Mower Meets Meter

Been a quiet time on this blog and I’m not sure why. Possibly because of my policy of not blogging unless I really want to say something or possibly because I wanted to avoid a series of entries like “not much happened today, really.” I suppose the two are the much the same thing. Anyway, last night, I destroyed our water meter with the motor mower.

Some cultural pointers are needed here to avoid me appearing a complete idiot, I feel. Water meters in Australia are outside your house, usually on the horizontal part of an inverted U of the water pipe sticking up above the ground. The stop-cock is also on this flimsy pipe so any passer-by can turn off your water if they wish, as a jolly prank, though they seem not to.

Ours emerges from a lush bed of buffalo grass and I still maintain the mower blades were nowhere near when the meter disintegrated in a shower of plastic, metal and dials, all hoisted into the air by a jet of water. The mower is fine, thanks.

The interesting thing about this is that a very friendly bloke from Coffs Harbour Water rolled up in a ute around three-quarters of an hour after my call and just as I finished the lawn, fitted a new meter in five minutes and left with the bits of the old one in a bag. This bearing in mind that, in UK terms, we live in the back of beyond. I then had a much-needed shower. Truly this is the lucky country.