Blogtober 2022 : Day 25
I can’t believe it’s been a week since I went over to Skipton and out for a walk around Bolton Abbey … and even to the moon!
Today has not been nearly as exciting and certainly not glamorous in any way as I have been scraping old sealant off the shower enclosure (top tip: a hair dryer helps a great deal but keep it away from water!). I have also cleaned out the extractor fan vent, got a faceful of what I hope was just dust and scrubbed away at welded-on limescale which remained almost as welded on as it was when I started. This stuff has resisted vinegar, various sprays and even scraping. Swearing at it hasn’t helped either, so I am probably going to celebrate what I’ve done and leave it at that.
I decided that this week of half term was going to be the week of Horrible Jobs. You know, those things on your to-do list (I just can’t let mine go despite attempts to live without one!) that you just keep adding to the next version of the to-do list because you don’t want to do them. Some of them aren’t even that bad – filling out insurance forms for not so small daughter’s trip to Japan next year (and she’s just signed up to go to Nepal with World Challenge the year after that (big daughter was the inspiration here with her trip to Peru with World Challenge in 2016) – the fundraising is never going to stop!); sending an email to ask somebody a question; finding a document for my tax return – they’re all piddly, fiddly things that should only take a few minutes here and there but I’ve just not wanted to do them. The shower is on that list too, and it’s taken an embarrassingly long time to get round to it as I have always had something better to do than finish scraping away at limescale.
I think I’ve put all of these jobs off because I knew that piddly and fiddly as they may be, nothing was going to take the 10 minutes that I hoped they would take. Do you have jobs like that? Filling in the insurance form meant a call to the clinic and a long wait to speak to anyone as they were busy. I can’t find the form for the tax return anywhere so it’s meant emails to try to find out if I can track it down elsewhere. I’ve spent hours in the shower today and now I need another one as I’ve covered in dusty bits.
This isn’t intended to be a grumbly blog post, just a reminder to my future self that leaving all the Horrible Jobs until they’ve got their own separate list isn’t the most fun thing to be doing over a college half term holiday – but I know that I’ll probably be here next year writing exactly the same thing!
I’m going to leave you with a photo of our courgette plant – don’t say I don’t know how to impress my blog visitors! I planted it out a little later than I should have done, I admit, but it was as if once it got its roots into a big space rather than a tiny plant pot, it didn’t know what to do with itself and it sat there all Summer doing nothing.
And now, days before November starts, it’s as if the plant trying to make up for lost time and we have more courgettes than you can shake a stick at. It looks like I need to get out allll the courgette recipes!
I hope you’ve had a good Tuesday, I’ll see you tomorrow! xx
Courgetti!!!!!
I LOVE my spiralizer (it’s a simple handheld one by OXO) and love using courgettes in this way – tossed in fresh pesto with some cherry tomatoes and a little bit of feta cheese crumbled on top is one of my favourite lunches. xxxxxxxxx
That sounds delicious Lucy.
And it’s just fallen into my shopping basket … thanks for the tip! 🙂 xx
I think perhaps it’s just been that sort of day. Although instead of household to-dos I’ve acquired a bag full of small fiddly bits to put together. In an effort to get quite a few hands-knit gifts together, I rapidly knit my projects and left them in a bag to sew up and weave in the ends “later”. I was thinking you’d probably have a good laugh at the house socks I’d knit up because they turned out rather unexpectedly… giant (it wasn’t one of your patterns.) 13 items later and I had yet to do any sewing or weaving in so that’s what I’ve been working at today. Your corgettes look lovely. I hope not so small daughter enjoys her upcoming trips. I especially hope she enjoys her trip to Japan as I’ve studied the language on and off through the years but have never been there myself. Wonderful job tackling your Horrible Jobs list. I wish you the best on ticking off the other items on the list!
Ooh, good luck with your sewing up – that’s always a job to do in front of a film or a good TV programme, I think, and then it doesn’t feel quite so much like hard work! 🙂 xx
Cleaning the oven.
Urgh.
Even worse than cleaning the shower!
And don’t get me started on washing windows…
Ah, cleaning the oven is one thing I don’t have to think about as the Aga incinerates everything that gets left in there too long – it’s the ultimate in self-cleaning oven! 🙂 xx
I’m actually very good at putting things off! For the past 10 months or so, I’ve been telling myself to take down the Christmas tinsel from around the sitting-room door-frame. I’m sure I will do it eventually!)
You only need to leave it another couple of months and it’ll be needed again! 🙂 xx
I injured my shoulder so for 12 months I couldn’t use my dominant arm. I have all the jobs to do now but too many to start. I’m overfaced! Lol x
Oh no! That doesn’t sound like fun! I hope your shoulder is better now – you definitely need to go slowly with your list, I think! 🙂 xx
I had a lot of physio and a steroid injection – the needle was longer than my hand! I don’t have full movement but no longer think chopping it off is an option. I’d roll over in the night, it wouldn’t and the sudden wrench would wake me up screaming. Calcific tendonitis. Dr spent 3+ years telling me I was getting old… I was 50. I guess I need to focus on one room at a time.
Oh goodness, that sounds awful! I’m glad you’ve got over the worst of it now xx
Well that’s an impressive courgette plant. I gave up with mine a while back! Oh I know what you mean about certain types of job. I leave them too and then always regret it. Income tax is my least favourite but once I get started it never ever seems as bad as my imagination. B x
Ugh, I’ve got the tax form on the list … I’m still putting that one off! 🙂 xx
Hi! Just a quick note to say I’ve been enjoying reading your blogtober posts, and a little tip – look up nancy Birtwistle on Instagram (of great British bake off fame) – she has a magic homemade spray that dissolves limescale without any fuss!
That sounds excellent, I will definitely do that, thank you! 🙂 xx
Limescale is a very recent problem in this part of Warrington but I bought some food grade citric acid and have found it works wonderfully on limescale. A big teaspoon in the kettle, boil it up and let it stand a few minutes. Pour away and rinse and it’s as good as new. Nowhere near as aggressive as some of the commercial cleaners. I thought if it would fix the kettle, it would probably fix the limescale collecting in the bottom of a small washbasin. I just sprinkled it on the damp basin, left it for half an hour, brushed it with an old toothbrush and it was gone. Not sure whether it would work on your shower but it’s worth a try.
Ooh, I have some citric acid, I could give that a try! Our water might be coming from somewhere else (I think that we’ve got two separate supplies in Winwick so it’s possibly the same where you are) and maybe that’s affected things. I should probably be better at cleaning the shower … 🙂 xx
Could you try Viacal in the shower. And for the future, if you can afford it, get a water softener. They transform life! You can use a teaspoon of shampoo. No need for conditioner. You barely need washing up liquid or detergent in the machine and washing dries softer too. Honestly, they are a revelation.
I’d forgotten about Viacal, I think I’ve got a bottle of it somewhere. We’re not nearly as bad as some people for limescale, this has obviously just built up over the years (shows you how often I get down on my knees to scrub underneath the shower doors!) but a softener is a good idea. I’ll investigate! 🙂 xx