Category Archives for "articles"

0 Entering A Bank Again, But As A Cleaner

My brother and I were getting closer every day. I visited his home and I saw my nephews. They are sweet little ruffians. We had a great time together.

Of course, when my mother found out that I was my brother’s family guest, she was not very glad. But lately she is not satisfied with me anyway. She was not satisfied when I lost my job in the bank. She was not satisfied when I started working with my brother in the cleaning company. I guess she is pleased only with my divorce. She never liked my ex wife. But she does not like my brother’s wife also. Actually she did not like any woman we choose.

Anyway. Yesterday we had to clean a bank. When I understand this, I first felt uncomfortable. I taught I would feel nostalgic. But when we got there, I did not. We were there early in the morning, before the bank employees came. We entered the bank, we started cleaning, but instead with complains of my poor destiny my mind was filled with completely different taught. I had no sorrow about my former prestigious and well paid job. In fact I gloated that I don’t have to work with other people’s money, to give credits in exchange for high interest rate, to be false and to be ready to do anything to keep such a job.

Now I was much happier. In cleaning there were exact rules and if I was observing them (and I was) everything would be just fine. Even the dramatic difference in payment didn’t bother me. I did not miss anything. The place I lived was comfortable and nice, I had enough money to live and sometimes to go to a pub or to have dinner at restaurant. Well, if I had a girlfriend I would need some more money, but girls were not my priority now.

I had a little flirt with one of my colleagues, but I was still hesitating. I was not sure I want to initiate such a move. She was too young for me. Her parents were rich, but she came to work in cleaning business to make her father angry. He made big plans for her: he wanted her to go to a law school and to work in his law firm. He even chose her a husband. Once, when she told us her story, I joked that after she started working as a cleaner the only thing left to drive her father crazy would be to start dating some guy 20 years older than her. It was just a joke and I had no second taught, but she told me with a playful voice: “Well, I wait for candidates, then…”

0 Cleaning Saves Me Not Going Crazy

I started to go to auditions the first week when I came to London. But a month and a half later I still had no success at all. When I was in my parents’ home near Inverness and I dreamed about my living in London the picture had nothing to do with my present situation. I taught it would be enough to appear on one or two castings so the people of the theatre industry could discover my talent. Of course I guessed that some of the theater figures might not like me. I even imagined how some producer would tell me that I have no talent at all, but the next day some other producer or director would be fascinated by my acting skills and would make me the next star of London theatre scene. After some months the first producer would be sorry for his mistake, but it would be too late.

But these things were only in my imagination and there were still no producers, no directors and no acts in my life at the moment. My acting career was not progressing at all. At the auditions the directors did not tell me that I have no talent, but they wasn’t fascinated by my talent either. They were just smiling polite, they told me that they might call me and they never did.

To be honest, after some unsuccessful auditions my enthusiasm decreased and I often wandered what am I doing in this big city. How long would I be a cleaner?

But in fact, if I did not have my job as a cleaner and my chatty partner John, I probably would go crazy. Sometimes I taught my colleague invents all of these stories about him, his neighbour and their wives. And the stories were getting more complicated and interesting. I even told him he might write a book or a movie script about their relationships. But he felt offended and said that I don’t trust him.

Little by little John and I became a good team. We did not have to allocate our tasks. Everyone of us knew what to do and when the other needs help.

I knew John did not like cleaning ovens and any kind of kitchen appliances. He knew that hate cleaning living room furniture like sofas and armchairs. So we took the tasks we prefer and we divided the ones, which wasn’t anyone’s favourite.

I knew that John appreciates my work and values me and it helped me a lot. I even accidentally heard him talking to another colleague yesterday. The other joked: “So, John, how is the freshman doing?” And John answered: “Much better than you, Harry… Much better than you…”

0 How To Combine Cleaning And Learning?

Sometimes I have a strange feeling that I live two parallel lives.

Some of my days are dedicated to my education. I go to the university, I listen to some lectures, I take notes. We have interesting seminars and workshops too. It is very exciting for me when different estimate reputable psychologists come to us and tell us about various cases of their practises and the way they managed to solve them. Sometimes I have a lunch with my colleagues and we talk about our professors, about our projects and about our interests. At home I read psychological literature and write my assignments and course works.

Other of my days are devoted to cleaning. I get up early in the morning, I take a shower, I comb my hair and tie it in a ponytail in order not to bother my work. Then I take my washed and ironed uniform in my bag and I go to work. When I get to the cleaning company, I put on my uniform in the changing room and I check up my assignments for the day. And half an hour later I am on my way to some address. Usually I clean big expensive houses or apartments. But sometimes I clean offices too.

It is funny that only few people know about my two occupations. Most of my colleagues in the university do not suppose that I make my money as a cleaner while I am studying to be a psychologist.

The same applies to my colleagues at work too. Only some of them know about my education and about my goals. Of course our dispatcher Nina, who makes our schedule, knows about my studying. She always helps me to combine my lectures and my working tasks. Nina is 10 years older than me, has a family, children and her life is completely different than mine, but after 5 years of working together I can call her a friend of mine. She tells me she wanted to study at university too, but she got pregnant and her life took another direction. But she is very happy for my achievements now.

And what about my clients –they all know me and trust me to come in their houses, but almost no one of them knows that I am a student aside from being a cleaner.

Sometimes combining my obligations is not so easy. I may have a day off to be at some exam, but the former days, while I am studying for the exam, I have to work at the same time. Evenings are not enough for learning, so I read my books while I ride the subway or the bus and while I have a lunch break. It may not be easy, but it is dynamic and exciting for sure and I take it as a challenge 🙂

0 Cleaning Variety

Last time I was talking about the advantages of being a cleaner. So I have to mention the variety too. Till now my job is very diverse. Some of the other guys say that their work is boring and routine, but I can’t understand them. Every day we go to some different addresses, we come into different situations, we visit homes of different people who have different way of life… And I like it.

Today we were in the home of an old wealthy man, who lived in a big house in the suburbs. There was a big outdoor pool and a small indoor one in the house. There were several bedrooms on the second floor and several bathrooms too. A month ago I have only heard about such houses and now I was in one of them. It wasn’t mine of course. But I imagined how after some time I’ll have such a house and I’ll remember the time I spent in London as a cleaner.

The house was well maintained and it was not easy to find even a spot of dirt. My colleague said that as long as he works here since 4 years ago, this house has always looked neat and there always was not much for cleaning.

The next place we visited was just the opposite. It was an apartment where two students lived for rent. I guess most of you do not even imagine how this apartment looked like… It was obvious that here took place hundreds of parties and no one did not bother to clean. So we tied to erase the consequences of these student parties. I remembered my student years. Some of the student rentals I have visited then were not much different from this one.

The third place we had to clean today, belonged to a middle aged family with two kids. They obviously were not so rich like our first client for this day. But hey seemed to belong to this famous middle class, which people in my country waited to arise for so long. Cleaning such a house was a real pleasure. It showed that the housewife was taking a good care for her home. Now she just wanted to find it clean and fresh when the family comes back from vacation.

I taught about how my fellow countrymen live and I was admiring the man and woman, who owned this house. They could live a good life without the stress of poverty and without the estrangement, which sometimes comes with the big wealth.  I changed my mind. I don’t want a huge house like the first one. I want a family like this one day.