Never thought about the 'eggy' smell but do always rinse the eggs pot out before washing it, as my mum did. I am 74 so many years, and we are English!
Bullying is terrible at any age but unfortunately has gone on for ever, generations have tried to end it but failed. But we must keep trying.
People, in a vast majority, are lovely whatever their colour, cread or gender, trouble is it's the bad news sells papers syndrome and the bad one get the attention.
Your words are beautiful to read and so honest I applaud you, keep it up and continue passing your thoughts on to everyone.
What a lovely message, thank you so much. Completely agree with you on the bad news syndrome in papers - trying to teach my girls as well that people are largely good and decent in real life, and unfortnately the pot-stirring in the news makes things feel more divisive than they often are.
Ah I feel we could do a lovely collaborative post with things we all do in the kitchen because our mothers did - I must think of what mine would be!
It’s nuts, I would 100% have said it wasn’t a thing if I didn’t know people IRL who say it’s a thing. Must be like the coriander tasting like soap thing, I think they’re mad too but widely accepted to be genetic!
Oh dear, I fail your tests on so many levels - I have no hang ups about “tube clothes” (though TBF that isn’t really much of a problem in Cornwall) or shoes in the house, have never heard of this eggy smell thing and don’t intend to change my habits now at the advanced age of 68 and three quarters, and I have an aversion to fresh coriander.
OTOH I am a very keen gardener and cheered at your description of your taking down your erstwhile bully. And having both mother and grandmother born in India I still wash oranges as they insisted I should though I still don’t see the point especially as the edict did not extend to lemons.
Despite my obvious shortcomings may I subscribe to your excellent Substack?
Ahaha, please do! I love that everyone has their own cultural/cleaning quirks and similar.
How lovely that your mum & grandmother were born in India! Haha - the lack of consistency on washing oranges vs lemons sounds v familiar - above wrote how my dog - clearly the muckiest out of all of us - has a cognitively dissonant free rein to wander on tube, bus or train and get on the bed without getting sprayed in Dettol first 😂
I’m dreadful and even though I know I should routinely fail to wash fruit for my children, except apples to get the wax off!
I loved this.. though it makes me feel like a slob - definitely A Big English (never occurred to me about eggy bowls and I wear shoes that have been everywhere, all over the house). Weaponised manners best employed when snatching a taxi, in the rain….
Being a big English and the best sort aren’t mutually exclusive! Must admit I have a massive & completely contradictory blind spot where the dog is concerned - she can lie on a tube floor or trot around London in her unshod paws, and then come home & jump on a sofa or our bed with nothing more than a ‘WHAT A GOOD GIRL’ from me. Whereas the children & husband require full decontamination after a tube journey…
Confession - the shoes off thing with all my in laws took me a while to get used to, coming from a background of chilly, always grubby farmhouse floors when you might change your shoes if you were wearing wellies or anything particularly muddy but otherwise keep them on. There were always dogs. And dog hairs collecting on socks - cannot bear it! And yes, I would have slippers but would encourage guests to keep shoes on. Barefoot out of the question. And even now I insist that shoes are on in the kitchen when people are cooking (amazing the number of times knives get dropped on the floor or hit a foot). It has been a compromise. Shoes off upstairs, always, as carpeted. Shoes on or changed downstairs. I really like the custom some Swedish friends have of keeping multiple sizes of slippers by their door for guests. I find that very civilised!
Bullies. This was me too throughout primary and secondary and also got better by my last year and in sixth form but it does leave its mark. Even today I don’t like being part of a group, hate being the first person to leave (because of course I will be bitched about) and worry about being a bore. I can’t do light small talk easily at all. And in my 20s I was sometimes so crippled by the fear of speaking and if not being made fun of overtly to my face, definitely behind my back, my neck would seize up and I would not be able to move the top part of my body. Booze helped for a long time! Very glad I’m not there now.
I remember reading a Japanese detective novel where they went looking for a suspect but knew he couldn’t be at home because there were no shoes at the door. They all seemed to get straight in the bath when they got home, too.
My daughter (brought up by a Scottish single mother in Italy) is a no shoes inside, no outside clothes on the bed person - I think the outside clothes thing took root in lockdown, and the shoes thing started when the baby was crawling, but I am now so influenced by her that I have adopted both practices!
