DOUBLE BUBBLE, AND DOES BARRY SCOTT HAVE CHUMS?

Right. Don't tell the Intrepids but I just put a washing-powder tablet in the dishwasher by accident.

I unwrapped it (without thinking) and slotted it in (without thinking), started the machine (without thinking) and made a cup of tea (without - are you spotting a pattern?)

Then, very randomly, a few minutes later, I did do some thinking, and, like the sunrise of a difficult morning, the thought popped above the horizon and suddenly dawned on me. So I raced to the cupboard to check what I was pretty certain had already happened.

The machine swooshed happily in the corner. I decided to take that as a good sign - if any damage had been done, it was too late to pull it open and scoop out the mulch. If ever there's an alternative to 'scooping out the mulch' when dealing with a problem by the way, I'll always favour Plan B.

In any case, I hoped, mentally crossing my fingers, it's got to be more or less... the same stuff in those things... hasn't it?

I'd have texted the Intrepids there and then but they're halfway to the Bahamas. The dishwasher is the last thing they need to be worrying about, out there in the Bermuda Triangle. Nope, leave all that worrying to me, I thought as I picked up my tea cup.

The dishwasher rumbled in agreement.

-

However, by some sort of miracle, the dishes have come out as clean as a whistle! I felt as though I was in a Finish advert as I pulled out sparkling glasses and glimmering cutlery. I almost turned to camera with a witty slogan and a sparkling wink.

So maybe it is all the same stuff then! Perhaps it's deliberate - you buy a box of the yellow ones for the washing machine and a box of the white ones for the dishwasher, and you're buying it twice - double-bubble for Barry Scott and his chums; a bit of a swizz for the rest of us.

I don't know whether Barry Scott has chums actually. I imagine, at the Annual-Detergent-and-Household-Cleaning-Product-Awards... After-Party, Johnson and Johnson have to leave the room, and the Lever Brothers make polite excuses, just as Barry comes shouting in and booming the glasses off Mr Muscle.

Anyway, the next time I set the dishwasher off, I will probably know for sure whether the soap tablet has done anything more to the insides, than polishing my Mum's second-best plates to a reflective sheen.

For a while though, I might just stick to washing up... in both houses.