"Deep cleaning" the bathroom for me means including stuff that requires a step stool - wiping the top of the bathroom cabinet, de-fluffing the extractor fan, polishing up the chrome light fitting. Plus removing the cabinet shelves for a proper wash. For everyday cleaning, if I can't reach it, I don't clean it.
I have a pair of bright pink cleaning-cloth slippers for giving the bathroom floor a once over with minimal effort, then into the wash.
I'm still puzzling over my research - how did Mrs X go from being a grocer's assistants' widow in a tenement flat in 1905 to an affluent business woman in 1923??
... Would your ticket enable you to jump on the Haymarket train if needed or are you locked into a particular route?
It's the same train, Haymarket and Waverley being either end of Princes St.
That's why I was a bit puzzled that some seem to terminate at Waverley and others at Haymarket.
It's a dreich, rather wet and windy day here - presumably because I'm goung to patronise one of Linlithgow's many hairdressers this afternoon. Having not coloured my hair since before I left Canada, I've caved in: I was getting fed up of how dull it looked, so dyeing has happened. Nothing whatsoever to do with not wanting to look like the office granny tomorrow, you understand ...
I'm still puzzling over my research - how did Mrs X go from being a grocer's assistants' widow in a tenement flat in 1905 to an affluent business woman in 1923??
Maybe she had a long-lost great-uncle or something, who'd made a fortune in Australia, and who left her his money on account of her being his only surviving relative?
I'm still puzzling over my research - how did Mrs X go from being a grocer's assistants' widow in a tenement flat in 1905 to an affluent business woman in 1923??
Charitable loan from her church?
Still tired this morning. I spent this morning catching up on my studies and then a teams meeting with my supervisors. I might now go for my second walk of the day, before writing a tutorial on giving and receiving care.
Did she take over managing the shop she was grocer's assistant in?Also the war might have provided more opportunities for income, especially as her children were older.
I'm still puzzling over my research - how did Mrs X go from being a grocer's assistants' widow in a tenement flat in 1905 to an affluent business woman in 1923??
I'm still puzzling over my research - how did Mrs X go from being a grocer's assistants' widow in a tenement flat in 1905 to an affluent business woman in 1923??
That had also occurred to me but the early twentieth century offered more opportunities for poor women than 50 years previously, when prostitution often was the default option for poor working class women (research shows that it was sometimes a temporary situation between work in urban areas, especially servants). Besides which, prostitution usually led to further destitution and early death not success in business, though there were some notable exceptions; in one of my books there are examples of ordinary prostitutes saving enough money to buy a coffee shop.
Any unsolved bank robberies in the vicinity? But I agree, the answer probably lies in some mundane combination of luck, circumstances, connections, enterprise and hard work.
... from his plant pot ...
Hair has been cut, at rather greater expense than I might have wished (it was more than twice what I paid at the salon in Balerno, although it did include a "Covid safety" surcharge).
It's probably just as well I had it done though, as West Lothian has been put into Tier 4, so I suppose hairdressers will be closing. I don't know what we've done to warrant it, but it's an embuggerance, as the late Sir Terry Pratchett would have put it.
It'll mean I won't be able to see any of the family, except possibly Larry and his humans, as they live in West Lothian too.
Did you know that "brown paper packages tied up with string" are a thing of the past? Well, by post anyway. Therapeutic Banana Cake needed to be posted, and I had it beautifully packaged only to be told at the post office that the string isn't allowed as it confuses the machinery. Hopefully the cake won't escape before it should.
Did you know that "brown paper packages tied up with string" are a thing of the past? Well, by post anyway. Therapeutic Banana Cake needed to be posted, and I had it beautifully packaged only to be told at the post office that the string isn't allowed as it confuses the machinery. Hopefully the cake won't escape before it should.
Gosh, I remember living in Lisbon c.1978 and wanting to send a parcel home. I made up the parcerl and trudged up to the Post Office ... only to be told it was too small! So I trudged home, rewrapped it in a bigger box and trudged back ... only to be told that it needed string.
You can guess the rest of the story ... At least they didn't ask for sealing wax on the knot as well!
Did you know that "brown paper packages tied up with string" are a thing of the past? Well, by post anyway. Therapeutic Banana Cake needed to be posted, and I had it beautifully packaged only to be told at the post office that the string isn't allowed as it confuses the machinery. Hopefully the cake won't escape before it should.
I think the U.S. Post Office made string around packages illegal almost 50 years ago. Since so much sorting is done my machine, the strings got caught in the machinery.
