Now with cake forks July 13, 2010

As we walked back to our hotel on the last night of our holiday, my mother noticed a kitchenware shop. I had expressly told her that shopping options on this trip would be very limited, since we’d be in small towns and even smaller villages, and so this unexpected shop really captured her attention. Since it was evening, it was closed, but she kept mentioning it, and asked if we could head back up there in the morning when it opened.

Fortunately there was a bus that went up that way, so we were able to go in. Mum had become fixated on the idea of buying me a set of cake forks, and I was worried that we’d find some in this shop, but that they would be outrageously expensive (a lot of things are pricey in Switzerland).

They did have some, and they were reasonable, and so that is how I have come to be the sort of person who owns cake forks. I used them for the first time this weekend to eat some banana bread I made. I’ll be buying doilies next…

Keeping up appearances February 17, 2010

The domestically-minded amongst you may enjoy, as I did, reading Hannah Betts’ article in Tuesday’s Times. She spent a day in John Lewis, being taught how to clean, mend and generally care for her clothes.

“My flat has gone beyond the point of looking as if I have been burgled and now resembles the lodgings of a truculent Shetland pony: all discarded drinking receptacles and strewn bedding.”

“A household of my size (er, one) should be undertaking three washes a week: a dust mite and sweat-busting 60C cycle for towels and bed linen, a coloureds wash at 40C, and a delicate cycle at 30C. …Those who merely chuck everything into a quick cycle — guilty as charged — are missing a trick.”

I really do chuck everything in the quick cycle (doesn’t everyone?) – in my defence, we bought our washing machine second-hand, and it did not come with instructions. And on the rare occasions where I’ve tried the machine’s other settings, it makes such a racket that I’m surprised local dogs don’t start howling.