lizblog

The joys of housework ..... not

Following on from Angela's post of the other day, I would just like to add how much I agree with her. I find I do my most efficient housework when I am feeling angry or fed-up or both.
I am efficient.

I have developed the fastest way of doing the minimum amount of work to achieve a generally pleasing effect. Some might mistake this for enjoyment. That's a mistake. I do it because I must. When I could afford, I paid a cleaner.

The thing I hate the least is washing, I mean, after all, the washing machine does most of the work. Strangely, I quite enjoy hanging the washing out to dry. That is quite challenging in our present "garden", as the landlord laughingly chooses to refer to the weed patch out the back. If you don't get stung by nettles or pierced by one of the thorns on the particularly large thistle-like plants that grow there, then you will get covered in mud. This isn't too important however, as the carpet just inside the back door is habitually wet as it always gets soaked when it rains, so it washes any mud off the shoes very nicely.

Angela, I don't have a problem with socks either. I make sure pairs go into the washer and hang them in pairs on the line ... I know, quite an anal approach, but it saves annoyance at a later date. It does work for large numbers of people too. For 5 years I lived in a household of about 14. I also used to play a game with the kids when they were little finding all the pairs. Very good preparation for school.

Still I have run the Dyson round all the carpeted areas and emptied the bins. I rarely do dusting, what's the point, it only gets covered again. We moved in about 10 weeks ago. I think I've dusted once, though we did do quite a bit when we first moved in until we'd got it down to an acceptable level. See here for the exciting "No loss of suction ever" posting. I did complain to Dyson and a nice lady rang me back and said it must have been a VERY dirty house.

I am missing my dishwasher too. The kitchen is so small, that unless washing up is done very frequently, it is impossible to do anything else in the kitchen. So I do it, mostly. Sometimes nice visitors help, sometimes even Andy does it.

Actually, I would really like a proper job, or maybe some kind friend might find me lots of jobs to do to help her and then I would have a valid reason for not doing it at all.

Thank you for listening and good night.

Well, bake my cookie!

We have a new shop in Newbiggin. It is a bakery. It opened just yesterday.
This morning I went to encourage the owners and to sample their bakage.
This is a raspberry slice. It looked very yummy and indeed it was.
Thank you Newbiggin Home Bakery.

Which way do you hang?

correct and incorrect hangage

I was honoured to be part of an intriguing conversation this afternoon. It concerned the positioning of the toilet roll upon its hanger. A certain gentleman, (ID-W), took great pains to point out that if the roll is hung in the correct orientation, as indicated above, then a whopping 30% of paper can be saved on general wipage.

If we take a mean price of 30p a roll and make the average usage about 3 rolls a week, barring regular diarrhea, then you could be making a saving of about £15 a year just by correct hangage. It's a point worth consideration.
So much so, that I penned a small ditty, to be found on the silly poems blog. It is, of course, dedicated to ID-W. Thank you.

Gutted pretty much sums it up

Some of you will know that I had an interview today .... sorry for those who didn't. I've reached the stage of not announcing it because it makes it easier to say I had an interview and didn't get the job.

So, back to the drawing board. What makes it worse for me is that I totally loved the school and know that I would have been very happy there.

Maybe it's a good thing that we don't understand how everything will work out, but at times like this I feel knowing a little more would help.

From a rock pool

 

It is hard to believe that it's well into October, the weather is so beautiful. I couldn't resist going for a walk along the beach this morning. I went across the rocks in front of Church Point, looking in the rock pools of course. I spotted this little chap doing his thing. Awwww cute.

So it's curtains for Liz.

I've been getting a bit of supply teaching lately. Thank you Horton Grange. :-)

I was in the Reception class for a couple of days and a few of the kids had problems with my name. I can identify with that, I'm still not sure it is my name.
Anyway .... rather than Curtis, which they found a bit challenging, some called me Mrs Curtains, a much more normal sounding word.
One little lad however, caused my smile of the day. He'd obviously gone home after the first day, remembering me as Mrs Curtains, slept on it and remembered me as some form of general window covering.
Because the following morning at register, when I called his name, he answered with,
"Good morning, Mrs Blinds."

Did you ever wonder about that small OXO cube?

No, neither did I, until, involved in some vague sewing activity I had need to unearth a large needle and where other would I go than to my mother's old OXO tin with pins and needles in. It's OK, she's dead now and so has no further need for it. As you see, conscientiously marked, PINS, she obviously treasured this little tin, probably from the 1920s, complete with a small piece of newspaper ... to keep the pins and needles rust free ....
Sadly the piece of newspaper in the bottom of the tin has no date .... but it seems quite old. On the other side of the newspaper was the advert: "Don't be vague, ask for Haig."

Still it was the bottom of the tin that caught my attention. I don't think it would be allowed these days.


It reads:
As a hot drink in cold weather
For lunch sandwiches
For toast
In illness and convalescence

Fine ... though I'm not quite sure how one would make a sandwich out of an OXO cube.
It continues:
With milk for children. OXO makes milk more digestible. OXO and milk is an excellent nerve and baby food.
And the high salt content????

Maybe they've changed the recipe since then. I tried drinking a mug of water with an OXO cube in it not so long ago .... let's just say I needed to drink quite a lot of water afterwards.
So there we are, you caring mothers, give them OXO in their milk ... take a little yourselves to help your nerves ....

Now, I wonder what to look at next in my mum's sewing stuff.

The big day

For a fully illustrated and detailed account ..... have a look at Andy's blog.

These are my musings.

To begin with, I thoroughly enjoyed the day.
I still can't get over the feelings that well up when I think of all the wonderful people who came so far, who chose to put themselves to so much trouble to be with us. It makes me feel so loved and special. Thank you. Obviously, Huddersfield was the place many of my friends travelled from, but others came from as far away as: Southampton, London, the Midlands and Hereford ..... all long, long journeys. Wow!

I wouldn't have enjoyed it all so very much had it not been for the help and support of a very many people. It felt like the boot was very much on the other foot as my offspring rallied round to look after their mum. I wish you could feel what I am feeling now, as I write this.

Here are some pictures that remind me of them.

Rehearsing the song.

The bubbles.


The ivy, flowers and tables.

The cake. Awwww .....

Tim and Jason.

The recorder group: "Liz's Laddettes and a Lad."

And the man himself, without whom, none of this would ever have happened.