Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The Dudung Complex

Since i'm having my first, honest-to-goodness guests in my flat this weekend, I had to do some honest-to-goodness cleaning tonight. The past few months were all about sweeping and dusting, and that was enough since i'm not too nit-picky about cleanliness. But since these are new people, and I have to appear like I'm actually good at keeping house and living alone, the flat should be spankingly clean when they arrive.

Tonight, I left the office early to do some major cleaning at home. First, I had to dress up for the job:

- Ratty, white t-shirt
- Old boxer shorts
- Fuzzy slippers

Then, I had to get the tools of the trade

- Small pail of water
- Rag for table top surfaces
- Rag for floor
- Rag for kitchen
- Pledge
- Rag for polishing

And then of course, I can't start cleaning without the right background music. So I quickly compiled some funky tunes in my iTunes so I can work with this rhythm and vibe:

- "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind and Fire
- "Sweet Soul Revue" by Pizzicato Five
- "So Hot" by Touch and Go
- "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce
- "I'm a Slave 4 U" by Britney Spears
- "You're so Vain" by Carole King
- "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire
- "Ladies Night" by Kool and the Gang
- "Since you've been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
- "Chocolate" by Kylie Minogue
- "Hand in your Heart" by Kylie Minogue
- "It's like that" by Mariah Carey

With all these set, I went about doing my chores with precision and enthusiasm. I was so in character that I felt like a houseboy going about my daily grind. It was a scene that would have made my Momma proud. There I was, down on my knees, wiping the floor with a rag. And while I was, I was singing "Oh yes it's ladies night, and the feeling's right, oh yeah it's ladies night, oh what a night! (ohhh.... what a night....). This scene reminded me of our old maid who used to sing "I'll never go far away from you" each time she did a house chore.

Before the last track ended, I was done with cleaning my entire apartment. Except for the bathroom since i'm reserving that for tomorrow night. Now I know why our maids and houseboys crank up the music each time they do chores at home, it really does get a person in the right cleaning groove.

I should do this more often.

2 comments:

Somnambulist Nocturnal said...

hey thanks for commenting on one of my entries =) im all excited just thinking about the trip...and well, it's gonna be my first time to visit Macau.

by the way, you have a great playlist there. =)

Dazed and Confused said...

hey there. thanks for dropping by as well. yup, the playlist did it's job quite well. It got me all worked up to do housechores, which isn't something i usually get worked up about.

Maybe i should release it a CD and entitle it: "The Dudung Mix." hahaha