One of my jobs in the house is laundry. It is my habit to have two hand towels and two tea towels in the kitchen at any one time (don’t worry, the story gets better). I have noticed a few times my husband wiping his mouth on the hand towels, and he just grunts angrily when I say “Ewww!” But this week I have discovered the real truth – it was on Tuesday, when I saw him peeling prawns and then wiping his slimy hands directly on the hand towel without washing them first. I remonstrated with him and he defended himself by saying that his idol and mentor, Gordon Ramsey, always has a cloth over his shoulder that he wipes his hands on, that he calls his rag. So, it’s a well recognized usage and I wasn’t to tell him off any more. It’s my kitchen, and I can do what I like – stay in your lane. In essence, this rag serves the same function as the apron that the Chinese chef wipes his hands on at the start of the epidemic in Contagion, just after he’s been chopping up some bat/pig delicacy and before he shakes hands with Gwyneth Paltrow – it’s a plague vector. I’ve always wondered why the hand towels get grimy before the tea towels, and now I know. He says we can dry our hands on the tea towels if we’re that fastidious, but my plan is to replace one of the towels with a full sized one so that he won’t mix them up. And if I see him wiping prawn juice on my towel, there’ll be no holding back.
Day 2 of lockdown.