Extreme Q Vaporizer - Review

I very recently received delivery of an Extreme Q Vaporizer, I suppose you would class it as a decent medium, personally so far I'd rate it a nine, mainly because there is no such thing as perfection IMO. I have been using the "elbow packing" method with the whip attachment and manually drawing in the vapour.

I will have to try the balloon method as well at some stage, that appears to be quite a good way to use the Extreme Q as well. It comes with a "potpourri bowl" that could be worthwhile trying as well.

The Extreme Q Vaporizer provides you with just about every possible vaporizing option you could ever imagine, all rolled into one amazing product.

"It is the only vaporizer available to have a remote control activation system, letting you change settings with a greater amount of ease. The Extreme Q also provides you with both whip and balloon vaporization methods, in case you don’t want to be restricted to just one way all of the time. The product also works as an ambient aromatherapy unit, perfect for keeping your home smelling nice throughout the day."

More at the link below
Extreme Q Vaporizer - Australian Vaporizers

How To Use The Extreme Vaporizer

Includes:

• 1 x Extreme Q Vaporizer Unit - NEW! Midnight Chrome version
• 1 x Extreme Q Remote Control
• 2 x Glass Mouthpiece
• 2 x Glass Cyclone Bowls
• 1 x Glass Potpourri Warming Dish
• 1 x Glass Stir Tool 2 x Replacement Screens
• 1 x Power Cord 100V-240V
• 1 x Extreme Q Instruction Manual Balloon Assembly
• 2 x Inflation Balloons
• 2 x Glass Fittings Vapor Delivery Whips
• 1 x Short Whip 1 x Long Whip (3’)

Here is a fairly good demo and information video

Mercatus - Shop Online for Fresh Food and Groceries - review

Mercatus is now closed!

As I have said before elsewhere, I've recently moved house, it is a new journey in exploring and finding the services and shops you need to access, at the moment I am on a "whole type foods" kick, I much prefer having food delivered rather than going into actual "bricks and mortar" stores, in fact I prefer to get everything delivered these days where possible. It removes that impulse buying and that queuing at the checkout which I abhor, oh and don't get me started on the parking lol.

I usually use Coles Online and although they are acceptable and I have no major problems with the online shopping service they offer, they did piss me off recently with a stupid survey that was more like a fucking Psychometric test than a regular survey, so I have decided that I need to look elsewhere for my online food shopping, although I will still use Coles until I can source the things I need from other suppliers but I am on a mission to not use Coles Online any more if I can achieve that, I will be happy. This is my review of  Mercatus

Enter the new player, for me anyway, in my new area of residence "Mercatus"

http://www.mercatus.com.au/

So far I have had one delivery and just made my second order today, as I say I am on a mission to find the best quality food at a decent price that I can order online and have it delivered to my door, so far the whole Mercatus shopping experience has been top notch, please understand that it's not just about prices for me it's also about the ordering and payment options and the website, I can categorically say that the website is excellent, it's easy to navigate, easy to understand, no stupid bloody pop ups or confusing "systems", immediate payment by credit card, none of this taking the money out some time during the following week crap, like going into a regular shop, I need to pay for what I want right then and there, I am referring to my rather frustrating experience with "Aussie Farmers Direct" which I ranted about previously.

Mercatus so far, ticks all the boxes for me, of course I have only placed two orders and one of them will be delivered next Tuesday, but first impressions couldn't really be any better, Mercatus will definitely be my main place to get meat (of all kinds), seafood and whatever fresh vegetables I need, they even have a "Game Meat" section and other cuts you don't seem to be able to get from supermarket butchers and let's face it supermarkets often have poor quality meat and vegetables when you compare them to your local butcher or fruit and veg stores. Anyway before you get all excited with my wonderful review of Mercatus, you should first check out where they deliver to, click the following link below for that information luckily I am in the "zone" woo hoo.

http://www.mercatus.com.au/delivery

Don't forget with delivery, sometimes it might be possible to get the food delivered to your place of work rather than your home, if you have a cool boss this will be much easier lol.

