We have ignition

We may have been watching too much Criminal Minds. When the gas cooker repair guy was fumbling about in his tool bag conspicuously failing to find the right size of head for his screwdriver, I thought, "Last week's diagnosis guy was an organised killer: everything in its place, meticulously to hand. This fixer guy is totally a disorganised killer, he is walking chaos..."

Which he then proved, by going to turn off the electricity to the cooker - and instead turning off the electricity to the whole damn house, and coming back in to find that the cooker was still cheerfully drawing power from somewhere. That's not so much his fault, the wiring in this place is clearly weird and utterly unmapped - but it is emblematic. I may have giggled, when we saw the cooker clock numerals still shining brightly in a totally dark house. Can we hum the Twilight Zone theme, people...?

Still. He was chaotic but nice, and he did know what he was doing. We have four working burners again; and hopefully I will never again have to compose a boastful post about how I just cooked the yogis a four-dish Chinese meal with two burners and no wok. I didn't actually write that one - I don't write most of 'em, come to think - but it was there in my head. And the leftovers are still in the fridge, yay. Spicy pork with star anise, cabbage with black vinegar, yard-long beans (cooked whole for once, because why doesn't anybody ever cook them whole? They're a yard long!) and green-garlic rice. Om nom.

Well, this is a little odd

My coff of former posting is now inarguably a koff: harsher, sharper, more deeply embedded. Still occasional, though; I don't really koff very often. When I do, I am entirely convinced that I am sick of a sickness, and want nothing but to lie on the sofa and be wan. But then I stop koffing, and I feel fine. Five minutes ago, I was thinking about a beer while I worked. Then I koffed, and was instantly thinking about stepping away from the computer in the general direction of a hot toddy. Now I'm not koffing, and actually maybe a glass of wine might sit well in my one hand, if it were counterbalanced by a book in the other...

What is actually significant, of course, is that it's 6.15 and I haven't had a drink of any sort thus far. Yup, must be sick.