I'm not really sure how to start this post as I am still in a wee bit of shock that this actually happened. I am quite certain a plague of biblical proportions has descended upon our house. This realization, the realization about biblical plague and our house, is really quite disturbing for a few reasons. One: it proves to me that all that time in Sunday School and Catechism were totally useless because two: I had no idea that there were 10 plagues. I thought that there were seven. Seven I can handle because we have been through five. Seven meant we were almost done. But 10??? 10 has me..well, scared poop less (especially since I found a spider on my curtain this morning)!
It started out as one. Then two. Then about half a dozen. And finally, it ended with a swarm that chased me and the three kids, as well as my friend J and her two babes, out of the house... for two hours... in 80 degree heat! Bees.The spiky tailed devil. Killers of Thomas J. in "My Girl". Things that give my friend J goose bumps the size of Michigan.
The day started out like any Wednesday would, which means "well enough". My human alarm clock, aka The Babe, aka the "The girl who hates for her mother to sleep past the butt crack of dawn", decided to sleep a little late prompting us to arrive right at 8am (so..late!) to the Big Kid's school. Wednesday is the short day of the week for school and usually we have Thai lessons that day. However, because the Big Kid and his friend, Little J, have been begging for a play date, I canceled Thai lessons and set up a play date with Little J and his mommy J. So, after we pick up the boys at school, load them into their various spots in the SUV and golf cart, we head over to our house for the play date.
The play date went very well for the first half . The kids played well together, Middle boy only had a few melt downs, Babe only pitched a few fits. It was great! Then all hell broke loose. As I said earlier, it started out as one. Little J pointed out to his mom that there was a fly on my curtain. She of course turns around, sees the "fly" and says "That's okay honey. Thailand has flies. No big deal". So, I turn around a few seconds later and there were two of them. Okay. Just a fly. No big deal. Umm, no. Very big deal because when I went to kill them they were bees. Again, no big deal right? Maybe they got in when we walked in. Totally logical assumption.
Eventually we relocated to the living room because the babe and the middle boys were playing in there and there was no telling what they would get into. Eventually I had to walk back into "The Bee room" and noticed that it felt way hotter then it should, especially since I had just turned on the air con. And that is when I saw them.. Oh them. Them, them, and more them. So, calmly I walked into the room where J was and asked her if she could come and take a look "at something". She walks in and says "OMG!". And yep, that pretty much sums it up. OMG!! As I was debating on what to do, outside of the bee room, I decided to walk back in and see what was up. And boy did I see! They had multiplied and were swarming around my lights. This time, slightly more freaked out, I walked into the kitchen which adjoined the bee room and saw that they were in there too. They were also in my other dining room. And they had multiplied yet again in the Bee room. As calmly as two mothers can, J and I gathered the kids and took off out the house.
To say that my good day turned bad is quite possibly the biggest understatement of the week. I will spare you many of the other details of that day (my exact wording when I abandoned my Thai sensibilities of kindness and friendliness and opened up a good old fashioned can of American verbal whoop-ass on my landlord, for example). After several heated, non progress making conversations with the non-English speaking handy man about them trying to use poison to kill the bees (Not going to happen around my kids!), J's driver ever so nicely took over for me with communicating. Apparently yelling loudly at a Thai in a language that they don't understand doesn't really get you anywhere. They just smile at you bigger then normal... which of course pisses off this girl like you wouldn't believe!
I do have to say though that when I called my hubby about the poison the conversation that followed was quite funny looking back on it. Apparently in my panicked state I suggested that instead of poison that they wrangle to bees like they would do cattle. This apparently confused my hubby a great deal because in a very surprised tone he says "you want them to wrangle the bees? How exactly do you propose they do that?" Well.. with a net and a rope of course! After finding out how they killed them, wrangling doesn't seem all that far out there though. Their solution??? Rolled up TV fliers for the local cable company! High tech stuff man! Speaking of solutions, when I asked them where they came from they informed me that there was a hole in the roof. When I proposed the very logical (well, I thought it was logical) solution of just closing the hole, they informed that no, they could not do that. What? Why not? Because then the bees would have no where to live? Correct me if I am wrong here, but we, the HUMAN occupants of this house, are the ones paying rent, right? Not the bees.
