30.10.2022 Worthless Siemens ceramic hob!

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 Sunday 30th 54F/12C. 64F upstairs. 63F downstairs. Still no stove required. Up at 6.10. Except that I forgot about the clocks going back. So I didn't change them before bedtime. Up at 5.10? It is going to be a very long morning! Grr? 

Image from yesterday's walk.

 Another walk to the lanes.

 I have run out of tea bags. Only one or two shops sell it. In opposite directions to each other. I fancy a ride today. Seven miles to either shop is a nice distance. One is reached by an very over-familiar, busy, main road. The other by beautiful and quiet lanes. With multiple sub-choices of route. Choose one.

 I chose the pretty route into the wind. It added up to 19 miles or about 30km in total. Going one way and returning by another. I was too warm and I had to take my cycling jacket off. To ride in just the cycling jersey and shorts. The tea was 50% more expensive than a year ago. 59F/15C outdoors on my return.

 13.20. 61F/18C! Just enjoying lunch. Greenhouse door open. 66F/19C upstairs in warm sunshine.

 16.00 59F/15C outdoors. 67F/19.5C upstairs. I spent the afternoon in the observatory. Where I managed to capture some pictures of the sun through thin cloud. It has been unusually warm today for this time of year. More temperature records have been broken throughout Europe. Climate concerned citizens are marching in Denmark. Including, somewhat ironically, politicians. With their empty climate promises for the elections.

 Somebody has to do the washing up. Or there will be no afternoon tea. Let alone any dinner.

 Dinner was cod in batter. With frozen peas and boiled potatoes. I threw the peas in with the potatoes for the last five minutes. To save heating another saucepan on a non-existent heating ring. 

 The Siemens ceramic hob is proving a damned nuisance! The two oversized rings are utterly worthless to me. These two rings are only suitable for the very largest of frying pans. I have hardly used either of the two oversized rings in all the time I have owned the hob. In 7 months! 

 All of my four saucepans are smaller than the largest ring. My largest saucepan fits on the back left [middle sized]ring  but I never use that saucepan! 

 The heating rings on the Gorenje hobs, at the cooking classes, are all the same size as the smaller rings on the Siemens. Which means all four can be used at all times with all sizes of pan. Rather than only [ever] two in the case of my useless Siemens hob. 

 The Siemens was an incredibly poor purchase choice on my part. One which I did not consider in my haste and inexperience to have a new hob. Immediately following my wife's death. Just so I could start learning to cook from scratch. After throwing her old and rusting Gram cooker out. Which she would never allow while she lived. 

 There were only two hob rings still working on the Gram. While the top, oven heating element drooped halfway down across the door almost from new! The brackets which were supposed to support the element were never fitted. Or were removed by the dealer. Who lost out on a lucrative and ridiculous standard installation charge.

 I am going to have to buy a replacement hob. Making the Siemens a complete waste of money. I am no longer willing to put up with a two ring hob on a four ring glass plate. 

 Shuffling my smaller pans around two rings is a complete bore! How m I supposed to cook and keep several things warm at the same time? 

 I just hope all hobs have the same cut-out size in the worktop. The struggle I had to bring that new worktop into the kitchen. Is still burnt deeply into my memory!

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