Everything Makes You Lazy

When entering a distant land, one of the attractions is the culture. Another is the climate whilst architectural delights. Food is different and the language barrier makes the trip more appealing while shopping experience interesting.

However, it isn’t necessarily easy to spot different customs like households having daily maids which for Brazilian middle to upper class is a norm. When I arrived here in the late 80s and my mother-in-law had three live in maids, a daily cook and chauffeur, and home visiting dress maker, pedicurist, and the list goes on it struck me as extravagance, but at the same time rather annoying.

I’ve always believed in hard work, and freedom, and that means after work space. Space to move, space to breath, and space to appreciate my life on earth. Weekend bike trips still leave me excited even on my own. Don’t get me wrong, I like riding with friends and small groups, but the sense of not being packed in like a sardine is refreshing. Having maids can be quite annoying. And yes, beneficially it makes sense to reduce workload, but at what expense?

If you are relaxed and a maid is walking through your home she might cross your path, or as I’ve found, Brazilians speak loudly, and my wife encourages conversation. Now don’t get me wrong, you need a bit of banter to make the day go by easier and as my wife says rapport is important to keep employees happy and content at work. Nevertheless, for a simple earthling like me it’s infringing my space, and isn’t welcome.

On top of that several silk shirts of mine have been washed whereby colours have run. Several other garments have felt the wrath of maids who have ‘accidently’ dropped bleach, and little white spots are unevenly spread. It wouldn’t be so bad, if they were all over and then it would appear uniform and part of

 the design.

Actually, I’ve got used to having a maid once a week which saves me and my wife time and effort cleaning the house fully, so the fact it allows me to be lazier than when I lived in England is quite refreshing!

Take care!

Prof. Carl Boniface

Vocabulary builder:

Appealing (adj) = attractive, tempting, interesting, pleasing, likeable, engaging

Chauffeur (n) = a person employed to drive a private or rented automobile.

Banter (v) = chit chat, the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks.

"there was much singing and good-natured banter"

Wrath (n) = anger, rage, fury, ire, madness 

Bleach (n) = whitener, bleaching agent, decolorize, lighten, remove the colour

Unevenly (adv) = unequally, erratically, irregularly, disproportionately, randomly