I've had visitors bearing gifts

True to their word, our local Fire Brigade (are they still called a Brigade, or should we be calling them a Service?) sent two Fire Fighters to check out our fire safety awareness and fire alarms this morning.  

Well I'm not sure if they were Fire Fighters,  they could have been ex-Fighters who now have the dubious pleasure of going house to house fitting fire alarms for those of us who lost their temper with the last smoke alarm because the bloody thing used to deafen any one walking within a five mile radius of our kitchen  if I so much as boiled a kettle!

Suitably chastened and now the proud owner of two spanking new fire alarms that don't even need batteries (how does that work?) I am now trying to find a way of fitting the child gate across the kitchen door in such a  way that I can close the door while I'm cooking so the bloody things don't go off when I'm cooking dinner tonight.  

(The poor Fire Fighter (ex or otherwise) looked very confused when I tried to explain to her that the gate wasn't to keep children out of the kitchen rather to keep the dogs in - she didn't say a word, she just smiled sweetly and hurriedly made her escape)