Wonderful Wednesday
In fact, very close to a “perfect day” in that so many things were neatly resolved, even if one of them did have to wait till Thursday 🙂
A while ago, I posted here about an event which impacted life here at home more than I would imagine. Living without a working hob made cooking the simplest meal more of a challenge and the cost of the replacement looked like it was going to be somewhat eye-watering. Shortly after that, my desktop PC decided to have a funny turn, demonstrating exactly the same weird behaviour as my Hero’s matching desktop had done just over a year ago. Following the superstition that these things come in threes, I really shouldn’t have been surprised when driving to Chelsea Flower Show the week after that, a stone hit my windscreen on the motorway and left its mark.
Just three things, none of which would have created a huge upset individually, but by the time we were still cooking on a single IKEA electric ring, I was doing my best to read email on my phone or the simple PC we bought when my Hero’s desktop went for repair and driving around with a ding in my windscreen thinking “I need to get this sorted”, it did begin to feel as though life was stacking up the challenges.
One day last week, there was a hint that things were starting to come together again, when an email from Miele informed us that our new hob would be delivered on Friday afternoon. WoooHooo! We called our kitchen people immediately and they offered to come and fit it on Wednesday 😃
That might have been the nudge I needed to call the windscreen company, who said they could come out to repair my windscreen at home on Friday too.
But sadly, the technician feared that the ding was just a little too close to the edge of the screen and sure enough, as he applied some pressure to begin the repair, the crack “pinged” out to the edge. He swiftly sorted out arrangements to have the screen replaced and within an hour or so, I had an appointment to take the car into their depot on Wednesday morning.
Last, but not least, on Friday afternoon, I had an email about my desktop PC. It had followed the exact same procedure as my Hero’s. Once the fault had been diagnosed it was sent to Microsoft in Germany, where it was “repaired” (?replaced with new?) and shipped back here. It was ready for collection! Sadly, though, the same error was made a second time when the power cable wasn’t returned with the PC 🤔 We had checked that immediately (once bitten, twice more careful!) and the assistant said the cable would be sent directly to us. But at least, on Wednesday morning, my desktop PC was sitting on my desk, where it belonged.
Wednesday morning then. I went equipped (knitting, book, phone - and charger - puzzles etc) for a couple of hours wait in the windscreen depot. On this, the hottest day of the year so far, it was pleasantly cool and I didn’t mind sitting on a comfy chair for a couple of hours in this quiet spot.
I loved the notice taped to the door, which is so very British 🤭 Clearly whoever wrote it had been taught their please and thank yous very effectively indeed!
I arrived home at almost the same time as the kitchen guys came to fit the hob. Wow. It’s super sleek and very smart indeed (matte finish, a bit like a chalkboard) with a single induction zone rather than small pan-shaped areas, but of course, any photo is of a black rectangle set in a piece of granite! We set up the wifi (of course) and I read the instruction guide which came with it.
Does anything come with an instruction book now? 🤔
Before they left, the kitchen guys agreed that this hob could well be more clever than any of us…
They left a leaflet with a discount code for the super clever cookware available if we are ready to save up our pocket money for a while, before pointing out one particular warning to reassure us that it’s not that clever in some respects and we humans might still have the edge.
Well, let’s hope that we act very sensibly indeed when it comes to following that particular advice.
So, my windscreen repaired and my car at home here in the garage, the hob has been fitted, is working and looking lovely. What’s left? Oh yes, my desktop, sitting on my desk looking lovely and…well, waiting for the power cable.
It didn’t make it on Wonderful Wednesday sadly, but first thing on Thursday morning I received a message! WooHoo!
A series of events which began on April 17th is reaching a conclusion sometime this afternoon it seems. I think that could be cause for celebration, don’t you? 🥂🎉
Update, 3.30pm that afternoon: The delivery arrived promptly and we opened the package with excitement to find
It’s a standard PC power cable, which sadly, is not the MS cable which fits my desktop, which looks like this:
I called the repair centre and sent them the photo above, which confused them greatly, resulting in a call back about half an hour later.
“I thought the cable was missing? How can you send us the photo if you haven’t got it?”
Five minutes later, having explained that we have two such desktop PCs, one of which has a cable and another, which doesn’t, the sound of “aaaaah!” was heard. That was quickly followed by a promise to order a new one from MS which will be shipped to me asap. Quite where my original cable is, who knows? Is there a power cable graveyard somewhere in the East Midlands of England do we think?
Meanwhile, the Wonderful Wednesday celebrations are on hold. 🙄
