She calls!

I went into the room after my shower and heard DC talking on the phone...

He said the ex-maid called!

The ex-maid asked if she could come visit us during her off day!!

When DC asked how was her mother, she said she was ok!!!

She told DC that she was now working in AMK, the next-door neighborhood!!!!

That was different from what she told my maid. According to what she told my maid, she should be working at the end of the street. That could only mean one thing... she changed her employer again and she was back in the same vicinity again!!!!!

Both DC and I wonder why she was always deployed to places so near us?

While we did not stop her from visiting us, now that she has a handphone (which she used to call us) and off day, both of which our maid doesn't have, we were worried that it's a matter of time our current maid would get influence by her and ask requesting for these or even follow her footstep to quit and come back for a higher pay and benefits!!!!!!


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Till we meet the old maid again!

Our maid told us that she saw our ex-maid this morning, right at our neighborhood market! It was the old maid that called our maid and she told our maid that she is now working with another employer since 2 months ago...

This was something quite unlikely to happen esp when she told us that she was going back to her country to take care of her ill mother and young children! If she's back 2 months ago (Sep) and left in Jun, it must have taken her almost immediately to make the arrangement to come back to Singapore (assuming 3 months for the procedures and selection)!

It was quite naive of us to have believed her words. To think that on her last day before she left, I spent some effort trying to complete her set of Singapore coins that she wanted to give her son as present!

Frankly, I was quite angry to be deceived by her. Of all things, why use her mother as an excuse to go back?

But then, I think she is in a worst state now! It must have been quite a nightmare for her to realize that she is back in the same neighborhood as us!

Would she worry that she would bump into us one day (which is very likely cos there's only 1 neighborhood market around)?

It would be very interesting if this happens! I wonder how she'll respond if I asked about her mother?


Question: Out of curiosity, how do I know which employer the ex-maid or any maid is with? Can this info be found in MOM website?


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Mon 12 Nov 2012 11:41pm, DC: Our previous maid's worst nightmare - to be employed back in my neighbourhood again, hehe ...


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Back to 1 maid

We sent our old maid back to her country on Saturday. Now, we're left with only one 2 weeks old maid - the one that we are still getting to know...

The old maid had served us well. She was also very patient and experienced with taking care of kids. Furthermore, she could communicate very well in English. It's definitely a loss to us now that she's gone. I remembered she wanted to collect all of Singapore's notes and coins to show to her 3 children, and I knew that she's still missing the two dollars and five dollars (from checking her luggage). So, I made a red packet (our diy cny ang pow) and put in two five dollars and five two dollars as farewell gift.

The new maid had all her freedom on Saturday as we were out the whole day in MBS. These few days she was doing good, the transition was smoother than I thought. I started hearing her speak some English and I was quite ok with her except for one thing: She wasn't very well-trained in the kids department! I guess some more time is needed for her and A to bond.

While she's settling in and coping well with the household chores, we also realised that we need to be more firm with this maid as she was much younger (only 24) and perhaps not as mature in thinking than the earlier one who is 38. In fact, she requested not to go to DC's parents house yesterday. On Fri, the old maid translated to me that she wanted to keep her own salary and not put in the bank. We also know that she loves to sing. Singing is ok but the problem is she sing too loud and she sings out of the window such that the Bangladeshi downstairs would ogle at her sometimes! Those are the things we know now that we felt are not acceptable. I guess we'll have to find the appropriate time to let her know, one by one... subtly...


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2 maids

I've 2 maids at home now. My new maid is here for 1 week already and my current maid is leaving in 1 week's time. Many people had asked: "Why put the two together?" We considered for quite a while before reaching to this conclusion:

1) Easing Culture Shock

My new maid is new to the country and having come from a rural area, she is definitely not as used to staying in a city with high-rise buildings as the current maid who came from the city. Having someone from the same country who understands her and could communicate with her in her language would definitely help the new maid to settle in faster.