So, that was my day in a nut shell. Fun times! Hopefully plagues 6-10 decide not to visit us... EVER, because I am quite certain that my crazy card is totally full. Here's to hoping for a better week with no more creepy surprises! Until next time, I hope all is well!
Kristen
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Room for Two at the Loony Bin, Please!
I am quite certain that when the hubby and I are repatriated that they will strongly suggest that we both check into some sort of clinic for the mentally insane. You see, when they repatriate someone they give you this survey that you have to fill out, or at least I think they do, and I can tell you right now that ours will be filled with all sort of crazy, crazy, stuff. Really and truly I am beginning to question our mental health. Let me explain...
If you have been following this blog you have read all about my gecko phobia and how they have tried to kill me on more then one occasion and you may also recall Remy the Rat. Well my friends, they are both back. Or at least their kin are now here. I really and truly thought that by allowing Remy to live that we would come into some of that good Thai karma that I have been hearing all about, but it seems that by killing a gecko (multiple geckos actually) that I totally screw up the karma thing. And we now seem to be paying for it in a big way!
A few days ago I bought some bananas. Some fantastic mini Thai bananas! Boy were they delicious. Apparently Emile, Remy's older, fatter brother, decided that he too liked my yummy Thai bananas because when I walked into the kitchen for breakfast there was a half eaten one on my counter. Now, if you know my kids you know that my middle leaves food in various places and in various states of half eateness (i know that isn't a word, but I claim mental!), and in all likelihood, it could have been him. However, my counters are really high and my son doesn't gnaw at food, nor does he eat the peelings of bananas. Oh, he also poops a lot bigger (yeah, rat poop on my counter!). So, of course I freak. I mean seriously, I freaked when there was a tiny little bug in my flour so as you can imagine this incident was very traumatic for me. Between the crying, screaming, and asking God to forgive me for my sins and to stop all of these terrible injustices from happening again, I finally managed to call my hubby and demand (as nicely as possible) that he call the landlord and tell her of this "incident".
Before I continue, I should probably tell you a little about how the Thai people operate. They don't! Or at least that seems to be true in a lot of cases. They have this live and let live attitude that pretty much prevents anything meaningful from happening. They just let things go.
Okay, now that we have that established, the landlord sent over the handy man (who totally speaks good English but pretends not to!). I tell him what is going on and he takes a look and decided that he would need to come back and seal up the pass through from the maids quarters into the house. Okay, great! Action! His other solution was to put a freaking trap ON MY COUNTER! Not really a trap so much as a darn cage. Umm, no. Not EVEN going to happen my friend. We compromised by him putting it on the counter in the maids quarters. Some good that did since he didn't even bait the darn thing. Seriously, did he think the rat was just going to take a stroll into the cage for the heck of it???
That night things got really bad. And by really bad, I mean I walk into the boy's room and find rat poo on the big kids bed. And on the side of the bed. And on his sheets. Seriously, my skin is crawling just thinking about it. Thankfully the hubby was home this time and witnessed first hand my reaction (see previous paragraph!) and knew that it was time for him to take action. You see, when handy man came over I informed him that there was an opening somewhere outside that was allowing them to come into the house. I told him to walk the perimeter and find said hole, and close said hole. He said okay and that he would be back in 50 minutes. He never came. In fact, it took several heated phone calls just to get him to come to the house to finally seal up the pass through. Live and let live!
So, the hubby asks me if I know how to work the bait less trap that was left behind by the brainless handy man. Umm no. No I don't. And no I don't want to know, thankyouverymuch! Thankfully our driver was still hanging around and helped the hubby bait the trap with chicken nuggets, and then informed us that we would need to hole up in our bedroom (the only room not touched by Emile) by putting a towel across our door. Great! Fantastic! So much fun! Anyway, I didn't sleep very well that night, to say the least. The next morning however, I did get some relief when the hubby came in and announced that Emile was gone and any evidence of him was gone as well. Boy was he ever wrong.
