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Published: 02 December 2024
Ever get that feeling that the universe has singled you out, specifically, to be the unluckiest person on the planet? Because that's where I'm at right now!
Before I get into it, I would like to make a quick note about my last gempost regarding my new laptop, as well as some health issues[1]:
Life, Health, and Laptops - Tiff the Valkyrie
After making that post, several people reached out to me via email wishing me well and even telling me their own stories of their health dilemmas. I honestly cannot thank you all enough for doing so! It was really nice to wake up to some pleasant messages on my Sunday morning, if a little surprising that some people out there actually take time out of their day to read what I type here! That's both humbling and a little scary. But thank you all very much! You're all awesome.
Back near the beginning of the year (seems like an eternity ago!), a lot changed in my life. Most of these changes were quite positive and exciting! I moved to a new city, and country technically, going from rural England to Cardiff, the capital of Wales. I also moved in with my partner of 3 years who moved here from abroad to study at university. Both of these things required adjustments and came with a plethora of changes and challenges, as you'd imagine. That's to be expected, of course, since I essentially uprooted my life, took it elsewhere, and had to acclimatise to living with a being other than one that that has two pointy ears atop its head, a fur coat, and a tail. Quite the change indeed!
I am starting to suspect, though, that where we chose to move in to might be built on top of a burial ground of some kind! That, or the universe is fighting against us in some way. Since the start of this year, here's only a few of the unlucky events that have befell us:
- We experienced a leak in the kitchen, luckily minor but enough to warrant a repair being required.
- My partner had to travel back abroad for over a month in the summer due to some issues with obtaining the necessary student visa to study here.
- A small infestation of tiny flying bugs during the summer which meant we had to throw out a bunch of food and fight to get rid of them.
- Being woken up by a mouse at 3am which we caught running around the bedroom!
- My recent health scare documented in my above mentioned gempost.
- Many other minor, niggling things too numerous to mention.
This brings me onto the latest event, just when we thought we were steadying the ship and ready to take some wins.
Around 11pm last night, something was bothering me. I was chilling at my computer but something wasn't right. You know that feeling when you know something's different or off but can't quite pinpoint what it is? Yeah, I was experiencing that. I finally narrowed it down to a clicking noise that was happening periodically which wasn't part of the usual background noise I'd become accustomed to. I mentioned it to my partner and this started our sleuthing.
After awhile of listening, we pinpointed the noise to be coming from our fridge-freezer unit. You can see where this is going.
It seems at some point yesterday, whatever it is inside a fridge that fires up the mechanism that cools things within stopped working. That's the best way I can describe it. Instead of the motor firing up periodically, it simply clicks a couple of times and gives up until the next cycle. I'm a technically minded person, but my mechanical knowledge isn't great so that's about the extent of accuracy I'm able to give when attempting to diagnose the specifics of the root cause of this problem. What I do know, however, is that our fridge isn't cold anymore. And that definitely sucks.
It doubly sucks considering that we'd only just received a fairly large delivery of food over the weekend. Of course the fridge couldn't wait until more toward the end of the week when we'd used some of the food to pack up. Oh no! That would be too easy. It had to be at the point when it's at its most full. Sigh.
So, between about midnight and 1am last night instead of lying in a nice warm bed we were stressing about finding a replacement fridge and checking all the usual sites to see who could deliver one the soonest at a reasonable price, as well as take the old one away for recycling. We were hoping to get one in a day or so and maybe salvage some of the food we have. Had you asked me how easy this task would have been prior to last night, I'd have told you that it was likely you could have a replacement delivered and up and running within hours in today's 24-hour retail world, especially living in a capital city. That would have been yesterday's naive Tiff talking.
Turns out things aren't quite that simple. There were a couple of places we found that claimed to offer next-day delivery, but when we came to book the delivery date that wasn't really the case. Especially since we really wanted our old one removed as well, a service which only seems to be offered on certain days and delivery slots rather than every available one. In the end the earliest we can get one, from Amazon at least where we found a good deal, is this coming Saturday, 7th December.
Since we'll be without a proper fridge until Saturday, and we'd like to try and salvage at least a little of our food, my partner came up with a makeshift solution that may just be crazy enough to work slightly. We've re-purposed a plastic container with a top and tried to insulate the container walls inside with a little insulating material. We've acquired a bag of ice from a store close by and have put it inside the container along with the food items we're trying to preserve. It seems cold in there for now, but how long the ice will last time will tell. Probably not too long, but if we can replace it every day with fresh ice the food might survive the next few days if we're lucky. Which we're not, of course!
Don't take your refridgerators for granted, people! Commercialised refridgeration systems are truly a marvel of 19th century innovation. This is kinda one of those practical things you really do take for granted in everyday life these days, but you sure do notice its convenience when it's not there anymore.
I'm fully aware, of course, that a lot of what I've mentioned would also be considered "first world problems" and ultimately I'm grateful I don't have anything more serious or pressing to worry about. As I told my partner last night, if all we have to worry about is coping without a fridge for a few days when we're not doing too bad in life. I'd much rather be dealing with this than dealing with questions surrounding my health. But still, here's to hoping for a slightly more lucky 2025!
Oh, and if anyone's got any bright ideas that can top, or compliment, our current DIY ice box solution to keep our perishables cold until Saturday I'm all ears!
[1] Life, Health, and Laptops - Tiff the Valkyrie
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