In another five years it would have been oil...

[caddyman]

For the past couple of days there has been an odd, stale smell coming from the recesses of the pedestal drawers by my desk. Only when I opened it, of course.

I had a cursory shuffle through the papers to see what could possibly be smelling so strangely: a sort of stale second-hand book shop smell, but as if distilled and bottled. I found nothing - mind I didn't look very hard.

About ten minutes ago I had occasion to consult my dictionary. The waft from the drawer was even stronger, so having checked the spelling of the word in question, and noted the meanings of a couple of other randomly spotted words (as you do), I decided to investigate properly.

The drawer housing the dictionary was not the culprit, though it did seem that there the odour congregated there more strongly than elsewhere. Maybe it was heavier than air…?

My next exploratory foray involved the second drawer - one which I use quite regularly as the depository for secrets man was not meant to know elderly, unanswered correspondence. Anyway, deep, deep down, in the Pre-Cambrian layers, I eventually excavated a plastic carrier bag (happily not biodegradable). Now I was going to shove that to one side and investigate deeper levels when I realised that the bag had a texture with which I was unfamiliar.

The upshot is, that I now know what the banana equivalent of coffin-liquor smells like.

Using the archaeological technique of dating an artefact from the surrounding layers, I put the banana at about December 2002.

They are not meant to last that long.

And they don't.

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Ewwwwwwwwwww.

[pax-draconis.livejournal.com]

What she said.

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

Even worse with cucumbers, but personally I think potatoes are worst.

Although duck egg was pretty vile now I think about it...

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Fish.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I think I would have noticed fish while it was still December 2002...

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

I remember there was a kid in my halls who went home within a week and left a bag of fish in the shared fridge. Nobody knew whose it was so nobody touched it for a whole term...

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

When I hated my first year flatmates (see previous comments about sympathising about living with girls) they annoyed me enough for me to leave some hearts to go rotten rather than eating them. It was dead funny, one of the girls actually threw up when she opened the fridge!

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

I can see how that would happen... after a time we stopped opening the fridge or going into the kitchen

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

A midden layer! How interestin'. Now, had any of it seeped down into the lower layers, post-depositionally, so to speak? Or was it all safely contained in the bag? This may affect the preservation of the elderly documents! Mushed banana juice is a wonderful adhesive, as I have had occasion to discover in my bag before now.

I did leave a milkshake in a flask in my desk at school for an awfully long time once - explosive alcohol and lumps!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Now I knew there'd be one person out there interested for reasons other than squeamishness!

Happily it was all contained within the placcy bag which had been well wrapped around the offending item before it was deposited.I think I might have noticed somemonths ago, otherwise...

[romney.livejournal.com]

You didn't think to write "POSTAL VOTE" on the placcy bag and pop it in the mailbox then!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Bugger.

Still, if I put one away now it will be ready for the general election...