Ex Ascot
How much do you pay your gardeners and cleaners ?
I bet it is peanuts. Oh, you'll come back and say you pay more than the normal wage.
Are you and Mrs Ex Ascot just lazy, elitist WASPS ?
Why can't you clean your own house and do the garden yourself
or is that something only lower socio economic classes do ?
500N. This is thread drift but I will rise to the bait. 1 Euro an hour and yes you are correct we pay them double the going rate. They commute on foot one hour to work. We give them a lift back. This is certainly not the norm.
Mrs Ex-Ascot washes everything (clothes, bed linen, towels etc) by hand. I maintain the pool and mow all the lawns. I work with the gardeners on my hands and knees sometimes if we have a insect problem or are planting. I sow all the seeds and water them every day. Mrs Ex-Ascot cleans the windows. We each spend at least 2 hours a day on estate management. I am not spending 50 hrs a week gardening which is what the estate requires. Do you?
We treat our staff incredibly well. Mrs Ex-Ascot makes them tea and gives them biscuits every morning. They have a flagon of mineral water on the table instead of the river water they normally drink. If we are in town they get a flask of tea. They get given all sorts of goods which they can use, wear or sell.
When you apply for residency here, which is very difficult to get, they ask you how many staff you will be employing. We are certainly not lazy, elitist of course
(no idea what a WASP is) but they need the money. We have work for them and we have the money so it is a social service. Also half of our estate is dedicated to fruit and veg. We pay them to maintain this. They get 95% of the produce to consume or sell. Fertilizer compost etc all paid for by us. We are paying them to grow produce for themselves.
Next door 200m up river they have live in staff. They do everything including cooking and serving tea in bed. Down river 200m at the farm the staff also do everything. The staff have to kneel when serving dinner so that their heads are lower than that of their masters.
So, 500N, get back in your box. You have absolutely no idea what it is like to live here and you probably wouldn't last 2 mins despite being able to rip the head of a chicken. And, yes indeed, this was my job on survival exercises.
Back on thread, I shot a squirrel yesterday but it was in the library and it didn't need much tracking.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.