Back when I was newly married my then wife and I were allocated a house in North Ryde, a Sydney NSW suburb.
Having moved in, I was moved to look out the window and everywhere I looked there was grass, growing at a furious rate.
We did not have much money and all we could afford was a 2nd hand original model Victa 2 stroke rotary mower.
These were very elementary with a separate height adjustment for each wheel and no grass catcher. Clippings remained where they were, (told SWMBO it adds nitrogen to the ground), or raked up which was her response after our next pay day when she bought me a rake.
One very nice Saturday afternoon with the harbour calling, "Bob, lets go sailing," I was informed the grass needed to be cut before I went anywhere.
I retrieved our $10 mower started it up and proceeded to mow the front lawn, (small amount of grass, large amount of other green things known as weeds).
The house was on the higher side of the street with the front sloping down from the house towards the street. On about my 3rd pass down and up, I set the engine to idle and went to roll a smoke. As I picked up my baccy from the front porch I turned around to see the mower accelerating rapidly downhill towards the front fence.
"$H!T........" I took off after it but as I came close, there was a loud bang and crunch as the mower stopped and flipped on its' side. A large jet of water shot towards heaven where the damn thing had carved it's way through the copper water supply pipe.
Of course I immediately went for the shut off tap but this did little as the chopped up bit of pipe was on the street side of the tap.
Next was the electrical insulation tape and some 30 metres later I had reduced the flow to a small flood.
Now where do I get a plumber at 2pm on a Saturday?
After being granted use of the phone by a trying not to laugh next door neighbour I contacted the Dept of Interior emergency number and a gang arrived around 4pm, dug up the street turned off the water and replaced a section of pipe.
Funny but despite their good reputation in Oz, I have never owned another Victa.
Best Regards
Bob
