The appliance of science

I know that some of you have been waiting since my last post about the washing line  to discover if I actually bought one.

Answer: yes, and you see it above as installed in the garden. On the left is its folded away state. The truth is everyone is happy. The husband finds it easy on the eye when packed away. And I have a washing line, which I have to say is dead easy to use and to pull out and push in. No tugging required.

I should say however that if you are thinking of making a purchase, it is damn heavy -- and I dont think we could have fitted it ourselves (what is more, you need a proper drill to fix it up). So we got our builder in to assemble it, which upped the price a bit.

The other thing I noticed is that the packaging is a bit -- well euphemistic -- about its origin. "Designed in the EU, made in PRC". I spent a few seconds thinking that PRC must be some acronym for a part of Romania or the Czech Republic, until the penny dropped that it was, of course, "People's Republic of China".

 So we can't even make a washing line in the EU, I growled amidst my (otherwise) delight.

But while on the subject of appliances, let me recommend a rather cheaper discovery (of interest I fear only to bike riders).

One of the big drawbacks of cycling is the need to equip yourself with appropriate lights for night riding. Dynamos might seem the obvious answer (fixed to the bike and no need for batteries), but every time I've tried that, they have stopped working after a month or so. I particularly the very small lights that you can put in your handbag. Only trouble is that they always manage to switch themselves on. And so you end up delving into your bag for the lights and the battery is flat and you havent got a spare.

Anyway, at my local bike store the other day (Chris's bikes of Girton) I discovered the one pictured above, which just recharges via a USB connection into the laptop. This one is made by Electron, but a quick google produced loads of others (I've obviously been behind the times).

Now how simple is that. No need for all those batteries.