Freedom can be tiring

These past few weeks, I've had to deal with the apartment issues (from terminating the tenants who hadn't paid the rents for a few months to preparing it so that it is clean and homely enough to welcome the new tenants). At first it felt quite wonderful to be able to play 'the boss' and decided on many things on my own. But the joy wore out after a while. The thing is, the job, as it unfolds, is quite taxing, not because of the big things, but the little things like deciding on the colours of the wall and the curtains. Serious. Even deciding between shades of blue to paint the wall can be quite tough. My indecisive nature doesn't help either. Anyway, I realized from this experience that I rather be doing thing as a team than on my own. All this while I have the hubby as a team mate, so I decide that he's just the best team mate I could ever ask for.

Pick-pocketed at christmastime

The worst time of the year to be pick-pocketed has to be in December, at christmastime (though of course any time is a bad time to be pick-pocketed). It happened to me yesterday, on a train from Mid-Valley KL to KL Sentral. In a journey that was so short, it happened I almost couldn't believe it!

It's a family holiday; hubby and I were taking the kids to see KLCC. We decided to take the train instead of drive because it was a Friday and the trafic was at its worst. I must have been careless, because I having been used to live in KL for a few years, I need not be told that pickpocketing is common in KL. I am familiar with all the precautions: never put all your cards in the same place, never take too much cash, never put your handbag by your side etc. And yet, I didn't do any of those things!

I put all my atm cards and credit cards in the same purse, brought above RM500 with me, and in an attempt to ensure that my girls were fine in that impossibly packed train, I forgot all about my handbag. The next thing I know as we got off the train was that my bag was opened when it shouldn't, and so much lighter. I knew then that it had happened.

Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent cancelling cards and making a police report, which took quite some time as apparently there were several people that were pickpocketed in the same train. Now I have to wait till after christmas to get the replacement...what a trial. You could never be too careful these days.

so much for pampering myself :)

Sometimes hubby's job takes him places, leaving me to handle everything at the home front alone. Three kids, two puppies and a few fish. It gets quite taxing at times especially when hubby has to be away for a week or so.

Last week was one such week. And since I am teaching two new courses, I have to spend a lot of time writing new teaching and learning materials. By Thursday last week, my body could hardly take it anymore. "Time for a massage", I vowed to myself. Coincidently, a friend who owns a reflexology shop near my house texted to let me know that her shop has started operating till 11pm. "Just as well," I responded happily and texted her to say that I was going for a massage after 8pm on that day.

By 7pm I was home after buying groceries. I cooked some dinner for the kids, asked them to clean up after and told them to go to bed while I was out for my massage. In anticipation of a relaxing foot massage, I left home without my mobile (the battery was flat), and house keys (which I only realized much later).

I came back from my rejuvenating massage at 10pm, and realized at the front door that I did not have my keys with me! On top of that, the normally quiet neighbours were having visitors so it was too much for me to try to shout and wake up the kids. I wandered around for pins, or metal pieces that I could use to pick the lock. I got some but the lock picking attempt was to no avail. Apparently the locks were of good materials, thanks to hubby!

Thinking hard and exhausted, I sat quietly in the car. At midnight as the last of the neighbour's visitors drove away, I decided to try to borrow a phone from a 24 hour convenient store nearby. The boy at the counter was very helpful after I explained my situation. Unfortunately my calls went unanswered- who could blame the kids. They must have been tired too. The boy suggested for me to buy a set of padlock and try to use the keys to unlock my door. Which I did. But it was not meant to be...

At 1am, I called it quit. Grudgingly, I made myself comfortable in my car (thank god for the pillows and large towels I always have there) and fell asleep, surprisingly. At about 5am, Eldest Girl opened the door, looking very worried. As I emerged from the car, she was practically gaping. "Moooom, you slept in there last night?" she exclaimed with disbelief. The two other kids ran to hug me...and to my surprise, Youngest Son who was normally hard to get ready, was all ready in his school uniform. "What's the problem?" I asked stoically, and the kids looked at me as if I was the weirdest person on earth.

"So much for pampering myself" I muttered. I vowed that the next thing I'd do would be to get another set of the house keys made, and keep them somewhere helpful :)

The ugly side of me poking its head

Youngest son wanted a toy badly. Again. As usual, he was boring his sisters and me with his infamous "I NEED a toy...". As I was in no mood to argue with him, I made him sacrifice one of the things he had wanted for a long time in exchange of this particular toy. After some bargaining, he got his wish. Excitedly, he picked up a toy that he had been eyeing since we entered the department store about half an hour earlier. Since it was Saturday, the queue to the checkout counter was impossibly long. So I made the mistake of not asking the guys to check whether the toy was working well.

