

After an hour and a half of cramming everything from box strapping tape to kitchen utensils between the rubber seals of every possible gap, it was very clear that the Hilux fortress was impenetrable. It also didn’t help that the worst rain Melbourne has seen all year decided to join us. The inevitable was now obvious, brute force was the only way in.

With force the only option, the obvious question arose, which window would be the cheapest to replace. Upon reflection of my previous car (a Morris mini) I took an educated guess that the quarter vents would probably be the rarest and most expensive. Confident with my decision I put a neighbors retaining wall rock through the rear passenger side window, a logical choice I thought. However as Murphy’s Law would have it, that was the most expensive window, and the only one that no window repairers had in stock. Thanks Murphy!

You might ask why I didn’t call the RACV, well im not a member. You might also ask why I didn’t call a family member to bring a spare, truth is I didn’t think they had one. But alas Murphy’s law strikes again… Turns out dad did indeed have one on his key chain. Arrgggh!

So was there a lesson learned?

I think I’d have to say I yes, given that the next day I went and got 3 spares keys cut and gave one each to the rest of my family!

Ok, so my previous video hasn’t proven to be a crowd pleaser. Matt and Callum, your kind words seem to follow a common trend. I guess it’s an acquired taste… haha!

You may well find this one more entertaining. The pain and retardation of others has long been a cheek tweaker. So enjoy!

I came across this the other day when I was sifting through my old videos.

Ok, I don’t really have an explanation for what you’ve just seen. Truth be told I’m not sure what I was thinking or what I was on when I made it. However I can assure you, there is more where this came from.

Sunday night I returned home to my humble sanctuary only to receive an unpleasant surprise. My bedroom had a lingering odor which reminded me of a pooh-ey nappy. But how could this be? My niece hadn’t been over that day and all of my shoes had clean soles… Something was amiss!

After eliminating all the possible culprits I remembered that only a week earlier I had heard the scratching of tiny claws in the roof. As I connected the dots it became clear… A pesky rodent had gone and karked it in the most inconvenient place possible, the roof of my bedroom. By the time I figured out what had happened I was too tired to deal with it. So off to bed I went.

The following night, what had started out as a bad smell, was now a nauseating slap in the face, and something had to be done. So into the laundry and up the manhole I went with a bag in one hand and a torch in the other. After 15 minutes of crawling around in awkward positions, and still no sign of it, I was beginning to lose hope. So I took a breather and mum went up for a girl look. 15 more minutes of searching and the elusive rodent was still nowhere to be found. It had to be there somewhere… Surely!

With newfound determination I ventured back up the ladder to rejoin my mother in search of the source. We weren’t quitting until it was found. Period!

Then, only minutes later I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Over in the corner, in the most difficult place to get to, was the karkus of an expired rat. EUREKA!

Armed with a plastic bag and my limbs at full stretch I was able to secure the culprit. As quickly as possible and with minimal dry-reaching the rat was shown its new home outside in the wheelie bin. Things could now return to normal.

A good team effort mum.