Random Updates ~ 15 April 2022

I haven't been posting regularly on what Sherilyn has been cooking and baking.  Ever since Cass and Sherilyn returned to school, I have had very little time left to update my blogs.  

My bedtime has been adjusted from midnight to 9.30 p.m. Bedtime throughout the lockdown and school holidays had been a little before midnight. Now I go into my room at 9.30 p.m. and wake up at 4.45 a.m.  I also have lesser time to spend online coz of school runs and my writing assignments.

I think I won't be renewing my contract with the online news agency that I'm currently working for as a part-time content writer as they have recently restructured their compensation scheme for all content writers, which is less rewarding. So yeah, I think I will have more free time after July 2022. Yay for more me time! 

I may also be on the lookout for other freelance jobs to do from home after my contract expires this July. 

Maria, our part-time helper no longer comes in 5 days a week like she used to before the pandemic. She only comes in 2-3 times a week.  I had to increase her wages twice within a month as she's now getting higher wages elsewhere. She is also hired on a part-time basis to clean up a datin's house. The datin's driver chauffeurs her to the mansion and then books a Grab car to bring Maria home after work.  Maria is on a roll lately with lots of jobs. I try not to be upset with her for telling me a bunch of lies each time she cancels me when she finds higher-paid work elsewhere, but I just hope that she will be more forthright with me.

Our talented baker whipped up sticky dates pudding last week as hubs brought home a pack of organic Medjool dates. The dates were super duper sweet and since no one liked them, our innovative baker baked a loaf of delicious sticky dates pudding -- which actually tasted like cake.  I loved it, albeit it was a bit too sweet for my palate.

Served with vanilla ice cream and homemade butterscotch sauce. Oh my, it's so very delish and calorie-laden!

My craving for cakes has now been fully satiated. I've had more than enough of fudgy brownies all to myself, cakes from Cass' birthday last week, this sticky dates pudding, and banana muffins that the mil baked yesterday. 😁

Part-Time Maid Update

This week will be the second week that our 5th and hopefully final temporary part-time maid, Annie has been working for us. So far I am pretty pleased with her work. But still I have not found another maid as good as my most trusted part-time maid, Maria who has gone back to Indonesia to get married. She's my trophy helper who has been working for us for 6 years and I hope that she will come back to work for us as promised.

Annie has a very amiable personality and is efficient. The only downside is she can only work for 3 hours in the evening, which is not sufficient for her to complete other chores like ironing and other cleaning. But I am contented. As long as there is someone at my house from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. from Monday through Fridays to help wash the dishes and clean up after dinner, I am one happy camper.  I am usually out on my 'Ahmad' duty at night, thus do not have the time to do the dishes and clean the kitchen after dinner.

Annie has work experience as a house maid in Russia (3 years) and Singapore (2 years). She can speak English and even Russian language! Pretty impressive work experience for an Indonesian lady who is now engaged full-time as a cleaner at our condo.

In exactly two more weeks, my beloved Maria will be back working for us. The girls and I miss her so much. I'm counting down the days every day! 😁

Dinner on our Sunday yesterday was at Koyaku Japanese Dining And Grill @ Faber Towers with only the hubs and Cass. The two older girls  preferred to stay home to enjoy their takeout pizza from Ben's Independent Grocer.  One is hooked to her Korean dramas and the other, her English dramas from Netflix.  😕


And the littlest brat is hooked to her novels.





I was still feeling very cloy after a heavy lunch of pasta, burger, mushroom soup and cakes from Huckleberry Food And Fare, thus only ordered Chawan Mushi.  The Chawan Mushi from Koyaku is supersized (I love!) and costs RM12 a bowl.

Of Maids And Healthy Breakfast

Today I tried out my fifth temporary part-time maid! Annie is my fifth part-time maid whom I engaged in a short span of 9 days. None of the four previous maids worked more than two days.

The first maid stopped working as she was afraid to walk home at 9 p.m. at night. Her flat is about 15-20 minutes walk away from my condo. The second and third maids didn't work out as I could not  accept maid #3 who looks like a thug and has strong ciggie breath. Maid #2 insisted on bringing her friend with her to accompany her back after work. I like Maid #2  but she got offended that I  did not allow her to bring her tomboy friend along to work.

Maid #4 was pretty efficient and I didn't have to train her much but her rate is too high, i.e. almost double of what I am paying to my current part-time maid who has gone back to Indonesia to get married. Maid #4 called me back the next day to reduce her rate by a paltry RM10 but it still exceeds my budget.

