Snap, crackle, pop
It’s freezing here today – cold enough that I’m wearing my coat and scarf at my desk, and stomping through the office chuntering about ‘no-one told me living in Africa would be like living in the Arctic wastes, bloody bastards, not even any penguins to entertain me…’ and sentiments of the kind.
The one concession I have to winter is a two bar electric heater in my office, which heats up a little pocket of air about a foot square by my left foot. For some reason, people I work with deem it critically important to put a bowl of water by the heater so that it doesn’t dry the air out with its furnace-like powers. It’s a mystery to me what they think will happen if they forget to do this – maybe their skin will blister and flake off in the intense dryness; maybe their lungs will shrivel up, or the air in the office will become unbreathable. I don’t know. Seeing as I don’t deem it necessary to do this other kind people usually place a bowl of water by my desk at some point in the day, so I keep forgetting it’s there, knocking it over every time I move my wheelie chair, and muttering “For fuck sake” under my breath.
Effectively, every five minutes or so I’m tipping a bucket of water over an electrical applicance – this without counting the number of times I’ve almost set fire to various items of clothing hanging off the back of the chair.
Health and safety? It’s a wonder I’m still alive.
July 11th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Ahhh, yes…the incredible dessicating powers of the space heater! Mucus membranes beware!!!
August 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
For ideal Health & Safety effect the fire should have no plug, just bared ends of flex stuffed into the socket. When we stayed in Corbett Tiger Reserve in India we had one of those. One of the bars was also nearly burned through, so it gave off a red glow with a very bright spot in it. Funnily enough, although it was very chilly we didn’t leave the fire on while we slept….