Bum Nuts for Sale

Anyway, to cut to the chase, now that we have had chickens for a while, it reminded me that bum nuts were the daily term used for eggs. When at sea, we would go to the galley in the morning, the cook would ask us if we wanted one or two bum nuts on our toast. The eggs had usually been stored in the the cold store for so long that most of the yokes combined with the whites upon cracking. Mind you, I was never served a rotten egg. If we were lucky we would get some skinheads on a raft (baked beans on toast) to go with the bum nuts. We would wash all this down with a hot brew (tea or coffee), managing to consume our scran in a few minutes flat. You never did know when Action Stations (a state of high alert) was going to be piped (announced over the loudspeaker), so you scoffed your scran back in reacord time. Moo juice was never used for drinking, and you could only use it on your burgoo or weetbix or in a brew. To stop your plate from sliding off of the mess table when in rough seas, we had rubber skid mats under our plates.

Meal time was always a quick affair, and rarely did anyone linger. The crew was either coming off watch (work shift) or proceeding on watch. Meals usually cut into personal time, so hence the speed of the event. The only times that meal times were a social event was when we had a Steel Deck BBQ (a barbecue on the flight deck) or a Banyan. Usually you would also get the privilege of receiving a double beer issue which was four 375ml cans of full strength beer. The old saying was “Two cans, per man, per day, perhaps!” Boy did that double beer issue taste great, especially during a long patrol or deployment.

So that was a glimpse of meal time in the Navy. It is not often that I reflect back to my old life, but it was a fun life at sea. The work was hard, but the camaraderie was second to none. The mateship you experience in the Defence force is very hard to replicate in civvy street (the rest of the world outside of the Navy). I adapted quite well, and even more so now that I have found my purpose in life, which is to make the planet a better place to live for future generations. Once I found my life goal, I have never looked back.

By the way, I sold two dozen eggs today because we had a glut. At $4 a dozen, they were a steal for the lucky buyer. Those bum nuts were made with love, from well loved free range chickens! Who wouldn’t want to buy them.