The Koreans love sparkly things. Its everywhere, on fridges, clothes, shoes, ties, everything! We saw examples of this when we went furniture shopping yesterday (Sunday) Fridge freezers have daimante sparkles attached to the doors, and some are even lit up with blue LED's. If it were back in the UK, we could call it chav furniture. We held off buying the fridge freezer, not because it looked chav, but because we didn't know the exact gap it would fit into, until we get into the apartment. We have hoever, bought a shed load of other stuff, including a HD TV, 4 seater leather sofa with matching stool, marble top table and 4 dining chairs, top loading washing machine, Living room display unit, Queen size bed with mattress, combination microwave, toaster and kettle. The TV is almost similar to the one we had just bought back in the UK, but a slightly smaller screen size. You might think, why did we buy another one? The TV format over here is NTSC, UK is PAL which in not compatible with over here. I needed to get HD so we could use our HDD recorder and PS3 Playstation over here though. We ordered it all on Sunday, and it's getting delivered on Tuesday. The bed is solid wood with scroll headboard and ends. I tried to lift it but it weighs a ton! If we had tried to buy all this kit back in the UK, it would have required a small mortgage to cover the cost. I am astounded at the price we got it all for. It will be getting shipped back to the UK with us when (if) we leave. The method of delivery is also unique. Go to Youtube.com and type in “Moving Korea Style” and you'll see what I mean! Health and Safety people – look away now!
We need to go and do a serious shop on Wednesday to kit the apartment out for such things as cutlery, dishes, pots bed linen etc. It's going to be fun getting all this back in a taxi!
Monday, 23 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
1st official day as an Ansanite
When we got ourselves settled in last night, we took a wander around the local area, looking for somewhere to eat. We ended up in something a little more familiar to us Europeans, a chicken and pizza place. We were sat down into a booth slightly away from the locals. Not sure if they wanted us out of the way, but we went with the flow. We quickly became aware of a plume of smoke coming over the booth wall separating us from the next one. It's quite easy to forget how clean the restaurants and bars are back in the UK being smoke free. We were handed a menu card, all in Korean – duh, but some pretty pictures pointed us in the direction of a pepperoni with stuffed crust. The meal was quite tasty, again accompanied with the Kimchi side dishes. We also tried the local hooch, called Soju, which is a 20% spirit fermented from rice. Tasty, once you get over the initial sweet vodka-like taste and usually served as shots.
We paid our bill, which came to something like 12 GBP in total, which was about half f what we could have expected to pay back in Blighty. We headed back to the hotel, when we heard a scooter scream up and pull in beside us. We thought we were about to get mugged! The guy on the scooter offered out his hand and gave me my newly acquired mobile phone – I had only gone and left it on the table! If that was back home, I could have said bye bye to the phone.
Saturday started out with a bit of confusion: I got a call from reception last night after coming back from the pizza place, telling me that I was going to be met in reception at 8:00am to go to a meeting at the plant. I got ready and made my way down. At 8:15, I knew something wasn't quite right, so called the CEO to ask if I was going to be picked up. There was no meeting, no pick-up and no-one any the wiser. It turns out that we foreigners all look the same to Koreans and the receptionist had me confused with another Westerner businessman Oh well, I went back to the room, and we both went for breakfast!
One thing on the menu was Spam fritters! Spam for goodness sake, but it turns out to be a luxury item over here. They have a festival that is not dissimilar to thanksgiving in the US around October, and the giving of gifts is usual practice. Tins of Spam nicely wrapped up with pretty bows and paper is considered highly prized!
After breakfast, we got our warm clothes on and went out for a walk. It was -2 Celsius outside. Bearing in mind it was about 10:00am, we we very surprised to see that there were no shops at all. It turns out they usually open at about 11:00 each day, but stay open til late. We need to bear this in mind for future shopping. We headed back to the hotel suitably frozen.
We got a call from the Ops Director, who is Canadian, and the only other Westerner in the plant besides me, who asked if we would like to have a tour round the city. He would come and meet us at around 12:00. Our first port of call was Lottemart and Tesco. These are the grocery stores where we can get just about anything we are used to plus some. The local kids in the store were keen to shout at us, and asking our names, and how were we? We replied we were good, and they seem to love this. We are the entertainment here.
