51) What is this World Coming to?

We live in a society where people have many Rights, yes Rights with a capital R. When I read about how things were in the not too distant past I know that those Rights have been hard fought for and were defiantly needed. Without them children would still be pulling trolleys loaded with coal in the pits of Wales, men could be sacked on the whim of their boss and women would still not have the vote and would be classed as the property of their husbands. Without the unions and the suffragette movement my life would not be so good and I am very grateful to all those who had the foresight and courage to get things changed but have they gone too far?

Now we don’t allow children to work in hard conditions, we make sure that they have enough to eat and that they go to school and are not abused in any way. But have we gone too far when parents can no longer discipline their children without fear of the intervention of the law. Children can ‘divorce’ their parents and nursery school teachers are wary about putting their arm around a crying child.

Now employers are sometimes reluctant to hire staff, as they know that they will have a problem getting rid of them if they do not work out. Why shouldn’t a business owner be able to employ the applicant that he thinks he will get on best with and be able to ’let them go’ if things don’t turn out the way he had expected.

What about our right of Privacy? I just heard of an employee who took a day’s sick leave then went on Facebook and advertised that he was having a great day at home. And was surprised when his employer took disciplinary action when he saw it on the posting. He complained that his privacy had been invaded

Women have come a long way since Emily Pankhurst, rightly so, but have they lost something along the way? Now we so often hear of ‘sexual harassment’ in the workplace something that was never spoken of before. I am not saying that it did not occur but for the most part, although of course not always, young girls who were pestered in the work place learnt to stand up for themselves and to tell that kind of guy where to get off and not run to the courts and sue for compensation.

Every time some tragedy occurs we hear that everyone involved has ‘been offered counselling’. I am sure that many people need counselling services if they are personally involved in some tragic event but when one member of a school is killed in a road accident all the other pupils are offered counselling and given to understand that they need it. Many people have had to face tragedy and just have to face up to it and get on with life. Hard I know but it is just the way things are. In recent times we have heard on the news of the remains of World War 1 and World War 2 soldiers that have been found and repatriated which is fair enough but to see the grand children or even great grand children shedding tears over their ancestors makes me wonder. Can these people really feel so bereft at the loss of someone they have never met have only heard stories about?

In today’s world people have a right of choice. They do not want to be told how to think or how to act. They will do it their way. Yet when a man gets drunk and crashes his car, they bring in laws that make it illegal for the barman to serve him with too much beer. When a smoker develops lung cancer he sues the tobacco company for selling him the cigarettes. When childhood obesity becomes a problem we clamour for the school tuck shop to be banned from selling sugary drinks and donuts. What happened to taking responsibility for our actions?

Yes I can hear you cry, “This is a huge generalisation”. Of course it is but it is a trend that is growing and it makes me wonder, “What is this World Coming to?”

50) The Gate

While I was busy cleaning houses Jonny was doing any kind of engineering jobs from home that he could get. One interesting job that he got was to build a gate. We were told of a couple that wanted to fence off the back section of their yard to keep their dogs in. We called on them and discussed what kind of gate they wanted. The house was a large brick double storey home and the customers said they wanted the gate to suit the house; it needed to be big and very solid looking. The only problem was that the dogs that he wanted to keep in were a pair of tiny Chihuahuas, very noisy, very lively, but small enough to get through many ready made gates. Jonny made rough drawings of the kind of gate that he thought was required and we once again called on the customer. At first he was not very happy with the drawings, he could not visualize what the finished gate would look like. Once Jonny showed him the type of material that he intended to use he was much happier. Now he was sure that it would match his house, big and solid. But he was still worried that his little dogs would be able to get through the bars. Jonny just picked up one of the dogs put it on his lap and measured across it’s skull and assured the customer that the space between the bars would be smaller that the top of his pets’ heads so there would be no way for them to escape.

As the work on the gate progressed I was very concerned, it was so big and so solid looking. I was sure that when the customer saw it he would hate it. Jonny kept assuring me that was what he wanted but I knew that he had a problem visualising what it would look like when it was finished and I thought that once he saw it he would not like it. He was such a good customer (once he had made up his mind), paying his deposit promptly and I did not want him to be disappointed.

As I was working the day that Jonny had arranged to erect the fence and gate I did not go with him but he had two men from our church to assist him and when he came home he said that the customer was overjoyed with his gate. I was very relieved that it had gone well. A few days later Jonny and I went back to the site to remove the bracing that he had used to keep the gate steady until the concrete had hardened. There were the little dogs behind the fence, unable to get out and there was the customer still beaming about his new gate. I was surprised to see that he had been exactly right, the fence and gate suited the house perfectly and it looked great. He said to us “do you know why I like it so much? Its because it looks homemade, there is not another one like this anywhere” I realised that he meant that it looked custom made, made just for him but homemade sounded as if it had been knocked up in someone’s back yard by someone who did not know what they were doing, obviously this was not what he meant.

