Hmmm, where can I start?
Well I decided that it was a good idea to tidy under the stairs. It's been a long time going to happen. There was stuff in there that hadn't seen the light of day in thirteen years or more.
This task was undertaken during a week's holiday, it had to be as it wasn't something anyone should do on a mere whim, it required forward planning ... and should have included a skip!
I started at the front - as you do - and worked my way to the back. I put all my crap straight into bin bags ... ooooh, I remember that coat ... ahhh, there's that missing glove, damn I threw it's partner away a month ago. HECK! And five, I repeat FIVE tool boxes and drills not to mention all the loose tools. Who needs five tool boxes under MY stairs when he's already got an outbuilding FULL of similar crap?
Where did all this junk come from? Bird books ...
candles ... unwanted photos ... pens ... awful ornaments ... knitting
patterns ... cookery books ... old proper light bulbs ... coats ... scarves ... umbrellas ...
pills and potions ... car vac ... kids car seat ... three footballs ... box of toys for a two year old who is now nine ... dog
toys and leads for a dog who is no more ... six empty Liquorice Allsorts tins ... many
more full ones ... someone's Mayfair diaries from the 1990's ... instructions on all electrical items ever bought going
back to the war! ... all his handy
electrician instructions (17 volumes, hand written by himself - mostly
the same instructions but lost and re-written) ... along with the handiest
gadgets you'd ever want but never use.
And ... a 'Fabulous Fred' game that I had to go out and buy new batteries for ... just in case it was indeed fabulous - it wasn't, it was horribly noisy with no visible volume control without the use of a hammer. It has now been hidden.
And ... a 'Fabulous Fred' game that I had to go out and buy new batteries for ... just in case it was indeed fabulous - it wasn't, it was horribly noisy with no visible volume control without the use of a hammer. It has now been hidden.
I placed everything of grumpy's in the front room for him to
go through when he got back from the bookies. It filled the room. I put
all the car oriented stuff in the dining room - again for him to go
through - in the hope that some of these items may actually reach the
car ... Two months later and they've not got there yet.
To go back to the cookery books, one was his mum's, so really quite old, grumpy in full Flog It mode was quite excited. He thumbed carefully through it, then went back to the inside front cover and read out to me 'Reprinted 27 times ... I wonder which edition this is, do you think it's a first edition?' ... You have to wonder don't you ...
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Proper, tidy, well-organised engineers need MORE than five toolboxes - but I agree - not under your stairs. Our tools are to be cherished, handled with love and care and kept clean in separate tool-boxes, not 'thrown' into one big box as many DIY persons do. Rattling around in one big box will 'take the edge' off tools. Grumpy knows. :)
ReplyDeleteBird books? Not Playboy I hope? :)
'Liquorice Allsorts tins'. Wow! These are collectors items - I've seen them on Real Deal And Grumpy is right - old cookery books are great - and still use proper British weights & measures.
Super stuff. :)
I love all this so called 'junk'. :)
Sorry for all the smiley-faces but you mustn't take me toooooo seriously.
Cheers....B
Hello Bernard,
Deletegrumpy's got more tools than he knows what to do with and he doesn't really use them much now.
They were the proper bird books, the sort that fly and tweet and crap on your car after you've spent a fortune feeding them :)
I still prefer proper weights and measures, I find myself converting everything to English measures. The only exception I've made thus far is for card making - I worked in cm - easier with small measurements and divisible by 10. And counting calories - I weigh in grams. But not because I want to, all the android apps I use insist on cups or grams ... what's a cup when it's at home?
Julie xx
Funny you should mention 'cups'. I think it originates from the USofA. I remember a lot of my Mother's cookbooks used the term. Anyhooooo, a few weeks back I was in need of a new washing-up brush. This took me to places in Sainsbury's that I don't frequent on my regular weekly shop. What did I spy, but little stainless-steel measures 'on offer' at half price!
ReplyDeleteAll my life I have been one for using spoons or guessing so I thought I'd buy a set. They were like five little saucepans. The largest was a 'cup' at 250mL and the smallest was a quarter 'cup' at 60mL.
So there is (to us engineers) an error for a start!
Perhaps I should have stuck with spoons?
What bugs me is all this talk of healthy eating, when we are told not to exceed daily amounts of 'this or that'. ie Do not exceed 30 grams of saturated fat, (Oh Yeh!) or 2.4 grams of sodium!(6 grams of salt) How the hell do Mr & Mrs Average measure 6 grams without a chemical balance?
I was going to tell a joke about B cups & C cups but I think you've probably had enough of my jokes this week? He,he!
Cheers....B xx
Hello Bernard,
Deletesorry I took so long to reply, I've been very busy lately.
Yes the 'cups' was explained to me a while ago in great detail about the early settlers in America having no way of measuring weights or liquids for baking, so they used their cups.
I know I should look at how much sodium I eat but I don't ... and anyway the same people who tell us this also tell us we should be eating a low fat cereal based diet, and that's what's been making me fat all these years.
Hmmm, B cups and C cups, Double D is more my style ;)
I've read your 'In My Trousers By The loo' cat post, it's sooooo funny. When I've got a bit more time, I'll pop over again for another l-o-n-g read and leave a comment.
Julie xx