When your movements are restricted and your daily routine getting repetitive and (more than) a little monotonous, even the tiniest deviation is quite exciting. If I’m being honest, a man hanging outside your third storey window at any time is eyebrow raising.
Today is building wash day. This is done by men (I’m not being sexist – they are all men) wearing orange and hanging from the roof on ropes, wielding what looks like a thin gun that sprays water at force at the walls and windows. Yes, not much different to the average wet and windy Wellington day, only with added man. His orange is waterproof, which is a good job – most of the water he sprays onto the building sprays right back at him, dripping off his boots.
It’s raining today and I’m reminded how Mum was never happy when the window cleaner came in the rain, feeling it a waste of money and that the windows were dirty again immediately. (You don’t get the same window-cleaning-weather in Sheffield as in Wellington.) But he did come every fortnight and only charged a few shillings, so it wasn’t that bad. I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to get the hanging men back any time soon – when we moved in here you could barely see through some of the windows. Neil talked about climbing out through the sliding door to try and clean them. I wasn’t happy about that and made my feelings clear.
I’m a little in awe of anyone who can do this. Well, okay, it scares the living daylights out of me and I dread to hear a yell and see an orange blur flash past my window. Once, in high school, I had the chance to try abseiling. I declined, not sure at all why someone would choose to throw themselves off something high with only a rope between them and an impression of squashed strawberries. The people that do this for a living are those that enjoy doing it as a hobby and I once thought it must be boring to be swinging from a city centre building rather than a rockface. Then I met someone who does it and he said he enjoyed it just as much, that ‘it beats sitting in an office.’ I’ll stick to the office, thanks. Or the dining table currently.
Speaking of orange, some tragic news today – for the second week running the supermarket has had no orange Tim Tams. If you could all please stop buying them so I can get some I would appreciate it. Thank you. To end on a positive note, today we celebrate the second day running of no new cases. Long may it continue.
Tracy Annenberg 