Don’t tell me twice to clean the fridge

IWORKED out recently why I don’t like musicals, it’s because they tell you things twice. So someone will say, we can’t go to the shop because it’s raining — and then people sing a song about how they can’t go to the shop because it’s raining.

La La Land wasn’t annoying because the songs were narrative devices. They told you something new, rather than repeating something. With added Ryan.

This is the same reason I hate so many modern chewing gum TV shows, it’s not the content, I like chewing gum TV, it’s the format. You see footage of a Kardashian/a bride/a morbidly obese person fall off their shoe then there is an interview with them telling you they fell off their shoe. Yes. We had that.

The one occasional exception is Hoarders, the series about people who cannot throw anything away, become overwhelmed by their own compulsion and end up living in homes that are a danger to their health. I dunno, it just interests me more than wedding dresses.

In one recent episode a visiting helper expressed shock that a fridge hadn’t been cleaned in three years. Three years I thought, pfff, if I didn’t clean the fridge it’s safe to say there’d be cheese in there from 1997.

I keep meaning to ask the children if they think it’s self-cleaning — but though they’re fairly adept at cleaning in general (at least the concept of it), the idea that the fridge needs to be cleaned seems to elude them.

I’m not talking about removing the milk shelf for a thorough soak in baking soda and lemon juice, I mean remove and dispose of long-expired food. Wipe drips. Clean out the compost from the veg drawer.

Or maybe they just know I’ll do it.