I am not a great fan of putting products like this in the cistern, but my wife always seem to sneak a packet into the trolley. Interestingly, she seldom uses it in the house when we are by ourselves; it tends to make an appearance when we have visitors. I don't pretend to understand women and I don't really want to bring the freshness of the ocean to my bathroom, which is the risible claim of the manufacturer.

In the division of tasks in the house, I get the weekly cleaning of all the toilets in the house and I would much rather do this without there being blue (or should I say Bloo) water in the toilet bowl. Bloo isn't a very natural colour - it certainly isn't the colour of the ocean and if you are cleaning the toilet bowl, it is hard to distinguish anything below the waterline which might need cleaning.

Jeyes will have us believe that the product will keep limescale at bay. I am at pains to tell my wife that because I clean the toilets properly every week and have a perfectly good descaler which I use periodically, we don't need this stuff. But no, she still bungs a little round Bloo into the cistern and each time we flush we get a whoosh of unnatural looking blue foamy stuff which quickly settles out. I understand you can also get Bloo Lemon, Bloo Pink and Bloo Purple

When you first use Bloo, you get a very strong solution and as the days go by the blue gets weaker and weaker. It does however last longer than some of the cheaper variants that you see around - I'll grant them that. The smell is a little more acceptable than some of the smells which hang around the toilet.

It's just that to me, it is an unnecessary purchase and I'm thinking of putting my foot down with a firm hand and telling her that she can't buy it anymore. As it happens, she has already noticed that it is on offer this week at Lidl where you can get 3 blocks instead of the normal 2 on both Bloo and Bloo Lemon. For the privilege, you will be flushing £1.74 quite literally down the drain.