NOTICES          - 2/12/2008      <--Prev : Next-->


OH FRABJOUS DAY, CALLOO CALLAY

I found myself in deep domestic trouble last week.......

It was only when I started to colour code the pegs and the washing on the washing line, that I established the truth ........ it is a fact that I had suspected all along ... housework is addictive.

We have been away from Zim just too long ... HEEHOO MUST FISH has been a tad poorly and so we have had an enforced holiday in Joburg where I found to my horror that unless one is a total slattern, domestic chores have to be done on a fairly regular basis ....

I know my Sister- in- Law Litty also had a problem when she first left Zimbabwe, we found her secretly polishing the floors at all hours of the night !!

At first it is fun, washing, ironing, cleaning, dusting, and then it becomes a bit of a chore.... but having lived in spotless shining houses our whole lives thanks to our very spoilt and privileged lifestyle, suddenly there is dust !!

Suddenly there are beds to make, floors to wash, clothes to iron, and suddenly we are totally addicted if we want to do it at all properly.

I gather one does grow out of it fortunately, but at the moment I am unconsciously using green pegs for green knickers, blue pegs for blue sox and so on and so forth ad nauseum.

It will pass .... this syndrome, I have been assured by generations of Zimbabweans who moved out into the real world just recently.

Just as the washing is an addiction, making the bed too is an addiction, the house rule is "last lying in makes the bed"

HeeHoo is exhausted he tells me, he lies on his side in bed when the Hadedas start calling at first light, keeping a watchful eye on my eyelids.

As soon as there is the slightest flicker, he shoots out of bed, making sure that he is never the last in bed in the morning !!

I used to dread the shoe cleaning story after I had watched Charlie year after year, whistling away happily buffing HeeHoos best lace-ups, polishing them to such a gleam that they could double as a mirror.

I tried it once using that lovely old shoe polish in the round tin, first applying the thick black goo with a brush, then buffing them like mad to rub the polish in, then a soft cloth to make them really shine.

THE I DISCOVERED KIWI LEATHER INSTANT WAX SHINE !! No mess no fuss, no elbow grease at all, and much the same effect with far less effort.

Oh that Nugget shoe polish had me in a black smutty mess the first time I used it, but the Kiwi is as easy as falling off a log. Our floor polish was called Cobra but our shoe polish was called Nuggett and I am glad to say that Cobra plays no part in my life at all when I am not in Bulawayo.

Our homes have traditionally had parquet flooring, tiny neat oblong blocks, laid beautifully, always gleaming, always polished to perfection, how on earth was I going to emulate that particular little domestic trick ?

Luckily there is not a parquet block to be seen this side of the Tropic of Capricorn !!

Oops the spin dryer calls, oh frabjous day, calloo callay, time to hang out the washing, hope I have some purple pegs to use with my new purple tee shirt !!

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