Taking care of business

Susie's Stories

                                 SUSIE'S STORIES

I am working on a selection of short stories - mostly about women - to be published in two years' time. As an introduction, here is one of them - feel free to comment.

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HOW TO WASH YOUR UNDIES

When travelling, keeping up with the endless and often overwhelming array of laundry is very important to women. Blokes are not at all concerned about this, unless they run out of undies and socks. Just ask the nearest bloke about the reversal process to gain some clarity on this dilemma.

Most caravan parks have a laundry.  But, as women know, washing your underwear is more a daily consideration than a part of the major weekly wash.  Keeping up with a bloke involves a paper chase of socks, t-shirts and undies, often left in unlikely locations, strategically placed to make life more exciting for the love of his life.  The whole system falls apart when the cupboard is bare and the weather is turning very cool.

Solutions for these problems are naturally found in the shower block, where enlightened females compare ways of combatting such dilemmas.  Quietly showering one summery evening l eavesdropped on an interesting conversation.  "Nice hot shower isn't it?" commented the lady in an adjoining cubicle, to her friend further down the shower block.  "Yes," the friend agreed, "are you washing your undies?" This immediately had me hooked. "Yes l am," her friend answered, "and my t-shirt and socks." 

I was amazed by the collective washing ceremony being performed at any given time in all showers by women travelling around this big country of ours. Like the 100th-monkey syndrome, we were all latching onto this method of ensuring our underwear was clean and fresh each day.

I was very interested in the lady who took this a step further still by washing all her clothing while she shampooed her hair.+ For all caravanning and camping folk, especially those on a limited budget, this multiple usage of time and soap powder is amazingly resourceful. Imagine how many $1 coins can be saved by cutting back the weekly wash this way.

Throughout our travels l am constantly gathering sisterly advice from the 'grey nomads' we meet along the way. Like our mothers who helped us with advice on how to run our households effectively, these wandering goddesses are full of wonderful labour and money saving hints.

After all we are on the road to enjoyment and relaxation, not domestic slavery.  We all hope that we are escaping the endless drudgery of the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine, the mop and the iron.

Strangely enough it's impossible to convince the bloke that this is a wonderful idea. He still believes that womankind is addicted to cleaning, and that mankind helpfully creates the dirt and mess to aid her in her quest for fulfilment. There is simply no way he would wash his undies under the shower, when it's much more fun to plant washing in unusual places in the Bus, much more like an exciting treasure hunt.

Such are the differences we face as blokes and girlies. It is really 'too much information' when l pass on some of these wonderful travelling hints. Unlike fishing tips, housework is really on the 'let's forget it' list. It's important to remember that anything messy or unclean is invisible to blokes, though edibles such as chocolate are spotted easily and devoured instantly even when carefully concealed.

So, while l loiter around laundries and shower blocks, he checks out pontoons and piers, often coming home with tales of fishy catches. He does get to meet some interesting people from all corners of the globe, but then so do l. At the very least, by retirement age we will be well and truly clued up to this fascinating and challenging life style.