The fifth part-time maid, Annie seems OK. But she is pretty calculative on how much time she puts in and told me  before leaving today that she can only work for 3 hours tomorrow and not 4 hours as she is also afraid of walking home at 9 p.m., though her flat is located just a few steps away from my condo. Annie is a cleaner engaged by our condo Management. I'm praying that Annie has no problem continue working for us until Maria returns from Indonesia. If she continues to be good in her work with no attitude issues, I can keep her as my relief maid whenever Maria goes on leave.

So much with part-time maids. I am totally enervated hunting for a maid, training one after another maid only to end up being disappointed with the outcome after 1-2 days.

OK, back to foodie talk!

🍽 

Have I told you that my parents make the tastiest pumpkin kaya in the world?


I finished this bottle of pumpkin kaya all by  myself in less than a week!


I slather thick luxurious layers of  pumpkin kaya on my toast and crackers or simply chomp down a few tablespoons like I would with ice-cream. So yummo!

It's pretty simple to make pumpkin kaya.  First puree the pumpkin by steaming and blending it. Then add coconut milk (santan), a little sugar (optional as pumpkin is naturally sweet) and pandan leaves and cook / stir in the pot till smooth. Plus point is this pumpkin kaya is vegan and very healthy.

After a healthy breakfast of pumpkin kaya on toast, I sipped on organic lemongrass + pandan tea  with blue pea flowers from my parents' garden.





Sometimes I toss a teaspoon of goji berries into my organic herbal tea. Most days I chew on a tablespoon of goji berries.


My breakfast of mil's homemade yam cake seasoned with Korean seaweed and mum's homemade chicken floss.

Of Maids And Lovers

I am now in a dilemma. And I feel like one of those very lost and confused lovers who cannot make up her mind on which man to choose to marry!  If you have been following my blogs, you would have read my struggles and frustrations with finding a good part-time maid.  Well, in December last year, I found a very, very good part-time maid (Maid M) who worked for me for half a year until she dropped the most dreaded news to me -- that she wanted to quit as she was very worried over the sudden appearance of a huge lump in her neck. She was not lying to me as I saw and felt the big lump on her neck.

When she left, I felt jilted, like a girl who was ditched by her most beloved lover. I was lost without any help. I engaged those part-time maids who were paid hourly and I hated their services. I'd rather do the work myself than have those hourly paid maids in my house. I went searching high and low for another lover part-time maid. At one point of time, I was on the verge of hiring a live-in maid from an unregistered maid agency as the low fees were too good to be true. Yea I said it.  Can maids be good and cheap legally these days? NO!  Crap! Not anymore.  The hubs said NO, don't be stupid and gullible!  We made up part of the statistics of those victims being cheated by  unscrupulous maid agents a few years ago and the maid agent was Alycia's classmate's father! Well, that man went behind bars later.   So I had to bite the bullet and forget about the whole idea of getting a live-in maid and do the work myself. Those days were tough and I felt like crying. My online business went from soaring to a sore as I had very, very little time left to do my online work.

I went to almost all the coffee shops and roadside stalls at my neighborhood to spread news to sellers that I was looking for a part-time maid who could come for 2-3 hours daily, Monday through Saturday.  A month past, still I had no luck.  Then one fine day, when I almost lost hope of ever finding someone like Maid M,  I received a call from Maid Y.  I immediately asked her to come for an interview at 5pm the same day.  When I saw her, my guts feeling told me that she's the one and she started to work for me the next day. That was 2 months ago. She is still working for me and she is almost as good as Maid M but she is just not there yet. Anyway, I am very thankful that she came at a time when I needed some help.

A few days ago, Maid M sent me a text message.  We have been sending each other text messages quite often, with me asking her whether the lump on her neck had subsided and how her check ups at the hospital went.  She always replied me by telling me that the lump was still there and she still had a few more appointments at UMC.  Coming back to Maid M's text message 3 days ago.  She told me that she was well and that the lump on her neck has subsided. She wanted to for me again!  I did not know how to reply her.  I wanted her back badly but if I accept her back, I would be unfair to Maid Y.  What if Maid M leaves me again after I have turned Maid Y away?  It was a very hard decision to make, just like a girl choosing her life partner LOL!  Finally, I retained Maid Y and told Maid M the truth about my predicament.

Maid Y will be going back to Indonesia in December this year.  There is a high percentage that she will NOT return to work for me though she assured me that she will come back. She kept telling me that she likes working for me. Well, I have seen too many cases where maids who had worked for my friends for donkey years never returned and my friends were left waiting at the airport, like a forlorn lover.  So I told Maid M that I may need her again in December when Maid Y goes back to Indon for a holiday.

I hope I have made the right decision. The hubs is unable to make a decision too.


Maid M is friendly, was paid RM700 per month and worked 5 hours each time she came. She is very simple and not calculative. Her work is detailed and her work is very good, albeit quite slow as she pays too much time to details.  She was ever willing to work longer than what she had to.