In summing up, I am an online shopper whenever I can do it the online way, so I do have experience with other stores, I know what I am talking about and I have no affiliation with Mercatus, but I do believe in giving credit for a job well done and I also think that if I can help a good business flourish it means I will have ongoing access to a decent place to buy my food. I dislike supermarkets, despise large shopping centres and prefer to have my food delivered where possible, like the old days :) . Oh and they use paper bags just like the old days, I love it!

Mercatus is now closed!

Alsafe Domestic and Commercial Self Storage Campbellfield - Review

I moved premises recently, I had about a week to organise everything, I was moving from a two bedroom unit/small house to basically what is classed as a "bedsit" about 1/3 of the size of where I was previously. Most would say why the hell would you do that? I moved from Meadow Heights to Essendon North do I need to say more, didn't think so, plus I have a disability (multiple sclerosis) so I also despise being stuffed around, I need things to be easy and sometimes I need things explained more than once.

I didn't have the money to get a removalist and have them organise it all, so a friend has a Ute and I have a station wagon, anyway I needed to put some of the bigger things into storage until I knew exactly what I required at my new place and what could actually "fit in", always a pain, each new house is different what fits here might not fit into the new place. So I consulted google and the Yellow pages and found a company that wasn't too far away from both houses,

I found Alsafe Domestic and Commercial Self Storage in Campbellfield, I'm always wary of dealing with new businesses, though dealing with this business was a pleasure, mainly because of the lovely lady Rose who we dealt with. Nothing was too difficult for her (within reason), I was lucky enough to be able to get some funding help organised by a social worker at the MS Society, I won't mention her name because I didn't ask if I could lol.

Rose was very helpful with having to liase with the social worker and myself as we tried to organise everything, it all went smoothly, the storage units were clean and secure and very easy to access, so all in all a great experience that I am very thankful for, I definitely recommend Alsafe for your storage needs.

Alsafe Domestic and Commercial Self Storage
1726 Hume Hwy
Campbellfield
Victoria 3061
Tel: 03 9359 1439


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Aussie Farmers Direct - Review - Not so great for me!

I have used Coles Online to do my shopping for quite a while now and although they can be a pain in the arse, generally they aren't too bad, but as we all know most of the big supermarkets don't always have great quality fruit and vegetables or meat, so when I heard about this Aussie Farmers Direct mob, I signed up. They took a long time until they were delivering to my area, so long I can't remember how long it was lol, finally they were here, I had almost forgotten about them. So I check out their website now I do and have run websites and thought what a dogs breakfast of a mess their site was, poorly designed, difficult to navigate and hard to understand, nothing flowed with their ordering process, it just wasn't intuitive at all. I gave up on them until just the other day, they had someone going door to door, I generally despise door to door sales people but the lass was pleasant enough and lucky for her I had already signed up and was actually interested in trying them out, I thought I would give this company a try.

I did one test order, a "one off" I think they called it (you really need a shopping cart for this in particular), she informed me that the orders are delivered early in the morning, I just had to place the supplied "soft esky bag" outside for the delivery guy to place the "goods" in, she said I would most likely be asleep and I wouldn't even hear him, seemed simple enough and it was for the first test delivery. I thought great, ok I can get the mostly fresh food I need from Aussie Farmers Direct even if it meant now having to use both "Aussie Farmers Direct" and Coles Online, a little more complicated using two businesses as opposed to one, but life was never meant to be easy now was it, never a truer phrase as I found out. I really did want to support the farmers but this company makes it so damn difficult to do that for me at least anyway.

Today I was expecting an order, part of my weekly delivery (fruit and vegetables) they call this the Greengrocer, the first part of it, the second part will come tomorrow (the bread and milk part of it) they call this the Milkman so when I wake up I go to check the bag and it's empty, no delivery, so I ring them up and sure enough I get that CSR that doesn't seem to be able to understand plain english, most likely one of the "New Generation" of geniuses, he couldn't find me on the "system" he kept asking me for details firing questions at me, still not able to find me in the "System" it's exactly this reason I despise dealing with CSRs and prefer to do everything online these days, just talking to a websites database by entering my details, I rarely have a problem with that "System" I understand them, I get them, humans just frustrate me and on this day the wonderful CSR from Aussie Farmers Direct did exactly that, so much so I asked to speak to a Supervisor, she was alright, she figured out without even asking for my details that the delivery I was expecting was not due to arrive until later in the day, I think your door to door sales girl misinformed me Aussie Farmers Direct, oh and I also found out that I don't need to put that "cooler bag" out for fruit and veg, seems strange, left out in the sun at the front of my house asking to be stolen in the middle of the day, okaaaay, what happens if I'm not home?

