Shiny shiny

As is traditional when it comes to the time to pick a giveaway winner, the wind is whistling and wuthering fit to blow bits of paper all round the garden. I suppose that I could have just stepped outside with my bowl and let the zephyrs do the choosing, but I didn't fancy chasing round the raised beds after the winner (especially as I don't have my laceups on this morning (oh no!)), so I took the coward's route and stayed indoors to do the mighty deed.

Not a trace of breakfast in sight

And the upside of remaining safely in the kitchen is that you get to see my beautiful shiny sink (oh yes!). The Flylady would be proud of me - no backsliding here - my sinks have been shiny ever since my first encounter with Her Flyness. And funnily enough, this shiny sink business really is like the broken window syndrome - this morning I left before the Head Chef and Princess Bunchy (not only am I knocking my house into shape, the plan is also to knock my cake-ridden body into shape by going to the gym at an ungodly hour), and returned expecting to see the dregs of breakfast leering at me from the sideboard - and instead, what did I find? A shiny sink smiling beatifically at me . . . The Head Chef hopes that I am impressed; I am reserving judgement.

Admire those reflections

I am getting on much better with the Flylady now that I have bought the book - I find the website slightly frenetic, and became totally confused about where I was and where I should be, and in one of those late-night book-buying sprees (I blame Princess Bunchy and her musical talents - it is always when I am sitting up late waiting for my nearest and dearest to return from some event that I run amok in the halls of Amazon because sitting at the computer is the only thing that will keep me awake) I bought the wonderfully titled Sink Reflections in the hope of demystification.

First shine your sink

And I am happy to tell you that now all is clear and shiny - I am much more at ease with the linear narrative of the written word, all has fallen into place, and I have sorted out my to-dos and my tick lists, my house is clean and I can spend the rest of the day hand-quilting (oh, happy day!).

The tension builds

And so, having made some more cake to fill the holes eroded in the gym (possibly), I can now present you with the winner. I did think about putting the Little Stranger into the sink to do the draw (and I am sure that she wouldn't have minded, as long as something edible was involved, and her definition of edible is comfortingly wide), but then I thought that I would have to start right back at the beginning with the bleach and Shiny Sinks 101, and I have made such leaps since then it would seem a pity to take such retrograde action.

Enter sausage tongs, sink right

So I opted for the sausage tongs instead. As a vegetarian this did involve some heart-searching but I felt that this would introduce an extra element of randomness as I do find them rather awkward to manipulate (not enough practice). It took a few goes, and a few restirrings of the bowl (I kept finding that I had picked up a whole bundle of slips at a time), but eventually I got the hang of it, and here we have the winner (and I can tell you that it was not easy to take a photo with one hand while keeping the tongs clamped shut with the other).

And here is the lovely winner: Menopausal Musing who said, 'I would love to own the Sergeant Pepper teatowel and the Tunnocks one - red is such a cheery colour!' Perhaps you could email me with your details, and I will pass them on to the lovely Al at All Tea Towels.

Oh, the bliss of a shiny sink!

Commiserations to those who did not win this time, but why not put your favourite tea towels on your Christmas list? Just think what fun you could have making things shiny, shiny - I think this one would coordinate rather beautifully with my sink, and this one would look rather fetching on the Aga. I have also used tea towels as rather fun recyclable wrapping for presents;  it seems so much less wasteful than paper, and I have spotted a few in the sale which would be just perfect for some people I know . . .