My Postman Pat washing machine hell

There’s a character in the Postman Pat spin off, Special Delivery Service who I’ve never really warmed to. As the picture above shows, it’s Ben. A largely futile member of the Greendale/Pencaster community whose sole purpose is to phone Pat at inopportune moments and tell him what to do.

Of course Pat makes a pig’s ear of every job anyway, but I’m blaming Ben for that. Pat was much more efficient and less prone to error before he was around. Anyway, I was subjected to further woe at the hands of this stop motion man recently.

The washing machine had started to dribble a bit. I thought it was just its age – I sometimes do the same in my sleep after all – but, as there hadn’t been any major floods, I’d taken a laissez faire attitude.

Then there was a bigger flood. Shit. I got my socks wet and, as we all know, there is NOTHING worse than a wet sock. I phoned a few plumbers, hoping one could come out immediately – I know, I’m a funny guy – and had no luck.

Fortunately, the last one I tried was incredibly helpful and told me something I could try doing. “It can only be a blockage between the drawer and drum,” he said. He then explained how to check and try mending the machine. All I had to do was remove the top panel and then feel the rubber tube that connected the two components. If there was a blockage, I could just squeeze it out. Easy.

Except I couldn’t find a blockage. Then I had another thought. Perhaps there had been one and I’d pushed it up into the drawer section without realising. A quick bit of brute force and ignorance later, the drawer was out. Somehow without being damaged.

And there he was. Positioned perfectly over the hole that the tube connected to, was a fridge magnet of Ben. Smiling while on the phone and giving me a big thumbs up. The arrogant little fucker.

Since he’s been removed and rehomed in the bin due to being too soggy to stick to the fridge, there have been no problems. Much like Postman Pat’s world before he arrived on the scene.

I suppose I have to apportion some blame to Xander who would have been the culprit – he’s got previous; Pat and Jess endured a tempest of biblical proportions in the dishwasher – but I’m still attributing most of it to Ben.

Still, at least Xander is leaving the washing machine alone now. If only I could say the same for the oven…