Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

How do croutons stay crunchy when they are submersed in hot liquid?

[RED-DOG]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

I didn't manage to fix it, but I think I've narrowed it down to a thermostat problem, so today I'm going to risk my other eyebrow.

[Kev B]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

I didn't manage to fix it, but I think I've narrowed it down to a thermostat problem, so today I'm going to risk my other eyebrow.

WP I did actually lol.

I watched the Sue Perkins Mekong series and loved it. Got my juices flowing for my Thailand trip in January. Do you like Thai food Tom?

[booder]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

Excellent !

Our boiler is broken , so no hot water or heating. All enquiries so far have revealed that getting it replaced before Christmas is unlikely.

Are you available in the next few days?

[RED-DOG]

I'll tell you what else I was thinking about yesterday... Motorists. What ever happened to them?

How would you define a motorist as opposed to a car driver?

[RED-DOG]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

I didn't manage to fix it, but I think I've narrowed it down to a thermostat problem, so today I'm going to risk my other eyebrow.

WP I did actually lol.

I watched the Sue Perkins Mekong series and loved it. Got my juices flowing for my Thailand trip in January. Do you like Thai food Tom?

I lurrve Thai food Kev, so long as it doesn't have creepy crawlies in it.

I used to have very conservative tastes, you know, butties, chips, meat & two veg, that sort of thing, (I used to think that salad was tomato, cucumber and lettuce) but Mrs Red & especially the girls are much more cosmopolitan and have influenced me greatly.

I'll try almost anything now.

[RED-DOG]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

Excellent !

Our boiler is broken , so no hot water or heating. All enquiries so far have revealed that getting it replaced before Christmas is unlikely.

Are you available in the next few days?

Is it deffo cream-crackered? I 'fix' our boiler every couple of weeks. It's usually a problem with the flue, the ignition system, or the water / gas pressure.

What symptoms does it have, and does it have any flashing lights on the front? Tell me what it's doing and I'll suggest a remedy. (Why should you have all the eyebrows?)

[booder]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

Excellent !

Our boiler is broken , so no hot water or heating. All enquiries so far have revealed that getting it replaced before Christmas is unlikely.

Are you available in the next few days?

Is it deffo cream-crackered? I 'fix' our boiler every couple of weeks. It's usually a problem with the flue, the ignition system, or the water / gas pressure.

What symptoms does it have, and does it have any flashing lights on the front? Tell me what it's doing and I'll suggest a remedy. (Why should you have all the eyebrows?)

Yes , definately knackered , had an engineer out this morning , unfortunately he is booked up till January.

It's a 30  year old Glowworm. Got so many problems that even if the parts could be found it would not make economical sense to repair it.

[RED-DOG]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

Excellent !

Our boiler is broken , so no hot water or heating. All enquiries so far have revealed that getting it replaced before Christmas is unlikely.

Are you available in the next few days?

Is it deffo cream-crackered? I 'fix' our boiler every couple of weeks. It's usually a problem with the flue, the ignition system, or the water / gas pressure.

What symptoms does it have, and does it have any flashing lights on the front? Tell me what it's doing and I'll suggest a remedy. (Why should you have all the eyebrows?)

Yes , definately knackered , had an engineer out this morning , unfortunately he is booked up till January.

It's a 30  year old Glowworm. Got so many problems that even if the parts could be found it would not make economical sense to repair it.

Bugger!

Mine will have to be replaced eventually too. When you engineer comes back, ask him if he can obtain one via a back door, the back of a lorry or some such.

And tell him not to try to flog me your old one.

[RED-DOG]

& finally....


Is this fascinating, or am I just easily pleased?


Johnson & Johnson, Barnes & Noble, Dolce & Gabbana: the ampersand today is used primarily in business names, but that small character was once the 27th part of the alphabet. Where did it come from though? The origin of its name is almost as bizarre as the name itself.

The shape of the character (&) predates the word ampersand by more than 1,500 years. In the first century, Roman scribes wrote in cursive, so when they wrote the Latin word et which means “and” they linked the e and t. Over time the combined letters came to signify the word “and” in English as well. Certain versions of the ampersand, like that in the font Caslon, clearly reveal the origin of the shape.

The word “ampersand” came many years later when “&” was actually part of the English alphabet. In the early 1800s, school children reciting their ABCs concluded the alphabet with the &. It would have been confusing to say “X, Y, Z, and.” Rather, the students said, “and per se and.” “Per se” means “by itself,” so the students were essentially saying, “X, Y, Z, and by itself and.” Over time, “and per se and” was slurred together into the word we use today.

[RED-DOG]

If you ever decide to mend a gas cooker, this is what to will need.

Phillips screw driver.
Set of Halfords star-drives.
Snipe-nosed pliers.
Ordinary pliers.
10mm spanner.
13mm spanner.
Set of Allan keys.
Inspection lamp.
#1 daughter.
Sacrificial eyebrow.


At first, we thought the problem was with the thermostat, which is built in to the valve behind the oven knob, so we removed this and did a scientific test by blowing through it while turning it on and off. When it was in the off position I couldn't blow through it, but when it was on I could. Which led us to conclude that it was working fine.

Click to see full-size image.

We turned our attention to the burner itself, and discovered that there was another valve with a thermostat attached directly to that.

Click to see full-size image.

After some shenanigans, we worked out how to remove this bit so that it too could be subjected to an even scientificer test.

While holding the the thermocouple (a bit of copper tube with mercury inside that opens the valve when it gets hot) in the flame from the gas ring, I tried to blow through the valve.

I couldn't do it at first, but when the thermocouple got red hot, I could.

Conclusion. The thermocouple wasn't getting hot enough when it was in situ.

Click to see full-size image.

Solution: Re-position thermocouple to hotter part of the flame.



Ta daa!

Fixed, with an eyebrow to spare.

Click to see full-size image.

All we need now is for Mrs Red to test it by baking something nice.

[vegaslover]

The oven on our cooker is not working properly, so yesterday, I was mostly a gas fitter.

Excellent !

Our boiler is broken , so no hot water or heating. All enquiries so far have revealed that getting it replaced before Christmas is unlikely.

Are you available in the next few days?

Is it deffo cream-crackered? I 'fix' our boiler every couple of weeks. It's usually a problem with the flue, the ignition system, or the water / gas pressure.

What symptoms does it have, and does it have any flashing lights on the front? Tell me what it's doing and I'll suggest a remedy. (Why should you have all the eyebrows?)

Yes , definately knackered , had an engineer out this morning , unfortunately he is booked up till January.

It's a 30  year old Glowworm. Got so many problems that even if the parts could be found it would not make economical sense to repair it.

No use to you as I am based South Coast but I had a boiler leak in one of my rental properties. Two companies looked at it and said the usual of 'old boiler, obsolete parts, need one shiny one will cost £K. I wasn't convinced as I have only recently renovated it and of course had just had a service/landlord cert.
Found a Father/Daughter team who like to repair boilers if they can and he fixed it easily, repairing one of the valves. See if you can find similar

[tikay]

subjected to an even scientificer test.

Excellenter.

[doubleup]

in on page 1745 to commemorate the jacobite rebellion

[RED-DOG]

in on page 1745 to commemorate the jacobite rebellion

How very astute of you. Have a commemorative picture with my compliments.