Which was not. Son discovered it in the car, halfway home, when he put the batteries in. As expected, he threw tantrums, and I promised to take the toy back to be replaced the next day. Anything, as long as I got my peace and quiet back! "What if they don't want to accept it back?", he demanded. "We'll worry about that tomorrow", I said. But in my heart, a whisper of doubt started. In some places in KK, they just don't allow this kind of thing.

On Sunday, I took the toy back to the store. Another long queue at the checkout counter. The doubt about whether or not they would swap the toy with a good one poked its ugly head again. And despite my normal self (I think I'm normally much nicer :)), I was beginning to visualize possible ugly scenarios right there at the counter. The guy would say to me "it's your fault for not having it checked when you paid for it yesterday". I'd say to him "oh really? What kind of store is this with this kind of policy? Don't you know that customer should always be right?" Not good enough. Another response. "If you say so. I'll just take a picture of this toy, post it on the internet so people know you sell lousy stuffs". And on and on nasty responses played in my head.

Finally, it was my turn. I explained the problem, and a young guy took the toy without a word from me. And the dialogues in my head grew more intense. After a few minutes, he returned and told me that "yes, the toy is faulty and we'd replace it with a new one". I looked at him with disbelief. It took me a moment to realize that I'd been playing long nasty dialogues in my head for nothing! It dawned on me that I'd been really nasty for no reason. Ashamed of myself, I quietly let him do the swap, showed me how the toy worked, and bagged it for me. I thanked him meekly after, saying that "it's my fault for not having it checked yesterday". Served me well for having been such a jerk!

The Weirdest Assignment

My line of work is considered unexciting, if not boring sometimes. Well not many would think teaching, researching, occasional editing and translating exciting anyway. But last week I learned that it could be.

On Thursday somebody requested me to anchor a pair of Dusun herbalists in Ranau for a filming, apparently funded by some organisation affiliated with the National Geographic. When I asked what does an anchor do, the person said, simply assisting them in the filming, mostly translating what they say into English. It sounded interesting, especially that it would give me more exposure on over a hundred types of herbs. So I agreed.

On Saturday, hubby, kids and I drove off from KK to Ranau at 5am, something I had never done before, to join the filming crew at 7am. Still a bit drowsy from lack of sleep, I met the crew members and happily let them know I was ready to do the translation, only to be told that I was supposed to host the film. I was taken aback, but because I had come all the way from KK for that assignment, decided to give it a try anyway. After all, the producer told me if I wasn't good enough, he'd not go on with me.

He scrutinized me critically, decided that I needed to wear an overall to create a 'jungle girl' look, checked that I had the right hat on, and got me started. It wasn't easy at all. Having had no preparation, I met the herbalists, had a warm-up session of obtaining as many facts about them and their farms, and tried to memorize all the herbs they told me about. After about an hour, when the herbalists and I started to warm up to each other, the producer announced that it was time to get to work. They put a little speaker on me, and set up the camera. The producer briefed me on what he wanted done, and the herbalists and I started our acts while the kids had fun in the river on the herbal farm. I am most impressed with the herbalists; even though they are elderly, they acted naturally without any script for guidance. Taking cue from them, I found that words came easily to me, and being in front of the camera became exciting. One by one, the facts that they told me earlier came out, interwoven with our impromptu dialogues in Dusun. Giving a commentary on each selected herb on the farm became easy, instead of stressful as I thought it would be.

A few 'cuts' in the beginning of the filming gradually subsided. Halfway through, the producer offered me to host a few more of the series he was working on, which I unfortunately had to refuse because of my tight schedule. Apparently he found me easy to work with, which I was happy to know. And it was also fun to know that I wasn't camera-shy- at least I can do some other things apart from teaching. We completed the filming in about 6 hours (and it was going to be aired for a half hour slot only); dealing with 20 herbs and enjoying some break sessions. In those 6 hours I got to know and like the herbalists and the filming crew. I learned that chemistry is indeed crucial when working in a team. When everybody likes one another, the task becomes light and fun, and easy to complete. That was indeed a weird assignment. I still wonder how did I land on that...

The Shipment Story

Perth, Dec 2009- we boxed our personal things, ready to be shipped back to Kota Kinabalu. I remember those few days of packing very well. I remember how difficult it was to choose what to bring and what to give away. I remember the kids tearful arguments on things they think important that we had to leave behind. Most of all I remember worrying whether the things would arrive safely or not.

