Silence. The utter lack of sound. Not something I’m particularly familiar with anymore.
If it’s not the 4-year-old wanting a ‘Juuuuuuuuuuuuice’, or the two-year-old randomly shouting ‘Mummy… Mummy… Mummy… ‘ it’s the washing machine on spin cycle, or the telephone ringing, or the nauseating roar of OH watching another football game.
This weekend I realised something. It was time to claim back my peace and quiet. And then, as if sent by the heavens, an email from the team from Philips. ‘How would you like a Moment of Silence?’ their PR gals asked.
Pffffft! That’s like asking: ‘How would you like to win the EuroMillions Lottery?’ The answer is yes. Dear God, YES!
So then a package arrived, laden with soothing lovelies. A scrummy Rituals scented candle, some delish-smelling bath bombs, and some Clinique Sparkle Skin Exfoliator.
I ran the bath, shut the door, and drowned out all the pitiful cries of: ‘Mum, I’m hungry! Mum, I want to watch Curious George! Mum, Lil Sis has pulled off her nappy, and she’s weeing on the carpet!’
I emerged 30 minutes later, all fragrant and smooth-skinned.
But what the heck has all this got to do with a photo of Big Sis doing some ironing?? I hear you ask quizzically. Well, that wasn’t the end of my Silent Revolution.
For my little box of goodies had also included the amazing new Philips PerfectCare Silence steam generator (or those of you who are completely behind the times, that’s the fancy new name for an iron).
Now, let me preface this by explaining that I don’t like ironing (or should I say steam generating). Not in a ‘put it off until the last minute’ kind of way – in a ‘never buy anything that needs ironing because I really really despise it’ kind of way.
But Big Sis starts school in September, which means school uniforms, which means I need to get over my ironing phobia, fast.
The PerfectCare basically uses the steam from a special chamber in the base to make short work of all your crumpled washing. It doesn’t even have a dial because it uses one constant temperature – so you can iron everything from your wrinkly old duvet cover, to your delicate silks, all on the same universal setting. Brilliant.
And because it’s the fancy-schmancy pressure-controlled steam, you can’t burn or mark your clothing – in fact the Philips boffins reckon that you could leave it sitting on your favourite silk top for up to five minutes, and it wouldn’t even scorch the fabric. How great is that?!
You can even use it to steam out the creases in your clothing – like they do backstage on fancy fashion shows.
So. Why is it called the Philips PerfectCare Silence? Because it’s bloody quiet, that’s why (well, apart from when the water is being pumped from the water reservoir into the steam unit, which makes a bit of a chuggy noise).
The actual iron-y part, however, is super quiet – none of that hissing and spitting and sputtering that I remember from the last time I attempted to iron, somewhere back in the 1990s. No annoying splashes of water all over the fabric either, because you’ve got the temp gauge too high/too low. It’s ‘Ironing for Dummies’.
The huge, unwieldy king-sized duvet cover I was tackling took one look at my no-nonsense steam generator, and the creases practically fell out. Well, not quite – but it did make seriously easy work of what is usually a time-consuming, pain-in-the-butt job.
Which was fab, as it left me with plenty of spare time to watch The Artist on dvd, and chill out to my lovely relaxation CD (which also came in my goody box).
Now this kind of ironing, I could definitely get used to.
• the steam generator and goody box were supplied for the purpose of review
Wow, that looks like a dream iron, doesn’t it?
Oh you lucky lucky Mummy you!! Silence is golden!!!!! Having just returned from holiday I have a MOUNTAIN of ironing to do, how would you like to pop over for a coffee and demonstrate your lovely new appliance for me 😉
In short – no. 😉