A Good Deal

It is not everyday, one gets a good deal.
I have been looking for a lawn mower for the last 4-5 weeks. This is to replace the one I had for the past 15 years. It had been coughing, spluttering and hard to start. Morever, the casing is rusted out and I had it fixed at work once before. I guess it no use trying to fix it or service it. It is time to retire it off.
I had been to Bunnings and Kmart to look at the new lawn mower and it varies from $280 to $600 depending on the brands, models, features and country of manufacture. Well known brand like Victa, Rover,Maspot and Honda are on the expensive range. The cheaper range were unknown brand and I am skeptical about them. Some, if not most of them, were made in China with unknown brands of motors, with plastic casing and el cheapo grass clipping catcher.
I also looked at Ebay and was disappointed at some offerings. Majority of the sellers were selling new lawn mowers.
2 Saturday ago, I went with Maureen to the Glen Centro's Coles shopping for groceries. She went into Coles and I stood outside at the notice board glancing at the advertisment on the board. There was this small advertisement on the board looking directly at me. Look at me! It screamed.

"Lawn Mower for Sale $150. Electric Whipper $35. Used on small patch of lawn and hardly used. Ring xxxxxxxx or drop in to shop lot 158."

As soon as Maureen came out of Coles, we rushed to shop lot 158 and it was closed. I rang the number given and no one answered. I suspected it was the shop phone number.
Come Monday morning, I rang the lady at 9am. I told her I was interested in the Lawn Mower, she advertised. She asked if I could come the same evening after 6pm to have a look at it. Now, normally at this time of the day I would be cooking dinner and would not go out on a cold dark winter night. But something tells me to go and look at it. It is a small voice telling me, "Go and look at it, you won't regret it."
So I told her, "yep, I will be there at 6.15pm".
Just as I was to leave the house at 5.45pm it started to rain and when I hit the main road the traffic was building up. It was dark and the road signs were poorly lighted up and I got lost. Yep, I got lost. I was telling myself, "Blah, it was a mistake to come out tonight." After a few more wrong turns and frustrations, I found the place.
Rang the doorbell and a lady of about 50ish opened the door. She opened the garage door and I had a quick look at the Lawn Mower.

It was clean looking and well maintained. She told me the lawn mower has not been used for the last 9 months. She used to mow her small patch of lawn in front of her unit until she was told to stop doing it. Her unit was managed by a corporate affair and she has to pay to have the lawn mowed just like everyone else. That was why she decided to get rid of the mower.
I quickly paid her the $150. It was a bargain.
As I was about to leave and load it in my car, she asked if I would like the whipper snipper.

I was about to say, "no".

She said," you can have it for free."
I could not believe my ears.
She then bought out the fuel can, the funnel and the manuals for the lawn mower and whipper snipper and gave it to me. I was so happy.

Yeah, so happy I took a wrong turn on the way home and got caught in a massive traffic jam. It was a long way to home. But who cares, I got a good deal.
Last Saturday, I managed to have a good and closer look over the mower. It was clean and newish looking. I guess it was well maintained and seldom used. I drained and replaced the sump oil. Gave it a safety check, checked the plug, blades, catcher and wheels. Fill it with a bit of petrol and gave it a start. After the second yank, it roared into life.
I am back in business. Look out long grass, your days are numbered.