The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

Did you know…that every year Norway donates a Christmas Tree to the people of Britain in recognition of the help Britain gave to Norway during the Second World War? Apart from this being quite a nice way to say thanks, there are a number of other rituals that accompany the giving of the tree that I have found personally quite charming, if a little funny when I imagine them in my head. Things like the selection of the tree. Imagine the Lord Major of Westminster, the Mayor of Oslo and the British Ambassador to Norway trekking through the Norwegian pine forest to hunt down the so-called ‘queen of the forest’; the carefully selected spruce that’s over 20 metres high and 50-60 years old. That image makes me smile. In fact any image with trees in it usually does the trick to be honest. But, did you know….that the tree is decorated with energy efficient light bulbs. No? Me either. I am heartened, I have to say.

Tell us about your tree, or about the time you visited Norway. Or any stories about Mayors or Ambassadors. Speak to us, we’re listening…

Continue reading

I’ve got a question.  Lots of animals have very distinct personalities.  I’ll give you a few examples:

Greedy Pig

Dirty Dog

Culture Vulture

News Hound

Night Owl

Lazy Cow

Busy Bee

Cheeky Monkey

erm, no can’t think of any others.

But what, my dear Laundrettes, is the defining characteristic of a Walrus?

Love Rachel

Continue reading

I’ve been trying to be more cultured recently on the cheap.  Or I mean use my brian for non work activity.  So last night, and I’m not sure if I approve of this or not, but I went to a free preview of a More4 film that is on Tuesday 9th.  I think I thought it was the ICA, which seems little bit more cool with fewer strange hats.  Anyway we found ourselves there, had to struggle through a protest, I say struggle, I mean engage the protesters in a healthy debate about the pros and cons of giving everyone (no matter who they are and how aborant their views are) a platform.

Continue reading

Bananas, pineapples and popcorn are all food items I’ve had squished, tipped and thrown on me for no better reason than that someone found it funny or, even, arty.

Continue reading

I had my hair cut last week in a place in town. It had been a while since I’d got it done and the lady was on full, confess your sins to me mode, like when you haven’t been to the dentists. She recomended all these crazy treatments but as i’d got the haircut on a discounted ticket (thank you Franky, forever queen of the bargains- can sniff a reduced label a mile off) I thought no. Not a good idea. I don’t know if this was the reason the hair ended up how it did.. She asked if I wanted it dried straight. Well, actually no, I said. Although I look quite normal now, with my hair straightened it has been said that I resemble Neil from the Young Ones. She didn’t get the reference but agreed to honor my wishes and keep it curly. BIG MISTAKE. I could see the frizz drying layer by layer as she defused and pumped serum to the high heavens. In the end, at best it could be said that I looked like I was off to one of those crazy fashion shoots where they make the girls hair look like they’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards, at worst like maybe I wouldn’t fit through the train doors on the way home. As she angled the mirror round the back of my head with approving eyes, I beamed back at her. I love it! Well, you’re never going to say blrrgh to them are you…

Have you any hairy nightmares for me?

Continue reading

I recently treated my family  to a special trip to see Motown sensations The Temptations.  My mum slipped over on St Leonard’s steps (famous Shropshire landmark in the summer after a glass or two of wine revelling with her 30 year old friends and broke her leg.  Mum was reallly worried about people standing up in front of her in the concert and not being able to stand because of her 50% mended leg and all; I thought, oh tsk, it might ruin it all, she won’t be able to see, we’ll be worrying about her. It’s all she could talk about for while we were in the bar before hand.  Half way through The Temptations formation dancing, toe tapping wonderfulness,

Continue reading

I’ve been so impressed with you Launderers’ poetic abilities in haiku that I am setting you another challenge. Palindrome! The curious art of making sentences read the same backwards as they do forwards. The word palindrome is derived from the Greek palíndromos, meaning running back again. Apparently there are a number of folk out there who dedicate a fair amount of their time working these out. Lawrence Levine wrote a palindromic novel of 31,957 words, Dr. Awkward and Olson in Oslo in 1986.

