Sir – My caring words “I’ll run the vac round, for you” were a big mistake! With a small bungalow and a handy central power point, how hard could it be?

Twenty minutes later and perspiring profusely I was ready to murder a vacuum salesman.

We have a standard, upright, bagless cleaner, and the teenage assistant assured us it was the most powerful – which I’m sure it is.

What he omitted to tell us about was the power-station heat this machine generates, the ear-piercing whine of the motor and the lethal nature of 25ft of cable – which I constantly trod on and ran over.

I doubt the lad had ever switched one on, nor emptied the dust container – you need to be Einstein to do that.

We have not quite cracked the secret of suction cleaning in our houses. I wish we still had our wartime Goblin cylinder model – it would blow as well as suck and was much easier to use.

The Army taught me ‘never volunteer’ – it seems vaccing is now definitely women’s work!

Stanley D Parr
Pershore