Who'd have thought it?

In the last week I’ve helped my husband change the Siamp valve/membrane (I don’t really know what it is called in English)in the toilet. I got the toilet flushing again.

I took off the old doorbell and replaced it with a new one that works. I’ve put new plugs complete with chains in the kitchen sinks.

Next up, retouching some woodwork where the doorways have got scratched by the vacuum cleaner etc.

I go on to youtube and see how to do things. Strange to say, I prefer the short silent clips to the ones where they go on and on about how they can save you money by showing you how to do things...

Get out the squeegees!

I knew what a squeegee was called in French but not in English.

When we took Olivier to his apartment for the first time there was a lot of form filling and an inventory to do with his landlord. Olivier has a brand new shower big enough for 3 people at least. The door is clear glass. Needless to say, the landlord wants to look after his assets, so he has provided a squeegee.

This inspired me to buy one for our shower and now every morning I have a quick squeege around before I get out of the shower. It takes less than a minute.

 I’m now prepared to use it to clean the windows when the weather permits. I had a look on YouTube to discover the best technique. It was interesting to see that the Anglo-Saxon videos on the subjects lasted a lot longer than the French ones. Actions speak louder than words; you don’t even need to understand French and it lasts just over 2 minutes!

A tip: For the best results, be gentle.

We've come a long way

Thank goodness it's not 1952

Early to rise

The alarm went off at four this morning. Rob had to go into work early to let the camera crew into the Chain tower as today was the la Rochelle Marathon. By eight this morning I’d already cleaned the oven door (no easy task), made the Christmas card list and cleaned the step in the shower. Since then I’ve been working and surfing. I’ve managed to prepare more postcards for online than I usually do. Perhaps I should set the alarm for 4 every morning. Perhaps not.

On Friday I had a chest x-ray. My lungs are fine but they did notice my spine is slightly arthritic (regular readers will know all about that problem) which I’ve already sorted.

After that I spent a few hours looking for something to wear for the wedding. Most shops are more interested in evening wear for Christmas and New Year at the moment, so it’s not easy. This is not going to be a formal wedding and I am not wearing a hat. I’ve managed to find one shop with clothes that I like and will go back again next Friday and try some things on.

I’ve also got to find out where to buy confetti from.

Aïe !

…Is what French people exclaim when they hurt themselves. It’s pronounced ‘eye!’. Yesterday when I was cleaning the shower, I splashed my eye with cleaning product. Fortunately I was in the right place to be able to wash it out quickly. It didn’t hurt for long but it was really red. During the evening it started to hurt a little as I was watching TV and not moving my eyes around much.

Before I went to bed I had to open a new bottle of the eye drops which I use every day because of allergies. Being the good person that I am I decided to reread the leaflet that comes with them in case there was mention of not using the drops if you got something in your eye like cleaning products. Hydrochloric acid is noted as one of the ingredients!

This morning my eye is fine thanks – just a touch of conjunctivitis in the other eye…

Did you know that if you take medicines for long periods you should check the leaflet enclosed from time to time as they are updated every now and then?

Mrs Bidery’s spidery bedroom

As I was closing the shutters one night last week I noticed several small spiders on the curtains and window. Looking around they were on the walls and along the angle where the ceiling meets the wall. Not nice, but they were small enough not to panic me. I decided to vacuum them up. One or two that had tried to escape onto the ceiling dropped onto the bed. Needless to say I vacuumed the whole room, floors and walls before going to bed. The next night there were a few and the night after, just one or two.

This morning I had to vacuum around the computer, there were four or five hanging around. I wonder if they are drawn by the wifi – or perhaps they like me?

Soap nuts - part II

I’ve now done three washes with the soap nuts. The first two were at 30°c and the last was towels and tea towels which I wash at 60°c. I’m not sure that the nuts were up to a hotter wash on their third go. The strangest part is the lack of smell. I suppose that I associate the smell of scented chemical products with clean.

As I type this, I think I’ll probably save 2 or 3 euros (3euro = $3.65 = £2.42)a month on cost, but much more on the cost to the environment. The nuts came in a ziplock bag printed with the details. The bottom of the bag is badly printed, so for the moment I’ll be using an ordinary product for whites as I add a whitener. I don’t normally use a softener except for woollens, I can’t say that the washing feels softer after using the nut and I haven’ ironed anything washed with the nuts yet. I’ve yet to try a couple of drops of scented oil with the wash. As I have two men to wash for I’ll have to choose my perfume carefully.

Nuts

I came across some soapnuts the other day at the supermarket. Apparently you put 3 or four into a little bag and place it in the washing machine. When the nuts are warm they release the ‘soap’ that cleans and the final rinse is cold which releases softener properties of the nuts. The nuts can be used two or three times depending on the temperature of the wash and then they can go into the compost How convenient of nature to arrange things naturally for us.

They don’t smell, it says on the packet, so you can put some natural oils into the wash if you want to. I think that they might work out cheaper than the product I’m using at the moment. Has anyone used them?