Dearest Smeggy......

Just wanted to share with you this: that I have a cooker now working. No, not the Rayburn, but the SMEG which has stood in the hallway, still in its cardboard box, for months. Now it is working. It has lots of rings, several ovens, is cream, clean, and sparkly. It will not stay that way for long, not once I start using it.

But first I have to read the instructions, and overcome my terror of it. I know I am being silly, but ............ Apparently two ovens are fan assisted, but you can have half a fan, bottom fan, all fan, etc..... All I want is to switch the SMEG on, not have to worry about what bit of the fan to have on as well.

It would seem that I am being ungrateful for this step forward in the saga of me getting a 'proper' kitchen, and please believe me when I say that I am as pleased as anything to have a decent cooker to cook with. The old calor gas one has been slowly failing, with only three of the four rings working and even they do not work to their full capacity, making the cooking of food a slow and arduous job. I have, on occasion, felt like flinging the thing out of the door.

But now it is me and SMEGgy, learning how to get along with each other, our first engagement being cheese on toast this evening. And oh what a treat is to have a grill, and one that lights up too!

Now, the reason why I chose Smeggy was because it has sufficient gas rings to cook various things at the same time.....like the pot of dog food, the pot of pig food, the kettle, our dinner, the pressure cooker, etc...... It also has two ovens ( I did not know about the third until just a few minutes ago, and I did not know they were fan assisted either until just now) which will be handy when I cook for guests. But more that anything, the SMEG chose me, just like the kitchen kept on about wanting green floor tiles.

So what happened was this: I liked a friend's cooker, and saw the same cooker in a local electrical shop, but could not justify the expense of buying it at the time. Months passed, and still the cooker stayed on display. Then on one particular day I had an urge to go and have a proper look at it, thinking that soon it would become old stock and perhaps even become out of stock. So I took at look at it, and was dismayed to find that the quality of the cooker was not very good, and then my feet started walking down the rows of other cookers on display, and then they suddenly stopped in front of the SMEG, and without any proper look at it, quite clearly 'This is the one' came into my head. So we bought it, but without not really knowing exactly what the cooker could do.

Not to worry, I shall start exploring its potential tomorrow, I have to, because the old cooker has now been sent to its eternal rest, bless it.

And Lissie is with calf, being a week overdue, but Bonny was done again by the nice AI (artificial insemination) man.We have dispatched two male piglets, one more go go. It is still mild here but damp. It is surprising just how much mud can be made just by it being damp.

And I have got a proper cooker! Wahooooo!

So am off to read the instruction manual, and then have a trot around YouTube to see if anyone has posted anything up about the SMEG which might help me understand how to use it.