I'm more busy nowadays ...

Now that I've lost my right-hand man .. my life has been rather hectic .. well, it was hectic before .. now it's just worse.

My new maid is really inexperienced and rather young .. (she hasn't yet turned 21), unlike my previous maid who really managed my household like a pro .. this new one is just trying hard to keep her head above water.

She has burnt dinner 3 times since she's joined us.

So yes, at the moment, I am preoccupied trying to make sure she doesn't

a) burn down my kitchen OR
b) burn down my whole freaking house OR
c) kill us by making us eat burnt food so often.

SIGH.

3 years I've never had to nag or scold my previous maid.

I STILL don't screech and yell at newbie. I just nag and nag and remind and remind and I do raise my voice in utter exasperation sometimes .. but you know what? .. It's tiring. It's like having another child around and not a responsible adult.

I miss my ex-maid. *sob*

Thank goodness ...

Some guy contacted me about my car stuff a few hours after I put it up on Ebay ... ah yes, Ebay ... wonderful invention that is. I managed to sell off the whole set for $900. Well, I paid twice that probably or slightly more .. but no matter. I was actually going to leave it in my Stream when the dealer took it .. but hubby said it would be dumb to leave it there for them. Oh well .. I got rid of the thing for $900 ... thank god. I was half worried it would be left in my house for eternity. Anyway, there was no point pricing it higher .. I used it for about 1.5 years .. I think I'm really lucky I got $900 for it rather than nothing.

The guy who bought it from me was a nice chap too .. he said his friend was getting it .. turns out we go to the same auto shop .. lol !! So he was rather relieved knowing that I had gotten it from Darren's shop (he's the owner). I highly recommend his shop cos unlike those other dodgy looking car audio shops .. his is well, not so dodgy lor. hahaha !!

I was just there yesterday .. hubby and I changed the horn on the Odyssey cos we didn't like how it sounded .. lol !! Aw come on, you want a car horn that sounds decent when you have to horn at some idiot driving. Apparently, he sells the horn that sounds like dogs barking .. (that's what hubby's fren claimed) but I didn't go into the shop to verify that .. hahahah !! Who in HELL would want a car horn like that ??!!!! Ok granted, if they ever invent a horn that either says "Get out of my way you freaking idiot!" .. or "You SUCK!!" or "F%%% idiot!" ... ah that would be the horn I want .. but barking dogs ? .. I don't think so .. lol !!

here's a decent pic of my Odyssey ..

So now I am left holding the Alpine touchscreen DVD player .. sigh .. it cost me $1388 just for that head unit. See when the dealer took our Stream, I removed all the extras since I had paid for it to be installed in there in the first place ... we replaced the head unit with a cheaper set though cos you can't have a hole where the CD player is supposed to be, and we couldn't remove the drop down screen cos, well, if they take it out, there'll be a hole there where they had to cut it to mount it. Anyway, that drop down screen didn't cost that much .. about $250 or so I think.

Anyway, now I am left with one Pioneer active subwoofer, an Alpine 6 disk CD/MP3 cd changer and of course, the head unit .. also Alpine. Gosh, I spent more than 2k installing those items in my Stream about 1.5 yrs back.

Bummer, man. Now I have to try and sell the stuff off .. *sigh* I've already had some inquiries for the items on Ebay .. I'm looking to sell the head unit (ie the Alpine touchscreen DVD/CD player for $800 and the other 2 for $200 each.

A friend asked me yesterday why I didn't just transfer it to my Odyssey ... told her the previous owner had spent WAYYYYYYYYYYY more than me on his speakers and subwoofer and amplifier and head unit ... lol .. that it was no point transferring mine over.

SIGH.

So we switched cars again ..

after driving our new Stream for a year and a half, we decided to get something bigger ..

Yeap .. we got an black Odyssey .. a friend of hubby's wanted to get an Audi so he took his car to the dealer and got a quote then called us - he offered us the same price the dealer offered him ..

It is an awesome price considering the fella is very very car obsessed. You name it .. he's done it to his Odyssey .. he sound-proofed the undercarriage, he added extra sound-proofing to the doors, he did the window tinting, he installed 10k worth of speakers and 3 screens in there .. and there isn't a single nick or scratch on the vehicle .. cos he hardly drove it. AND the plastic on the bottom - u know where kids step on to hoist themselves into the car .. ? .. yeah, the plastic is still on there. And the thing has a sun roof .. not so great for people like me that loathes the sun .. He also had a body kit put on and tv mobile put in. So I can watch my Channel 8 serials while I'm driving. NOT.

lol.

So I sat in the driver's seat today when they delivered it tonite .. he had the whole interior cleaned and polished for us ... and I switched on the music. OMgosh, the sound system is awesome! Definitely a 10k sound system there !!

The ONLY thing is .. the thing is really much longer and wider than my Stream.

Stanley will so kill me if I get so much as a scratch on the damn thing.

