Our Putzfrau (cleaning lady--or more accurately, cleaning service) came today. As usual, this was an interesting exercise. The last two visits, the putzfrau was under the impression that only one person lived here, so she would only make up the bed for one and leave one set of towels. Both times I had to chase her down in the hallways and ask for more in apologetic Germlish. Kevin wanted to be home this time to speak with them but he had a work meeting, so he wrote out a friendly note saying that two people live here, and we would like 3 bath towels and two sets of sheets. He also included that his wife spoke little German and was worried that we wouldn't get enough towels.
Well this kind of pissed off the putzfraus so they apparently nominated the one who spoke the most English to come and talk to me about it. She explained that it was "difficult" to give extra towels and blankets and if we wanted more we had to ask the rental company(!). Hello, how hard is it to give one extra towel when they're teeny anyway. Well it seemed that she mistook our note and that we were asking for more towels on top of our allotted towel(s), however many they felt that would be.
Anyway, when she went to clean Scout and I disappeared as usual and when we came back we had a fully made bed (2 pillowcases, 2 duvets), and 2 sets of towels. I think we're just going to have to go to Wal Mart and buy some extra towels as ours are the size and quality of hotel towels. We just have to hide ours when they come next time, because the first time they came Kevin had bought a towel for me and they took off with it.
Unfortunately, they do only a very cursory cleaning job. I don't think it's just us or that they were pissed about the note, this has happened before. Basically all they do is wipe up the bathroom, make the bed, vacuum the upstairs carpet (which is quite small) and mop the floor. They don't move anything around to mop so our coffee table which is on wheels has dust bunnies collecting under it. They also didn't wipe down the stairs today (they're wood) so we have dust and dog fur there. I'd do more cleaning myself but we lack the instruments (mop, broom, etc.) and we have to pay the cleaning ladies anyway. Oh well.
On our walk, Scout and I encountered a VMD--Very Mean Dog. He was across the street and as soon as he saw Scout, as we were halfway across the street coming towards him, he started growling that turned into an aggressive bark. His owner held him tightly (good) but didn't move away or keep walking. Luckily I had Scout on a short leash from crossing the street and I kept her close to me and kept on walking, cutting through the street to land several feet away from them on the sidewalk. Despite this dog's clearly threatening bark, Scout kept pulling on the leash to get closer to him, you know, to check him out. Sometimes she's NSS--Not So Smart.
Posted by Shelby at March 11, 2004 05:44 PM