Oh Woolies I Miss You

Anyone who knows me knows I dislike grocery shopping.  I would prefer a bikini wax to a trip to Woolies.  I was over the moon when home delivery was invented.  Sitting in front of the computer, vodka in hand ordering groceries.  Some nice young man delivering them to my door and carrying them into my bench - ahhh bliss. 

But here I am in the jungle of Borneo.  A trip to a supermarket consists of a smallish IGA type store (if I'm lucky), my Bahasa to English dictionary and a creative mind.  With all this time I have on my hands I have taken to baking daily and cooking up a treat for hubby's dinner so I am learning to experiment.  There is no self raising flour here - yep have to add baking powder to good old plain flour.  When I ran out hubby and I spent 4 hours driving from small shop to small shop in the hope of finding some.  At our last stop I found some tiny containers of the stuff - what did I do brought all 8 that they had in stock.

There is no just popping down to Woolies to grab that ingredient you need (in most cases you won't find it here anyway) but heading into our nearest town is such a mission (imagine having to visit 8 shops to find one ingredient). 

So when I return to Australia in 2 weeks time my first stop will be Woolies where you may see me just standing admiring the range of fresh fruit and veg, the meat section or wandering aimlessly from aisle to aisle with a stupid smile on my face.

The Joy Of The Maid

So here I am sitting in my pj's, its 8.20am and my maid arrived 15 mins ago.  We had a dinner party for 10 last night so the dishes are piled high, there is not a spare plate, bowl or piece of cutlery in my house.  The sight of this would normally send me into a sobbing mess over a coffee but not today.  I know I should be feeling bad that someone else will be spending the day cleaning and tidying up the mess but I don't.  I commented to my husband last night after our guests left "I love entertaining when I don't have to do the clean up", he smiled and asked me if I would like another vodka.  

Now in between doing the mountain of dishes my maid will also find time to wash and iron the laundry that has has accumulated since she left Saturday arvo (she is here Mon - Sat 8 - 4pm). How much can there be I hear you saying - well I live in the jungle, on the equator, so lots of laundry accumulate. (I sweat more than I ever felt possible so 3 changes of clothes a day is fairly norm.)  For the first two weeks I felt uncomfortable as this domestic whizz cleaned my clothes and house while I shopped online, face booked and generally swanned around like a lady of leisure I always thought I should be.  I felt uncomfortable at the thought of someone washing and folding my underwear (our maid folds undies in ways I have never seen undies folded before) or making my bed for me.  Now I can't quite pin point the moment when I got over my discomfort but I do know that when I return to reality (life in Australia) and don't have someone to clean up after me on a daily basis I will miss it. 

My hubby has commented on how clean the house is and I had to gently inform him to not get too used to it as on our return to Australia my distaste for household cleaning will again rear it's head.  This is just a quickie blog so all of you reading it can slip way to vacuum or fold laundry - while I swan around like lady muck :)