Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Aga saga

Horror. The aga has stopped working. Understand in the country this is worse than your husband leaving you for his horse. The kitchen is cold. In fact, the entire downstairs of the house is cold. Only noticed when it took 20 minutes to boil the kettle. Will have to wear more jumpers and drink wine instead of tea. I can do that. Perhaps not for breakfast though. Or maybe I can - providing I put milk in it so the children do not notice.

38 comments:

Lulu LaBonne said...

Yikes - build a fire on the kitchen table, it's way too cold to be fireless

softinthehead said...

Uh oh ....how do aga's stop working, I thought they were wood burning or something? ...sorry this is probably a very city girl comment!!

AndyR said...

Take a normal straight-up drinking glass and paint it white... they'll never know you're not drinking milk!

Ciao said...

Do hope it's not an oil fired one wifey, if it is have you any oil in the tank? there a lot of thefts going on due to the cost of oil. Hope its soon working for the bairns sake if not for yours xx

Z said...

Whisky's better than wine at breakfast time.

A cold Aga makes a cheerless house.

A Confused Take That Fan said...

Poor you. I saw the feature in Red magazine. It made me laugh how they called your kitchen 'rustic', with your beautiful (now not working) aga and your gorgeous fired earth (are they?) tiles...it looked far from rustic to me.

Pam said...

Can you call a trusty agarist or will you have a go at fixing it? Good luck and keep the Chablis handy

Unknown said...

This is the first time I have posted on this site...am from Canada and just wanted you to know that I thoroughly enjoyed your book--lol in too many spots to mention!

After realizing that aga means heater or furnace (?), I can sympathize with you. Few things worse than cold house, little children...any friends with heat you could visit???? Or stick with the tea...wine will just hurt tomorrow!

Sarah said...

We put a heater (electric) under the breakfast table, in times of dire emergency for warm toes and knees. The toast still cools to freezing in an instant, though-
Unless you clasp it between your knees, of course; but I wouldn't butter it first.
Not sure whether this comment should be posted, I'm not sure where this is going...

Aga Cooker said...

Dear Wife in the North. So sorry to hear about your aga issues. I know what it's like to wake up and find that it's gone out (we had an oil fired model). I run agacentral.com on which there are some forums with a section containing independent aga engineers. Some might be close to you.

If you find it difficult to get one visit here:

http://www.agacentral.com/drupal/content/find-aga-cooker-engineer

and perhaps someone can help.

Hope it gets back up and running quickly!

John

♥ Braja said...

Don't be daft: spoiling a good wine with milk? Nah...tell 'em it's herbal...

Heather Bestel said...

Oh No!
I have Aga and understand. Poor you! We have an Aga man, I call him in emergencies. He fiddles and gets the thing going again. I've toasted things on the fire before now.
Big hugs
Heather x

Gone said...

Don't worry, get it fixed now and it'll be warm by Christmas.

Stinking Billy said...

judith, that is no joke. How are you doing now? Have you got your heating back on - bugger the kettle, etc? I can't believe that I was sat here like a plank yesterday (and today?) while you were in that sort of trouble. With my track record as an, erm, engineer, you would know that I couldn't have popped up and fixed your aga, but hopefully you will have found a tradesman and got it sorted by now? If there is anything I can do...?

Anonymous said...

If you need a man who can (locally) - email me!

CJ xx

billatbingley said...

I'm not looking for sympathy, because I know how you must feel. Just let me tell you what happened to our family over the weekend. Sunday evening and just going to bed when I thought I heard the sound of our chocolate labrador padding down the hall. It turned out to be water leaking through the hall ceiling. Last time this happened it brought the whole ceiling down! So I turned the water off at the mains. We were without water for a whole day before a plumber turned up! You'd be amazed how much water you need to clean your teeth, get washed, flush the toilet, make a drink etc!
Monday morning, my wife was using the vac and it suddenly stopped. Upon investigation it turned out to be a broken mains flex.
I took the vac down to the local electrical shop for repair. When I returned to my car it wouldn't start. The headlights were on main beam, even though they weren't switched on! When I turned on the ignition it was like Blackpool Illuminations! Lights flashing here there and everywhere. After spending an age trying to get the car to start the battery finally gave out completely. I dashed back home with the help of our youngest daughter, who lives close by (and has a car) and it was then I realised I was parked in a 2 hour restricted area. I phoned the police to let them know and after two attempts, when I got a recorded message, I finally got through to a live person. I said I was broken down, and couldn't do anything until the next morning, when I would call the AA.
Next morning I arrived by my parked car and guess what.......

