Dear LPG,

It is funny how, when you are stuck in the house, just because you have been told not to, outside becomes a bit of a focus.  Well, that has been my experience anyway, and because I could not use the front door my attention was drawn to the one at the back.

I am not your natural gardener, keeping the grass short is usually as green as my fingers get but, with all the extra time on my hands, I decided to get a bit more involved this year.  My first attack on a flower bed left me realising that the sun has been kind and the soil was really dry and all the more challenging as a result.  Getting the weeds out was not going to be easy, so I got to the computer and soon found a gismo that the internet reported would be sure to make the job easier.  

When it came I did take a quick look at the instructions, but I missed the fact that I would need to charge it. I also got a thing to help with clipping high tree limbs, but again it arrived and needed charging. My latest hoover needs charging and so does my mobile phone.  If I need my drill, I have to charge it, and I have got myself one of those new-fangled watches that connects to my phone but you do have to charge that every day too.  On more than one occasion I have found myself with dirty teeth and no charge in my tooth brush and, while I am old fashioned and still have a car with a petrol motor, have you noticed that the car charging ports are gradually becoming more commonplace in our streets and public carparks?

There is something to be said for not having to be tied to all these appliances by an electrical cord and, it is good to know that these new cordless versions of smaller everyday home appliances all but eliminate any risk of mowing or vacuuming the electric cable as we do some of those daily chores, but there is nothing more irritating than wanting to use one of these appliances, finding that there is no charge in it and working out that acquiring one will take hours.  I would just keep them on their chargers but there is the risk of over cooking them, especially things like electric drills and screwdrivers that you don’t use so often, and it has to be said that there are only so many electric sockets in the house to charge them with.   I so often forget to recharge them unless they have a permanent charging port.  Please don’t ask how many times I have used my landline phone and forgotten to put it back on the stand for so long that it has run out of charge, so I can’t even ring it and listen to hear where I put it.

Do you remember when it was really nice to hear someone say ‘no charge’ when we asked how much something used to cost?  Now we are more likely to get really frustrated because we have found that there is ‘no charge’ in something we are ready to use only to find that we will have to plug it in and wait!

CP, New Cross