Since today is Messy Tuesday, I thought I’d share the ‘Washing-Up: which type are you?’ key that I just devised for our FRRS Activity Booklet & Evening tomorrow at SLOUNGE, with a partciular emphasis on Type C. But before I explain about the washing-up types and accompanying button badges, I’d better explain about SLOUNGE.

Organised by the extremely excellent Oxford Contemporary Music, SLOUNGE is on at The Vaults in Oxford from 7pm onwards tomorrow evening (Wednesday 21st May). Brighton-based band Hamilton Yarns will be playing lovely music and The Fantastical Reality Radio Show in association with Mundane Appreciation will be out and about exchanging button-badges for interviews and touting our latest invention: The Fantastical Reality Radio Show in association with Mundane Appreciation Activity Booklet.

28 pages of black and white photocopied joy, this activity booklet will provide punters at SLOUNGE with a range of inspirational activities including DIY Musical Score page, irritating sounds consideration page, (including post-it-note for use with irritate-o-meter)wordsearch, kitchen sounds page, colour in the washing-up page and other delights too numerous to mention.

These musical scones on wire-rack stave are not included in the booklet, but I made them to keep me going while I was working on it!

Coinciding with the recent spree of button badge love and extending Mundane Appreciation’s deep love of enshrining all things mundane in the form of beautiful badges, there will be an excellent range of badges available in exchange for your opinions, views and comments for our show.

Yellow pages badges will be available for all those who are adventurous enough to sing from the phonebook!

Magnets featuring appliances and household items will be available in exchange for attempts to immitate the sounds of such items using only your voice!

Washing-up badges featuring one of the three washing-up types we have very generalistically identified can be selected upon returning the badge coupon enclosed in your Activity Booklet.

You will also be able to redeem a perfect cup of tea coupon with us, where we will be delighted to serve you aforementioned beverage according to your instructions.

And you can make badges from the contents of your pockets/handbag in exchange for divulging these contents in our ‘what’s in your bag?’ radio feature.

So, to washing up…

The three types we identified are as follow:

Type A: ‘I have a highly organised washing-up system.’

I have a system for washing up of which I am conscious and I get irritated when other people wash up in a way that violates some of my important rules. I consider such things as cleansing between the tines on forks, making sure that the glasses are washed first so they don’t get greasy or smudgy. I pride myself on the efficiency of my system.

Type B: ‘I do washing-up as and when it needs doing, and I don’t really pay attention to how I do it.’

I am a pragmatist. Nobody enjoys washing up, do they? But it does need doing and I don’t enjoy the sight of dirty dishes lying around. I do find that doing it is a useful time to think about other things like my day’s work, what I will do after the washing-up and other things one considers while doing something mindless and repetitive. I sometimes just intuitively do the washing-up differently one day from the next.

Type C: ‘I leave things to soak and when I need them again, I rinse them’

I don’t really have a system so much as a reactive reflex that kicks into action when there is nothing for me to eat with/on. When all the dishes have been used up and there are no clean ones, I am forced to wash up. The other thing that induces me to wash up is the prospect of guests. Left to my own devices I leave dishes to pile up and am guilty of soaking things sometimes for over a week.

I *so* will be wearing a type C button badge, sadly. But since this is Messy Tuesday, maybe I’ll just be a little bit happy about that…