I would never put an eggy bowl in the dishwasher, because with the searing heat we have in Scotland and the fact that our house thermostat is set to max 18C, a delay in washing of even 5 minutes would mean everyone would get salmonella from the raw egg contamination.
Also no shoes in the house because my husband and I got engaged in Stockholm and he speaks fluent Swedish tho is Scottish, and Sweden is wonderful. Apart from thatz no shoes also keeps the house clleaner.
As for train clothes, we only have one bus an hour here so it's not really a problem, but whenever we visit London I shed most garments as soon as safely in the hotel room.
So sorry about the bullying. A family member was badly bullied, by too-clever-to-be caught little shits, so I know the impact.
Aha! That made me laugh out loud on the salmonella. You might not approve I let the baby share chocolate cake batter off the spoon with me 😂
There is something so specific about London dirt! Changing into ‘inside clothes’ is the only way at home or a hotel.
I’m so sorry someone in your family went through that too - everything from annoying to momentarily debilitating when the odd flashback happens as an adult. Thank god for therapists!
Your mother is a darling, clearly where you got your strength and humour. I don’t have the eggy smell detecting gene - I’m Welsh. I shall sniff everything from now on!
Ahaha. She is endearing. Yes I feel like putting a bowl formerly containing cake batter in now, and really trying to see if the glasses smell afterwards but feel they’ll just smell normal? Poor mum having to drink water in my house all these years out of glasses she must have found grim!
Sigh - the bullying is so appalling. I spent my childhood terrified because people would shout "Rolf Harris" at me at school because I was a nerdy little skinny child called Ruth Harris. I was miserable for years, with hindsight over something not very serious, but horrible for a shy child
I’m so sorry you went through that as well - children are bloody awful! And you’re right, it makes shyness even worse - it took a fair bit of therapy for me to overcome it, feel at least five former schoolboys should split the bill!
I absolutely love all your pieces Rukmini, and think your name is great too.
I have to put my hand up and declare that I have never detected even the slightest eggy whiff from the dishwasher, even after chucking my eggy plates in with the glasses and mugs. And yes, I am British.
Funnily enough, I have an Italian friend who would completely agree with you and in fact can't stand to be in the vicinity of a boiled egg 😜😜. So, completely proves the science I think 🤣🤣🤣🤔
Horrible to have been bullied, it can scar for a lifetime..... Hat's off to you for dealing professionally with Giles....or Fred.
I really enjoyed this piece, in particular your feelings about it all. I love hearing about what makes a person and the last half is gleefully revengeful. Love it. Fuck Giles and Fred! X
There's an eggy bowl in my dishwasher right now - I'm going to pay extra attention after I run it (probably tomorrow?) to detect whether I can in fact smell the egg!
School bullies are the worst. I have what you'd assume to be an unbully-able name, but I once took my camera film for my geography field trip to be developed at the chemist (yes, I am that old). Somehow the person at the chemist spelled my surname wrong and wrote Hampon instead of Hampton. Et voila! I became Vicky Tampon for the rest of my school days 😭
A delightful read! And so insightful too. I always notice the eggy smell when it happens but it never occurred to me where it came from (didn’t heave a dishwasher growing up in 70s Greece). Will be more careful now!
I really enjoyed this! I remember a twitter thread about how Arabs have a word for the way a protein- containing dish smells when it’s washed with warm water. I was so excited to find that thread, because up to that point, I thought I’d been imagining it. The other smell I can’t abide — a particular fishiness when tomato is cooked in cast iron.
Never thought about the 'eggy' smell but do always rinse the eggs pot out before washing it, as my mum did. I am 74 so many years, and we are English!
Bullying is terrible at any age but unfortunately has gone on for ever, generations have tried to end it but failed. But we must keep trying.
People, in a vast majority, are lovely whatever their colour, cread or gender, trouble is it's the bad news sells papers syndrome and the bad one get the attention.
Your words are beautiful to read and so honest I applaud you, keep it up and continue passing your thoughts on to everyone.
