Before work can recommence on the boat there's the thorny issue of the coffee-machine, which has been constructed by German firm KRUPS in Indonesia ~ and which requires a screwdriver with a head no hardware store is likely to carry in order to disassemble.
So that, in short, I've to liberate the switch that's failed with an angle-grinder. The way it appears to work is that push-button momentarily connects those golden arcs which in turn fire-up the processor. This switches the light to red (thing at centre) whilst supplying 240 volts to the heater, which thermostatically triggers the green LED to signal Houston that we're go for hydraulics.
What I'd hoped to do was hard-wire it for switching at the mains, although despite this being a five-volt circuit you and I know that however I do this it'll go BANG and disable the supply to the entire house... leaving me way behind on that to-do list, including a toilet that has pissed itself all over the bathroom floor.
Of course the designers of the 'Piccolo' could have provided a simple rocker-switch to have done much of this and which could be hard-wired, but then we wouldn't burn through the world's natural resources and pollute it nearly so effectively, would we?
KRUPS were vital to the war effort in WW2, and have clearly identified my Achilles Heel in the shape of my shitty piccolo even nowadays.
Not something that will ever have bothered George Clooney, I'm guessing?
Ed. No, and he got a shag afterwards too...
