Ironing out the Wrinkles

Lunches in Hong Kong are a great source of swapped information between expats.  It’s also a time to talk about how you are experiencing life in your new (home) country.

 

My good friend who prefers to remain nameless couldn’t help but tell us that after only a year in Hong Kong she suddenly realised she had lost the ability to iron.  She like many of us has a live-in helper.  And like many of us her helper has Sunday as her day off.

                  

One Sunday my nameless friend in a frenzy to go to a meeting realized she needed something ironed but her helper wasn’t around to do the deed.  So she got out the board and the iron set it all up and begun the small task of ironing a straight skirt when the phone rang.  And like all women she couldn’t resist the temptation to know who was on the other end.  About five minutes into the conversation lightening struck – she hadn’t turned the iron off and worse than that she hadn’t sat it upright.  So now her lovely white skirt had a lovely brown patch.

 

She went on to tell us that not only couldn’t she iron anymore she didn’t know how her washing machine worked.  Most washing machines here are front loader. She was unsure where to put the detergent into the machine – it took some time to find the drawer.  Once again the helper was not around and the detergent went into the wrong slot causing a lovely sudsy laundry floor.

 

It is not that we have become inept at these simple tasks or lazy, it’s not that we have forgotten how to do these once all too familiar jobs – I think it is a case of just having given over the authority to someone else.

 

We have learnt to pass the buck.  We are now spoilt.  We don’t need to worry if the shirt is ironed for that business lunch or that job interview, we know it will just be there – reappear from somewhere out of the laundry basket all crisp and clean ready to hit the street.