The Plastercine Incident

What a week!  It all started with a large ball of bright green plastercine which has been roaming around our house for some weeks.  I've picked it up off the floor several times and thought that I should discreetly get rid of it before it got trampled into the carpet but I hadn't done it.

On Thursday I was catching up on some housework and laundry having been out on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I did two huge loads of dark laundry and then one filled with whites.  When the second load, darks, came out of the dryer I was horrified to find that there was something green all over it - plastercine!

You can imagine my conversations with my children - "who had it last" - of course it was Mr Nobody.  Each one said they'd had it the night before but had left it on the coffee table - convenient.  

Anyway, after picking it and pulling it, I managed to remove some of the bulk of it.  My Eco Store products arrived just as I was battling the plastercine so I loaded up the washing machine with the worst affected and added some Eco Store Pure Oxygen Whitener.  I left it to soak overnight with my fingers crossed.

The next day I put the load onto wash.  It looked like the green was all gone when it came out of the washer - very pleased with this result.  Unfortunately, after the dryer there were still signs in the form of greasy marks.  I've left it for a few days, thinking that I would brew it over but I still don't have a solution for removing the oily marks.  Any suggestions?

Other news this week - Tuesday we went to the movies to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid - was surprisingly entertaining and had some good life lessons about being yourself.  This was a treat for Jesse as he's been doing so well with his home schooling.

Wednesday was spent battling bureaucracy.  We got our medicals done for our permanent residency, xrays, blood tests, examinations and lots of money out the door - it cost us over $400 for three of us.  In the afternoon we decided to get our OHIP sorted (Ontario health insurance plan I think).  We rocked up to the closest office only to find that it was closed and we were directed elsewhere.  We were surprised at how quickly the line was moving and we got to the counter.   After producing every kind of proof imaginable, it was not enough as I didn't have a piece of paper which proved that I live at the same address as Andy.  I ended up having to go and get my address changed on my licence which meant driving across town, waiting in the queue for 30 minutes for a 2 minute change and printing a piece of paper, back to the Ontario Service office and a signature on another piece of paper and we were done - it only took about 2 hours!  Tremendously quick for Ontario bureacracy!

So, come June (when Andy has been employed by Mosaic for 3 months as they wouldn't accept his time at Sirius), we will have access to the benefits of "the system".  In the meantime, no-one is allowed to get sick or need a dentist.