The washer/dryer combo thing in our room ran ONE load for 4 hours & the clothes were still wet. I had 5 more loads to go. Yeah, not happening. So I dragged everything down to the hotel laundry where I found someone had left their 3 loads in the washers. Since I had checked before lunch, I knew these same 3 loads had pretty much been there all day.... It was now going on 8 pm.
I hate touching other peoples clothes. Especially wet I-don't-know-these-people clothes. But, desperate times... I moved them to the driers & put my stuff in the washers.
In the end, I had to babysit the "stranger clothes" until they were dry enough to dump into the folding bin. (I draw the line at folding your unmentionables, people.)
Even with 3 washing machines & 4 dryers, it still took hours to get it all done. Each washer can only hold about 3 kg (which is not very much, for those of you trying to do the conversion) worth of clothes. The dryers aren't the most efficient, either. I stayed with my laundry until it was done which means I ran my Nook out of battery. No one ever showed up for the dry, but now wrinkled, mess of "stranger clothes".
Needless to say, I was beat by time I made it back upstairs. Which explains why I overslept this morning.
The kids begged for a day of NOT going to IKEA, or the empty apartment, or hanging curtains, or putting together furniture. So, we had a "down day"; we did.... nothing.
Well, we all know that a kid "nothing" & a mom "nothing" are... well, nothing alike.
I still insisted that the kids bathe, get dressed, & brush their teeth. Madeline somehow managed to use so much shampoo that we had a giant bubble mess oozing out of the drain in the bathroom floor.
I should have known then this was going to be one of THOSE days...
The temps today were up... like WAY up. The high was expected at over 115 degrees so eventhough the kids wanted to go to the beach, there was no way I was going to brave those kinds of temperatures. Nope, we stayed in the hotel room.
But, by noon everyone was hungry for lunch (remember we missed breakfast....again). Lindsey was working from the hotel today, so I left him with the kids & I ran over to Waitross for some lunch fixings.
Waitross is a grocery store. The one at the bottom of Bldg D in our apartment complex is kinda like "small-mart" in Rockwall. It's got the essentials, but selection is limited. Still, all I really wanted was fixings for a simple meal.
Spaghetti it is!
I mean, seriously, that's about all you can make in this hotel kitchen. The stove only has 2 burners!
The beef is from New Zealand & is actually pretty good. A package (I have no idea if it's a full pound of meat or not) was about 16 dirhams ... around $4.34. Spaghetti sauce was $2, but it's a brand I've never seen. I had no other spices to work with, not even salt. The kids ate it, but said I've made better (little food critics, they are!)
The afternoon was spent napping, gaming, creating with PlayDoh, & generally being lazy. For my Type A personality, this is like torture.
I did organize my apps, download GoodReads, mark several books for future reading, check my email, & catch up on FB....
Then there was dinner. The hotel serves dinner 4 nights a week. It's always a little scary as you never quite know what they are going to serve. The kids (& I) have so far managed to find at least one thing we can identify enough that we are willing to eat. I wouldn't say it's bad, per se, just that it's not really ... tasty.
Not tonight, however. Tonight they had some kind of cinnamon rice with beans(?), a creamed spinach with unidentified meat, & what looked like chicken & dumplings but was actually shredded chicken with boiled potatoes & chickpeas in a not-familiar-with-this-flavor broth. The kids did try a bite of each, so I'm proud of them for being adventurous. The only thing they would eat, however, was the little chocolate brownies & tiny cups of chocolate mousse. Sigh. Whatever, we have PB in the room.
Bedtime cannot come soon enough.
My only consolation was that I was not alone in suffering today. There is a family from Germany here at the hotel with an infant, Henry. They've been here 5 weeks. Everyone knows Henry; he learned to walk 2 weeks ago. His mom said she had a similar day today. Their villa is ready, their goods shipment has arrived, but their "papers" are not yet in order. She is sooooo ready to be out of the one bedroom hotel room! I can't even imagine. She's been here all this time with no family (other than her husband).
She said she took a taxi to the villa today just to stand in it & breathe deeply. Of course when she got there (with Henry on her hip, of course), the keys wouldn't work, there was no AC, no electricity, & no water. None of the utilities were on yet (but she was told they were) & she had to go to the leasing office twice before they finally found someone to rekey the entire villa.
Okay, she wins. Her day -- out & about in this heat with an infant on the hip -- was WAY worse.
She & I both could use a good glass of red. Unfortunately, the hotel doesn't serve alcohol.
They do sell Haagen-Dazs by the pint...
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