Fixed!

My DSM is fixed! A little man, with limited English, came to my house yesterday and fixed my sewing machine. His English wasn't limited in the same way most Indians I meet have limited English. He understood the phrase "hook timing". Or at least he nodded sagely as he stuck his finger inside my sewing hook and rotated way too much of it. In fact the problem was the retaining finger had become loose, and wasn't "retaining" anything at all. It turns out it's almost as easy to adjust the retaining finger on a DSM as it is on a longarm, but only if you know how to take the entire base off your sewing machine first. I didn't know how to do this, and, having watched him, I'd lay money on he didn't either. But now I do. He overcharged me enormously by local standards, but I can't imagine I'd have got much servicing done for the equivalent of nine quid back in England. Especially as I didn't have to leave home...