Tomorrow

We get the keys to Mum's new home tomorrow...all being well.

She doesn't arrive until Friday so hubby and I are on a cleaning mission tomorrow to get it looking spick and span.

What an odd phrase that is! Google to the rescue:
From spick-and-span-new (literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570s), from spick (“nail”, variant of spike) + Middle English span-new (“very new”) (from circa 1300 until 1800s), from Old Norse span-nyr, from spann (“chip”) (cognate to Old English spón, English spoon, due to old spoons being made of wood) + nyr (“new”) (cognate to Old English nīwe, English new).[1] Imitation of Dutch spiksplinter nieuw (literally “spike-splinter new”)[2], for a freshly built ship. Observe that fresh woodchips are firm and light (if from light wood), but decay and darken rapidly, hence the origin of the term.

Well, now you know!

:-)

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