Run bibik...run!!

"Life is like a box of chocolate, you'll never what you gonna get..." Recently, a neighbour's maid ran away, in fact two of of my neighbours' maids ran away in the same week - I assume in hope of better pay and better living. Hiring a maid is actually like a box of chocolate, you'll never know whether you'll get a very good one, a not-so-good one or a really bad one.

Maids are human being. Put ourselves in their shoes, we want to be treated like human being, not slaves. I treated all my maids like they are part of my family, with respect and humility. But as I said, it's like a box of chocolate.

I had my fair share of good and bad maids in the past. Luckily the current one is pretty good. She's been with our family for almost 5 years, and I hope for many more years to come. She is so good that I don't think I could function well without her around. I have had 4 maids before her. We hired our first maid in 2001 just after I had my second son. She was an illegal immigrant. We couldn't part with a few thousand ringgit of our savings at the time, hence, we decided to get an illegal one instead. She was quite good, my house was squeaky clean when she was around. However, she being an illegal, we decided to let her go about six months later.

After that we took another one through an agency. She made quite a good first impression and we like her at an instant. She said to be a mother of 2 and coming to work in Malaysia to help her husband to make ends meet and to provide better education for her children. But this is a story of deceit.

Only after 1 month of arrival, she started to ask for day off. There was once she went out on a Sunday and didn't come back as told till the next day. Imagine the trouble we had to go through with 2 kids at home and having to go to work. To teach her a lesson, we didn't allow her to take another day off in the following month. What happened next was she started to hurt herself - I know what you're thinking, psycho!! We put up with her because she was good in giving excuses in such convincing ways. You won't believe how good she was in her drama. In her third month with us, when we were getting ready to balik kampung, she asked to meet her friend on the 10th floor before we leave (we were living in a condo then) with a pretext of returning a bag she borrowed from her friend. That was the last time we saw her. She left almost sehelai sepinggang - she only took her purse with her and left everything behind.

Funny enough, during her 3 months stay with us we never received our phone bill. When we asked her about it she claimed that she has never seen it. After she dissapeared, then came the bill - and it was red in colour! Apparently, she's been keeping (or destroying) the bills for 3 months. Wanna know how much was the amount? RM1,400++!! I had a shock of my life. Then her relative called to ask for her, not knowing that she was gone a few weeks earlier. When I told him that she has left, another story unfolded. She was actually not married - no kids and no husband...

Not deterred by the experience, plus we didn't really have much choice then, we got ourselves a brand new maid. This one turned to be a pretty good one - we thank God for that. Like people said, 3 times a charm. And a charm it was indeed. However, when her contract almost ended after two years, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to continue for another year because she said she missed her young son back home. Her dilly dally attitude prompted us to hire a new one. We couldn't just sit down and waited for her to decide, as we needed to get a new one before she left. She later regretted her indecisiveness - in her own words, nasi sudah menjadi bubur.

The fourth maid was another nightmare. She told us that she's here to help her husband who worked as plantation worker in Indonesia, to make ends meet. No children yet, so there was no problem with leaving her family behind. I noticed something weird about this lady, she wasn't so good with housework, cried a lot and liked to stare at an empty wall. I thought that she was just missing her family in Indonesia and needed time to adjust being away from them. But I think God loves us and our children more. A month later, she asked us to mail a letter to her family in Indonesia. Somehow, my heart told me to read the letter before we mailed it out. I know it's invasion of privacy, but Allah had showed me the way. I was expecting my third child then.

Upon reading her letter, we realised this time we are being lied to again. Another case of deceit. She was actually here to reunite with her husband who worked at a construction site in Ampang. She has in fact spent a night with her husband at my agency's place prior to coming to our house. She mentioned in the letter that my sons (whose kids are not at that age anyway!!) are naughty and hard to handle and wasn't sure whether she could handle a baby, and that she felt like running away! As you'd guessed it, the letter was never sent and she was sent back instead. I don't understand these people, what's wrong with telling the truth?? We'd have allowed her to see her husband if she wanted to. Being a married woman myself, I surely can emphatise with her on this one. Why, why, tell me why!!!!!!!!

Well ladies and gentlemen, a box of chocolate it is indeed. Oh, I forgot to mention, the maid that ran away, called us a year later to apologise. She said she shouldn't have ran away when we treated her so well. She was lured by a better pay but was conned instead. She was working in a factory canteen in Sepang and wasn't getting her pay for months - well if you asked me I say she deserved it!! And, guess what, she asked whether she could come back and work with us!! She must have thought that we were a bunch of idiots...