Aussie Farmers Direct why don't you just give us an easy to find customer number so we can quote that when dealing with your CSR's?

Now I live in a fairly well let's just say crap area with crap people, there I said it, so the thought of my deliveries being left outside because of these "regular deliveries" from Aussie Farmers Direct does not fill me with confidence that they will actually be there if I'm not, when I get home from not being there. With Coles Online I can pick the day and the time or at least a 2 or 3 hour window of time for delivery, Aussie Farmers Direct's window of time is five hours, yep five hours and you can't even pick that five hour window (I could live with being able to pick the delivery window) even if it is five hours, with Coles Online I can order it for an early time and wait for the door bell to ring that I can even hear if I happen to be asleep, which is rare.

This brings us to the next problem, "Payment" with Coles Online I pay for my order when the delivery guy arrives. with Aussie Farmers Direct apparently the money comes out of your account "sometime one week later" sounds good I guess, but it isn't for me, I don't have a credit card, I have a Mastercard debit card, so it's my money, not credit, I don't have a money buffer I live on a fixed income. Ok I found out I could pay some money in advance by phoning a......you guessed it, CSR, joy joy! be great if I could do that online Aussie Farmers Direct, seriously. So I did that, but as I say I needed to deal with a CSR instead of being able to do it online, Aussie Farmers Direct your website leaves a lot to be desired in many ways.

Aussie Farmers Direct get some sort of shopping cart "system", what you have now is not up to scratch for a wannabe online business!

Anyway, seriously I could probably write another page on this whole saga, but suffice it to say until they have a rethink of their website and their whole business model, well the user interface and payment options at least, I can only see much stress in the future, Aussie Farmers Direct I might give it a while until you sort things out before attempting to order or use you again, sorry but you've lost me.
Yep I did send feedback to them and received a reply that someone will contact me, I will update this page if/when someone does, I really don't think it will resolve anything unless they can fix their "system" and actually find me on their "system" easily lol, but who knows. I could see this working well for a large family that use credit cards and basically knows what food they will use each week and where someone is nearly always home and they live in a good area, but that aint my life, not by a long shot!

I want to make it clear that I have no affiliation with "Coles Online" or any other such home delivery business, I don't even like "Coles Online" all that much, they are often out of stock with my order and occasionally the pickers forget items, but I can now say they are the best of a bad bunch, or couple anyway. I really was hoping that Aussie Farmers Direct would work for me, but today I have asked for the money I had paid in advance to be credited back to my account.

Update one 24-11-11 : They didn't get back to me today I have a feeling that no company really wants feedback, they say they do, but reality is a different story, also the money they owe me wasn't credited to my account today either

Update two 25-11-11 : No contact today, also the money they owe me still wasn't credited to my account today either

Update three 26-11-11 : Obviously no contact today (it's Saturday), I'm happy to say, the money they owed me was in my account this morning so was credited back to my account overnight I am guessing, thank you AFD for doing that in a timely manner at least

Update four 3-12-11 : Haven't heard Boo from Aussie Farmers Direct, been over a week now, tossers!
I think I will stop the updates as I really doubt my feedback email will ever be replied to, so bear that in mind if you ever decide to use Aussie Farmers Direct, replying to feedback and trying to sort things out just aint gonna happen! If by some chance they do eventually reply I will update this page, but honestly I really do doubt they are the least bit interested if you send feedback.

Update Alert! 2-4-12
http://www.thegoss.com.au/content/aussie-farmers-direct-feed-back-three-...
Well I said I would update this blog if I was ever contacted by "Aussie Farmers Direct", ok it is over 3 months ago, but I did receive an email from AFD just this week, apparently I'm a very busy celebrity, because every time they ring me, I am never home lol. My next blog will be all about cabin fever as I rarely leave the house.

