Join me for a whine in the café ?

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Normandie
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Join me for a whine in the café ?

Post by Normandie »

A whine against inanimate things that never the less have an innate sense of the worst time to misbehave.

Last week, we had 3 days with no guests; next week we have 3 days with no guests. At the moment, we're fully booked. So when did the boiler decide to limit its participation in heating up water? Thursday night. :evil: We can heat up the water but only if one of us sits in the arrière-cuisine and keep pressing the re-start button every 5 - 10 minutes. And this is 2 weeks after a full service. <snarl>

The boiler man has been and there's some gigot (:? I don't parler the langue de boiler) that needs dealing with but he assures me that the boiler will now be fine till it gets its new gigot. I'm unconvinced.

Sigh.

Off to iron 5 duvet covers. The rotary iron will probably blow up just to make my Saturday perfect. :cry:


...edited for accent management purposes!
Last edited by Normandie on Sat May 30, 2015 10:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
JanB
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Post by JanB »

Oh, this always seems to happen at the worst possible time, doesn't it?

I am quite a problem solver, but sadly my skills fall short of boilers (which I don't understand) and cars (which I don't WANT to understand!)....

Sorry I can't give you any advice on this one but sending " I know how you feel" vibes your way..... as I have often been in the kind of situation where I just want to run away somewhere and hope the problem will resolve itself in my absence.

It always works out in the end and I will also hope and pray you have lovely understanding guests, in case the problem persists.
"It's a funny old world...." but full of the most amazing people. :-) Sense of humour essential!
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Normandie
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Post by Normandie »

Happily, they are lovely guests and in my defence, it is a very complicated boiler and heating system because it manages the solar panels too... but they were sod all use yesterday as we had plenty of cloud, drizzle and not a lot of soleil.

Things could be worse... :wink:
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

Oh, I sooo understand where you're coming from, Normandie!

Our boiler - the size of a planet, and bright orange - did exactly the same, two weeks after its service (yours isn't a Viessman, by any chance, is it?). Fortunately it was before the start of the season, though only just. Came on fine when reset button was pressed but wouldn't come back on on its own so like you we had to keep pressing the red button. Our service engineer eventually threw in the towel and we found someone else, a proper Viessman expert, who sorted it by changing the box that houses the reset button. Hope yours gets sorted without undue pain!

I did have a minor panic when our first guests were here a month ago as they reported a lack of hot water one day (in the barn, which has its own hot water system), but that was quickly solved when I discovered that they'd 'helpfully' switched off the 2 amp circuit breaker that protects the off peak system ...

PS Our issue proved to be a defective gicleur ... could that be your gigot, I wonder? :wink:
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I can empathise too.

We live in the house for 8 mths of the year...yet as soon as the first guests move in something goes - usually the loos. This year it was the shower....after having no problems at all it us now leaking because it won't shut off properly and so the water pump in on and iff every 12 minutes (and yes I am counting!)

Mousie
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pete
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Post by pete »

Sympathies from us too, our boiler went once but we have a separate one for the guest rooms so it wasn't a problem but we need the guests to tell us if that goes !!
brendan
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Post by brendan »

You have my sympathies, Normandie.

Here in Spain I find that the inanimate objects always wait until 14.01h on a Saturday to go kaput. This, of course, is the time when all workmen, service providers, ironmongers etc. down tools for the weekend and approximately 3 hours before new guests check in.
Sam V
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Post by Sam V »

Our latest one is the electric security gate to the development which has been acting up recently not opening, opening half way, staying open, locking guests/cars in/out. Villas A and B have now had their BBQs stolen and A-C (mine is C) have all had our hoses stolen My manager says it's now totally broke and needs a new motor and will cost €700.

The builder who has to date taken responsibility for this kind of thing usually, is apparently out of the country and his daughter (his deputy) is not responding to her calls.

There are 5 other villas, four, including mine, are privately owned, the other two we have no idea if they are sold or not, the builder was renting them out at one stage.

I can't be doing with my guests being inconvenienced so I've instructed the repair at my expense and will no doubt have a mare to get a share of the expense back from all the other owners.
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aasta
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Post by aasta »

:( ...oh, can so empathize!! and hope you manage to get it resolved quickly.....As seems to happen in Spain :) here in Portugal everything seems to go wrong on Saturday afternoons and Sundays........on different week-ends we´ve expirienced (and always with a house full of guests!!!): no water, no heat, no electricity, errupted water pipe etc!!!! Possibly this house might be hexed!!
aasta
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Cassis
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Post by Cassis »

Probably your "gicleur", Normandie. The jet that injects oil - they can need replacing annually (depending on use). Easy to fix in 5 mins if that's what it is. http://www.piecechaudiere.com/gicleur/g ... lavan.html
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tavi
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Post by tavi »

Mine's a dry white please.

