I am writing in a state of shock. Something I thought was an urban myth and the stuff of nightmares has turned to reality... My dear friend and neighbour called last night to say that she had just found a rat trying to get up through her toilet bowl. Can you imagine? He was huge and making a hell of a noise, splashing and scratching. Apparently, this is more common (although still rare) after heavy rain, which we had just had. But it does happen and rats can tread water for as long as four days so they are more than capable of swimming the length of your pipes. My friend was told to squirt washing up liquid into the bowl to stop him getting out and he did turn round again pretty fast. (Although not as fast as she ran round the house putting the other lids down!) The only real deterrents are regularly bleaching your bowl, and leaving the loo lid down. I will NEVER EVER leave the lid up again!
MORE: HOW TO GET RID OF RATS AND MICE
Last week I looked at alternative medicines for my hayfever-ridden daughter. She hates medicines, unlike my boyfriend who takes eye drops, tablets and nose sprays pretty much every day from May through to August. It probably isn’t great for him and it costs a small fortune. Yesterday when I picked up more supplies for him, I realised that whilst I am always advising people to save money using a generic rather than branded medicine, I have never done this with hayfever drugs. 16 Nurofen tablets costs £1.69, where the generic ibuprofen are just to pay 25p. But look at the saving with allergy tablets: Zirtek, which we normally buy, costs £3.25 for a week's supply but the same active ingredient in a non-branded tablet costs £4.50 for three months supply!
MORE: HOW TO FREEZE SUMMER FRUIT
The average household throws away £470 of food a year, and for families with children it can go up to around £720. I absolutely hate waste and am always looking for ways to avoid it. For the last couple of years we have been freezing our fruit before it goes mouldy. It mostly goes in smoothies, so doesn't matter if they're a bit soft. The only pain is that the fruit always clumps together and we have to bang the plastic bags against the counter to try and separate the slices and end up using more than we need. I know it’s a first world problem but, this week, I solved it. I spread strawberries and slices of banana across a small baking tray and stuck it in the freezer for half an hour. The fruit pieces all froze separately, so I could then bag them up and use them with no banging or waste.
