BH was clear about which lawn mower she wanted, so no bother in that department. Off to the Argos website, keyed in the product number from an advertisement and up it pops. The good news is that rather than fiddle about with collecting the mower from Epsom town centre or with their delivering it, we can have it sent to Homebase on the Ewell by-pass, where we can park our car and from where we can collect it. Maybe 10 minutes away.
But then I get stuck into the Argos website for real and get myself into a right muddle in the course of creating the account which seem to be needed so that they could sent me junk mail. Or, at least, that is how it seemed. But I managed to reverse out of all of that and opted for the reserve now pay later deal - which meant that if I reserved by 1100 the mower would be at Homebase by 1600.
Having got this far and set their wheels in motion, Argos were quite keen that I turned up and collected the thing - I imagine that like for others providing free services, like for NHS facilities, that no-show is a bit of a problem - and I get a trickle of texts and emails through the day to keep me on my toes. With a text at around 1530 announcing that the mower is ready to be collected.
So we go, braving the end of school traffic and dropping off the old mower at the tip - having failed, for want of the proper screwdriver, to take it into useful pieces with which to clutter up the garage. To discover that a branch of Argos has opened up inside Homebase. Sorry madam, that item appears to be out of stock. After some seconds it occurs to me that maybe he wants the reservation number that came with the text, at which point the item is back in stock again. Back in the car 10 minutes later, with sturdily boxed mower, sundry coupons, vouchers and nectar points.
That was all quite enough for one day, so assembling the mower was this afternoon's project. A mower which despite saying made by Bosch on the box says made in China on the mower - and we wonder why their steel is cheaper than ours. I took my time, attempted to follow the instructions and the job was done in about half an hour. I say attempted, because even the mighty name of Bosch cannot make the instructions about assembly to agree with the parts supplied. But they did, near enough. I might also say that the whole thing was very plastic and very lightweight. The engine might be sound enough - and that in my Bosch drill looks sound enough when you open it up - and the cable and plug look sound enough. But that is the end of sound, all the rest of it is clever, but very light. Or lite. Not like the favourite mower of my youth - called a Flexa - at all, which was a handsome piece of old style engineering involving lots of steel and a modest amount of wood. From the days when we used to make things in Birmingham and places up-north. Known to collectors - of which there seem to be plenty - as a Flexa side wheel push mower. Google can even offer a picture of one, albeit rather brown and battered.
Notwithstanding, I plugged the thing in hand into our shiny new trip switched outdoor power point and it worked, after just a few permutations of the switches available. Rain stopped play at this point.
Then taking a look at google for an illustration to this post, I find quite a variety of mowers sailing under the one flag. Perhaps they update them every year. But, persisting, I find a decent sized image of the right one (above) which shows conclusively that I have got the handles on upside down. I am also a bit unhappy about the fittings which fix the handles to the body of the mower, which seem a bit feeble for something which, although not very heavy, will take a fair amount of stick. Does this feebleness buy a handle angle adjustment capability, thus accounting for the ergo word in the model name, but which I have yet to fathom out?
I will report further in due course.
PS: the handle fixing fittings on most of the other pictures are quite different and look rather less feeble.
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