Tier 3 lockdown shower

Munich, December 2019

The electrician came! And wired up the shower and the extractor fan, but couldn't hook the fan in with the light switch because of the tiling. If Flanders and Swann hadn't written their famous song I would have thought I'm the first to encounter this sort of difficulty. The electrician also told me a very interesting fact that Flf had neglected to mention: the cable to the shower was not incorrect and hadn't been replaced after all, because it was only powering the pump and not heating the water because the hot water comes from the tank upstairs.

There's no shower screen yet, but I had a careful shower and it was wonderful, but while the water is coming through OK, the knob that ought to adjust the power of the stream isn't working. Now all that needs to happen is for Flf to come back, sort out the power setting, the screen, the ceiling, the drains outside, and the tiling (which the electrician could probably have done himself but didn't) so that the electrician can come back and finish that bit of the job. But now that I can have a proper shower standing up he can take his time and finish up whenever he wants to be paid.

Doors & Windows Ulf came! With a sidekick, and we all climbed up to the roof of the kitchen, managed to avoid falling off despite the frost, and discovered that the leak is probably caused by moss prising apart plastic layers that oughtn't to be prised apart. So I'm going to need to get up there once or twice a year to scrape off the moss, which means I'm going to need some better ladders. But with luck, no more indoor rain.

I have done some more work for Mr MXF at last, and it is still as mind-stretching as before. But I can detect some progress in my understanding of how email works, and managed to send and receive email from an address using a domain that belongs to Mr MXF. If this makes no sense to you, and there's no reason why it should, then all I can say is that I have achieved something quite difficult and am rather pleased with myself.

It has definitely been a problem-solving week: the next problem to be solved is in connection with the bank switching service which failed to switch an account that I've been helping mum with. We think we may have tracked down the problem, but that is a long way from solving it. 

And the long confinement of Covid-19 continues, with Leamington in tier 3 lockdown, and nobody knowing exactly what that means, and the weather turning proper chilly. I keep myself pretty busy with the Buddhism (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday in the past week) and watching films and writing blogs and family Zoom meetings and cooking and cleaning and 'gardening'. 'Gardening' means chopping everything down to shoulder or waist level and leaving it all on the lawn until I can be bothered to cut it up small enough to pack into sacks and take to the tip. Running has had to stop for the moment because my knee has started to complain.

Working at the hospital has been a bit hectic as I have been allocated a student for two weeks in succession during all-day busy clinics. I have also been given some 'instant' Covid testing kits that work a bit like pregnancy tests but with nasal swabs, but I haven't had the chance to try one out yet. Apparently a negative test can be accepted at face value, but after a positive outcome you have to go and get a proper test to confirm the result. I'll have a go next week.