Continue reading

The nights are getting darker and my toes are getting colder, maybe it’s because our eco office hasn’t turned the heating on yet. Or maybe it’s the chills from Halloween weekend, wa ha haaah.

Some say pah, stupid americanised commercial money spinner (you  could buy a wooden broomstick in my local supermarket this year and a plastic pumpkin to hold your booty of sweets and a teeny-tiny pumpkin for carving for about 4 quid!!), but me? I can’t get enough of these opportunities for ruckus and collective celebration on a theme.

Continue reading

A stone
minding its own business in a field
suffocates a plant
- Ivor Cutler

A short poem for my short comings at not putting enough time aside for the blog - bad planning.

I’d like you to take inspiration from the poem, get your creative juices flowing/rushing/whooshing and tell me about other accidents that inanimate objects might have.

Rachel

Continue reading

Here at our colourful home of BedZed we’re getting a new kitchen fitted and, as I write, there are things going bump through the wall. This all got me thinking about slightly worrying kitchen discoveries: not that we made any here I’m sure, but those of us who’ve been students or lived in well-cheap accommodation will know where I’m coming from here. Not all ‘issues’ are as immediately telling as the avocado bathroom suite, especially in the kitchen. Doors that fall off, fridges that you can never get that smell out of, discoveries that other inhabitants of this planet share your cooking space and housemates that hide the washing up in their rooms to avoid having to do it! It’s the little things that can make a kitchen a happy place to get your 5 a day in, like things that well, just work. I remember being delighted when I moved into a place that had a gas cooker I could light by using the switch made especially for the job. What a feeling, what a rush! (What a sad girl, this one!)

Thankfully, my kitchen stories of horror cannot be paralleled with my colleague Amy, whose kitchen, unbeknownst to her and her housemates, had an enormous hole in the wall through which the kitchen floor would regularly get flooded. When it dried out, it would grow proper mushrooms and everything. The landlord thought the step outside the back door was wonky and that was diverted the rain in…

(That reminds me of my mum’s morris traveller car that grew two beautiful little mushrooms in the back. I’m sure they harboured naughty faeries that made me rubbish at reverse parking.)

Mice, wiggly things, creepy crawly things? Don’t hold back; we have strong constitutions over ‘ere.

Tell us of your kitchen horrors!

Continue reading

One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told

I saw a couple of magpies on the way to work this morning, and saluted them both, which is what I’ve always done. But, (after thinking ‘ooh maybe magpie superstitions could make a good little laundry blog’) I looked into the mythology and the rhyme a wee (wikipedia) bit once I got in, and I now have reason to be believe I may have been approaching the whole thing with totally the wrong superstitious logic…

Continue reading

Ok so it was to be expected, or dreaded.  We did have some teensy  teething problems, when The Laundry hit super technology and started our e-commerce site.

Should be all whizzy and carefree this week, but it got me thinking about some tooth nasties.

So I’ve wapped teething problems into the search engine and guess what comes up? BBC america (I didn’t know this existed) have made a documentary called “The Worst Teeth in Britain”, the traiters, we all know that the yanks think we have a mouth full of ugly nashers, we don’t need our national treasure confirming the suspicion and I’m not talking about Hugh Grant. 

Continue reading

With the official launch of our new website at 4pm on Tuesday the 30th September, what an historic day!  I thought I’d treat you to the history of websites.  Whoopa.

There is some debate about the first ever website, some say Al Gore claimed to invent the www, others say that’s hear say – some people accuse me of not knowing the difference between the internet and the world wide web, some people might be right.

Continue reading

Earlier this week, the BioRegional Charcoal Company launched its new, standalone, consumer-friendly website - www.bioregionalhomegrown.co.uk - where customers can find out more about the products, the producer network (including producer map) and how buying BioRegional HomeGrown products helps UK woodlands and biodiversity.
Harry’s BBQ tip- What not to grill.

Continue reading