Monday, August 22, 2011

Potato technology

It's no secret that I love potatoes, but until this last weekend my love-affair with them had only extended as far as the usual mashed, roasted, chipped and baked, with the odd portion of home fries thrown in for good measure.

With the kitchen refit well underway we've been looking to get rid of (i.e. sell) the washing machine and tumble dryer. The latter proved quite easy, since the electrician who turned up to do the first fix electrics had a washer like ours and was interested in the matching dryer. We shook hands on a price and he took it away with him the same day.

Not so simple with the washer. I was going to put it on eBay, but a few minutes research revealed that, even though we've not had any trouble with it in 4+ years, this model is widely reviewed as the worst thing Hotpoint has ever produced. The reviews even mention the faint odour of mildew that we've been noticing over the past few months.

Instead, I offered it on Gumtree at a knock-down price. I had four enquiries within four hours and the first of those emailed to arrange collection on Saturday. They duly turned up, inspected it, handed over the dosh and went away happy while I carried on painting.

It wasn't until a few hours later, when I'd finished painting, washed my roller in the sink and was listening to the gentle splatter of green painty water onto bare floorboards as the sink emptied, that I remembered disconnecting the washing machine would leave a spigot-shaped hole in the drain.

Bugger. I scouted around in vain for something to plug the gap. No "official" blanking plugs for the drain assembly exist - it was installed long before we moved in. No gaffer tape. No glueable artefacts of any kind. Luckily my natural inclination to think of potatoes every few minutes soon came to my rescue.

Deploy the potato! Obvious really. That's something of which we always have "a spare" handy. I made doubly sure of a seal by coring out a plug and then twisting the other side of the spud over the spigot. Works a treat. I'm keeping another one in reserve in case it dries out before the sink is removed in a week or so.

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