Maid Y is very reserved, quiet but her work is good. She is currently paid RM900 per month and works only 3 hours each time she comes. She will leave on the dot when it is time to leave.

What would you have done if you were me?  

Temporary Part-time Maid

I have engaged a Pinoy lady who has agreed to work part-time for me until the end of July this year  She has been offered a job as full-time nanny and housekeeper (with very light house work to do) to one mat salleh and she is to start work in August 2013. She told me that the mat salleh is offering her RM1,800 a month!. You see, these days, Pinoy maids with work permit in our country are really smart.  They work part time at a few houses everyday and earn a few thousand Ringgit a month, which is more than what some fresh graduates are getting! 

This Pinoy maid, Laila started work yesterday. She came by taxi and returned with a taxi too!  The agreed time was from 6pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday with a pay of RM600.  But she was pretty slow (albeit quite detailed in her work) and by 8pm, she had not finished moping the floor, washing the toilets and washing the dishes. So I extended her time to 9pm and paid her RM70 for 3 hours.  There were a lot of dirty dishes, pots and woks to wash yesterday as the MIL cooked a tad more than on other regular days as we had some relatives over for dinner.  As she had no time to wash one of the bathrooms, I had to let her go at 9pm and I  washed the bathroom myself . She had no time to even iron our clothes too.  In short, I paid Laila RM70 to mop the floor, wash 1 bathroom and wash a pile of dirty dishes. 

Today, Laila will be bringing her friend for us to meet. If she likes the work, she will be Laila's replacement for us. Laila did tell me yesterday that she liked working for us and would like to work for us full time from 5-9pm with a pay of RM1k a month but she has to find a replacement for the mat salleh employer whom she has agreed to work for. I am hoping and praying that either Laila or her friend would agree to work for us part-time everyday (with Sundays off) with the agreed salary of RM1k a month. That would save us quite a bit on agency fee.  Wish me luck in my search for a good Pinoy maid :)

RM8,000 Fee To Hire Indonesian Maids!

Finally the official news is out today, albeit this has been the fee charged by maid agencies for the past one year. The RM8k fee is NOT INCLUSIVE of the maid's 6 months' salary in advance! To summarize it all, we employers have to cough out AT LEAST RM12,200 to hire an Indonesian maid and even more to hire a Filipina maid. I remember that I only needed to pay RM3,000 as non-refundable agency fee to the maid agent about 10 years ago to hire our first maid. Those were the good old days which are now a part of the Malaysian history. We can no longer hire maids freely and easily.

Actually I do not mind paying the RM12,200 once-off payment to hire a maid. I know that a live-in maid can bring some relief and help to me and would enable me to spend some quality time with my kids.  But what if the maid runs away after the 3 months guarantee period? Or if I am given a maid sent from h*ll?  There are many unscrupulous maid agencies around who would abet with the maid to run away after the 3-month guarantee period.

Since our money does not come by freely and easily, I'd rather take on the maid role myself and see how the maid situation turns out in the months to come. If you have been following the on-going maid issue, you will realize that the situation is fluid. Policies keep changing. And the agreements between Malaysia and Indonesia   keep ending in a deadlock. My option is still not entirely closed.  I may still consider hiring a maid when the right one comes along at the right time. You know, there are really such right timing gifts in life. I just have to wait for it to come.

Would you spend over RM12,500 to hire a live-in maid? I know some families have no choice but to bite the bullet and employ a maid to help take care of their kids or aged parents while they are at work.

Here is the news article extracted from The Star website today:

ANOTHER amount has been proposed for the contentious hiring fee for Indonesian maids, with the Government putting it at RM8,000. 
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who chaired the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants, said that the new rate was decided after considering all costs from both Malaysia and Indonesia.

“The RM8,000 was decided after considering the cost of training for at least 200 hours, documentation, food and accommodation before transfer to the new employers, travelling cost, medical check-ups as well as payment to the respective government agencies of both countries,” he said at a meeting at Parliament House yesterday. 

It was reported under the Memo­randum of Understanding (MoU) between the Malaysian and Indone­sian governments in 2011, the cost to recruit Indonesian maids was set at a RM4,511 – where RM2,711 was paid by the employer and RM1,800 was paid by the domestic helper. 

Muhyiddin said the changes of the structural cost would be brought for further discussion by both governments. 

“The details will be explained by the Human Resources Ministry after the approval from both sides,” he said. 

He said the new revised rates was considered reasonable compared to the other countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong who were paying Indonesian domestic helpers at higher rates. 

Muhyiddin added that the salary of Indonesian maids will not be bound by the Minimum Wages Act 2012; and will instead be based on the current market prices and the employer. 

