Am really starting to feel that 'the powers that be' have got it in for me lately. I neglected to mention that I have been without a washing machine for ten days. Oh, the joys of living in a small area, where the choice of one electrician means you have no choice but to sit tight and wait for him to show up in his own sweet time. Today he finally did, scrawled a note and stuck it to my door, that my washing machine needed a new timer. This needs to be ordered, which will of course take a bit more time - not to mention another wait of goodness knows how long before he deigns to return and install it. Up until now, this has not been a problem, as I am lucky enough to have a kind mother who doggedly turns up day after day with a sackful of clean washing to exchange for the latest load. I may not have been able to wash anything myself, but at least I have been able to dry things in my trusty tumble dryer. Until today. I know it's had a hard life, but did it have to choose the exact same week as the washing machine to conk out? I'm not even bothering to call the electrician on this one; I could be reduced to using a washboard and wringer by the time he comes out again. At least it's a good way to save money I suppose - less power and water. If only it hadn't been raining all week I wouldn't mind at all.
The toilet cistern has been leaking for several months now, as I remembered when I slipped on a puddle of ocean blue Harpic this afternoon. We called the plumber back in March, but he must be in league with the electrician. To top it all off, Dudley started wailing this afternoon and now his other ear resembles something out of a horror movie. He only finished his medication for the first ear yesterday! I rushed into the vet, grabbed a bottle of generic dog ear cleaner and kept my fingers crossed as I squirted a hefty amount into the offending ear. If I sound like a moaning Minnie today, trust me, I'm not. There's always someone worse off than yourself, as I realised when I ran into a friend in town coming out of the vet's. The poor guy and his wife have just been in wrangles with the bank after having $11,000 stolen from their bank account by Internet hackers. They thought they were protected; had top of the range anti-virus gear, spyware protection, the whole lot, but it didn't keep the hackers at bay. Only when their computer started playing up did they realise something was amiss, but still didn't imagine in a million years that their savings account would be affected. The bank have been great and have repaid them in full, but what a horrendous invasion of privacy! Just goes to show it can happen to anyone. I've never been particularly worried about that sort of thing, but it's made me think about using Internet banking in the future I can tell you. Mind you - if anyone tried to hack into my bank account they'd be sorely disappointed with what they found - the dog, car and washing machine have seen to that!
