Saturday, April 6, 2013

Change of Abode and History of the Home

My absence from this blog was occasioned by some unfortunate developments. One of which was the announcement of our landlady that she would like to see us go within the next five months. The unpleasant prospect of becoming homeless has prompted my flatmate and I to look for a new place. We suddenly realized that we have very different priorities when it comes to different rooms in the house.

While we had no extraordinary expectations for our bedrooms, it turned out that she is very particular about the kitchen and I am more interested in the bathroom. She loves cooking, so naturally, she wants a bright spacious kitchen with lots of work spaces. And I, after a long day, like to luxuriate in a bubble bath, so a clean, pretty bathroom with a bathtub is a must.

This made me think of a wonderful BBC series by Dr. Lucy Worsley - History of the Home. In it she tells about the different rooms in our modern house and how they came to be. It's a really great series with all sorts of interesting titbits and trivia. And it's very enjoyable watching her try out old-timey appliances, sleeping arrangements and labor-saving devices. Many things we take for granted are very recent additions and what we consider a necessity today was in the past viewed as a needless extravagance and vice versa.

Here's the story of The Bathroom:



And here is the history of The Kitchen


You can find the entire series here.
More about the series on the BBC website 

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