Just a thought – for those bottles of food colouring, I put some (well I haven’t tried pink I must admit) into the water if I have fresh flowers in a glass vase.

Stops the water getting manky-looking after a couple of days.

Hurray, you’re back! And moving house, you poor thing. I am trying to work out where to apply for postdocs next year and am almost tempted to try and stay where I am, just so we don’t have to move again.

Good luck with the moving, and the decluttering. Getting rid of the ancient gelatine is a very good start. If your cupboard is anything like mine there is probably a 10-year old bottle of pink food colouring back there which needs to go too.