OneAndOneIs2

There were, in fact, TWO packages - one left by Royal Mail.

The first, totally sealed up in sellotape, was French Chalk off ebay.

Why? Because I'm a cheapskate. But more because I have an irrational dislike for having to fill things back up.

Seriously. I bitterly resent having to recharge batteries and put petrol in my car. The first thing I look for when buying a phone is its battery life, and the MPG and fuel tank size aren't far down the list when I look for a car.

So... a number of years ago, I took up scuba diving. (There is a link, just wait.) Being a cold country, divers here tend to wear drysuits. Drysuits mostly have latex seals. Seals keep the water out, so you need to keep them in good condition. Putting talc on your seals absorbs oils from the sea and from your skin, and keeps them from rotting.

Or so some people will say. Other people will say that talc rots your seals like nothing or earth, and should be avoided at all costs.

The reason for this is that people don't appreciate that there's a big difference between talc, and what they think is talc.

What they think is talc is the talcum powder sold in various shops. The trouble is, talc is a rock. Not a fragrant cosmetic.

Talc should be applied liberally to latex to stop it rotting. Typical talcum powder is hideously bad for it. The difference? Talcum powder is talc with added perfume. Talc itself has no odour, you see.

And perfume is oil-based. So applying oil-laden powdered talc to seals to get prevent oil damage is a bit of a hiding to nothing.

So I hunted down some unadulterated talc for my drysuit, and since it was there, I used it myself as well. No point having TWO bottles of talc, right?

The upshot of this ramble is that I don't like scented talc any more, and my bottle of "Simple" talc is almost empty. And I resent having to keep buying bottles (see above) and I'm not fond of paying the hiked cosmetic prices for a powdered lump of rock.

So I bought some "French chalk" off ebay - because this is just unscented talc. A kilo of the stuff. Should last years before needing a refill.

The other delivery was a new razor. I've not yet used it but I'm already glad I bought it: It's small and comes with its own case, making it vastly more suitable for travelling than my current razor. So even if it's no better, or even slightly worse, it'll do for days when I'm away from home.

I keep meaning to do a post on shaving, but this one's long enough as it is. So:

The End.