My mother recalls that at Christmas, her mother would send various relatives a chicken. She would throw the chicken's neck, wrap it in brown paper, tie it with string, and post it. Another relative used to post a cake to my grandparents, likewise wrapped in brown paper. By the time it had been through the postal system, when the string was untied and the parcel was unwrapped, it was mostly crumbs.
Apologies for a question re Blighty and the (by me) earlier mentioned Edinburgh Woollen Mill - as I posted, they seem to have gone into administration now, as it says on their website, but the online shop is still up and running, from what I can see.
However, I tried to reach both their customer service and head office in Carlisle by phone, but no reply (with the lines either busy, or no answer). So I rang one of their shops in Carlisle, but unfortunately, besides confirming the above and saying 'that's all I know, my lovely' (which was rather, well, lovely of the lady...), she couldn't tell me more. For the last few days, when I try and order online, I do get to the process of paying, e.g. by PayPal, but this is cut short by a message informing me 'Sorry, no quotes are available for this order right now', regarding p&p! - And only in October I had successfully ordered things from them not once, but twice!
Any thoughts?
If not, please do not worry. I'm just curious. Ta!
forgot to mention the Faroes home was left in the late 50s, 60s, as I recall. I suspect the owners were ill, and the offspring had already gone and couldn't bring themselves to clear out all the stuff. Enamelware, packs of cleaning stuff, I seem to recall.
Back to water sources: the former game-keeper's cottage in Sussex where my mother and us two daughters lived (father with the army in West Africa) in the late 1940s had a well, but it turned out to be contaminated with Epsom salts. So my mother drew buckets of water from the pond in the copse at the back of the cottage and strained the water through muslin ex-nappies (Harringtons) to remove detritus. For drinking and cooking it was boiled first in the big copper in the corner of the scullery. What a labour!
No electricity, of course, only paraffin lamps, and the loo was a hut at the end of the garden path, kept fragrant with Elsan..
That would have been near the gypsum mines at Mountfield, I guess. We had friends near Heathfield who used water from the roof, collected in a tank, but not for drinking. I don't know where they got drinking water from.
Can’t compete with these tales of ancient plumbing, but my 1950s ex-council house does still have an outside loo (and an inside one, obvs).
Last night’s tea was tom yum soup with fish and tea stained egg, followed by Fry’s Turkish delight.
Today I have to catch up with a few students and then start this week’s marking, which is about young people and poverty. Then a meeting early evening. Younger son has a college day so the house will be fairly quiet.
Yesterday's plan was to deep clean the bathroom. I moved everything (scales / toiletries etc) onto the dining room table, removed the shelves from the bathroom cabinet and put them into the dishwasher and was all ready to start.
Then I did what was supposed to be a 5 min fact-check for an article and went down a research rabbit hole, emerging several hours later to the North East Man complaining plaintively about his missing toothbrush and toothpaste.
Today's plan is to deep clean the bathroom! But I still haven't resolved yesterday's puzzle.
I'm going to move the puzzle from my head onto this page, then clean!
Mrs X set up a successful business in 1923. This would have required a wodge of capital. Her three children, all in their early twenties, were on the cusp of successful lives. The 5 min fact-check was to identify Mrs X's late husband, who had, I assumed, left her the wodge of capital. Easy-peasy.
Except that it turned out that her husband had died in 1905, at which point the family were living in a tenement flat in a working-class area, and she was a young widow with three dependent children. Neither set of grandparents had money.
Where did the money come from? How did a young working class widow transform herself into a middle-aged middle class business woman???
How can I focus on scrubbing my grouting when this is all so interesting!
NEQ - have you read Ferdinand Mount's memoir of his Aunt Munca, 'Kiss Myself Goodbye'?
It answers just the same question... and is absolutely riveting!
Maybe your young widow worked in a munitions factory during the First World War? I don't know for sure, but I think the women were well paid, for the time. Or maybe she took lodgers? Or both of these suggestions!
Neither munitions work nor lodgers could explain this. Munitions work paid approx £1 per week. Mrs X bought a property which was advertised for sale at £1100 in May 1923, there's a notice in the papers that she was carrying out alterations in Aug 1923, which would have been more expense, and she would have had to furnish it. Her business started in early 1924. I assume business success funded the next capital outlay when she bought the adjoining property for £900 in 1930.
I've found a fourth child; when she was widowed her children were aged 12, 9, 7 and 3. Her parents may have provided child care to allow her to go out to work, but I doubt a working or lower middle class widow could earn enough to provide for four children and build up savings.
