Over the course of an hour and a half this afternoon, Nora and I executed the kitchen cleanup. With freshly purchased Sainsbury’s bleach, anti-bacterial spray, and various abrasive implements, I set about rendering the inside of the fridge, the counters, and all other surfaces relatively free of grime and microorganisms. After fifteen minutes trying to remove the molasses-thick, 2mm layer of pure grease (decorated with dead and dessicated insects) atop the hood on the cooker, I gave up the attempt in favour of some braver soul who will come after me. Nora helped with the kitchen shelves, all the abandoned dishes, and much else. Nobody else turned up, despite every member of Library Court having to pass at least two signs advertising this several times a day.
Almost all of the food in the fridge – from the dark brown mayonnaise to the sausages that were best before November 1998 – has been discarded, as well as much of the putrified matter on shelves and in cupboards. Walking out into the night, the sky was dancing with lines of luminescence – probably the result of 90 minutes in an enclosed, non-ventilated environment with high concentrations of sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide in the air.
Perhaps they will add a sparkle to the final version of my essay, before I march it over to Nuffield and return to finish up my Inuit presentation.
Good on you for that. Thankfully we start each year relatively clean. Well, at least without old moldy food… Though there was clearly more than a year’s worth of grime and grease in our present kitchen when we moved in.
That grease is tenacious stuff. Even pure bleach wasn’t helping much in removing it.
Some mysterious substance found its way into our MCR kitchen sink, and no-one wanted to take responsibility for it, until the scouts threatened to withhold their cleaning services unless we got rid of it. Through a mixture of caustic substances I think we’ve finally succeeded.