We give our daughters our Aldi pod coffee machine when they leave home. “We’ll treat ourselves to a new one,” we say, not realising there isn’t a single Aldi coffee machine for sale in the whole of Australia (as far as we’re aware). All stores are waiting for a new shipment from Germany.
We wait and wait and wait, but no coffee machines appear in our local Aldi store. Getting impatient, my husband Andy says, “Let’s forget about the Aldi coffee machine and buy a different brand. I’ll do some research.”
An hour or so goes by before I receive a phone message with a link: This one has lots of 5-star reviews. It’s highly recommended. I place an order, and then we wait.
The postal delivery woman arrives with a box. As she hands it to me, I exclaim, “It’s our coffee machine!”
I slice through the packing tape with a knife, pull back the flaps, and raise the machine from the box. My eyebrows rise, too.
Later, when Andy arrives home from work, he slips a pod into the new machine and tries to slip a cup under the spout. It won’t fit. He frowns. “This machine is much smaller than I expected.”
“It’ll be fine,” I reply. “We just need to use shorter cups.”
A few days later, the delivery woman is back. “Hi, Sue!” she says, handing me another box. As I scratch my signature on her receipt device with my fingernail, she asks, “How’s your coffee machine?”
“Well, it was much smaller than we anticipated. If we were living in a caravan, it would be perfect because it doesn’t take up much bench space. But despite its size, it makes excellent coffee. I think we’ll keep it.”
I tell Andy about this conversation, and he says, “She remembered she delivered a coffee machine the other day?”
“Oh yes, I’m good friends with the delivery lady.” I suppose that’s because I see her frequently. I’m always ordering things.
Andy forgets to ask me what was in the new parcel. I don’t tell him about the tripod with the magnetic mount that will grip my phone tightly when I next make a video. There’s only one problem with my new purchase: I might not need it. I no longer feel like vlogging.
But I do feel like a cup of freshly brewed coffee. I fill the water reservoir and slip a pod into the machine before pressing the button. Rich, dark coffee streams into my cup. My short cup, of course.
In case you’re wondering: we bought a De’Longhi Nespresso Essenza Mini EN85W.SOLO, Automatic Coffee Maker. I suppose, from the description, we should have expected a small machine!
Image: a tall dog with some short cups.
Something similar happened to me. I wanted to buy little flower pots for a craft for my daughter’s Little Flowers group. I found 10 pots for $10 on Amazon. It sounded like a great deal. However, I didn’t think it through. Why was the price so low? When the flower pots arrived, they were about one inch high. I found some bigger ones at my local hardware store and used those instead.
– Gina
Gina,
Shopping online is very convenient, but we don’t always receive what we expect, do we? Sometimes, it can be hard getting a good idea about a product from looking at photos. I usually read the reviews. I don’t think Andy read the ones for the coffee machine. I had a look at them after we got the machine, and top of the list was one from someone who lives in a caravan and is thrilled with her tiny machine that doesn’t take up much space!
I wonder what you’ll do with the ten tiny flowerpots. Have you any ideas?
That`s why it can be so tricky to order online. I`ve had several surprises like that – getting things, that are much smaller, then anticipated. Fimo flowers for crafts (those were truly tiny, only few millimeters), cups much smaller, some food items.. it made me be more careful when shopping online, but also more hesitant to do so, because research takes time.
Glad you enjoy your coffee with your smaller cup.
It is such a sweet gift for your daughters, to be able to treat themselves to a nice cup of coffee every morning.
We used to have a big water kettle, but then got a small vintage one. I thought it could never work for us, with all those kids drinking tee in winter, but it worked surprisingly well and finally we got rid of our big old one.
And yes, sometimes we buy something we realize we don`t need, or don`t need anymore.. that`s life.
Luana,
I’m sorry I’ve taken a long time to reply to your comment. I’ve been neglecting my blog while I’ve been working on my children’s novels. I started updating The Angels of Abbey Creek at the beginning of the year but got distracted and never finished it. But now, I’m pushing on with the job and have almost completed updating the manuscript and adding new images. I wonder if you’d like a PDF copy when it’s ready to be published. I’d love to share my book with you!
We used to have a big electric urn. I loved having boiling water available constantly without having to boil a kettle. We also had plenty of water when there were a lot of people wanting tea! But now, like you, we’ve downgraded to a smaller kettle. And we have our small coffee machine, which is working out perfectly!
I hope all is well with you and your family. xxx