As Jim was off only Saturday afternoons and his only full day at home was Sunday, I think he took a weekly bath on that holy day, and oh boy, he really and truly made a big do of it, at least that is what it looked like when I came home after work and wanted a shower or a bath.
Coming in the front door the smell of umpteen different lotions and potions met you like a wall, and that is enough to trigger my always slumbering and ready to be woken hayfever glands, and within a minute I would be oozing tears and more, and the sneezing would start. I always kept hayfever tablets, as I am really weak in that department, and after a nice strong coffee, watching some television to try and build up courage to enter the bathroom, I would start gathering my stuff for operation facing the mess.
The first time I saw the bathroom after Jim had his scrub-up, I nearly fainted, and it took ages before I could gather enough strength to go back, after having left it very abruptly.
The whole floor was covered in towels, bottles and jars were all over the place, and the bath was filled to the brim with black, oily water. To crown this, all the open jars and bottles emmited their own fragrance, but what was the grossest of all was the dirty clothes that were strewn over the floor, and which I had to pick up before I could put a foot into the room.
The clothes were luckily not too filthy, as I knew that he had a wash just after coming home from the Benn Shaen at night, before he had his dinner, and as there were always underclothes on the floor, with Irene ranting and raving about the lazy f....r, I suppose that he put on clean underclothes regularly. But a full bath was done only on Sundays.
Anyhow, that first time I stood looking at the dirty water, not knowing how to get the plug out to drain the water so that I could clean the bath, I felt quite ill, but knowing that it had to be done, I went to the kitchen and brought back two huge plastic bags which I pulled over my arm, and that worked perfectly. I kept the bags over my hands to clean off the thick black ring that was left around the bath using every cleaning agent I could find in the kitchen.
But it is wonderful how adaptable one can be, and after the shock of seeing the mess that first Sunday, I bought all kinds of cleaners that was available, and cleaned the bath without any more ado.It was only that on a Sunday, after the busy week-ends, I was usually pooped, and not really up to cleaning a bathroom before I could relax in the bath.
But my time in the wilds made up doubly for every small inconvenience! The people dacing are Irene and Jim!