Live in our Live out

Recently had an interesting debate with cousin-in-law about live-in or live-out maid is better. Reason this topic came up was because the Indonesia government are working to implement no live-in Indonesian maid from 2017 onwards. I guess the intention was to ensure the maids have proper working hours and social life. Also, in case of any abuse or unwanted situation happened, the maids have ways to call for help.

I was not debating whether which way it should be but rather have anyone asked the girls themselves what is their preference? Now, please understand I am purely debating from the point as a Malaysian and not about how other countries treat their maid. And the information of how the ME treat their maids, frankly, I hope someone will shoot them.

As Malaysian, although we are not well-off, my parents on several occasion to take on live-in maids. Those days, only readily available are Indonesian maids. Philippine maids are story for the rich back then. And most of this maids, are probably 18 or 19 years old only. It was the first time they have even been out of their village, what more to say to another country. Most times, mom have to teach them how to turn on and off the light switch, use the stove, water pipe and so forth. They are that naive and the idea of them having to fend for themselves outside on the salary that they have, frankly, it is really inviting for trouble. Not to mention the possibility of being cheated...


Anyway, I am sure there are those of us that do prefer live-out maid that only comes certain hour every evening to help out with the housework and daily chores after office work. And I am not denying there are those that abuse their maids but I would think in Malaysia, most of us are basically good people and we treat human as human. We dont expect them to do more than what we are willing to do.

So, at the end, what I been asking over and over again, did we ask what these Indonesian girls what they want? Did anyone ask employers what they want?

Starting Up Again!

Note: This is a warming up test and please forgive me if the posting is really bad! Can't believe the last time I blogged was 4.5 years ago! My brain is feeling so blur now that I hardly know what to type. But I guess eventually, will get into the zen of things. I know, I can hear laughter from some of you reading this because it sounded silly and I have to admit, it does. But those days, I will just have to on the laptop and I can actually type whatever that is in my mind and the words just flow like music. But typing this 1st post after so many years, I actually re-write the whole thing at least 3-4 times trying to find the right words to use. Hopefully, I am not going to erase this again!

As this is the first post, I guess it make sense to share what has happened in the last few years. My baby girl is no longer a baby. As she like to remind me and her daddy, she is a YOUNG LADY now. Not even a little girl she says. But truth is, she is a real prima donna at 4.5 years old. She started pre-school last year and now she is actually in 1st year of kindergarden and counts to 100! Do addition, subtraction, read, love ballet and singing and dancing and TALKING! Love to pretend she is a teacher and tell the students, SIT DOWN! She sound very convincing too and have us all in stitches. She has her temper though and we are still working this out and helping her to control them.

And, she love her baby brother very much! Yep! we decided to have #2 when our young lady turns 3. And sometimes, I would even say this young lady loves her brother even more than anyone else. She used to say she cant wait for her brother to grow up so that they can play together. Well, the little boy is now 1 year 2 month old.

Brother love to scream! And he is really the complete opposite of young lady. While young lady is very ladylike, soft and gentle, brother is rough, naughty and actually CLIMB everywhere by the age of 9 months . Not to mention eating porridge by 4.5 months old. He has plenty of teeth and love eating chicken and meat! He started to walk a few steps now and I am expecting anytime he will start to run everywhere and that is when his kakak will have a fine time trying to chase him and making sure he dont get into trouble.

But for now, hubby and I am enjoying just the 2 of us days since the kids and housemaid are back in hometown with our parents until we go back to pick them up again. :) 

Another lazy weekend

Super duper tired today. Never known a person can be that tired. But I am not gonna bore you with the ache and groan here (that is for another blog related to the reason I am feeling so tired). Anyway, the weekend was a fruitful one.

We took half day off on Friday to settle a few things which need both of us to be there and sign. Will be extremely glad when we finally got this settled.

Saturday, babe and I woke up at 9am and had a lazy slow morning to get ready to go out for our 10am appointment at a nursery for our baby. After that, sent babe uniform to the laundrette for ironing and proceed to the gynea for my check up appointment. We also got the letter from the doctor for my company to state my EDD (estimated due date for those of you that do not know what the mean :P). After that, we finally went for our brunch ( more like lunch since it was 1.30pm by the time we had our food).

