No, I'm not trying to get out of weighing myself!

[major_clanger]

I have quite a nice set of bathroom scales. Sorry, I had quite a nice set of bathroom scales. One of those which comprised a sheet of tempered glass on four metal feet with strain gauges attached and a digital readout. No moving parts, looked nice and vaguely geeky, and did the job.

Yesterday, when I weighed myself, I didn't push them quite back as far into the corner of my rather small bathroom as I usually do.

Last night, bumbling around in a sleepy manner, I stubbed my toe on the side of the scales and kicked them a few inches across the floor, so that the corner hit the plinth of my handbasin.

There was a sort of muffled bang, and I found myself looking at a skeletal structure of strain gauges, metal feet and LCD display amidst a shower of tiny little glass beads. Even the bits of glass remaining had converted into miniature crazy paving that was visibly (and audibly!) popping apart.

Ah yes, tempered glass. Well, it did as designed in the event of breakage - no sharp fragments and very easy to clean up. But I'm sure my mum's old spring-pointer version didn't have such a spectacular failure mode.

Comments

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

Could have been worse: you'd've been really embarrassed had it exploded when you stood on it.