Our hairdryer's handle is currently falling off. I wouldn't normally mention this (although if any of our neighbours read this in a week's time, after not seeing either of us for a while, it may provide a clue as to what that funny burning smell was), but it did lead me into Argos, to peruse what Bill Bailey called the laminated book of dreams...
They have many hairdryers in Argos. It was something of a revelation. They have a wide selection of 'ionic' ones, which are presumably so called because they have fluted columns and prominent volutes on the capital, or because they buzz in C Major. Some of them are described as 'ceramic', although I hesitate to guess which part of a hairdryer might benefit from being ceramic. Possibly it's evidence of an attempt to revitalise the ailing north Staffordshire potteries by diversification out of toilets and into cosmetic electrical goods. Nicky Clarke apparently even makes a hairdryer (well, I say 'makes' - I doubt he actually hand-crafts each one individually) which turns on automatically when you pick it up, and off when you immediately drop it in astonishment. But the biggest divide in the world of hairdrying seems to be between concentrators and diffusers. Most hairdryers are either one or the other, apparently. You can get some that do both, but these are shunned by both communities, and so don't boast the shiny ceramic or ionic features of their purebred brethren.
So the hairdryer remains without an immediate replacement, until Chris can advise me on whether she favours concentration or diffusion. Hopefully we'll survive another morning without the handle falling off completely.
On a completely unrelated note, I got home today to discover a letter from my employer's HR department - hopefully the employment contract they forgot to enclose with the letter they sent me last month (the one that mentioned some benefits I'm not entitled to, like a company car). But no! Alas, no employment contract, instead, a replacement letter, updated to remove all mention of company cars. Still asks me to return a copy of the employment contract that I don't have, though. Oh well. Better luck next time.
[Listening to: Macadeynu - Tony Rudd - Music 2000]