DVT DAY 131

I started the day lazy and found my partner and youngest daughter on the patio drinking coffee and obviously doing that mother daughter bonding thing that they do. I made toast and more coffee and joined them. Really nice to sit out and chat about nothing much in particular. We were interrupted by my eldest daughter all of a flap as she had forgotten to get up in time for her PhD supervision, she just about made it. We set about planting the flowers we had bought yesterday and my youngest got the sewing machine out to make face masks. I was fairly quickly summoned to see if I could mend the sewing machine. I noted the lamp was still on, so there was power. A tentative tap of the foot pedal and away it went, hurray. It then stopped, the light went out and it sat there silence. I checked the mains socket, it was good. I checked the plug fuse, it was dead. Hurray I can do this. Put in new fuse and full of confidence plug it all in again and threw the switch, BANG, the machine made a loud noise and proceeded to smell of battel field.

Out came the trusty electrics kit and tool kit and pretty soon I had the guts of the machine in front of me. Running my trusty meter over it I soon found that the light bulb was in good working order to I switch attention to the motor and the rest of the electrics. All the power cables were fine as were the neutral circuits, the coil on the motor was fine. What wasn’t fine was the component that in effect controls the power going to the motor. This component is over 40 years old and the tell tale blacken plastic around its housing plus the smell told me that it had just died.

I hunted for a replacement part but to no avail, so my partner and I had a conversation about a new one and came to the conclusion that a new one that self threaded ( old eyes find this helpful), can do a button hole in one operation and sow silk to denim in countless ways was a good and timely option. Singer are having a Sewing Bee Sale and you pick up really good machines from between £200 and £300. So there will be research done and a lot of umming and aahing and perhaps a new one will arrive.

So with that excitement over it was time for lunch and then more gardening, during which the Tesco deliver arrived. At three I joined a ZOOM farewell work do. Its a very peculiar way to say farewell to a colleague, sipping non alcoholic beer and nibbling a coop cupcake. It was okay but it lacked the hug and walking off in to the sunset. Just pressing a leave key and clearing the screen is pretty cold.

I dithered a bit and then went and changed in order to train. I sweated out for 45 minutes and decided that was enough for the day and dripped may way to the patio for sandwiches. My partner lit the chimenea and we sat amid smoke and ash until it got to the delightful flame and ember stage.

I got post training cold and went in doors to run a bath and use my gold finger bubble bath. A long soak while reading Do No Harm by Henry Marsh. Basically tales of neurosurgery, but an interesting read. By the time I emerged everyone else was heading for bed, so here I am blogging again.

I remain shielding and missing the outside world and the opportunity to go on holiday. A friend has departed today with her family to beaches and cosy cottage, I am envious but glad to see others are able to do it, it gives me hope that I will soon be able to re-emerge.