Good maids are made not born!

Many times I heard my neighbours said that I am lucky to have good maids.I agree with them and I thank Allah for that. However I almost always wanted to tell them that my maids are good because I am a good master (mistress). Through out the years I have acquired the skill of being a good 'ibu'. My foreign maids must address me as 'ibu'. There are a list of dos and don'ts that I abide with in order to groom my maids to my standard. They are too long to list out here. Today I am willing to share only 3 pointers with you young madams out there. First on my list is, never let the maid into your master bedroom until you are sure she can be trusted. (Nevermind if your master bedroom is not done or that you have to do it yourself). Second, never treat your maid like your own relative unless she had stayed with you for many years and you really feel that she's part of the family. Third, never give your old clothes for her use. (She will not respect you as a mistress if she wears your clothes, you can give your children old clothes to her but not yours!)

Sunday Morning

Waking up on a Sunday Morning, I want to feel relaxed & carefree. After the usual dawn prayers and a few pages of Quran reading, I had breakfast with my husband. Then my mind start wandering; where are the children? It seems that Kin had gone for early morning jog with her friends. Husna and Alan coming down soon, two still sleeping upstairs after prayers? Jat and Aly had their breakfast earlier after their night duty at the asrama. After this I will be going to the market and on the way to stop at the bank to send some rm to Hanna who is in Cairo. Alhamdulillah, Lia in Irbid Jordan has stopped asking for money since she got her MARA loan. I think about all my children wherever they are many times in a day and keep counting them so I won't miss any. And you know that I have 9! Only mothers with many children would understand what I am up to.

Mother's Language

My sister in-law was telling me about her 18 months old granddaughter who had learned to talk in mix language of english & bahasa Indonesia. It's not surprising, she has picked up the language from the maid. Her "No!" is expressed as " tak bisa " and her expression of " Look! there's a cow near the pond" is " Lihat itu, ada sapi ditepi kali!" So I said to my sister in-law, "This is clearly not the case of the child pickingup the bahasa ibunda but she has picked up bahasa 'bibiknda'" I do worry in future our children may grow not with our values but the values of the maids. How many hours do you have with your child as compared to the maid who is almost 24 hours with your child. Do the infant know which one is her mother?

Mata Hari

I visited mak long yesterday. She has adjusted to her present situation. She told me that her sister 'matahari' had asked her to move back to kampung and rent out her P.J.house. She said probably her sister did that after reading my blog labelled 'the weather and mak long'. So I asked mak long whether she's going to do as suggested by her sister.Mak long answered in the negative. Reasons? Firstly she love her house left to her by late husband and secondly her children, grandchildren and friends are all in the klang valley. So she would not leave klang valley for kinta valley. Thirdly of course her best friend and favourite niece is living here ' only few kilometers from her house. If you may wonder who her best friend and fovourite niece is, the answer is yours truly!

on the lighter side

A doctor and a lawyer were attending a cocktail party when the doctor was approached by a man who asked advice on how to handle his ulcer.The doctor mumbled some medical advice, then turned to the lawyer and asked, "How do you handle the situation when you are asked for advice during a social function?""Just send a bill for such advice" replied the lawyer.On the next morning the doctor arrived at his surgery and issued the ulcer-stricken man a $50 bill. That afternoon he received a $100 bill from the lawyer.

Unscrupulous traders

I have been wanting to tell somebody about this group of unscrupulous traders at the market. This is concerning the fresh santan sellers. They are suppossed to sell unadulterated santan. However these days many traders are out to make fast fortune. So I have found that the santan sellers add a lot of water to their fresh santan.Buy any amount of santan at the market and put it in the fridge. When it solidify you will notice half of the packet had frozen into water. So that solve my mystery of why my rm1 santan could not make a small pot of curry or porridge deliciously lemak as it should have been if rm1 packet of santan suppossed to represent 1 whole coconut. This is like the case of selling adulterated milk which is an offence in our country. It also reminded me of the days of Caliph Omar who severely punished those who sold adulterated milk. I am thinking of bringing up this matter to the relevant authorities. But do you think the enforcement people will take action on this apparently small matter since they are facing bigger problems of the present price hikes on sundry goods daily?

Hi ! I'm back home.

Hi! Im back home, my sweet & simple home. I was back in my kampung, 10 km from Alor Setar for the last few days. It was lovely meeting the old folks who still remember the sight of little me running around the village. There were obout 20 guests that appointed sunday at mak's house. We talked of those days, the happy memories of our young days. We all laughed as Pak Uniong related some of the comical incidents that happened in our chilhood. There were Tok Lang, Mak Mek and Kak Yah present.The oldest resident present was 95 years old Mak Bu. She's the last of grandma's batch being 12 years younger than grandma. Grandma died 26 years ago. Mak was happy to meet her pupils Kak An & Kak Doyah. She taught them Quran some 50 years ago. Mak had taught hundreds of pupils over a span of 6o years. The next day husband & I did a tour of the kampung. I was sad to see my old playground is no more the same, empty & quiet. Where is Idah, Posah, Non, Miyah, Ani, Immah, Noraini & the rest?