Indicator light

A light. My car's turn signal suddenly went nervously plink-plink-plink-plink instead of calmly tick-tock-tick-tock. And indeed: the left front turn signal wasn't working. With most cars, you open the hood, turn a cover a quarter turn, take out the bulb, and put in a new one. Not with mine.

First, a piece of bodywork has to be unscrewed. This piece of bodywork should actually be removed from between the bodywork and the bumper, but that's not possible. I can lower it a bit so it's inside the bumper. Then the headlight unit has to be unscrewed. So far, so good. But then the headlight unit has to be lowered a bit and removed with a special movement. First lower it, then tilt it forward a bit, and then "take it out." That doesn't work without a lot of cursing and a lot of wrestling and twisting. Now, this car is a piece of my heart, so twisting hurts.

First, I'd have to get a light bulb, on my bike because driving isn't allowed right now, right? I could see myself taking the headlight off first and then having no bulb. I could then reinstall the bulb, without a bulb, drive the car to the dealer for a bulb, drive back home, and then remove the "headlight unit" again. The manual said 12V/21W. Yes, they do exist. Odd brands, Chinese, but hey, it's cheap, 2 euros for two. The gas station had them too, from Osram. Okay, I'll take two of those too. And the headlamp too. They come in two versions: "regular" and "long life." I'll just take two spares of each. I

followed the procedure above, removed the bulb. And no, the old bulb doesn't have two filaments, nor two contact points on the bottom. Only one. So, the BAY15 type isn't the right one. Grmbl.

Back to the gas station. No, there aren't any others... And so I was still left with a disassembled headlight unit and no bulb.

But, the Poligono (business park) does have more car dealerships, and they're sure to still have old-fashioned bulbs. It was still a fifteen-minute wait, because it was a quarter to four, and still siesta time. But, the garage knew what to do: two doors down is an auto parts store, and they have them "on the shelf." And indeed. And, neat Philips. For a euro each. I immediately bought a box of four. Happy. At home,

I tested the old bulb with an ohmmeter: 0.08Ω. Hey, not ∞? Hm. The new bulbs are also 0.08Ω (...) (Argh!)

But, a new bulb works fine. Relief.

Reinstalling the headlight unit takes even longer than disassembling it, and involves a lot more cursing. Hopefully, I won't have to do that again for the next 25 years... This job took me a day. That's what happens with 42-year-old cars.  

Brrr

We've had it. After a week with hardly any sun, and extremely low temperatures (5º at night), that everyone here says never happen, although it was like this last year's February, it's now 12-14º in the kitchen during the day, and that is not great at all.

This house is very nice and cool in summer, but in winter it's even cooler, and there are limits to that. We had expected that ventilating would make this house liveable, even in "winter", but that is not true, now. So, we need some heating.

We pondered a hot water storage, heated by solar boiler panels, that Vaillant has, but such a system always includes an extra heater, like a pellet stove. The heat is then distributed in the house with a central heating installation with radiators and water. And that for a few weeks or two months a year is a bit much.

Today discovered a very nice pellet stove, that is only 25 cm deep, and weights 100 kg: the Ravelli Olivia Steel. That can be installed in a number of places in this house. Interesting is that the exhaust flue pipe need only be 8 cm diameter, and you can just stick that through a wall. The flue may be horizontal for a fair bit too, you don't need a perfect chimney, as the gases are forced out of the stove with a ventilator.

The stove blows hot air from it's front, AND via an extra duct to another room. We plan to have the stove at the back of the kitchen, and that extra duct to go upstairs and warm up the living room. Or, install the stove in the living room, and have the extra duct heat the kitchen. Installation on the ground floor has the advantage that there already is a hole in the wall, that is currently used for the solar ventilation. That hole is fine for the exhaust.

In my heart I'd love a soapstone stove like this Attika... But it does not fit anywhere in this house, and building a new chimney is a bit too much.

Yes, snow!

Okay, no snow on our house, but there was definitely snow in the distance, on the hills. After a few hours, it was gone. 

// Okay, no snow on our house, but on the hills in the distance, yes. Gone after a few hours.

Repair the door frame

Today used the chisel to install a piece of anodised aluminium profile into the door post that was vandalised.

And so it happened. Oiled the wood before, so that should be protected well. I see I need to cut off a bit of urethane glue still..

And the door will be oiled again too, now I just treated the wounds against rain..

