I hate housework almost as much as paternalistic, non-democratic governments. I have no domestic worker so keeping our enormous 100 year-old farmhouse that houses two people and five dogs clean is down to me and the Old Goat.
The Old Goat pulls his weight on weekends and I pull mine on weekdays, my job being more flexible. But hell I would rather be working or writing or taking photographs or…the list is endless.
And I have discovered that five dogs shed enough hair to make two blankets a day for people in need - that is if you can crochet with dog hair. I do not intend to learn.
Then I decided to think more positively about this whole housework thing. There are a lot of feisty old grannies in England who clean their own houses, do their own shopping and could quite easily beat you up with their umbrellas. You know why? They have never had a domestic worker in their lives. Everyone does their own housework over there.
So, in the manner of Marcus Aurelius via Ryan Holiday, I have decided to turn this obstacle upside down. All the bending, stretching, lifting, pulling, pushing, crawling under furniture and whatever else is involved, is incredibly good for my mobility. And mobility is like gold for an Old Goat - something to be hoarded and celebrated.
I have plenty of cardiovascular fitness - thank you running and cycling - but strength work and mobility always take a back seat and it is so very important as you age. Especially for me - if I show any signs of weakness my darling offspring will see to it that I mysteriously fall off a very high cliff!