Once again, I have not had time to do any proper blogging . Since Wednesday I have just added some more doggie blogs. I like those. The dog ptotos are just gorgeous. On Thursday I did yet more house work. I was hampered by the fact that my washing machine decided to play up. I had washed one of the dogs quilts and it gave me an error code to say that the filter was blocked. This is not unusual after washing a dirty hairy dog quilt! However the filter was not blocked. I cleaned it anyway and it seemed to be OK so I put on another load.
The second load only got half way through before stopping and giving the same code....filter blocked. I set to and drained the water out into a bowl...again. The filter was not blocked so I tried to get it going again only for the same thing to happen. I went on trying for most of the day until Simon got home.
He thought that maybe the hoses inside were blocked. So.... I drained the water out again and Simon then took the back off the machine, turned it on its side and dismantled the hoses. This took a while as they didn't come off very easily. They were blocked with a horrid greasy, scummy, black mess. It stank like a sewer! We both spent ages cleaning them out which we had to do by poking a long metal rod through them and flushing them out with water. My kitchen had smelly dirty water everywhere.
Once they were done, Simon put it all back together and I put on a load of smelly dog towels which we had used to mop the floor. I was confident that all would be well. No such luck! They got halfway through and then the same error code popped up...filter blocked.....NO IT BLOODY ISN'T. To cut the story shorter the water would not even drain out now and Simon thinks maybe the pump has gone, although it sounds as if it is working.
Friday morning was spent phoning round to try and get a repair man. Have you ever tried this game the day before Christmas eve??? The machine is only 2 years old and just out of warranty. It seems that the manufacturer (LG) only repair machines in warranty after that they don't service their own machines!! They gave us the phone number for their recommended company. This turned out to be a company in Liverpool! For those of my American friends who perhaps wouldn't know, Liverpool is a VERY long way from Peterborough.
This company wanted £70 there and then over the phone and someone would ring in 24 hours to make an appointment. Simon said so "that will be tomorrow...Saturday" Er no, because its Christmas! So they wanted £70 and someone would ring us after the 27th of December.....NO THANK YOU!!! We rang the company that always serviced the Zanussi machines that we have always previously had. ( We got LG this time as it has a big load capacity and is very quiet) They unfortunately don't sevrvice LG. We then started ringing round local domestic appliance engineers only to be told that, yes they do LG but they are not working now until the 3rd of January!!!
So, I have no washing machine for two weeks! With Verity at home for the holidays I have washing for 7 people not to mention the bedding and towels for 3 large Dalmatians which gets very dirty at this time of year. I am managing at the moment by taking a couple of loads a day to my friend Ed's house. He is away for a couple of weeks so has very kindly said that I can use his machine. He lives a mile or so away, so that's not too bad. The only thing is, I normally do at least 5 loads of washing a day. I am going to be very behind when I finally get it sorted. We even considered just buying a new one but it's only 2 years old so that seemed a bit silly.
Owing to the saga of the washing machine, Friday and Saturday have been spent carrying loads of washing backwards and forwards. We also had two other things happen which have been a bit of a pain. Coralie manged to dislocate her right shoulder on Thursday evening and now has it all strapped up and is off work for 2 weeks. Then On Friday evening we went out to Tesco to get the last minute food shopping; we thought we were being clever going half way through the evening, but it seemed everyone had thought of that! We were only gone a couple of hours and when we got back Alfie had a big, egg sized, lump on the back off his neck. We were really worried.
We phoned the vet first thing Saturday morning and they said to bring him straight in. Fortunately they don't think it is anything sinister. They suspect that it is an allergic reaction to his booster injection which he had last week. The lump is around about where he had the injection. Seems a bit odd to me that it would take 8 days for his body to react and then that it would come up so quickly. Anyway they have put him on antibiotics and will see him again next week, the lump is definitely smaller now. Another unwanted expense right before Christmas!!
Yesterday we all went up to Stevenage. We went to the hospital to see my Mum which turned out to be lovely. I had been really worried about it as I thought it could be very difficult for her to have so many people there at once. We were lucky enough to catch her on a very good day and she seemed to be really happy and enjoyed having us all there. It was the best I have seen her for months. She loved little Ellie who she has only seen once before.
After visiting Mum we went to Dads where Simon and Verity cooked a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings for 14 people! They did really well even if it was served slightly later than planned! Thank you both!! I was fretting about getting home as the dogs were home alone and there was very thick fog so our journey was going to take longer than normal. As it turned out, the thick fog which we drove up in and which hung around all afternoon, turned out to be no where near as bad on the journey back. Never the less, I was still relieved when we all arrived home safely.
My sister Julie and her husband Pete came to the dinner along with my niece Carly and her boyfriend Simon. We had a lovely time as it is not very often that we are all able to get together. Dad coped really well and I think enjoyed himself. He was also thrilled to see Ellie. I must say at this point, that Ellie was a little angel. She had a very long day and met lots of new people and even though she was shattered by the end she was still really good.
I have lots of photos which I will try and put up here later. This morning we have had a quick tidy up and Simon has hoovered. We took some more washing round to my friends house and we have just had lunch. We are going to spend the afternoon relaxing in front of the TV. I will try and get round to visiting you all to say Happy Christmas.......Yahoo permitting! If I don't get to you...... Well, I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas!! Lots of love and good wishes, Jilly.
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