Nature notes

[hypatia]

Yesterday I contrived to blink my way unto the great outdoors, complete with "He who still smiles inanely". Well, I say outdoors but after the brief shock of natural daylight the reality was a field trip to the hell that is the land of Blue and Yellow during the school hols. This was necessitated by the failure of a raid on the home

Comments

[miss_next]

To be absolutely fair, I have never used a brush for washing up in my life, but I am always very well stocked for dishcloths (these days, normally of the bamboo variety). Anything stubborn gets treated with a scouring pad.

On the other hand, I consider a brush to be absolutely essential for the cleaning of vegetables.

[hobnobs]

I find a brush is exceptionally handy for cheese graters, especially those that have a "turned up" lip at the bottom where cheese collects. (Getting it out of there with a sponge/cloth is a right malarky...)

But I can't think of anything else where a sponge/cloth wouldn't do just as well.

[hypatia]

'washing up brush' can be taken as short hand for generalised washing up kit :-) CD racks and scented candles were apparently far more important to the tribe members.

Any views on netbooks? You must come across a fair few?

[hobnobs]

I meet them, but they aren't powerful enough for what I do though so I rarely use them.

My boss has one though. He loves it.

(I swear, it's so light and thin I reckon could skim it at least 7 times on a lake. or frisbee it 50 yards. Not that my boss would appreciate either one. :) )

[hypatia]

Ikea is the one place I can almost guarantee to come home with something unplanned, always in the 'Gosh that looks really handy' section. I have no idea why - I'm pretty resistant everywhere else. I think they put something in the air conditioning and then numb your resistance as you follow their dictated storepath.

[hobnobs]

numb your resistance as you follow their dictated storepath

I am a rebel in that regard... The first time I go to an Ikea I make an effort to spot as many of the through points as possible, and will use them if I ever go back to get anything else. (Unless I'm bored, and have lots of time.)

[felinitykat]

Wow, I think we might have had a quick trip to Roses and Argos, but no Ikea.

11 years later, I still use some of the kitchen implements my mum bought me for uni (not everything though -- I think the saucepans warped and died after a few years!).

[hypatia]

Ikea was the 'do it all in one trip' option and its not that far from us (also needed new mattress for his bed and their annoying sizes mean buying their mattresses). I will admit that I was faintly dead by the time we returned home.

I still have some of the stuff I took to college with me - notably my Paddington Bear tin for tea bags still serving the same purpose :-) I don't recall taking scented candles and rugs and the like with me. On the other hand, In My Day the notion of en suite bathrooms and telephones in the rooms was an absurd fantasy. M isn't going for the en suite option (decided it wasn't worth the extra 25ukp per week, he only has to share the bathroom with a couple of others anyway) but the more expensive rooms were the first rooms to be 'sold out' which amazed me.

[felinitykat]

I think I went to uni' with a duvet and pillow, and all other soft furnishings I bought from thrift or seconds shops in town. Gosh, wasn't I deprived.

He'll value that £25 a week (unless everything else has changed too and £25 no longer goes a long way in student bars -- in my mind he should be able to buy 25 pints with that!).

[hobnobs]

Depending on the subsidy level of the bar, it'll be anywhere from ten to twenty pints. (I'm guessing around the 12 mark.)

[chickenfeet2003]

I did quite a lot of cooking at university. More effort may have gone into brewing though. This though was pre IKEA when pans could be bought from travelling tinkers and one made one's own crockery (except for Investiture mugs)

[sshi]

Heh, the Dublin IKEA is still permanently full of middle aged ladies who have been newly exposed to the idea of flatpack, but are doing almost exactly what you described above. I reckon it'll take a year or two to wear off and become just another shop, but the novelty is huuuge here, still!