Laundry Questions

For some time now I've been trying to figure out how to get body odour out of clothing. I won't name names here but two of the Q family, despite daily showers and strong deodorant, have a terrible time with odour on clothes. I've tried all sorts of sprays, pre-soaking and odour neutralisers. I finally decided that someone out there must have an answer so I put the question into Google. There were miriads of solutions but a recurring theme seemed to be to put 1 cup of white vinegar in the wash. So, slightly skeptical, I decided to try it....and it works!! Fresh smelling clothes with not a hint of odour.

Speaking of laundry matters reminds me of the question that everyone asks. Why do we always end up with odd socks? Shortly after I was married my Hubby told me the answer. I'm not sure if it's his own theory or he's read it somewhere else but it goes like this:

The Parallel Universe Sock Theorem:

When the centrifugal force generated by the washing machine in the spin cycle is exactly equal and opposite to the force of rotation of the parallel universe then the right sock is projected into the parallel universe.

You know that it is the right sock which disappears because the other one is left.

Imitations

There's nothing like children to make you aware of your habits. While I was preparing dinner last week Mike asked me if he could do more 'school'. He picked up a book on pyramids and began to sit at his desk and study it intensly. I kept going with the vegetables and then heard him say, "You have to ask me a question." At first I thought he had said that he wanted to ask a question so I told him to ask away. He then said, "No, you have to ask me 'How are you going?'" I guess he's picked that up from me saying that to the older boys when they are doing school. The real interpretation of the question is, "Surely you have finished that page by now!"

I've just finished reading an extremely large biography of Charles Darwin. Apparently he became so interested in barnacles that he studied and wrote about them for 8 years which was during the time that his sons were growing up. It was so normal to them that their father studied barnacles that apparently they asked a neighbour where he (the neighbour) studied his barnacles. After all, doesn't every man study barnacles?

Hats

It may make sense to someone but not to me. I have these strange conversations with Matt at times. For example, as I came to prepare dinner I noticed that Matt seemed to be constructing something out of scrap paper and lining it with tissues:




Me: What are you making Matt?

Matt: A fur-lined winter hat.

Me: Why are you making a fur-lined winter hat when it's a rather hot spring?

Matt: This is my pretend winter hat.

And I was just wondering, does anyone know why my camera is taking pictures with lines through it?

"Up"s and Downs

Tuesday was half price movie day and as we're all on holidays we decided to go and see "Up". Being cheap day we all had to sit with no spaces between people in a row and I was on the end sitting next to a teenage boy.

"Up" is a great movie but so not fair. It had Pixar's usual hilarious moments but I spent half of the movie crying. Early on in the movie I tried to hide the fact that I was crying from the lad next to me. I figured in the dark he wouldn't see the tears and they'd dry in time. I didn't want him going home telling his family about how he had to put up with the middle-aged soppy mother he'd sat next to in the movie theatre.

It got harder as the movie went on as the emotional scenes kept coming. But then I heard it: "Sniff" and then I saw out of the corner of my eye: A hand going up to his eyes. At this point I reached for my tissues and didn't care if he saw.

If you want to see it be warned. Take the tissues.

Not there yet

Wow, this Sinks Mummy has been awfully busy. Here's an idea of what's been happening.

Last week I had a quick trip to Adelaide, city of churches:

A very pretty place it is. When arriving I was amazed at how close the houses are to the airport. I felt as if we were going to land on the roof tops. My travelling companion suggested that maybe the people who live in them are deaf. The stone houses in Adelaide are so cute but I only saw them out of a bus window so I didn't manage a picture.

Thankfully my trip to Adelaide was last week and not this one because a dust storm that swept up the east coast of Australia yesterday caused some havoc with plane trips. Here's a picture of the park behind us around 12 pm yesterday:

It looks like it's raining but it's a strange sort of orange 'rain' due to the iron-rich dust blown all the way from inland South Australia. Dust storms happen very rarely. I only have the vaguest memory of them happening once before and it was not anywhere near as bad as this. Sydney was much worse than Brisbane but Brisbane was bad enough for Lloyd who is our worst asthmatic.

A couple of nights ago Mike returned to the familiar theme of asking what I was going to be when I grew up. I reminded him that I wanted to be a Grandma. He told me that it was not right for me to be a Grandma because I didn't have any 'squiggles' on my face and Grandmas always have squiggles. I must get that boy's eyes checked but then... I don't mind the idea of my children thinking I am younger than I really am. Maybe I won't want to be a Grandma just yet.

Where have they gone?

As anyone anywhere near Brisbane can tell you we seem to have skipped spring and gone straight on to summer. Last week we had 35 degrees celcius here one day. I had to check the calendar to remind myself that it was still late winter after all. I need to digress here to mention the blogpoll. Unknown to me my blog template disappeared so I had to get a new one but the blogpoll disappeared also. I seem to think though that most agreed with me that spring was the best season closely followed by autumn with just one person voting for winter.



Along with the summer temperatures have come the common house flies. Maybe it's because some of our fly screens need checking for holes. With having the windows open some of the little blighters got in. The problem is that we don't have a fly swat. At the end of autumn I threw our last one out because it was so disgusting to look at - it was beyond the 'put gloves on and wash thoroughly outside' stage even. I figured I'd get a new one ready for spring.



Fly swats are pretty cheap. I remember when we first lived in the country town we had Anika in a little push stroller and were searching the local cheap shop for something. Anika was rather quiet so we didn't pay much attention to her until it came time to leave. She had picked up a fly swat on our travels and was waving it around the air and having a wonderful time. We bought it as we needed one at the time (it was summer). It cost all of 34c and entertained Anika for most of the afternoon until we needed to put it to use.



So why is it that I can't find one in the shops even though I seem to have searched everywhere? The pest control section, the general household section, everywhere! Please don't tell me about those fly catcher containers with the stuff inside. I tried them one year and the stuff inside reeked with a smell of rotten potatoes. *Very* rotten potatoes. I ended up putting it outside and it soon became choked with dead flies. They attract flies all right but they attract *all* the flies in the suburb so you end up with more flies than ever.



At dinner last night we mused about why there are no fly swats. I suggested that perhaps the RSPCA had outlawed them. Anika suggested Amnesty International had something to do with it. Hubby just spent his time trying the hit the flies with a rolled up towel.



Maybe we need to get inventive and make our own somehow? I found this device in Google Images:



The handle looks rather interesting. Maybe it's a fly swat shoe phone?

A Happy Perfect-Square-Plus-One Day

My little spies* tell me that in blogdom someone is celebrating a rather special day today so here's greetings from Aus to TobyBo:



When making this card a little monkey insisted on being included and the flower plant was turned into a banana plant.

No marks for guessing the monkey's name.

I had to wait until it was tomorrow today in the US before posting. I think I've got it right.

*the 'little' spies are bigger than me and are 17 and 19 years old.