There are things that are really difficult. Difficult to start, difficult to do and occasionally impossible to complete. But for every single problem, we encounter there is often somebody out there who has found a way of solving it. And if you want a quick easy shortcut then it obviously pays to examine and learn from those who have mastered it. Everybody comes at life from a different path. Indeed, they sometimes from a completely different direction and their landscape can look starting different from our own but they may well have learnt something along the way that you haven't.
One of the beauties of the internet is that we get a chance to benefit from other unique perspectives. We can learn tricks and insights that even if we had a lifetime it would never occur to us to use. So in this posting, I wanted to focus on those surprising things that I have found work. They are a weird assortment and I make no apologies for that. Usually, the solution has been found by typing in my problem on the Internet and doing a Google search. Invariably this has resulted in a list of crazy suggestions tried by others and I usually give some of them a try. Needless to say, there have been many disasters along the way and in this posting, I wanted to highlight the successful ones that actually helped me. I share them in the spirit of someone who has sieved a load of rubbish and found a few nuggets of value worth retaining.
Ironing out defects
The first problem was how to remove water stains from wooden tables. My mother's coffee table was stained because someone placed hot cups on its surface. The white round marks ruined its look and my mother hates imperfections. I came across this video and have used the technique ever since to great success. Whenever a new white ring appears on any wooden surface my mother instructs me to use 'that weird iron technique' to get rid of them. My apologies if it doesn't work for you. I can only say that it has worked every time for me. I'm not responsible if you burn yourself so please take care. But it has worked so often and so well I feel I have to share it with you. Personally, I find using no steam is better so either empty your iron of all water or turn off that option on your iron.
The medicine for dirty irons
The second trick is iron-related too and needs to be mentioned here at this point probably. What to do when your iron gets really dirty from ironing wood, or burning garments, or becomes sticky with some gunge. Having tried and watched others using sponges, dishwashing liquid, elbow grease and more dangerously even knives or metal scrubbers on irons I found the answer was paracetamol tablets. Yes, you read that right. Not for consumption but to remove the stain. I know you are questioning my sanity here but having first used this technique doubting it could possibly work I am a convert - it does! Just make sure steam is off and you don't burn yourself while doing it.
Dancing as therapy
How to make dancing fun. I am so self-conscious as a dancer that I look embarrassing on a dance floor. Any audience is enough to trigger my inability to look even vaguely normal. This is why I am so happy to watch others excel at it. I am never going to be able to attain success but am settling for watching that it can actually be achieved by others. Some do manage to excel and I can celebrate that even while failing myself.
Looking out for your neighbour
How to keep your neighbourhood safe. When visiting a village near Oxford recently, I met an elderly lady who was concerned about all the people who lived on her street during Covid lockdown. She knew many were quite old like herself, lived alone or had health issues and worried that things could be really difficult under a pandemic. So she set up a WhatsApp group for every single neighbour on her street. Then, made sure all were checked in by phone regularly. When such contact was maintained, much-needed groceries could be delivered, medicines provided and most importantly of all, every single member of the street felt part of a tightly bound concerned community. Isolation can kill and I was blown away by this small grey-haired lady's single-minded determination that no one would be neglected in difficult days. It taught me that we may find it impossible to solve the problems of a city or a town or even a village but at a neighbourhood level, individuals can begin to do so much.
Building your own home
I found this obscure video with no talking or conversation that lasts for hours and hours about a guy making his own log cabin in the wilderness. Thought it was one of those oddities that only I would watch, then had a conversation with my brother and realised he had also got hooked on this strange tale. Here I share the five-minute speeded up version but if you fancy total relaxation, look for the longer version.
Learning Languages
Easy Trick to speaking French. Apologies for this to all my french friends and relatives but he is just so funny I have to include him.
Today I passed an unusual sight. There was an English tourist stamping his feet as if doing a
demented version of Morris dancing on a sea path. As I grew closer I realised that there was a huge lizard trapped
on the path between him and his young wife.
By jumping up and down he was herding the lizard towards his terrified
wife who was cringing fearfully and shouting at him simultaneously. I know it was cruel but it was also
funny. Eventually, the lizard, the
piggy in the middle, grew tired of this game and raced up a nearby wall to
safety. I passed the young man bent
double and weeping with laughter, while his irate partner beat him over the
head with her handbag. I have no idea
why this whole event had me smiling all the way home but it did.
Perhaps our sense of humour is created at a young
age. One April the 1st my
mother shouted up to my sleeping father that the next-door neighbour had fallen
down a hole in the garden. My dad raced
out the front door, to the rescue, wearing only a hastily thrown on shirt and
nothing else. We laughed happily at
this for the rest of the day. I rest my
case; humour is cultivated and in my case has always been watered with a bit of
cruelty.
