Adventuring. Nostalgic cleaning. Aromatic candles. Bad Covid news.

Today, the weather being half way decent, we went off on a Diggle Chippy Hike. It would have been nice to have one of the sunny days such as we had earlier in the week but it was not to be. And on the plus side, it did not rain and the area around the duckpond, where we sit at picnic tables and eat our fish and chips, has mostly dried up.

Diggle Chippy is essentially a wooden hut, the size of a smallish garage, fitted out with the necessary deep-fat frier and other equipment. When they are able to invite people inside again, it’s worth a visit as it is decorated with photos of Old Diggle: school photos, amateur football teams, cricket teams, Whit Walks and the like. At the moment you give your order at the front door, pay for it, usually by contactless credit or debit card, give your name and wait round the corner by the back door for your order to be delivered. All very efficient.

My brother-in-law and I speculated on the likelihood, probably nil, of such an establishment getting planning permission if it was proposed nowadays. But it’s a longstanding establishment now. 

 In this morning’s paper I came across an article about cleaning. In the past, it seems, before modern cleaning products were around, housekeepers used strange methods to clean their homes. Among other things was the use fo fresh white bread to clean wallpaper.  It has to be fresh because as it gets older it becomes more abrasive and your wallpaper suffers. You might well end up with clean wallpaper but there would be a lot of crumbs on the floor. So if you fancy this method, you need to combine it with a modern vacuum cleaner to clear up the resulting mess. Another recommendation was scrubbing flagstone floors with milk - down on your knees, scrubbing each flagstone in turn - skimmed milk works best! Nothing was said in the article about rinsing, which surely must be necessary in order to avoid the nasty smell of milk gradually going sour. I don’t plan on trying either of these ideas.,

On the house-beautiful front, I have never been much of a fan of scented candles. I have always found the shop that sell a range of soap and other strongly-flavoured stuff, Lush, absolutely overwhelming. Just walking past is too much for me - well, it used to be, back when I used to walk last such shops - and entering the establishment is next to impossible. I feel much the same about scented candles, which I know many people really love. Consequently I was amused to read this article about someone who was given, or won in a competition, a Gwyneth Paltrow candle, supposedly smelling of her vagina. Surely not! And how does she actually know what her vagina smells like? Does she know a special yoga position? Would you want to make your home smell of that? Anyway, this lady’s candle exploded, fortunately without setting her house on fire. It did make a waxy mess though. Which just shows I am right to avoid such candles. Clean your house instead and open some windows.

On the Covid front, I note that Paris is going into lockdown for four weeks. Italy and Germany have rising rates of infection. And there are all kinds of problems going on with the vaccine. We’re not out of the woods just yet.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!