Date: 03 December 2008 21:37:06
One of the joys of living in a tenement flat is that we have to use a company of factors (I guess the south of the border equivalent would be a management company - they (allegedly) sort out things like repairs to common areas). Ours is rubbish (as, I suspect, is everyone else's - I have had no end of "how rubbish is your factor" conversations with various people since being up here), but they are very very cheap, so we're getting what we're not paying for, I guess.
Anyway, one of the reasons our particular factor is so cheap is because we don't pay for a cleaner for the communal areas but do it ourselves - supposedly the two flats on each floor are responsible for their landing and the stairs down to the next landing, and as I'm on the ground floor my responsibility is the close from the front door to the back door, including the front steps. Although it's technically a shared responsibility, the flat over the close from me is rented so I've never bothered asking the tenants to do it - the requirement is for the close to be washed each week, and as it only takes 5 minutes I just think it's easier to do it myself. Unfortunately, as I've been travelling up and down the country each week I haven't always had the chance to do it, and so it was that it got to this morning and I realised it hadn't been done for about 3 weeks so I couldn't leave it any longer. So out came the mop and bucket, and a-cleaning I did go.
Those of you north of the border will be well aware of just how flippin' COLD it is at the moment. As I mentioned yesterday, the road and pavements are covered in black ice, and of course as soon as I started mopping the close I realised the flaw in my plan. Even though the water was quite hot, it seemed to start icing up as soon as it hit the floor, and I was terrified that one of my neighbours would end up breaking their neck as they left the building by skidding down the steps. So - salt, I thought. I'd put some salt on the steps up to the front door to stop the water from freezing. I thought I had some common or garden cheapo table salt, but it turns out I hadn't, so I ended up having to sprinkle my steps with posh cracked sea salt! I was just glad I didn't have to use the twisty salt cellar, as I would have been SO embarrassed!
But, I got back this evening and it seems to have worked, so there we are. If you're slipping and sliding around your neighbourhood, get out the poncey sea salt. :)