As I am sitting in the living room, crocheting a Christmas Tree skirt and drinking my coffee, my babe decided to go sit by our back window. She likes playing there and does so, often. So, I walk over to open the curtains for her and get a huge, very unwelcome, surprise. They were droppings everywhere. I mean at least 20-30, plus more right outside the window. Infestation is probably putting it mild. I do believe that WE are living in THEIR place and not the other way around. So, again, I call the hubby and let him know what is going on and that I was packing our bags because we were about to be calling the Hilton our home. Thankfully, at least this time, there was a mix up with our temp driver and he never left the office where hubby works to come and get me. Since I had grocery shopping to do, the hubby volunteered to come home early and watch the kids and clean up the rat poop.
After the cleaning we decided to stick it out. At least for the time being. We set more traps and have yet to see any more even though we have seen their poop. We did however see more geckos. The hubby almost died of a heart attack as did I, in the same, so it wasn't a good day. In fact, as I was sweeping, one of those suckers decided to run across my foot and he died a very violent death. As I am whacking him with my hot pink broom and screaming "I told you not to mess with me! WHAT! You want some more! Tell your friends you .....!", the hubby quietly calls from the other room "Hon, you okay in there? Did you find the gecko?" That man knows me too well!
As for our mental well being, well, that seems to be slipping hour by hour (see paragraph about the gecko). That night as we were laying in bed talking about our day, the subject of him catching Emile comes up. Since we aren't Buddhist and since we do in fact believe in killing the rats, we start talking about the various ways for a rat in a trap to die. He was trying to think of ways to get the rat out of the trap so that he could run him over in the golf cart. I simply informed him that a better way, a way not to use the mom mobile, would be to stick the whole trap in a bucket of water and drown the sucker. There were various others ways of rat death that were discussed, but after typing just that out I do believe that we are now one Fruit Loop short of a box. Find a happy place, find a HAPPY PLACE!!!
Well, I guess I had better get going. Until next time, I hope all is well!
Kristen
If you have been following this blog you have read all about my gecko phobia and how they have tried to kill me on more then one occasion and you may also recall Remy the Rat. Well my friends, they are both back. Or at least their kin are now here. I really and truly thought that by allowing Remy to live that we would come into some of that good Thai karma that I have been hearing all about, but it seems that by killing a gecko (multiple geckos actually) that I totally screw up the karma thing. And we now seem to be paying for it in a big way!
A few days ago I bought some bananas. Some fantastic mini Thai bananas! Boy were they delicious. Apparently Emile, Remy's older, fatter brother, decided that he too liked my yummy Thai bananas because when I walked into the kitchen for breakfast there was a half eaten one on my counter. Now, if you know my kids you know that my middle leaves food in various places and in various states of half eateness (i know that isn't a word, but I claim mental!), and in all likelihood, it could have been him. However, my counters are really high and my son doesn't gnaw at food, nor does he eat the peelings of bananas. Oh, he also poops a lot bigger (yeah, rat poop on my counter!). So, of course I freak. I mean seriously, I freaked when there was a tiny little bug in my flour so as you can imagine this incident was very traumatic for me. Between the crying, screaming, and asking God to forgive me for my sins and to stop all of these terrible injustices from happening again, I finally managed to call my hubby and demand (as nicely as possible) that he call the landlord and tell her of this "incident".
Before I continue, I should probably tell you a little about how the Thai people operate. They don't! Or at least that seems to be true in a lot of cases. They have this live and let live attitude that pretty much prevents anything meaningful from happening. They just let things go.
Okay, now that we have that established, the landlord sent over the handy man (who totally speaks good English but pretends not to!). I tell him what is going on and he takes a look and decided that he would need to come back and seal up the pass through from the maids quarters into the house. Okay, great! Action! His other solution was to put a freaking trap ON MY COUNTER! Not really a trap so much as a darn cage. Umm, no. Not EVEN going to happen my friend. We compromised by him putting it on the counter in the maids quarters. Some good that did since he didn't even bait the darn thing. Seriously, did he think the rat was just going to take a stroll into the cage for the heck of it???
