Friday, October 22, 2010

Nasty fall

It was the first day of the week and being 35weeks pregnant, I had a nasty fall at home. I didn't noticed that wati had mopped the floor in the living room.
She rushed over when she heard me crashed onto the floor. It was truly a blessing that I fell on my butt and my right leg cushioned my fall. Baby #2 is alright,but my right foot below the ankle area was swollen and bruised. I must had pulled a vein there.
Wati kneeled down and apologized to me. I told her it's not her fault. I had to be much more careful next time.
And today it has been 5 days since my fall and my foot only hurts slightly, thanks to Hb that helped to massage it religiously every night. My bum seems to recover from the fall already. Thank goodness Bb#2 is ok.

Maid's update

How times flies!
Our maid Wati had been with us for 2 weeks plus.
On one occasion, I found white particles in our drinking water. Hb and hy had drank the water. I escaped because I will always check the water before drinking. I questioned Wati and all she said was 'sorry ma'am. I instructed her to pour away the water immediately. And told her to be more careful next time.i told my Hb and myself to check the water each time before we drink it.
Just days ago, my Hb told me that wati asked my mother-in-law to bring her to buy phonecard to call home. I was furious as we has told her that she could only make calls home after she had repaid her maid's loan and that is 8 mths later. I'm also upset that she had gone to my mother-in-law to ask for this sort of flavors. In addition, I was thinking to myself that she must be thinking of getting my mother-in-law to pay as she doesn't have a single local currency on her.
What we did was we asked her abt this. It was a good thing that she did not deny it otherwise I would be more mad at her. She even said she wanted to call becos her younger child was sick when she left Indonesia.
I told her she can call home but can only do so next mth end after she had received her
allowance.
Wati had also requested to eat less rice and even told me she doesn't want to eat fish. But I insisted that she
does to get a balance diet for every meal. I do not want her to be mal-nutrious. She had some pandan cake snacks
that she could eat if she's hungry during the day.
After that she seems ok and I catch her daydreaming while resting less often. She will have a faraway look in her eyes when she rest and she will seems to be daydreaming. I reckon it's becos she's homesick or worried abt her sons.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Maid and Nanny's Overseas trip

Today is Wati's 7th day working in our family. So far I find that she is a fast learner and is able to read and understand the instructions translated from english to Indonesian language from my iphone. I noticed that she does not really fancy having breakfast. I told her she could eat the instant noodles for breakfast occasionally if she wants but I told her not to eat them too often as they are not healthy food.
And yesterday, HY's nanny was very kind to give her a bag of clothes and I could see that she is happy.

Today, my mother come over to help to take care of HY as the nanny had to go for her overseas trip (Australia) from 12 Oct to 26 Oct 2010. It is a good thing that Wati is around to help with the housework as HY is still not used to her even though he allows her to dress him in my presence.

I am considering to provide a radio in the kitchen for Wati's entertainment/relaxation when she is taking her break or resting.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Maid's 2nd day

Ernawati (or wati) wakes up before we do. I instructed her the night before to wake up at 6.30am. As I woke up at 8am, I am not sure what time she woke up. She tries to be helpful by putting HY's clothings into the machine to wash. I was impressed. But after that I noticed that the load was less than half full so I told her that I want her to put my clothes in to wash as well. But she did not follow. I think she does not understand me.. After the clothes were washed, I noticed that she did not include my clothes into the washing machine.
I repeated my instructions and use the translation application in my iphone to translate what i wanted to tell her in indonesian. I told her it is wasting of water if the load is not full. I told myself I should have demonstrated it to her by throwing my own clothes into the washing machine.

Next thing, hubby discovered a slice of half eaten bread in the toilet bowl. So I questioned Wati about it. She told me she dropped it into the toilet bowl accidentally and kept apologising profusely. She said she wanted to bring the laundry basket with unwashed clothes into the toilet.
I know she was lying. But i let it go as it is her second day and told her not to do it again and it is very wasteful to throw away food. She should just take enough for her breakfast and finish her breakfast or meals in the kitchen before doing her chores. I reminded her to remember my instructions.
I told hubby that i will expose her if she were to lie to me again.

I know I need to be patient with her but I will watch her closely from now on and correct her mistakes immediately.

Oh yes, HY saw Wati last night. He is fearful of her even though she tries to be friendly and wanted to carry him. He clinged onto me.

I will be patient with Wati and see how things goes as I am a first time employer of a maid.

Our New Maid -Ernawati

After a wait of 1 month, we finally get to meet and fetch our new maid, Ernawati today. This is the first time we had engaged a maid and I had taken 2 days leave to personally train her in housework myself. Hong Yi has not met Ernawati and will only see her tonight.

She turned out to be rather pleasant looking and seems to understand simple English even though she only has Junior High school education.

Some background on her:

Her parents are farmers but they do not own any land.
She is divorced with 2 teenage children even though she is the same age as us.
She has 3 or 4 other siblings.

I hope Ernawati can fit into our home well and live harmoniously together with us.