I love barbecues, even in the UK, during the one or two sunny days we got each year I always made an effort to chuck a couple of sausages on the barbecue which were duly burnt beyond all recognition.

I wasn’t alone either; I think it’s fair to say that in the UK the popularity of barbecues really is on the increase.

Even last summer (in the UK) when we had a run of oh, about 7 days of good weather, charcoal was selling like hot cakes and the smell of barbecued meat, and minor food poisoning filled the air.

I always fancied a really nice gas barbecue but I could never really justify the cost of something so pricy just to have it sat in the garage for over 360 days of the year.

Now we live in Australia however it’s a completely different story!

Barbecues and Australians really do go hand in hand, ‘chucking a few snags on the Barbie’ is a term synonymous with Aussies throughout the world and I really wanted something that could really go that extra….snag.

Me being me I didn’t want some average little thing either, we’ve spent over two years getting here so it had to be big… Oh. And silver!

I’d looked around quite a few stores and saw this particular barbecue a while back, it has enough room to cook a whole cow and a side ‘wok’ burner just in case you need a bit more room.

It looked really nice in the shop, all big and shiny, so I bought one last week. The only problem was it came flat packed so before I could even think about what kind of culinary delights I was going to prepare on the Barbie, I had to put the damn thing together first.

The packaging was huge and as I unwrapped over 90kg of barbecue it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to be a two minute job either! Infact it took me most of last Saturday afternoon to put this beast of a barbie together.

I’d say I’m actually pretty good when it comes to putting together stuff, unlike many blokes I even make an effort to read those things you often get called ‘instructions’.

The instructions that came with this barbecue were pretty pants though I must say but after 3 hours, half a dozen beers and minor sun stroke I managed to get the job done.

I even took pictures along the way. Click each thumbnail to see project barbeque come together before your very eyes

All we need now is a few kilos of meat and we’ll be sorted!