Dear You,
saved by the bell!
To become a little bit more "green", one thing I decided was to bid adieu to my Nespresso capsules (aluminium) and use an old fashion manual Italian coffee pot instead.
From Berlin I took one with me. It had an added electric plate beneath, no need to use the stove. It worked fine.
In Bavaria I thought: might be quicker without that plate, put on the stove.
It wasn't. Instead lots of fume in my kitchen! Big clouds of grey fume! and a fire!
I hadn't seen that underneath this special espresso cooker was a rubber plate. Well: rubber on a hot stove = fume.
The flames were a hand's breadth high - and a hand's breadth wide. I thought: this might be the first time that I have to use my little fire extinguisher, Uii, uiii, uii.
But luckily I could extinguish it without that. I've been very, very lucky.
And then I was very, very busy - to clean all those stinking sticky particles from the stove.
I am not a coffee drinker but I do keep a small pot for company. Now my son has an electric coffee maker for when he is in the mood for coffee so I don't need one.
ReplyDeleteThat is a practical solution, dear Mimmylyn! I am a moderate coffee drinker - I started very late, with 50, because I thought the taste "bitter" - and still think it, especially since I do not use sugar anymore.
DeleteHmmm, more black than green! I'm glad it wasn't worse.
ReplyDeleteMe too, dear Boud! I hope that my (moderate) way to getting "greener" will not be as rough as that one. :-)
DeleteHow awful, and what a cleanup!
ReplyDeleteYes, I had to memorise a lot from my "Zen Magic" book, dear Joanne - to get the heart shiny one has not only to polish hard, but also with a happy heart!
DeleteBut I was lucky - my friend in Berlin lost her whole kitchen by a fire - so much to do, and it stinks, and she has to wait for many craftsmen, who in Germany are scarce.
Dear Britta, what a disaster averted! Can I admit that on Saturday, I also had a fire in my kitchen!! We were both courting disaster at the same time, all for the sake of a hot drink, it would appear!! I was also incredibly lucky, for there were many ways the accident could have been infinitely worse. I very foolishly had a gas hotplate burning, heating up some water for a cup of tea, while I sprayed waterproofing on some new sneakers held over the sink. As my kitchen is microscopic in size, I was basically standing beside the stove, and was shocked when the sneaker I was holding just went poooff!! and burst into flame! A bit of fast thinking saw me put the flames out and it was only singed hand hairs and a partially melted new shoe that were the result of my folly. It was also a rather smelly accident. I haven't 'fessed up to Mr P, by the way, so the tale belongs only between us girls and the interwebs :)
ReplyDeleteDear Pip, that was a truly awful incident - and I can say with all my heart: I feel with you! After 'The Incident With The Radiant Espresso Cooker" this is an even more dangerous tale that you have to tell!
ReplyDelete(The only good I can see in it is that it convinces me that we are both "sisters in grime" :-) - and that is not a typo.
But honestly: as a visual type - and with a lot of imagination about things that COULD have happened (a burdensome heritage from my mother ) I am really, really thankful that only some hairs were burned - but no skin... In that way you were lucky. (The way my Berlin friend was "lucky" - when her complete kitchen burnt down, but she wasn't harmed).
As my kitchen in Bavaria is also quite small, from now on I will only spray my "blue suede shoes" - meaning my sneakers - outside, which is better for breathing too.