We were invited to join the OD and his wife for dinner that night at his apartment, which we have found out is the block opposite from our new place. The apartment is identical to ours, so gave us some idea of size, and what furniture will fit where. We are going shopping on Sunday for sure! We had a good night with them leaving after 12, having talked about everything, anything and also shop. You get a general feel for someone in the first few minutes of meeting them, and we think we will become good friends over the coming months.
We paid our bill, which came to something like 12 GBP in total, which was about half f what we could have expected to pay back in Blighty. We headed back to the hotel, when we heard a scooter scream up and pull in beside us. We thought we were about to get mugged! The guy on the scooter offered out his hand and gave me my newly acquired mobile phone – I had only gone and left it on the table! If that was back home, I could have said bye bye to the phone.
Saturday started out with a bit of confusion: I got a call from reception last night after coming back from the pizza place, telling me that I was going to be met in reception at 8:00am to go to a meeting at the plant. I got ready and made my way down. At 8:15, I knew something wasn't quite right, so called the CEO to ask if I was going to be picked up. There was no meeting, no pick-up and no-one any the wiser. It turns out that we foreigners all look the same to Koreans and the receptionist had me confused with another Westerner businessman Oh well, I went back to the room, and we both went for breakfast!
One thing on the menu was Spam fritters! Spam for goodness sake, but it turns out to be a luxury item over here. They have a festival that is not dissimilar to thanksgiving in the US around October, and the giving of gifts is usual practice. Tins of Spam nicely wrapped up with pretty bows and paper is considered highly prized!
After breakfast, we got our warm clothes on and went out for a walk. It was -2 Celsius outside. Bearing in mind it was about 10:00am, we we very surprised to see that there were no shops at all. It turns out they usually open at about 11:00 each day, but stay open til late. We need to bear this in mind for future shopping. We headed back to the hotel suitably frozen.
We got a call from the Ops Director, who is Canadian, and the only other Westerner in the plant besides me, who asked if we would like to have a tour round the city. He would come and meet us at around 12:00. Our first port of call was Lottemart and Tesco. These are the grocery stores where we can get just about anything we are used to plus some. The local kids in the store were keen to shout at us, and asking our names, and how were we? We replied we were good, and they seem to love this. We are the entertainment here.
We were invited to join the OD and his wife for dinner that night at his apartment, which we have found out is the block opposite from our new place. The apartment is identical to ours, so gave us some idea of size, and what furniture will fit where. We are going shopping on Sunday for sure! We had a good night with them leaving after 12, having talked about everything, anything and also shop. You get a general feel for someone in the first few minutes of meeting them, and we think we will become good friends over the coming months.
Friday, 20 February 2009
The eagle has landed!
More like fledging sparrow. We got through customs without a hitch, although I was expecting a raised eyebrow or two if they caught sight of the answer I had put to how many days I was staying for. The maximum allowed by my tourist visa (which is just my UK passport) is 90 days, but I had put down 600 days, which I reckoned was closer to the 2 year contract I have. Nothing. Just a cursory glance at my passport, and check on the computer, and it was a dismissive wave through. I don't think the guy on the desk had much in the way of English, or I think it might have been a different story. Sue breezed though seconds later. Our cases collected, we headed to the exchange office to change over some of our Sterling to Korean Won. We were offered 1800 back at Heathrow, which I thought was a rip-off, besides the fact they didn't have any. We got 2066 to the pound here, which is a good rate. Our pick-up driver was waiting outside the arrival gate holding a card with our name on it. Again, no English available. Looks like this is going to be a theme while over here, but what can I expect – We are the foreigners here.
We travelled down the motorways heading towards Seoul before taking a southerly route down to Ansan. It took about 1 ½ hours due to some rush our traffic around the Seoul junctions. We got into Ansan, and found our first neon sign lit up with two familiar golden arches – yes, McD's strikes again! Right next to that was Homeplus sign with Tesco's lit up underneath. We can't escape the corporate giants.
We were met at the hotel by 2 of the guys from the plant, who gave us a low down of our schedule for the next few days, and gave me a mobile phone, to use for the next few days. It's a great looking phone, but it's all in Korean! Doh!