That night things got really bad. And by really bad, I mean I walk into the boy's room and find rat poo on the big kids bed. And on the side of the bed. And on his sheets. Seriously, my skin is crawling just thinking about it. Thankfully the hubby was home this time and witnessed first hand my reaction (see previous paragraph!) and knew that it was time for him to take action. You see, when handy man came over I informed him that there was an opening somewhere outside that was allowing them to come into the house. I told him to walk the perimeter and find said hole, and close said hole. He said okay and that he would be back in 50 minutes. He never came. In fact, it took several heated phone calls just to get him to come to the house to finally seal up the pass through. Live and let live!
So, the hubby asks me if I know how to work the bait less trap that was left behind by the brainless handy man. Umm no. No I don't. And no I don't want to know, thankyouverymuch! Thankfully our driver was still hanging around and helped the hubby bait the trap with chicken nuggets, and then informed us that we would need to hole up in our bedroom (the only room not touched by Emile) by putting a towel across our door. Great! Fantastic! So much fun! Anyway, I didn't sleep very well that night, to say the least. The next morning however, I did get some relief when the hubby came in and announced that Emile was gone and any evidence of him was gone as well. Boy was he ever wrong.
As I am sitting in the living room, crocheting a Christmas Tree skirt and drinking my coffee, my babe decided to go sit by our back window. She likes playing there and does so, often. So, I walk over to open the curtains for her and get a huge, very unwelcome, surprise. They were droppings everywhere. I mean at least 20-30, plus more right outside the window. Infestation is probably putting it mild. I do believe that WE are living in THEIR place and not the other way around. So, again, I call the hubby and let him know what is going on and that I was packing our bags because we were about to be calling the Hilton our home. Thankfully, at least this time, there was a mix up with our temp driver and he never left the office where hubby works to come and get me. Since I had grocery shopping to do, the hubby volunteered to come home early and watch the kids and clean up the rat poop.
After the cleaning we decided to stick it out. At least for the time being. We set more traps and have yet to see any more even though we have seen their poop. We did however see more geckos. The hubby almost died of a heart attack as did I, in the same, so it wasn't a good day. In fact, as I was sweeping, one of those suckers decided to run across my foot and he died a very violent death. As I am whacking him with my hot pink broom and screaming "I told you not to mess with me! WHAT! You want some more! Tell your friends you .....!", the hubby quietly calls from the other room "Hon, you okay in there? Did you find the gecko?" That man knows me too well!
As for our mental well being, well, that seems to be slipping hour by hour (see paragraph about the gecko). That night as we were laying in bed talking about our day, the subject of him catching Emile comes up. Since we aren't Buddhist and since we do in fact believe in killing the rats, we start talking about the various ways for a rat in a trap to die. He was trying to think of ways to get the rat out of the trap so that he could run him over in the golf cart. I simply informed him that a better way, a way not to use the mom mobile, would be to stick the whole trap in a bucket of water and drown the sucker. There were various others ways of rat death that were discussed, but after typing just that out I do believe that we are now one Fruit Loop short of a box. Find a happy place, find a HAPPY PLACE!!!
Well, I guess I had better get going. Until next time, I hope all is well!
Kristen
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Well, that lasted a whole two seconds!
Not really. It actually lasted a whole three days. Three days! Yep, after three days I am now officially maid-less. Now, I realize that to some saying things like "my driver" and "my maid" seem snotty and yuppy, but I assure you that in Thailand these are staples where Expat families are concerned. Drivers are a necessity and maids are a luxury that you simply cannot afford to pass up. Well, it looks like this girl is now giving up her Thailand luxury.
Friday was Khun T's first day working for us and all seemed to go well. She walked in with a big smile on her face and was ready to get to work once I showed her where all the cleaning supplies could be found. She did her job, asked if I was pleased, then left right a 5pm, money in hand. It seemed like the beginning of a great relationship. Even though she didn't speak English and even though she wasn't nearly as good at charades as Khun P was, I was sure that we would get there. I'm saying this a lot lately and I swear that my pride is suffering because of it, but again, sadly, I was wrong.
