The art of marriage

Amazon made a delivery today.

I love Amazon.  I could, and do, spend a fortune on the site.  Most of the time I’m buying a gadget, something to enhance my life or make my life easier.  It’s usually a purchase that will move me along the technology timeline.

Today's delivery was different though.  I bought something secretly because I knew my husband would not approve.

I bought a lawnmower, but not just any lawnmower.

You see we have a lawnmower.  It’s a Flymo something and it’s rubbish.  It gets clogged with wet grass, the blades refuse to stay sharp, the grass collector lid failed within a month of delivery, one of the power handles has snapped off, it is too heavy to be used by the children and it only has about four cutting height settings.

So I visited Amazon and found this.

It’s a Qualcast Panther 30 and it doesn’t have a plug, or a petrol tank.  It’s the ultimate green lawnmower because it’s powered by you.

Advantages as far as I’m concerned are:

• It cuts rather than tears grass
• I don’t have to faff around with extension leads
• I don’t have to worry about mowing the power lead and thus dying from electrocution
• It’s probably safe enough to be used by the children
• It has infinitely variable cutting height
• It doesn’t cost anything to run
• It takes up hardly any space when stored
• It’s beautifully simple
• It’s cheap
• It’s easy to maintain
• It’s quiet to operate

Dave, on the other hand, holds a different view.  He thinks:

• It doesn’t cut dandelions and tough grass stalks
• It’s too dangerous to be used by the children
• We now have two lawnmowers to store instead of just one
• It’s a waste of money

But that’s what marriage is all about; putting up with one another even though you don’t agree.