Here I am Rune
Distance 0 miles
Total 874 Locks 40 Tunnels
Running total mileage 1262.1miles
As expected, today was quite hard work and I haven’t
completed all of the tasks yet, we still need to get some more coal. Probably
the most difficult task was getting rid of the old washing machine. It’s funny
how when you don’t live ‘conventionally’ i.e. home address with a car,
everything becomes a bit more difficult. If living in a house you just go onto the
Argos website, order your washing machine, they contact you to tell you when it
is going to be delivered, turn up at the appointed hour (well sometimes!) drop
of your new machine and, for a fee, carry off your old one, job finished. When
living on a boat the first problem is that they won’t deliver to anywhere
without a postcode. That was the reason we had it delivered to the shop (even
though it said on the website that washing machines weren’t available for in
store collection). Overcoming that hurdle and getting the machine delivered and
then carrying it up to the boat the next issue is how to get rid of the old
one.
This wasn’t as straightforward as I had hoped it might be.
To begin with the scrap metal places who accept such items won’t collect from
the towpath (again you need an address with post code). To overcome this I put
the washing machine on the cycle trailer and took it to the scrap metal yard.
The problem then was that they needed a car registration number to accept stuff
delivered from the public to the yard. I explained that my car was 200 miles
away in Torquay but I could give them a registration number if they needed one.
No this wasn’t acceptable since the yard is covered by CCTV cameras and the car
must be seen coming into the yard. I asked if I took the Washing machine back
to the boat would they collect it? Answer, ‘no we only collect from houses with
a postcode’. They explained that it was all to deter theft to which I pointed
out that anyone stealing washing machines to take for scrap really wasn’t very
good at crime since my little one weighed 48 kilos (for which I was eventually
given £3) and certainly wouldn’t make much of a living at it. After a bit more
banter they finally agreed to accept it but, ‘….just this one time…’, I’m
rather hoping that I’m not going to be making a habit of taking washing
machines for scrap!
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| How to shift washing machines on the cut! |
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