This year has had its ups and downs. All years do, don’t they? But this year found me having to adapt to two kitchen situations which turned out to be exhausting and emotionally draining exercises.

Earlier this year, I bought a new gas hob. The electric one just wasn’t cutting it. But once it had been installed, we discovered it was faulty and had to wait 3 days for a new one to be delivered and installed. Read more about the drama here.

We’ve been happily cooking up a storm on the stove since then and everything has been going well in the kitchen when on Friday, disaster struck.

No, nothing went wrong with the stove (touch wood) but the fridge, which was bought around June last year, just switched off. One moment it was working and the next there was no sign of life. How does a fridge that you’ve had for a little over a year just stop? It didn’t gradually start getting warmer. It just stopped working. I plugged it into another outlet just to check if maybe it would work, but still no signs of life.

I started to panic because I had 100 mini puddings in my fridge that I had made for my friend’s wedding. I quickly had to take it out and send it over to his place. Then there was the problem of all the perishables in my fridge. Milk, cheeses, salad stuff. Thank goodness I have family next door and they agreed to keep it for us.

The next morning (Saturday) I called the brand’s call centre and it turns out they have no technicians working on weekends. BUT THIS IS A FRIDGE. And then I get a text message yesterday (Sunday) saying they’d be at my house on Tuesday. With no times stated. The fridge broke on Friday. FRIDAY!

I obviously need it to store my perishables and I already feel like an utter nuisance for filling my family’s fridge with my goods. Not to mention my mom’s insulin medication needs to be kept refrigerated. It’s not ideal being fridgeless.

I called today to ask what time they’d be out and they can’t even tell me. They’d only tell me tomorrow. How am I supposed to make arrangements to be home if I don’t know what time they’d be coming? Honestly. How does a company not have standby technicians at the weekends?

I know also can’t cook anything that will last for more than a day because I can’t refrigerate it. It’s summer so I don’t even have cold water at the moment.

What I’ve learned from all this is that it’s more challenging without a fridge than it is without a stove. In fact, a stove is a luxury item in comparison to the necessity of a fridge.

All I want at this point is cold water. And ice. Lots of ice.

I’m also really grateful to have family so close by. I owe them big time for be generous enough to share some space in their fridge.