A couple of days ago I asked Chantal if she would like a cup of coffee, since I had just made a fresh pot in the cafetiere. Chantal generally prefers an instant coffee, but on this occasion she accepted my offer, since we had some fresh cream in the fridge, which she preferred to the milk that I was using, and so she went to the fridge, opened the door and then shrieked as the door came off of its hinges and slid to the floor. I was flipping glad that it didn’t do that when I got the milk, since it would have been a case of “Neil, you’ve broken the fridge”, as opposed to this situation when it was obviously a case of “The fridge broke”. Miraculously the fridge door and its many contents slid gracefully to the floor, with nothing broken, and not a drop of milk spilled from the open bottle. No doubt that would not have been the case if I had been the culprit.
I estimate that it took Chantal about 4.5 seconds to announce that we clearly needed a new fridge-freezer. However I objected vociferously, pointing out that the fridge was merely 16 years old (I bought it for my Broughton house) and within minutes I was on the Hotpoint website investigating the option of a new door. In the meantime Chantal realised that the door could be “hung” from the alternative hinges on the other side, which would still work with our utility room layout, and we spent a while trying this
before discovering that we still needed a new hinge to replace the broken one. This has been ordered, and although the price seemed high for a small piece of metal, it is still a tiny fraction of the cost of a new model, especially since I have no doubt that Chantal would have chosen an upmarket one with all gadgets and gismos. We are now awaiting delivery of the aforementioned new hinge, and for the time being we have a fridge with door held in place by gravity and the magnetic seal, that must be used with care. All items that are needed frequently, such as milk, have been relocated to the other fridge. As most of you know, “use with care” is something that I have some trouble with first thing in the morning, and so I have placed a reminder on the dodgy door
And in case you think this is merely a note of a humorous nature, I must point out that on several occasions I have taken the milk from the other fridge, and then just a minute or so later I have actually started to pull on the dodgy door when putting the milk back before seeing the note…
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