So here we are on Monday and Monday was okay. I mean, she came on time, did her job and all, but she left at 3pm. Khun P never, ever, left a minute before 5pm. In fact, sometimes she would stay a few minutes late just to put socks away. Khun T left an entire load in the wash with instructions for me to change them when done. Umm, okay. What exactly I am paying you for, Khun T??? Oh, well. Maybe she had something more important to do. Benefit of the doubt and all.
Wednesday was the real kicker for me. You see, clothes are my absolute least favorite chore to do. I hate washing. I hate drying. I hate folding. I HATE putting away. In my ideal world I would only have to do clothes thirteen times a year. Now why thirteen times? Why not once or twice? Why thirteen? Well, I have it all figured out. You see, the way I figure it in my ideal world I would own 400 pairs of underwear (one for every day of the year and spares of course) plus enough clothing for every day of the month with a few spares. I would devote one day every month (plus January 2 for undies, so 13 total) to washing my laundry. With five people in my house it would be quite the chore only doing it on those days, but only having to do it once (twice in January because we can't forget the undies!) would be doable.
So the kicker. Well, on Wednesday morning when I went to get the big kid dressed for school he had no clean uniforms. Why? Well, because Khun T didn't wash them all and the ones she did wash she ruined. Apparently she didn't know how to use the washer and put the detergent right in the washer on the front loader. Both "clean" shirts had oily stains on them that I know were not on them originally. Plus, she shrunk one of the shirts leaving it shaped like a square instead a t-shirt rectangle. If that wasn't bad enough, when I went to get middle boy dressed his shirt was covered in the same stains. So, after digging through big kid's back pack for his back up clothing, and after digging through middle boys drawers for a non stained shirt, I was pretty pissed because we were late to school. And well, she ruined uniforms that I JUST PAID OFF!
After I got back from school I was debating on how to fire Khun T. Should I do it before work and not have her work that day? If I do that, should I be nice and pay her for at least coming in? Should I do it after she works? How??? I've never fired anyone. I've had people quit and I have had other people fire people, but I personally have never had to do it. I can't do "sad eyes" and people on TV always look so sad when they get fired, so I knew it would be worse when done in person. Once she walked in with her sweet smile though, my "how" turned into "okay, benefit of doubt. I'll giver her another chance". I was totally ready to cave, plus she was due to cook, and since I can't pass up good food, she was staying put.
After debating all morning, I had finally decided that if Khun T was going to stay that not only did I need to set expectations on her hours, but to teach her how to wash clothes. If I were going to pay her the same as Khun P she was going to do the same and stay the same hours. I knew that the hours thing would be a big one because she cooked my "going to be served at 6pm" dinner at noon. And then left it on the counter. All day long. Turns out, she was trying to skip out on me again and that was her way of ensuring that happened.
At around 4:30 she took her "I'm done" stance in the kitchen and waited for her pay. Right after I hand her the money (plus extra for cooking) we start our very messed up version of charades. At first she made it sound, and look like, that since I paid her extra that she didn't want me to pay her the next week. When I repeated this back to her and then acted out my part, she laughed and said no. After a few more tries, what she really wanted finally came across. Turns out, Khun T had somewhere to go the next day and she wanted to me pay her not only that days wage, but the next day and the next weeks wage as well. She didn't even really ask so much as tell me that I needed to pay her. She said that she didn't have money to go to where ever it was she was going, and that I needed to pay her so that she could. Umm, okay. That didn't set well with me at all. I didn't even know this woman at that point and it took about 5 minutes of back and forth to even get to understanding each other.
Politely I told her that I just didn't have what she wanted. Truly, I did not. Even if I had, I would not have given a total stranger what is considered a large amount of money by Thai standards. So, after all of the other stuff with the laundry, the uncleaned bathroom mirrors, the uncleaned front room floor etc., I made the very hard decision to fire her. And let me tell you, when I say "hard" I do in fact mean hard. It took about 15 minutes from start to finish to get that point across. I think she got what I was saying when I told her that we didn't need her anymore. She just didn't want to accept it. She kept saying "what, I no good??" Okay, that made me almost cave because she totally combined it with the sad eyes. After calling not one, but TWO, English/Thai speakers, she finally understood and accepted what I was saying. Instead of telling her that she was no good I simply told her that we wanted to do the cleaning ourselves (to which the English/Thai speaker laughed. See next paragraph). I mean come on, who can look a person, a very sad eyed person, in those sad eyes, and tell them that they are no good??? I sure can't, that's for sure.
