Anyway Tropical Storm Jimena intervened and we did nothing. One day the landlady asked if I still wanted the guy and I said yes, I guess she had forgotten about it and we were in no rush so I hadn't mentioned it either.
On Monday night the landlady came up with this guy and he looked at what we wanted cleaned and gave us a price. We agreed and he asked what time Tuesday would be good for us. I explained that I had a class in the afternoon so he said he could come at either 9 or 10 AM and we agreed on 10 AM.
Yesterday morning he showed up at about 5 minutes to 10. We took everything outside onto the patio and he went to work.
When we were at Chem Dry we noticed that they had the power shampooers and were working on some mattresses out in their yard, well we didn't expect the same type of equipment from this fellow and our expectations were met. He arrived with a vacuum cleaner, a bucket, a brush and a backpack full of his cleaners and went to work.
It took him about 3 hrs. or so to do the work and he worked steadily, only taking about a 5 minute coca cola/cigarette break with Roy.
His boss came by a couple of times to check on him to see if he was ready to go yet and on his last pass he came upstairs wanting to know what was taking him so long as they had another job they needed to get to. The worker explained that the recliners were big and Roy had taken the backs off of them so that he could get right down inside to clean so there was lots of area to do. The boss watched for a bit and then started to help him out and they quickly finished.
We paid the bill of 720 pesos, about $56.00 CAD at yesterdays exchange rate, tipped him, (factoring in the pack of cigarettes that Roy had given him) and they went on their way. I got their phone number/name for next year. A good job well done. He and Roy were having some interesting chats together throughout the morning. The worker didn't speak English and Roy doesn't speak much Spanish; but they were yakking away out there and was funny to listen to from the sidelines. I, naturally stayed inside so as not to impede the work progress, lol.
I headed uptown in the afternoon to go to the bank and do some shopping before Spanish class. I was looking for a necklace to match a certain outfit and haven't been able to find what I liked. I tried a few places and the staff helped out without finding anything. Did what I needed to do and headed to Woolworths to use the bathroom before class. Here to use a bathroom you usually have to pay about 3 pesos; but then you get a fairly clean washroom with toilet paper, etc.. Well yesterday the ladies were collecting 5 pesos and I went hmmm; but then they gave me a discount slip for 5 pesos to use when I went through the till. Too funny. So if you actually buy something there your trip to the washroom is free. The bathroom there is really supposed to be for customer use; but it is one of the few that I have found in Centro to be fairly clean and tidy so I don't mind paying for it. I passed a fellow, his mom and his little boy in the aisle on my way out. The little boy maybe 3 or 4 yrs. old was having fun trying on Hallowe'en masks. His dad pretended to be scared of him and then he took the mask off. He noticed me coming down the aisle and put it back on, so I pretended to be scared and got a good laugh from him. Later I noticed them heading towards the check outs so I gave them my bathroom discount ticket to use. Too funny.
After a good Spanish class I went necklace hunting again and did find what I was looking for. I then went looking for a torta place as I had promised to bring back tortas for supper, all the places were closed at that time of day (too early for Mexican dinner) so I got on the bus and headed home. At one of the stops a little boy and his brothers and mom got on the bus. He and I both recognized each other, as he is one of the students at Hogar Paz y Bien where we go in the winter to teach the children some English. He smiled and giggled when he saw me and then as they sat behind me he was telling his mom who I was. I turned around and asked him if he was using his English words, he assured me that he was, yah right, anyway I said to him, maybe a little and he laughed and agreed. I told him we would probably be back in November as the other ladies don't live here they live in the USA and Canada. I told him that I was the only one that lives here and his mom laughed. When I turned back around I could hear his mom telling him what to say to me so he then called me and said that he hoped to see me in November, so I told him the same thing. He kept chattering to his mom about the classes and when I got off we said our goodbyes. A nice encounter and good to see that he didn't frown when he saw me anyway.
