Bellerophon symbol, variation 7 jonath.co.uk
Saturday 7th Jan 2012 23:34:34
 In the past Ganymede may have passed through one or more Laplace-like resonances
P1072676.JPG Sometime in the afternoon, I thought I would try to get to the bottom of our leaking bathroom radiator (it's a towel radiator, about 2m tall). The copper inlet pipe was leaking slowly, at the point where said copper pipe enters a valve controlling flow of water through radiator. There are two valves (surely only one's needed, you would think), one for the water coming in and one for the water coming out. Anyway, the valves themselves looked fine. So . . . there I am, with recently purchased adjustable wrench from B&Q. I try to tighten the nut surrounding the copper pipe, but it's as tight as it can go. It will loosen, but what's the point in that? So how about this other nut, the one above the valve (a picture would help here).P1072677.JPG I loosen the nut, some water comes out, so maybe not a good idea. Then I'm not sure what happens but I mess around with the valve again and all of a sudden I've got a torrent of water coming out of previously loosened nut. I try to tighten this nut as water is going everywhere and I'm starting to panic. So, it's a closed system and the taps controlling access to the water mains are fully closed anyway, so what do you do? P1072678.JPGP1072681.JPG Why, you turn the water mains off of course. So I run into the kitchen, turn the water mains off, run back up again, water still gushing everywhere, but I guess pressure has decreased somewhat. I manage to tighten the nut up and stop the water. In retrospect, it dawns on me that all that water was from the radiator itself. Oooops.
So yeah . . . later on, I'm queueing up to get a drink at The Sun. The guy in front of me, at the bar itself, gets his drinks and wanders off. I'm about to fill the void and place myself at the bar when a man someone leaps in front of me and gets his order. Cheeky b******! So I kind of think to myself, "Okay, fine, keep calm . . . wait your turn, get your drink, it's all fine." Queue-pusher gets his drinks and wanders off. So, again, I try to manoeuvre myself to the bar. A blur of movement and a young, slim, blonde girl has barged in front of me, placed herself at the bar and is being asked by the bar-man (ooo, surprise, he's a man!) what drinks she would like. So, I manage to get myself to the bar and just talk over the top of her, "Can I have a pint of Guinness and a pint of Amstel, please." The barman's like, P1072682.JPG "Erm . . . who's first?" So I was like, "Well, I was here first, but this girl pushed in." The girl doesn't say much so the barman's like, "Okay, I'll serve you both then." I'm still in a rage when the girl says something about, "You know, it's very rude to . . . " but I didn't really catch what she was saying. I turned to her and said, "Well, you know, I think it's very rude to barge in front of people like that, and push your way through to the bar. Don't you?" All the time I was saying this, looking at her, she just looked straight ahead and wouldn't answer. I stared at her for a while, puzzling over her fake eyelashes and industrial quantities of make-up. I waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming. What's that about, eh? I don't know why I let these kind of encounters get me so riled up. Clearly some action is required, but I often find myself reacting almost on anger-fuelled autopilot. That can't be right. The encounter made me question myself and how I react in these situations so at least I have that to thank her for.

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