Tuesday 13th January 2026 - When Things Go Wrong - In Threes

There is a saying that ‘things’ happen in threes.  For us this has happened.  Firstly, our Freesat box packed up.  I don’t know anything relating to the TV and recordings – this is Peter’s ‘department’.  He investigated, as to why it had stopped working in case it was an easy fix, but came to the conclusion it’s kaput.  A replacement has been ordered and is due to be delivered tomorrow.

Secondly, as mentioned in my previous blog, I set aside Saturday morning for cleaning the ovens and cooker in general.  Hardly the most exciting of tasks, in fact positively boring.  I set to listening to music, from my Mp3 player, through my ear buds.  On my hands and knees with a bowl of water to one side, one of my ear buds fell into the water and despite me scooping it up quickly, it refused to work.  So, I left it above a radiator to dry (in the hope it would then work again) before retrieving my old earphones and returning to the ovens.  Peter suggested putting the earbud in a bag with some rice to help absorb the moisture.  This didn’t do the trick.  He then asked if I had any silica gel.  Yes, there were some bags of it in a draw (the sort of draw where you keep things which may at some point come in handy and quite often don’t but this time they did).  Still the ear bud didn’t work.  Time now to look for a replacement pair.  Absolute bargain, found online for buds which had excellent reviews.  These were soon ordered and delivered yesterday.  Very pleased with the sound quality (much better than my originals) and used this morning when doing some housework.  In the meantime, Peter sprayed the faulty ear bud with contact cleaner.  Maybe this will do the trick.  It did!  I now have two working pairs so maybe Peter would like my old ones as an alternative to his earphones.

Now for the third.  I have been trying since Friday to complete an online task.  Yesterday, and by then, totally frustrated and a bit annoyed too, I tried the online chat to try to resolve the problem.  It was one of those bots which basically get you nowhere until you eventually get connected with what is termed as an agent, in other words a human being.  All the possible suggested alternatives I had already tried, bar one and this didn’t work either.  Eventually, the problem was termed as a glitch and down to them to sort out.  I was prepared to lodge a formal complaint, but when I tried again today the so-called glitch had been resolved and all went through as it should have done on Friday. 

Today’s photo is of some of the tassels on our garrya.  It may be winter but there is usually something in the garden to brighten my day, it could be the blackbirds gorging on pyracantha berries or the yellow of the first primrose flowers or the tassels on our garrya shrub (see photo below).