bigger and better

As a new blogger I am enjoying my meanderings as I explore various expat sites and their respective forums. This one, www.expatsinitaly.com, has an amazing list under “daily life” of where expats can find just about everything they might miss from home. I found things that I hadn’t thought of in years: screen windows, top-loading washing machines, disposals, all sought for with an intensity of purpose and deep internal NEED.

I have a normal household 3KW electricity contract and I can’t turn on more than one large domestic appliance and a few smaller ones at a time. Somehow I manage with only a very occasional fuse. Every activity has its timeframe, dishwasher at night, washing machine first thing in the morning, oven when preparing dinner and I don’t have a dryer. The only real issue is the new AC unit in the summer. I guess I just adapt and adjust with flexibility and pazienza. The extra load of wash has to wait until tomorrow because the oven is on, not a big problem.

Americans do have to have what they want, when they want it and how they want it – bigger, better and now respectively. How exhausting all that wanting and expensive -- bigger, better and now has its costs and those extra KW that allow you to turn on everything at once come at a price.

The only thing I can’t live without is domestic help with cleaning and ironing – the human factor at any price is a given, how Italian!

A domani,
E