The Government, he said, will also fully suspend the Journey Perform Visa (JP Visa) in October this year. “Previously, the Immigration Dep­artment had allowed the issuance of JP Visa due to problems of supply of Indonesian maid based on a case by case basis, where only 290 were successfully recruited,” he said.

Full Time Maids vs Part Time Maids

I have been calling maid agencies for the past few days. From my findings, I am rather perplexed with the structure of the agency fees imposed by these agencies. From what I have gathered, different agencies charge different rates on the agency fee, some of which charge vast differences in the fees.  Most of the agencies charge between RM7,000 to RM10,000 for agency fees (to be shared between the Malaysian agent and Phillipines agent).  Monthly salary of the Filipina maid is fixed at a minimum of RM1,000 and some RM1,200 per month.  Most of the agencies have advised me to hire a Filipina as maids from this country do not create as much trouble as Indon maids. This I have to agree as I have hired Indon maids for 10 years and so far, only one maid was truly efficient with not much attitude problem BUT she had a boyfriend, whom she befriended just over our house gate every morning!!  Can you imagine how they can fall in love without even going out with each other and can even exchange kisses on some mornings? All done at my porch and they were caught in the act locking lips by my nosy parker neighbor!

Yesterday, I called up another maid agency. I was perplexed when they told me that they charge only RM4K+ for agency fee to hire a Filipina maid and the maid's salary is RM1k a month.  For Indon maids, they charge close to RM9,000 for agency fee and the maid's salary is RM808 per month.  When I 'reported' my findings to the boss, he said "cheap things surely mean no good!  If they can charge us  a fee which is so low as compared to what other agencies normally charge,  surely the maids are of sub quality and who knows, the agency may be one of those agencies reported in the newspapers that teaches the maid to run away after the 3-month guarantee period!  When this happens, the employer will surely go back to the agent to source for another maid and another RM7k has to be paid upfront to hire a new Filipina maid.  And behind our backs, who knows, the unscrupulous maid agency  will be recycling the runaway maid and  we will never find out about their illegal modus operandi. 

Did you know that a prospective employer has to fork out an average of RM12,400 to hire a Filipina maid?  This amount comprises of RM10k NON-REFUNDABLE agency fee and 2 months advance salary of RM1,200 per month.  Renewal of work permit after 1 year is about RM1k. Now bring out your calculator and start counting.  The average monthly salary of a Filipina maid on a 2-year contract is RM1,616 per month!!  That is equivalent to the starting salary of some fresh graduates??  

After discussing with the hubs, he still thinks that hiring part-time maids who come in several times in a week is the best solution.  I need part-time maids who can come between 6pm - 8pm as this period is the busiest time for me -- preparation to cook dinner, piles of dishes, wok and pots to wash and scrub and messy floor to mop after dinner.  I have called 3 part-time maid agencies today and only 1 agency (working on a very tight schedule) can provide a part-time maid to me, who can come in on Monday and Thursday from 6-8pm.  Cost is about RM260 for 8 sessions (twice weekly, 2 hours each session).  For other days of the week, I will have no choice but to slog like a dog for the sake of my 3 angels.  If not for the 3 of them, I would have eaten out everyday, just like what I did before they came along.  But back then, life was a tad lonely and incomplete without them and they are my missing pieces to my complete jig saw puzzle now :)

Life Without A Live-In Maid

Without a live-in maid, I have begun to dislike cooking.  Being not only a health freak but a clean freak, I totally cannot stand a kitchen with oily tops and floor.  So after each cooking, there will be a lot of cleaning up to do.  To top it all up, I have extremely dry and sensitive skin, which, if in contact with soap, especially detergent and dish-washing liquid, will peel, turn red and feels really 'tight' and itchy.  All these 'obstacles' are making cooking seem such a painful chore for me.  The thought of even packing food back to eat at home does not seem favourable to me because after eating, there will be bowls, plates and cutlery to wash, table to wipe, floor to wipe (the 3 rascals will surely drop food onto the floor) and table cloths to wash.  Sometimes I will wear a pair of rubber gloves but I do not like wearing gloves as I find that I cannot feel what I am washing -- so whether the plate is thoroughly clean or still soapy, I wouldn't know.   Above all these reasons, cooking takes up a lot of time -- preparation, cooking and the big washing and cleaning up after each meal.  I need to allocate at least 1.5 hours - 2 hours of my time if I cook dinner..  People think that a WFHM has the luxury of time to do her work and to cook up a storm all the time but it is not true.  It is still manageable if I have only 1 child. With 3 kids who need supervision in their school work (and the most dreaded final exam is just several weeks away), an online store to run, ads to write, blogs to update, house work to carry out, I  have not much time and mood left for cooking.  Fortunately my mil is now with us to help out in the cooking but very soon, she will have to leave for Hong Kong again.

