David:

The reporting and your comments about Dyson were interesting, but my wife said that her experience in the years when we lived in England was that the Dyson appliances were obviously brilliant in engineering terms and would last forever, but they were VERY user-unfriendly -- heavy and clumsy.

As South Africans, we thought that Brits (unlike us and Americans), often made the mistake of paying too highly for socially-highly-rated products (AGA is a good example), that were not worth it. I remember our disappointment at the poor range of "upper middle class" products (usually Japanese and German brands) that we were used to in Johannesburg. Our perception of what was on offer was an avalanche of cheap products (especially the cheapest and nastiest), topped off with very upper-class, overpriced status brands. Of course, that was a long time ago... ten years or more that we've lived in Chiangmai.

Trust you and family are now well... including Ishmael and Willow. Liz and I are now enslaved by an Asian lady we call Tong.

M

David Fuller's view

Thanks for your thoughts. 

Liz was right.  With a big house we needed an effective vacuum cleaner so we bought the heavier of the initial Dysons.  It was effective but in the hands of cleaners was used like a wrecking ball on some of our furniture.  These days I would rather do it myself and Mrs Fuller is a big fan of the much improved Rombas. 

Dyson’s other products are certainly not cheap but they are very good and also have an aesthetic appeal which I am happy to pay for.  My favourite is the air purifier which is essential for London with all the horrific NOx (diesel) pollution.  However the air purifier obviously only works in the house, where I leave it on most of the time, on a low and virtually silent setting. 

The Burmese are fantastic companions although we nearly lost Ishmael a short while ago due to a sudden and unexplainably serious ear infection.  When we got them eight years ago the children were worried that we were more interested in the cats than our grandchildren of approximately the same ages, although that was not quite true.  I am glad you and Liz have Tong and can understand the feeling of enslavement.