I've previously come across another woman who moved up the social ladder but her story is easily explained - she was the only child of working class parents, born after 11 years of marriage and she was given every advantage they could afford. She became a school teacher, married the headmaster, and re-invented herself, eventually publishing recollections of a childhood which included servants (!!) When she died, one of her obituaries was written by Lady Aberdeen.
The opera singer Mary Garden did a version of this, too, - born in an Aberdeen tenement, her family emigrated to America, and she started "recollecting" a childhood set amongst the heather-clad hills of her family estate.
I suspect Mrs X might also have tweaked her back story once she was safely ensconced in Aberdeen's middle classes.
In other news, my bathroom is agleam. I bought new towels and bathmat from Tesco last week as an incentive, and so they are now in situ. My bathroom, the choice of the previous owners, is completely white - shiny white wall tiles, matt white floor tiles, toilet, sink, bath, cabinet all white, with shiny chrome accessories. I love it - we have several bath mat / towel sets and they completely change the look from one week to the next - aqua one week, scarlet the next. This set is a striped pink / white / grey bathmat (£8) with pink towels (£4 ea), plus I excelled myself and bought grey marbled soap.
I’ve just had an amble in the forest with Anuka in her pram. 🙂
Opa was on a bike ride, Papa was at work and Dayda (Mummy) was waiting in for a parcel. Now I’m at our flat enjoying a coffee and pretzel before I walk to the post office.
Ours is primrose yellow. The room is tiny, the "towel rail" is the door to the boiler cupboard, and the towels are quite a mix of colours, so coordination won't be happening any time soon!
I'm not deeply enamoured of our bathroom - mostly white fittings, but a bit cheap and nasty, and beige tiles around the bath. The previous tenant had drilled holes in them, for a shelf, presumably. They've been filled in but you can tell. One of these days we'll do something about it, but it's functional for now so it can stay.
As social housing tenants, we're not rare in being prepared to invest our own money in doing the place up even though we don't own it. We already redid the floor, which was hideous 1970s lino. We save so much in rent compared to the private sector that we consider it worth it, especially given that we never plan to move out ever as long as we are still living in Paris. The floor wasn't cheap, but worth it not to have to look at that lino for the next 30 years.
NEQ, the bathroom sounds lovely. We have a white suite in ours but blue-ish tiles with a touch of green. So I can go blue or green with towels and bathmat.
Our downstairs cloakroom is also blue and white, and it's only recently that I've realised pink would go in there as a change. I've been on the hunt for pink hand towels for ages.
In other news it's wet and windy here and the way things are going today (rather behind on things I'd planned) I don't think I'm going to be getting out. My morning was punctuated by a really lovely FaceTime chat with Nenlet1 who had a half-hour window of opportunity between meetings and as she's working from home she could take a bit of time out of her day to talk to me.
I'll join in the chorus of NEQ-bathroom envy - it sounds very nice indeed. Mine has a white suite (I wouldn't have even considered it if it hadn't) but the floor is brown lino, and the two walls round the bath have beige tiles, which I wouldn't have chosen. I can live with it for now, but I'd like to replace the bath with one of those nice double-size showers (or at least a one-and-a-half size one, with a power shower - the present one is a bit feeble).
I've had a long day: I went in to my future workplace and met my new boss and some of my colleagues, who all seem very nice. As I really wasn't sure how long anything would take (including getting up and dressed - it's such an age since I've had anything to get up for that I haven't thought about how long it took), I got up at silly o'clock and ended up having an hour to kill before going for the train. Then, when I got to Waverley I had a directional brain-fart and ended up tramping all over the place before finding the right bus stop, so it was as well I'd left plenty of time. I was still half an hour early, but my boss didn't mind, and we got all the paperwork sorted in fairly short order.
Afterwards, my brother and s-i-l picked me up, as it's near where they live, and I went back to theirs for lunch. Sadly, it's probably the last time I'll see them for a while, as from Friday it'll actually be illegal for me to go to Edinburgh for anything except work.
When I got back to Linlithgow, I had a quick scoot round Tesco's, and on my way home ran into my bridesmaid and her son, which was lovely, and we've arranged to go for a walk round the loch tomorrow afternoon.
I like the bathroom a lot more since I had a custom storage unit fitted. The room is a narrow rectangle, just a loo + bath wide, so all the towels lived in an exploding wicker chest, and everything else in a tatty, unmatching cabinet. The unit is only about a foot deep, but I've discovered you can store a lot of towel if you roll rather than fold.