We are staying at the Aura hotel in Ansan, which is an ultra modern hotel fitted out with the latest gadgets and remote control on everything! Even to underfloor heating is controlled by a hand held. Hot and cold filtered water from a built-in unit, 50 inch plasma tv, DVD, PC, Hi-FI etc. In fact all we are missing is a vibrating bed. Oh wait, that's probably next door in the Hotel X, a “love Motel” also lit up like a candy store with tacky neons. I'll try and get a picture posted soon.
We have a free day Saturday, then on Sunday, we are going furniture shopping to kit out the apartment which will be ready to move into on Monday.
We travelled down the motorways heading towards Seoul before taking a southerly route down to Ansan. It took about 1 ½ hours due to some rush our traffic around the Seoul junctions. We got into Ansan, and found our first neon sign lit up with two familiar golden arches – yes, McD's strikes again! Right next to that was Homeplus sign with Tesco's lit up underneath. We can't escape the corporate giants.
We were met at the hotel by 2 of the guys from the plant, who gave us a low down of our schedule for the next few days, and gave me a mobile phone, to use for the next few days. It's a great looking phone, but it's all in Korean! Doh!
We are staying at the Aura hotel in Ansan, which is an ultra modern hotel fitted out with the latest gadgets and remote control on everything! Even to underfloor heating is controlled by a hand held. Hot and cold filtered water from a built-in unit, 50 inch plasma tv, DVD, PC, Hi-FI etc. In fact all we are missing is a vibrating bed. Oh wait, that's probably next door in the Hotel X, a “love Motel” also lit up like a candy store with tacky neons. I'll try and get a picture posted soon.
We have a free day Saturday, then on Sunday, we are going furniture shopping to kit out the apartment which will be ready to move into on Monday.
Thunderbirds are go!
....or at least that's what was supposed to happen. John Spencer, my old driver and utility operator from my previous employer had kindly taken the day off to drive us up to Heathrow. He also bought my car from us too. He got us to Heathrow at around 10:00am in plenty of time for the 13:55 flight to Frankfurt to then transfer at 17:55 to Seoul city. . We found the board had a delay on the first leg of 1 hour, departing at 2:55pm. A quick mental calculation allowing for time difference, wind direction and general rotational skew of the earth reckoned on only around 20 minutes for transfer at Frankfurt. Quite frankly, I didn't think even Lewis Hamilton in a F1 car would do it in time. We sought some guidance from the Lufthansa executive lounge, and the girl on reception must have been a few air miles short of a round trip. She told us we would have 85 minutes to transfer. Wrong! We then heard a tannoy call for all passengers for the Seoul and Tehran connections from Frankfurt to contact the gate. We headed along, to be confronted with a typical “Johnny-no-stars” who directed us to the check-in desk to get re-booked. He didn't have a clue what was going on. At the check-in, they also were about as clueless as clueless can be. After some checking, they rebooked us on a later direct flight through Asiana airlines (never even heard of them!) This was to depart at 21:00, We had 7 hours to kill. No compensation, other than the rebooking on another airline, and a paltry fifteen quid to feed us and refresh the pallet. We wandered about for a bit, then headed to Weatherspoons for some pub grub. Pie was nice, but rubber veggies nuked in the microwave. We went to check-in around 5:00pm, and found a very amenable check-in birdie, who gave us a 3 seat configuration on the side with no-one in the middle. Spread-ability!
Asiana airlines are a pretty fit bunch – plane on time, nice shiny new Boeing B777 with 3-3-3 seat configuration. Crew attentive and smart looking. I tried to be smart too, and greeted them with “Hello, how are you” in Korean. I could have been asking how was the dog cooked tonight for all I knew. The stewardess replied in native tongue, which I had no chance of interpreting, but was most likely telling me that I was a stupid foreigner, and get my backside sat down pronto!
We settled into our seats with lovely space in-between, and quite generous legroom too, when a bloke turns up and plonks himself down between us – She lied! Fair enough, the bloke was very apologetic, and a fellow blighter. But still, personal space is just that, isn't it? After doors closed, the bloke makes a noise to the stewardess, and asks to move, as there are plentiful seats. One elderly English couple even got bumped up to the comfy chairs. (Parents - take note when looking to come over on holidays – look confused and bedraggled when entering plane and attempt to turn left. They might take pity on you and save you a bundle).
