This Corrosion

Yesterday morning, we found water under our sink.

Specifically, we found that a container we’d put under there a while back because of a suspicious damp spot was in fact full of water, and when we ran the tap it was obvious there was some sort of leak. But exactly where the leak was was difficult to tell, so I reached in and tried to turn one of the nuts on the trap…

…and that’s when it happened! My finger went through the metal and the whole trap just ‘fell off’ the pipe!

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As you can see the level of corrosion was astounding. It is almost unbelievable the pipe had kept it’s integrity for as long as it did. Imagine if this had burst when (for instance) the dishwasher was emptying?

So, to make a long story short, the connection out of the wall was a bit nonstandard and it took three trips to the hardware store to get the correct parts to fix it. This is in no way surprising to me, since I believe this home was built by an eccentric. For instance, the pipe in our bath leading the faucet is nonstandard as well, and virtually every electrical socket in the entire house has been installed upside down!

But the job was finished (some hours later) and now the undersink is brand spanking new:

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Ideally I would have preferred to put a plastic pipe in, but we don’t have an option with what comes out of the wall. So eventually – 40 years from now maybe? – this may have to be repaired again…

The joys of owning a home 🙂

Something Isn’t Right About Sounds Of The Universe

The new Depeche Mode album, Sounds Of The Universe, isn’t the return to greatness their publicists would have us believe.

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There is one truly great song on the album, the ironically titled Wrong (also the first single; watch the intriguing video in HD here). And when I say great I mean superb. For my money one of their best songs in years, and as good an argument for single-song purchases on iTunes as anything I can think of.

That’s because almost every other song on the 13-track album is either bland or forced or just lacking the catchiness that defined the band during their great era from 1985-1990. SOTU may even be a worse album than Playing The Angel (but I’d say better than Exciter), but I’ll venture it’s legacy will end up being little more than cementing the fact that live DM playlists will continue to be dominated by  classics such as Everything Counts and Enjoy The Silence.

C’mon Dave and Martin, throw your pride away. Stop letting these upstart fly-by-night UK chart bands score chart hits covering your old material and go back and cover it yourself! Daves voice is as good as ever, and Martins is even better. The production of SOTU is the best they’ve done in years (it’s just the songs that fail) and I can only imagine what a treat we’d be in for if the DM of now redid an album like A Broken Frame.