What have I learned from these experiences, you may asked. I learned not to trust Indonesion maids completely no matter how good they seem. Jangan sangka tiada buaya di air tenang... I pray to God that I don't have to go through these nightmares again for the sake of my children, insya-Allah...

Facebook wonders

I say Facebook rules! It is indeed a great tool to keep in touch with friends and to jejak kasih long lost friends. Hats off to the person who came up with this idea. Through Facebook, I've discovered that quite a number of my friends are living abroad some as far as Germany, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Bahrain. Some have also became successful entrepreneurs. I've also engaged in some very interesting thread of discussions, met the most mysterious person on earth who claimed that he knew me during my undergrad studies, discussed movie reviews and what-nots.

I must say that it's quite addictive actually - like a cyber drug of some sort. I can't live without Facebook these days. It's the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I did at night. My husband jokingly said I'm too addicted to FB that he's going to ban me from using it one day. Who knows one day there may be a FB Anonymous for addicts...hahaha. A friend once wrote in her FB status update that she wondered why a lot of people claimed that they were very busy yet still have time for FB, during office hours even. I guess in this instance, friends come first, work second. Plus, FB is far more fun than work, don't you agree?

FB has also become a great way to boast what you have to your friends. I see a lot of friends posted photos of their travelling around the world much to the envy of others, including yours truly of course. Some even use FB as their marketing tool. Two of my old buddies are now in the cake-making business. And mind you, they can make some mean creations. The pretty pictures of their cakes and cupcakes are good enough to make me drool every time. Hey I'm even thinking of ordering a cake from one of them for my hubby's birthday, which is 2 weeks from now.

Oh my God...my husband's birthday is coming very soon!! I haven't thought of what to get him for his birthday yet. One problem though, I don't earn a steady income this year so how am I going to get him a present?? I still haven't got my paycheck from my last editing and writing jobs...sigh. Warning - when you work as a freelancer, people don't exactly pay you on time. So if you are hard up for money, don't try to become one. Oh I know, I could write him a poem...hah. I must get my creative juice to start working on that love poem now... Stay tune for more updates.

The case of fighting for attention

My eldest son Daniel, who is a big fan of my blog, asked me last nite "mama what do you want to write in your blog tomorrow?" I said, "well I'd have to wait for tomorrow first." He then went on to suggest that I write about how he shares the same interest with his papa - football. I wasn't thinking much about it until this morning...he was actually fighting for my attention! I think it may be related to the fact that I recently wrote a dedicated entry on his brother and his youngest sister. So I thought this issue warrants an entry on its own.

When you have more than 1 kid, each kid will fight for attention. They each want to be mommy's and daddy's favourite and will try to get your attention at any cause. In my case, it will start tonite. Once their daddy is home, each of them will fight for their turn to talk to him and get some of his attention. It will be like pasar malam with each of them trying to get into conversation with papa dearest, all at the same time. I won't even have a chance to talk to my husband during this chaotic period. Kids will be kids...

I remember when I was young I felt that I was not special. I am the 4th kid out of 6 children, an insignificant number, sandwiched between brothers and a sister. I always felt that my sister was, and still is, my father's favourite, perhaps because she was smarter than the rest of us, and my immediate younger brother was my mom's favourite because he was so attached to her (mind you, even untill today). Each time my mom was pregnant, I prayed for a brother because I wanted to remain the youngest daughter...and thank God, He answered my prayer. I wanted to be special, and to me, being the youngest daughter has its perks.

So, I can relate to my son on this subject matter. When I mentioned in one of my earlier entries (Nature vs Nurture) that I feel that I could relate to Kyle Harris the most, it was actually related to middle child syndrome. I know why he acts and behaves in such a way, because I too am a middle child - always a rebel at heart.

My son, for the record, mama and papa love all of you equally - not more, not less - for what you are...you don't have to earn it. We love you with all our hearts.

Oh happy day...

I woke up this morning feeling ecstatic. Hubby is coming home today and he said he bought me a small gift that I will like. Hmmm I wonder what it is... Why am I so excited? Well, in his many overseas business trips, he seldom bought me stuff, save for some silk lingeries that he found in China and Korea a few years ago. Other than that, zilch. But he never forget the kids. My kids actually look forward to his trips because they'll surely get something when he's back. At one point, he was travelling beyond the Malaysian borders every week - no joke, different country every week, and every week the kids will get something. Mostly toys and chocolate bought at KLIA after he touched down. I say the global economic slow down has a good side of it - my husband is now travelling a lot less, from every week to twice a month, alhamdulillah.