Food was an experience, with our very first taste of authentic Korean cuisine (OK, it's airplane food, but nonetheless, a Korean take on it) We had something called Bi-Bim-Bab, which is essentially a boiled rice, turfed into a bowl with hot mixed veg in it, and you then have the option to add spicy hot chilli paste and sesame seed oil. Give it a stir, and enjoy. It reminded me very much of Nasi Goreng, a dish we relished in Indonesia, but came with a fried egg on top. There was accompanying side dishes of a thin soup, and the inevitable Kimchi, a spicy pickled veg dish with a hint of chilli. This is the norm as a side dish to most all Korean main dishes. There was also some very cold noodles, which I couldn't work out if this was to be eaten separately or thrown in with then main dish. I tried to eat them, but cold shoelaces at 35,000 foot didn't really appeal, even with the sachet of what I found out later to be Wasabi paste (a cross between VERY strong horseradish sauce and burny bum chilli paste) This was left to the side, but hidden under the napkin, as I didn't want to appear ungrateful.
Entertainment was via a seat back LCD, with several cinema blockbusters. Each one with either English with Korean subtitles, or Korean spoken language. The Korean version was amusing if you knew what the line was. We may be learning some of the language this way.
Just before we left Heathrow, I sent out an email to my future employer letting them know the change of arrival times. I saw we had a mail from the HR guy, and he advises us we will be in a hotel this weekend, and be prepared to move our apartment on Monday. “You will need to go buy a bed this weekend, and perhaps they can deliver on Monday” he says. Considering the apartment is unfurnished, I think this might be a tad under achieving. We have our work cut out for us this weekend.
We are in the same high-end apartment building as the Operations Director, and as we have seen the pictures of his home, we should be quite pleased with the space and finish. We had checked out the videos on You Tube of several ESL (English Second Language) teachers who get apartments supplied and paid for by their employers, and these are quite scary – one room, and shower cum toilet off to the side. Try Korean Apartment as a search criteria and you'll get the gist of what I mean! One chap does a pirouette with his camera, and you've seen the lot!
Asiana airlines are a pretty fit bunch – plane on time, nice shiny new Boeing B777 with 3-3-3 seat configuration. Crew attentive and smart looking. I tried to be smart too, and greeted them with “Hello, how are you” in Korean. I could have been asking how was the dog cooked tonight for all I knew. The stewardess replied in native tongue, which I had no chance of interpreting, but was most likely telling me that I was a stupid foreigner, and get my backside sat down pronto!
We settled into our seats with lovely space in-between, and quite generous legroom too, when a bloke turns up and plonks himself down between us – She lied! Fair enough, the bloke was very apologetic, and a fellow blighter. But still, personal space is just that, isn't it? After doors closed, the bloke makes a noise to the stewardess, and asks to move, as there are plentiful seats. One elderly English couple even got bumped up to the comfy chairs. (Parents - take note when looking to come over on holidays – look confused and bedraggled when entering plane and attempt to turn left. They might take pity on you and save you a bundle).
Food was an experience, with our very first taste of authentic Korean cuisine (OK, it's airplane food, but nonetheless, a Korean take on it) We had something called Bi-Bim-Bab, which is essentially a boiled rice, turfed into a bowl with hot mixed veg in it, and you then have the option to add spicy hot chilli paste and sesame seed oil. Give it a stir, and enjoy. It reminded me very much of Nasi Goreng, a dish we relished in Indonesia, but came with a fried egg on top. There was accompanying side dishes of a thin soup, and the inevitable Kimchi, a spicy pickled veg dish with a hint of chilli. This is the norm as a side dish to most all Korean main dishes. There was also some very cold noodles, which I couldn't work out if this was to be eaten separately or thrown in with then main dish. I tried to eat them, but cold shoelaces at 35,000 foot didn't really appeal, even with the sachet of what I found out later to be Wasabi paste (a cross between VERY strong horseradish sauce and burny bum chilli paste) This was left to the side, but hidden under the napkin, as I didn't want to appear ungrateful.
