10 July 2010

Skirting on the edge of disaster

Yesterday was one of those days. The kind that you think, "Why did I bother getting up today? It was much warmer and more peaceful in bed!"

A few rather interesting (unbloggable) things happened at work around a job I did a few weeks ago that have turned up some different outcomes. After I'd coped with that - more or less - I got home, just in time for my husband to tell me, "I've got some bad news for you. The washing machine blew up today, with a load of washing in the middle of the rinse cycle...."

It wasn't entirely unexpected: after all, we've been married nearly 10 years and most of our appliances date from around our wedding or not long after. We bought our washing machine and dryer when we moved into our flat, about 4 months after we were married (we'd been house-sitting for friends overseas until then), so it was about nine years old. And yesterday it gave up the ghost - rather spectacularly, apparently. Hubby said it made a huge bang and there was a smell of smoke, and the circuit-breaker on the fuse box popped out. Thank heavens for the fuse box! However, this left us in an awkward position: a family of three that makes washing, with a whole heap of washing to do, and a dead washing machine. Problem.

The washing to do was sorted today by two phonecalls to our mothers - one load of important washing went to hubby's mum's place, and one to mine. Yay for mums! We only sent over the really urgent stuff (a selection of clothes for each of us, enough for a few days), and hubby and I went on a washing machine hunt while small daughter played with my mum and dad at their place.

Fortunately my work bonus came through a few weeks ago, so we could go for a cash price. We went to every whiteware/appliance shop in the Hutt Valley, and ended up choosing a Samsung agitator-free 6.5kg machine, which is slightly bigger than we had. I'm excited about the agitator-free bit - it means that it's got a big drum with no post in the middle, and it uses the swirl of the water to clean the clothes, not the turning of the agitator. Apparently it's more gentle on fragile stuff and cleans things better. It's also got this cool safety-glass window in the lid so you can check what's going on, without having to lift the lid. It also sings a little song when it has finished a load, which is rather weird but quite cool.

And the awesome thing is that they delivered it today! On a Saturday! Yay! Even better, they took away the dead one! Yay for Norman Ross' nice delivery boys, including the lovely chap who sold it to us and then made sure he was part of the delivery team so he could make sure it was properly installed for us. Service with a smile.

3 comments:

Jessica said...

Wow 9 years is a really long time for a washing machiene. My parents' breaks like every 4 years but they're really cheap about what they buy. lol

W.C.Camp said...

Really it sings a song in the end? Wow that is one weird washer! I would like to get that kind when my washer goes out. One can only hope - NOT!!! I can't afford it right now. W.C.C.

Pachyderm said...

It's a Samsung and yes, WCC, it plays a little tune at the end. Cracked me up the first time I heard it - and every subsequent time! ;) Service with a smile, perhaps!

And we really didn't want to do it right now either, but it was one of those "have to do" things.... family with dead washing machine = big problem!