Random internet image - don't be fooled: you can bet this stove has obviously never been cooked on, it's from a Delonghi ad so of course it looks schmick and spotless!I am firmly convinced my cook top is around 2-3 years of age.
Much like the warning method, "I'm going to count to three..... one, twooooo...." by which time whatever it is you've requested several times is being done only after you lay down the ultimatum of 1-2-3 "or else", my stove doesn't light simply by turning the knob. Oh no. That would be TOO easy.
It does that thing where you turn it on, hold the knob down so the ignitor switch is sparking and doesn't light the gas. Sometimes, I see flame tantalisingly right at the moment I switch it off. Repeating the exercise does nothing and the flames don't come back. So I have to get the matches out. Light one. Hold it somewhere near the hob... and magically, almost every time, it lights.
There is no way the match has anything to do with it half the time. More than half the time. Because it's nowhere near the gas. The darn thing just likes me to get to the "two-and-a-haaaalf" equivalent of the warning. It needs to see me get the matches out, strike one, basically go through with my warning, before it decides I'm serious.
Addendum: Just to be real - which is far more along the lines of Being Moi than the image above - my stove top actually is much more dull and dirty. In my haste to get the post finished last night, I cheated and grabbed an image off the www.... Here is mine, today, with slurps of *something* on it I haven't had time to scrub off carefully yet. Oh, and I blew off the crumbs from this hob before I switched it on so I didn't ignite them. Ho yeah, totally house-proud! (hey, what? I only just yesterday managed to get my linen cupboard contents out of our walking-room-only master bedroom and INTO MY FIRST CUPBOARD!!!! Say it with me: halle-freakin'-luja, it's about time! more on that next post)
My somewhat duller-looking Westinghouse version, it came with this 60-something year-old weatherboard house (was one of only 3 brand new things in the old girl). Although I must say, it's a 5-burner stove and that long one in the middle is awesome!