After surveying a few moving companies, we decided on Inter Trans Holding (ITH) mainly because they offer the so called "cheapest rate". We paid AUD$5000.00 for 20 ft of container. Besides, since they are our fellow countrymen, we thought, why not help their business grow.

I now realized that those are really bad reasons to choose a shipping company. We should have looked at their reputation most of all, which unfortunately we didn't think of doing. The day they came to pick up our things, they were one hour later than they promised. I rushed back from the children's assembly at school, didn't even get to finish watching my children's show, because somebody had to be at home and hubby had to go to the university. Empty promises- hubby came back home earlier than they came to pick up the things.

We helped load our things into the moving truck (I'd say other companies wouldn't expect their clients to do that). And I said good bye to all the things I love, praying that they would arrive safely in 2 to 3 weeks, as promised. They said the ship was leaving the port on 17th Dec, so 3 weeks would have to be some time in the middle of January. Trusting their words, I waited for the most important things to arrive on time- my references and data for my thesis. Not having them on time means a major delay in the submission of my writings.

Alas, alas. Empty promises indeed. 2-3 weeks turned to a month. Still they didn't arrive. I was getting quite stressed for not having my most needed thesis materials. My children were unhappy waiting for their toys and clothes, for most of the clothes were sent in the shipment. When January ended and still no shipment arrived, I was getting really upset. But I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubts. Yes, my thesis writeup was affected. My children's moods were affected. But we still waited patiently, trusting their explanation that the shipment was delayed because of the many holidays at the end of 2009 to the beginning of 2010.

At long last, the shipment arrived. Exactly 2 months and 10 days after they were shipped. And the boxes arrived in a sorry state. All of them dusty, some torns, and what puzzled me the most was the large numbers on them. I wondered why they had to have different numberings than our labels? Could it be that contrary to the promise of ITH to ship them in a container, they had been shipped loosely in batches so that ITH didn't have to pay the actual price?

The first thing I checked was of course my thesis materials. Thank God, they are safe. The first thing the children excitedly checked were their roller blades. Two pairs of brand new roller blades as their Christmas presents. And they were missing! A bike wheel was also missing. Then I realized that my knife set, BBQ brush and scrapper sets, Christmas decos and some little household things were also missing! Two boxes went missing. How could it be when the company promised that they shipped in a container? What possible explanations do they have?

When hubby told them, they promised to find those boxes or compensate us for the loss. But when hubby itemized the things and told them the costs, they asked for receipts of those things, as if we are trying to falsify the loss so that we can make money. I feel so humiliated. Of course roller blades are not cheap. And it is very sad that the children hadn't even used them, thinking that they could play with them once they are in KK. One Malay word came to mind- kempunan-. The children never got to use them at all. But now that ITH is treating us as if we are liars, I refuse to have anything to do with the company at all. Following my culture, I can only say I consider all those missing things as 'buang sial' (to get rid of bad luck) and let the people who are responsible get the bad luck. It is especially because those loss had caused great sadness to little children.

ITH is a GREAT DISSAPOINTMENT. Or should I say ITH SUCKS?

UPDATE 1:
We paid AUD$5000.00 (about RM15k) CASH to ensure safety and smooth delivery and efficient service. We were promised 2-3 weeks, which was what we expected. Other service providers used by friends before do it exactly in 2-3 weeks (Grace Removals - 2 weeks, Peter Poon-15 days), with everything delivered safely. I am getting sick of ITH putting the blame on custom procedures. My husband has worked in the government sector for years. He has experience in dealing with moving and he knows for sure what happened to our shipment was due to INEFFICIENCY.

UPDATE ii:

(an email I sent in reply to ITH Perth rep. who sent an email to everyone in the mailing list that my husband shared this story earlier. They deleted my husband from the list but forgot to delete me, so I accidently got to know that they call his 'sharing' tohmahan 'slander')

