A Day in The Life of A Single Man

I'm not married and haven't been for 30 years.

So I get a tiny bit peed off when married people say to me "It's all right for you you've only got yourself to look after so you have plenty of time." 

WHAT!*!*

When I got married my wife said "I do the cooking and the ironing and you do the housework and maintenance." It wasn't negotiable but it worked. I had a bit more of a problem with "...and I don't do nights with the children. I have them all day." Fortunately I didn't need much sleep. It all worked very well.

So when I got out of bed one Sunday in November at 0645 and abluted after I'd taken my Alendronic Acid tablet. (It's taken once a week with a full glass of water and you have to remain upright for at least 30 minutes and not eat or drink anything else.) I decided to challenge the assumption.

Around 7.30 I fed the birds.

I stripped my bed and put the first load of washing on.

Coffee.

I finished a letter to my brother. We don't exchange emails and he doesn't talk on the telephone....at all to anyone.

Yesterday's Wordle was updated with the New Zealand/UK group that I play with. 

Breakfast of a banana, muesli and Grapenuts was consumed.

First load of washing into the dryer and second load of washing in the machine. 

I wrote a Blog post.

Started on the second and third Christmas cakes (the fruit having been soaked in brandy and Marsala for a week). They were in the oven before 11am.

Cleaned the kitchen and put everything away.

Coffee. Cancelled my Netflix subscription as I hadn't watched it for 2 years and the bank card had just expired. 

Had lunch (homemade soup and homemade bread) and did a crossword..

Made bread. Well, I put all the ingredients into the breadmaker.

Third lot of washing and second lot of drying.

Turned the mattress and made my bed .

Sorted my pills for the next two months. Not my favourite job but at lease it's over and done with for another 8 weeks.

Fed and wrapped the cakes.

Ironed the bedding and shirts (I still wear formal shirts and a tie when I leave the house).

Made a curry for dinner. 

During all this I had coffees, answered WhatsApp chats, chatted to my New Zealand Family etc etc.

Okay. I'll stop there because I think you've probably stopped reading anyway and are wondering why I am posting this. 

The reason is the comment an acquaintance made recently that I started with. 

I am 'single'. There is only one of me to look after in the house. BUT there is only one person to do all the chores. There's no difference between cooking for one or two (or four), cleaning a house for one. or two (or four) etc etc. 

So to suggest that I have less work is than a household with 2 or 3 or 4 to share all the tasks is plainly absurd. And, as you will now have gathered, it irks me.

I wrote this a little while ago and decided against publishing it until yesterday when someone else completely unrelated to the last person made the same comment.

Sunday Routine and The Prada Cup

During lockdown last year Sunday was my 'household day'. I decided that, as every day was potentially the same, I needed an 'anchor' day each week. I decided that I would do all my washing and ironing and some cleaning on Sunday. My Dad always said "The better the day, the better the deed." So it seemed appropriate. Generally speaking I am very organised so four lots of washing and five lots of drying in the dryer and ironing shirts, sheets and sundries should leave plenty of time in between for some housework and writing letters, emails, some time in Blogland some time in the garden and feeding birds etc. Of course there was always time for WhatsApp and phone calls. With earpods it's very easy to chat whilst ironing. 

And so, for the six months of lockdown that became the pattern of my Sunday. 

On the whole that has remained my Sunday ever since. Whilst ironing today (thanks to Adrian for alerting me to the fact that the Americas Cup can be watched in it's entirety on YouTube) I watched the second day of the final of the Prada Cup (a yacht race) in Auckland which will determine whether the UK or Italy meet New Zealand in The Americas Cup. These 'yachts' which travel around 40 knots lift out of the water on aerofoils. Unfortunately Team UK have so far lost all 4 races to Italy (the final is best of 13 races). 

Two Make Light Work

Someone made a comment today and it's lodged itself in what passes for my mind and I decided to get it off my chest in the form of a blog post. How's that for a pleonastic mixture of words?

What was said arose from the fact that I am a single person living alone and the other person (whose sex shall be left untold) doesn't live alone. 

The statement was something like "It's okay for you. There's only one of you. There's two of us so that's twice as much work." This was a reference to running the house not being a breadwinner. 

So when I was clearing away the dinner dishes and cleaning the pans and baking tin (just for your information I'd made a nut loaf roast with beans and mashed potatoes) it suddenly struck me that it would have been the same amount of work had I had a partner or even visitors.  

Then I got to thinking about the rest of the household chores and I had a lightbulb moment. Two people don't create much more in the way of dirt and dust in a home than one person does. There's not twice as much vacuuming or dusting.  Two people sharing the same bed don't even create more bed changing. There's more ironing, of course (assuming they iron) but precious little else that immediately comes to mind.

Conversely, though, when there is a partnership of two people they each only have half the work that the single person has.

So basically the observation made to me added insult to injury because the person concerned only has half as much work to maintain the household as I do.