Today I learned that the nylon cord that strimmers use dries out and becomes brittle. When that happens the cord just keeps breaking, rendering the strimmer as much use as a margarine dildo. Not that I’ve ever seen a margarine dildo, it’s just the most useless thing that came to mind when I was thinking of useless things. The first hint that strimming things might not be going well was when the strimmer refused to work on a bunch of stinging nettles. I mean, if the strimmer can’t even cope with a bunch of weedy nettles, it’s not much of a strimmer, is it? So a quick google revealed the drying out thing which, apparently, you can offset by soaking the strimmer cord bobbin for 24 hours. I tried that. It didn’t work. I also checked the direction the cord was wound onto the bobbin. That was correct. So I figured that the cord was just past its use-by date (not that it actually has a use-by date in the first place). So today I took delivery of three replacement bobbins (with cord wound on), which I’m going to try in a minute. Reassuringly the replacements came in a sealed, airproof bag. Lookout stingies – I’m coming for you!