Thursday, June 12, 2008

Inspections and Risqué Television

I wrote the other day about Brit Boy and me mowing the lawn and doing the gardening on Sunday. Well it was in preparation for our inspection yesterday. The letting agents (real estate agents) come by to inspect our place twice a year to make sure we haven’t wrecked the place or something. (smile) Far from it...they will miss us when we are gone. Anyway, so even though we always keep on top of how things look around here, we always do an extra sprucing up of our place when we know that they will be coming.

For the last few times they have sent the same guy. I told Brit Boy that I hope that he stays for all of the while that we are here. He is so easy and is done quite quickly. The first time that he came, he spent most of the time talking to me about Disney World. He heard my American accent and was absolutely sure that I must live next door to Disney World...he really did. (smile) As we say back home, bless his heart. I told him kindly that actually I come from Georgia and that Florida is the next state south of there. I laughed and told him that I was the only person probably in my family that has never gone to Disney World, even though I have been all over the rest of Florida to the major cities. But it is on my list of things to do. Funnily enough, Brit Boy has even gone there too. (laugh) I really have to catch up. But anyway, with all of this talk about theme parks with the inspector guy, he just did a quick walk through and left. We had a good talk and I even told him of other spots he should visit whenever he got to Florida again. So it was all good. Transatlantic understanding...I love it. He was a good guy.

So thankfully in the times since, he has still been our inspector. They never tell you what time to expect them, so I usually just halfway do stuff all day in a state of apprehension about him coming and getting it over with. The bit of apprehension is that I hope it is the same guy. Also, I hate waiting. I've got to work on that.(smile)

Anyway, he arrived at a bit after 3pm. I greeted him and he went around the house to do his thing and check off his boxes on his form. So I went back to watching my show. I was watching an old episode of “The Young and the Restless”, an American soap opera. A few months ago, they started to show the show over here. It is episodes from 2003 at this point, but back when I was much more homesick, this show comforted me. It was like having a bit of home that I remember even though I didn’t watch it a lot back home. It is funny what you find yourself clinging to when you are living in another country and you will go to mostly anything to find the familiar in the life that you had in your home country. Sometimes it is just good to hear other people who speak like you. (smile) I embrace the differences here and I love having this totally new experience and I think that I have done a good job, but sometimes after a challenging day, it helps to hear my accent reflected back at me. It is an expat thing I guess. (smile) Also, the soap operas make me think of my mom. She watched most of the soaps for years and so when I hear the theme songs when the shows start, I instantly have this sensory memory of her. (smile) In the beginning, I would even tear up when I would hear the opening theme songs...memory is a powerful, powerful thing.

So when the inspector came back downstairs to speak with me, of course at that very moment they were showing a scene with two characters “in the afterglow” of lovemaking. And the inspector looked at the screen just then. (laugh) It was so funny. I told Brit Boy that the guy probably thought that I was watching porn or something. (laugh) Thankfully, right before he left, they switched to another scene so I hope that he figured it out. He was pleasant as always and I said a little prayer after he left, so that hopefully he will continue to be our inspector. And then I went back and got knee-deep into being both “youngish” and only vaguely “restless” because I hadn’t eaten all day.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

That is funny about the moment the inspector happened to look at the TV. I understand watching a show to have a taste of home and connection with family too.

Even though I only moved one state away, it was still the first time I lived away from my family, and I did start watching Ellen DeGeneres' talk show because my mom always watched it. I wasn't that interested at first, but it was still a connection to home. Kinda funny is that now I am hooked on the show and my mom doesn't watch it, but it still was a link between us for a time.

Dori said...

Sarah,
Yeah, it was so funny that the inspector looked at that moment! :-) It's very true that it helps to hang onto the familiar sometimes when we're away from home.