(1044) Fab day out there now … can see clearly on t’other side of t’valley.

 

14. At last

13. We need these rottweilers

12. Straight to the point, Alex downunder … luv her

11. This is now so beyond acceptable

10. This is why I still subscribe to Quora

… they really do, now and then, have good comments threads. This is a comment by one Linda Hunt, retired pharmacist, and though the topic’s unpleasant, imho she’s right on the money:

What is the cause of the common odor many senior citizens have (despite good hygiene)?

“I am 78 and I sure hope I don’t smell like an old lady. In my professional career I have encountered quite a few stinky people. It was either from unwashed bodies, hair, or clothes, or else stale perfume, or some combination thereof. Also, one loses one’s sense of smell so it doesn’t register with us ourselves.

Bathe daily, wash your hair and behind your ears, use unscented products as much as possible, and sniff your clothes. Dead skin breeds dust mites, so keep things clean. Drops of urine tend to be absorbed by your knickers, then give off odors, so rinsing it off with water and drying off with a facecloth is better than blotting with toilet paper, also less irritating on your skin. Do that as much as possible. I learned that from the babies. Never got diaper rash if I washed them rather than just wiped them off. If you leak, deal with that too, and check your outer clothing for smells.

Oral hygiene is important too, and one of the worst smells, according to professional tasters, is stale saliva. So drink plenty of water, floss, brush, and blast out the food particles with a water pick. If you have dentures, keep them fresh.

Unwashed hair smells really gross. Take a sniff of an old brush. Yuck. Wash your hairbrush and combs too. And behind the ears. That is a source of oil that goes rancid. Launder the pillowcases.

Walk in the front door of a nursing home and you will gag. Combination of piss, scented cleaning products, years of dust, and poor ventilation.

Omigosh, deal with this stuff as long as you can. If you don’t smell it, others might, so make it a habit.”

Right at this moment, tomorrow’s bedding and clothes wash is in, I’ve just been talking to the man concerned about cleaning the commons spaces and we’ve been sorting the bins … vastly better than they were.

I’m on a rambling, rabbit warren landing with seven young people (under 35), three of them female … I’m the only one “of a fair age”. We have a good thing going here … interestingly, we all get along and that’s because we look after our space.

Now … imho, I’m the issue. It’s doubly important, esp. in a British winter, to body wash, bathe etc., watch all the things she mentions above … old people can start to smell if we slacken off. Especially clothing.

There’s a difference, again imho, between being a clean freak and just taking care of basic routines.