U Bend

On returning home from Salford my first job was to unblock the kitchen sink drain, and removing the U bend (easily done for once) revealed the main problem to be three coloured pencils around which other detritus had gathered; how do you get three pencils down a plughole? – get your wife to bring home from school 50 that have been abandoned outside for a month, let her wash them in the sink, and allow her to pull out the plug and drain the water before removing the now clean (but fewer) crayons.