To all those united in isolation
A few days into our self-isolation, the subject of house chores has arisen. In the absence of our wonderful cleaning lady, [~FirstWorldProblems], I may have to revive skills that I haven’t practiced since school, such as ironing my own shirts. So when you next see me, please feel free to compliment the brand new shirt that I will almost certainly would have had to buy to replace the burnt ones.
One joy of house hold chores is that, four years after leaving education, I can finally get back to some proper procrastination. There is something very satisfying about realising that you have two jobs to do, then picking the interesting one and spending a long time doing it just right. The washing will be hung up, just as soon as I can finish this letter, and the bins can wait until tomorrow… maybe even the day after. I’m even considering turning my hand to baking, possibly I have been inspired by the Great British Bake Off or maybe I was desperately tidying my room and found a set of biscuit cutters that I got for Christmas and decided that it would be the height of rudeness not to use them, particularly as the alternative would be learning to clean the bathroom. Someone suggested starting a project for the next few months, so I am starting with the most basic biscuit recipe and I intend to be independently baking millionaire shortbread and devil’s food cake by the end of this whole kerfuffle. If it goes on too long then you can expect to see me in the Great British Bake Off final next year. Maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel called Blind Baking; I could make a whole career out of finding an excuse to get out of doing my fair share of the house work.
While I may not be entirely serious about this, I do quite like the idea of baking and I always have liked the idea. I just never had the time to learn to bake before. Quite frankly, now that I have decided to teach myself to bake, I’m actually quite looking forward to the next few months… apart from taking out the bins, washing the floors, vacuuming carpets, scrubbing the bathtub [which seems counter intuitive to me], the ironing, the dusting and the hundred and one other chores that I will be set over the coming weeks. It’s a good chance to take some time out of the continuous job searching and open-mic circuit to do something fun and random that I would never normally have considered.
I hope you are holding up as well as I am and that I will see you soon.
Yours with all the best wishes
Richard
Richard Wheatley BSc BPBH
PS
My mother has just volunteered to take over the job of house hair-dresser. On an entirely different subject, I have decided to find out if shoulder length locks suit me.