Beijing’s factories slipped below the line this month and so did the pressure gauge in my kitchen.
LONDON, England (Bohiney) – The rain began at breakfast and had settled into a long, thoughtful drizzle by the time the boiler made its announcement. It did this with a small clunk and a light that turned from green to a colour I would describe as sulking.
Morning: The Gauge
I have lived with this boiler for six years, and I have learned to read it the way one reads a difficult relative. A needle on the front shows the pressure. Anything between one and two is fine. This morning the needle sat at 0.8, which is what I think engineers call “a conversation”.
I rang the number on the sticker and spoke to a very calm man named Mr Ferreira-Hope, who said he could come between nine and five. I asked if he could be more precise. He said that nine and five were the precise numbers and that I was welcome to choose one.
Midday: The Readings
While I waited for the engineer I took my coffee and a laptop to the kitchen table and opened the statistics bureau’s release on the factory survey in China for October. The bureau’s Purchasing Managers’ Index release puts manufacturing at 49.3, down 0.8 points from September, below the 50 line that divides growth from contraction, and describes it as indicating a slight decline in the manufacturing climate. I found the phrase comforting in the way one finds an apologetic bank letter comforting.
Because I had nothing else to do except listen to the pipes, I took my own readings for the day, in the same spirit.
- Manufacturing index, large firms: 50.2. Medium firms: 48.4. Small firms: 47.5. The bigger the firm, the better the mood, which is also true of the buffet at a book fair.
- Production: 49.8. New orders: 49.4. Employment: 48.4. Supplier delivery time: 50.2, the only one of those that stayed above the line, and a figure I am prepared to take personally given the engineer’s window.
- Non-manufacturing business activity: 49.7. Construction: 48.0. Services: 50.0, which is as exactly balanced as a pavement tile.
- Composite output: 49.7, down 1.0 point. Business activity expectations: 54.7, so firms remain confident. I am the same about the engineer.
- Boiler pressure: 0.8. Expectations: a bit above 50.
I decided that the useful reading, in all of this, was the last one. A survey that finds hardly any growth but plenty of hope is a very human document. It could have been written by me.
Afternoon: The Neighbours
At two o’clock Mr Abernethy-Cole in the flat above began to put up a shelf. This is a thing he does roughly twice a year, with all the steady purpose of a man building a cathedral for a single paperback. The drill came through my ceiling in bursts, and I discovered that my coffee has a natural frequency.
I went up to ask how long it would be. He opened the door in a state of cheerful dust and told me forty minutes, which I understood to be a target range. A short exchange over the word “noise” followed, and we parted on terms I would describe as steady development against pressure, though I am aware that I borrowed that phrase from last week.
It reminded me of a farm.fm story about a farm of chickens that faces a rooster noise suit, and I found myself on the side of the rooster, who surely has less choice in the matter than a man with a shelf. In either case there is a complaint, a defendant, and a very strong feeling about the hour.
Evening: The Document
The engineer, Mr Ferreira-Hope, arrived at 4.40, topped up the pressure with a small brass key and called the whole matter “a bit of Barney Rubble”, which is Cockney rhyming slang for trouble, and which I am pleased to say I knew. The gauge climbed to 1.4. I almost wept. He charged me an amount that I will describe as the price of being told.
With the radiators warming, I read one more item on the same subject, from the other end of the news. The Standard in Hong Kong reports that Xinhua published the full text of the Party’s decision on strengthening its self-governance, with an explanatory speech by Xi Jinping, who said that party building determines the future of both the Party and the country and noted that this year marks the Party’s 105th anniversary.
I am not going to take liberties with that. What I will say is that it is a long way from the world of brass keys and shelves, and a good deal further from the world of Mr Abernethy-Cole, and that I ended the day grateful to be mostly governed by a boiler. A boiler at least tells you what it wants.
If you enjoy a diary that is mostly pipes, the London news told with a straight face is a good place for the rest. I write these for Bohiney, and there are more of my daily notes at Bohiney if the pressure is low where you are.
The shelf, I am told, is up. It leans slightly to the left, which the weather forecast already knew.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/