Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Back to the ice age

I’ve spent quite a large part of the day involved in a very important archaeological dig.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I just don’t get housework. I like the house to be clean and tidy etc. etc. but I don’t like how to get there. I’d rather read a book or go for a walk. Recently I’ve been having problems fitting the weekly shop of frozen food into the freezer in the garage. I don’t buy that much frozen food and it’s a big chest freezer, so something wasn’t right.

We were given the freezer by some neighbours years ago, they were too lazy to take it to the tip, or the top of the cliff so they asked me if I would like it. I was very pleased at the time, an old freezer is better than non at all. Unfortunately, the seal around the lid isn’t perfect anymore and so it ices up. I’ve developed a technique whereby I go out and hit the ice with a hammer from time to time. Over the years the freezer has filled with ice.

Today I gritted my teeth, managed to squash everything into the kitchen freezer and proceeded to defrost. I emptied out a lot of the loose ice with a serving spoon because I forgot I needed to buy a new trowel. (the only thing I learnt in three months on an advanced secretarial course was – improvise! – improvise!). As the day wore on and the ice wore down I started to find remains from past ages, a couple of slices of bread, one or two long lost chips/French fries, a mini quiche, a sprout, bits of packaging and so on. Unfortunately there were also one or two labels that had dropped off and some booklets of vouchers for reductions for microwave burgers (fortunately Olivier has gone off those). The best before dates were 2006 and the vouchers expired at the end of 2005.

I’ll try to defrost again before 2013 I promise

5 comments:

Dru Marland said...

I helped clean out the house of Creepy Nigel before he let the house and went off round the world. The freezer compartment of the fridge was deep in ice; as it thawed out, I rooted down through the geological layers to food that had been in there for seven years or so. This went some way to explaining why I always had food poisoning after dinner at Creepy Nigel's.

Anji said...

I'm ashamed to say that when I looked at where I'd thrown the ice its melted to reveal lots of grains of rice and other unidentifiable bits.

This morning I can see ice building up around the seal again - I'm seriously thinking of letting my poor freezer go

Anonymous said...

ooh Yuk! This confirms that freezers are the same the world over! I know this because we have an ice cube tray (which I seem to be the only one who ever re-fills)and when I want to add some ice to a drink I have to excavate down to the bottom of our chest freezer because its been buried and sure enough its lying there in pitiful company with the odd chicken nugget, mini suasage roll and runaway chips! I hasten to add these are not my choices for food but they are there!

Anji I have added this page to my blogroll in favour of the previous one as you suggested.

have a great day...maybe eat fresh not frozen today :)

Helen x

Anji said...

Helen: a chicken nugget was something that I didn't find! Thank you for adding me to your blogroll. I will be eating fresh veg today - the freezer's empty!

Doris said...

LOL I enjoyed your report of the dig and the suggestion that someone might just hoik a freezer off a cliff as a means of disposal!