Hob nob ...

Regular readers may remember the incident with my suitcase and the cooker in my apartment. Entirely unrelated to this, my oven gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago, just before I was due to host a Sunday brunch for some friends here. Fortunately, cooking a full English did not require more than the grill and stove so we managed, but the following week, thanks to my landlady and the nice folk at Nordea who manage her affairs, a new oven and stove were installed. The repairer insisted that the previous ones were beyond economic repair and they have been taken away to one of the local museums.

The new items arrived with manuals in all four Nordic languages, but not English. I am now in discussion with their help desk to see what can be done, but the particular models are only made for this market. The hob is easy enough, despite having no knobs or buttons, you just have to touch it in at least three places to turn it on. This should ensure that it is Mark-proof.

However, the cooker seems rather more complex. I have managed to work out how to use the grill but the oven has more combinations than my bicycle lock. I may have to take the book into the office and beg help from a colleague. The real novelty, though, is being able to see through the glass door to the inside. The old oven allegedly had a glass door too, but years of cooking had given it the same level of transparency as the rear screen of my car after weeks of driving through the Helsinki slush.

So now I look forward to cooking a Sunday roast and trying the cooker out in anger. Any takers?