I was wondering what to blog about today…since I have not yet finished the one about my London walk-about on Saturday (not sure why I have to say so much…)
So anyways, a friend of mine recently set herself a challenge to write a post everyday….it did not have to deal with world-affairs or have to say anything of major importance….but just to write about what she felt about a particular issue, a reflection or about something that was happening in her life….and she has been very successful….her posts are great.
So last night I was lying in bed and thinking about how I always say ‘ohhhh, I am so going to blog about that….and then I get busy with other stuff and time goes by….see my previous post, and then I forget what it was I wanted to say….that’s called age!!! Senior moments and all that……. (no blasphemy please), keep it clean. 🙂
So today I decided that without fail I was going to blog about something, even if I just say “goodmorning world…it’s a gorgeous day”…which it is 🙂 and then without any effort on my part, the subject matter presented itself…so without further ado…..
I work as a Carer for the elderly (that’s my day job…not my dream job), and this morning after I had assisted my lady out of bed and settled her into her chair with a cup of tea…..I said to her “I am going to leave your bed to air for a bit”…..she replied that her mother always got mad at her when she was a lass, when she made her bed immediately and did not leave it to ‘air’. So I asked her if she remembered why that was….and she said she had no idea. And as she spoke, I suddenly had a memory jump out of the recesses of my mind (there is still a bit there)…..when we were kids (a long, long time ago….sorry dear sister but it’s true!)…we slept on horrible coir (or horse-hair) mattresses…. (thank g*d for progress) we are now past that….
So anyhow ….the memory I had was of these really horrible, horrible hard lumpy, prickly and sometimes smelly mattresses. I especially remember them from when we used to sleep over at my grandmother’s house, me, my sister, my brother and my two cousins….all bundled together in one room, top and tail with 3 beds between us (that was fun) and when we woke in the mornings we were told by my grandmother to leave the beds open to air. I recall asking her why we had to do that and she told me that it was coz of the ‘bed-bugs’….they did not like the light or the fresh air and leaving the mattresses exposed chased them away….or so she said. Looking back now…I sincerely doubt they did, but anyway, that was the theory.
So then I remembered how when we were wee kiddies, my mother used to tuck us up into bed, and before putting the lights out she used to say “night, night sleep tight, don’t let the bed-bugs bite”……and we used to reply…”and if they bite, bite them back” ewwww! hahaha! And I remembered that when my daughter was a wee lass growing up…. I used to say the same thing to her…..even though we had by then progressed to foam…halleluyah. (mind you I sometimes still do say it, only now it’s via text).
So there you have it….’Night, night, don’t let the bed-bugs bite’ came about coz we slept on beds that really did have bed-bugs!!! I wonder what today’s fanatical, cleanliness, anti-bacterial, germ-free brigade would have to say about that!!!!
p.s. I will leave it to your imagine to as to what my lady had to say about me telling her they probably had bed-bugs in their mattresses! LOL LOL LOL…… oh! and just in case you were wondering…. this is what a bed-bug looks like:
I tried to find the most unbelievably yucky picture I could 🙂
p.s.s. this is my post for today………
Hahahaha, do I ever remember those mattresses!!! Thanks goodness for technology and the advance of more comfy beds!!
heehee, no kidding. they were just the most awful things to sleep on! hooray for technology and progress 🙂 thanks for dropping by 🙂
During our travels in Africa, bed bugs were a real concern – I would say that this is where budget travel stops being romantic, these horrors are real and alive & well in many budget accomodation matresses. The bites are deep, hard and very very very itchy but also very painful when touched – the ultimate agony. Backpackers warn each other away from specific rooms in specific hotels if they end up with the all too familiar red rows of bites, like lashes across their tummies and backs.
One day we were stuck in a border town, needing to cross over the followng morning, there was only one ‘hotel’. When we got there I lay on top of the bed (we never used the bedding anyway – we had sleeping bags), fully clothed to rest my feet. 20 minutes later I had belts of bites across the top of my pants line. So we put the mattress on the floor, erected the tent on top of it fully zipped up and slept inside the tent that night!
had bed bugs before – HORRENDOUS!!! had to throw our mattress out the window – nightmare to get rid of them – took us 6months!!! 😦
Picture truely a likeness and suitably yucky – trying to eat chinese – think I just lost my appetite 😉
..it appears that we have an epidimec of bed buds in the U.S. at the moment.
Saw a specail on TV, they kill them with heat now……
😉
ivonne
ewwww!!! really!!! i guess they are everywhere. I know for sure they are alive and biting in Africa and London….according to Caroline’s and Cemanthe’s comments. urgh!