shewhomust | Report from the ice face.

The fridge has been long overdue for defrosting. It claims to be 'self-defrosting' or some such phrase, but all this means is that it has no 'defrost' setting. When you can't put it off any longer, you switch off the electricity, put the spare washing-up bowl in the fridge where it will catch the drips, and a floor-cloth in front of the fridge to catch those drips which escape the bowl, and pour a kettle full of boiling water into the washing up bowl. Eventually enough ice is dislodged that it is possible to open the door of the ice-box, and then you can put a bowl of hot water in there, too. At a certain point the ice also becomes susceptible to the application of brute force (

durham_rambler likes this bit.

I usually allow 24 hours to complete the process.

Yes, it would probably be an easier job if I didn't leave it so long - but I wouldn't put it off for so long if it were an easier job.

Yesterday, though, the time was right, because of a string of circumstances: we'd skipped the Farmers' Market on Thursday, because

durham_rambler has had toothache (and had been to the dentist who x-rayed the offending tooth, and sent him home with a course of antibiotics and a pack of painkillers) and didn't feel up to much; we'd had lunch guests at quite short notice, which was delightful in itself and also contributed to the emptying of the fridge; and it was too grey and rainy to go out walking. So I defrosted the fridge instead.

This meant that the surviving contents of the fridge (the last of the radiccio from the salad drawer, the lemons, several jars of chutney and some more of jam, some cheese) were spread on all spare surfaces in the kitchen. And to complete the chaos, yesterday was stir-up Sunday, and I wanted to start my Christmas cake. I use an amalgamation of recipes, but they key point is that the fruit is left to soak overnight in a mixture of liquids. The cake is baked the following day (or, this year's variable, the day after - we'll see if it makes a detectable difference).

By lunchtime today the ice had all gone from the fridge. After lunch I mopped up, wiped down and switched on - and then we went out to Tesco's to restock.

Random afterthought from the supermarket: ground coffee usually displays a number on the packet, describing how strong it is, on a scale of 1 to 5 - and this seems to be standard. Everyone who uses the system at all uses the same scale. Except that Taylor's Hot Lava Java goes up to 6.