Snowbabies & The Curse of The Tumble Dryer

Last weekend, not the one just gone, but the one before it, our tumble dryer of seven years gave up the ghost. No amount of fiddling, slapping or kicking would bring the poor machine back to life so yesterday we went in search of a new one. Little did we know at the beginning of the expedition that it would turn out to be a four hour marathon round the electrical appliance shops of South Yorkshire. First stop was Curry's in Barnsley, a large store and was sure to have a little three kilo dryer in stock, but alas, no they didn't, apparently they'd had a run on tumble dryers and had nothing suitable.

Next we had a brief visit to Power House just down the road, brief because it had shutdown! No problem, there was a Comet next door so we popped in there, the salesman explained that they didn't do the White Knight model we were looking for but did do something similar. We considered this other model for a while and decided to go for it, only to be told they didn't have any in stock which was no good to us with three washer loads waiting to go in a nice warm dryer.

All is not lost we thought as we speeded down to Comet in Sheffield who had the same models but alas the same stock situation. By now, having had no lunch, we were tired, hungry and rapidly approaching the rather 'pissed off' stage. Debbie remembered that there was a large Co-Op shop in Hillsborough, but not being exactly sure where it was, we had half an hour negotiating Sheffield's one way system, where the white arrows always point in the opposite direction you want to go. After a couple of laps of Hillsborough, sliding all over the tram lines, we found the shop and even managed to get parked up close by, no mean feat in Sheffield. Again, they had just what we were looking and had stock, unfortunately all their stock was held at the warehouse which wasn't open on a Sunday. We were both ready to jump on the salesman and end up being arrested for assault but left with a few choice words from Debbie!

Now it was last chance saloon, we were starving by now and we reckoned we could make just one more shop before we passed out. So, off we went to Currys at Parkway in Rotherham. Unfortunately we heard the same story there, with the shocking weather and the onset of winter, everyone's been out buying all the tumble dryers. The salesman pointed out that they don't keep so much stock at the shop, it's held at the warehouse that services all the local shops. So we accepted defeat and ordered one to be delivered given that they didn't have one we could take away. Then he tells us there is a twenty quid delivery charge on top. I said he was surely taking the proverbial, they hold all the stock centrally so we can't take one home and then charge us extra for delivery!

Had we not been so tired, hungry and thoroughly narked, we would have walked out and tried Comet across the way but we went ahead any way, agreeing to have it delivered on Saturday. So now we've got the clothes horse bending under the strain in the dining room and a rotor dryer at the top of the garden laden with clothes which are soaking wet through in this mornings torrential rain. Bugger!

Paul