This year's lawnmower

My old lawnmower would not work. After fiddling with the switch and taking it apart, I took the cover off and discovered this.

That seemed a reasonable explanation of it not working. I tried cleaning it all out including using the vacuum cleaner but alas it did not spring back to life. So, with some reluctance, I sighed and threw it into the bin and bought a new one from Amazon: Flymo EasiStore 300R Electric Rotary Lawn Mower - 30 cm Cutting Width, 30 Litre Grass Box, Close Edge Cutting, Rear Roller, Manual Height Adjust, Space Saving Storage Features, Lightweight a bargain at £89.99.

Today I got round to using it. After spending 10 minutes assembling it I set to work and all was well... and then it wasn't. It cut out. Just like the old one. Am I cursed? After some experiment it seemed likely that the problem was with my (home build) extension cable, the "far" end so to speak, that gets pulled a lot. So: I cut off a few inches of wire and rebuilt it and... all was well. Hurrah. That probably means the old lawnmower was fine, but at about 9 years old, £10 / year is fair enough. And the new one cuts so much better. Perhaps I should just buy a new blade every year.