Cast Offs

The Beaumatic Royal Chiantishire cooker I prevented from ending up at the recycling centre has come up a treat. All the baked on gunge has been removed and it had a good go with the jet wash.

I've been doing the renovation at work, as that's where the necessary equipment is located. It came for the time to test it yesterday and I was in a quandary as to where to connect it, as a 20A supply is required. I spoke with our tame electrician who told me that, providing I tested only one element at a time, a standard 15A supply would do the trick.

I promptly obtained a plug from my shed and got to work connecting it up. The small oven lit up for a few seconds, but then the showroom fuse tripped. "Ah," thinks I, "I wonder what fuse is in the plug? Of course, it was a totally inadequate 3A fuse. Managed to get a 13A fuse - still nothing. Water damage? It couldn't be - it had a week to dry out.

I then downloaded the manual and discovered it had to be put into manual mode, which I did, and - hey presto - it worked. A remaining problem is that the bezel with operating icons around the oven knobs has lots its icons - they'd been rubbed off with time - which makes it a bit of a mystery as to what setting it's on. Found the Beaumatic website and sent off an enquiry about replacement bezels. It would be my luck to find they've been discontinued.

I stove enamelled all the hob blackwork and needed to bake it at 220 degrees for 20 minutes to stove, but the 3 large pan supports were too big for our oven. However, my sister-in-law is a ceramicist and she put the items in her kiln. I told her that the sourdough programme should be OK.

My good friend and work colleague, Mike, with whom I collected the oven, is moving house today and asked whether I wanted a workbench he has no use for.

Naturally, being the magpie that I am, I said yes. Now I just need to build a garage around it...

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday - Hay and I have been married for 4 years. My God, she's a lucky woman. She's taking me out to dinner on Friday night to thank me...