Heard
an interview on the radio this morning (Woman’s Hour at 10) with Susan Boyle,
middle-aged, singing princess-story legend. It played a recording of her
singing with Donny Osmond*, ‘This is the Moment,* 16 October, this very year:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6zjMqW_hoU; also
check out Donny serenading Susan on an earlier occasion:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTcuc-XToXo Pretty great!) She illuminated how Donny had
been her idol back in the day when she was a bullied, disadvantaged teenager.
She also told how as a young woman there’d been this guy she really liked, but
her father had disapproved and put an end to it – never had eyes for anyone
else after that. She never married. That’s really sad_
[*Someday
I want to understand why Donny and Marie got the reception they did in the UK,
to become the incredible singing sensations they did. If I have to wait ‘til I
sit down in my own personal screening room in the sky, I will learn the answer!]
Did a
load of laundry today. Something that has been interesting to me is how here in
Britain I‘ve observed one particular method of saving energy which we do not
employ back home: the idea of keeping the temperature of your wash water low –
very low! Although in America we have many suggestions for helping to save the
environment by reducing fuel costs, keeping washing water temps at an all-time
low is NOT one of them. (This particular
universal cost-and-energy-saving was new to me. We don’t talk about this as an
issue back home – perhaps we should! Rather the idea is that the very best way
to get whites really white, as well as to assist the removal of stains and
residue from the brew, is to wash them in HOT water, or in as warm of water as
the job requires – whereas the only reason you would use COLD water would be to
protect the color of your coloreds. When Myfanwy first was showing me how to
use the washing machine, she pointed out very specifically that the temperature
gauge should stay RIGHT where it was set – at 30°, the lowest end of the spectrum.
Somehow this feels counterintuitive to me as we are raised with an entirely
different scheme. In fact, 30° is the standard figure mentioned on all laundry
soap packaging to establish their credibility in the consumers mind: yes, see,
we DO do a good job – and EVEN at 30°! Personally, I have this secret suspicion
that the government is in cahoots with manufacturers to publish this – in order
to aid in keeping personal household energy costs down – as an allusion to
consumers that they are doing everything humanly possible and thus won’t
complain about the high energy costs already in existence.
Photos_
1- Susan
with her teen idol (no longer a teen - but then, are any of us?!)
2- see what I mean? I wasn't exaggerating!
2- temperature dial
3- 30°
4- 15°
(now if you thought it was 30-degree effective, check this out!)