Lovely video @boogie. She's walking really well seeing as she isn't even one yet.
Sounds like a good day @piglet. Glad the people you are working with sound nice. Are you going to be full or part time?
We'd just had lunch today and husband was going for a quick snooze while I was hanging some washing up in the bathroom. I heard a noise at the front door but assumed it was him opening the door to a parcel delivery as I don't always hear the doorbell. No, it was an estate agent bringing round a prospective buyer. By the time they got upstairs husband was out of bed and looking wide-awake. I'd been less than impressed that after being out all day on Saturday so we could have lots of viewing we'd had not only no offers but no feedback either. Had a chat with an apologetic manager about that this afternoon. They'd had a manic day on Saturday and then staff on on Monday and Tuesday. He's now drafted in what sounds like a super-efficient retired member of staff and she is sorting things out. She sent me a very succinct list of how the Saturday's viewings went a little later this afternoon. I still can't believe we haven't had more offers. Most people don't like the road. That's fair enough but our house on a quiet road would be £50,000 to £100,000 more expensive. Our bathroom by the way is large and warm as it is the old third bedroom off the back bedroom.
Comments
I have a pair of bright pink cleaning-cloth slippers for giving the bathroom floor a once over with minimal effort, then into the wash.
That's why I was a bit puzzled that some seem to terminate at Waverley and others at Haymarket.
It's a dreich, rather wet and windy day here - presumably because I'm goung to patronise one of Linlithgow's many hairdressers this afternoon. Having not coloured my hair since before I left Canada, I've caved in: I was getting fed up of how dull it looked, so dyeing has happened. Nothing whatsoever to do with not wanting to look like the office granny tomorrow, you understand ...
Maybe she had a long-lost great-uncle or something, who'd made a fortune in Australia, and who left her his money on account of her being his only surviving relative?
Charitable loan from her church?
Still tired this morning. I spent this morning catching up on my studies and then a teams meeting with my supervisors. I might now go for my second walk of the day, before writing a tutorial on giving and receiving care.
Blackmail?
Best suggestion yet!
She was one of a family of eight, so my best guess is that one of her siblings became wealthy and helped her out.
My wife informs me that, while I was out this morning, she "sorted the wandering sailor in the bathroom". The mind boggles ...
Hair has been cut, at rather greater expense than I might have wished (it was more than twice what I paid at the salon in Balerno, although it did include a "Covid safety" surcharge).
It's probably just as well I had it done though, as West Lothian has been put into Tier 4, so I suppose hairdressers will be closing. I don't know what we've done to warrant it, but it's an embuggerance, as the late Sir Terry Pratchett would have put it.
It'll mean I won't be able to see any of the family, except possibly Larry and his humans, as they live in West Lothian too.
Did you know that "brown paper packages tied up with string" are a thing of the past? Well, by post anyway. Therapeutic Banana Cake needed to be posted, and I had it beautifully packaged only to be told at the post office that the string isn't allowed as it confuses the machinery. Hopefully the cake won't escape before it should.
You can guess the rest of the story ... At least they didn't ask for sealing wax on the knot as well!
I think the U.S. Post Office made string around packages illegal almost 50 years ago. Since so much sorting is done my machine, the strings got caught in the machinery.
However, I tried to reach both their customer service and head office in Carlisle by phone, but no reply (with the lines either busy, or no answer). So I rang one of their shops in Carlisle, but unfortunately, besides confirming the above and saying 'that's all I know, my lovely' (which was rather, well, lovely of the lady...), she couldn't tell me more. For the last few days, when I try and order online, I do get to the process of paying, e.g. by PayPal, but this is cut short by a message informing me 'Sorry, no quotes are available for this order right now', regarding p&p! - And only in October I had successfully ordered things from them not once, but twice!
Any thoughts?
If not, please do not worry. I'm just curious. Ta!
No electricity, of course, only paraffin lamps, and the loo was a hut at the end of the garden path, kept fragrant with Elsan..
Last night’s tea was tom yum soup with fish and tea stained egg, followed by Fry’s Turkish delight.
Today I have to catch up with a few students and then start this week’s marking, which is about young people and poverty. Then a meeting early evening. Younger son has a college day so the house will be fairly quiet.
Off for my morning walk.
NEQ - have you read Ferdinand Mount's memoir of his Aunt Munca, 'Kiss Myself Goodbye'?
It answers just the same question... and is absolutely riveting!