Ever since my maid went back to Indon, the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) on my hands is slowly rearing its ugly head again. I first had severe CTS about 2 months post giving birth to Alycia about 9 years ago.  After a course of antibiotics to treat the Bronchitis that I was suffering from, the CTS co-incidentally vanished, albeit not 100%.    Since then, I have been having numbness and feeling of 'pins and needles' on my  hands, especially on my right hand every morning around 3am right through the time I wake up at around 5:30am.  I find that the CTS will be aggravated if I use my hands to carry heavy things or use my hands vigorously without resting them.   Without a live-in maid, I now have to do more house work and carry heavy stuff too, thus I think I am giving the CTS a wake-up shake.  The feeling is not exactly painful but one that is very uncomfortable.  If you have gone through a surgery under GA, you will know what I mean.  The feeling of CTS is akin to loosing feeling and energy on your hands, peppered with pins and needles.  It ain't a nice feeling to have.

After more than a month of being maidless, I am sad to admit that I still prefer having a live-in maid, albeit I do not fancy having a stranger living under the same roof with us and especially sharing our bathroom.  If not for the current pathetic maid situation in our country, which is turning from bad to worse, I would have immediately gotten a replacement Indon maid right away.  There is only a trickle of Filipino maids to hire now and the agency fee of RM10k (non-refundable) is the main reason why we are not hiring one just yet.  I do not mind paying RM12,400 (RM2,400 consists of the Filipino maid's 2 months' salary in advance) for a Filipino maid if there is replacement for a runaway maid or an incompetent maid, with no expiry of guarantee period.  If you have read the newspapers a few days ago, you would have read that the Government is now planning to curb the employment of Filipino domestic maids in our country too!

I admire SAHMs and even FTWMs without live-in maids who can still whip up scrumptious dishes, elaborate bento boxes for their kids' and bake a galore of cakes, pastries, snacks and desserts for their kids.  Sheoh Yan, Elaine Lee and Chew Lee -- how do you do it?  How does everyone else do it without a maid? I need to learn!

Maid Stories Again

That woman is driving me nuts!! She hogs the bathroom everyday for half an hour to forty five minutes twice a day and reads our newspapers and magazines while in the throne. This I do not mind as reading is a good hobby to have. What I cannot stand is that she dirties the toilet seat with her black fingers (from the newspapers ink) and does not clean up the stains. At times, she dirties the toilet seat and floor with poop and blood too! In the past, I cleaned up her after her mess when I cannot stand the filth and cannot wait for her to come and clean it up when I have to use the bathroom. After many times, my temper hit the roof. Enough is enough and I told her off.

A week ago, she dropped the new FHM magazine that we bought onto the wet bathroom floor but did not bother to dry the magazine. Half the book of pages are now glued to one another. When I tried to separate the pages, they tore apart as they were still wet. The magazine is now torn and tattered and I don't feel like touching it anymore for I have no idea what the source of the liquid that is binding the pages now. I thought it was my hubs who wet the magazine, thus did not bother to ask him. This morning, my hubs asked me angrily if I had dropped the magazine onto the wet floor and did not bother to dry it up. When he asked me this, I knew instantly who the culprit was. I feel like strangling her now!! This is but just a fraction of her bad habits and attitude that we have to bear with everyday. Thank goodness her days with us are numbered. When she leaves, my life needs a major adjustment and this is going to take place very, very soon..hopefully it will be for the better, for me, my kids and everyone else.

Squashed Cuppies!

We were at Bangsar Village for lunch last week. After lunch, hubs bought some nice cuppies from Bisou. When we got home, I was in for a shock when I opened the box. What were supposed to have been some really pretty cuppies greeting me were replaced with some yucky looking cuppies, with the icing and cream slathered to the sides of the inner box. That was no ordinary box of cuppies ok. They cost quite a bit. Thanks to the person who was holding it, eeeeesshhhh, really felt like smacking her!

Ranting On Maid Again

Just cannot stand that lady anymore. She turned into a bossy control freak about a year ago and now the bossiness has accelerated. Yesterday after shopping for groceries, while keeping the stuff into the fridge and storeroom, she tried to incite hatred and tried to start a fire between my mil and I by reporting to my mil that I still bought so much of this and that. She thought I was in the bathroom but I heard her reporting softly to my mil "tengok aunty, masih banyak beli lagi hehe" Who the h*ll is she to control what I buy and to report to my mil? That lady love yakking non-stop and most of the time, whatever that comes out from her mouth drives me bonkers. She even told Sherilyn this once "you die already ah, why you lie down to eat?" She also loves to use her body to push Sherilyn when Sherilyn is near her whenever she's carrying something heavy, as if to tell her blatantly, "move away!!" Oh yes, she did say "GO away" rudely many many times to my kids whenever she's busy and they are near her.

