AK's weblog

Not me, fortunately, but the construction workers that currently refurbish the house next to my flat. The view in the morning was really amazing: one construction worker tried to fire up one of those "flame throwers" you use to melt plastics or foam against flat surfaces. For firing it, a big gas bottle was attached, and he first turned the flame thrower to his face, turned on the gas, and then used a lighter to ignite the flame. Well, the flame was a little bit bigger than expected, so he got frightened, dropped it, and the flame went out. He tried it a second time, but it failed.

That was the time when he started to open and close several valves apparently at random, trying it over and over again, even opening something that looked like a "test valve" where he was able to ignite a test flame two times, with the second time having big problems blowing it out again. After a few more tries, he called for another construction worker, who was also clueless, and so they played with the valves a little bit, and even managed to ignite the flame thrower again for a few seconds. I thought that a huge gas explosion was imminent, and so I decided to better leave for the bus than to watch this fiasco any longer.