The new lock I had managed to find, identical to the old one, is not. The cylinder going through the door is thicker and completely round, while the old lock has a .. eh.. keylock shaped hole. (...) Worse is, that if I would make the hole in the door fit the new lock, a small hole up would remain. Shifting the lock only makes matters worse.

Luckily the innards of the new lock are identical to the old lock's, so I simply replaced the (bent) lock internals and the (bent) lock plate. All done.

I do see that the door is made of nice thick planks of wood that were tightly joined together, but there now is a small gap between two where the door was treated so badly. I'll see how to fix that, later.

No snow

Also www.windytv.com/ thought 35 cm of snow a bit too much, and therefore changed their website layout. The snow has gone, and only some rain is left, but a lot less than predicted. Which is good, because today the roofer was dropping by to repair the fissures in the roof causing leaks. And, as it happens with contractors: something else had come up, and he would get to us on Saturday. After the floods.

Sent a help-us mail, that this was quite a nuisance, as a lot of rain and snow were predicted. He dropped by the same afternoon after all, with a tub of cement, which was nice. And good, see the pictures. In days-long heavy rain that gave us some leaks.

35 cm of snow

Even more crazy! (and frankly, a bit unbelievable)

Doomed! (4cm snow predicted)

 

We're doomed! DOOMED!

Confit Christmas

We don't have to miss out on our favourite christmas dinner: the confit de canard is readily available in our simple supermarket! 3 minutes microwave, et voilá. And it's good! Even better if seared after heating up, in a hot pan.

New Bobby O: Perception of One

A highlight in the year is a new Bobby O album, usually around Christmas. Not this year. I was almost disappointed, but just before the year's end: "Perception of One". Get it at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bobbyo175

And it's a great one again. Oh, "Angels in the Sky"! Love it! Best electronic choirs ever.
"Bring the coffee", ha!

Get the lyrics at: http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Bobby_O

Coffee

/Back "home" we bought our espresso at online "boutiques" like the Golden Koffeebox, etc, but were only half happy. Here we just buy a bag of beans at the Mercadona, and it's great! Good strong espresso, and a nice crema. You can see it's a mix of various kinds of beans: dark and shiny, and light ones.

Fridge, dishwasher and sliding puzzle

Unpacking makes a mess, especially if you haven't found a spot for everything. At the moment the house still is one big sliding puzzle. If you need something you first have to move a hundred other things. And back.

But the new fridge-feezer has arrived.

And the dishwasher. Doing dishes by hand is a very social thing, but it gets old quickly.

Books

/We have a lot of books, but less space than in the old house. Assembling these racks I had many a thought about SARA, where these racks were in the library. A lot of time was spent next to these racks, talking with coffee, and non-coffee...

Yes, that is Asterix in Hispania.

Heating

I

We have a wood stove, in the "snug" room, a meter above kitchen level, and a meter below the living room. Very cozy, but also quite draughty. Especially if you're not experienced in making a wood fire.

A fire like this takes an hour.

A bag of wood lasts you an evening, and costs ca. €3,50.

But what did we find in the cellar? Two of these electric radiators, and a few butane stoves. Apparently also the previous owners thought it chilly here at times. On the Canaries it now is 20º during the day, 17º at night. Here its 16º daytime, but 6-7º at night.

(Who thought an island too small a world? Hm? (Not me.))

Well, the places we looked at in France have frost at night now, so, even worse. But still.

Anyway, this radiator has three settings. Setting 2 (800W) keeps the room next to the kitchen, half a meter down, nicely warm. And for less than a euro for all of New Year's Eve. This room has a decent door, and thus no draughts.

The blanket on the Tango is there for the dog's nails, not to sit under. We're not that old you know.

The tv is here too, now. You can reasonably stream Youtube and Vevo via wifi. The satellite we'll connect later some time.

During the day it's great, and you even need a parasol.

Sun after rain

For a bit of jealousy :-)

Rain December 16

Nice, but this means: rain!

And lo.

Oei oei.

We take measures. We're Dutch you know.

And here is what caused the car to be wet, water splattering on that wall. But a cunningly placed piece of board...!

You see,

it's not always

Not always dry here.

Waterfall running. Does not happen often. One day a year?

Age old buildings are damaged.

Arrival of stuff (December 15)

 It has rained quite a lot. The road is pretty soft. It only just went well.

That puddle of water is in exactly the wrong spot.

After 3 hours of unloading the van, which is a lot quicker than loading, you house is full of boxes, and one big sliding puzzle. If you need something you need to shift ALL other boxes. And back again. Lovely. NOT!