Pumped

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellows,

Is this the most boring blip ever? I do apologise. As a rule I try not to take pictures of household appliances, but this - THIS - is the most significant thing that has happened to us today.

It is a heat pump. It was installed this afternoon. These are not really a thing in Scotland, much as central heating is not really a thing here. 

I'm not entirely sure how it works. Apparently it is very efficient in that it takes in cold air from outside and just sort of farts it out as hot air in here. 

When you press the ON switch, things happen. Which alarms Punky. A couple of vents open at the bottom and then...

Nothing. Not very much.

"F***'s sake," said Caro. 

We pressed random buttons on the remote. Vents opened and closed. It went BEEP. A lot. I asked Caro if she had the instructions. She flung them at me and flounced. The instructions told me to press more buttons. The vents flipped open and closed. A fan started up. Beep. Nothing.

But about half an hour later Caro told me she could feel the heat all the way out in the hallway. So it appears that the damn thing works after all. In fact, Lemon later told me that they take a while to get going. 

"You press loads of random buttons and swear at it and it just beeps, but 30 minutes later, you're boiling," she told me.

If only I'd spoken to her first.

So anyway. We are very happy with our heat pump. I dare say the cats will figure it out soon and position themselves permanently under it. But even more excitingly, it also functions as an air conditioning unit in summer.

I may have to post another picture of it then. But then, that's it.

S.