This afternoon, when Alycia returned from school, she told me that she did not eat anything in school. I was shocked to hear that as I had put a small box of honey stars into her bag last night. She told me that kakak took it out! Who the h*ll again is she to control what I put inside my daughter's bag and how dare she take it out without telling me? What a super super control freak she is.

Yesterday morning, she also used her feet to nudge Sherilyn's butt to wake her up. Knowing that Sherilyn does not like her to step-mother her around, she has to target Sher all the time. She and Sherilyn are like cats and dogs. That lady loves irritating Sherilyn to no end. She will playfully touch her butt and that lady will turn back to give Sher a killer glare with her vampire teeth ... and use whatever that she's holding on to attempt to hit her back, only to be caught by me most of the time. It's really a tit-for-tat case for that lady who has no patience at all with my kids. In front of our friends and relatives, she will transform into a maid sent from heaven with the sweetest smile and words, to gain liking from them. I can write and write and even a compile a book on maid horror stories but I shall end here. I have loads to do but I just have to vent out my frustration.

Maid Stories Again

My helper is always driving me crazy with the things that she does. Just a moment ago, I told her to prepare 'york choy tong' (herbal soup). I took out a packet of herbal mixture and left it on the kitchen counter top. I also told her to cut up some onions, carrots and tomatoes so that I can cook spaghetti for lunch today. She has been doing these for me for the past 2 years+. When I checked on her just now, I got a shock when I opened the lid of the pot. I saw all the onions, carrots and tomatoes inside the pot of herbal soup!!! Freaking mad coz when I told her, she kept saying 'ya ya ya' and she had done this umpteen times!! Now, she is fishing out all the tomatoes, carrots and onions from the pot of soup. I don't know if I can still re-cycle the tomatoes, carrots and onions and cook spaghetti with them! Darn mad with her now.

Crazy Maid... Part II

This morning, Alycia ran to me and announced "mummy, mummy, I saw kakak scooping out our milk powder and putting into her mouth!!" She then demonstrated how kakak ate the milk powder to me. When I queried her, this crazy maid initially denied... then realized she cannot deny as Alycia caught her red handed. After hesitating, she said "I nak rasa manis ke tidak". What a silly answer. She has been fixing milk for the girls for so long, what is there to taste. And she's not trying the already mixed milk powder with water - she ate the milk POWDER, direct from the tin using the spoon inside the tin and then put the spoon back inside the milk powder!! When I washed the spoon later, I had a hard time scrubbing off the thickened milk powder that stuck to the spoon. YUCKS, can you imagine how DIRTY it is to have her saliva inside there??

This ain't the first time I caught her doing this. My mum and I had caught her many many times putting my kids' milk and our food into her mouth just when she thought no one was looking. No wonder my kids' milk powder are finishing SO fast! To think that she's been pinching Baby's expensive Pediasure formula everyday is making me furious. I will definitely buy her a tin of milk if she asked for it. She has been asking for 3-in-1 coffee and I buy her a big packet of 30 sachets every single month. I also gave her the green light to drink my milk powder. So why is she stealing my kids' milk powder and eating the milk powder directly from the tin with the same spoon inside the tin? That is just SO unhygienic!! Lately, this lady has been doing things that made my mil and I blew our top. Stealing food is still tolerable but hitting my kids and hurting them is totally unacceptable! But I keep telling myself to 'YAN' (bear with it) as her days are numbered here.

Crazy Maid

I know many of you will say I am crazy to keep a crazy helper at home. This morning, while feeding Baby milk, Baby got cranky, couldn't sit still and moved about. My helper got agitated as well and I think she must have pushed Baby on the head, resulting in her falling off the arm rest of the sofa... onto the floor with a loud bang! Her forehead is now blue black. I wasn't around to see what happened but I heard a loud bang and Baby wailing like crazy. My helper kept telling me that Baby fell on her own. But Baby who speaks very well for her age told me "naughty kakak, naughty kakak". I asked her if kakak pushed her and she said yes. Fast forwarded to evening today. While seated on the potty in the bathroom, she told me out of the blue "kakak pushed my head and I jatuh floor", while pointing to her forehead when she said "pushed my head". I must be crazy to keep this crazy maid at home. I must send her back asap and keep her away from Baby! She is a child abuser!

