Some might think when you have
a house maid, your home life is made for. But as there is a wide spectrum of
human characteristics, there is also a wide range of maids' or more correctly
domestic helpers' personalities and qualities. In Asian families it is not
uncommon, some would say even essential in some cases for domestic help.
Whatever the reason a family may suddenly find themselves having to live with a
stranger from an entirely different culture and with different personalities,
some more peculiar and stranger than others.
At one point we had one such peculiar and odd domestic helper. These are a compilation of some of her escapades during her time with us, hope you can enjoy some laughs.
When our house wifi was not
working for more than 8 hours:
Helper: Miss wifi not working?
(30min
later)
Helper:
Sir wifi not working?
(30min
later)
Helper:
Madam wifi not working?
(1
hour later)
Helper:
Miss wifi not working?
When the helper was asked to
pack lunch for the next day:
Miss: Could you reheat the onigiri
for lunch to bring to work tomorrow?
Helper: OK miss
The next day when the lunch
box was opened, there was only a lump of white sushi rice in it.
Miss: Where is the seaweed?
Helper: Miss I thought that was
a plastic wrapper and had thrown it away before reheating it
For those not familiar with
onigiri, it is a triangle shape white sushi rice with fillings wrapped with
seaweed to hold it together, as it was designed to be eaten on-the-fly by our
Japanese counterparts. Throwing away the seaweed was really like throwing away your
dal for your roti canai.
When the helper was asked again
to pack lunch for the next day:
Miss: Tomorrow could you make
2 pieces of bread with egg and 1 piece of bread with jam?
Helper: OK miss
The next day, when the lunch
box was opened in it was the bread with egg and soya sauce mixed together with
the bread with blue berry jam, like a big mac. This potentially diarrhoea
inducing concoction was deemed inedible. While back home:
Miss: Did it not seem odd to
you to put blue berry jam on the egg with soya sauce?
Helper: Yes it did seem very
odd
Miss: Then why did you do it
then?!
Outside
the house while wiping the house windows:
Madam:
Could you climb up to wipe the upper parts of the window?
Helper:
Sorry Madam I am afraid of heights
(What
she was referring to was a two step stool ladder)
Madam:
In that case shall I pay you so I can do the work myself?
Helper:
No madam
(And
she went up the two step ladder without much problems)
It is not that we are not
grateful for the help she renders around the house. We are truly grateful to
have somebody around to look after our elderly grandmother. We have also always
provided for her all the food she needs and essential toiletries, even
beautifying toiletries. But sometimes we need to be fair and just. If a person is
paid to do the work, she should at least fulfil her duties in a satisfactory
manner…sigh...alas what can be said but that good help is hard to come by these
days?
(The conversations above have been translated to English to cater for a wider audience)
This is only the prelude. More of such strange stories please.
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