The lady of the house is very strong on the Scots tradition of the entire house being scrubbed from top to toe for the New Year: since we're off to one of the posher local hostelries for the evening (three course meal and disco) it all has to be done before we can leave.

Well I have Milly, I've really tried. The last one I saw live was Die Walkure at Birmingham Hippodrome. I nearly left at the 2nd interval when I seemed to have been there for about 2 days. But I met someone from work during the interval who raved about how wonderful it was - so I stayed. Besides, doesn't the hit song occur at the start of Act 3?

There are some good bits in Wagner's operas though, which is why I like Liszt's transcriptions. And I suppose Tristan & Isolde's not too bad (he says grudgingly)

Ye Gods Ron! If I felt that it was compulsory to hurl myself into heavy duty housework on the Eve, it would put me into an even worse humour than I might be in already!

My grandmother was Scottish (from Motherwell) so this must be where I get the desire to have the house cleared of festive clutter and cleaned for the New Year! Have scrubbed the kitchen, tidied away books and CDs and done a load of washing. A pile of ironing awaits...


I think you'd have got on well with Rossini, amongst whose more notable quotes are:

One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time

Wagner is a composer who has beautiful moments but dreadful quarters of an hour.

Blimey - as if one isn't tired enough after Christmas! Mind you. my house could do with it. I may get the Cleaning Fairies in in January - if I can get the house tidy enough for them to clean  .

Ron, I once when young spent New Year's Eve in Edinburgh, living almost entirely on black bun and whisky (the only time in my life I've ever drunk whisky), and I put on about half a stone!

It has of course been scientifically proved that being too clean can be bad for your health.  Well that is my philosophy.   

My g.g.g granpa, 4 children by first wife, 9 by next wife, only one infant death, if they had had anti-bacterial sprays I bet it would have been more.  No building up of immunity.  Hence high incidence of allergies these days.  They say you gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die don't they?  So I follow the Quintin Crisp philosophy, after 7 years you don't notice the dust and it doesn't get any worse!

Oh dear!  Well we've all managed to survive so far in my rather clinically-clean house.  Perhaps we've just been lucky.    Nobody has asthma or anything untoward.  A few of us have a bit of hay fever in July but that's grass seed anyway....

I sometimes watch "How Clean is Your House".  It absolutely fascinates me!  Some people haven't cleaned their kitchens or toilets or changed their bedlinen for ten years or more!  Why aren't they dead?  Aggie takes all sorts of samples and swabs and finds E-coli, salmonella - you name it!  They must obviously be immune I suppose although a lot of them are ill with dust mite allergies, asthma etc., and quite a few of them seem to be morbidly obese.  I don't know what the connection there would be unless it's that they've let themselves get so big they haven't the energy to clean any more.

Whatever the rights and wrongs are about whether cleaning up is healthy or not, let's face it, the place looks and smells so much better when it's all been cleaned.  I think we're more clued-in now about eco-friendly products as well like white vinegar and lemons rather than expensive aerosols.  There's nothing as gorgeous as slipping exhausted into beautifully laundered fresh bedlinen, especially when it's been dried outside.

I'll get me pinny.