After that babe was planning to go to the aquarium in Shah Alam but changed our mind since it was starting to rain rather heavily. Instead, we decided to go back home. I slept from 4pm till 8pm!! haha! And babe I think he went to bed around 6pm till 9pm. And we had our dinner at 10pm! HAHA! Anyway, the main reason we took afternoon nap was because babe wanted to watch football match at 12.30am. So, I decided to accompany him. In order for me to be able to do that nowadays instead of dropping in exhaustion would be to make up for it by sleeping a few hours first.

But still, by 230pm, I am basically a zombie walking on stick....

Sunday, again, we woke up naturally around 9am eventhough we set the alarm at 10am because am meeting our friend, Tif for dim sum at Damansara Uptown. We arrived at the HK Dim Sum place at 11am and waited for a table till roughly 11.30am but it was worth it. The 2 boys (my hubby and her hubby) was being typical boys and complaint about having to wait for something that they have to pay for. But we gals stick together and got our own way (GRIN!). I am glad we did because the food was pretty good. (Sorry, too good til forgot to take any photos at all!! :P)

Then we went to 1U hoping to be 2pm ticket for Johny English but by the time we were there, only 3 seats left and we decided that it is not worth to strain our neck and pay for it! Instead, we took a leisure walk around the mall. Babe wanted to buy a soft lugage bag so that it is easier for him to bring with him on board the plane when we go back and he comes to visit us in the next few months in Kuching. The bag is pretty nice and cheap, RM49.90 and I think the quality is not too bad. Should be able to last pretty long.

I bought myself a nice dress and 2 huge pajamas pants at FOS. Bought three layer pork too at Jusco to cook dinner. I was actually hunting for Golden Churn butter spread but seems they totally remove the stock from the shelves. Too bad because its truly is one of the best butter in the market. But at least now we understand why the butter is so fragrant and yummy! HAHA!

We finally got home around 5pm and gave Ginger a bath but dinner was at 9pm lor! Now, watching Astro channel 551 on some lone ranger terorist attack....I am planning to sleep go to bed soon..cannot tahan la!!!! haha....

Lazy weekend

2.5 months on the job. I am being optimistic and so far, things are looking up abit. The team is starting to trust me and 'remember' to involve me in their daily work activities. The AM is still trying her best to mess with me but I just ignore it. As long as things move, I refuse to play what she is playing, too bad then if she dont go with the flow. After all, she is still reporting to me and I am her boss! HAHA!~ *EVIL LAUGH???*

Nothing much happening in my life nowadays. Public holiday on Friday for Malaysia day. Didnt do much. Babe and I went to IKEA after our breakfast of tomato kueh teow at Alex stall. Was hoping to buy the baby's mattress pad but it is still out of stock. Guess hubby will need to go there on his own when I am back in Kuching next month.

Saturday, hubby had to go work half day. So, I did my usual Saturday thing when hubby had to work, i.e. send his uniforms to laundrette to iron, breakfast and home to cook lunch for us. But Saturday I didnt cook this Saturday. Instead, packed his favourite mixed pork porridge and bought half roasted chicken for babe since I had late breakfast, i.e. brunch! After lunch, we just laze around basically doing nothing and went to the night market at around 530pm to find fresh chicken wings for dinner. Deep fried those and that is what we had for dinner :)

Sunday, I am sweating all over actually. Hubby has taken the initiative to vacuum the floor without me nagging. So, me being me, cant just sit on my butt and let him the work, went around and help him pick up the things and tidying them. So, end up, I am now sweaty and hot eventhough it is going to rain soon. I woke up around 11am this morning and babe slept till almost 1pm.

I cooked fried rice, heat up yesterday chicken mushroom soup and wah lah, LUNCH! HAHA! My 4-legged monkey, aka Ginger also had her lunch and now she is lying down in front of the door to sleep as well as making sure that we dont slip out of the house without her knowing. All in in all, it is going to be a lazy Sunday I think.

We do plan to go out later though after the rain stopped to drive around and see if we can find any baby nursery near here or my work place. Only around 1 month left before I go back to Kuching....time flies...

I must be a superwoman!

Yup! After all, in just 1.5mths since I join the company, I have been stabbed by my own subordinate and being accused (hinted anyway) by my boss that I am playing office politics and 'groups'! I never know people perceived me to be so terror and terrifying that from the get-go, they must 'hit' me immediately. If I am not the receiving end here, it would be funny lor!

