Chapter 05 - B&B “Things I would rather had not have happened.”

No fridge!!!

“I cannot do without a fridge!! We will have to get a new one in the morning.” … “What? Yeah,” came the mumbled reply.

It’s three o’clock in the morning, and I am sure those were not the words Roy wanted to hear. I went to the fridge the previous evening and noticed that things were not that cold. My first thought when I woke up in the night was to check if there was any change. I crept out of bed and quietly made my way to the “white goods” which were causing my concern – but they weren’t white – in fact the fridge-freezer wasn’t working at all. I put the food from the freezer into the wash basket and carried it out to the deep-freeze, fumbling around with the key and trying to balance the wash basket on my knee. I was more than usually concerned because it was in the middle of the summer and I had four bed and breakfast guests staying. What if the bacon has gone off and they all get food poisoning! I did get through breakfast okay, even if the milk was a little warmer than usual, but actually the butter was just right.

Roy went out to do the yard jobs and I did the bedrooms etc before going down to the local store. I spent some time choosing a fridge that was just right and approached the sales assistant. “We can deliver Tuesday week. It’s got to come from the warehouse,” he said. Right, that’s bright, now what! We could buy a small one for now, which would always be handy as an extra fridge for Christmas and when the family comes to stay. There was a problem with the new fridge-freezer, it needed to open the other way. I asked the assistant if he could do that for me. He said he could but he wasn’t allowed to. If he did it before we paid for it and scratched it, we might not want to buy it; and if he did it after we bought it, we might claim if he damaged it in any way. We cancelled the order for the fridge-freezer, bought the small fridge and loaded it in the back of the car. It was installed in the back porch, the refrigerant left to settle and eventually switched on.

I then made a trip to the local supermarket to replenish my stock.Trying to fit all the stuff into this little fridge was a nightmare. Milk containers take up an awful lot of space and in the end I almost had to push the food in forcefully.

That evening, our American guests brought food home with them. After they had eaten their meal, the gentleman knocked on the kitchen door holding quite a substantial bag of food … “Oh, gee, do you think you could put this bag of food in your refrigerator for us for tomorrow?” … “Of course, no problem.” … I turned to Roy with a look that combined humour and disbelief! So out went four pints of milk.

The outcome of this was that a few days later I went up to Truro and had the fridge-freezer of my choice delivered the next day. I always have a little chuckle when I put things in the “spare fridge” and think of the story behind it!

Monica Olds