We've had a bit of snow these past few days here in Flatland and as much as I'm loving the pretty, white fluffy stuff out there, I've discovered it makes a few things in my day a little more difficult.
Yesterday I went to do the mopping and discovered that my mop had found a new calling as a snow bunny. I leave it on the balcony to dry in the sun after mopping and 99% of the time forget to bring it back in - usually, this doesn't matter but with all the freezing temperatures and snow, my mop and bucket were not only covered in snow, but the mop head had become solidly frozen and stuck to the balcony floor. I dislodged the bucket quite easily and cleared the snow off the mop and tried to pull it off only to have the whole thing fall apart and a handle in my hands with no mop head attached. It took multiple kettle loads of boiling water poured over the thing before I could eventually pry it off the frozen floor, piece by piece. I took it inside and then spent another half an hour defrosting it in a bucket of warm water - it was well and truly frozen. By the time I got to actually do the mopping, I figured that it probably would have been quicker and easier to take 5mins to pop down to the shops and buy a new one.
This one isn't such a biggie but when temperatures are below 0, the rubbish freezes. We have to leave our rubbish bags on our balcony til collection day (Wednesday) because there seems to be no such thing as a green bin here. And don't get me started of the recycling - or lack there of. They don't make it easy here!!!!! Anyway, taking the rubbish out is the one housewifey chore I've refused to take on - handy Lu won't touch revolting rubbish!!!! I leave it to Mitch and as I lay under the doona this morning while Mitch bolted out the door with the snow covered rubbish bag (trying not to drip too much melting snow through the house), I was ever so pleased this is his job.
When it's bitterly cold out (as I type this post it's a toasty -6 outside - there's a reason why I'm blogging and not at the grocery store despite the lack of bread & milk in the house), doing the groceries becomes a pain. It involves rugging up in endless layers and yet still feeling the cold the second you open the front door. I usually do a grocery 'stock up' in the car once a week or fortnight and the rest of the time, I try and ride my bike to the shops like the rest of the country. We were in need of a grocery stock up yesterday but when I walked outside, I was greeted by a frosty car. We hadn't driven since all the ice and snow that started on Monday and I was feeling slightly nervous about attempting to de-ice the car without a proper scraper and when I looked at the slippery, icy roads and the number of cars driving ever so slowly, I decided I would leave my car de-icing and snow driving practice for another day and take the bike instead. The snow had been cleared around my bike and after dumping the piles of soft snow onto the ground, I was off!!!! Rather then going straight to the shops, I decided to be clever and go to the car store where I bought 5L of antifreeze, snow chains and an ice scraper - now, I'm prepared to drive the car again!!!!
Its frosty days like these that doing the chores becomes a pain... But I wouldn't have it any other way - it's all a bit of an adventure at the moment!!!!
