Over the last few days we have had a few mechanical scares – water leak in the sink, trickle valve in the downstairs toilet cistern seizing up and now the dishwasher not washing particularly well.

It brought home to me that the modern Christmas is nothing like the one I had as a kid. Christmas lunch (or dinner) is ready in two to three hours flat, does not require getting up at 6am to put the Turkey on, we do not have to use scheduling expertise to get all the vegetables done, the Christmas pudding is ready in 3 minutes not a few hours, and pretty much can be cleaned up in no time flat by using the all mod cons…. The dishwasher scare however almost reinstated 1975 but luckily it was just a very badly designed dishwasher from Candy which allows filters to not slot home properly and to impede the mechanism. Could not recommend anything by Candy by the way – Hob, Oven or Dishwasher. Bad design lives there.

Now we move onwards into Boxing Day… A day that as far as I can tell, is only still a holiday to make sure that you finish off the turkey in amongst all the cold meats and bits.

Oh, and I have to find a plumber to sort out the sink and buy a replacement trickle valve for the downstairs toilet.