Brian 1, lawnmower 0.

I think I mentioned we got a homelite petrol lawnmower (HLM140SP) recently from a big home/garden outlet? Anyway, I was trying to disconnect the sparkplug just to clean the deck, and didn't the HT lead boot come off and disconnect altogether? Unhappiness ensued. Outlet promised repair within 10 days. 10 days?

Anyway, if this happened to anyone else, here is what to do. You now have a lawnmower with a bare lead, a little metal connector widget to link the lead and the sparkplug, and a rubber elbow that goes over the widget. To do this fix, you need some washing up liquid, and maybe a pliers.

A tiny drop of the washing up liquid on the HT lead, then you need to straighten out the elbow as much as you can and push it back up the HT lead so that the bare wire comes right out the other end of the elbow. Then reconnect the connector widget by clamping it onto the rubber lead - make sure that the wire inner part of the lead touches the connector. Now slide the elbow/boot back down carefully so that the connector widget just sits in the corner of the elbow, with the open side facing out. Reconnect to spark plug and enjoy your mower!

Lawnmowers.

Lawnmowers. A curious subject. We started off with a small electric hover mower - this made cutting the grass a chore because it just wouldn't hack it, particularly if the grass got anyway long. Which it sometimes does...

So we went with internal combustion. Don't tell the Greens. I've just done my first cut with the Homelite this evening, and all is well! It's fairly light, so it's easily pushable, and it's got 7 height settings as well as the grass collector (which is maybe a little small...). Initial impressions are good, it feels solid so far and well put together, but we'll see how that works out as time goes by. Also, it's red and shiny.

Anyone else who's looking to buy one, they're 160 in the diy stores at the moment, and you should factor in another 20 quid or so to buy some engine oil (10W30) and petrol and can.