Thread 10 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 9).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Yeah, that's amazing.

It’s mind-blowing. And you explain it so well, bint! Do you offer private tuition?

Beautifully explained as always @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn!

I can add a personal note. Several decades ago, DFiL had a minor stroke, from which he appeared to recover fully. It was then discovered, after he drove his car into a stationary lorry, that he'd lost half his visual field (they took his licence away). So he has what he calls "his blind side" where he can't see if you approach him or put something there. Despite this, he can execute most distance and balance tasks completely accurately (things which are generally held to require binocular vision).

This includes riding a bicycle to get around, and these days in his 90s he still whizzes around on an electric bike. This alarms us all greatly because, y'know, he can't see stuff approaching from one side! But he bloody won't be told.

WRT to menthol-type things and people who can't smell, I have another personal note. My aunt had her olfactory nerve damaged when she had a brain tumour removed, and can't smell anything. But when she has a cold, she still uses the Asian equivalent of Vicks (minyak angin) and claims it works just as well to relieve congestion.

Oh, and I wish I was the sort of person who always dries my sink/ shower/ bath. I think it genuinely makes a huge difference to making the place look clean and tidy. And more importantly delays the growth of wet-surface-related grot, making it actually a labour-saving habit.

But I don't dry my sink.

I rinse round ours and swill it and use the brush, which takes a few minutes, as it's a flat bottomed, Belfast type. My wife favours the "Leave it to Sinner to get rid of the slime and food debris in the plughole" approach.

I feel like @SinnerBoy and I have mirror roles in our respective households.

On a lighter note, earlier this week I observed a flock of long-tailed tits in my garden and I happened to have my real camera charged and to hand. Even so, it was nearly impossible to capture the fast-moving little fluff-balls and I mostly got blurs or empty branches.

Long-tailed tits are sweet little birds. We generally get a big flock in winter who gather in the huge lime trees in the school grounds over the back from us.

As for drying the sink, the idea never has occurred to me, though I do wipe down around the edges so the sealant doesn't go horrible. I read yesterday that ash from burning wood is good for cleaning sinks and for mopping up greasy spills, so will be trying that.

Aah! Long tailed tits are great, we had a family of ten in and out of the back yard last year.

Gorgeous tits, Kuc! And on perfect foliage background too.

Did your FiL know he couldn't see things on that side? (The opposite of blindsight also occurs. People can lose vision - usually just on 1 side - but have no idea they have done so. Either because the brain is filling in the gap with predicted information; or more rarely because they have completely lost the concept of that side existing.)

I do dry handwashing sinks - and as a result never have to clean them. I'd like to do the same with kitchen sink, bath and shower, but the significant step up in effort means I don't. With handwashing sinks it's no effort at all because we don't use hand towels; we have a basket of hand drying cloths that are used once and then washed, so it's 'dry hands and sink' as 1 operation with the same cloth.

Long-tailed tits are one of the cutest birds IMO. So round.

I don’t dry my sinks but do dry the tiles and sealant in the bathroom after I’ve had a shower otherwise it gets mouldy very quickly.

I never witnessed it myself, but was taught as a student nurse that someone who’s had a stroke with a bad hemianopia (blindness on one side) when asked to draw a picture of themselves MAY draw just a half-person with just one side, one leg, one arm, etc.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn you and I have the same hand washing sink tactic. I use those little flannel-size cloths that come in packs from the dollar store (now $1.25 because inflation) which do the job splendidly.

I love my bath, which is large and deep, but it’s old now, the enamel is wearing off in places, and it has riveted holes drilled in the bottom to serve the Heath Robinson-style hot air jacuzzi thing that packed up about 6 months after we moved here 24 years ago.

So I don’t want a new bath, I just want this one re-enamelled and the holes covered up. Are there enamelists who’ll come to your house and do it there, or would we have to take it to them (and if went to the bother of taking the whole thing out we might as well buy a new one)?

You might be able to do the job yourself, Mavis. I did a search on 'bath re-enamel spray' and there were quite a lot of options.

Might look into this for us too as our bath is about 100 years old and the enamel is very worn. The toilet is too and the glaze has been scrubbed off in places.

Ah yes, the toilet bowl is also missing enamel right at the bottom of the bowl at the back, just before the S-bend, and it looks terrible! It’s pretty well concreted into the floor, so would be a pain to replace - thanks for the suggestion, that would be a lot cheaper and easier!

Same here. Our toilet is revolting and I've never been able to get it looking clean in the 14 years we've lived here. Tried every supposedly magical cleaner there is and have even left some to sit while we've been away but it's made sod all difference. Someone said about using Coca Cola but that just made things worse and caused more staining. The loo itself is art deco and is quite attractive, so it would be lovely to no longer feel the need to explain to those using it for the first time that we do actually attempt to get it clean.

Have you tried lime scale remover rather than cleaner? When my son's toilet looked awful, a few treatments with that brought it back to looking decent.

Yes, Brit, I've tried several brands but sadly none of them made any real difference, even when left in the pan for days.

I’m certain when we looked at this house before buying it that the vendors said the only mains water supply is to the toilet, there’s a water tank for all the sinks, bath, etc, but macman doesn’t remember this. I think it’s right because the dogs drink exclusively from the toilet bowl or the flush if we see them standing patiently waiting.

They aren’t stupid dogs but don’t seem to grasp that THEY could probably flush it themselves, and that it takes three minutes for the cistern to refill so no I can’t flush it again immediately, I have to wait for the water noise to stop.

Oh, the outside tap is also mains-served, because if we leave the hose running the cistern stops filling.

Where does the water in the taps come from if the only mains water is the loo and outside tap? Or is your set up like someone I know who has their own spring-fed water supply?

From a water tank upstairs that’s mains-fed. The outside tap is on the other side of the downstairs (our only) bathroom wall. I meant the only water that doesn’t come via storage tank, I suppose, and the dogs seem to notice even if I don’t.

Got it. That's funny about the dogs as the cat who lives at the spring-fed water property prefers to drink out of the water feature.

I’d love a natural spring supply, a neighbour has it and what with the septic tank pays no water rates at all. It’s his place - a smallholding - I’m moving into at the end of the world when I’m the sole survivor of the apocalypse. He has a solid fuel range too, so I’ll be warm and watered.

Thinking about this stuff for the bath. Looks like it's best done in summer which is just as well as it'll take me that long to pluck up the courage to do the job.

https://www.paints4trade.com/renotub--premium-bath-resurfacing-enamel-paint-265187-p.asp