At last

Normally, because our water is exceeding hard here containing lots of lime scale, we need to descale our Bravilor Novo coffee machine once a month. Because of my health problems I have not descaled the machine for three months, so that it is my fault that the heating element in the boiler unit burned out. When this happened on Tuesday I took the machine apart to check what had failed and we then looked on the Internet for a replacement part, but could not find any so a new machine was ordered on Tuesday. Today it arrived, it is identical to the old machine and here it is pictured in its box alongside the old machine and the little machines which we had been using in the meantime.

Although the small machines in the picture make excellent coffee, they are not designed to deal with the quantity that we drink each day. The Bravilor is a commercial machine capable of making nearly 100 cups an hour, although we do not drink that many, so it is with great relief that I have now got the new machine installed and running. The machine in the extreme left foreground is a little Melitta filter machine, while the machine behind the Melitta is an Elevation espresso machine, which is also designed to make frothy coffee. The little Melitta will now be taken out of use and stored away again, while the Elevation will be retained in use for espresso coffees.

We are very pleased to have our daily supply of coffee restored to us in quantities that are appropriate to our wants. I thought this was an appropriate blip because it really does relate to our lives. I will now look around for a company who can repair the Bravilor Novo; people who repair will often have the parts but will not release them, so there is a fair chance that this will be possible. We will then have a spare machine whenever we want it.