You know that thing where there's an electricity cut, and you think, never mind. Let's just put the kettle on/watch a DVD/or (perish the thought) do the ironing, only to realise that of course, you can't? Well, it's a bit like that when the Aga breaks down.
"Never mind," I say to John. "We can have toast instead." It's Saturday. Cooked breakfast day).
"Ha!" He smirks. "How are you going to make toast?" (To the uninitiated, Aga people make toast inside a kind of metal tennis racquet placed on a hot plate. Quaint, but it works. They/we do not have toasters.)
We've had to buy a (very cheap) electric kettle, because Aga people put the kettle on the Aga. The kitchen is cold, because the Aga makes it cosy (too cosy, according to one son, who goes around in a skimpy teeshirt all year round. But we like cosy. It's what we're used to). I have just lovingly hung the washing round the now stone cold Aga, because that's what Aga people do, forgetting that the Aga is no hotter than anywhere else in the house. I've left it there because....well, just because. No. I'll be honest. I just can't be bothered to move it.
I recently posted about Sod's law. Well, it was Sod's law that put the Aga out of commission late on Friday afternoon, at the start of a bank holiday weekend. And the Aga technicians are all away for the holiday. Because that's what Aga technicians do.
Roll on Tuesday. Happy bank holiday to one and all.
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A case of "Aga Khan't'"?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Sunday morning laugh Tim.
DeleteOh, very good, Tim!
DeleteMine was destroyed by Scargill. During the silly miner's strike we couldn't get British 'thermacite' (?), and it had to be imported from Poland. The stuff was full of tar and after a week or so it completely clogged up the Aga's interior workings. I just abandoned it and used the electric stove instead.
ReplyDeleteYou can get electric Agas....?
DeleteI suspect Scargill would have been happy to supply you with coke.....Nothing to do with Thatcher?
DeleteI hope it can be quickly fixed on Tuesday, Frances. Our house feels so different when the Aga breaks down or is turned off for its service. It feels like a stranger's house. We are so used to the constant warmth and the scent of drying clothes, and mostly just its friendliness. We keep an electric kettle and toaster in a cupboard for emergencies, but are always relieved when the tennis racquet is back in use again. xx
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have someone who understands! I miss is dreadfully. The house is cold, and so am I. But amazingly, the washing seems to be drying :)
DeleteNobody I know has an Aga, at least not here in Germany. My kitchen is very unromantic, and I didn't even choose it myself - it came with the flat when I bought it 13 years ago. My toaster is red with white polka dots and my coffee machine is red, while my electric kettle (about 20 years old now) is of a vanilla yellow I like very much. The best thing about my kitchen, though, is the view from the window across the gardens of my neighbourhood.
ReplyDeleteHaving such a constant source of warmth and cosiness (or is it coziness?) sounds lovely and reminds me of the wood/coal bath stove we had in my childhood home to produce hot water for our showers and baths. We burnt all our waste paper in there, too. The downside was when the ash tray needed to be emptied, and that we were forever carrying coal buckets and wood up two flights of stairs from the cellar. Ah, them days!
It all sounds lovely, Meike, and very tasteful. But if you've never had an Aga, you don't know what you've missed!
DeleteWhen we came to the Hebrides everyone had a Rayburn stove which was fed with peats. Now hardly anyone cuts peat and I don't know anyone on the Island with a Rayburn (or Aga).
ReplyDeleteI worry about peat, Graham. Surely it must run out at some stage?
DeleteAt the rate the peats were cut Frances oil will run out first. There is enough peat on Lewis to make a peat powered electricity power station viable so ordinary domestic consumption would have been almost indefinite. However hardly anyone cuts peats now so the environmental problems do not arise.
DeleteI do use Agas but they have a tendency to cool off on me whilst I'm cooking.....An annoying habit of theirs.
ReplyDeleteAdrian, that's what Agas do. It's nothing personal. You get used to it in time.
DeleteMine has been turned off for the last two months and I miss it awfully and can't be bothered to cook much on my little Baby Belling. I do always use an electric kettle, though, as it's quicker than boiling water on the Aga, in side-by-side comparisons.
ReplyDeleteZ, I understand that an electric lkettle is quicker, but feel I have to use the Aga as its there. When will you turn yours on again?
DeleteI also tend to wander off, so it's better to have a kettle that turns itself off. I'll turn the Aga on soon, still relishing the £4 or so a day (allowing for extra electricity) that I'm saving by not having it on, but I will soon want the warmth - and want to cook properly again.
DeleteI had an Aga in my old house. It broke down on Christmas Eve!
ReplyDeleteOuch! That must have been awful.
DeleteBank holidays should come with a warning. Crowns on the teeth, ankles that might sprain, pipes that might leak.... Sorry about your aga, and I hope it will be fixed soon.
ReplyDeleteHow very true, Jenny. Today, it's the Devizes street carnival. It takes a year to organise, and the weather has been atrocious.
DeleteRe Agas, I still haven't got used to it being off. I was just about to put jacket potatoes in the oven....