Aga Saga

A salutory reminder that nothing lasts for ever came whizzing into my life a couple of weeks ago.

A few months back I got a certain amount of satisfaction from replacing the elements in my oven myself.

How does my oven repay me for £70 worth of hardware and a couple of hours of my love and attention? It failed again.

I finally decided that my relationship with the cooker was over. Another tricky decision to make, another decision to make on my own. Not only that, I have very little enthusiasm for cooking for just myself. I still love cooking for friends but that's not a daily event.

I wasn't much in the mood to do research but I learned from the impulse purchase of the outgoing model and started to surf to look for alternatives.

What became clear is that cookers of the right size are not cheap.

When we'd had the "new" kitchen installed (about seven years ago, now) we'd investigated a top of the line range cooker but dismissed it on the grounds we couldn't really justify the extra expense when the cooker we had was working.

In my research I discovered that a local department store was having a sale of range cookers - so I decided to go and scratch and sniff and see if I could pick up a bargain.

I came out of the shop some fifteen minutes later quite a lot poorer but with a new cooker of the exact type that I'd yearned after. It was the display model and a third off and it ended up priced only a little more expensive than the other cookers I was grudgingly considering from my research on t'Internets.

I have to say that the delivery and fitting of the new cooker did, at times, seem to be like the punishment of Sisyphus. Then again, it only took exactly two weeks from choosing to having it working - albeit via a day of no heating, some delivery angst, blown electrics and a discovered electrical fault with the new device.

On the way I've learned:

That Mercury can be solid at room temperature - very solid indeed, in fact. You ask the poor buggers who delivered it

That an MCB is not the same thing as an RCD but both may trip at the same time when your cooker has a wire with stripped insulation.

That a modern gas cooker connector has a built-in cut off valve - you don't need 24hrs without hot water when you disconnect your old cooker

That I could have predicted my old cooker was going to blow elements on a regular basis - it's their USP, apparently

That the make of cooker recommended by the wonderful "Steve" (he who mended my new cooker) is Rangemaster. Remember that if you're shopping for cookers at the weekend.

That there are some bloody good workmen out there

I'm pretty chuffed at the whole episode, truth be told. Panic and angst were kept to a minimum for once.

...and most importantly, when I have houseguests in a couple of weeks, there's a better than reasonable chance I'll be able to cook for them.



result


.