Have Perut Will Travel...: TGG Day 3 │ Spring Cleaning: 14 Hours in 30 Minutes!

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Wednesday, 5 June 2024

TGG Day 3 │ Spring Cleaning: 14 Hours in 30 Minutes!

Spring Cleaning, At Long Last

We woke up at half past seven and left the Airbnb at twenty past eight. Brendan decided to sleep in, so it was just the two of us for the start of the day.

Breakfast Before the Big Task

We drove to my late aunty’s house, parked BiBi there, and walked a short distance to a nearby breakfast stall called Pok Ceq Corner. We ordered simple, familiar food. We had nasi lemak with fish, while Cat chose nasi berlauk.

While we were eating, our neighbour Heng and his wife joined us. It felt good not to be alone in this moment. We decided to treat everyone to breakfast, ordering extra nasi lemak and drinks for the four of us. The total bill came to RM22.00 (≈ USD5 / EUR4), a small price for a warm start to the day.

Cleaning Begins

After breakfast, we walked back to the house. At 9:30am, Zuhdi arrived with his cleaning crew of three men. They immediately got to work, starting upstairs. The job was bigger than we remembered, and it took them the entire morning just to get through the upper floor.

As the hours passed, piles of rubbish began to grow. That brought us a new problem we had not fully planned for—how were we going to dispose of all that trash?

Solving Problems Together

Thankfully, Heng stepped in again. He connected us with Jenny, who promised to send a lorry to collect the rubbish at 2:30pm. It was a huge relief to know we had a solution.

At 1:30pm, the cleaning crew stopped for their lunch break. We ordered our own meal through Grab, excited to see that our old favourite Minang restaurant was still around. We ordered:

Nasi Ikan Keli Berlada
Nasi Daging Rendang
2 iced Sirap Limau
1 hot Coffee

Lunch came to RM40.90 (≈ USD9 / EUR8), and it gave us just enough energy to push on.

A Long, Exhausting Day

The rubbish lorry arrived around the same time the cleaners returned from lunch. The amount of trash was so large that the lorry had to make two trips. Including labour, the total cost came to RM450.00 (≈ USD96 / EUR88).

Around the same time, an electrician named Seng arrived to fix a faulty light that had been tripping the electricity. That repair cost RM30.00 (≈ USD6 / EUR6).

The cleaning crew worked steadily until dusk, then stopped again to perform their prayers and have dinner. They returned at a quarter to nine, just as we finally sat down for our own dinner off camera. By then, we were completely worn out.

Mission Accomplished

The cleaning was finally completed close to 11:00pm. When we looked at the clock, it hit us—we had spent an incredible 14 hours overseeing the cleaning of one house.

It had been physically tiring and emotionally heavy, but it also felt right. The house that had stood abandoned for so long finally felt cared for again.

Stay tuned for our next videos as we went on the hunt for Nasi Dagang, Laksa, and Laksam the following day.