I arrived yesterday to prepare for today's brand new guests (lucky I was planning to stay overnight) to be confronted with:

A large, ancient encrusted, wheelbarrow, sitting on a couple of old bits of cardboard, surrounded by cement dust in the atrium of the block. Every corridor, staircase, balastrude, ledge. covered in a fine layer of cement dust.

Lift not working.

Common area lights not working.

No TV channels.

No cleaning staff.

A couple of gormless brickies yelling instructions at each other were informed by me in my grumpy old hag demeanour that this was not a building site but a residential block with RESIDENTS.

Must confess I had a large cold white w(h)ine last night too!
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Cassis wrote:Probably your "gicleur", Normandie. The jet that injects oil - they can need replacing annually (depending on use). Easy to fix in 5 mins if that's what it is. http://www.piecechaudiere.com/gicleur/g ... lavan.html
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Ah - that makes more sense than my interpretation that the problem was a leg of lamb in the boiler......
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary:
gigot noun a leg of lamb or mutton.
ETYMOLOGY: 16c: French.
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Normandie
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Post by Normandie »

Well you can cook a whole salmon in a dishwasher so why not roast a gigot in the boiler?

:lol:

It was allegedly the gicleur... but the gicleur got changed as part of the service 2 weeks ago, Cassis. So it was fiddled with again (under guarantee, I was assured) but despite assurances given on Saturday, the boiler was still misbehaving this evening. We're trotting out to the arrière-c every 5 minutes to check the water temperature; if it's fallen below 50°C we then have to check whether the boiler has switched on to raise it to 55°C and if not, how many times do we have to restart it (waiting 60 seconds between each attempt) before it fires up again.

This regular in and out is also distressing a convalescing cat who is in the wired in verandah outside the arrière-c and who, every time we go out, mugs us for food and only tolerates 3 or 4 visits before he demands food via menaces (teeth and claws in our ankles... a true ankle biter).

What I didn't say earlier is part of the complex system (and it's a De Dietrich boiler, FC) is the wet underfloor heating which is what keeps bringing the water temperature down as the u/f heating circulates. So in an attempt to get the temperature to stay above 50°C in order for guests to have a hot shower when they get back tired, chilled and dirty (they've bought a rather splendid house locally and have spent the weekend cleaning and it's after 11pm now) we've turned the u/f heating off. It should stay warm till the morning but it is 11°C here tonight.

Everything's a compromise. :roll:

Life was so simple when things were electric but minimally electronic. :wink:

And did any of the above make sense?!
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La Chouette
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Post by La Chouette »

Aaaaahhh - a DeDietrich boiler! That says it all. We've one and you need to be a NASA accredited pilot to get it to do anything remotely simple. Ours is linked to our solar panels, and I swear it uses oil in preference to the sun.

Bon courage - hope it's sorted soon.

Jan
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CarolineH
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Post by CarolineH »

My sympathies for the boiler, Normandie - if you like I'll come and install myself in your arriere cuisine and push the button. I need to get away this week ...

I don't normally moan : I am in the service industry and it normally gives much much job satisfaction to supply people with nice holidays, and I am usually blessed with the loveliest guests : however there are exceptions, normally I accept with the thought that it makes me appreciate how lucky I am most of the time..... But this week!

Gite 1 : They arrived at 9.30 am on Saturday morning (check-in is 16h!) the previous guests had not left : they wanted to drop off cases and use the loos :roll: They turned up in an enormous Lexus, one of them couldn't get out without being pulled by two people - he must weigh at least 200kg - Mrs guest says, oh god! there aren't children here are there!!

Gite 2 : Lots of calls in advance because worried about 3yo son who is allergic to wheat/eggs/peanuts/other things - can I cook him a meal (er, no!) They fly in, forget the directions to the gites - so several long phone calls later (don't know where we are, "What can you see around you?", er, fields). Finally, they arrive in a panic because little johnnie's medicine has been confiscated : liquid in a bottle more than 100ml, they took it in the cabin (worried he might need it because there might be peanut particles flying around) - it would have been ok if it had been prescription bottle with johnnie's name printed on it! Sent them to pharmacie - who sent them to hospital and they are now moaning because they had to pay 50€ (Sunday morning charge) - so I ask if they have their European Health Card , er, what's that? Last night they tried to order a three course meal for one person!

Gite 3 : Children constantly standing at glass front door hitting it with plastic spades (and each other, but actually I don't care about that!) Father drives like Stirling Moss and yesterday went around the fish pond so quickly that stones hit my downstairs windows.

Gites 4 and 5 : Parents with toddlers (4, 2 and 15 months) sitting around the fish pond drinking last night whilst 4 and 2 year old have buckets and spades and are filling the buckets with gravel and dumping them into the fish pond. 15 month baby is wandering around the cars scraping stones along the paintwork.

Normandie, please can I come and push your button for you and stroke your cat? Please .... just until Saturday morning :(
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