I heard some news today that I was going to get kicked out of school. Well, not quite that serious. The school owners want to redevelop the apartment where I have been saying the past ten years. So, they asked me if I could move out and stay at my house instead. Up to this point I have only been sleeping at my house from Friday to Sunday. I come back every evening to have a meal and rest. But, as we still don’t have a telephone in the house (which means no Internet) I have to go back to the school in the evenings in order to work for the company. I usually finished work at about 10.30 p.m. and it just made sense to sleep at school.
I am not really a morning person. It takes me time to get organized. I cannot really do anything intelligent until I have my first cup of coffee. Although it only takes me less than 2 minutes to walk from my bedroom to the time clock, where we have to punch in, I am usually the last person to arrive. And sometimes I get the time stamped in red because I have arrived later than 7.45 a.m. Once I am safely signed in, I then go to the “family” end of the school office where I usually eat breakfast and other meals too. That is the advantage of living inside the school.
There are disadvantages of course. Being inside the school surrounded by servants you don’t have so much freedom. It is of course nice to have your bedroom and bathroom cleaned every day. And my clothes washed and ironed and brought back in the evening of the same day seven days a week. And of course, it is also nice to be waited on when you go to eat breakfast. The servant usually cooks my bacon and eggs or whatever else I want. Initially I found all of this a bit unnerving. I didn’t really like being waited upon hand and foot. I kept wanting to help them out or do some of the work for them. But, in the end you sort of get used to having servants around cleaning up after you.
Now this brings me back to my dilemma. When I first came to work at the school I didn’t really mind about have a low wage compared to schools in Bangkok. This was because I was being given free board and lodging. They actually looked after me very well giving everything I needed and some things I didn’t. Staying at my new house I would not only have to pay the bills myself, which I have started to do already, but I would also have to spend a lot more time cleaning and washing clothes. And of course ironing too. I am not saying I am feeling lazy. (Well, maybe just a little.) It is just that with the daytime job at the school and the evening job with my company, I don’t really have much time to relax. The last thing I want to do is spend the weekends doing chores. Sometimes, I think health has to come first.
Anyway, the good news is that the school has already said they will find a cleaner for me to come on Saturdays. She would wash and iron my clothes and also clean the house! Great. Perfect. Though I am not too sure if one day is enough. Maybe I should ask if she could come twice a week but that might be pushing my luck.
