Recycling brass

The men came and put down the extra insulation in our loft. It took them 40 minutes. It took us 5 days to prepare and is taking even longer to put stuff away again. Partly, but not entirely, because we keep getting distracted.

When I was a little girl growing up I lived in my grandparents' house and my gran had a large collection of brass. She'd put aside a whole morning every now and again, cover the table with newspaper, and polish it all. One of the pieces taking pride of place on the fireplace for this tankard. It's made from brass salvaged from the battlefields of North Africa. My mum brought it home for her grandfather, after spending time in Egypt during the war, in the WAAF.
There are several boxes of brass ornaments that have gone straight back up to the attic; I haven't even opened them. I can't get rid of them even though they're sitting uselessly in boxes hidden away. My children won't have the sentimental memories that I have and will be able to sell/throw without a care after I've gone. Maybe I'll do it myself one day ...

Anyway, I digress. This tankard was on its own so I brought it down to the kitchen and spent 30 minutes - that could have been used doing something useful! - cleaning and polishing it. Just because.

It is very satisfying polishing brass but Brasso doesn't half pong!

Husband meanwhile was going through my memory box to try and rearrange things so the lid would fit on. 'Why are you keeping this?' he asked. 'And what on earth is this for? And what's the point of keeping that?'

'Just because.'