We are staying in Metz for a while, intent on finishing all the little maintenance jobs which one tends to put off until another time. Since our neighbour at the moment is a heater expert and our little diesel heater is at its best indifferent to our commands, today was the day it was to come out and be “looked at”.
It has been so unreliable that if it bothers to start at all, it’s with a cloud of toxic smoke that makes Mr Perkins at his work look like a clean air campaigner. Last week in Sarreguemines it’s cloud blanket was so fierce that a couple of nice policemen were despatched to ensure that we weren’t at the centre of some sort of giant ecological catastrophe. Thankfully our little electric ceramic heater does a sterling job pouring its five hundred watts of energy into the cabin and keeping things within at tolerable levels so all is not as bad as it seems.
Today however, in a pre-dismantling exhibition of just how bad it can be, it performed flawlessly for the first time in eight years. Just pure clean invisible hot exhaust as described in the colour brochure. Job done. Boxed ticked. Day of black sooty hands, grease, cleaning fluid, gasket goo and big mess narrowly avoided. While the other of us busied herself with her tasks, the one who had finished his list for the day wandered uptown in search of a nice a lemon tart in preparation of taking the rest of the day off.
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