Oven/stove drama

Today's drama is barely over and I'm mourning. This oven has been given a thumbs down. But the story hasn't ended yet. There is hope, but I'm not sure this is going to turn out the way I want it to.

On Sunday I turned the far left knob to boil the kettle and I felt a tiny click. The back left burner hasn't worked since then. But it's worse than that. There was a discernible smell of gas even when the oven or stove wasn't being used.

With the stove top off while the gas guy examined it.

We don't know how old this is. It is American, obviously imported by someone who lived in this house previously (and there have been several American families connected to the school who've lived here). It doesn't even really fit in the kitchen (much deeper than the bench to the left of it). It's ancient, dirty, rusty . . . but up till now has worked brilliantly.

So the drama this afternoon has gone something like this:

Gas man came looked at it and said he's never seen anything like it.

Gas man made lots of phone calls.

Gas man decided it was unfixable and needed scrapping. 

He asked for the owner's phone number. I gave him the number of the Japanese person employed by our mission to help with things like dealing with owners. They talked.

Gas man rang real estate agent who said they'd ring the owner.

Gas man taped up the gas line knob so none of the oven/stove could be used. Gave me a form to sign that I think said, "I understand that I shouldn't use this 'cause it's broken."

Gas man left.

Meanwhile, I'm on Facebook (yes, I admit I'm addicted, though at times like these it is one of the most economical route to getting help in an expat community) and messaging David who's at school.

I was resigning myself to the loss of this magnificent piece of equipment and about ⅓ of the bench space in my kitchen. I regularly make batches of several dozen biscuits, that will take twice as long without this oven. Every day we put stuff on the stove top: from lunch boxes, to dishes that aren't quite dry yet. Yes, I know most expats in Asia don't have anything like this . . . but that doesn't mean I can't mourn its loss.

Then people on FB started suggesting that it might still be fixable. Just because a Japanese repairman says it isn't, apparently isn't the end of the story?

Phone rang. It was the person in our mission who conveyed a message from the owner saying they were going to try and fix it. Or they will replace it.

I'm in disbelief. I can't believe that they'll find someone who'll fix an old American oven. If my disbelief is true, then I don't believe that they will replace with anything close to equivalent...

However as an expat community we have resources they don't have, so while we wait for whoever they send, we'll make our own enquiries.

But again, realistically, not many expats have something as nice as this in their kitchens in Asia and they probably don't feel much sympathy for us. I should be thankful. And I have been. It still hurts to think that I might lose it so soon.

This is the extent of my kitchen benches. Can you see how little bench
space we have left without the stove?
We'll miss that probably more than the oven.