Colorful Meals

Maria has not been consistently coming to work for us lately.  From thrice a week to twice a week to  once a week to only once in 10 days now.  Her excuses were headache, feeling dizzy, stomachache and other excuses. I wonder if she's telling the truth or she has jobs from other houses where she's paid higher wages.  I know that she's now working as part-time maid in other households vs. only working for us in the pre-pandemic years.

I really think that she has to be forthright with me. If she really wants higher wages, she has to ask me and not keeps giving me endless empty promises of coming to work only to tell me at the eleventh hour that she's not coming.  I think it's not acceptable and very unfair to me to have to wait for her till 5pm, only to be told that she's not coming. 

For the record, I have increased her wages twice over the past 12 months. I think she wants even higher wages. 

During the pandemic years when we were worried of having her work for us due to how rapidly Covid was spreading, Maria begged me to allow her to work for us, asked for a pay cut, as long as she could work for us.  I gave her full wages and took her in.  

Because of Maria's unreliability, meals dished out at home are now pretty simple. And we get takeout and food delivery several times a week. Sometimes we have food from hubby's kitchen.

I cooked this meatless vegetables soup, using dashi and vegetable stock from Melaleuca.  I added onions, garlic, a whole head of cabbage, carrot, tomato, seaweed, and shimeji mushrooms.  It's naturally sweet and Cass loved it. 

My lunch with Cass on Sunday at La Juiceria, my favorite cafe, just the both of us.  The hubs, Alycia and mil were in Ipoh for Qing Ming. Sherilyn was at the Sunway Uni Open Day and Education Fair at Mid Valley Megamall.  

Bangkok Salad for me. Loved this so much that for once, I licked the platter clean.

Torched salmon poke bowl for Cass. Very yummeh too.

Free 1 Mini Bowl (beef) of my choice for takeaway.  It's a freebie for new members. I'd dined at La Juiceria only once a couple of months ago. There's another freebie waiting for me, which is a birthday gift and is a cup of smoothie. We'll be back to La Juiceria again soon to try other healthy meals and to claim my free smoothie 😁