Terror Maid

I have been so busy with my online store that I have been getting my helper to feed Baby more and more these days. Baby is getting more and more restless these days and it's a torture to get her to drink water. Sadly, it's only when I flash the cane and threaten to beat her that she will take only sips of water. My helper does not have the patience to coax Baby to drink water. Many times, she had hit Baby when she fidgeted too much, refused to drink and spilled water. I went ballistic when she hit Baby on the chin the other day, to punish her for spilling water. Yet, she blatantly denied hitting Baby. But Baby is not a baby anymore. She ran to me bawling and said "kakak beat me, kakak beat me" and when I asked her "beat where", she pointed to her chin and said "here". The same thing happened last week when she hit Baby on the mouth. I can't wait for this lady to return to Indon for good. I hope I can cope without her.

Old Helper vs Current Helper

My current helper only cleans the air-conditioner filter once a month or only when being reminded by me. I really have no idea why she can never finish her chores at home, even with me, my mil and hubs helping out. Sometimes we engage helpers outside to clean the windows and fans. Our previous helper cleans the air-conditioner filters every week without being told. I think if we have a furnace at home, she can even clean the furnace filters without any problem and without being told. She cooked very well, managed the kids fairly well and was polite. She was by far our best helper but too bad she didn’t want to continue working for us. I heard she’s now working in Singapore. I am happy for her as she is really a good domestic helper.

A Cut On Her Lip

You know why I hardly ever leave Baby with my maid when I need to bathe or do my business? That's because each time I leave Baby with that lady, something shocking is bound to happen. First she gave Baby a pencil, which Baby eventually ate the pencil lead. Then yesterday, I thought I could just leave Baby with her for 5 minutes while I quickly go and relieve myself on the throne. Lo and behold, half way through my business, I heard Baby waaaaaailing painfully outside. Without even finishing what I had to finish, I quickly washed myself up and dashed out, clad in my towel. Baby had climbed up the couch, fell and hit her lips on the shape sorter toy. There was BLOOD and a cut on her lower lip!

That hopeless fler is always like that. I can never ever trust her with anything. I could only guess that she was too absorbed in watching Barney on TV that she did not even realized Baby had climbed up the couch, aargh!!! She always gets very consumed watching TV when she spoon-feeds Baby milk. If she doesn't watch TV, she will doze off while feeding her, sometimes with Baby on her lap.

After applying a piece of ice on Baby's cut lip, I brought her in with me into the bathroom. And there was mayhem in the bathroom again. That's what I get when I pay close to RM1k a month (salary + agency fee + her expenses + miscellaneous fees). Really fuming mad!



Baby's cut lower lip. Now, that part of her lip is bruised and swollen.

Never-ending Maid Stories

That foreigner in my house gave me more sky-high blood pressure shooting moments today. This morning, she snapped at me and answered me sarcastically when I asked her how many minutes she had set the kitchen timer for the soup. Just a moment ago, I was fuming mad again when I noticed that the steamed egg with pork had lots of tiny black twigs on the surface. I knew instantly what it was and was enraged coz I did not ask her to add that in. She has been helping me to prepare this dish for umpteen times and I have never ever instructed her to put mixed herbs inside. I think nobody would add mixed herbs into this dish coz it just doesn't blend in. It's like adding some curry powder into your steak or eating spaghetti with tau cheong. I think she added the mixed herbs coz she likes the taste of mixed herbs but not my kids. Why can't that lady just follow instructions? When I asked her what was inside the steamed eggs, she told me this : "saya letak sangat sikit mixed herbs saja" but that wasn't sangat sikit at all. She added the mixed herbs without first asking me and that's what irritated me. That lady has a habit of doing things the way she likes without first asking us. Doing things as she fancies and not as per instructions is not being initiative.

During my stay in the hospital with Baby C, she even gave wrong info to the nurses when they came to check on Baby and asked questions when I wasn't in the room. She didn't know and didn't bother to ask me what the implications were if she gave wrong info. She just loves yakking and yaks at the wrong time and wrong situation all the time. But when she's supposed to talk, she remains dumb, like when she's asked to do something, she hardly answers us. That's another thing that pisses me off. In another incident, when I brought Baby to see the surgeon, the moment we entered the surgeon's room, she excitedly reported to the doctor how Baby was doing, even before I opened my mouth!

Anyway, back to the steamed egg with pork and mixed herbs. It tasted wierd but I still ate it coz we only had 2 dishes today. But Alycia and Sherilyn, my 2 fussy eaters sensed the difference in that dish instantly and were hesitant to eat the eggs. I'm sure that lady must be grinning inside her heart that now, the entire egg dish is hers coz nobody likes it. And did I tell you before that I caught her many times using the same serving spoon that we put on the plate of egg dish to discreetly scoop up the egg into her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking? And that same serving spoon was later put back on the plate of steamed eggs for us with her saliva and all! I'm perplexed why she likes to eat food so discreetly like curi-curi when the fact is that she gets to eat everything that we eat.

Tell me, would you be angry too if you were me? I wonder why some people just can't follow instructions.