2) Smoother Transition

The new maid is from a rural area, so she may need time to be familier with the household chores, such as using appliances like microwave oven and washing machines. We thought it would be a good idea to let the current maid to orientate and guide her on the house rules and practices without us going through the process for a second time. An overlapped period for transition would allow the new maid to take over with less stress too.

3) Relieving Grandparents

DC's parents are taking a 5-day holiday break and during this time, it would not be advisable to have the new maid unsupervised at home alone while we were at work. She's just too new. We thought having one more person in the home with her would be better.

One week has passed and I'm happy that we opted for an overlapped transition! The new maid seems to settle in quite ok and she is already on the job with the guidance of her "senior". Although there are still things that requires reminders, I'm satisfied with her progress so far. Hope she can be on her own when our maid leaves...


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2 Jun 2012, 8:30PM, DC: New domestic maid is here. She will understudy the previous one for 2 weeks. Let's hope she can get up to speed fast ...


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Crying over spoilt milk

On Tuesday night, our maid told me that she could not iron my clothes in the morning as there was no electricity. DC then remembered that there was some electrical works going on that day but he forgot to inform us... he forgot all about it too!

When we were back home, the electricity was still not restored. It was pitch black at home. DC fixed it by flipping the switches that jumped in the circuit box in our home but it didn't last long before the lights went off again. DC tried for a few times but the earlier method didn't work. That pretty much freaked A out. He also learnt a new word: Blackout! :) DC went outside to where the meter was to have a look. I didn't know what he did but the lights were restored. Good job, Daddy!

It was after the lights were restored that I suddenly remembered my breast milk! The 11 bottles of milk were likely all spoilt as they were left in the non-cold fridge for 12 hours! :( I couldn't accept I had to throw them all away. I refused to and kept them in the fridge for another 2 days before I faced the reality and poured them away. And, if you are wondering, I did not feed B the spoilt milk. She had freshly expressed ones.

For the next few days, I was under extreme stress to build up my milk supply. I think it would be a long while before I could see 11 bottles inside again! :(

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Bye Bye Aye Aye

We heard no news about our new maid which was supposed to have come in soon. So, I called the agent up 2 weeks ago and to my shock, her passport was not ready yet. The agent promised to call me back during the weekend after his counterpart get back to him but didn't do so. So, I called him up last week again to check on the status. Again, he told me he has no update and advised us to go down to pick another one as a contingency.

We went back to the agency today and demanded an explanation from the agent. Aye Aye (the maid's name) most probably didn't submit the full documents or didn't pay the agent fees. We got to say bye bye to her. The agent recommended a transfer maid to us (Poh Poh Myint) who requested to come back herself as she was tasked to work on 2 homes. She is very young and look pleasant, we almost took the agent's recommendation but upon questioning further, we realized that she was not suitable at all and decided to choose another one from his stack of files.

Why did we reject her?
- She wanted to keep long hair despite us telling her that short is nice and neat.
- She kept wanting to have off day even though the agent kept telling her that no off day is allowed. She wanted 1 off day per month. Although she agreed to work even without the off day, we could tell that she was reluctant.
- She didn't speak very good english, we couldn't understand what she was saying in the first place esp when she was telling us about the off day. It got us a while before we made out what she meant.
- She had her hair highlighted, wore a necklace around her neck and had a long sleeved shirt under her maid uniform. I can tell that she is very conscious of her looks. I had enough of vain maids.
- She was too young to look after children. She looked young and skinny and is single (may not have prior experience).
- She was too smart to have called the agency and let in the news to them that she was assigned to work in two homes. If she could do that to others, she may very well do the same thing to us!
- She was easy to influence. Being only 4 days in the agency, there was no way she could have requested for off days. She must have heard about it from her peers and decides to try her luck. I don't want another maid who always say "My friend say this and my friend say that!".

