Today is just wonderful. This winter, we've had all nightmares we could possibly be afraid of : ice, snow, extra snow, meters snow, cold wind, frozing days, rain that becomes ice during the night, everything.
But today, on the 24th of March, we all take a deep breath of fresh new air. Even though it's the third day of spring, you can smell in the air that specific odour of houses being heaten by the charming sun. For the first time in months, I've put off my big warm jacket and walked in the light.
During my studies, I used to take many different little jobs all year long, but also during the summer vacation. For example, I worked in a beauty shop as a seller, I taught French, Dutch and maths lessons to young kids after school, I sold ice-creams in my favourite ice-creams shop,... and I also worked as a cleaning-lady. This was far the best-paid jobs of all I've known. But it was one of the most exhausting too. That summer, I had to wake up at 5am to catch the bus on time. You'd think there isn't anyone in the bus number 52 at 5.37 am : but there is. The only people you can see that early are all cleaners.
I arrived at 5.55, just in time to check my trolley, sign the presence sheet and take the elevator to the 12th floor. I didn't have to change clothes, for I just wore jeans and a t-shirt with the name of the cleaning society, so I wasn't losing time.
Between 6am and 9am, I had to hurry along the endless corridor with the trolley. I counted once : I had to clean exactly 52 rooms, empty 126 bins, wash 12 toilets and clean 8 mirrors. Horrific. Three hours is really short for that kind of work, as I fast understood. I finished my corridor just in time to see nice people in suits arriving in their office. Except for one. As I planified my trajectory the first day, I found a room already busy. A man was there. We looked at each other. I pased my way and saw at my watch that it was 6.35 am. The guy went to the office at 6.30 each morning! Therefor, I had to change all my plans and clean his office first every single morning. His office was in the middle of my second corridor, and it annoyed me very much to have to clean it first, because I was losing about eight minutes just to go there and then come back and begin the correct trajectory. Eight minutes. A great, great loss.
At 9am, I had to put my trolley back at the ground floor and sign the sheet. Then, I had an hour to eat something and let my poor legs and arms get a bit rest. At 10am, I had to clean special things, and the task changed every day : doors (hundreds!), emergency staircases (20 floors...),... But the most horrible task I ever had to do was the parking lot. There were three underground parking floors without windows that had to be cleaned. I remember we were four young girls who had to do the work : clean doors, fire extinguishers, lights,... You can't imagine how much doors there were. What was very disturbing was the absence of windows. In the early morning, I saw the sun waking up accross the city, thanks to the huge windows that were in every room, every office, every corridor. But in the parking lot... I needed sunlight.
Anyway, I was coming with this story first because I will never see the cleaning-ladies the same way again. Their job is far harder than mine will ever be, but they do it every day without even being thanked for that. After twenty horrible days, I was sick of the same old corridor, the same rooms, the same bathrooms, the same desks each and every day. When I once said that to a cleaning-lady, she told me she had been cleaning the very same floor for eighteen years. I never complained again after that, but I never forgot her tired face. I wonder if she still cleans the same floor...
This story has a second interest. When you clean an office every day, you get used to the objects you have to clean around. I remember a bin where I found, each morning, a empty bottle of J&B... The guy was probably alcoholic, and no one had noticed. Sad. In another office, there were always empty packs of chocolates, sweeties,... I found once a small box with nice drawers on it. It had contained tiny cookies, called "Les petits sablés ronds et bons", from Michel and Augustin. You can still find them on the web ; these guys make the best little biscuits you can dream of. I recommand the ones with chocolate chips.
But my best discovery ever was the Flip-flap. On that time, the principle was brand new, but now, again, you can easily find them on the web. The first Flip-flap I saw was on a desk, right in a sunpatch. Every morning, when I arrived, this little fake plant happily moved her leaves. It works with sunlight.
The weeks after my jobs ended, I longed the Flip-flap and her gentle movement. Until I saw, a big day in September, a Flip-flap in a coloured shop in the capital city. I immediately bought it and never regret it. Today, my Flip-flap moved with all her strenght. She and I, we feed from the sunlight.
