24 July, 2011

Mrs Shannon and Mr Scott

Ok, yes: we are now some of "those people".  We no longer need to scrub our tub, mop our floors, or iron our own shirts.  We have employed someone to do these tasks on our behalf.  'But Shannon, you are not working, don't you think that you have enough time in the day to scrub a bathroom now and then?'  Well...yes, but we are helping to fuel the economy and  build the employment rate! Plus, I HATE bathrooms.

Furthermore, I am doing some hard stuff too:  I had to get up at 7:00 am  to let the housekeeper in!  I have been sleeping until at least 9:00 am every day so that was really tough.  Plus then there is the whole question of how do I look busy and keep from feeling guilty for the four whole hours that she is working?!  Truly, challenging business.  Well, I handled the first two hours by returning to complete my required number of zzz's, and the remaining two hours by puttering around doing dishes, laundry, and playing on the internet.  To make me feel even more pretentious, I am being called "Mrs Shannon" and am answering inquiries about "Mister Scott".  This will take some getting used to as well as some personal justifying on my part.

But the end result is a wonderfully clean home, and hey, like I say, we're creating jobs here people.

After a tough morning of observing work, I headed off to try and get a membership at the Gezira Sportsclub.  Check it out at http://www.geziraclub.com/

A beautiful, historic resort type place with 3 pools, 3 gyms, 30 sports, several restaurants, and tha making of some very fine lazy summer days.  The only trouble is getting in!  You first have to get past the guards who don't want to let you in without a pass, even if your objective is to get in to obtain a pass!  Well, luckily I was with a determined young lady who would not take no for an answer and who herself already had a membership there.  We went through only a small portion of this massive place (which occupies the whole southern half of the island we live on) to find the office where one can obtain a registration form.  Getting the form was hard enough, but after that you need to include a referral letter, photos, and passport info.  This is an elite club!

After successfully leaving with the form I made my way back home to tackle the always challenging task of looking busy while people work on the apartment again.  Now there were two fellas trying to repair one of our screen doors.  Over an hour later, it is still not working and there are plans to return another day.  Who needs a screen door anyway?  All the bugs seem to be INSIDE our apartment already!

The last challenge of the day was trying to order some of those big blug jugs of water to go with our new water cooler.  I called up the nearest grocery store that delivers and did not get an English talker.  After being on hold for a good while, they passed me on to one, but it was still hard to communicate much.  Eventually, satisfied that they might know where I live and they might know what I was ordering, I asked them when it would arrive and how much it would cost.  They just said "thank you" and after a few trys I just thought - oh well, surprise me.

We a bit over an hour later, two guys arrive at my door with 4 things of water, but they are just boxes filled with normal water bottles.  The guys obviously had to load and unload this heavy lot on this exceptionally hot day.  I felt terrible to tell them that it was not what I wanted!  As a gesture of apology (and to lighten their return load) I bought one box, though that too was hard to find out the cost.  They still looked annoyed but what can ya do?

So our cooler still sits empty and waiting, but we do have a mighty full fridge of water.

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