Entertainment was via a seat back LCD, with several cinema blockbusters. Each one with either English with Korean subtitles, or Korean spoken language. The Korean version was amusing if you knew what the line was. We may be learning some of the language this way.
Just before we left Heathrow, I sent out an email to my future employer letting them know the change of arrival times. I saw we had a mail from the HR guy, and he advises us we will be in a hotel this weekend, and be prepared to move our apartment on Monday. “You will need to go buy a bed this weekend, and perhaps they can deliver on Monday” he says. Considering the apartment is unfurnished, I think this might be a tad under achieving. We have our work cut out for us this weekend.
We are in the same high-end apartment building as the Operations Director, and as we have seen the pictures of his home, we should be quite pleased with the space and finish. We had checked out the videos on You Tube of several ESL (English Second Language) teachers who get apartments supplied and paid for by their employers, and these are quite scary – one room, and shower cum toilet off to the side. Try Korean Apartment as a search criteria and you'll get the gist of what I mean! One chap does a pirouette with his camera, and you've seen the lot!
Forgive me.....
For my sins, for it has been several days since my last blog. We have been manic in preparing the house for letting, and getting the heck out of Blighty which feels like it's in receivership. All the stuff went into storage and was followed by a few more trips as boxes get filled with useless crap. You never know when you might need that length of wire, or half a light fitting – someone might break the good one that's been working fine for the past 8 years! I touched up all the paint work in the house, including all the walls, but hit a snag with the stairs/hall and landing. The paint said it was for those walls on the tin, but when applied was most definitely not right. A second coat with the paint mixed properly was applied, but this too was not right. It was beginning to look like a patch work quilt, and given this was at 8:00pm the night before we were due to fly time was running out along with Sue's patience. Sue reckoned it was “Gentle Fawn”, but I was convinced it was “Cappuccino” Much argument later, it looked like it was the former, and it looked OK, until it dried. The shade was still too light. I found the tin of original paint, which was marked up Living room base, and had to leave an apologetic note for the new tenant, that if he didn't like the two tome effect which had taken me hours to do, then would he like to cover it over with the proper stuff.
Friday, 13 February 2009
T-minus 6 days and last day at work
I'm not sure the enormity of what we are about to do has sunk in yet.
It's 6 days until we board the flight heading for Ansan City, some 40Km slightly Sout East of Seoul, where we will be based. New culture, new language, new country - new everything!
Sue is the one I am worried for. Although she gets to be one of those "ladies who lunch", finding friends, meeting people and getting around on her own have been tough even in the UK, so I worry for her in foriegn parts. Thank goodness for such IT widgets like Skype and MSN messenger. I think these will be her lifeline back to the UK.
It's my last day at work, and it's a bit surreal - I'm still poring over the schedules, and worrying about the late jobs though the factory, but it is fair to say I have been taking a back seat over the past 2 weeks, and letting my two supervisors run with the ball, and given support when needed. I'm sure they will do good.
Good news! - the house has been rented out. The new tenant is moving in as from the 19th March, and we get to see some money flowing into our account. They want a long term rent, so we'll start out at 6 months and see how it goes. I hope they look after the house - they are already known to the agents, and they say they can vouch for them too.
Bad news! - the central heating is not working again. The fix didnt work. There appears to be some volts on the loose in the system somewhere, keeping the pump relay energised. This is supposed to switch off after a few minutes after the boiler demand ceases. It doesn't! British Gas are coming out on Monday to fix it at a fixed cost repair, regarless of how many parts or labour is involved. I pulled a sneaky here - I called them up, as we dont have a contract, and asked for a fixed cost repair, it was huge! I then asked for a low cost contract, and can I use it right away - they said yes! £2.00 each month by direct debit, and a much lower cost fixed price repair. Result! Lets hope they have all the necessary parts on board, or can get them before we leave on Thursday.
Offical moving day is Monday. All boxes and furniture is moving into storage then, with some help from our good friends Lorraine and Harry. They have a van we can use, and have been kind enough to offer their services - cheers guys!
We'll be booking rooms at the local inn, and spending the last few days tarting up the house, dabs of paint, cleaning and hoovering etc. I'll be sorry to leave it, as we had just completed all of our plans turning it into our home.
Oh well - no regrets! Opportunities ahead!
