Drying your duds and a swing at home

Something I've picked up over the years of being on the information super highway, is that generally Americans don't hang washing outside to dry. There must be plenty of opportunities to dry clothing on a line outside in the warmer months, but it doesn't seem to be a thing they do, even if they have a freestanding house.

I can't dry clothing outside, even on the balcony, as that is prohibited by Owners' Corporation rules. But when we had a free standing house, we dried clothes on an outside clothes line, perhaps at times having to give them a final finish in a clothes dryer for ten minutes in the winter. Truly, I could never tell the difference but people used to say how lovely and fresh their clothing, bedding and towels were if they were dried outside (in air full of traffic exhaust fumes).

Now, I and my tenants hang our washing on the clothes rack in the spare bedroom and turn on the ceiling fan. Maybe twelve hours after being under the overhead fan, the garments will dry. They never use the clothes dryer, but I do for a short time to soften up my towels once they are dryish. My worn socks and jocks are washed about once a fortnight, and dried in the dryer. I am not hanging up 42 small garments on a clothes rack. Not shown in yesterday's post of our house was a pull out clothes line attached the neighbour's brick wall, but I can't remember what it was attached to when pulled out. The clothes dryer was rarely used. 

Of course the Australian invention, the Hills Hoist, dried clothes in most back yards of Australian houses. They would spin around in the wind and they were raised higher by a crank handle, or if you were posh but without staff, mains water pressure. On very hot days with a strong wind, you could almost hang your washing out and take inside as dry the first garment you hung up by the time you hung out the last garment. Strong horizontal bars on something that could spin were very enticing to children, so a number of inferior brands would have bent bars. Yes, I was guilty. 

I expect if people have the space, a form of the Hills Hoist is still used, now made by aluminium and nylon cord but back in the day, galvanised steel and twisted wire rope.  

So be it Britain, Europe or America, how do you dry your clothes, and is it economical?

I didn't expect this

I can't say we've ever sanded before we painted. It probably showed under close scrutiny. By golly did the painter pair sand today. Consequently everywhere except my bedroom is covered in white dust, including me (lucky lead in paint was banned a long time ago). I've wiped down the screen here, the keyboard, mouse and mat, along with my lounge chair and the kitchen benches. It is pointless to do more as only half the sanding is done. By golly, the two guys really know their stuff.

A couple of you expressed concerns about the security of my belongings. The painter has redecorated many apartments in the building and has a list of apartments waiting for his services. As I said to someone, the building is getting older and apartments are needing renovations and redecorating. The organiser lives in the building. They have very high reputations which I am quite sure they would never risk by petty pilfering. This is our fifth large renovation in our lifetimes, well my lifetime, plus many other tradespeople in our homes and we've never had an issue with any tradesperson so far as theft goes. The only thing that was ever stolen was in our East Malvern house when it was open for inspection for prospective buyers before sale, and someone nicked our wash basin plug. Although the plug was a bit special at the time, in retrospect it was gauche. It was probably the real estate agent. 

These painters know I can't do much due to arthritis and at the moment, temporary back pain. They are just getting on with it. Aside from a little clean up dusting, I've done nothing all day, except from going out twice and loading the car with op shop donations.

They are thorough. 

The living area.

Spare room. 

Linen press.

Ray's bedroom. 

The dining table. 

 Totally off topic, I just saw a news story about a woman whose car was stolen as it was sitting in front of her house warming the interior for her children before she drove them school. It may have been 5-10/40-50 degrees. I don't think I need to say any more. 

The revolting kiddies

Teen age children have been out on the streets protesting against the invasion of Gaza by Israel. Once I was an ignorant young teenage supporter of Mao Tse Tung and the communist party in China. Naïve idealism, at best.

Most of my schoolmates were uninterested in such things as world politics but for some reason a few of us were. I was influenced by a fellow student, one Morag Mason whose older brother was studying at Monash University, which was probably the most politically active Melbourne university back then. I was given a copy of Mao's Little Red Book. I didn't read it. I was too busy sitting on top of my wardrobe chanting Hari Krishna.  We loved the Ford Cortina with the peace sign tail lights.

