We awake after a miserable night’s sleep – it started to get quite rocky and rolly in the early hours, and today, it is a hot one, just perfect for doing … the laundry and changing the oil filter in the generator. At least we both have grotty jobs today.
I get the two huge bags of laundry together and Mike takes me over to the shore, carrying the bags to Freemans for me, before heading back to begin his work.
I am quite a fixture at Freemans Laundromat, and the ladies know me well enough to chat, but only one of them ever bothers. I load the machines and stand back and sweat. At least I remembered to put the mosquito repellent on today! Daytime TV is playing and I watch a couple of cockroaches scuttling in and out from under one of the machines, glad that I put my bags on top of the machines rather than on the floor. I don’t want to bring those unwelcome guests back to the boat!
I watch fascinated as the lady organises the service washes. Nothing seems to have any labels and there seems to be stuff everywhere, but the place is so busy with yacht charter washing every time I go that they must get it right. When the washing machines get too full, the staff just beat the clothes into submission with big wooden sticks. That’s why I stand (no chairs) in this grotty sweat box week after week – I don’t want my things attacked with a stick!
When I begin to fold my bed linen, the lady tries to give me instruction on how to fold my fitted sheets so that they look nice. After two goes she gives up and I carry on in my own clumsy way.
I phone Mike to come and pick me and head back to the dinghy dock to wait for him. It is sweltering, even in the shade offered by a palm tree. When he arrives, we put the washing in the dinghy, and I go off to do a bit of food shopping for us. I think we deserve some chocolate, but as I head back from Bobby’s supermarket, I realise I have forgotten to buy any, so I opt for the next best thing – a takeaway from Simply Delicious. Being lunchtime it is packed to bursting with customers, mostly schoolchildren, and the din is astounding although the queue is orderly. I am being asked what I want by a young Chinese girl but I can’t see her over the top of the counter – in fact I can’t see any of them, or work out what I am being asked. We have a definite communication problem today as my meal and Mike’s comes mixed together in the same carton and it takes a few minutes before this is sorted out. I leave with something, anything. I’m sure we’ll eat it – whatever it is!
Back on the boat I discover that what I have ordered from Simply Delicious is simply disgusting. Bad choice, so I just eat the noodles. Mike is happy with his choice but he has the same thing every time.
The rocking in the bay gets even worse during the evening. I feel another bad night’s sleep coming on!
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