Last Sunday, I had an accident with my inflatable boat; after I had crossed from one shore to the other and was getting out of the boat, I somehow managed to pop open the valve for the main air compartment. I lost about half of the air before I realized what had happened.
The ensuing events are a story in themselves*, but today I bought a new boat with a screw-cap for the main air compartment valve - which should mean that last weekend's accident is far less likely to reoccur. However, this new valve has a far larger aperture requiring the pump outlet nozzle to be 2cm in diameter. My current pump has two nozzles the largest of which is only 1.5cm in diameter. Naturally, the shop that sells the boats doesn't sell the requisite air pumps or the nozzles to fit to them. And naturally, the shop that does sell the requisite air-pumps does not have any additional nozzles of the correct size. So I went to the most expensive outdoor equipment shop in Tainan city, which naturally does not have an outdoor air pump but does have pumps for use with an indoor electrical outlet**. These pumps do have the correct nozzle, but naturally the shop does not sell the nozzles alone, only the pumps with the nozzles included. So I just had to pay almost NT$500 for a piece of plastic mold.
And this is after I wasted my morning diagnosing a water problem in my house. All my water flow had stopped. Earlier in the week the plumber had insisted I just needed to use the pressure switch, but today that didn't work - he had merely assumed the solution because he was just an old man who couldn't be bothered to diagnose it properly. So instead I tried diagnosing it myself and found that the solution was to remove the pile of clothes I had stacked on top of my boiler - somehow they had induced the check valve from the tank to close, and removing them resulted in the re-opening of the check valve.
*Essentially I was stuck and ended up constructing my own makeshift raft out of flotsam I found lying about on the deserted shoreline.
**What is the point of an outdoor equipment store which sells equipment that can only be used indoors? For pity's sake it's like I'm living in Ankh-Morpork or something.
Saturday, 14 March 2015
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"the solution was to remove the pile of clothes I had stacked on top of my boiler"
ReplyDeleteLOL at that and all the rest. You need a 3D printer that can fabricate a housekeeper as well as nozzles and whatnot.
"ended up constructing my own makeshift raft out of flotsam"
Pleease have pictures. And share!"
Linda I'd have replied earlier, but as I'm sure you'll appreciate, I've been busy doing housework the last few days.
ReplyDeleteI do have some pictures from that trip, including a picture of the wood I used to make the raft, but it was getting dark fast and once I'd got the raft ready it was pitch black and I was in no mind to waste any more time messing about with pictures. It was a near two hour swim back pushing the raft out in front of me. I'll post the pics probably on Friday.