There is of course a limit to the work that Jonny can take on in his little workshop, at the moment he is busy refurbishing a trailer. He has a few regular customers who bring all their engineering jobs to him. Recently he manufactured some protectors for microphones for a company that measures sound in industry. That was a particularly awkward job but as Jonny is very determined (I call it stubborn) he got it right eventually. He works pretty steadily and is pleased to be able to stay at home and not to have to work in a factory where he would have to clock in and out each day so he is happy with his business.

49) Can Someone Explain?

There are many things that puzzle me about the human race. I am sure that people don’t understand me because I often find it very hard to understand people. Take for instance ‘Home Brand’ products in the supermarkets.

Both of the two large supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworth not only have one line of their own home brand but two. Coles have one called “You’ll Love Coles” and another that goes by the name “Coles Smart Buys” and both of them have a wide range of products. Sugar, Flour, Tinned Fruit and Vegetables, Cooking Oil, Milk, Tea, Coffee, Breakfast Cereal, Salt, Toilet Soap, Toothpaste, Washing Powder and many others. They sit side by side on the shelves, together and with all the big brand names of the products. The “You’ll Love Coles” range are presented in attractive blue packaging whereas the “Coles Smart Buys” are in much plainer packets. They have white labels with black printing and a big red tick, which is distinctive and easily recognisable if not especially pretty. I don’t shop in Woolworth very often so I am not sure what their home brands are called but they also have the two different lines.

I won’t go into the whole price range but an example of the sugar and flour prices will explain why I am so puzzled. A 2.5 kg packet of CSR sugar costs $2.99, a 2.5 kg packet of “You’ll love Coles” costs $2.69 and the same size packet of “Coles Smart Buys” will only cost you $1.65. A 2kgs packet of “White Wings” plain flour will set you back $4.99 but you will only pay $3.99 for “You’ll love Coles and if you decide to buy “Coles Smart Buys” the same size packet will only cost you $1.85. (These are actual prices copied from the supermarket shelf this week). Now the puzzle, why would anyone pay $2.99 for a bag of sugar when one could get one for $1.65.Surely sugar is sugar. And the difference from dearest to cheapest of the flour is $3.14 a third of the price!!!

I have been told that it is all a snob thing, people like to think that they are only buying “the best”. I find that way of thinking very strange but that does not explain why anyone would buy the “You’ll Love Coles”, a difference of $1.04. Do people really believe that Coles has two factories one producing a product twice as good as the other?

I can understand that maybe one would like the taste of the more expensive tinned foods better than the Coles one, we all have different likes and dislikes and maybe Coffee is not as strong as the branded one and the toilet soap might have a perfume that offends you but basics like sugar, flour and salt are surely all the same. I have looked at the ingredient labels of these products and they read exactly the same as the branded ones. I feel sure that the only difference is the colour of the ink on the labels

Shoppers obviously do buy the expensive ones or Coles would not stock them but it really is hard to understand. Not long ago I was sounding off on this subject, as I am inclined to do, to one of the ladies that I clean for. I was amazed when she said, “I never buy any of the home brands products” I asked her why she said that she was concerned about the contents of them. I said that the ingredients have to be listed on the packaging so one always knows what was in them. But she was unconvinced “Oh I don’t trust Coles, you can’t believe what they put on the packet” As I said ‘People are hard to understand.’

48) Funny People

My new job as a cleaner was certainly an eye opener for me. I have been very fortunate to have good clients, kind and appreciative people. They have given me many smiles though.

I have some clients who are fanatical about cleanliness and others who never think that there is anything that needs doing in their homes even if it looks a bit like a pigsty. One day when I arrived at the home of one of the first type I started to enquire about her husbands health as he had been in hospital the week before. Before I could finish my question she said “Marina something terrible happened” I thought that her husband must have taken a turn for the worst but she continued “I found a dead cockroach”. Hubby was still in hospital and getting better so his health was not such a big worry as the “dead cockroach”

The agency gave me a stand-in job to do. The customer’s regular cleaner was on holiday and so they asked me to clean the gentleman’s house for three weeks. On the first visit I noted that the regular cleaner never dusted the skirting board or behind any of the doors, the dust there was very thick. I gave them a good wipe over and also the windowsills that had also been neglected. When the hour and a half was up I took my form to the gentleman to be signed. He was sitting in front of the television with his bandaged leg up on a stool. He was very appreciative and said, “Thank you so much, you are very thorough”. I was pleased that he had noticed and a little proud of myself. After I had been there for three weeks I felt that I had left the house into a much better state than I had found it. On my last visit before the return of his usual cleaner I said, “Well goodbye now, I won’t be here next week as your regular lady will be back from holiday”. He was very puzzled and asked me what I meant. I told him once more “the lady who usually does your cleaning will be back next week, so I wont be coming”. He said, “Oh aren’t you my regular cleaner?” So much for my pride in the way the house was looking, he did not even notice that I was a different person.

