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Our solution to a one-drawer kitchen

It's been another full-on week, with lots I should probably write about, both good and bad. I might get to it, eventually.

Today was intended to be a day of cooking, stocking up in preparation for a few nights coming up where I won't be able to cook, and to re-stock our supply of ready-to-reheat lunches. I started well, stewing up some apples for a crumble then prepping for a nice spicy Viet-style pork stir-fry. I got as far as putting the oils and ground spices into the wok when I noticed the oil temperature drop. Uh-oh: dead stove.

Our stove is part of an ancient oven that for some reason is set into a corner of the kitchen. It has two round hotplates, both on the wall side, making them effectively useless for anything beyond a medium saucepan, and one rectangular hotplate that doubles as the grill. The larger of the round hotplates hasn't worked since we moved here, but it's not really bothered us as we just use the grill plate. Except the grill element was no longer heating.

Poor Alex spent the next few hours as so:

* test grill element in sole functional socket (the almost useless small one in the back corner) & discover the element is fine
* consider calling land-lord to ask for repairs. Realise it is Sunday, give up and decide to see if he can fix it
* unscrew towel rail from wall in order to move oven
* pull oven away from wall, dislodging ~20 year's worth of oven-goo
* rescue no longer missing container lids from the grime behind the oven
* unscrew back-plate and stare in horror at the rotting wiring thus revealed
* run downstairs and disconnect power to the flat
* check all the wires and connections around the switches - all fine
* unscrew various parts of oven/stove and wrench free of goo in order to get to the stove wiring
* discover wires to both dead hotplates have degenerated into fused goo
* contemplate buying new insulated wire. Realise it is Sunday and we're in Hobart
* decide we really need the grill plate working, cannibalise salvageable wire from the other dead hotplate
* manage to extract enough functional wire to connect the grill plate and wire it back together
* run downstairs and reconnect power
* discover hotplate still not working, run downstairs and is-connect power
* re-check wiring and find the new wire was loose
* re-connect wire and crimp. Hard.
* run downstairs and reconnect power
* hallelujah, we have heat!
* run downstairs and disconnect power
* put oven/stove pieces back together, decide now is not the time to clean the bio-hazard behind it, and place oven back into corner
* re-attach towel rail
* run downstairs and reconnect power
* receive praise and adoration

A large part of the above will be repeated in the not-to-distant future to fix the other dead plate, but at least we were back in business! And despite the downtime I still managed to make the stirfry as well as a chicken and mushroom lasagne and a fruit crumble. Didn't get to the osso buco, but it's happily marinating in the 'fridge.

When we buy, we are SO getting gas.