Neither munitions work nor lodgers could explain this. Munitions work paid approx £1 per week. Mrs X bought a property which was advertised for sale at £1100 in May 1923, there's a notice in the papers that she was carrying out alterations in Aug 1923, which would have been more expense, and she would have had to furnish it. Her business started in early 1924. I assume business success funded the next capital outlay when she bought the adjoining property for £900 in 1930.
I've found a fourth child; when she was widowed her children were aged 12, 9, 7 and 3. Her parents may have provided child care to allow her to go out to work, but I doubt a working or lower middle class widow could earn enough to provide for four children and build up savings.
The opera singer Mary Garden did a version of this, too, - born in an Aberdeen tenement, her family emigrated to America, and she started "recollecting" a childhood set amongst the heather-clad hills of her family estate.
I suspect Mrs X might also have tweaked her back story once she was safely ensconced in Aberdeen's middle classes.
In other news, my bathroom is agleam. I bought new towels and bathmat from Tesco last week as an incentive, and so they are now in situ. My bathroom, the choice of the previous owners, is completely white - shiny white wall tiles, matt white floor tiles, toilet, sink, bath, cabinet all white, with shiny chrome accessories. I love it - we have several bath mat / towel sets and they completely change the look from one week to the next - aqua one week, scarlet the next. This set is a striped pink / white / grey bathmat (£8) with pink towels (£4 ea), plus I excelled myself and bought grey marbled soap.
I’ve just had an amble in the forest with Anuka in her pram. 🙂
Opa was on a bike ride, Papa was at work and Dayda (Mummy) was waiting in for a parcel. Now I’m at our flat enjoying a coffee and pretzel before I walk to the post office.
As social housing tenants, we're not rare in being prepared to invest our own money in doing the place up even though we don't own it. We already redid the floor, which was hideous 1970s lino. We save so much in rent compared to the private sector that we consider it worth it, especially given that we never plan to move out ever as long as we are still living in Paris. The floor wasn't cheap, but worth it not to have to look at that lino for the next 30 years.
Our downstairs cloakroom is also blue and white, and it's only recently that I've realised pink would go in there as a change. I've been on the hunt for pink hand towels for ages.
In other news it's wet and windy here and the way things are going today (rather behind on things I'd planned) I don't think I'm going to be getting out. My morning was punctuated by a really lovely FaceTime chat with Nenlet1 who had a half-hour window of opportunity between meetings and as she's working from home she could take a bit of time out of her day to talk to me.
I've had a long day: I went in to my future workplace and met my new boss and some of my colleagues, who all seem very nice. As I really wasn't sure how long anything would take (including getting up and dressed - it's such an age since I've had anything to get up for that I haven't thought about how long it took), I got up at silly o'clock and ended up having an hour to kill before going for the train. Then, when I got to Waverley I had a directional brain-fart and ended up tramping all over the place before finding the right bus stop, so it was as well I'd left plenty of time. I was still half an hour early, but my boss didn't mind, and we got all the paperwork sorted in fairly short order.
Afterwards, my brother and s-i-l picked me up, as it's near where they live, and I went back to theirs for lunch. Sadly, it's probably the last time I'll see them for a while, as from Friday it'll actually be illegal for me to go to Edinburgh for anything except work.
When I got back to Linlithgow, I had a quick scoot round Tesco's, and on my way home ran into my bridesmaid and her son, which was lovely, and we've arranged to go for a walk round the loch tomorrow afternoon.
https://youtu.be/d04PvySEjpo
What an absolute delight!
Sounds like a successful day @Piglet . I hope you're enjoying a nice glass of WINE this evening.
Sounds like a good day @piglet. Glad the people you are working with sound nice. Are you going to be full or part time?
We'd just had lunch today and husband was going for a quick snooze while I was hanging some washing up in the bathroom. I heard a noise at the front door but assumed it was him opening the door to a parcel delivery as I don't always hear the doorbell. No, it was an estate agent bringing round a prospective buyer. By the time they got upstairs husband was out of bed and looking wide-awake. I'd been less than impressed that after being out all day on Saturday so we could have lots of viewing we'd had not only no offers but no feedback either. Had a chat with an apologetic manager about that this afternoon. They'd had a manic day on Saturday and then staff on on Monday and Tuesday. He's now drafted in what sounds like a super-efficient retired member of staff and she is sorting things out. She sent me a very succinct list of how the Saturday's viewings went a little later this afternoon. I still can't believe we haven't had more offers. Most people don't like the road. That's fair enough but our house on a quiet road would be £50,000 to £100,000 more expensive. Our bathroom by the way is large and warm as it is the old third bedroom off the back bedroom.