Unpleasant Surprise

So……… just what was waiting for us inside the house when we returned home from our three week safari?  Something rather nasty and smelly, I can tell you.  Sometime during our absence. the fridge stopped working.  Here we were, tired and hot, busy unpacking the caravan and all set to transfer the contents of the caravan fridge to the one in the kitchen.  But oh, the smell.  Nothing for it but to get a plastic bin and chuck everything out, and then set to with hot soapy water and give it a good clean.  Frozen berries, home cooked meals in containers, and some salmon filets, they all got chucked out, together with whatever had been left behind in the fridge, mainly sauces, pickles, cheese and butter.  How did that happen, we wondered?  Surely we hadn't touched the wrong switch when we turned the hot water off when departing?

With the fridge cleaned, and the contents moved in from the caravan, all seemed to be well.  Until later in the evening when we turned the light switches on.  Off went all the lights, and off went the fridge again, Robin deduced that the fridge was faulty and tripped the switch once the lights came on.  Out came the food again, and put into a chilly bag on the bench.

First thing Monday morning we went down to see about purchasing a new fridge.  Not easy in these Covid times as a lot of the stock seems to be tied up on the wharves on on the high seas.  We made our choice and the staff member then had the job of phoning around to find a fridge for us from one of the other stores in the chain.  As we hadn’t heard back,  Robin returned to the shop the following morning for an update.  No fridge was available in any of the other stores, but the manager agreed to sell us one “off the floor”, but the earliest delivery date was a week away.  One step forward…..

So out came the chilly bag on the kitchen bench, and a big bag of ice.  Ice doesn’t last long, so that didn’t really work well at all.  There was nothing for it, Robin moved the caravan around from it’s parking place and into the car park outside, plugged it into power, and we now have a working fridge. 

Just a short walk to the caravan fridge outside

Before each meal we loaded up the chilly bag with frozen pads and whatever food  was required, and then did the return trip to replace the items back in the caravan fridge.  At least it wasn’t too far to walk.  Our delivery was scheduled for today, but would it arrive, we wondered?  The phone call came through to advise us of the approximate time, and sure enough, the truck arrived as promised.

Inside the truck were two nice young men to deliver our new fridge, and take away the dead one, which was all achieved very quickly and pleasantly.  I didn’t realise that we had to let the gas in the new fridge settle for a while  before switching it on.  And I have to admit that I couldn’t get the words from the Dire Straits song out of my head as the men were tooing and froing.  Wonder if they ever wanted to be rock stars?

“We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's”

New fridge at last

We had worked out that our previous fridge was about 12 years old.  And the new one has a sign saying “10 Year Warranty” so appliances are not really built to last these days, are they.  Just one more thing – the door is hinged on the other side – wonder how many days it will take us to remember that?