hiring a maid

i was chatting with my aunties a couple of weekends ago and upon learning that i'm going to have twins, they shared with me a brilliant idea (well, the idea is brilliant according to them, not for me though) on how i should go about handling the twins; as in who to baby-sit them after i finish my maternity leave.

they suggested that i should hire an Indon maid, it's definitely much more cheaper than sending the twins to the baby-sitter. the current baby-sitter market rate that i know from my colleagues are ranging from rm550-650 for daycare only and rm750-850 for day & nite care, per month, per baby. baby-sitter only takes care of the baby and that's it. we still gotta supply them the babies' daily neccesities and after adding all the cost up, all that would cost a bomb to an ordinary employee like myself & cl. so there they are, bringing me the maid-hiring suggestion. not only the fee is cheaper, a maid also takes care of the babies and helps around with the housework and probably cooks too. that would help ease my burden a lot. if i'm concern about having the maid alone at home with the 2 kids, i can always send her to my mum's house which is just across the road from mine. she can be stationed there from morning till evening and i could fetch 3 of them back to my house again after work. this routine will be repeated daily.

as convenient as it might sounds, the idea doesn't sound a bit compelling to me and my mum at all! why, my mum has gone through her days with the maid and she has vowed never to have maid anymore for the rest of her live. that maid would be our first and last one we'd hire. thus, we both are not even considering what my 2 aunties were suggesting. interesting stories about this maid of ours will be in another post.

both aunties of mine even did a calculation on how much i could save up if i get a maid for 3 consecutive years; renewing her contract for another 2 years after the first. money is one thing...never-ending headaches & problems are another thing. after hearing horror stories from those who've maid at homes and encountering one myself, it's a big no no. i can't imagine while you hope to ease your burden from hiring a maid, in the end, you end up solving problems created by her. i would rather send my twins to the baby-sitter, i haven't decided whether to send for day care only or day & nite care (day & nite care would be my choice, if only my financial situation allows it). or may be i can be a full time stay at home mum..who knows. i have about 6 more months to decide what's best.

by the way, i found one confinement centre that provides child care too. day care for rm500 and day & nite care for rm900. probably i can do some bargaining with the boss and get some cheaper rate for sending 2 babies. i'm going to visit the home again next month and place my booking if everything goes well.

my company annual dinner

i’ve been working in this company for 5 years now and tonight, the company is going to reward me for being such a loyal chap for 5 unbroken years of service. HR has just sent out an e-mail a couple of days ago informing that we could go home at 4pm to prepare ourselves for the function; namely Axxxx’s (company’s name) Nite … Axxxx’s Million Smiles. i like the name given. sounds creative, isn’t it?

just about a couple of weeks ago when i first saw the e-mail invitation, i didn’t have any mood to attend at all. in fact, i wasn’t in the mood to attend all the wedding invitations as well; i received invitation from a long distance cousin’s & another 2 colleagues’ oncoming weddings (though i haven’t received their invitations, i had already thought of a few excuses to give them when the time comes :P)

now, a couple of weeks later, i found myself looking forward to attend these functions again. weird… i know i’m a fickle-minded gal, i could change my mind within seconds the fastest! probably at that time, i was always having stomach discomfort & loss of appetite due to pregnancy. i was at week 10 then.

i’ll be heading to the hotel (where the banquet is held) right after work. nay, no time to wash up but i did brought my facial traveling pack & makeup set along. let’s see if i have the mood to touch up myself later today.

more posts & hopefully pictures of the annual dinner to come soon.

916

916 has come and gone. nothing has happened yet...we're still waiting.

shocking news!

i am utterly shocked! Lehman Brothers just filed for bankruptcy protection on 15sep08, making it the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. Merrill Lynch was bought out of trouble by Bank of America. AIG is at risk of following Lehman Brothers...oh my god!

banks & airlines are going bankrupt. what about us the small flies? can we survive the coming recession? have we prepared ourselves?

sept 16, 08

today is 16sept08, or more famously known as 916. almost all malaysians have been eagerly waiting for today.

is it going to be D' day?

