oh the shame of it all

So, here's a picture of two Collingwood players hanging on the line. Alan Didak is hanging his head in shame and Heath Shaw looks as though he is about to be garotted by his jumper. There's a lone magpie sitting on the fence (a spirit guide maybe) and fast Eddie has crashed his car in the fence. Or is that Heath Shaw's car? I don't know, and to be honest the finer points of the saga are lost on me, but it 's all really tragic. Especially if you're a Collingwood supporter which I definitely am not. It seems that not only is Shaw in big trouble for the incident; drinking, driving etc but that he let his team down by lying about it later. Hence, being hung out to dry. On the humble Hills Hoist.



OhtheshameThe Age 10/08/08



It's almost symbolic of being in the stocks and having rotten fruit thrown at you. Or of being sent home to mum who will sort you out. Anyway. I quite like the way the hills host is leaning the one side, the handle is pointing downward in a very non-phallic way and the clothes pegs are red and yellow. Which may or may not have significance.



rotating the washing inside is starting to give me the willies

Jillsintrouble_resize_resize Of course, I'm pleased that it's raining. After such a long drought, who wouldn't be? The rain sort of makes the cold bearable. I'm just sick of the endless heater shuffle, which I wrote about at length last year (and thank you to h&b for reminding me). There's nothing new to say, except that I seem to have less time and greater need for clean clothes. Which may even be deluded thinking, because I'm actually working fewer hours (well at work anyway) than this time last year. And G has much more of the housework under his control, it gets done and he seems to stress less about it than I do, which has to be a good thing.






Jackandjill_resize



illustration by Frank Adams (1871-1944) in Jack and Jill, republished as a series of six board books of diffrent gruesome childrens stories by Robert Frederick Publishers 1999 which G found by the side of the road as a complete set, in the original box. Gotta love hard rubbish.



Today I did two loads of washing and got them out in the wind mid morning. It was one of those mornings where every attempt to get things done was thwarted by fighting over a nappy change or wilful defiance of some sort. Grace ended up in her room, on her chair by the end of it. We did manage to get to playgroup and in the middle of it, it started to piss down. I was so annoyed. All that pointless energy hanging up the washing only to have to bring it in wet and shuffle it in front of the heater anyway. Should have just hung it inside to begin with.



And I need to start wearing less clothes, I mean the same clothes, but for longer. As in a washing minimisation scheme.



my new rotary clothes line

We took possession of our new house on Friday, and yes, it has a rotary clothes line. Not sure if it's a genuine Hills Hoist, but it's in good nick and will do the job nicely. It's probably where the extension will go, but G is confident we can move it. I'm pretty sure it could be moved further into in the sunny north west corner of the yard, to be surrounded by fruit trees and other garden bits.



Newhoist



From our backyard you can see into quite a few other backyards and it's clothesline city. Very nice.



We've starting talking about what to do with the laundry and I'm pleased to report that it will involve a stainless steel sink, set into a marine grade plywood bench. All re-used from what is already there. No more mouldy concrete sink! And I think we'll get a front loader washing machine. Not only more space and water efficient but way less linty clothes. Yay!



we've been hung out to dry

Gerard left this image on my computer desktop the other day. He likes retro metal music at the moment and there's often something of that ilk in the car stereo when I start driving. Which I immediately change to something more girlie and soothing. Not that women can't like metal, I mean I once painted a kitchen red to the strains of Metallica, which I guess is a soft metal.



I'm hoping that these weren't real babies, even for a moment before being airbrushed in. It's really rather a disturbing image. Those twigs holding the line up look brittle, meaning the line could fall down at any moment  and those pegs would hurt the baby's little toes.



Megadethbabes



The lyrics explain the cover somewhat...

We are the damned of all the world
With sadness in our hearts
The wounded of the wars
We've been hung out to dry
You didn't want us anyway
And now we're making up our minds
You tell us how to run our lives
We run for youthanasia

Despite the ghastly kind of image, I do like her slippers. The basket is also of exactly the same kind that was used in the bank advertisment I posted before. Funny how the mundane act of hanging laundry is used to express both abandonment and a happy cosy family setup. Maybe I should start categories for good laundry, bad laundry etc. It all depends on your point of view I geuss.





Some trivia here, according Wikepedia, the Megadeth album Youthanasia, was the first CD to contain a sticker directing purchasors to an internet site. Back in 1994.



organised people

In my mind, I'm not what I'd call an organised person. But I am really, sort of. I fill out forms neatly, answer all the questions, provide the right documentation and meet deadlines. However the neatness is a thin veil for the chaos beneath. I have paperwork all over the place and I'm always searching for it when I need it. Not saying that I lose it, well not as a rule, but I'm not so organised that I get it right, all the time. Mind you, the reason we were back at the bank today had more to do with their lack of organisation than mine.



While we were waiting to see the manager, Gerard pointed to a poster and said, there's a good washing picture. And he's put another on my desktop, perhaps he's trying to tell me something. Anyway, there's a way that I like to hang my washing, but it's not like this. And like my paperwork, my laundry is more about meeting deadlines than about being organised for the sake of it.



Organisedpeople



But I know what this ad is trying appeal to. You can sort your money into piles like your laundry and it will make you feel better. Which for most people, I'm guessing is really just a veneer of organisation. And it's no skin off the banks nose. Still, I'm glad we seem to have sorted that paperwork out. The washing, even with rain, was a doddle compared.