Housekeeping XIII and XIV: Cooking

Gravy I

Gravy IV

Lemon chicken

Boys' lunches

Colourful compulsory coleslaw

Daughter B's requested birthday dinner pumpkin soup

The morning after

                                     
Housekeeping 13 and 14: Cooking. The final instalment of the Housekeeping log (not as it turned out). Fourteen regular housekeeping duties, from sweeping floors with all its mindless meditative repetition, to cooking in all its wondrous variety and exhausting management, housekeeping is nothing if not constant.

I have never employed a housekeeper as such, though I have worked as one while in Wellington, finishing my degree and nannying two boys. I nannied as well as kept house: ironing work shirts, vacuuming upstairs and down, cleaning the bathrooms, doing the dishes. It was a lot of work for average pay, but I enjoyed the nannying bit.

When it's your own house the 'keeping' part is not quite so bad. There is some enjoyment in almost every task, cleaning the toilet notwithstanding. Bleach stinks wherever you use it.