Jenga Dishes
Washing dishes is a chore, there’s no contest there. It sucks. It’s one of those ‘facts of life’ that your parents always told you about, but you never believed because you had this magical machine which washed them for you. You’d put them in dirty, and they’d come out clean. Magic.
Well some of us aren’t so lucky. I actually hand-wash my dishes. That’s right folks, old-school style. And then, after they’re washed they go on the drying rack. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it (okay, well, not as simple as that magical machine, but close). But, as always, there is a catch.
In the morning, after waking up gloriously refreshed (read: after hitting the snooze button at least twice, and then cursing at the clock, the world, and especially 9am lectures), I waltz into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. Relatively ordinary really. Then after trying to find a clean bowl, my journey leads me to the pile of clean, dry dishes next to the sink.
This is where the fun begins. Because dishes have been cleaned throughout the day there are different strata of crockery to be found in the drying rack. The challenge here is to identify which strata your plate belongs to, and then extract it whilst expending the least amount of effort, and not breaking anything (remembering it is early in the morning).
This last point is vital, and is where it seems I recently went wrong. I have in my possession several glasses of which I am quite proud, they have been with me through the hard times and the good. And one fateful morning recently, while trying to extricate my bowl from the drying rack, I managed to set in motion an apocalyptic event: plates flew; cutlery went everywhere; and one of my beloved glasses toppled to the floor unchecked.
Not only that, but I had to clean up the darn mess whilst still feeling upset and somewhat sleep-deprived.
I’m never playing Jenga with dishes again.
October 11th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
nor twister! I had a terrible incident with the whisker and the strainer that ended in tears!
and then there is the noise of the dishes being moved, which in some cases, no matter how hard you try to not make any noise, you still do AND happen to wake someone!
Or then there is our dishwasher which is on it’s mid life crisis… yes we all had to rediscover cleaning by hand, my brothers still have soapy cereal, (hahaha… hey dave check it out, i burped milk bubbles… *shudders*) but besides now choosing wheather to clean our dishes and dating a good-for-nothing-half-it’s-age microwave whilst wearing only black leather, it has recently decided it loves a bit of a midnight rave… and will start beeping rapidly, without warning, at any point during the day or nite! to amazement we swore it actually was beeping to flaunt it by TV Rock the other morning.
but seriously, if loosing your fav berocca glass isn’t serious enough, i think it’s time we stopped playing games with our dishes and got them a job!
October 11th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
You’ve gotta love the early-morning magic of a share-house! Poor Will
Mmm I was recently cornered and given a lesson on dish-stacking by the two lovely gals I live with, apparently my crockery-sculptures just don’t cut it and are the source of much ridicule. *sigh*
You’re not alone. And yes, god bless dishwashers.
October 12th, 2006 at 10:29 am
My flatmates in canadia refused to wash thier dishes daily, so the bench and sink were piled high with dirty crockery, pots and pans. Waking up at 7 for an 8am start at work meant spending a great deal of time not only finding a bowl and spoon in the pile but carefully moving the dishes so the microwave door could be opened.
This got so bad that for a while I would wash my daily requirement of dishes and then hide them in my room. After a few weeks I started moving the dirty dishes into the respective owners beds… mmm tuna pillow
October 14th, 2006 at 6:01 am
in CANADIA, macgyver? do you guys say that just to piss us off?
October 14th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Of course it’s Canadia! Just like the study of it is Canadiana.
And you’re quite right - real Canadians dont (hand) wash dishes. Just like we always have hour long showers (ahhh, rainfall)
Dave… that is one of the funniest posts I’ve ever read! Bubble burps and raves - you’ve got it all covered.
Will… I’ve got 2 dishwashers, if you wanna borrow one
October 17th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Well, at least your cereal bowl is plastic, so even if the rest of it smashes you can still have breakfast!
Incidentally, we have a fully-functioning dishwasher but wash by hand. I hate the ‘been sitting in the dishwasher a little longer than appropriate’ smell (it reminds me of our year 12 common room… and mould). to overcome this, many people pre-rinse their dishes… seriously what’s the point? add some soap and they’re done!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:33 am
Nah, my breakfast bowl is even better than plastic; it’s black and says ‘All Blacks’ on the bottom. It’s my little slice of Kiwiana.
I completely agree about the rinsing. While you’re at the sink, you may as well just wash them. And if the plates are going in the dishwasher, then they have a built-in rinse function. Silly people.