Have a Cool Yule

A joyous Yule to everyone that celebrates it!  I always tell myself that after tonight the nights will get shorter and it does cheer me up a little through the dreary January and February days.

Today has been good.  We watched the Muppet Christmas Carol and generally hung out.  DH washed out the halogen oven.  It needed a good swish around as we had had McCains Frozen Roast Potatoes, which are awesome, but there is a lot of fat in them.  However, if you cook them on a grill in the halogen oven there are amazingly crispy but a lot of the fat drains off and settles at the bottom.  This ended up going down the sink.  There was a small blockage.

Unfortunately I didn't realise that there was a blockage when I realised that a small package of baking powder had split.  I thought that it would be a great time to clear the kitchen drain so tipped the pack down the plughole and followed with plenty of vinegar.  It fizzed up but it didn't drain.  I prodded at it with a teaspoon.  It fizzed some more but it still didn't drain.  I tried adding some more vinegar.  Nothing much happened.  I checked outside but the outside drain was fine and the washing machine wasn't having any trouble.  I remembered about unblocking the toilet and added some washing up liquid.

You know those models where you add vinegar to baking powder and washing up liquid inside something painted to look like a volcano?  It was just like that.  I didn't realise that chemicals were somehow still being chemical and didn't see any gas, of course.  All I could see was that now there was washing up liquid added then the gas had a shape and it just kept coming.  It was like a B movie special effect - 'the Grease Monster from Under the Sink - it fizzes!'  It was a seething fountain of off white bubbles with added roast potato grease.  I added some more vinegar and just walked away.  When I came back the sink was draining just fine.  I heaved a sigh of relief.  I'll make sure to wipe out the halogen with newspaper first next time.