It's 6 days until we board the flight heading for Ansan City, some 40Km slightly Sout East of Seoul, where we will be based. New culture, new language, new country - new everything!
Sue is the one I am worried for. Although she gets to be one of those "ladies who lunch", finding friends, meeting people and getting around on her own have been tough even in the UK, so I worry for her in foriegn parts. Thank goodness for such IT widgets like Skype and MSN messenger. I think these will be her lifeline back to the UK.
It's my last day at work, and it's a bit surreal - I'm still poring over the schedules, and worrying about the late jobs though the factory, but it is fair to say I have been taking a back seat over the past 2 weeks, and letting my two supervisors run with the ball, and given support when needed. I'm sure they will do good.
Good news! - the house has been rented out. The new tenant is moving in as from the 19th March, and we get to see some money flowing into our account. They want a long term rent, so we'll start out at 6 months and see how it goes. I hope they look after the house - they are already known to the agents, and they say they can vouch for them too.
Bad news! - the central heating is not working again. The fix didnt work. There appears to be some volts on the loose in the system somewhere, keeping the pump relay energised. This is supposed to switch off after a few minutes after the boiler demand ceases. It doesn't! British Gas are coming out on Monday to fix it at a fixed cost repair, regarless of how many parts or labour is involved. I pulled a sneaky here - I called them up, as we dont have a contract, and asked for a fixed cost repair, it was huge! I then asked for a low cost contract, and can I use it right away - they said yes! £2.00 each month by direct debit, and a much lower cost fixed price repair. Result! Lets hope they have all the necessary parts on board, or can get them before we leave on Thursday.
Offical moving day is Monday. All boxes and furniture is moving into storage then, with some help from our good friends Lorraine and Harry. They have a van we can use, and have been kind enough to offer their services - cheers guys!
We'll be booking rooms at the local inn, and spending the last few days tarting up the house, dabs of paint, cleaning and hoovering etc. I'll be sorry to leave it, as we had just completed all of our plans turning it into our home.
Oh well - no regrets! Opportunities ahead!
Thursday, 12 February 2009
T-minus 7 days
Out in the snow!
Today's words are brought to you by the letters B = bored and F = fed-up :(
Back at my desk. Emails checked, double checked then triple checked, just in case I find something interesting to do, schedules printed and reviewed, orders raised and placed. I could be at home, packing some more boxes. But I'm not - I need to be here to be paid until my last day, as it is going to be a while until I see another wage packet at the end of March.
We have a rental viewing this afternoon! I hope it's not another family of 6 wanting a 4 or 5 bedroom house, but seeing if they can shoe-horn themselves into our 3 bedroom house again. Why don't the letting agents screen this sort of thing out for goodness sake! Maybe they are professional house viewers, or have some sort of compulsive disorder - what would they call some one who compulsively looks into estate agents windows and goes to view house with no intention of actually proceeding with the rental? Some sort of rentavoyuer no doubt.
I spent most of the night sorting out the house trying to make it look good, and only have a 5 minute spruce up before they arrive. I put the hot tub on again last night, to make sure they see it running. I think it's a great feature of the house - who wouldn't want to jump into a nice hot spa after a hard day's slog!
I kept listening out for Tara, the dog, clattering over the tiles and wooden flooring. It was strange not to hear her snoring in her basket. I hope she enjoys the Midlands and living with Karen. Make sure she has a good time Karen. There, you got a mention after all!
I got a cracking book from one of the sales guys here at my old job, thanking me for my support over the past year or so. It is an etiquette guide to Korea, and is a really knowledgeable book on how to survive, live and know what makes the difference! We will be taking several leaves from this one. It's nice to know that blowing ones nose in public is very much frowned upon, but spitting apparently, is OK - go figure!
I am going to try and post a picture on here and see how it looks - this will be a great place to post our pics on online, and let you all see where and what we are getting up to.
Till next time :)
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
T-minus 8 days and counting!
Well, here we are, or rather here I am, sitting at my desk in my old job, twiddling my thumbs with little to do at the moment. All job functions, meeting responsibilities and staff issues have been divested amongst a number of other staff within the plant. The feeling of being about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike spring to mind. I would rather be at home packing up the cases and putting all the other stuff into boxes ready for the storage run on Tuesday next week.