But I think, in all this, I did make a judgement error and hope that it will not come back to bite me in my butt later. Anyway, like the famous saying goes, it is no use crying over spilt milk. Best is to make the best of the situation and move on. This really got me looking forward to my maternity leave. I am pending my MD to approved additional 30days of maternity leave/sick leave/ or whatever they want to call it on top of the normal 60days. Although, I guess they do not want to create a precedent unless they intend to make it policy to have 90days maternity leave across the board.

In the last 2 days, I have never feel so stressed in my entire work life! Normally, when starting a new job, I will be the happy go lucky one and is happy to wait till my boss give me further instruction. In the meantime, I will explore and learn on my own where I can. But it seems that here, it will be learning on my own all the way especially since the person that you thought will be assisting you and subordinate engage me in a power struggle. Well, too bad then because I am here and am here to stay. So, she need to get over it and work with me else be left behind at this status quo.

I also made up  my mind that I will just do my work to the best the I can, keep straightline and follow procedures and instructions from my boss. I rather not play this game. So much simpler and happier this way. I have always been a believer in good honest performance will be rewarded in the end. Got blindsided recently! ANYWAY, ALL THE BEST TO MYSELF!
Good thing it is public holiday tomorrow! So, can stay at home, sleep and do NOTHING! LOLZ! But hubby is asking, what we having tomorrow? On the happy note, the one-size-fit reusable diapers will be delivered to my office by Thursday! Cant wait to see it. Hope it is as cute as the photos in the website. Definitely will take some photos and post it in my baby blog!

Lord..Give me strength and wisdom..

Feeling super upset & depressed since yesterday after got the shocking news from my brother. I know I, as the elder sister, cannot do much except advice because ultimately, this is his life and he needs to do his own growing up. And if this is a mistake (no matter how big it is), then perhaps it is a mistake that he will have to learn on his own instead of being sheltered by my overprotective parents that spoil him to bits simply because they can now and he is staying at home. I just wish that this news of his does not have to affect my parents. Because I know that my dad will be first be upset, then sad, then worry…. Knowing my dad, he will in the end let my bro make his own decision too because to him, we are all grown ups (although sometimes I feel my bro still act super irresponsible!).


I can only try to shield and prevent unwanted things from happening and cause more pain to my parents in the future. I wish I have the means and ability to move my parents and handicap sister to KL with me, away from all this mess. Maybe the maternal instinct in me is kicking into overdrive.

But you can’t blame me because it is really hard for me to believe that someone will willingly sacrifice so much and family is as generous as this. Not without hidden agenda or intention. My bro might think he is being noble and be responsible, but to me, little did he know, he is being manipulated and some how, some way, I need to stop this manipulation from spreading to my parents…somehow……………….Lord give me the wisdom and power to be wise and do the right thing….

Dream Home...

Since we back from Kuching, I silently tell babe that perhaps we should slowly look around for suitable houses to buy instead of rushing since the bank interest rate has already gone up. Initially, when we start house hunting, the agents were telling us that we better hurry because the rates going to go up 2^nd half of the year. But seems the rates went up earlier than anticipated. So, there is no rush now as long as the landlord does not push us out of the house because he is selling it. If he does and we have not found a house that we want, then I guess we will just rent a smaller place first.

We are still hoping to find something in the area that we stayed in previously. Not sure why but both of us just love the environment and ambience the place radiate I guess. Not so sure how to explain this. It is not as if the place is super grand. In fact, it is an aged housing area or people call it matured housing area. I guess we were just feeling comfortable & safe and this is the most important factor especially with the wee-one coming end of the year. Also, we want a landed property because there is simply no other way for us since we are both dog-lover. Also, I will always remember what my mom told me when she was here with dad and sis previously to visit us when we were staying in an apartment. She said dad told her feel like staying in a prison! HAHA! I guess them being from Kuching and never stayed in a apartment or condo before, the place is abit restrictive with no balcony or porch.

We have actually done our surveying and the price really scares us. For simple single storey terrace or link house it can range from RM400K to RM450K. Double storey can cost almost double of that. There is also town house which ranges from RM500K onwards. The price of the single storey house can purchase TWO of my parents place in Kuching!

There is another area which we are looking at. A few of babe’s friends are actually staying either in the same area or nearby. It is also pretty near to the IOI Mall and Jusco at Equine park. Houses here are double storey terrace or link house and the price ranges from RM280K-300K which is still rather reasonable. But we are still reluctant to commit because the place is rather far away from any highway to make it convenient. Else, we could just put a deposit at anytime for the house we are happy with and start from there. I know some of you might be telling me that being a distant from highway is good but if you have the drive at least 15-20min from your house to the highway that you need to take to get to work, then another 20-30min vs just 5min from home to highway and still have the same 20-30min, which would you choose?

