You know you’re getting older when you find much joy in the simplest of things…
I have a new washing machine!! Yaay!
A joyous occasion but also a small tear of sadness…. 
My friends will tell you that this is a BIG deal in my household. Some of my IET volunteers also know all about my long lasting relationship with my old washing machine.
I’ve had it since 1994 and repaired it four times now. Once when the pump broke and I replaced it, then one of the impeller blades in the pump snapped off, so I took it apart and glued it back together (it’s still working to this day), replaced the capacitor as the drum wasn’t turning with enough force (it’s an induction motor) and fixed a faulty vacuum switch as it wasn’t switching to drain the drum (it did this while I was dyeing the kitchen rug bright red and I had no other option but to open the door with a full drum of bright red water…Not as much as a disaster as you may think though as I worked out if I taped a bottomless large dustbin bag around the door I could make a chute to contain the water and direct it into a large bucket without sending it flowing all over the kitchen floor!) But now the time has come to retire Electra (that’s her name, Electra AWM1100A to be precise) simply because I’ve recently moved house and I can’t get her out of the front door without causing damage to the internal door frames…
It is a little sad and I will shed a small tear. I know the machine inside out, all it’s little quirks and funny noises (like the time it went through a stage of making a noise like the alien locater in the ‘Alien’ films!) I may go back to my old house this weekend to do one last laundry load in her for old times sake…I’ll be leaving her for the new owners to enjoy though. She may be 18 now but you can still buy every single part of her as a spare part rather cheaply and rebuild her if necessary!
Time now though, to build a whole new relationship with the new machine (which is currently unnamed but will probably be called ‘Newbie’ for a while). A larger capacity machine with a faster spin speed. Not sure if it will last as long as Electra though…I may buy myself a new toolkit and download the service manual in readiness…