Enough Is Enough

I have had enough of my maid. Throughout our time together in Ipoh and Penang for the past 3 days, she's been getting on my nerves. I can still tolerate it each time she disobeys me and does things however way she wants, despite me telling her not to.

Yesterday, Sherilyn was happily watching TV in the hotel room when she came and sat next to her, snatched the remote control that she was holding and switched channels. Did I tell you she's hooked on the TV? Another long story to tell on that. She got reprimanded. Next, we had bought a packet of peanuts for the gals to feed monkeys at Botanical Garden. Instead, this control freak clung on to the peanuts and fed monkeys herself. When the gals asked for peanuts, she refused to give. Next, in the car when Alycia wanted to look at a brochure on the Toys Museum, she also refused to give Alycia and was happily looking at the brochure herself. She even had the cheek to chide off Alycia and created a stupid excuse so that Alycia didn't get to see the brochure. The hubs and I were really pissed off with her. All these I can still close one eye and forgive her.

I got so steaming mad with her just now when she hit Baby's hand. She thought I was in the toilet and she gave Baby a monstrous expression on her face, snatched the plastic bag that Baby grabbed and hit her hand. That, I cannot accept. Who is she to hit my Baby? That was not the first time. I had caught her many times giving Baby a hideous and spiteful expression on her face and tried to hit Baby on the hand. But when she realized that I was standing behind her, she turned 360 degrees and pretended to play with Baby.

I now feel like I am keeping a time bomb waiting to explode in my house. I no longer trust her and she gets on everyone's nerves all the time, including my 2 older gals. This is really straining my relationship with her and it's really bad for me as well as for her. If I send her back to the agent, I'm not sure if I can cope without a maid. Moreover, my mil will be away overseas for more than a month soon. Her contract will only expire in April next year. If we decide to get another maid, it would probably take another half a year for the new maid to arrive. Long sigh..... should I keep her or send her back?

Furious!

This is yet another post on my maid. Please don't judge me by passing unkind remarks/comments coz you have not seen what kind of person my maid is and what horrid things she can do and had done to us, especially to my kids. If you do not like to read stories about my maid, you can stop reading now.

Remember my earlier post ranting about the hubs and I facing some problems with our maid agent as the agent's former hubby screwed up our maid's application, lost her passport and did not do a host of other things? Well, I think the agent managed to fix the problem. I also mentioned that for the sake of money, we will just bear with our maid and perhaps renew her contract for another year? Well, everyone in the family have had enough of my maid's nonsense and eccentricity. She is just too stubborn and doesn't want to turn over a new leaf, despite umpteen warnings to her.

This morning just as I was entering the house after my morning jogging session, Sher kept calling me and in her birthday suit, ran out of the bathroom to greet me. The maid ran towards Sher and just when she thought I wasn't looking, she pulled a handful of Sher's hair towards her very roughly, as if she were pulling the wings of a chicken that is running.... and with an evil look on her face (which really sent goosebumps all over my body).... to prevent Sher from running and this made Sher cry out in pain. When I saw that shocking act, I yelled at my maid and guess what? This idiot vehemently and persistently denied pulling Sher's hair! How dare she deny it when I saw it with my own eyes. Our maid has a very terrible and irritating habit of denying all her wrong doings even if we saw her doing them right in front of us. The commotion woke the hubs up from his sleep. He was enraged. He told our maid to get out of the house but I stopped him as there is currently a bunch of Indon workers painting the buidling at our condo. This will only give her the opportunity to elope with one of them. He gave the maid a very good lecture and our maid still mati-mati denied pulling Sher's hair!

Yesterday, the maid almost broke my mil's blood vessel. She has a habit of saying "yah, yah, yah" to all our instructions and most times, doesn't even bother to answer us.... which really infuriates me talking to someone who doesn't respond. After my mil had given her very specific instructions not to wash the peanuts in cold water but to soak them in hot water, to which the maid said "yah, yah, yah", she turned back and washed the peanuts in cold water!

Yesterday, the maid gave me a scare and of course sent my temper hitting the roof when she yanked Baby's bib off her neck causing part of the back of Baby's neck to bleed. The skin at the back of Baby's neck got pinched by the fastener of the hard plastic bib (and the skin came off), and poor Baby wailed out in pain. Until today, Baby is still having phobia of wearing her bib.

We have all had enough of this crazy maid's wierd behaviour and stubborness. I can no longer stand hearing her yell and scold my kids the whole day long as if she were their evil stepmum. I have told her many, many times that if she continues to scold and hit them, the gals will only hate her more but she has turned a deaf ear on my advise. Now we all know why her previous employer's mil hit her. I was on the verge of pulling her hair this morning. We will be sourcing for a replacement though it would mean digging deeper into our pockets.