General Witterings -
Rants on Rosy

Grrrrrr!!!

RANT 1.  One of the advantages of cleaning the air intake filter of the Paloma instant gas water heater is that the temperature regulator now works properly.  Pre the big scrub (mentioned a few weeks ago), the water issuing forth was either scalding hot, or very lukewarm.  Of course, the instruction book says nothing about cleaning the filter;  after all, a gas water heater is always likely to explode and kill everyone, so Mr Paloma would prefer a (highly paid and probably untrained) paid person to do the job.  This job took me two minutes with a tooth-brush - AND, subsequently, the toothbrush still performed its original, designed function!!

RANT 2.  Whilst erecting the satellite TV dish, some instructions said to point the dish at 30 degrees.  This I did and got nothing.  Why?  Well, the Satellite Dish Erectors Union don't want non-union members to do the job themselves, so they shroud the job in mystery and arcane language - in this case "30 degrees" is their shorthand for "30 degrees East of South", which the rest of the world would call 150 degrees!!!!  Hence I was 120 degrees off beam.

This last week has been very pleasant, as David Long and his brother-in-law were visiting Falcon.  She was in good shape, having survived the winter pretty well.  Her engine started on the first push of the button.

We had a day out to Fontainebleau.  Fanny is a seasoned car traveller now - she slept all the way - and the question of what to do with her whilst the rest of us went around the chateau was solved by Fontainebleau being closed for the day due to a 'national' strike.

Instead we went over to Moret-sur-Loing, a lovely village with its mediaeval 'in' and 'out' gate houses still in situ.  David and I had visited it before;  indeed, I aided and abetted David in the theft of a poster for a Sisley exhibition (Sisley being a British impressionist painter who lived and painted in Moret).  We also visited a peniche re-fuelling wharf, where one can buy useful things like proper rubber clogs.  We lunched on the banks of the Seine on fish au gratin.

David kindly made his car available to ship in 50 litres of diesel from a garage (bank-side diesel is available in Briare, but at a premium of 15 to 20 cents per litre).  I only wanted enough to get me down to Decize, where a bowser will deliver to pleasure boats at sub-garage prices.  We also brought back a sack of coal - I'll have enough, now, for the first few weeks of next autumn - and refilled the 15-litre wine box with Merlot at Euro 2.30 per litre.

The satellite TV is still working well, and giving me great pleasure.  I've rarely seen TV over the past six years, so there is a lot of catching up to do.

Ah!!  Snooker is on.  Must go!!

Toodle pip!!

Bill