Cleaning lady
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2009
1
11
111
Trip End
May 01, 2010
Tauranga, North Island, New Zealand
Saturday, December 5, 2009
It is the first day since I've been here that I can see why this is such a popular beach destination: the water really IS blue here. And what a blue! When the sun is just right, the sea sparkles as though it is covered in millions of little sequins.
I started off my day with one and a half hours of vacuuming and an hour making beds. I am a lady of leisure no more. But it wasn't bad at all and I got a free night out of it. The very kind hostel manager, Sarah, asked me if I wanted to trade a few hours’ worth of cleaning for one free night. I said yes because, well, it saves me a bit of money and she could have asked anyone in the hostel to help out but she asked ME, and that thought gives me a great sense of pride, boosts my ego and more generally just makes me feel good about myself (haha - I must be on the vain train).
Sally left me.
To go stay with an elderly lady who just got out of hospital.
But I wanted her to stay with ME (proud and selfish, great).
There were all sorts of weird things going on in town today, or at least I thought they were weird because I did not understand what was happening. There was some kind of festival, and there was a blown-up slide thing for the kids but it was only up for a couple hours. There was a parade but I only caught the very last part of it which consisted of trucks of all different shapes, sizes and colours driving down The Strand (the main strip), honking their horns. Apparently that was a fundraiser for kids with cancer. While all this was happening, there was also some sort of show taking place in the amphitheater by the water: Saint Nicolas was there from Spain (I guess they haven't heard of Santa Claus from the North Pole all the way out here) and I could hear singing all the way from the hostel. The craft market was also bustling as it just opened for the season.
Last night I sung karaoke for the first time of my life. And quite possibly the last. I was so annoyed about being told to go up and sing that I did it just so that they would stop. My first choice of a song was Les Champs Elizees; unfortunately it was in the book but not in the computer system. I opted for Dancing Queen, Abba, instead.
Did I mention that I watched the movie "Hostel 2" the other night? I have not watched the first one, but basically it's the story of young people who go to stay in a hostel somewhere in Eastern Europe and they get kidnapped and sent to this terrible place where rich people from around the world pay good money to torture them to death. Yup, no joke.
Time to go check out the sunset over the harbour from the hostel balcony...
Happy Birthday Claire!
(I'm not a day late: it is still the 4th in Canada).
