Life with maid........

It has been 3 months now since the maid arrived and she is our 3rd maid so far. The obvious & major changes seen happening to me after having a helper at home was the scene of me getting back into COOKING........very often indeed esp. ever since i planted the knowledge of bento into my vocabulary!!

After only a week working for us, I had already mentioned that our new maid was considered 'good'. Many (included myself) actually doubted about my early judgement but up to today, i still considered myself lucky having her! I had friend who encountered not just 1 maid running away but 2 or 3 which resulted in them spending more $$ just to get a replacement! I'm sure all of us heard more horror stories about this creature call 'maid'. For me, i think "running away" is my greatest phobia & the most horrendous problem of a maid. So it was my biggest wish that i do not need to supervise the maid 24 x 7 and be rest assured to leave her alone at home (at time when the situation calls for it) without having to worry that she will run away!!! And i think i had been granted 'the wish' ....... at least so far !!!! Once we had sufficiently observed her & feel satisfied that we can leave her at home, we tried it. Up to now, we had left her alone many times sufficed to conclude that she is sincere to work here & not here to do hanky panky!! Every Saturday, we took about 3 hours from sending the boys to their extra class to going for our lunch after picking up the boys while the maid run her weekend errands alone at home or she maybe lepak i dun know.....???!!! That was save to say if she really wants to run away, she has many chances of doing so!!

She actually had an abnormal son (and also an elder daughter) at home waiting for her to earn enough money back home to treat him! So guess she really has the heart to work hard here.

On top of that, she has been doing great with the house chores (no lazyness shown so far). With our greatest fear being put to rest, there is just nothing more we should ask!! What i like the most about her was no matter what or how i said/advised/commented, she would willingly respond with a "yes mam"......haha, yes that's what i like to hear.....how bossy heh!!

Apart from being :

~ too timid/'penakut' (which tend to make us very 'geram' at times);

~ slow in motion (which is quite normal);

~ too soft/'lembap' (to d extend of making herself like a dumb at times);

~ smelly (huby's greatest complaint so far........aduh),

there really isn't major problem encountered !!

Looks like there were too many good things being mentioned about her, rite ??? ..........hey, i haven't started on the bad sides only........

One thing that i totally can't rely on her for accountability is "managing my monkeys". As she is the super 'lembap'/soft + too timid type, can u imagine she actually allows the boys to step their feet on her head & pull her hair with only the slightest resistance shown.... ??? I know she was afraid of me....but i believe any human being would put up a resistance in such a situation.... except her la!!!

There was also one time, i witnessed her handing over a scissor to Scot (upon his request) and i immediately question her big time. The reason given by her was she's afraid that the boy would cry!!! And i instantly queried her if the boy asks for the knife, would she also gives him ???? Then only she realised how wrong was her act!! So being such dumb, i had to constantly remind her how she needs to be firm when the situation really warrants her to be so. Over time, a special 'name' has been given to her = "big potato" / "tai fan shue" by the family......hahaha, bad huh ??? arghh.....who cares la, so long as she doesn't understand !!

Anyway, indulging into COOKING has been a hassle free task for me lately, as all the "preparation works" prior to cooking as well as the aftermath of cooking i.e. "all the washing" will be taken care of. I wonder what would happen to my cooking if i ever become 'maidless' one day??

So in an ordinary weekend, i can cooked a "complete meal" like these for our lunch :

"SAM CHOI YAT THONG" / 3 dishes with a soup

Taucu Stir fried long bean with chicken strips

Terriyaki chicken

Fried eggs with 'choi pou' and

Spinach soup.


Fuyoh.............good heh?

even dessert also being attempted. anyway, i actually had tried several times making only this simple 'agar-agar' before finally succeeded this time with a very tempting outcome (d color actually.... haha)

looked very sweet hor ???

........ End of maid tales ........

Finally she's here....

Our long awaited 'maid' finally arrived last Thursday! Since we sent back the cambodian maid that like to 'throw up'/vomit so much.....we had selected at least 3 maids with some application in progress but only to be cancelled later.......due to various reason:

- one already ran away while still in Indon's training centre (thank god she is NOT here yet....)

- one has her medical condition failed or something (had to cancel only after a 1-2 months waiting period)

Huby was so pissed of that he had initially wanted to terminate the idea of getting the maid and claim a full refund from the agent (failing which we were prepared to pursue all d way to the consumer tribunal). But as i spoke to the agent, the agent quickly sent over 2 biodatas to me where she promised that these are full-document maid meaning the process is going to be express. The agent promised that this will be the last round for us as they too felt sorry for the long delay. According to them, the supply from Indon is really lacking nowadays! So i managed to convince huby to give it a try to save all the hassle of claiming for refund & etc etc.

But my ultimate objective is to get the maid asap to reduce the chores that my mom has to endure right now at the sametime babysitting my 2 monkeys!!

Anyway, true enough, our maid finally arrived in 3 weeks time.

So far so good.......pleasant outlook, quite responsive type.....much to our expectations !!

Certainly small eater, according to mom who bought her a pack of economy mix rice, she can eat that pack of rice in 3 rounds in a span of 3-4 hours, coz it was too big for her to finish one shot so in the end she couldn't take dinner! But she also mentioned that the frequent car ride made her lost her appetite to eat so she might take sometime to adjust.