5 years service award

i used to work as a part-time casual worker in a well-known MNC during my secondary school holiday. i made a lot of new friends who were permanent employees. some had started working for this company since after finishing form 5, or right after form 3. they were a bunch of a very loyal employees whom will only leave the company after they've retired and not earlier. this company has become their retirement place, hence the name; Axxxx Retirement Home....just kidding :)

after i have graduated, i worked elsewhere for a year and re-joined this company as a permanent staff. that's a long 5 years since after i left this company to continue my studies. i met up with my old friends again, many of whom who've spotted gray hair already, married and have a bunch of kids. some have become grandparents and some of them couldn't even remember if they've known me before. i was very curious then, how could they survive working in the same old company for so many years; from a very young chap to an old lady or man now. how can one be so super loyal to serve the same company for more than a decade and spend almost three quarter of their life & soul here? i shudder at the thought of me ending up in the same position as them.

this year, i'm going to receive my 5 years service award. time really flies like nobody's business, isn't it? i don't feel proud for serving 5 unbroken years here and my thoughts on how my dear old friends survive such a long year of service came back to my mind. i have joined the crowd unintentionally! life's too comfortable here to make a change i suppose. my brain is dead and has been in the idle mode for 5 years now.

this morning i received an e-mail from my U.S. boss congratulating me for the long service. i didn't feel good about this. this is not something to be proud of at all. something must be done to change my current situation. otherwise, i'll succumbed myself to this retirement home. *shudder again*

home alone 2

i'm at home, all alone again. cl has called to tell that he'll be having a meeting after work today. no idea what time the meeting ends. his job sucks. typical chinese taukeh who never fails to squeeze all his might to get till the very last juice he can get and to torture the most out of his employees. i hate his job and he hates it too. wait till our trading skill is strong enough, then he'll bid goodbye to this hell company. i just can't wait when the time comes. like i've said before, we're paving the road now, giving ourselves sufficient time to get ready. wish us luck *wink*

on a non-related note, this morning i woke up 10 minutes later than usual!!! i got a big shock when i suddenly jerk from my sweet dream and the clock was showing 7.25am!!! i jumped out of the bed and got myself ready. cl was already up by the time i was ready to leave the house and i told him to open the door for me. i didn't notice i had forgotten to take my house keys until i reached the office and tidied up my little key purse (the purse which i keep all my keys lar). then i quickly ym him and he brought them to work. so after work, i dropped by his workplace and got the keys from him. thank godness i purposely made a trip to get the keys, otherwise, i'll be stuck at my mum's house till god knows what time.

gotta go do laundry and watch the 9.45pm local chinese show now.

the e-mail that has just killed our mood

finally, after so much anticipation, HR has just killed our mood for the day with this e-mail:

To : All employees
Date : 25/8/08
Subj : Permatang Pauh by-election
--------------------------------------------------------

This email is to inform all employees that xxx company will NOT be observing 26/8/08 as Public Holiday.

However, as in the past, the Company will provide our support by giving 4 Hrs PTO to employees who were involved in the by-election.

On behalf of xxx Management
some HR big shots

now back to work everybody...and remember to come to work tomorrow.

is 260808 a public holiday at my workplace?

last nite, cl's colleague called him to ask if tues, 26Aug08 is an off day for the company due to permatang pauh's by-election day. i didn't know what was going on, so the first thing that came to my mind was probably his colleague was just pulling his legs. having a sudden day off during a normal working day would be a wish come true to every employee on earth, but it's just too good to be true.

early this morning, upon reaching my office, everybody was talking about tomorrow's public holiday. it seems that everybody came to work today just to find out whether or not are we off the next day. we waited the whole morning...no news from the HR yet. we went to lunch and back, still no news yet. my colleagues were getting restless, after having found out which & which company are going to be off tomorrow and our curiousity grew stronger & stronger with each passing minute. we kept on checking our outlook, hoping to get some good news before we call it a day.

it's 2.54pm now and we're still waiting for some good news before we call it a day.

my blog...finally...

i've been wanting to get a blog on my own, especially after being an avid blog reader for almost 2 years. however, the lazy me was just too lazy to start one, you know what people always say about taking the first step is never easy...unfortunately, yours truly live by this phrase - all the time (oh no! this is my first ever post and i'm already revealing the bad side of myself!).

oh wait! i managed to break through this time (please applaud for me...*thank u...thank u...*) okay, enough of craps. :)

the actual reason that i wanted to start a blog on my own is of course because i've heard of some bloggers earning a freaking rm5-FIGURED INCOME by writing paid posts!! (yup, that would be my ultimate goal!!!). ermmm, i'm not that ambitious actually, but i wouldn't mind earning some USD to cover some little expenses here & there (yea, this sounds more realistic and perhaps a little more acceptable, isn't it?). well, besides that, i'm in the process of having a baby soon. This little humble blog of mine would serve as a documentation of my life journey as well as journey to parenthood. wow...i like the word 'parenthood'. **BIG GRIN**