The terrors of midnight cleaning

Recently in Garden City, a building collapsed in the street behind my house. Of course as a result, I am a bit jumpy. Imagine my terror when at 3 am, all the lights flash on in the rooms adjacent to my bedroom, followed by apocalyptic noises of mechanical rumbling and what sounds like buckets falling on the ground with sharp thuds.

I get out of bed at once and run to the living room, the source of the noise, only to hear the radio start playing Om Kalthoum and to see my housekeeper wearing a flashy colored jumpsuit wrestling the vacuum cleaner and pushing about buckets and brooms. When I asked her why she decided to clean at 3 am (and incidentally give me a stroke) she said:

"Since your father retired, he won't leave the house, which means I can't finish my cleaning in time for my TV shows. Now I'm taking advantage of the fact that he is asleep to clean at night so that I can watch TV during the day. I've missed many shows and I need to catch up.

Stop being so spoilt now and go to bed. I'm hardly making any noise !"

PS: Pictured in the cover image of the post is the building that collapsed. 

Om Kalthoum, whose voice is often the backdrop of Egyptian life, in sad, happy and absurd situations.