Anyway, we are still looking around for our dream house and will take our time I guess especially since I cant help babe move if we do move before the baby comes along…

I am ALIVE! ^_^

Hi! Now that I have time on my hand, time to start updating this place again..well, at least for the next few weeks till I start at my new place *grin*. For those that know me personally, yes yes yes, I am a grasshopper hopping yet again to a new place. But seriously, if you are in my position, you would be doing the same thing. Never in my 10years+ of working life, just after 2 months in a new work environment, I am throwing in the towel and makes be wonder if it is worth taking this job up simply for better pay and benefits. A friend of mine (SK) was actually telling me that it is my hormones making me feel this way and I should fight it. No offense my friend, I have tried to fight it for last 2 months but after being stabbed repeated at the back by colleagues that you thought are your friends (all in the space of 2 months), I decided I do not have the tolerance to play this advance level of game that is being played here. EVERYTHING and I do mean everything is about position & office politics here!

And to make matter worse (and confirmed my decision), people are actually spreading rumors (again, from someone that I assumed is a friend) that I am resigning because I am asked to by my manager. Seriously, I do not know what such rumor will benefit the person but I guess maybe the person felt all powerful and mighty? If someone can shed light on this, please, feel free to enlighten me.

So, today, I will be calling my boss @ 5pm to re-confirm that I have not changed my mind about the resignation and to ask him to let me know how he wants me to proceed with the passdown. We spent about 45minutes last Friday to discuss my resignation. Most time was him trying to convince me the prospect of working in the company, i.e. financial and career path. No doubt, if the economy continues to boom, the financial return will be good too. As for career path, I seriously do not see beyond where I am now. So, yes, I admit very frankly (admitted to the interviewer as well) that I made a mistake by tendering from my previous company which offers me immediate promotion upon receiving my resignation and clear career path to top management.

But, looking back, every move I made enrich my knowledge and experience. Except while in this company, I never have any regret leaving my previous companies because each decisions was made with careful deliberation and sound judgments. The lesson I learned? Never resign simply for financial benefits because I believe if money is the motivator, most of the time, the job will not motivate you. Take me for example, by joining this company, my salary actually increase leaps and bounds, the benefits were so much better and job scope (on paper, theoretically) sounds so much simpler. But I overlooked the work culture in the company which is totally different from my tolerance level.

Anyway, last day will be 30 Jun. CANT WAIT! HAHAHA!!

Daydreaming on a Saturday....

Not doing much today. Just rushing around trying to clean this bigggg house that we renting just for babe, me and Ginger. Thinking back, I really dont know what we were thinking other than we love this house and the space! But never thought of the cleaning up and especially clutter that babe like to accumulate. Yar, he still dont put things back to where he got them from! End up, every other day, we will be 'hunting' around the house for 1 thing or another that he misplaced. If there is such a thing as misplace! I mean, if you put it there, how can it be misplaced? Hmmpff... Anyway, the landlord's agent's partner is bringing potential buyer to view the house. I been saying no so many times because I got irritated because: 1. Call and say 5min later will bring someone to view the house. He think we got nothing better to do? 2. Call at 11pm-ish to say next morning want to bring someone to view the house. Idiot, dont they know that late calls are for emergencies only! 3. Say want to come at 10.30am next day. 2 hours later sms say 11am then another 2 hours, at 11.30am. I basically told him, its 11am or I am out by 11.30am. I dont care. It should be at our convenience... Anyway, this basically mean that we are actively finding house of our own too. Everything everywhere is so freaking expensive! But I am keeping my hope high that we are able to find a place that we both like at the price that we can afford. Sooooo, hopefully by 2nd half of this year, will be able to move into our own place lar. A place that we can finally put down our roots after 3 years in KL! Can imagine already. I told babe, I want laminated floor EVERYWHERE! And I want fully equiped kitchen. Oh Ginger get her own lil room too and we might even get her a little friend after that. ARGGHH...day dreaming! HAHA

Eat Wind (Makan Angin)

Nowadays babe and Ginger just luv to go car ride. Sometimes, when I am too lazy or came home too late to go for walks, we will bring Ginger for a car ride and she really seems to enjoy it very much. So much so that sometimes she dont even want to come out of the car after the ride. We either have to coax her or pretend to leave her outside the house before she will willingly get out of the car on her own.