30 Nov 2009
Maybe it is safety in numbers… maybe it is just happy companionship… maybe the head bobble is just simply contagious
- The pool committee: The swimming pool went from a lovely murky green last week to crystal clear this weekend. That’s because the pool committee met daily last week: Pool service dude, gardener, security dude and the occasional driver. I just threatened to turn it into a koi pond.
- The awning committee or maybe the leak prevention committee: no, our faulty french doors from the dining room isn’t getting a threshold, it’s getting an awning. Committee members: house engineer, house manager’s representative, hole digger, pole setter-upper, painter, plastic cover applier, and the gardener - who tried desperately to fill the huge holes at the base.
- The Landscape Committee: We had a quote from a company for some “beautification of the outer wall” (that’s my pet project t– tired of the garbage & rubble outside my wall of India) This weekend we finally got around to finding the nursery to “choose the plants”. I know what I want … anyway, as I was running down the ECR one morning, I saw the landscape dude who had come out to give us a quote. I directed Hubby’s driver to the place but he had called th
e letterhead and where I directed him was not the location of the letterhead, go figure. I don’t really care, I don’t really think it matters. I hop out and am assigned a boy no older than 12 to help me (he spoke English). About that time, the landscape dude appears on his motorcycle. Yes, this is his nursery. Yes, the quote he gave was on the letterhead of another nursery (huh?). Yes, he can help us. My guide did a great job of finding the plants I wanted, even though I was saying them in “English” – lantana is lantana in Tamil, too!! So is oleander! When the landscape dude appeared at the house, to confirm the “order” (again) we had the committee appear: myself ( the plants chooser), driver #2 (translator?), landscape dude, security dude (supervisor/secondary translator?) and Hubby (official arm waver). Then there was the peanut gallery – pups and gardeners wife. Can’t wait for the beautification project to begin – they’ll only start if it’s not raining (it is monsoon season, after all!)
- Concrete Committee: Diver Kumar arranged for a mason to fill in the gaps between the pavers outside our doors – to reduce the sand-sand everywhere problem. I walk out the door – supervisor (driver), gardener (second opinion), security dude (signing everyone in), mason (overwhelmed), then the other laborers were scarce so: gardener’s son (sand digger), gardener’s daughter (sand digger #2) HOLD IT – isn’t she supposed to be in school?? Whoops scared her – she ran off to the bathroom crying, still not convinced her school really had a holiday – any way - Anna and Alina filled in as sand diggers after that. Fifteen minutes later, security dude rings front door – “sorry, mam, the girls are helping too much.” The mason was really overwhelmed with the little anglos trying to help stir the cement! Project complete. Whew, thanks, committee!
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