Apropos of Nothing.......

[SepticTone]

Mrs. Tone today recieved a promo marketing gift from Royal Caribbean Cruises of this:

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/video-su ... index.html

True. Very strange, but rather alluring, as we're going to a resort near Aya Nappa in Cyprus in a couple of months, so I may well employ them ( for our Nature Hikes, natch ) ..... but anyway, on surfing through this archetypically British website of gift ephemera, the descriptions of their completely & utterly useless yet strangely attractive product range struck a chord. They make me laugh out loud at the self-deprecating nature of the descriptions of their stuff. Typically British, I thought.

However, I also thought that this particularly useless product might make any ex-pats of a certain age think about getting their wives to buy one for them for Valentines Day:

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/retro-sw ... index.html

[davec]

Yes, just the thing for nature hikes. Love the ad copy--it is very British.

I note the add says that the 2GB flash drive stores 'all your digital gubbins'. Gubbins refers to bits and bobs, or small, worthless things, or things whose name one does not remember (doohickeys or thingamajigs, in Sepspeak) or care to divulge, or silly persons. A candidate for the dictionary???

As for the second item, looks like just the thing for ex-pats living in America. I'm sure they've all picked up American habits like jogging and doing laundry once in a blue moon, so there's the perfect place to store all of those sweaty workout socks for the month to come! I'd get one but I don't jog myself.

[SepticTone]

"Doing Laundry once in a blue moon"? Is that what Americans do?

Our washing machine is on every day, & we still peg the washing out every day, even if it's freezing cold outside, just to get that 'outside' smell on it.

Then dry it on the radiators whilst cooking a curry.

Old habits die hard.

[davec]

Oh yes. In many American homes, the enormous mountain of dirty laundry in the basement is a given. In fact, it seems to magically reappear the day after Mum dutifully churns through the old one. That tells you that everyone is hoarding more stuff in their closet until the mountain disappears. We do have some scruples... If left outside, it would be a hazard to navigation. Comes from owning more clothes than people really need to, I expect. I do home repairs for a living, and think nothing of hiking around it. Well, that will change in the next few years, as worn old old clothes fail to get replaced by Americans eating beans and rice instead of steak and asparagus.

My business partner and I do not do this, as we do not own so many clothes, being a couple of cheapass old bastards. We also eat lots of beans and rice for similar reasons.

[cbrzychcy]

Maybe I'm just not a good enough American, but I do laundry everyday. But then, having four kids can do that. I have a whole load's worth of stuff everyday just with everything that has been worn and used that day. And I hang my clothes up to dry outside, but I give them a 5 min run through the tumble dryer because it seems to me that everything is a bit stiff/scratchy after being hung up.

[SepticTone]

we do not own so many clothes, being a couple of cheapass old bastards. We also eat lots of beans and rice for similar reasons.

You said it.

However, beans & rice will make you fart bigtime, thus adding to Global Warming ( sorry to bring that up, as I know Al Gore is a sore subject nowadays).

So would hanging one's clothes out to dry then putting them into the tumble dryer, cbrzy ( not the farting bit, the other bit I mean, clearly).

Scratchy clothes are good for you anyway, as they exfoliate the skin.

I just made that bit up, but it seems sensible.

[cbrzychcy]

Scratchy clothes may be good for you and not add to global warming, but they do nothing for my sanity - of which there is very little left, I can assure you. My kids complain nonstop about the clothes being stiff and scratchy so it is just easier (not to mention softer and nicer for me too!) to just give in and use the tumble dryer a little bit. At least I am not running it for the full hour or more that is normally needed for a load of clothes.

[SepticTone]

Scratchy clothes may be good for you and not add to global warming, but they do nothing for my sanity - of which there is very little left, I can assure you. My kids complain nonstop about the clothes being stiff and scratchy so it is just easier (not to mention softer and nicer for me too!) to just give in and use the tumble dryer a little bit. At least I am not running it for the full hour or more that is normally needed for a load of clothes.

Change your fabric conditioner?

[cbrzychcy]

I've searched and searched for a softener that will work and none of them fit the bill. I wonder if there is something different put into the softener you guys have since it seems the norm is to line-dry clothes...

[SepticTone]

Yes, we do line-dry clothes to get that 'outside' freshness, wherever possible, but I'd have thought that was fairly normal everywhere in the world unless you live in a high-rise apartment & are not Italian. Bear in mind that it rains here umm, quite a lot. Which is nice, as it keeps all the grass n trees etc nice & green but not too good for line drying clothes.

Except if you're my mother-in-law, who insists on hanging out washing even if its minus 5 outside or snowing. But she is a bit bats at the best of times.

We got a new super expensive Bosch washing machine some months ago & discovered that despite its hundreds of 'special' washing programmes and a control panel festooned with controls straight out of Star Trek, we only ever use the 'Quick Wash', programme, as all the others took ages & washed & span the crap out of our clothes ( by which I mean, washed & spinned them too much, if you see what I mean, not literally, although it did do that also), which made them come out stiff & scratchy.

We use the cheapest of ASDA (Walmart) own brand fabric conditioner (moonflower & Ylang flavour), the cheapest liquid laundry stuff & spin at 1000 rather than 1400, & my wife declares herself perfectly satisfied with the results. I don't think its the air-drying which makes clothes stiff & scratchy; rather the excessive spin speeds over 1100.

BTW, you can tell it's me who does the laundry, can't you? She only irons it.