We managed to find another one maid who has passport ready and one who seems obedient and pleasant. Didn't rely on the biodata as we learnt that it was totally inaccurate for the case of Poh Poh Myint. The new maid should be coming in 2 weeks' time. Another maid, hope this one doesn't give any problem!


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CIF, The All Purpose Cleaner

When we got home today, DC told me that our maid seems to be having serious rashes on her face.

I told him I saw her put on Thanaka yesterday. It was a face powder that was commonly applied onto the face by Myanmese. So, I wasn't too bothered until I saw her face!

The sides of her cheeks had turned black (huge contrast to the inner cheeks which was white from the frequent application of the face powder) and it looked burnt!

We asked her what happened to her face. She said it was very painful and kept scratching her face. I was shocked when I found out that she, wanting to reduce the dark spots on her face, used CIF, the all-purpose kitchen cleaner to apply on her face!!! OMG! And, she applied it for the past 2 days!


I didn't really get close to examine the condition, I know it was quite bad. I will get her a bottle of cooling Hazeline cream to ease her pain and hopefully it will reduce the blackness...


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Another great shopping day

Yet another great day spent on shopping! :P

I did some packing in the morning and kept away my maternity clothes.


I told my maid to bring down A's baby clothes and put them on the floor. Guess what she did?

She took A's clothes out of the cabinet and placed them on the bed!!! *faintz*

Next, I met DC for lunch at Crystal Jade, Suntec.


Then, it's shopping time! :) I went to my favorite stores in Suntec and Marina Sq and bought a whopping S$477 of apparels (1 pair of shoes, 3 top, 3 dress, 1 skirt)! :P


When I was done in Suntec and walking towards Marina Sq, I texted this to DC:

I've gone crazy shopping!

When he saw the message, he replied:

What did u buy?!!

Haha, he must have regretted meeting me for lunch, giving me the excuse to shop! :P I also quite regretted spending too much time at the malls. My initial plan was to be home at 3pm but I took an hour longer and had to sacrifice my nap time! By the time I was home, washed up, expressed milk, it was almost time to pick up Baby B!


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18 Apr 2012, 10:59PM, DC: I always get a shock when I let CP shop alone ...


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We allowed our maid to call home once every 2 months. Two weeks ago, she called home and found out that her 73 years old mother was hospitalized. She teared at night and told me what happened. Being soft-hearted, I told her that I will get Sir (DC) to get her another calling card so that she could call back home to check on her mother's condition.

A few days later, about a day or two after her second call home, she told DC that she wants to go back to her country to look after her mother. Her mother suffered a stroke that caused her to be paralyzed at one side and couldn't speak now but was already discharged and at home. Her children are currently looked after by her mother and I guess it's now by her brother who occasionally visit. We had no choice but to let her go, her home needs her more than ours. It's such a pity she couldn't work until her contract is up. She is a rather good housekeeper.

So now, our search for a new maid is on! The current maid will leave end May (exactly her one year), we just have to get one after she leaves!


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Cooked Chicken Leg

Yet another boo boo when it comes to cooking...

My maid told me we had no more chicken meat but there was another pack of chicken legs. She pointed to her thigh and I thought she was referring to the drumsticks my mum gave last weekend. So, I told her to cook them together with the cut meat.

I got a shock when I saw this at the dining table! Ha, those chicken feet were meant for brewing soups, now DC had to finish them up!

And, the feet were not cooked long enough, DC commented that they were still hard! :P


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Weekly off days for maids?

These few days, there was a lot of sentiments over the announcement of compulsory maids' off day every week from 1 Jan 2013.

DC wrote an article and was published on ST Forum on 10 Mar. Here what he says:

IT IS ironic that with the days off for maids, employers with young children and the elderly must now have to work even harder.

Otherwise, who will do the chores and look after the children and the elderly when the maids are enjoying their days off?

My annual leave allocation will not increase, so if no one does the chores, it will only mean that the maid will have to do double the amount of work the day after her day off.

