Things that go Pop in the Night!

Actually that is a little misleading
     The TV actually went 'Pop!' in the middle of 'Eight Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown' last night.
     Now yesterday had been a day of buying (or trying to buy) electrical goodies.
     On Sunday the Microwave decided it didn't like having a turntable and became a stationary table instead. Which meant having to open the door every few seconds to manually twizzle round the dish you are trying to heat up. So we decided, first thing Monday morning we would pop out and get a new one.
     We decided to go to ASDA at the end of Hessle Road in Hull as they seemed to have a good selection.
     And seeing as we were going to be on Hessle Road, we had an excursion to Boyes to buy some household bits and bobs: washing up bowl, scrubbing brushes, pyrex tureen, several meters of fabric and a new skirt.
     Then we went to ASDA - this one is a Beast of a store, it is HUGE! Anyway we found the microwave section and tried to decide which would be the best one for us. There it was, sleek, black and shiny - and under £25! Bargain! Buy It!.

     We also needed a new cooker.
     Now we don't have room in our kitchen for a conventional cooker, so for years we have had a table top version. It has an oven and two hot plates on top, but as it plugs into a normal socket, you can't have the oven and both rings on without blowing up the house.
     For a number of years this hasn't been a problem since only one of the rings works anyway. Then the oven door handle fell off last year. And the cooker really needed cleaning and why clean a cooker when you can buy a new one?
     So we thought while we were spending money, let's get a new (table top) cooker too!
     We bought the last one in Curry's, which is also near the end of Hessle Road, so after a lively discussion went there.
     The discussion was 'lively' as the last thing we bought from Curry's was a washer which we paid extra for delivery, then extra to be fitted, and even more extra for the old washer to be taken away.
     The washer was delivered ok, but the delivery chap said he couldn't fit it because there was a drip from the water pipe intake. So it wasn't fitted, and as it wasn't fitted, the old washer wasn't taken away either!
     Happily the nice plumber who came to fix the drip, fitted the new washer for us while he was there, free of charge, but said 'Why didn't he just turn off the water at the stop cock?' which is under the sink, right next to the washer.
     Anyway, after a tour of the store it appears that Curry's no longer stocks table top cookers.
     So that would have to wait.
    But No!
     When I was looking at the website of the people we buy our office paper and envelopes from, Viking, they had a table top cooker with two hot plates in stock!
     From a stationery supplier?
     Well obviously!
     Why didn't I think of that straight away!
     So paper, envelopes and a cooker were ordered.

     Last night we were feeling pretty smug. We have a new larger yet cheaper microwave, plugged in in the kitchen, a new cooker is on the way,   And still have money left over from our budget!
     Then 'Pop!' said the TV and died.
      After checking the wires, and unplugging it and plugging it back in again it is clear that we now have a TV that is of ornamental value only. Actually I should have known as things usually seem to pack up in threes, and we had replaced two electrical bits, so we should have been ready for the third one to go.
     Which is why we were in Sainsbury's at ten to eight this morning buying a new TV.
      And Graham demanded comfort food (noodles) for breakfast.





   






   

Bagging

I've just been watching an article on the morning TV which was talking about the use of plastic carrier bags. They were saying how the number of plastic bags we use has been reduced by a vast number, but that in the UK we still buy over a billion plastic bags every year. So there was a big discussion about how could we possibly use less of them.
     I sat and listened to this discussion a bit gobsmacked.
     I am 62 years old, not vastly ancient, but when I was a child growing up, there were NO plastic bags. All of our groceries were supplied in paper bags. Every grocer used to have a wad of paper bags hung on a string so they could pull one off and use it at will. You bought apples or potatoes or whatever goods you fancied and the grocer popped them in a paper bag to weigh them and for you to carry home.
     If you had a lot of shopping, it would be put into a paper carrier bag, or your own fabric shopping bag, or a basket. It wasn't difficult to handle, the only time you had trouble was if it was raining and you stood your paper bag in a puddle while you waited for a bus!
     If you use a paper bag you are helping the environment in more than one way:
First you are saving the use of a plastic bag.
Second you are using paper which can be composted or re-cycled.
Third most brown paper bags and boxes are already made of re-cycled paper so you are saving the environment twice over!
     There is nothing difficult about making bags out of paper.
     At Raven the paper we use to wrap the contents of our parcels is often paper bags. The outside paper is recycled brown paper. The paper we use to print our catalogues is from renewable sources - usually wood from farmed trees. We have been doing this all the time we have been in business, that is thirty years, but all of a sudden this has become something the big companies can boast about doing. Incidentally we don't buy bubble wrap either, all the bubble wrap or other packaging we use is stuff we are re-cycling which has been sent to us with goods we have bought.
     Doing stuff to help our planet doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. Sometimes it just needs a little thought.
    We can all make a difference by doing our own little bits.
     You don't need to superglue your chest to the road - in fact that glue is probably really not helping the environment!