The dishwasher - again!

I'M TRYING to use our nearly clapped out old dishwasher again.

It's loaded with three days worth of plates and pots and glasses and if I don't wash today we'll be dining off our laps with our fingers and drinking wine straight out of the bottle with straws!

A little nervously, I top up the machine with back-of-cupboard stuff that's definitely in need of a wash - you know, the sort of items you hardly use from one year's end to the next.

(I have to fill the machine with something because it doesn't have a half-load setting.)

Anyhow, I finally get it full by throwing in the teapot and the chip pan. I pop a dishwashing tablet into the detergent holder, pour in a glug of rinse aid, shut the door and switch on.

It's at this stage that I start to keep my fingers crossed.

It takes about three hours to do the full wash (what Hotpoint likes to call a "SuperWash"). And I'm pleased to report that not once does the program dial jam - as it sometimes does - and even the hot air dryer works tickety-boo.

Then I open the door and my worst fear is realised: the detergent holder lid has failed to open again. The whole wash has been done in nice, clean, soap-less, hot water - with just a splash of rinse aid to help it all along.

I examine the plates: they don't look too bad... Some of the food has got itself baked on, perhaps, but not too badly... Nothing that a quick wash by hand with a dishcloth won't solve...

Oh, isn't progress just peachy!