Charity shop Cathja’s Kitchen Table in Brentford High Street provided the venue for the joint BRAG/Ealing Friends of the Earth Restart Party on 1 July. People were already waiting when we started at 12 noon, and it continued to be pretty busy for the next three and a half hours.

A total of 10 people brought 11 items, plus there were two from the charity shop. Items included lamps, vacuum cleaners, laptop, headphones, CD player/radios and a water heater. Four of these could be fixed on the spot, for example by repairing loose connections; five needed new parts etc, and the fixers Jo and Sami provided advice on buying and fitting these. Jo took the water heater home as it needed to be plugged into a water supply to test it properly, and subsequently recommended specialist servicing/filter replacement.

Paul and Jo at the Restart  Party 

Only three items couldn’t be repaired, despite intensive efforts from the fixers. The two CD players had a broken CD transport, which superglue couldn’t mend, but they were still usable as radios so weren’t going to be thrown out. One of the vacuum cleaners had a broken part, no longer supplied as it was an obsolete model. The part might be available on eBay, but the owner will probably go for a new machine. Still, one dumped item out of 13 isn’t bad (and maybe the vacuum can be traded in or at least some of it recycled).

Many thanks to Jo and Sami, who were kept very busy throughout. People enjoyed watching and discussing the repairs, and very much appreciated the advice on procuring and fitting new parts.

We received some donations, which were passed on to Cathja to thank them for giving us free space.