Thursday, September 25, 2014

Mon Lavevaisselle est Mort #5

SIL came around yesterday afternoon and removed the kickboard from in front of the dishwasher.  I had already worked out what I thought would be the best way to remove it  -  a block of wood to the side of the glue-line and a heavy hammer.  It broke the glue but SIL had to drag the kickboard out which took all his strength and some skin off the back of his hand.  Then we discovered that the installers had actually glued the kickboard to the dishwasher and then glued it to the floor.  I have spent time this evening with a chisel and hammer removing the centimetre high ridge of glue which would have prevented the serviceman from sliding the dishwasher out.  Hopefully there is now no hurdle to getting the pump replaced and getting the thing working again.


Himself, Herself and Daffodil are 'down south' at the moment and I have inherited his very talkative client who kept on interrupting me to go into irrelevancies .  I got so frustrated in the end that I actually told her to 'for goodness sake shut up' which,, bless her, she took in good part and things went better after that.  I am to have her next week again and we are going to go through security because she wants to do internet shopping.  We might even have time to open her a PayPal account if she is carrying her credit card.  I think that she will eventually master the computer but it is still all a bit of a mystery to her.  At least she tries and that is how most people learn; we can only point them in the right direction and hope that they will discover things for themselves.  When Himself and I started teaching in 2000 it was easy to teach the basics of computing in four hourly lessons; not so any more.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Mon Lavevaisselle est Mort #4

A different serviceman came today to fit the new heart and brains into my dishwasher.  He put in the new part and set it going to test it.  About ten minutes into its cycle it started beeping again and an error message again appeared.  This serviceman interpreted the error message and said that the fault was in the pump and that I needed a new pump which he would order immediately ... but ... there had been the same problem with a dishwasher on Level 6 and there was a kickboard preventing the dishwasher from being removed and he didn't want to break it so would I please organise to have the kick-board , which is glued and silicone-sealed, removed as he knew from experience that it was not easy to do.
Looking at it, it looks as though it will need a jigsaw to cut down the sides and something to remove the silicone seal.

I phoned the man who is supposed to help with building faults and such matters but he said that the kickboard was not his responsibility and that there was a handyman who had done some work around the apartments from a company called 'Hire a Hubby'.  so tomorrow I will be phoning him and hopefully he will be able to remove the kick-board without too much fuss and mess.  And afterwards I suppose that it will have to be put back but this time, hopefully with something easily removable.  I felt like sitting down and weeping with frustration and despair.

COTA is not much fun at the moment, either.  The computers haven't been upgraded and do not support any server-provided mail system and the woman in charge simply shrugs and says "Open g-mail accounts for the clients".  I am tired of lugging my own computers into town every week because COTA's computers are so bad.

Sorry about the rant; I get frustrated when things which I can't control keep on happening and this evening I seem to have reached a low point.  Tomorrow will be better and I will phone Hire a Hubby and get someone to remove the kick-board and put it back again afterwards and hopefully I will not be washing up by hand for much longer using one of the dishwasher racks to stack the clean dishes because Multiplex, in its wisdom, didn't fit draining boards in the apartments.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Mon Lavevaisselle est Mort #3

The dishwasher repairman is coming on 23rd of this month to rejuvenate the dishwasher; it is all taking a long time.

I went to see a surgical podiatrist today about my sore toe.  I used to know him when he was a humble ordinary podiatrist and we both worked at a hospital which is now a housing estate.  He thinks, as I have come to do, that the pain is caused by an exostosis and has made me a little splint to straighten the toe which is all very well when I have shoes on but I can't wear it when I go barefooted which I prefer to do.  I am to phone him next Tuesday and report progress.  He said that the shape of my feet is an autosomal dominant gene and nothing to do with shoes, high heels or anything like that.  I have my grandfather's feet and unfortunately D3 has inherited them from me but I guess that one out of three isn't too bad, except for poor D3.

I am persisting with trying to walk the babies in their harnesses and Poppy isn't too bad as long as she is on her own; even Parsifal will walk a few steps if he is on his own but both panic if they meet anyone in the corridor.  However I bring a little bit of the outside in when I shop, which I have started doing most days, and I bring the groceries up in a shopping trolley.  The babies give it a thorough going over with their little whiffling noses.

Yesterday I plied together all the remnants from my bobbins where one bobbin has had a bit left over after plying.  I ended up with about 100metres of very colourful yarn  -  a mix of BFL and Polwarth  -  and I have freed up four bobbins.  There is still a bit of red BFL on one bobbin and I will use it up when I have collected enough dregs again.  I'll post a picture of it when I log onto Firefox; IE won't let me put pictures here.

Click on the picture to enlarge it ...



Monday, September 8, 2014

Mon Lavevaisselle est Mort #2

The bad news is that I will have to wait for at least another two weeks before my dishwasher can be repaired as a new module is needed and here in the West parts are rarely available when needed and have to be shipped in.


But the good news is that Miele will pay for the replacement module and the serviceman's fee as a 'goodwill gesture'.  Since it was going to cost me almost as much as a brand new Asko dishwasher it seems a sensible and helpful move on Miele's part.


Meanwhile, I am washing up by hand  -  a not too onerous job  -  but Multiplex, in its wisdoms (or lack of it and there are plenty of instances of that) saw fit to neglect to install a draining board so I am using the bottom rack of the dishwasher to drain and dry the dishes which then drip all over the bench top.


Herself's friend from schooldays, Daffodil, is arriving from England this afternoon and Herself intends, if Daffodil is not too jetlagged, to bringing her here for coffee, show her the Claremont Quarter, and watch me spinning on the electronic spinner  -  which is rather like watching paint dry but to add to the excitement I am using the bobbin known as The Kicker and which has been marked with nailpolish (not red as I don't have any) to designate it as dangerous when crossed.  I decided that I had better go through the weary process of getting the bobbin started and The Kicker lived up to her name and the singles broke many times before I got it going; so fingers crossed for tomorrow.


The babies have decided that they should be allowed to walk in the passage and they do fine as long as I take them one by one and with just a collar and lead but that is not secure as they can back out of the collar which is designed to slip off if the wearer is in danger of being strangled.  So today I took them out together in their harnesses and both lay down as soon as they got outside the door so I hauled them back again and removed the leads from the harnesses and they are going to have to get used to wearing their harnesses if they want to go walkies again.  They are gorgeous and I love then dearly but their oriental voices when they want something are a bit much, especially as they consider me a captive audience when I am working at my computer.


Poppy, the chronometer kitten likes to make sure that I go to bed at a timely hour and starts in at about 9.30pm  -  I rarely get to bed before midnight.  Bless their little black hearts; they keep me company and are very entertaining but I never realised just how much work indoor cats create.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Mon Lavevaisselle est Mort

The dishwasher repairman came today and pronounced a major organ failure and the dishwasher needs a heart/brain transplant which is going to cost almost as much as a new dishwasher  -  which would figure since it has total module failure.  The Proud Man said that it has not run sufficient hours to warrant this and Miele is going to be asked to come to the party and replace the module free of charge; but I am not holding my breath on that one and will price Asko dishwashers while I wait for the verdict.


I have finished knitting the back of my Sloppy Joe and am about to start on the front but am debating with myself whether or not to knit the cupcake vest instead.  Meanwhile I am spinning my Polwarth  Pigtails because they are fun and quick to spin.  I must say that I am enjoying spinning the Polwarth but will reserve judgement until it has been washed and fulled before I order any more.