It doesn’t appear to be my week.

First, one of our skylights started to leak during the heavy rain yesterday (we think it might have been due to some sort of grit/debris stopping the window closing properly – at least the seal seems intact – we can’t be sure until the next bout of rain) and now today my oven has given up the ghost.

An hour into cooking baked potatoes (normal temp of 180C) the kitchen got very smoky. Looked inside the oven to find the potatoes utterly incinerated and a bit behind the fan glowing red. I switched it off pretty sharpish and have flung open all windows and doors in an attempt to clear the smoke. The fan had been making a clanking noise for a while, but obviously something has gone very wrong – thermostat maybe as well as fan?

Of course it chose to break in May which is our most expensive month of the year excepting Christmas (Akra Jr’s, Li’l Bhaji’s and Akra’s birthdays in quick succession). It wouldn’t wait for time when we actually had money spare would it, oh no.