Mission 035: Where Susan grows an aubergine

Okay, so I'm still slacking off. Not a lot of bloggage happening. However, thanks to the recession I now have a bit more time (and bit less money) as my two days a week of work has ended. For now, anyway.
Right now though, I have a new and very important mission. It'll take a few weeks to know whether I have had success.
I am trying to grow an aubergine/eggplant. Obviously I would like to grow many, but just growing one is proving challenging. See, the problem is that aubergines need pollination, like all vegies and fruits. They need the boy flower and the girl flower for this to happen. Yet, despite planting several aubergine plants, so far my plants have been stubbornly refusing to produce more than one flower at a time. And not even at the same time. One plant produces a flower, then it falls off. Another plant produces a flower, which then falls off. And so on, and so on and so on.
Until today, my aubergine plants have been sitting in the garden slowly growing larger (they've been there four months), eating their compost goodness, drinking copious amounts of water, with nothing to show for it. Then this morning, I saw two flowers. At the same time! Successful home aubergine growers recommend hand pollination to boost your chances of getting fruit. That is, you get a cotton bud and wave it round in each flower in turn, several times, to share the pollen, and hopefully fertilise the flower. Then boom, out pops an eggplant several weeks later. Well, maybe not quite that instant.
I can't help feeling that all this cotton bud waving is a bit like a group turkey basting. What a hideous thought. But good for plants. And if it gets me an eggplant or two, it'll be worth it.