I agree with him totally. Why did we employ a maid in the first place? It is to allow us to spend more time with our family without worrying about household chores! Now that the law mandates us to give maid a weekly break, who is to give us parents a break?

As parents of two and employer of a maid for 9 months, I'm proud to say that we are still very hands-on with taking care of our kids. Our maid is only assigned with cooking, feeding A with his lunch and dinner (one of us sit beside to play with him while maid feeds him), packing his school bag and preparation of bath water, that's all. DC takes care of A in all other aspect (used to be me) such as morning/night feed and bath. I am looking after all of B's needs now. I'm sure anyone who has children would know that taking care of an active boy and a newborn girl is not easy. Our maid just need to keep the house clean, prepare my lunch and the family's dinner on alternate weekdays and weekends. The rest of the times, she rests. We don't even have time to rest!

I must say that our maid's well-being is very well-taken care of and in fact, my family thought that she was very "好命" compared to others. She only started cooking last month because I am now at home on maternity leave. For the past months, she had us packed her lunches and cooked her dinners. She gets to carry my LV bags which was stuffed with baby stuffs (now no more as we got her another baby bag) and she was treated like a guest in my parent's home (my mom stuffs her with food and cold drinks!). She watches TV with us, eat the same food with us and she gets to call her family regularly (on us)!

Lately, she made requests to buy her ointments from her home country, to take time off to buy clothes, to cut her hair with a specific style she spotted from TV and to have a handphone. While we rejected the request to get her a handphone, we did accomodate all other requests. I even went to the internet to search for that said hairstyle so that she could show it to the haircutter! There was once we brought her to a gathering and she was enjoying herself watching tv in an air-con room while DC and I chased after our child in the house. DC ended up not able to spare himself time to chat with his friends! Makes us wonder if we were too good to her?

Lately, she made some friends from A's school and she sneaked out of the school compound with them without informing my FIL who was also there waiting for A to end his lesson! Last Thursday, she even rejected my in-laws' request to go their home on Fri! We started to sense some defiance here...

Now I kept hearing her say, "My friend say this, say that". What happens if she made more friends during her off days? How would she behave under peer influence, I wonder?

When the time comes, we would probably buy her off days or, grant her off during weekdays... off during weekend is just not possible now!


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Burnt Chicken Drumlets

Besides soup, we also always have problem getting our maid to dish out fried or baked chicken wings on time without hiccups! I guess the root of the issue is again about communication! :P She is otherwise ok with soy sauced chicken, the usual way of cooking.

First time, she deep fried instead of pan fried the wings.

Second time, the timer was not set properly but she managed to bake it out, taste reasonably well.

Third time, the temperature control was not set properly and she waited and waited but the wings were not hot! There was a delay in the baking process.

Fourth time (today), the chicken (drumlets this time, to bring to A's class) was overcooked! She thought DC was in charge and didn't bother to check the drumlets in the oven like she did the last times!

This is the failed output:


We ended up ordering Pizza Hut's Spicy drumlets to bring to the class party! :P


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Go away, Pests!

Weather changing? I've been handling or rather, scared by different types of pests each day for 3 consecutive days!

1) Mozzies
Got bitten all over in about 10 places on my body! Nowadays mozzies are so quick that I couldn't even get near them! Arghh!


2) Roaches
Saw two roaches in the bathroom when I wanted to go toilet in the wee hours after I finished feeding my little one. Yeeks! I just had to wake DC up and give them a spray of insecticide!


3) Ants
There was a line of huge army of ants marching along the corner of my kitchen! Hundreds of thousands of them! Seems like they are moving home?

Our maid was the one who discovered them. She tried wiping them out, there were just too much. So, she fed them with ant poison, sprayed them with the insecticide and spread floor detergent to clean them all out. The pungent smell of the insecticide costed my lunch. I couldn't bear to let her cook in such smelly environment (think food hygiene) and decides to pack lunch instead! :P


[Edited on 10 Mar 2012: The invasion of the pests continues... The lizards came visiting as well! DC discovered a dead lizard in the room on 8 Mar morning and had to swept it away. At night, we saw at least 4 mosquitoes in the toilet and clapped them all dead! Another roach was found lurking around the toilet area on 9 Mar and we killed it! No more please!!]


