How to clean shower

This is a step by step directional guide for the cleaning of a shower

1. Wait until it is dirty enough to see the difference. There is nothing feels more pointless then cleaning something that appears clean. Far more satisfying to see the gunge wipe away to reveal the original white. Waiting till somebody suggests cleaning it is slightly too long, so it is a tricky balance.
2. Put on enjoyable music loud enough to sing along too. Bathrooms have good acoustics for singing but maybe do all this when nobody else is around. 
3. Because you do not feel like you are cleaning anything if a spray of some sort is not involved, dig through the cupboard till you find a shower cleaner (or approximation of that). If you are lucky it will be eco friendly. If none produces water with a bit of soap for bubbles works fine.
4. Once the spray is found, spray a little about (if it is a bleach, your bathroom will smell like an indoor pool for a week, also your clothes may turn interesting colours) 
5. Wipe between the tiles and enjoy watching the cleaning process take effect, a brush is also satisfying with a bit of soap because then you rinse it away leaving it lovely and clean. Wipe the glass door and wall and enjoy watching all the soap, shampoo and conditioner marks come off. Again this only requires water and a sponge. If you can't get the soap off with water and a sponge you have really odd soap. (a good way to do this is while you are having a shower yourself, that way your clothes don't get wet and you get to stay in the shower longer)
6. Now that you have cleaned the tiles and glass of visible and easily removed scum, you will notice that there is rough, cloudy, white, droplet-shaped marks on the glass door and wall. The way to get rid of this (and it seems to work) is to sprinkle Bi-carbonate of Soda and White vinegar and allow to soak before rinsing off. Some people advocated for scrubbing with a brush (plastic) some thought just vinegar left on overnight. (Here now comes a problem. How do you sprinkle white powder onto a smooth and vertical surface? None of the posts seemed to think this a problem, I did, so I will now share how to do it. Vinegar is easy, it goes in a squirty bottle)
7. Firstly squirt the glass with vinegar so that the soda sticks, then pour some soda into your hand and rub onto the vinegar. Pour some vinegar into the stiff paste now formed in your hand and, while fizzing, smear over the glass. This is a fairly entertaining pass time, also a messy one. Vinegar, soda, vinegar, soda, until bored. By now the glass should be smeared over with a revolting white paste.
8. Allowing it to dry did not seem to do any harm and adding more vinegar occasionally and watching it fizz was entertaining.
9. Have a shower with hot water (cold is unpleasant) and use your brush to rinse and remove the vinegar/soda solution as well as any softened or dissolved calcium/lime (whichever it is) 
10. Clean up the massive mess of soda and vinegar before your flatmate comes home, probably mopping the floor is a good plan at this point. 
11. Satisfied with a job well done, have a rest with a book :)  

I did this today and, while not all of the white marks were gone, the glass was noticeably clearer. I will do it again next time I have a free morning this week.

Getting ready

My mother (allergic to anything with four legs, particularly cats) is coming to my house (also the home of a really nice lady and her two cats). I am already beginning to work out how to allow my mother to breathe while she is here. One bedroom is now quarantined, all the sheets, pillow slips and doona cover washed. The bedroom will be vacuumed extensively and then the door will be remaining shut till she arrives. The rest of the house is fairly carpet free so it is ok. The big problem will be the incredibly social cat who walks into, over and onto anyone who sits still for long enough. The cat is currently sitting on my lap making it hard to type.

I had visitors all week and one was allergic to cats (not as much as mum) so she gave me some helpful tips to gets ready for it. vacuuming the window sill and curtain, cushions, pillows etc. There was also one interesting thing to note, the door into her bedroom was shut all the time to prevent cats from welcoming themselves into her bedroom to put fur on her pillow etc. Pickles was eaten up with curiosity about what exciting things were going on behind closed doors that she stalked about outside the bedroom until the door opened then darted in before anyone could stop her. We vacuumed at her and she didn't try again. This is good to know, that there is a cat deterrent and also that it may be a problem

Fathers and Daughters

I have been reading a book called Bringing Up Girls by Dr James Dobson. From it I have found out a lot about myself and about a lot of grown up women that I know. The book says that fathers are important in their daughters lives from the beginning till the end. Mothers are as well, obviously, however I had not realized how important fathers are to girls.

Dobson says that a girls sense of self worth and self value is bound up very tightly with what her father thinks and says about her. Women desire to be thought of as lovely by men, since the first man in her life is her father, it falls to him to show her she is lovely and lovable to men. This also gives a father the opportunity to  show his daughter what she can expect from men regarding their behaviour towards her. Mark Driscoll has this right when he says he is his daughters valentine, he takes them on dates doing what his daughters want to do and he teaches them by example what to expect from future men in their lives. This also means that he will have the relationship with his daughters to be able to tell them if a young man is not worthy of them. How will you be able to lovingly prevent her from making a mistake if you take no special interest in your daughter until she is 13 and a young dropkick male comes to the door to collect your daughter for a date.