So, again, I am now maid-less. And since I have three children and no help (domestic help that is, as my hubby is fantastic at child rearing) Thai people think I'm crazy. I remember telling someone once that I didn't have a nanny or a maid back home and they thought that was nuts. She said "how did you do it?" By the grace of God, really.
Well, I guess that about does it for me this evening. Hope all is well.
Kristen
Friday was Khun T's first day working for us and all seemed to go well. She walked in with a big smile on her face and was ready to get to work once I showed her where all the cleaning supplies could be found. She did her job, asked if I was pleased, then left right a 5pm, money in hand. It seemed like the beginning of a great relationship. Even though she didn't speak English and even though she wasn't nearly as good at charades as Khun P was, I was sure that we would get there. I'm saying this a lot lately and I swear that my pride is suffering because of it, but again, sadly, I was wrong.
So here we are on Monday and Monday was okay. I mean, she came on time, did her job and all, but she left at 3pm. Khun P never, ever, left a minute before 5pm. In fact, sometimes she would stay a few minutes late just to put socks away. Khun T left an entire load in the wash with instructions for me to change them when done. Umm, okay. What exactly I am paying you for, Khun T??? Oh, well. Maybe she had something more important to do. Benefit of the doubt and all.
Wednesday was the real kicker for me. You see, clothes are my absolute least favorite chore to do. I hate washing. I hate drying. I hate folding. I HATE putting away. In my ideal world I would only have to do clothes thirteen times a year. Now why thirteen times? Why not once or twice? Why thirteen? Well, I have it all figured out. You see, the way I figure it in my ideal world I would own 400 pairs of underwear (one for every day of the year and spares of course) plus enough clothing for every day of the month with a few spares. I would devote one day every month (plus January 2 for undies, so 13 total) to washing my laundry. With five people in my house it would be quite the chore only doing it on those days, but only having to do it once (twice in January because we can't forget the undies!) would be doable.
So the kicker. Well, on Wednesday morning when I went to get the big kid dressed for school he had no clean uniforms. Why? Well, because Khun T didn't wash them all and the ones she did wash she ruined. Apparently she didn't know how to use the washer and put the detergent right in the washer on the front loader. Both "clean" shirts had oily stains on them that I know were not on them originally. Plus, she shrunk one of the shirts leaving it shaped like a square instead a t-shirt rectangle. If that wasn't bad enough, when I went to get middle boy dressed his shirt was covered in the same stains. So, after digging through big kid's back pack for his back up clothing, and after digging through middle boys drawers for a non stained shirt, I was pretty pissed because we were late to school. And well, she ruined uniforms that I JUST PAID OFF!
After I got back from school I was debating on how to fire Khun T. Should I do it before work and not have her work that day? If I do that, should I be nice and pay her for at least coming in? Should I do it after she works? How??? I've never fired anyone. I've had people quit and I have had other people fire people, but I personally have never had to do it. I can't do "sad eyes" and people on TV always look so sad when they get fired, so I knew it would be worse when done in person. Once she walked in with her sweet smile though, my "how" turned into "okay, benefit of doubt. I'll giver her another chance". I was totally ready to cave, plus she was due to cook, and since I can't pass up good food, she was staying put.
After debating all morning, I had finally decided that if Khun T was going to stay that not only did I need to set expectations on her hours, but to teach her how to wash clothes. If I were going to pay her the same as Khun P she was going to do the same and stay the same hours. I knew that the hours thing would be a big one because she cooked my "going to be served at 6pm" dinner at noon. And then left it on the counter. All day long. Turns out, she was trying to skip out on me again and that was her way of ensuring that happened.
