Death to Toys - and Vaccum Cleaners

Today it isn't raining. This may seem like a trite observation, but for the last month this occurrence has been rare. And so my two adorable little monsters are currently sitting on the step to enjoy the…. Well, the insipid greyness could hardly be described as sunshine, but it’s more cheerful than the recent monsoon conditions.

You’ve heard of the usefulness of chocolate frying pans, no doubt. But have you heard about vacuum cleaners that can’t cope with fluff? Well, you have now. We, unfortunately, are the “proud” owners of one such gadget. To be fair, maybe it was never designed to tackle the kapok innards of toy fluffy zebras. And no doubt toy fluffy zebras were never intended to be disembowelled and trampled into rugs by an enthusiastic puppy. I even picked up the bigger clumps of kapok by hand, but the pesky vacuum still jammed.

So there it was, upside down on the operating table – I mean “dining table” – so I could unscrew its various bits in the hope of hooking out the blockage. This means that half of the rubbish which was vacuumed up now tumbled back out again. (I’d already banished the dogs to the garden as damage control!) Of course, a man sees something mechanical and instantly he knows far more about it. So I was banished to the kitchen to make a cup of tea while Mr Gadget wielded the serious tools.

After an age of prodding and poking, muttered curses and sombre ruminations, he declared that it was broken. He’d removed the blockage, plugged it back in and still the vacuum wouldn’t switch on.

Funny how switching on the wall socket improved that a bit, hmm?!!

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