It’s the end of week 3.
Work days in HK are long. I’m one of the lucky few who can actually leave their place of employment at 6.30 and not look too bad for having done it. I like to wait for Mr Shallot so I can catch the ferry home with him. Unfortunately he’s in an environment 7pm is more the norm. It’s not like there is an exceptional lot of work to do, it is more about image management given that is what everyone else does. In his case, people seem to hand work to him at 6 that needs to be completed for the following day.
Mr Shallot is convinced that it’s because there are a lot of inefficient work practices and his department is also under-staffed. I haven’t been working long enough to make much of a judgment but I seem to finish my work in standard hours at the moment. I tend to arrive at work around 8.30am because I’d rather work early than late.
Our days start at 6am when we take Puppy Shallot out. I’ll have to stop calling her a puppy in September when she turns two. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I take her for a run (sometimes accompanied by Mr Shallot on Wednesday); I walk her on Tuesday (Mr Shallot cycles in the morning this day) so I have Thursday as my sleep-in day. How I love Thursday mornings!
By the time I arrive home from work, I’m exhausted. If I’ve waited to go home with Mr Shallot, we arrive at about 8.30pm. If I’ve managed to escape early, it’s somewhere between 6.30 and 7pm. I then take Puppy Shallot out again so she can meet some of her doggy friends in the park.
Apparently you become accustomed to feeling exhausted or it goes away. I don’t remember ever feeling this tired before. The down side is that when I am awake, I feel like I’m spending the minimal amount of spare time half asleep in front of the TV (we are watching Le Tour on the internet – check out this Forum for Paul Sherwen-isms) or cleaning / ironing / cooking.
In true expat fashion, this afternoon we’re interviewing a potential ‘helper’ – that’s a person that cooks, cleans and can even look after your children (including the fur kids). We’re thinking of having someone come in two half days or so per week to vacuum, clean the bathroom (how I hate that job), wash, iron and take Puppy Shallot out for a play so she can have some extra people / dog time in her day (yes, we’d still take her out in the morning and evening too!).
Given all my years in recruitment and my recent interview experience, I’ve been considering what kind of questions to ask.
Can you do a behavioural-based interview for a helper?
“Can you please tell me about the last time that you cleaned a bathroom that was particularly dirty?”
PS – go Cadel Evans!
* Thanks INXS (the real INXS not the new one) for the title to this post.