At around 4:30 she took her "I'm done" stance in the kitchen and waited for her pay. Right after I hand her the money (plus extra for cooking) we start our very messed up version of charades. At first she made it sound, and look like, that since I paid her extra that she didn't want me to pay her the next week. When I repeated this back to her and then acted out my part, she laughed and said no. After a few more tries, what she really wanted finally came across. Turns out, Khun T had somewhere to go the next day and she wanted to me pay her not only that days wage, but the next day and the next weeks wage as well. She didn't even really ask so much as tell me that I needed to pay her. She said that she didn't have money to go to where ever it was she was going, and that I needed to pay her so that she could. Umm, okay. That didn't set well with me at all. I didn't even know this woman at that point and it took about 5 minutes of back and forth to even get to understanding each other.
Politely I told her that I just didn't have what she wanted. Truly, I did not. Even if I had, I would not have given a total stranger what is considered a large amount of money by Thai standards. So, after all of the other stuff with the laundry, the uncleaned bathroom mirrors, the uncleaned front room floor etc., I made the very hard decision to fire her. And let me tell you, when I say "hard" I do in fact mean hard. It took about 15 minutes from start to finish to get that point across. I think she got what I was saying when I told her that we didn't need her anymore. She just didn't want to accept it. She kept saying "what, I no good??" Okay, that made me almost cave because she totally combined it with the sad eyes. After calling not one, but TWO, English/Thai speakers, she finally understood and accepted what I was saying. Instead of telling her that she was no good I simply told her that we wanted to do the cleaning ourselves (to which the English/Thai speaker laughed. See next paragraph). I mean come on, who can look a person, a very sad eyed person, in those sad eyes, and tell them that they are no good??? I sure can't, that's for sure.
So, again, I am now maid-less. And since I have three children and no help (domestic help that is, as my hubby is fantastic at child rearing) Thai people think I'm crazy. I remember telling someone once that I didn't have a nanny or a maid back home and they thought that was nuts. She said "how did you do it?" By the grace of God, really.
Well, I guess that about does it for me this evening. Hope all is well.
Kristen
The Day the Music Died..
Also known as "the day my maid quit". Either way, all I know is that this past Tuesday I stopped singing the little diddy about never having to clean my toilets. And yes, this does count as losing my fifth, yes fifth, employee (counting all the drivers). I'll be honest, I so did NOT see this one coming. Just last week she was talking about her former employer and how much she had to work and about the pay not being that great for the amount of work she had to do. I asked her if she felt that way about me and she said no. She liked it here because we were easy to care for. She said she liked that we didn't have a lot of "stuff" to clean around and she liked that she didn't HAVE to take care of the kids. She only stepped in to help when she was done with her work and it was really only to play with them. So, with all of that being said, I was shocked.
The last Friday that she was here she informed me that she wouldn't be in on Monday and instead would come on Tuesday because she was going to baking school in Bangkok. I knew that she had dreams of opening her own bakery (our charades and broken English conversations were very informative about her as a person), but I also thought that it wouldn't be until next year because she needed approval from the bank for her loan. It seemed like a long process so I thought I was safe from her leaving. Stupidly, I also thought that we would be the beneficiaries of her new culinary skills. Big fat WRONG!
On Tuesday, the day she quit, I walked into my bedroom to find her doing her thing and simply asked her how school went. She got this strange look on her face and says "about that..". Well, I knew right then and there that the news she was about to delivery to me was not good. Turns out I'm a bit psychic because I was right! The school in Bangkok was too far and far too expensive so she found a local alternative that was free but much more intensive. So, that meant for me that I was losing her. No two week notice. No notice at all. Just a simple "madam, I no come to work no more", and that was the end of her employment. She offered her friend up as a replacement, stayed throughout the day, then left with a promise to see me on Wednesday as her "official" last day.
Wednesday went well enough. She was here all day, watched the babe while I did my Thai lessons, and then cooked us yet another fab meal. At around 4pm she offered to call her friend so that I could meet her. Stupid me forgot to ask BEFORE I said yes as to whether or not said friend spoke any English. Khun P's English was about as little as I could handle for as much as we interacted. Anyway, after the friend shows up we all just stand there looking at one another because come to find out, possible new maid doesn't speak a lick of English! After a few nervous laughs were exchanged, Khun P did the talking. She told her the pay and said she would show her what to do during the day. At this point I actually broke down and begged her to stay promising her more money. I was weak, I admit. Unfortunately for me she didn't take it. Apparently "bakery" wasn't code for "I want more money". Anyway, she asked whether or not I wanted new maid to cook which prompted me to make a very childish face. After she scolded me a bit for doing so, Khun P assured me that new maid was a good cook. Possibly even better then herself.
