NOT A DRY EYE IN THE HOUSE

Goodbye old friend. It's been great knowing you - especially as we don't have a garden for hanging out washing and the back yard is under the flightpath of nesting gulls and racing pigeons on training flights. Bought in a secondhand shop for £50 fifteen years ago, and having had belts and bearings replaced three times by B, now we have to face the fact that its working life has finally come to an end.
I've got a sinking feeling that this is going to be the first of those expensive "happening in threes" events. There's at least one other essential appliance grimly hanging on by its fingertips. To be continued...