Dear ITH,

I am surprised that you didn't send the email to Josh, my husband. He wouldn't have known that now he is grandly labelled the 'pentohmah' if I hadn't received this message.
I am dissapointed at you. In the first place you didn't show us any documentation. Now you do, after you feel threatened by my blog, which was just an expression of dissapointment. Well if you read through my blog, you'd know that I blog about my experience, not because I want to SLANDER anyone as you alleged. And it is me that blog, not my husband, so it is wrong of you to accuse my husband of slandering in MY BLOG. Come on guys, MY BLOG, MY RIGHTS! I don't lie...I write from the heart. I think my husband linked my blog to his messages because he feels what I feel, or maybe because he WANTS TO SHOW OFF HOW GOOD HIS WIFE IS????
But I do have problems with the way you guys work. Take this as a constructive critiscsm if you want to improve:
1. You are not transparent. You are reluctant to show the documents from the beginning.
2. You give too many excuses. E.g- when asked about the delay, you said 'due to the holidays lah', 'custom procedures lah'...
3. You try to shirk responsibility- when we complained about the missing boxes, and itemised the missing items, instead of feeling sorry for us, you ask for receipts. Have you no common sense at all? Who on earth would keep receipts for things we intend to keep for ourselves? If you say for guarantee purposes, you know we are moving back to Malaysia. You do not respect the customers' trust and rights.
4. I also wonder why there are 3 different pallet numbers written on some boxes. Even if you show those documentations in the attachment, I can actually easily imagine that you belatedly MADE THEM UP = FAKE. Well that's my imagination, incited by your horrible work procedures.
Finally, I do not expect any compensation for the loss anymore. It is the sentimental values of the things that saddened me, not the monetary values. Whatever it is your sub-standard service had made my children cry (they lost their Christmas presents, darlings) and I am very very dissapointed.
I sincerely hope that you will improve in the future. Remember, you are operating internationally now. Why not do your little part to make Malaysia proud of you?

Regards,

Veronica Atin, wife of Josh, mom of Sandra, Arielle and Isaac, friend of many and writer of the blog that scared you witless.

Related Article....
Packing and Moving on

Who needs a maid anyway?

I had a maid last month. A part time one who happened to be looking for jobs around my housing area. And my cousin's wife has decided to employ her on a part time basis. I thought it would be good to have someone help with the housework while I concentrate on the kids and work. She was supposed to be coming in 3 x half day/week. And that sounded fine...until...

She started to slacken. At first she did her cleaning quite well. And the ironing was ok too. Then the quality of her work slowly went down. I taught her how to mop according to the way I like my floor mopped, i.e dry the floor with old towels so that it's more 'squeaky' clean. Which she didn't do despite her "ya, Mrs". She's supposed to be working 4.5 hours per day, which she conveniently reduced to 3, or 3.5 hours. She couldn't even finish the laundry I assigned her to iron on a given day, which consisted of about 5-6 pairs of uniforms/work clothes.

I gently reminded her of doing her work well. Which of course got the response "ya, Mrs". And being the way I am, I couldn't bring myself to raise my voice even though it was getting a bit too much after a few gentle reminders.

Then the day came when my cousin's wife decided to let her go. At first I wanted to keep her because...well, it was good to have some help since the hubby works far away in KL. But when I checked her work on that last day, I decided that I couldn't keep her anymore. The house looked like it hadn't been cleaned properly and she ironed only 3 pairs of the clothes I asked her to. It suddenly occured to me that because I AM TOO NICE, she was starting to take advantage. (Well I gave her old clothes and electronic appliances, and even lent her money when she came to me with some sad story of her son needing the money in Indonesia, which all in all amounted to her 1 month part time salary ).

That was it. I might seem to be a pushover but once I make my decisions, I stand by them strongly. I told her over the weekend that I wasn't keeping her anymore. Being the talker she is, she called me relentlessly asking to be kept! I told her I didn't have any more money to pay her and that the money she owed me was her salary for the time she worked with me. She tried every possible tactic to coax me...from telling me she would still come next Monday to work so that she could pay off all her debts, (my response was I consider that settled. No need to worry about owing me anything), to demanding me to pay her RM80 more because she had worked extra 4 half-days for me.

That really got me. I became so mad, because I have given her so MUCH extras and she still had the cheek to demand? But considering that I fired her without a notice, I decided to give her that RM80. But two could play a game. So I wrote in a little note to her when I put the money in an envelope, that I was deducting RM15, for the price of a brand-new umbrella I gave her a few days before and for her bus fares on one of the days she came to work when she whined of not having money even to pay her way home. And I decided to put in plain language how I found her work was. That it was so sub-standard, and that the chores she couldn't even finish in 4.5 hours, I easily did in 2 hours (which I really did on Sunday). I told her how calculative I thought she was, not even grateful of all the things I gave her including a radio and an electric kettle, but instead demanded a lot. And ended the note with DO NOT BOTHER ME ANYMORE.

Surprise, surprise, she still tried to call me a few times which I rejected, of course. And finally smsed me to say thank you, she won't bother me anymore...and tried to call again which prompted me to delete her mobile no from my contact list forever.

Since yesterday I was maid-less but not helpless. I found that doing 1 hour of mopping and general cleaning in the morning actually gave me a wonderful, much-needed exercise. And I can actually do the ironing during lunch time after taking the kids home from school. Most importantly, it saves me heartache because I know I can clean up better than the previous maid! What an experience...