So, after she showed new maid what to do during the day, we said our tearful goodbyes with her promising to come by and visit and bring us cookies. Whether she will actually do this or not, I don't know. All I do know is that my new diddy is now "Somebody That I Used to Know", which my loving hubby finds ever so amusing although somewhat accurate ( I broke down our relationship for him in song form. It was quite funny but you really had to be there to appreciate it). I really like Khun P and she will be sadly missed, but I do wish her much success.
You know what I find so crazy about this whole experience was that I was really against having a maid. Turns out however, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had pictured. I thought she would be all up in my space and intrusive and trying to tell me what to do with my kids. She wasn't any, or didn't do, any, of those things. She was quiet helpful and very funny. She made the days here in Thailand a lot less lonely. Oh well. Fly Khun P, fly! I will always remember you as "Somebody That I Used to Know"!
I'll update soon with a report on new maid. Hopefully it works out but I'm not optimistic. Until next time I hope all is well.
Kristen
The last Friday that she was here she informed me that she wouldn't be in on Monday and instead would come on Tuesday because she was going to baking school in Bangkok. I knew that she had dreams of opening her own bakery (our charades and broken English conversations were very informative about her as a person), but I also thought that it wouldn't be until next year because she needed approval from the bank for her loan. It seemed like a long process so I thought I was safe from her leaving. Stupidly, I also thought that we would be the beneficiaries of her new culinary skills. Big fat WRONG!
On Tuesday, the day she quit, I walked into my bedroom to find her doing her thing and simply asked her how school went. She got this strange look on her face and says "about that..". Well, I knew right then and there that the news she was about to delivery to me was not good. Turns out I'm a bit psychic because I was right! The school in Bangkok was too far and far too expensive so she found a local alternative that was free but much more intensive. So, that meant for me that I was losing her. No two week notice. No notice at all. Just a simple "madam, I no come to work no more", and that was the end of her employment. She offered her friend up as a replacement, stayed throughout the day, then left with a promise to see me on Wednesday as her "official" last day.
Wednesday went well enough. She was here all day, watched the babe while I did my Thai lessons, and then cooked us yet another fab meal. At around 4pm she offered to call her friend so that I could meet her. Stupid me forgot to ask BEFORE I said yes as to whether or not said friend spoke any English. Khun P's English was about as little as I could handle for as much as we interacted. Anyway, after the friend shows up we all just stand there looking at one another because come to find out, possible new maid doesn't speak a lick of English! After a few nervous laughs were exchanged, Khun P did the talking. She told her the pay and said she would show her what to do during the day. At this point I actually broke down and begged her to stay promising her more money. I was weak, I admit. Unfortunately for me she didn't take it. Apparently "bakery" wasn't code for "I want more money". Anyway, she asked whether or not I wanted new maid to cook which prompted me to make a very childish face. After she scolded me a bit for doing so, Khun P assured me that new maid was a good cook. Possibly even better then herself.
So, after she showed new maid what to do during the day, we said our tearful goodbyes with her promising to come by and visit and bring us cookies. Whether she will actually do this or not, I don't know. All I do know is that my new diddy is now "Somebody That I Used to Know", which my loving hubby finds ever so amusing although somewhat accurate ( I broke down our relationship for him in song form. It was quite funny but you really had to be there to appreciate it). I really like Khun P and she will be sadly missed, but I do wish her much success.
You know what I find so crazy about this whole experience was that I was really against having a maid. Turns out however, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had pictured. I thought she would be all up in my space and intrusive and trying to tell me what to do with my kids. She wasn't any, or didn't do, any, of those things. She was quiet helpful and very funny. She made the days here in Thailand a lot less lonely. Oh well. Fly Khun P, fly! I will always remember you as "Somebody That I Used to Know"!
I'll update soon with a report on new maid. Hopefully it works out but I'm not optimistic. Until next time I hope all is well.
Kristen
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