What a lovely message, thank you so much. Completely agree with you on the bad news syndrome in papers - trying to teach my girls as well that people are largely good and decent in real life, and unfortnately the pot-stirring in the news makes things feel more divisive than they often are.
Ah I feel we could do a lovely collaborative post with things we all do in the kitchen because our mothers did - I must think of what mine would be!
Train clothes must be decontaminated by hanging in the hall! Your parents sound so lovely- they don’t happen to need any additional children, do they?
Ahaha. I prefer a ritual burning of train clothes 😂 As long as additional children don’t involve more dogs or cats they’re open!
The eggy thing? Not a thing. Never heard of it. I'm British.
It’s nuts, I would 100% have said it wasn’t a thing if I didn’t know people IRL who say it’s a thing. Must be like the coriander tasting like soap thing, I think they’re mad too but widely accepted to be genetic!
Oh dear, I fail your tests on so many levels - I have no hang ups about “tube clothes” (though TBF that isn’t really much of a problem in Cornwall) or shoes in the house, have never heard of this eggy smell thing and don’t intend to change my habits now at the advanced age of 68 and three quarters, and I have an aversion to fresh coriander.
OTOH I am a very keen gardener and cheered at your description of your taking down your erstwhile bully. And having both mother and grandmother born in India I still wash oranges as they insisted I should though I still don’t see the point especially as the edict did not extend to lemons.
Despite my obvious shortcomings may I subscribe to your excellent Substack?
Ahaha, please do! I love that everyone has their own cultural/cleaning quirks and similar.
How lovely that your mum & grandmother were born in India! Haha - the lack of consistency on washing oranges vs lemons sounds v familiar - above wrote how my dog - clearly the muckiest out of all of us - has a cognitively dissonant free rein to wander on tube, bus or train and get on the bed without getting sprayed in Dettol first 😂
I’m dreadful and even though I know I should routinely fail to wash fruit for my children, except apples to get the wax off!
Ironically we are much stricter with our dogs than with humans. Happy Sunday to you, you have brightened mine.
I loved this.. though it makes me feel like a slob - definitely A Big English (never occurred to me about eggy bowls and I wear shoes that have been everywhere, all over the house). Weaponised manners best employed when snatching a taxi, in the rain….
Being a big English and the best sort aren’t mutually exclusive! Must admit I have a massive & completely contradictory blind spot where the dog is concerned - she can lie on a tube floor or trot around London in her unshod paws, and then come home & jump on a sofa or our bed with nothing more than a ‘WHAT A GOOD GIRL’ from me. Whereas the children & husband require full decontamination after a tube journey…
I love your posts. Love them.
Confession - the shoes off thing with all my in laws took me a while to get used to, coming from a background of chilly, always grubby farmhouse floors when you might change your shoes if you were wearing wellies or anything particularly muddy but otherwise keep them on. There were always dogs. And dog hairs collecting on socks - cannot bear it! And yes, I would have slippers but would encourage guests to keep shoes on. Barefoot out of the question. And even now I insist that shoes are on in the kitchen when people are cooking (amazing the number of times knives get dropped on the floor or hit a foot). It has been a compromise. Shoes off upstairs, always, as carpeted. Shoes on or changed downstairs. I really like the custom some Swedish friends have of keeping multiple sizes of slippers by their door for guests. I find that very civilised!
Bullies. This was me too throughout primary and secondary and also got better by my last year and in sixth form but it does leave its mark. Even today I don’t like being part of a group, hate being the first person to leave (because of course I will be bitched about) and worry about being a bore. I can’t do light small talk easily at all. And in my 20s I was sometimes so crippled by the fear of speaking and if not being made fun of overtly to my face, definitely behind my back, my neck would seize up and I would not be able to move the top part of my body. Booze helped for a long time! Very glad I’m not there now.
The trail that you are blazing now is amazing! Brava to you… 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼.
I remember reading a Japanese detective novel where they went looking for a suspect but knew he couldn’t be at home because there were no shoes at the door. They all seemed to get straight in the bath when they got home, too.
My daughter (brought up by a Scottish single mother in Italy) is a no shoes inside, no outside clothes on the bed person - I think the outside clothes thing took root in lockdown, and the shoes thing started when the baby was crawling, but I am now so influenced by her that I have adopted both practices!
