Sunday 5 October 2008

Journey to the bottom of the freezer

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You know how you get days when something snaps and you look at a job you've been meaning to do for, er, months and think, "Today's the day!"

Well, today was one of those days. The day when I would chip away at the ice around the top of the freezer so the lid would fit properly again. Ten minutes, I told myself, and I could reward myself with a mug of tea.

Yes.

Only, it's just so satisfying when you ease a whole chunk away from the side, isn't it? So I fetched the sledge-hammer and chipped away some more. And then the basket was in the way, but when I tried to move it, it was actually frozen in, so... you get the picture.


By the time I'd finished the sink looked like this.


And under the basket ...

Suffice to say that I decided I no longer needed beetroot from 1994, tomatoes from 1992 or turkey gravy from 1991.

And look - I found the bottom of the freezer!


So - what's lurking at the bottom of yours?

17 comments:

Jayne said...

I hope you eventually got your cup of tea! It looks like hours of work.....reminds me of last Thursday when I ventured behind the detergent drawer in my washing machine!!! It was a scary sight!

Jan Jones said...

Thanks, Mummy. I needed two cups in rapid succession by the time I'd got that far.

Back of the detergent drawer... now that's the sort of thing that leaves real scars.

(M)ary said...

i love chipping away ice in the freezer. i would have been glad if the "frost free freezer" had never been invented.

ps found your blog by using the black box widget

Jan Jones said...

Always nice to meet another ice-chipping fan, (m)ary!

And the black box has nothing on my freezer, believe me.

Snuck a peek at your blogs and loved your collages, by the way. Especially the stories can take you anywhere one.

Kate Hardy said...

Seeing that has made me realise how glad I am that my freezer is frost-free. (I was going to say that otherwise I'd lose my posh choc ices. But they don't stay in the freezer long enough - not when my daughter's around!)

The oven, however... is something that had to be tackled yesterday. Lakeland's oven cleaner is wonderful and takes most of the hassle (and fumes) out of it. But even so: not a nice job.

H

Jan Jones said...

Swings and roundabouts, Kate. I never have to clean my oven ever, because it's an Aga and just burns everything away.

Anonymous said...

As I read your post I cringed thinking about the state of my freezers - they are desperately in need of defrosting!

Thanks for reminding me!

CJ xx

Unknown said...

I only realized as we left cornwall that the power had been off for a day or two or two and the pheasant I had been saving for christmas......well, 'nuff said!

Job well done!

Jan Jones said...

CJ - it's only when the ice starts crawling over the lip and down the side that you really need to start worrying

Liz - I do admit to throwing away a severely ossified pheasant from under the freezer basket. Goodness only knows how long it had been in there waiting to be remembered.

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

I hate to think what I'd find at the bottom of mine. Countless tubs of ancient icecream I should think. Eugh.

Nicola Slade said...

I think there might be a very large trout at the bottom of my chest freezer. If it's not there I can't imagine where I put it.
I don't bother about de-icing, my resident control freak does it for me when the freezer won't shut, as he does the oven and occasionally the kitchen floor. My own control freakery takes many other forms, one of which is screaming abuse at any man (only one here) who leaves the loo seat up. Or putting the tea caddy in the wrong place; important stuff like that.

Jan Jones said...

Debs - you mean those weird ice-cream flavours that seemed a good idea at the time? Or things like lemon sorbet, that only one person in the house likes, then they suddenly go off it.

Nicky - a large trout... I suppose you couldn't have simply forgotten about eating it?

Nicola Slade said...

Found the trout, thank goodness; it was hiding under a couple of kilos of white currants we froze three years ago while wondering what to do with them. Also on top was a bag of sloes from about the same time, waiting for me to make sloe gin.

People to lunch tomorrow, I think they'll be delighted to have trout. They needn't know how old it is...

Jan Jones said...

Remind me not to eat at yours, Nicky...

Unknown said...

....I don't THINK that pheasant would be the one Ruff stole from next door's conservatory and dragged into ours, if I remember rightly we gave that back.

D's mum laughed hard when I told them about the freezer expedition by the way.

Susie Vereker said...

Hah! I've just invested in a new freezer. The previous one was only 25 years old but it had an iceberg tendency too, possibly because the door seal was moody.
Have to admit the new one works a lot better and I must be saving the environment, the world, the universe.
Good luck with the talk.

Jan Jones said...

Only 25 years old, Susie? This one's, um, somewhere in the region of 30 I suspect. Which could explain it...

Love your 'iceberg tendencies' phrase.