The central heating packed up yesterday, just as Scotland hit -18 Celsius. Fortunately down here on the South coast it didn't get as cold, maybe around -2 at worst. The duvet was up round my neck for most of the night. I got woken in the early hours with a noise that sounded like a hammer drill on tin plate. Running around in the buff, (hold that thought!) I found the noise was coming from the airing cupboard. This is the same cupboard which caused much concern around 12 months ago, when we had the flood from the leaky washer on the heating system. I located the noise behind the control panel, found a screwdriver and whipped it off. Two circuit boards were visible, one to drive the central heating pump and one to set a delay time to continue running the pump to ensure that any residual hot water is taken away from the heat exchanger in the boiler. It was this timer circuit which was rattling like a maracas. Removal of the circuit was straightforward enough, and further investigation showed it to have few components built into a single sided PCB. £7.50 at most I thought, given my 25 years experience of such things. Tracking the part down on the Net proved me wrong - that will be £90 of your finest English pounds please - not including VAT or postage & packing! WTF? This is another reason why we have decided to leave rip-off Britain. Everyone is out to make the proverbial buck!
I gave the offending item to one of my maintenance engineers at work, and he replaced the relay, but it turns out there is a transistor which controls the input into the relay, and this has gone up the Swanee! Guess what - no markings to indicate type, or rating. Typical! Some out the box thinking later, and he came up with a single solid state timer DIN rail mounted unit which will do the trick. £3.50 to you sir! Seems to have done the trick. I am glad however, that this didn't happen when the new tenants who rent the property from us moved in. I suspect a call-out and charges would have been into the hundreds!
E-tickets have been confirmed, bank accounts have been opened, other than a local Korean one, passports in order, wills written (Mum, your an official executor as well as PA and post lady!)
Sue is in the Midlands doing her official farewell tour, and I join her on Saturday just for the weekend. We are going over for lunch on Sunday with my two, Lauren and Kyle to say goodbye. Alex is coming back down with us to act as Sherpa and general gofer, as my back is giving me gyp - probably due to stressing out a bit.
More as the days pass, and event s take over
The central heating packed up yesterday, just as Scotland hit -18 Celsius. Fortunately down here on the South coast it didn't get as cold, maybe around -2 at worst. The duvet was up round my neck for most of the night. I got woken in the early hours with a noise that sounded like a hammer drill on tin plate. Running around in the buff, (hold that thought!) I found the noise was coming from the airing cupboard. This is the same cupboard which caused much concern around 12 months ago, when we had the flood from the leaky washer on the heating system. I located the noise behind the control panel, found a screwdriver and whipped it off. Two circuit boards were visible, one to drive the central heating pump and one to set a delay time to continue running the pump to ensure that any residual hot water is taken away from the heat exchanger in the boiler. It was this timer circuit which was rattling like a maracas. Removal of the circuit was straightforward enough, and further investigation showed it to have few components built into a single sided PCB. £7.50 at most I thought, given my 25 years experience of such things. Tracking the part down on the Net proved me wrong - that will be £90 of your finest English pounds please - not including VAT or postage & packing! WTF? This is another reason why we have decided to leave rip-off Britain. Everyone is out to make the proverbial buck!
I gave the offending item to one of my maintenance engineers at work, and he replaced the relay, but it turns out there is a transistor which controls the input into the relay, and this has gone up the Swanee! Guess what - no markings to indicate type, or rating. Typical! Some out the box thinking later, and he came up with a single solid state timer DIN rail mounted unit which will do the trick. £3.50 to you sir! Seems to have done the trick. I am glad however, that this didn't happen when the new tenants who rent the property from us moved in. I suspect a call-out and charges would have been into the hundreds!
E-tickets have been confirmed, bank accounts have been opened, other than a local Korean one, passports in order, wills written (Mum, your an official executor as well as PA and post lady!)
Sue is in the Midlands doing her official farewell tour, and I join her on Saturday just for the weekend. We are going over for lunch on Sunday with my two, Lauren and Kyle to say goodbye. Alex is coming back down with us to act as Sherpa and general gofer, as my back is giving me gyp - probably due to stressing out a bit.
More as the days pass, and event s take over
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)