Update 25-4-12
I was contacted by Matthew (Quality Assurance Specialist) at Aussie Farmers Direct about my issues, anyway Matthew gave me a credit of $50 to try AFD I did not ask for this, but in the spirit of trying to work things out, I accepted the gift, I probably spent about half of it, I didn't accept the gift just to get "free stuff", it's not how I roll.

I went through AFD's products and really tried to make it work, I added all the things they have that are allowed with the Paleo diet (I'm doing this diet for better health and to lose weight) when all was said and done AFD just didn't have the variety I needed, they had the meat pretty much covered but fell short with their vegetables, the salmon was a bit more expensive and I love Salmon, but other than that I just couldn't do a full shop of the food I needed. It would mean that I would still have to order from Coles as well, just when I was trying to minimise my shop from Coles Online.

Being on a Disability Pension it really is very important I manage my funds well, it makes it a little difficult when you can't pay for your delivered food at the time of delivery, I don't want the money I owe to come out of my account a week later, it's just too confusing and under no circumstance do I want to incur bloody scumbag bank fees, this is my problem of course but it makes it difficult to use Aussie Farmers Direct, I really do want to support our farmers even though I suspect Country folk don't particularly like City people, a friend said to me years ago that I'm not really in a position to shop ethically or morally and he was right, I don't have the income to shop like that unfortunately, I just need food to eat, I wish I had a farmers market near me but alas that's not the case, I haven't found one anyway.

I do think the food is of very good quality and better than when I was ordering from Meadow Heights (vegetables anyway), meat has always been good quality in both locations, so sure the prices are a little more expensive but if you have the money I think it's worth it, as long as you can handle some of the AFD website quirks, I still think that part of it could be a lot better. Even though I am on a strict diet with less options I do try and vary the products I buy each week, variety is the spice of life so they say and I agree, you shouldn't be eating exactly the same things every week, I know families that have set meals because of circumstance and I reckon I would go stir crazy if I was in that position.

I was told they have some good things coming at Aussie Farmers Direct, if that ends up eventuating I may try them again, I still stand by what I have written in this blog, but credit where due, when AFD finally got back to me (some three months later while I was in the middle of moving premises) at least they tried their best to fix the issues I was having, so I am finished with this Aussie Farmers Direct blog and wish them well in the future, hopefully they are a business that will be more interested in customer feedback in the future and who knows they may even see the points I was trying to make, I really do hope so :)

The BUZZ Variable Voltage Electronic Cigarette

I am a huge fan of the Genuine Joye eGos, they are a very good standard ecig that has some great options and accessories. I found though that I need a little more bite so to speak.

I wanted a VV but couldn't justify the money to buy it, I knew of the Provari ecig and wanted one of those, but didn't want to spend the cash they were asking. Enter the Buzz, about $50 cheaper and a bit more "industrial looking", you also have to adjust the voltage with a wee screwdriver, which can be a hassle, though it is easy enough to find that perfect voltage to vapourise you fave ejuice.

The Buzz - Variable Voltage

I bought mine from Nelson over at
Ecigs Warehouse Australia

I am not sure if Nelson is still selling them, so you will have to ask.

510 threaded Adapters

The Buzz has a standard 510 thread for you to screw your atty to, I like the "eGo type B atomizers" they have great options and juice capacity whether cartridges or now the new tanks for the "eGo-T" variety of atty and tank.
The "mega eGo" type attys don't sit flush with the Buzz, they have that skirt that is longer than where the atty thread finishes. You need to get a 510 >>> 510 extender of some type, I have found the perfect size, well maybe not perfect but it certainly does the job.
Shorty 510 > 510 adapter - Clouds of Vapor

http://www.cloudsofvapor.com/store/83-adapters/782-shortie-510-510-adapt...

Clouds of Vapor have some other great products as well, I ordered what I wanted and was here in Australia within about a week.
The standard "eGo-T atty and tank works great with the Buzz voltage set at about 4.2 volts, it's a great vape indeed.

more to come!