Sometimes, those food that we reserved for her dinner, she will eat a little & kept the remaining balance for tomorrow's breakfast...............wuah, like very 'jimat-cermat' type hor....of course we dont' complaint that.....just hope that what we've encountered so far are all genuine & the evil fake tail WILL NOT eventually show up!!

Another good point to my surprise is yet been mention......hahaha

I gave her the time-table. When she looked at the time she is to wake up every morning which i'd set at 6am (as all of us would leave our home at 7am either for school or work), she commented as follows (i actually took awhile to digest what she meant):

maid: mam, if i can't sleep that long & i wake up at 4am or 5am, can i do work ahh ???

Are you also scratching your head ahh?

I clarified & clarified and finally i got myself understood. According to her, in Indon she has gotten to wake up at 4am (the most) for one of her 'praying session' coz she's a muslim. Once she woke up at that time, she will not be able to sleep back & she will begin her day and retire latest by 9pm!! Fuyohhhhhh........i told myself, aiyo, u wana wake up so early to do work, i'll be more than happy lar.....u say 'gila' or not, but then again, i hope i'm not too early to judge.

Of course issues like bit slow, bit dumb & other common things are all on her....but those are expected !

Time will prove everything yeah......

Quick update.....Pheww, gone she was !!

Since her arrival last Friday, her vomiting saga continued. Our journey this morning from Pch to P.J. which took approximately 40mins, saw our camb maid vomitted twice. Huby couldn't stand her vomitting in his precious car anymore. It was horrible & my dear huby was so pissed-off & sicked of it.

Instead of having to wait for another day or two for the agent to settle some documents, huby couldn't be bothered anymore. Once we settled the boys at their kindy, huby straight away sent the maid back to the agency even without her luggage yet. Then we headed back & packed her stufffs & dumbed back to the agency......................pheww, sounded cruel but we were peace then!!

What a start on a blue Monday??

My turn now with 'maid' crisis

Our existing Indon maid will be leaving on coming Tuesday……we only left with another day of luxury……argh……help pls help !!!
Actually new maid already arrived before Raya break but we were not around so we delayed picking her up.
Thursday returned home & Friday morning went anxiously to pick up our Cambodian maid but soon we will be sending her back as we had rejected her & had already requested for a replacement!! Surprise? Sound scary, heh?

Our first exchanged of sight was already not very pleasant as she has a very obvious scarring around her neck & shoulder so huby was just afraid of any skin decease or as such.
Then we felt strange with her coz she wasn’t very “lively”….looked dumb, down & totally unresponsive even with my boys running around her but I tried to persuade my mind not to judge at that moment.

Then, we left the agency office about noon from SS2 to Puchong….first horror surfaced!
She was not used to car ride, thus she vomited which we felt was fine. But her vomiting incidents did not stop there. She continued to vomit for ALL of the rest of her car ride experiences despite only for a 5 minutes drive. It was damn bloody disgusting. How would she survive her daily routine of enduring at least 30-45 minutes car ride from Pch to P.J every morning from Mon-Fri ????
Still we thought that doesn’t justified enough as a reason to reject her.

Our main primary reason was that she was totally incapable of handling children. She was just UNATTENTIVE at all, slow in response, insensitive towards handling of children, what’s more with 2 hyperactive toddlers of mine?? Both huby & I observed her stringently on her response towards our boys & it really sent shiver down our spine……just by thinking what’s gonna happen if we were to leave our boys just with her !!!! She was not concentrating, blur with the mind always seen loitering (day dreaming) & couldn’t be bothering much in caring our boys. Despite the boys climbing & jumping around the staircase, she could still stand there looking elsewhere & not responding…..i mean really no reaction until I can’t stand & shouted at her!! I just couldn’t understand & imagine there is such human survive!

After much serious consideration & thought, we decided she was just not the right person. Sorry we just can’t tolerate any carelessness towards our boys. It has never been our intention to reject any maid, as we have been lucky with 2 of our previous maids but this time we must have been ‘blind’ as we were the one that selected her from the many photos of bio data available to us.

Furthermore, only after actually experiencing the communication problem with the Camb maid, we came to term that we had enough of the hassle & made up our mind that we should stick back to Indon maid. We can't even convey simple instruction to her coz she doesn't seemed to understand a single english....gosh! I had been like talking to the wall..........

The only thing to be slightly safer with Indon maid is to get an older one….at least 35 years & above & must be a Christian!

We went back to the agency to convey our problems & requested for a replacement. The moment the agent saw us, her instant response was: really that bad ah?
Next is the list of the agent’s other comments:
-Actually when she was with us for 2 weeks training, we already could tell her behaviour.
-But we are only working here so we can’t be telling bad things about her.
-Since now that you discovered & raised the problems, all I could do is to help you minimise your loss……just pay the levi for the replacement maid lor (RM445)!
I really don’t know what luck was with us……..

Anyway, despite everything we still feel so guilty & pity her………having processed her all the way here but rejected her!! And we don’t know what’s gonna happen to her when she is send back then. It was not our intention but we really really have no choice!
Now we are like reaching nowhere…..left without maid next week onwards. Replacement will only arrive in 1-2 months time. Meantime, the only choice left to care for my boys in the day was my parents……pity & felt sorry but got to bear!

Tentative plan:
House cleaning (floor, toilet & etc) – weekly part time cleaner
Laundry – washing machine
Iron – send to dobi shop
All else – me, me, me & me lor….just treat it as part of my slimming treatment lah !!

Till then, wish us luck !!!