Unclip the two legs for the heater cover which have clips on them. The cover will now fold open out of the way on the hinge in the third leg.

The main burner section (black) needs to be rotated anticlockwise about half an inch (a centimetre or two) to detach it form the fuel tank (red). This was where I first had problems as mine was frozen up and so I tried to unscrew it but it wouldn’t bunch. In the end I tried to lever it off with a flat bladed screw driver and this freed it up enough to rotate it.

You can now remove the burner from the fuel tank.

The wicks are raised on a rack and pinion system. On mine the top notch of the rack has a wire wrapped around it to prevent the rack going too far down and the wicks dropping into the tank. I suspect this is not original. However, I removed the wire which now allows me to wind down the wicks until they drop out of the burner assembly.

Open each of the metal wick holder pieces which is wrapped around each of the old wicks. At the bottom of each wick holder there will be two metal tabs. These hook under the plate attached to the rack when they are in place. In order to re-assemble the burner assembly you will need to straighten these tabs.

Wrap the wick holders around each of the new wicks. I did this so that the bottom of the wick holder is at about the half way point on the wick but this is a guess as I don’t have instructions. However you do it you want to make sure that each wick is at the same position.

Now slide each wick back into the burner assembly and push the metal wick holders most of the way in. Take the rack and feed this back into it’s position in the burner assembly so that it engages with the pinion. Push it in until it touches the metal of the wick holders. This is how it pushes up the wicks when the pinion is turned.

Now, the tabs which you straightened before need to be bent around the metal plate on the rack. This enables the plate to push the wicks down when you wind the pinion. If you didn’t straighten them before then you will find them in the wrong position now you will have to remove the rack to get at them.

I then reattached the wire around the top notch of the rack but as I guess this isn’t an original element of the assembly, you’ll have to work that bit out yourself.

Reattach the burner section to the fuel tank by aligning the tabs with the holes and rotate clockwise about half an inch.

As I understand it the wicks now need to soak in the fuel before they can be lit so don’t go lighting it straight away as you will just burn the wicks rather than the fuel.

It got me thinking though about the different forms this can take. I considered the optimism I’ve had at times in work, thinking it will work out and feel I’ve paid through reduced income… Then I realised that there’s a fine line between Optimism Tax and Fools Tax. Optimism Tax is about the price you pay for the good feeling you have from trusting people and not worrying. Fools Tax is where you worry about it and still pay. I’ve done this too

But getting back to the point the concept of Optimism Tax has made me smile and I think will continue to for a while. So thanks to Halcyon for the original post.

He has been quite unbalanced since we brought him over from Spain. He has been getting worse.

When he had been over a week or so he started biting and trying to be dominant. We then struggled to get a lead on him and ended up having to bribe him with treats and then put a muzzle on. Then we could get the lead on. It was a nightmare getting it off.

He also had a skin condition which is chronic, Westies are susceptible to it but his was really bad an this meant we needed to bath him twice a week. Not easy with a dog that doesn’t like being handled.

We had a dog behaviourist look at him and she suggested various techniques which all work a little but he started to get more and more unpredictable. He launched an attack on Marieta biting her on the groin, then the knee and then the foot. He got me a few times too.

In the end after discussions with the behaviourist and the vet we all agreed that the best thing for him and for us was to have him put down.

It was very sad. These photos were taken on his last day.

Looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth doesn’t he…