Monday, 28Aug06

Highlights: laundry emergency, walk around the neighborhood, worst night in a long time

I stayed at home most of the day today. The owner of the house is having the house professionally cleaned still,,, polishing the floors, the sofas were taken to the cleaners today (kinda sucks without the sofas) ha ha… but I can’t complain!

I’m at the point in my laundry cycle where I have no more clean pants left. (still have some spare drawers,, so the emergency isn’t drastic yet), but we’re brushing up against hard times. We have a washing machine in the house, but the key to the back room was missing in action for a few hours… then I had to figure out how to use it. (no,, it’s not as intuitive as an American washing machine!) I got the pembantu (maid) from next door to come help me out (= and did my first load of laundry in over a week! Whew!

Next step,,, finding a clothesline. Hmmm. That one required a trip to the store. Back to the household necessities section: iron, ironing board, clothes drying rack (2 kinds), nylon cord, etc…

The trip was interesting. I took a “bajai”,,, a popular mode of transportation around here. It’s like a scooter, with an orange, volkswagon-esque bubble built around it. It could possibly be the most under-powered vehicle on the streets in any part of the world, except a rider lawn-mower maybe. (= it’s cheaper than a taxi- and zigs & zags through traffic like a champ! There’s no meter- price is always negotiated. It’s best if you have some idea where you’re going & what’s a normal price. Americans look like wallets with legs here sometimes. (=