Smoke gets in your eyes

It's good to get back playing tennis again, and William and I have a really good game this morning. Just as we are finishing our post-match coffee, who should arrive but Manny, our plumber, who has come to instal the extractor on the chimney. Ever since we have lived here, we have had a problem with the chimney not aspirating very well. Not all the time, but quite often, and certainly enough to make it a problem. We have tried lots of different things and this is almost the last thing that we can do. The chap from whom we bought the house was a designer and he put in this enormous 'baronial' type fireplace. It looks great but as a fireplace it is useless. The opening was too big, the flue diameter too large and the chimney too short. In fact, three metres too short! Since moving in, we have raised the hearth and put a hood over the fireplace. The very last thing we did was to raise the height of the chimney. Unfortunately, we could not raise it high enough because it would have become unstable. Today, Manny fitted an 'aspirateur', a rotating cowl that should draw air up the chimney whatever the wind conditions. He thinks this will finally solve the problem. He could well be right. As I understand it, the top of a chimney should extend above the top most part of a roof and it should not be too big in terms of diameter. Our chimney, which is some way from a higher adjacent roof, is too low and when the wind is in certain directions, it hits the roof, tips over the top, and creates a downdraft which then pushes smoke back down the chimney.
(OK, enough, we get the message - Ed.)

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Will sent me this today. We both found it very funny and it should appeal to people of a certain age. Make sure you have your speakers turned on.

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We just remembered that it was Halloween and nipped to Quissac for some goodies for the kids. Last year we only had a couple of kids come to the door but this year there were lots. Max finds it all a bit bemusing and a bit scary because they all turn up in strange outfits. At one point he shot out of the front door and scared the wits out of some kids. It'll be interesting to see if they come back next year. I was glad to see however, that Max took his guarding duties seriously. That is until one kid, who I know has another Beauceron, approached Max, despite his barking, whereupon Max shot back into the house. Fearless he is not! Anyway, this was the last of the callers because, shortly after, we had the mother and father of all thunderstorms. Does anyone want any chocolate?