It's the silence that's getting to me.
My new, Polish, cleaner is here for the first time today. She seems to be creeping around, making as little noise as possible - and not getting things done very fast. I'm tring to write, and each time I stop, I hear an annoying nothing.
Daeva used to make satisfying, bustly noises. And I always broke off from my work once or twice to have a short chat with her.
I keep asking the new girl (she's 19 or 20, compared to D, who was - is - over 30) if I can help get used to the place, but she's not yet confident in English... and I've just discovered she's "tidied" the papers in mu unique floor-filing system.
She's the best friend of the waitress in the French cafe (ibid), newly arrived. Better than going through an agency or employing a complete stranger. But, at this precise moment, her shy slowness is making me feel a stranger in my own home.
Why have a cleaner at all? I'm not trying to sell the house at the moment... maybe I should try and economise.... Want to imagine what the place would look like by Christmas?
Cocktailer
We all need cleaners. It takes away the central reason for arguing between people who live together, no matter what their relationship is like.
Better than stopping what you're doing to peek up and hear an almighty clunk-crash-splinter of yet another precious object smashed.
Come Christmas, with no cleaner, I'd look like Miss Haversham at the dinner table, covered in cobwebs with mice running amock.