Mindy Hammond says goodbye to an old household friend

www.samsungbola.com, Agen Bola dan Kasino Online, Agen Bola Terpercaya, Bandar Bola,

SUSAN HELLARD

With some top gear installed in the laundry room, it’s time for an old friend to be put out to grass

With tentative twittering from the birds and a few shoots poking through in the garden, it was clearly time to think about spring cleaning. But first I’d have to deal with the washing machine. 

Or rather machines – because when Mr H returns from one of his many trips abroad, he often needs an incredibly quick clothing turnaround. 

When we converted the cellar into a laundry room, I had the brilliant idea of plumbing in two washers, side by side. My system worked really well until recently, when one of them developed a digestive problem. The poorly machine has always been the less favoured of the two, as his super-quick cycle still takes almost an hour, by which time his rival has washed, rinsed, spun and sat there sniggering for a good 20 minutes. So while the sales were on, I decided to go shopping. 

When I was a girl, there was only one kind of washing machine and everyone had it (unless they were still wrestling with a mangle). It was a twin-tub with a bright blue lid and a habit of walking itself round the kitchen on the spin cycle. But times have changed and now there seems to be a different type for every human being on the planet. 

If you spend your life up to here in pony poo, you need serious performance in the laundry department. I was prepared to pay for that, but some of these contraptions cost as much as a fancy motorbike, which would no doubt be pointed out to me. Then I had an idea. As our laundry room is rarely visited by anyone but me (funny, that), appearances weren’t important. So I googled “cosmetically damaged” and bingo! There was my dream machine, with £100 off for a small scratch on its bottom (I wasn’t going to hold that against it – after all, we’ve all been there).

All I had to do now was break the news to Mr Gurgly down in the cellar. We’ve been through a lot, him and me – or at least a lot of Richard’s T-shirts – so there was no way I was sending him to the crusher. Instead, like those poor dear little pit ponies, he’ll be led into the light for the first time in his short life. Then, although he’ll have a bit of a job cantering across the fields, he’ll be given a new home in the barn, where he’ll become the dog bed and pony-rug washer. 

With no one to make fun of him, he can take all morning to finish a cycle if he wants, and he’ll have Twiglet, our mostly outdoor short-haired tabby, to curl up on top of him and while away the hours with Radio 4 Extra (she does love a play). 

Meanwhile, Mr Snide in the cellar is heading for a rude awakening. His new, state-of-the-art (if slightly bottom-scratched) rival can do a quick wash in 15 minutes. 

Some say that’s the fastest time… in the world. 

www.samsungbola.com, Agen Bola dan Kasino Online, Agen Bola Terpercaya, Bandar Bola,