Quarantine alert!

Had a moderate does of the DIY's today, having completed one job, started another and done one. The one being attending to the wiring of my older electric drill, the live flex being exposed just as it leaves the rubber sheath coming out of the base of the handle. At first glance I had thought that I must have caught it on something, but at second decided that it was the work of some vagrant rodent in the garage.

Having taken the thing to pieces once before, almost certainly for a similar reason, I did not today seen why I should not do the same trick again. Casing of the drill duly removed, 20cm of cable resectioned and what was left wired back in, casing replaced (admiring the quality engineering on the way. I wonder if the insides of a Black & Decker would look as good?) and tried the thing. Entirely dead.

At which point I remembered that I had removed the fuse just to make sure that neither I nor anyone else was going to try and use the thing. Put a 5 amp fuse into the plug to find that I couldn't get the top of the plug back on. Obviously the fault of the poorly designed housing for the fuse.

Go to get another plug from the electrical drawer in the shed to remember that we don't have a shed any more. Cast around in the garage for a bit and finally light on a large saucepan suspended from the roof of the garage which contained the electrical bits and pieces I had thought worth retaining. Chose a suitable new plug - I like the ones with a small piece of fibreboard being used to secure the flex in the opening to the plug - and wire the drill into it. Tried the thing again. Entirely alive.

The first catch being that the drill is old enough to involve black rubber, rubber which I think is starting to perish. Probably good for a year or two yet, notwithstanding.

The second catch is that I now living in a house containing 4lbs 1.5oz of German badged Swiss made electrical machinery for converting electricity into rotary motion which has been interfered with by someone without CORGI certification, let alone appropriate CORGI documentation. Perhaps I ought to tell the insurance company? Perhaps someone will shop me to the Health & Safety Executive? See http://www.hse.gov.uk/.

PS: I remember the days when I used to have cause to visit the building in which this lot used to be headquartered, a rather grand building called Baynards House up the not so grand Westbourne Grove and not far from the formerly dodgy Duke of Norfolk (memory says Cornwall but Google says Norfolk). I used to use the opportunity to take noodles in Queensway, this being before the days of noodle bars. Fond memories of all the white guys daintily eating their noodles with chopsticks while the locals tucked into coke & hamburgers.