This lack of affirmation from fathers is a real problem. Dobson says that if fathers do not fill their responsibility then women carry a well of self doubt within them for a long time. Even successful women who appear to have built their own sense of self worth, if you look closely, still harbour anger and a secret desire to get affirmation from their fathers. They maintain that they do not need men and they are perfectly happy making their own life, however there is a lot of bitterness or disappointment when they speak of their fathers lack of care.

A lack of affirmation from fathers, I think, leads to two extremes. Firstly to women who need male praise so badly to feel worth anything that they sell themselves to the first (and every) smooth talking man they meet. The second extreme is feminists so hurt they keep men at arms length to prevent themselves from being disappointed again. This need of daughters to receive love, acceptance and affirmation from their fathers is another reason (as if we needed one) why parent/child abuse (particularly sexual abuse) is so evil and destructive.

There is good news though, because it is never too late to tell your daughters that you love them and especially why. Sincere, thoughtful compliments from men (fathers in particular) go a long way towards healing relationships and building self worth in a woman. If, like in some cases, there is a lot of hurt and damage, then it will take a lot of time and perseverance to win her trust again, however you can man up and take responsibility for the relationship.

New tricks.

I had run out of interesting things to do with Xena, to teach her and to keep us both interested and thinking. Also she was getting energetic and silly and flighty and generally scary to ride. I realized that while her ground manners are now really good (she even comes when she is called) When I am riding her she is confused about who is in charge. She thinks she can make decisions not me. I decided to go back to the cattle yards and try to teach her to obey me without needing reins. I put on her saddle and then just used the halter and lead rope as reins and bridle and rode her at a walk in the cattle yard.

This is teaching her something altogether new and on horseback which I am unfamiliar with. Luckily a lady who has taught people to ride naturally was visiting and decided to help me and gave me a lesson. She encouraged me and told me what to do and we began to teach her to turn left and right and stop and go all from my legs and feet instruction. The lead rope was just to give her a hint and as back up if I needed it.

We also taught her to rein back (walk backwards)  and worked on going sideways. The lady was very encouraging and said I was doing the right things to teach her and that she is obviously relaxed and comfortable with me. It is funny that though she comes when I call, apparently she won't come for anyone else. I can't help but feel a little smug about that.

Today I am going to ride her in the cattle yard again, probably bare backed, and we will remember what we learned yesterday and consolidate.

Riding

Shortly after the beach trip, I put on her saddle and paraphernalia in the cattle yard, this was still part of teaching her to keep still while I do things, and follow me when I walk away, therefore she did not have a halter on. I made her follow me around while she was dressed up, then I left her to get used to it all while I began teaching Fairy to follow me (she was much more stubborn then Xena and took longer) My boss asked if she could ride Xena, I said yes and she hopped on and walked her around in the cattle yard for a bit. Then I got on and she told me how to manage the reins so that the instructions were clear, until Xena got used to the bit and everything. I rode her at a walk all around the cattle yards and she was brilliant.

Over the next few days I walked her out to all the different places, the  jump area, the flat area, the stables, but we always started and finished in the cattle yards. Interestingly the place I had most difficulty with was the grassy jumping area, she was disobedient and opinionated every time we were on the grass. The best place for her was the bush so I did my trotting and finally cantering in the bush before trying it on the grass.

An example of a massive battle we had on the grass was when we were coming back from the bush and she was sure it was the end of the ride and had a little hissy fit when I turned her away from the stables we did about 10 laps of 20m before she wasn't naughty and we could finish. Now her strategy is to just not walk when I ask her to.  

Beach trip

So many weeks on from my last post, sorry about lapse, but Xena is going really well. She very quickly settled and became good friends with the horse she was sharing a paddock with. I now feel it was a good plan to teach her who was boss before she met any other horses.

The next day I went and chased her again and she responded much quicker because she knew what I wanted. Even now, when she begins to get ideas about who is in charge I take her to the cattle yards and remind her.

A few days after we got her we went to the beach with her and two ponies and three children, turned out that it should only be one horse per responsible adult. When we got there I waded into the water with her and scrambled onto her back. She managed to shake me off a few times until I realized what was going on. After that I swam onto her back (no saddle) and stayed on while I made her stand still, then got off. I did this a few more times in the water, then walked her out to the sand for a rest. When we got back from the beach I got on her bare back and got off again a few times just to teach her that she doesn't need to try to get me off, if she is good I will get off myself.

The beach trip was helpful in that it showed me what to teach her next which was standing still when I get on and leading politely instead of so close she stands on my feet all the time. I had a memento the size of a 20c piece on my heel from my riding boot and very sore toes from when Xena kept stepping on my feet.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

There are two ponies belonging to the family I work for, Simba and Fairy. They stay in the same paddock and I have given them the nicnames from Alice in Wonderland. These names suit them perfectly because they are always together and miss each other when one is away. They also fight each other constantly and Fairy
(tweedledum) delights in stealing Simba's food and making him grumpy.

Following the Alice theme of names, The big warmblood is the Queen of Hearts because it is easy to see her yelling "OFF WITH HIS HEAD" about the ponies, dogs, chickens, trees and anything else nearby, particularly at dinner time. Then my horse, Xena, ended up as the Duchess, because both Xena and the Duchess were mental when we first meet them and then completely different the next time we meet in a different location.