When in Oz....

As we are now living in a modern, Westernized society, there are some things that I need to get used to. Like doing the house work all by myself. People in Australia don’t usually have domestic staff. I realize how good my previous 11 years have been when we had help 6 days per week and I had to do very little by myself, leaving me plenty of time to inspect what others did instead and correct whatever needed correction. I have become a perfectionist. I’m not satisfied unless my home is spotless, clutter-free and detergent-scented. 

According to the online dictionary audioenglish.net perfectionism is ”a disposition to feel that anything less than perfect is unacceptable”. At the moment, my standards for perfect are quite high but I am considering lowering my standards just a tad. Not lowering them so much that it will become acceptable to drop school bags just by the door or having empty boxes laying around the house, but more in the sense that shampoo bottles in the bathroom not necessarily have to be arranged according to size and that the piles with girls’ t-shirts don’t have to be totally straight and according to color, from darker to lighter. Perhaps I can even implement this new kind of laid back philosophy in my own closet? Aussies seem to be a laid-back, easy-going kind of people. I think I shall ease up a bit on myself, not vacuum and mop almost every day, not spend so much time on arranging all the cushions and all the other things that can be arranged and re-arranged. I will kick back, tone down and chill out. ”When in Rome, do as the Romans” is now my new motto. Well, at least it’s my ambition to be a bit more Australian-ish, and that is always a start, isn’t it?