I don't have a problem with you if you are moderately religious, religion is just not my thing. Australia was riven by the Protestant and Catholic divide and even in my young years, I remember being at the 'mixed' Trafalgar swimming pool, hearing my older school mates chant Catholic dogs, sitting on logs, eating maggots out of frogs. The Catholics had a verse to chant to call back. Children are led by adults and there weren't Catholics in our family. Nothing was ever said, but we were just different to them. Even so, my parents were good neighbours with the Catholics on the farm next door to us, just not quite friends. Young people would simply not understand the Protestant/Catholic divide of my childhood. I think after the election of God Gough Whitlam, the divide just disappeared. Catholic or Protestant became of no interest to anyone. 

What we all wanted was world peace. Isn't that what the ignorant Australian children are protesting for. They seem to be unaware of the murder of innocents in Israel, the rapes and the abductions by Hamas. But by golly, isn't Israel having revenge against the innocent people of Gaza, dead person score way in Israel's favour. Israel has oppressed the people of Gaza for so long. 

The ignorant children here are not protesting against Israel. They are protesting against the killing and the injuring of children of their own age. Even as I was so ignorant, as they are, we all hate war and the killing of humans, especially if we feel empathy.

Religion causes so many problems in the world and this graph is interesting, stolen from Bob perhaps. I take a little pride in Australia being red on both counts. Let's keep it that way. 

X Post

I am not bragging but there is one skill in life I had, but like piano playing, I can no longer really remember how to do it. My fingers are instinctive on this keyboard but no longer on piano keys. Piano playing is not like riding a bicycle. 

My skill was sex. I was rather good at it. I don't think I ever didn't enjoy sex and I hungered for it. Sometimes I wanted sex again with the same person but generally it was the thrill of new. Repeats, only if I had connected with them. With much relief, the hunger started to ease off in my early fifties to almost non existent now. Almost. I was so full of myself that I would think, I would like to have sex with me. Now it is who would want sex with me. Not me. Not anyone. I am nothing if not a realist. 

I still find it such an interesting thing that humans do and how it can drive people. 

This post was inspired by an article in a newspaper I just skimmed through headlined, When Should Parents Talk to their Children About Internet Pornography. An age wasn't specified but I would guess as soon as they begin to use the internet. It was phrased like to children 'If you see naked adults doing things with each other that you don't understand or makes you feel uncomfortable, tell your parents or a responsible adult'.

At the age of twelve, maybe younger, that would have been a red rag to a bull for me. What is this uncomfortable stuff? What are naked adults doing?  I want to know. I want to see. I have been warned about this, so it must be interesting. 

Being a child rearing expert without having had children, here is what I would tell my children at an age I can't judge.

My dearest child, you do know that what you have seen is a movie made for adults? It is scripted, there is a director, a producer and camera operators. The performers are professional paid actors in the movie and their acting can be very convincing, just like with most movies. Dearest child, you know that movies are not real life and pornography is no different. Interesting and enjoyable perhaps to view, but it is not real life and not how things actually work in real life. It's just like movies/films, tv, music clips, influencers and video gaming.

I really think the worst thing about the very young is seeing well produced pornography is that it is real life, and we of a certain age know sex is a very much more complicated beast.

Endangering our children

"Too dangerous", the cry went out when this new children's playground opened at Southbank. Esteemed broadcaster Ms Virginia Trioli agreed. Not so, said the designer and the Lord Mayor. I investigated myself. 

The first thing I noticed when I stepped onto the hard bluestone paving is that it wasn't. It was a little disconcerting to step on to spongy paving when I expected a hard surface. Nothing worse than expecting something hard and it turns out to being soft.

Looky, rocks on wheels. How to break your doting grandmother's ankles with a decent shove of a rock. What fun.

It does look a bit risky and that is the point of the design. However, it meets the highest safety standards for a children's playground. The rocks are of course bolted down and only look like they are on wheels. 

Among the forest of high rise apartments of Southbank will be many young children and I expect they will very much like this playground.

Well done City of Melbourne and the designer.