My wife must have learned to stack the dishwasher from your husband...she never empties it so has no interest in how it goes in.
She also washes anything eggy by hand and she is British-Caribbean
Oh, my husband stacks the dishwasher beautifully - it’s me who apparently doesn’t load the cutlery drawer right in order of knives / forks / spoons!
That's very naughty of you 🤣
I would never put an eggy bowl in the dishwasher, because with the searing heat we have in Scotland and the fact that our house thermostat is set to max 18C, a delay in washing of even 5 minutes would mean everyone would get salmonella from the raw egg contamination.
Also no shoes in the house because my husband and I got engaged in Stockholm and he speaks fluent Swedish tho is Scottish, and Sweden is wonderful. Apart from thatz no shoes also keeps the house clleaner.
As for train clothes, we only have one bus an hour here so it's not really a problem, but whenever we visit London I shed most garments as soon as safely in the hotel room.
So sorry about the bullying. A family member was badly bullied, by too-clever-to-be caught little shits, so I know the impact.
Aha! That made me laugh out loud on the salmonella. You might not approve I let the baby share chocolate cake batter off the spoon with me 😂
There is something so specific about London dirt! Changing into ‘inside clothes’ is the only way at home or a hotel.
I’m so sorry someone in your family went through that too - everything from annoying to momentarily debilitating when the odd flashback happens as an adult. Thank god for therapists!
Chocolate cake batter is okay - it's scientifically proven that chocolate overcomes everything.
And yes, thank God for therapists.
Your mother is a darling, clearly where you got your strength and humour. I don’t have the eggy smell detecting gene - I’m Welsh. I shall sniff everything from now on!
Ahaha. She is endearing. Yes I feel like putting a bowl formerly containing cake batter in now, and really trying to see if the glasses smell afterwards but feel they’ll just smell normal? Poor mum having to drink water in my house all these years out of glasses she must have found grim!
Sigh - the bullying is so appalling. I spent my childhood terrified because people would shout "Rolf Harris" at me at school because I was a nerdy little skinny child called Ruth Harris. I was miserable for years, with hindsight over something not very serious, but horrible for a shy child
I’m so sorry you went through that as well - children are bloody awful! And you’re right, it makes shyness even worse - it took a fair bit of therapy for me to overcome it, feel at least five former schoolboys should split the bill!
I absolutely love all your pieces Rukmini, and think your name is great too.
I have to put my hand up and declare that I have never detected even the slightest eggy whiff from the dishwasher, even after chucking my eggy plates in with the glasses and mugs. And yes, I am British.
Funnily enough, I have an Italian friend who would completely agree with you and in fact can't stand to be in the vicinity of a boiled egg 😜😜. So, completely proves the science I think 🤣🤣🤣🤔
Horrible to have been bullied, it can scar for a lifetime..... Hat's off to you for dealing professionally with Giles....or Fred.
I loved this, Rukmini, so funny, moving and clever. I remember that Twitter thread about the eggs! X
I really enjoyed this piece, in particular your feelings about it all. I love hearing about what makes a person and the last half is gleefully revengeful. Love it. Fuck Giles and Fred! X
There's an eggy bowl in my dishwasher right now - I'm going to pay extra attention after I run it (probably tomorrow?) to detect whether I can in fact smell the egg!
School bullies are the worst. I have what you'd assume to be an unbully-able name, but I once took my camera film for my geography field trip to be developed at the chemist (yes, I am that old). Somehow the person at the chemist spelled my surname wrong and wrote Hampon instead of Hampton. Et voila! I became Vicky Tampon for the rest of my school days 😭
A delightful read! And so insightful too. I always notice the eggy smell when it happens but it never occurred to me where it came from (didn’t heave a dishwasher growing up in 70s Greece). Will be more careful now!
I really enjoyed this! I remember a twitter thread about how Arabs have a word for the way a protein- containing dish smells when it’s washed with warm water. I was so excited to find that thread, because up to that point, I thought I’d been imagining it. The other smell I can’t abide — a particular fishiness when tomato is cooked in cast iron.
Woah this is so niche! It sounds very similar - have never heard the tomato thing tho!