Explaining the “Domino effect” how a table mat impacted my day.
“If you get a moment could you wipe down the place mats please, parents will be here tomorrow” Judi said as she scurried out the door. “Fine” I said.
I mean how difficult can it be cleaning 2 wooden linked place mats. How wrong I can be sometimes. The aforementioned mats are part of a set I got in Costa Rica which is a whole other story. They are made up of linked squares of wood and very nice if I say so myself. They do have a habit of collecting pieces of food and dirt so I though the easiest thing was to dump them in the sink. All going well so far a good scrubbing and rinse will do. Drying proved more difficult but only a matter of time.
Having taken them off the little table we use in the kitchen you can now see the marks on the table so let’s give that a wipe down whilst we are at it. (Tatiana 2 the cleaner seems not to bother with the finer details of cleaning and she is somewhat scary and continues to jabber at me at every opportunity even though I make it clear I have no idea what she is on about) Easy peasy, cloth in hand I wipe the table top. Had I stopped to think I might have moved the cup of coffee I had placed there but no I left it right in the arc of my grand sweep and managed to knock it over. Murphy’s law dictates at this point that the cup has to be full which is correct and that it will go everywhere, correct.
OK Ok not a big problem just an annoyance. Starting to wipe up the coffee I now have not only the table top but the legs, the wall the windowsill the floor the cats water bowl and food bowl and a chair. So a 10 second job is being extended. Ten minutes later most of it is done. Eric will be curious as to why I am cleaning her water bowl when I only did it an hour ago but she just gives me one of those “I’ve never understood you anyway” looks and saunters off to lie under the bed where it’s cooler.
I forgot to mention it is about 95 degrees here and has been for a while so all this takes place in an environment where activity of any sort will have you sweating like a pig, well at least it keeps the weight down.
Finishing the easy bits I turn my attention to the chair which is one of those IKEA ones so it should be capable of taking a bit of a beating and shrugging it off. Not quite, the seat is some form of cloth / plastic thing and being cream now shows the clear line of my morning coffee. Mmmmm ok trying to avoid the industrial cream that can take off any stain from the hob I attempt to deal with it with washing up liquid. The issue is of course that as soon as you think you have cracked it you see all you have done is moved the stain line somewhere else so keep going until the entire seat is now done. Only slightly discolored and if you don’t look close I might get away with it. Of course I now have to do the second chair so it matches but not planning to spill coffee on that one but still have to go through the whole deal again.
It is more difficult with the sweat now running into my eyes but keep on after changing my shirt which I notice has coffee stains on as do I. Note to self wash shirt and shower when you have finished. Around an hour later and I am done, physically as well as task wise.
You would not think wiping table mats could take an hour and a half involve all the cleaning materials in the flat including the dish cloths and tea towels and require the scrubbing of 2/3 of the kitchen and my clothes and myself. So after taking a 30 minute break to recover I take a shower and change the coffee stained clothes and am off to the shops.
My shopping list includes some more dish cloths; new kitchens sponge some kitchen roll (Kleenex of course) cat food and if I can find it some “none stain” coffee.
Sometimes the slightest thing can set of a chain reaction so be careful where you put your coffee !!!!