Regular readers will know of my ongoing battle with household appliances. It is my firm belief that the electrical goods in our house have achieved some kind of sentience and are ganging up on me - possibly as a first step in their long-term plan to take over the world, like in the Terminator movies.

The most recent revolution in the home wasn't instigated by anything electrical, but rather the hot water tap. Those with long memories might recall that the tap gave up the ghost once before, which resulted in me walking through Bradford to the plumber's merchants with the entire sink under my arm as I couldn't remove the tap from it.

I got a new tap, but a short while ago - okay, it was summer - the hot water bit of the mixer tap stopped working. Consulting the internet, I surmised that the likely problem was a ceramic thingamujig inside the tap that had broken. It was apparently a simple task to unscrew the tap head, remove the ceramic thing and buy a replacement.

Except when I tried to remove the tap head the screw stripped and I couldn't get it out. I then thought about this for a few months and decided I needed to buy a special tool to remove the stripped screw.

Only I never really got round to buying the tool. Mrs B informed me in no uncertain terms that the hot tap had to be fixed before Christmas, so I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would have another go.

Frustrated by my attempts to turn the screw, I rammed the screwdriver in, took a hammer and in a fit of temper hit the tap with it. Lo and behold, the screw came out easily. And the tap didn't even need a new thingamujig; it was just gummed up.

So, tap fixed. Sometimes it's the easiest solutions that do the job. Like hitting things with a hammer.