I didn't have a parking ticket!

James Higham said...

Yes, I know agas and for it to stop is the worst. Why right now before Christmas?

Arcadian Advocate said...

Oh this is your very own AGA SAGA.... however do not be surprised as it is normal with Aga's, they are very tempremental!
Maybe it needs servicing as the wick has burnt down? I used to have one with serious problem with the 'float' in the control box at the side and in the end got very adept at wiggling said float in the right place to keep it going.
Now we only have an ancient rayburn which Jethro converted to oil himself, however it went out last month and took days and days of work and effort by Jethro to get going again.. so big sympathies.. and hope you are soon toasty warm.

Sally Townsend said...

Too terrible, yes a matt white glass is the answer. I have to admit to having (drops to a whisper) an Aga in the South of France !!

Fenland female said...

Try Mulled Wine... You may get away with it as it nearly Christmas & you can tell eveyone it's spiced hot blackcurrant squash! Hope the Aga gets fixed soon, it's no fun in a cold house. I dread our heating breaking down in the winter & always stick a toe out from under the duvet each morning to check the radiator is hot, before getting up!

A Mum said...

stay in bed? with children, hotties, books and - by all means - a glass of wine. (though I don't recommend the milk).

maddie said...

Ours blew out again last night after being stupendous for about four days. Now the house smells of oil. But my husband has just fixed it after getting blow-by-blow telephone instructions from the engineer, which involved him fiddling about with something below the hot plate. I haven't got a clue with these things. I treat it very deferentially, as it is 50+ years old and seen far more action than me, probably.
http://worldfrommywindow.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I have a Baby Belling I could loan you... one of the elements doesn't work, and the door catch is broken, so you have to set it on high and hold the door shut...still better than nothing hay?

LifeBehindTheCoach.com said...

oh I understand cold...our boiler was up the spout for most of last winter during a major re-build on our house so left us being able to see our warm breathe in the cold air inside the house for much of the time! Brrrrrr.......Glad you're back blogging by the time - miss you!

Gonemad said...

I know wind farms are a contentious issue in these parts but maybe sprout power for those lost Aga moments???

Rog said...

I was AGAst to read this.

EliandMe said...

If you are going to go down the alcoholic breakfast route, can I recommend Baileys on weetibix.

Anonymous said...

I thought I posted a remark here... am I banned? The offer of the Baby Belling was entirely sincere you know....

Jackie B said...

Yikes, you have my sympathy. Our Aga nearly always goes out just as the weather gets really bitter. The only thing worse than a cold Aga are cold towels and tea-towels on the rail of a cold Aga!

Pam said...

Hey WITN: I just clicked on CNN's website and saw your picture! A mortgage company called Lowermybills.com is using your image (taken from your YouTube video) as an advertisement - did you know?

Swearing Mother said...

Oh no, that's terrible. Break out the fan heater immediately!

Lakeland Jo said...

I think the only thing worse than not having an aga, is having an aga which doesn't work.
We don't have an aga ( sadly) but we do have an open fire - which we have on as we speak. Very foggy and freezing out there. Greetings from the Lake District

Henry the Leaphound said...

I was thinking of you after having had a log burning stove installed last week, hope you've managed to get the Aga fixed.

On the subject of domestic disasters, you can't get much worse than the time I set my robotic hoover to work in the living room of our last house, we also had a dog that wasn't quite completely housetrained.....twenty minutes later I came back into the room to discover the carpet completely smeared with no.2 and the robot absolutely caked with the rest. Out came my trusty Vax machine filled with disinfectant only to blow up in a cloud of smoke. And the worst of it was I had people coming to view the house two hours later......

Penny Pincher said...

Hey Murph - pretty clever that . . .

Anonymous said...

My comments are in the wrong order - does your personal assistant do your blogging these days? Just asking....

Catastrophe Waitress said...

Add a stick of cinnamon to your 8am glass of wine, warm it in the microwave - pretend you're at some snazzy Swiss ski resort, problem solved!

EDB19 said...

Put the children in the Aga and drink what the hell you like to get through. You could go all the way and set fire to them. Would keep you warm for a while.

Anonymous said...

An Aga Saga! I agree with Z, whisky is better than wine for heating you up! Just found your blog so first time here - it's great!