Slog

Am currently in hard slog mode. Hence the dearth of posts here for the past week or so.

Global financial woes aside, my own financial situation has been nothing short of a revelation in terms of how well one can get by on almost "nothing" really! I bought the first groceries in almost two weeks today and we were down to an empty fridge pretty much, so was more or less forced to by very hungry teenagers.

Me? I could live on damper (an old fashioned type of bread made of flour, salt and water or milk and baked under hot coals on an open fire), til the cows come home if I have too - well, sans the charcoal anyway!

I found some work as a cleaner in a motel this week. It's a start. It is hard, hot, thirsty and very physical heavy labour. The rest of the girls in the team all seem to do the job reasonably cheerfully and efficiently. Some have been at it for over 20 years! Which I find simply extraordinary. It's routine work and rhythmic but the standard is way beyond average in this particular motel I have to say. This place is CLEAN and how? I am pretty impressed really as I've stayed in a goodly share of motels and hotels over the course of my life and some have been less than enthusiastic in keeping them the way I'd prefer. This one is a real gem among the rocks.

This morning, I had to get down on my hands and knees in the bathrooms and literally scrub the tiled floors with a scrubbing brush and heavy duty disinfectant. The level of cleanliness detail in this motel is second to none and I'm actually quite pleased to be working in a place that has so much pride and puts so much determination to be "The Best" into their work.

Whilst the job isn't going to help my financial situation in a big way in the foreseeable future, if the other irons I have in other various fires don't brand, then I guess I will have to be a motel cleaner for as long as it takes until I find the work I am MEANT to do. My knees may object to that statement in time, but they'll just have to put up and shut up until something "nice-to-knees" comes along.

Hard work doesn't necessarily phase me, I can work hard; what does phase me is paying bills and right now, any pay is good pay if it keeps us sheltered and fed.

Life is tougher for others right now and I'm doing okay. The trick to any time in life when the slog seems to be just all uphill is to turn around and enjoy the view. We can concentrate on the hard yakka, one grunting step up the mountain at a time, or we can stop, turn, savour the sunset on a spreading vista and smile knowing that the journey is going to be totally worth it in the end.

Cleaning motels is not my final occupation. Where cleaning motels leads me may yet be my final occupation... or not! It all depends on the turn of the wheel: the turn on the head of a pin.