Whilst Beth and Izzy were away travelling the world, experiencing new continents and cultures, touching the far corners of the globe, we went to John Lewis to look for a new kitchen sink bowl.

And it was there, in the household accessories department, that we found it – ‘The One’. The kitchen sink bowl that stood out from all the other competing bowls. The bowl that rose above the beige. The ultimate bowl. The uber bowl.

It was displayed alone, set apart from the others, as if it needed its own space on the shelf because it simply could not compare to the rest.  It sat there as if lit with a glowing halo. It was a bowl like no other. This one, and this one alone stood out because … it had its own plug hole. 

With just a mere twist of the wrist, you could extract a centrally placed plughole to allow it to self-drain, thus expelling the soiled water instantly to the sink drain beneath it. The genius of its design was it negated the need for the extra exertion that was usually required, of having to pick up the bowl by its side to tip the contents down the plug hole.

‘Ha!’ I thought. 

They may have headed off to see far flung sunsets and feel sands as soft as snow between their toes.  They may be making new, ever lasting friendships whilst exploring the vastness of this gorgeous world with just a backpack on their backs. They may be staring in awe and wonder at unreal, orangey sunrises and infinite, watery horizons. They may be being startled by the many and varied, intangible wonders of the world and of the people they meet, the places they stand and the air they breathe.

But we had a new sink bowl.  Oh yes we did.

I carefully carried the immaculate glowing, perfectly moulded plastic kitchen accessory to the cashier’s desk to pay its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price. Worth its weight in gold.

This was to be a radical shift in our home life.  A departure from the conventional ways of washing up. A new way of conceiving the very idea of washing up. Our new sink bowl’s unique design would have such a profound, life changing impact, that I knew, on their return home, that I would need to carefully and painstakingly instruct them both on its operational procedure and demonstrate the self draining benefits it would bring to their young lives.

Ok, maybe I’d let them get a shower and change first.

I kid you not, this was the level of change that I foresaw in my world.