One of my very first clients only required her me to do her shopping and her ironing. She had another helper who came a different day to do her housework. She liked to have all her underwear ironed. I would spend about an hour and a half every week ironing and folding her socks, panties and nighties and placing them in exactly the correct place in her cupboards and draws. The white socks needed to be ironed and folded one way, the pink and blue ones a different way, except for the pink ones with the flowers on, those she liked to have folded in yet another fashion.

One lovely client who was not very house proud used to say, “Forget about the cleaning, come and sit and have a cup of tea and a chat instead. Her eye sight was failing so she could not see the dust and was quite happy for me just to give it a lick and a promise and I had to be very strong to get the work done. She was a private client not one that I had got through the agency, she was not getting any government subsidies but I did feel that she was paying me to clean and I needed to get as much done as I could. Once, on the day before I was due to clean there she phoned me and told me that she was not feeling very well and maybe I should not come. She did not want to infect me with what ever she had. I told her that I was not concerned that I would catch anything and arranged to call on her as planned. When I arrived at her house she did not answer the door, even though I knocked on both the front door and the back and on the bedroom window. I hoped that she had been taken into hospital or that she had gone to stay with her son and daughter-in-law and just forgotten about me. I found that I did not have her daughters-in-laws phone number with me but as soon as I got home I phoned her and she went and opened up. She found the lady had passed away in her sleep. I was sad, as we were becoming good friends.


Another lady told me that her husband had a touch of dementia and that she was very concerned about him. Trying to reassure her I asked if she was not worrying too much as we all become a little forgetful when we get older. She said “No my dear, when your husband gets up in the morning and puts on your panties instead of his own you have to admit that there is something wrong”

Another lady, a gentle soul with an obvious touch of dementia gave me the biggest laugh of them all. She lived alone but could no longer manage to clean her house or cook her own meals; her sister lived in the house next door to her and kept an eye on things. I never met the sister but she often left notes for me or telephoned to speak to me while I was there. One day the client asked me if I would be prepared to get some blood stains off her lounge carpet. She said that she had a special cleaner but was not able to bend down any more. I said that was fine and she showed me a small trail of blood stains that she wanted me to clean up. While I was working on them I asked her how they had got there and she told me that she had cut her arm and that she could not stop the bleeding and in fact she had called the ambulance and had been taken into hospital to have it stitched. I laughingly said, “As long as they are not the blood of your last cleaning lady who you murdered, dismembered and buried in the garden. I would hate to think I was destroying the forensic evidence” As I finished saying it I thought ‘Maybe I should not have said that, she might not understand what I mean’ But she saw the joke and was still laughing when the phone rang. It was her sister, she said “Yes Betty, Marina is here, yes Betty, she has changed the sheets, yes Betty she has cleaned the bathroom, now she is cleaning the blood stains off the carpet. Betty, she wants to know if they are from my last cleaning lady that I murdered, dismembered and buried in the garden” Then a long silence, then “No Betty, it was a joke Betty, she did not mean it Betty, she was joking” As I listened I could not help wondering which sister had the dementia.

Once a new client told me that she did not want me to park my car in her driveway, I was to leave it on the road. I was not to use the front door but to come in at the back and not to leave my bag in the lounge in case “someone might call and see it there”. When I asked her about her family she was very offish and said “I do not wish to discuss my family with you” Obviously I was the cleaning lady and she did not wish to fraternise with me. But I have been going there for over a year now and she has become much friendlier although she is rather reserved and does not open up and tell me all her problems they way some of my clients do. They tell me about their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren too. Some of them are very muddled and forgetful and tell me the same story week after week or else they tell me a story one week and the exact opposite the next week. One week the daughter-in-law will be one step away from an angel and the next week she will be the worst woman in the world. I can’t work out if they are talking about a different daughter-in-law or if the same daughter-in-law had just done something unkind during the week.

My job is meant to keep the elderly in their own homes longer and I know that this is what they want but I often wonder if some of them would be better off in a nursing home with people around them. I think loneliness is their biggest problem although most of them would not admit it. What they really need is people who have the time to sit and chat, to listen to their problems and to all the many stories they have to tell about their long lives. The government provide a great service but all of us are busy and do not have the time to just sit and chat.