Cleaning house...

Oh my goodness. Talk about aches on top of aches!

Yesterday, after my one hour Pilates session (mats, if anyone is interested), I went into major house cleaning mode. I have not had to do any house cleaning for the past several months - firstly because one of my friends used to live very close to me, and had two maids (one looking after her mother-in-law and doing the cooking, the other doing the cleaning and gardening). Anyway, the second maid happily came and cleaned my house for me once a week (for which I paid her extra) until November last year. THEN, secondly, my brother and his wife dropped off their maid at my parents place, just before Xmas, to help our mother with the Xmas preparations. So she came and cleaned the house for me once a week, but she has now gone back to my brothers place (in Melaka, so, No, she can't come on a weekly basis any more).

So, this Monday (YESTERDAY) was the first time in MONTHS that I have had to do the cleaning. Yes, I do have the choice of getting professional cleaners in, and it is not an expensive proposition either, but right now I have several reasons for doing it myself:

1) EXERCISE (as I said yesterday, it IS meant to be good" for you!)
2) I needed to do major re-organisation, cleaning out, discarding of unwanted stuff, identifying items to give away or donate (all stuff I have not been able to do for the last one year as I had been looking after my husband)
3) Keeping myself OCCUPIED so I do not spend time feeling miserable about my husband's passing away
4) And, of course, since I am currently not working I have plenty of time

OK, Yes, this does mean that in the future I MAY take on professional cleaning services - either when I start work, or when my back kills me too much every time I have to roll up and pick up a carpet, for cleaning underneath it. I tell you, unless the carpet is EXTREMELY small (and we only have ONE of those), it is HEAVY - and we have 5 of those that I have to first vacuum, then roll up, then pick up and put out of the way so that I can vacuum and mop underneath!

So, getting back on topic - yesterday was a major, major FIVE-HOUR cleaning marathon, which started at 10.30am, and only finished just after 4.30pm (including interruptions). Wiping down every surface with a damp cloth (and I do mean EVERY!!). Sorting and tidying up the store room (it looks SO neat now), discarding unwanted items, chopping the dead branches off my bougainvillea plants and throwing them away (all my bougainvillea plants have now been reduced to almost nothing - though my sis-in-law does assure me they will re-grow in time), scrubbing down every bathroom and toilet, wiping all mirrors and shower doors, then on to vacuuming the carpets and rolling and picking up the carpets off the floor, vacuuming the entire apartment, then the mopping. In between I re-arranged the living room furniture a WEE bit (mostly involved pushing the furniture off the carpet, re-positioning the carpet to be more central, and then getting everything back into position, but taking advantage of more space from the carpet re-positioning).

Oh, and I stopped for lunch (a quick bowl of oats porridge), and I got interrupted by a flower delivery (thank you Shanti M from Singapore) for 10 minutes (including putting the flowers in water), and by the Yamaha service guy coming to repair my husbands much loved Yamaha digital baby grand (30 minutes for him to get it all done). Some of the keys had stopped playing, so they had to order a new control board (something like a "mother board" for the piano). The technician had last come to our place on 26th Jan, while my husband was still around, and it has taken them one month to get the relevant part in, and it cost all of RM2K to fix, and my beloved husband is no longer alive to play his much loved and most favourite musical instrument. Man, life sucks sometimes :-(.

So, today, I am aching. I have aches on top of my aches. And you know what is the "best" part? :-D It is the fact that I am now leaving the house in less than 10 minutes to go and do one hour of training with my kettlebells / fitness trainer (a.k.a "the smiling Devil") - thereby adding even more aches onto the ones that I already have. Am I a sucker for punishment or what?

OK, smiling Devil, see you soon!