Life is what you make it

When I moved into my apartment about one and a half years ago i was told by the previous owner that the fan above the stove in the kitchen was to stay on at all times, to provide proper ventilation in the apartment. The fan strength can be adjusted, and i usually keep it on the minimum, unless i'm cooking, then i usually put it on the maximum level.

The problem is, even at the maximum level it didn't seem to be doing much. In fact, sometimes i could swear the darn thing was blowing air out instead of sucking it in!

After a year and a half, i finally decided to investigate a couple of weeks ago. I spent half an hour trying to open up the big metal box over my stove, and when i finally got it up i was shocked and appalled! So much, that i brought out the camera, cause this HAD to be documented.

At first, it didn't look too bad, a little bit of dust is to be expected, right?

Let's look a little closer.

OH THE HORROR!

It looked like 10 years of cooking fumes and dust had settled in, rendering the fan useless. Thinking about the fact that this had been just a few feet away from where i prepare my food was enough to make me queezy. Unfortunately the fan couldn't be dismantled any more, so i couldn't soak it in water.. i got out a bunch of tools, and started scraping off the crap.

After an hour or so, the job was done:

Half an hour afterwards i had a fever and felt really bad, and was afraid the crap in the fan had infected me with ebola or something, but luckily i was fine again two days later...