When you reach middle to late age, things become a little trickier to achieve. Take cleaning the dear old homestead for example. At one time we would have been sweeping all around with a broom and then getting down on hands and knees scooping it all up with the dustpan and brush. Then the kitchen and hallway floors would have been given a good scrub – I can clearly recall my grandma in wrap around ‘pinny’, her hair pulled back under a headscarf tied at the front with rollers keeping her ‘fringe on top’ under control. Thus suitably dressed, she would sally forth with the old tin bucket of steaming suds and her scrubbing brush. The kneeling must have been hard on the knees – I know she used to wear pads that stayed put with straps round the back of the knees. I can’t recall our home ever looking less than sparkling and pristine. Grandma was a cleaner for the posh house in the village – there wasn’t anything she did not know about the subject. Today we get the vacuum out and run over our fitted carpets and when things get really grubby, we have access to professional cleaners – maybe not my own Mrs Mop, but they do leave my place as sparkling an pristine!