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Fry is not equal to Deep Fry!

DC instructed maid to fry the chicken wings for dinner. He meant to pan fry them. And, she went to deep fry them!

By the time I found out, it was too late! LOL, dinner took longer than usual because she had to do it twice as our wok is not big enough. And, dinner is oiler than usual, many of the wings were burnt!


This would, again, serve as a lesson and teach us to be more specific in giving instructions! :(


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Fallen Eggs

My maid informed me that there were two fallen lizard eggs and whether she could sweep them away.



This was the first time I saw lizard eggs! I never know they existed! If not for my maid (who has seen many in her hometown), I would not know what they were! Hmm, why and from where did they fall?


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Yet another miscommunication

We wanted the maid to cook herbal chicken soup for myself. The herbs were pre-packed by the confinement lady and I told her to use the chicken drumstick for the soup and the chicken wings to cook with potatoes.

In the evening, I saw the cut winter melons and knew something was wrong. After checking with the maid, I found out that she used the chicken for the soup and intend to cook winter melon soup for all! I quickly told her to add in some wolfberries and dates for taste. The soup turned out to be quite a disappointment, the taste is quite weird.

What I wanted but got for dinner tonight:
Herbal chicken soup -> Winter melon chicken soup with added chicken wings
Chicken wings with potatoes -> Chicken slices with potatoes

Well, at least the chicken slices with potatoes is acceptable.


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CNY Gathering

DC brought us to his CNY gathering at the HR Director's newly renovated house. I met them a number of times each year and knew most of them there... They love our A too. :)

DC forgot the CNY oranges (and I thought he purposely didn't want to bring them as he earlier said there was no need to when I reminded him. He thought it was only a normal gathering although it was held during the CNY.) Luckily we met his colleague outside who brought his oranges and we went in with him and the oranges. :P

We had the lo hei there, A also joined in the fun. Not new to lo hei, he knows exactly what to do!


The four storey house is BIG and A has a terrific time running in and out the car porch and climbing up and down the stairs! We were very tired chasing him around but happy to see him enjoy himself so much. However, it's a pity DC didn't have much time interacting with his colleagues then!


We brought our maid there too. She was probably the most comfortable one of us three! DC had to run around with our son and I had to follow behind them with my daughter while our maid stayed in the air-conditioned entertainment room with a packet of red date tea, watched HK drama on the TV, had time to eat her good lunch and even received a red packet! This makes me wonder if we need to review her work scope and assigned her with more child caring work esp when we are outside? Hmm...


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3-in-1 soup

This is the first time we ask our maid to cook soup...

This is what she prepared:


DC asked for winter melon with carrot. She used only half the melon but added in potatoes, onions and went market to buy a lotus root specially for the soup.

We had winter melon soup, ABC soup and lotus root soup (3 kinds of soup) mixed into one for dinner tonight! Fortunately, it was quite drinkable.


Related Tweet:
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Tomorrow is the day

In about another 12+ hrs, we will be seeing our newborn daughter!

Tomorrow is the day! This means we've to complete whatever things we need to do by today! The baby cot was delivered today and we've created a bank account for my maid. Morning, the clinic called to inform that the anesthetist could not take up the job and they had offered another anesthetist instead. What can I say? *No Choice!* :(

I was at home today and A seems to be especially sticky to me (he's sick and sleepy), refusing his grandpa to carry him at all! And, when I wanted to meet DC outside to get the last bit of B's stuffs (last minute shopping), A refused to let me leave his sight! I chose to stay home with him. Wanted to spend more time with him too...

Tomorrow is the day, I'm having slight blocked nose (from A) and now, I'm still left with my packing to do! *Panic Panic*!


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