8/1 – Aha!

As I mentioned in my very first posting, the Brazilian kitchens don’t seem to be equipped just the way I’m used to…or would expect them to be. But I have found out that five pair of scissors actually fills a purpose after all. Seems like you need to have five of them, to be able to find one of them at any one time. Most things in a kitchen seem to have a bit of a universal place of storage, where most people, irrespective of nationality and age, would put them away if they could choose. It’s not very often you find glasses in the bottom drawer, pots and pans on the top shelf in the overhead cupboard or the tea towels in the oven. However, scissors seem to be excluded from that (probably together with cork screws and cup measures). A pair of scissors can be placed pretty much anywhere in the kitchen; In any of the drawers, in the cleaning cupboard, beside the microwave, on the shelf with the mixer or on the tea towel hook for example. Their storage places can even be extended to outside the kitchen, like to a drawer in the bathroom or bedroom. Other possible places would be on the TV furniture, in the bookshelf in the living room, on the side table by the entrance and on the desk in the bedroom. Still haven’t found one in my closet, but on the other hand, I don’t think I've seen two of them in quite a while, so perhaps that’s the place to look.
As I’ve also mentioned before, I really appreciate having a maid making my bed and cleaning the flat and based on the scissor issue, I’ve concluded that it must be more than one person doing it. So it’s a little bit like having your mother in law visiting every day (according to people who’s actually got one), but in this case, different mother in laws every day.
Oh, one more thing. The dishwasher. Everyone says that if you ever get one, you never want to be without it again. Since I never had one, and don’t have one in my flat at home, I thought I’d try not to use the one over here to avoid getting used to having one. But, the one I’ve got in my Brazilian kitchen looks so weird and toyish that I had to try it. No water on the floor so that part went well. Regarding the actual dish washing, I guess almost clean is better than really dirty. And if you empty it soon enough after running it, the food left on the plates has at least softened up a bit, so a lot easier to get clean by hand…