End of Warranty Guaranteed

Exactly one week before our flight to Manila, I come home to the news that the refrigerator has tripped the circuit breaker. This Whirlpool refrigerator was the first major appliance set aside for us when we finally decided we were going to migrate to Australia. It was passed on to MumofFive from her sister-in-law. When MumofFive decided to get a bigger refrigerator, this old one was moved to the garage and reserved for us, awaiting our arrival.

I don't know how old the ref is but just for the record, we HAVE been here for two years and it HAD passed through two families before us.

In a last ditch effort to extend its useful life, MacGyver removed the extension cord connecting the ref to the outlet and plugged the ref in directly. That just meant that the microwave oven had no power. No problem, I thought, I can live with that if that's what it takes to keep the refrigerator alive.

(In my mind, refrigerator ... major appliance ... major expense. LIVE! LIVE! You must LIVE!)

So fortunately, the ref was fine most of Saturday.

(Oh good, I thought, I'll have more spending money for Manila and Christmas if we don't have to get a new ref. We even baked a cake and bought ice cream from the grocery to celebrate. I'm kidding of course, we baked the cake because there was a recipe I wanted to test and we bought the ice cream because it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, in other words, it's getting quite warm these days.)

Things were looking good for the ref that MacGyver decided to revive the microwave using a different extension cord in the afternoon.

Nice. We were in business.

Or so I thought because early Sunday morning, I woke up to Gino at the doorway complaining that the power was out. The electric fan in their room had turned off and the heat had woken him up. Seems the refrigerator had decided enough is enough and it was taking all the outlets with it.

MacGyver got up, unplugged the ref and reset the circuit breaker. Everyone went back to sleep. When we got up, MacGyver switched on the circuit breaker for the ref and **poof** a couple of minutes later, MyGirl complained that her fan turned off and her laptop stopped charging.

OK. It's official now. Time for a new refrigerator.

(I suppose one can also say that a new refrigerator is a good thing. Gotta see that glass half-full.)

I don't know, there must be something about being in Australia and going home to Manila that doesn't agree with our refrigerators. It's strange but true. We were in Australia in May 2009 for our initial entry to the country and upon our arrival back in Manila, we found our refrigerator in Makati had conked out on us while we were gone.

Did you know that one of the major contributing factors to our migration to Australia was that refrigerator?

We had decided that we WOULD migrate to Australia but we hadn't quite decided WHEN. Since our refrigerator had conked out, we moved out of Makati and moved in with Father and Mother at Cebu Avenue. Since we were staying at Cebu Avenue, we had second thoughts about enrolling the children back to school. (Both GI and RD were graduating that coming schoolyear. GI from High School, RD from Grade School.)

In the end, we decided not to enroll the children in school and migrate sooner, rather than later.

And the rest is history, thanks to our refrigerator.

So I suppose, as we head back for Manila for the first time since we moved, I am reminded that we have come a long way and perhaps with a new appliance, we are to start a new phase in our life's continuing journey.

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I took a picture of the refrigerator before we cleaned it out.

Here it is without all the accumulated paraphernalia,

right before we moved it out to make space for the new one.

Thank you for your years of service, Mr. Whirlpool.

We hope your Westinghouse replacement serves us well.