I will have to drive like a snail till I get used to the vehicle. I am so dreading it. Here's a really lousy pic of my booooootiful Odyssey ...

My other new pair of shoes ..

Nice right ??!!!! Tommy Hilfiger as well. I lurve it. Very comfy too.

So far ...

my new maid .. I shall refer to her as newbie from now has been with me a week already. Not really a week cos she had my maid helping her till Sunday.

When she came to me, she was supposed to have had 2 years experience in Saudi .. that turned out to be a lie (on the recruiter's part) cos she told me she was there only a year. I asked my maid to find out why she hadn't finished her contract there and my maid said she couldn't cope. Gee, how that reassures me of her commitment to her contract here with me .. lol.

damn.

And for some strange reason or another, we have no clue WHY she can't do anything if she had been in Saudi a year. My maid trained her for the few days before she left and I have to say, my maid did a superb job. Newbie can now cook the stuff we usually eat and she has a good grasp on what needs to be done everyday .. the daily routine; the chores, the housework the cooking. Just that right now, she seems to be rushing to cope. But she is improving everyday and I help her out where and when I can.

Of course her English is almost non-existent and Bahasa Indonesia is actually very different from the Malay language we use here so I have to talk to her slowly, clearly and use visual aids if needed.

Friends tell me to just change maids .. but u know what ? There is absolutely no guarantee I'll get anyone better. As for newbie .. she already knows what she has to do everyday and I have already told her to just work towards paying off her loan first .. then she can get her handphone, go on her offdays etc. Hopefully, that is incentive enough for her to continue learning and being diligent here. She isn't dumb or stubborn I find .. just a bit blur. But trainable.

I just find it difficult to hold a conversation with her while I'm driving etc cos I also find it difficult to understand some of what she says in Bahasa Indonesia. A far cry from my maid who did a 2 year stint in Brunei so she could talk in and understand Malay.

If anyone throws in the towel, it'll be newbie not me. LOL.

Real age and passport age ...

eh you gotta be kidding me, man ...

I was in the car driving .. and I asked my maid again how old she was cos I forgot. She asked me .. which age? .. My passport age or my real age? ..

WTH.

Her passport says she's 25 .. she's actually 20 going on to 21. I wasn't suprised ... this is INDONESIA we're talking about ...

Oh for heaven's sake ... how am I supposed to leave my girls especially the younger ones in her care EVER?!!! I'll have to be around to supervise her for a long long time to come .. at this point, I think I'll NEVER feel safe leaving my girls alone with such a young maid who will not have the patience to deal with kiddy tantrums and such.

Star Trek is AWESOME!!

Yes, I have been raving about the movie eversince I watched it Friday nite with Stanley and Calista .. lol. Calista watched a bit of it then promptly went to sleep ... Stanley, who was tired and sleepy before the movie began, suprisingly stayed awake thru the whole movie .. he thought it was a good movie as well.

We aren't Trekkies or anything .. I liked the Star Trek tv series with Patrick Stewart but I hated the old series with William Shatner ... *shudder* I thought it was BORING.

Star Trek was fast moving, action-packed and funny at times ... and my darling Karl Urban is in it too .. Chris Pine is soooooo hot and John Cho and Simon Pegg rock !! ..

Definitely buying the DVD when it is released.

Hosiery gone wrong ....

I was queueing at the post office today to mail off a parcel to my aunt in Japan ...

In the queue with me were these 2 teenagers ... about JC age I guessed. One of them had on a skirt and a pair of black stockings. The thing is they were fit for the bin. On one side .. the run extended from her ankle to mid thigh .. on her other leg, there was a gaping hole at her calf.

I ALMOST tapped her on the shoulder to inform her of the sad state of her hosiery .. yes, I am KAYPOH sometimes I admit.

THANKFULLY, I stopped myself cos I suddenly thought "Hey, wait a minute ... could the runs and holes be INTENTIONAL ie some weird fashion thing?"

Turns out they are ... I checked with my friend later that day ..

Oh good grief.

I am getting OLD. lol !!!! I don't UNDERSTAND these fashion trends ... it's frightfully ugly to wear pantyhose that has runs and holes galore. WTH, man ?!!!!

And yes, my new maid arrived this evening. I think she's a bit overwhelmed by the 4 kids, 2 dogs bit ... can u blame her?!!! Lol. She is also shorter and smaller framed than my current maid ... As I told my friends .. "Oh great, I'll look positively GINORMOUS next to her ... LOL!"

I am crossing my fingers that she turns out ok. My maid has already started the "handing over" of duties ..

Change ...

Yes, my girls and myself are getting ready for a change ... next Sunday, our current maid of 3 years (she's also our first ever maid) will be leaving us for good to go home.

*sob*

Today, I was just telling Lauren that "Aunty will be leaving us next Sunday to go back home" ..

Her response ...

"But I love her"

Awwwwww. I hope my new maid will be just as capable and I also hope my girls will also come to love and respect her as they do with Khalimah ..