SAVING TIME WITH MIMI

The house has never been so clean since Mimi started working here as our in house cleaner.

She’s a bit lazy though. If she cannot move a piece of furniture she just vacuums or mops around it. She also refuses to empty the vacuum bin. But for $16 per week I can’t complain.

If she gets cornered I hear a little voice call out “I’m stuck … help me!” She’s a bit short on manners as there is never a “thankyou” or even a smile as I release her from a sticky predicament.

Heaven help anyone who gets in her way as she charges down the hallway. She’s like a raging bull in Pamplona or a 1970’s getaway car in a bank robbery. Only a closed door or a thick carpet will stop her race to the 40 minute finish.

One time she just paused in the middle of the lounge room. I walked over to see what was wrong? I looked at her. She looked at me. I looked at her with a quizzical look. She just stared blankly back at me and then started cleaning again. She’s definitely a woman of few words. Maybe it’s because she’s Chinese and her English conversation skills aren’t too good?

It turns out my partner had called Mimi on the mobile phone from his office and asked her to pause. He wanted to see how I would react? Mimi didn’t even blink an eyelash.

She’s young. Hopefully she will survive longer than her miserable TB infected namesake Mimi in the Verdi opera “La Boheme”.

I wanted to challenge gender stereotypes and call her “Butch”, but my partner wouldn’t countenance that. In his annoying need for righteous perfection he argued “She has a female voice so you can’t call her Butch!”

I capitulated. If Mimi, our new robotic vacuum cleaner, can save me 40 minutes per week (okay, so I rush it a bit) of cleaning duties then I will even call her by her real name … “The Robotic Vacuum and Mop Cleaner”.