There is actually another thing that makes me superbly happy today. I stepped on the scale this morning and it read 48.2! I couldn't believe my eyes at first, so I stepped down, adjusted the scale and stepped on it again. It read 48.2 again, still not satisfied, stepped down and stepped up again. It read the same. Then it hits me, I almost lost all the weight I've gained during my last pregnancy....yahoo yippeededooo. What did I do? Nothing physical. I just cut my rice intake, eat 5 meals a day and brestfeed my daughter. I works everytime.

Can I brag some more...? Yes, I can. Everytime I delivered a baby, I gave myself 6 months to get back into shape. I believe in setting a target - to succeed in anything, you must set a target. Without it, you lack direction and motivation. With another month to go, I'm almost there baby! Hmmm, may be I could write a book on this one - "how to lose weight without exercising." Now that's what I call an idea!

I hope my happy vibes would continue for the rest of the day...insya-Allah.

My take on the toll hike U-turn decision

Before I write further, I would like to make it clear that I'm NOT anti-govt, nor am I pro opposition. I'm proud to say that I am a product of the system, without it, people like my husband, my sister and I may not have the opportunity to study overseas and become what we are today. So, I vote for the status quo to stay.

The reason I'm writing this particular post is because of the recent U-turn on the toll hike decision by the government. My concern is not the toll hike, but the U-turn decision. I've seen similar scenario many times in the current administration. Make a decision one day, overturned it the next. Why can't they just stick to it or study it carefully before making any decisions at the first place??? I call them hangat-hangat taik ayam administration.

To me, this looks as if they were:
1. Not prepared. Did not do their homework before making any major decision.
2. Weak. Will succumb to any pressure.
3. No direction. Will move towards any directions that deemed favourable at the time.
4. Lack communication. Obviously they didn't communicate enough.

Would this administration make a strong government. I think not. Would the PM in-waiting make the new administration strong. I think not too. I say Muhyiddin is a better bet!

Thanks to Tun M who has set such a high benchmark, it is hard for anyone to meet the expectation as PM in the next few decades...long live Tun M!

p/s: For the record, I don't support toll hike. I vote for NO toll :-)

Sophie's meal time

My husband has been pestering me to post more updates on his youngest breed...Sophie that is. He misses her so much now that he is traveling.

She is now in the spitting phase. She'll spit out everything that goes into her mouth. Hence, the mess on her bib and clothe, she even spit some onto my face in the process. The Malays call this period menyembur. It is believed that during this period, the mother would shed her hair the most. Heck, I'm losing so much hair already, anymore, I'll go bald.

If you are wondering what is the orange substance I'm feeding her, it's organic carrot with a little bit of rice cooked together and blended to perfection - baby's gourmet food. I never fed any of my children with artificially flavoured cereal (Nestum, for example) as those are full of sugar and you-don't-know-what. I make it a point to prepare all baby food from scratch, save for travelling period which I settle for gerber baby food in a jar.

Here is our Little Pea's (our latest nickname for her) messy meal time....

An eventfull saturday it was

I woke up this morning with a mission...to update my blog. Bathed my little baby, fed her, prepared lunch, took a shower and here I am.

A lot has happened yesterday. Early in the morning I attended Kyle Harris's Hari Kecemerlangan at his school. He was being awarded for finishing 3rd in his final exams last year. A proud achievement indeed, considering the number of students in his class and in his school. There are more than 2,000 students in his school, with 97 teachers (1:21 ratio, not so bad). 27 classes in the morning session and 27 in the afternoon session. In standard 3 alone, there are 8 classes, and in each class there are an average of 40 students. Kyle Harris is in the second best class this year.

Bravo my son. Keep it up!

Here he is waiting patiently for his turn to go up on stage.

Kyle Harris (he is known as Kyle amongst his friends and teachers. At home, we call him Harris) getting his trophy from I don't know who. Mommy wasn't paying much attention to the emcee, sorry dear...

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With his best buddy, Zikri.

Zikri is top in the class. I'm glad that he chose his friends well, if you know what I mean... I'm sure a lot of mothers out there prefer their kids to be amongst smart peers than otherwise.

In the evening, off we went to 1Utama - our favorite place, for a shopping expedition. Got myself a nike t-shirt and then started looking for my daughter's dress. We visited 6 boutiques before my daughter and I agreed on the one we both like - first was Osh Kosh then Pumpkin Patch, GAP, Zara, Guess and back to Osh Kosh. I realised that it's not Summer yet, hence, there were not many dresses available. Got a good deal at Osh Kosh as the dress was on 30% sale. I also bought her a matching bolero from GAP. Mission accomplished! Wanted to buy more, but being a GOOD wife, I decided to settle with only one dress for Ariana and not to buy any for Sophie.

We went shopping some more after that, books and food. I needed that to relief some tensions. Retail theraphy works everytime...