Did everyone has a great Mayday break ? Though it’s just a one day off thingy, but well, it has been a good break for me with a little shopping, a foot massage and clearing off some household chores. Talking about household chores, it has been quite awhile since I started doing them again. Arghhh…. all thanks to HER.
“HER” refers to the helper. Technically speaking, she doesn’t belong to me. She was hired by Mr Chunky’s siblings to take care of the MIL. But sometime back, the MIL started to stay with us with the helper. So I was indirectly blessed with a no-need-to-pay-maid and no-housework-fuss-free-life, till few days back.
Basically I would say her job is very simple. Much more simpler than any of us. There were no crying babies, active kiddos or even sickly old folks to take care of. Even MIL is at work most of the hours. She has all the freedom she can have. For a helper, what more would you ask for, isn’t it ?
Since she was employed solely for MIL purposes, her job would be to take good care of her and of course, tags along whenever she goes since her knees does give occasional headaches. The rest of the chores are quite secondary. Well, here’s the problem, MIL shutters between different homes. Sometimes she stays with us, sometimes she goes back to her own house. This arrangement arised partly for convenience sake, coz her work place used to be nearer my home and of course some other personal reasons of hers.
I suppose the helper should get accustomed to both houses since wherever the MIL stays, she stays too. And wherever she is at, she would have to take care of the chores of that household when MIL is at work. It’s pretty simple and straightforward, isn’t it ? BUT sometime back, she started to bring up the issue of “shouldn’t and CANNOT work for 2 households”.
We were quite mad, it was liked “Come on, we did not make her work for one household in the day and another in the night, right ? It was more liked wherever the MIL stays, she stays too, and of course help in the chores of where she stays for that night.” To pacify things and seriously, re-training is tedious, we decided to give in and upped her salary slightly to make up for her “so-called loss”.
Until last week again, we realised she has been abusing the benefit of the calling card that we had provided her. She actually utilised $80 worth of calling time within a day. She broke down when she was reprimanded. The following day, we realised again she did not do her job well, within a span of 5 hours, she did nothing else, except mopping the floor and cleaning the windows ?? The clothes were left unfolded, unironed and sprawled all over the bed. She was given a told-off by the MIL. A simple told-off somemore, not even considered a scolding.
That’s the straw, I guess. She said she doesn’t want to work for us anymore and wants to go back to the agent. Since her heart is no longer around, we let her go this time. But we just feel that she will live to regret…..真是生在福中不知福…..
So my weekends are quite burnt now. Fortunately I still have outdated posts to clear. ^-^
Since I have some going-to-expire thickened creme, I actually replaced the milk with it. Probably that explains for the sponge-alike than chiffon texture for the thicker nature of the creme… Taste-wise, pretty much aka chinese egg cakes. Soft, eggy and pleasantly light.
The way it’s presented score further points too. ^-^
And hey hey hey, I finally got my Happy Call Jumbo Grill as a gift !! Happy Happy Happy Me !! But then again…I have no time for it yet ! Seriously hope it doesn’t turn into another white elephant in the kitchen.
Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes Chiffon cake: 3 egg yolks 20g sugar 35g corn oil 60g thickened cream 70g plain flour 3 egg whites 25g sugar Filling : 60g dairy whipped cream 10g sugar Icing sugar, for dusting Method : 1. Pre-heat oven to 170C. Arrange paper liners on baking tray. 2. Hand whisk egg yolk and sugar till pale in colour. Add in corn oil and thickened cream, mix well. 3. Sift in cake flour, stir to combine. 4. Beat egg white until foamy, gradually add sugar, and continue beat till soft peak form. 5. Take 1/3 of egg white and use a hand whisk to mix into egg yolk batter. Fold in the balance egg white with a spatula till well combine. Scoop batter into pre-arranged paper liners to about ¾ full. 6. Bake for 20-25 mins at middle rack. 7. Beat whipping cream with sugar till firm and stiff (over a bowl of iced water). Pipe cream into cupcake and dust with icing sugar. Refrigerated before consume. |
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Helpers nowadays are not easy going, they are not like the helpers we had like 20 yrs ago. Those day's helpers were dedicated, honest, caring…and the list goes on.even a part time helper nowadays have so many terms and conditions. Sally
You baked the cuppies so prettily and elegant looking!! And Joyce, I can totally understand your frustrations! X(((( my maid only do household chores, no cooking and no need to take care of kids. They can spend the whole morning washing toilet and the utility bills is sky high! When asked, she cried and also said she wants to go back to agt. Really, they 身在福中不知福 .. Nowadays, really not easy to get good maid ..
I totally agreed with you, my current helper will be the last helper, after this, I am not going to hire anymore , their quality of work is not worth for the amount that we paid. Thanks for trying out.
Precisely.. so difficult to get a good helper nowdays.. the previous one was very good though.. we were all very satisfied with her.. but then she choose to go back after 2 years.. Wow.. u are lucky to have such a friend.. is it Amelia again ? Hehehe…
Agree lor… I am starting to think that probably it's already agreed among the maids.. everyone to adopt this kind of working attitude..thats why we all face the same kind of problems..
Gone are the good old days where people are more simpler. Nowdays really hard to engage good helpers anymore.
The cupcake looks stunning by itself. May I know where is the maid from? Enjoy ur new toy , I regretted didn't get the red colour jumbo, mine is brown I don't like the grill like in brown. I choose brown mainly becoz I want to match its ocher deeper cousin (one size smaller).
I bet this was soooooooooper tasty..:)new to your space Joyce..amazing space you havehappy following you..:)do stop by mine sometimeTasty Appetite
Thanks Jay for your nice words ! Hope you keep coming back. Sure will drop by your blog too !
Yeah quite agreed. But seems like it's quite difficult to eliminate the helper in the Singapore scene totally as many households are very dependent on them already !
The maid is from Indonesia…. Ooohh.. actually I bought mine locally… and they only have this red colour though…
Thanks Sweetylicious for your compliments ! So what did you do with your maid in the end ? Did you continue to keep her then ??
Very pretty … was thinking of making this over the week end.
hi joyce, hearing your story, i think i would also let her go back. Sometimes we just do not know what's in their mind, if she wants to go back, just let it be..otherwise she will come up with lots of grandmother stories and create problems for you. Of course then, there are still some good ones but really it's too difficult to bump into one. Look your hokkaido cupcakes, they look so pretty in the liners. I'm lucky that i dont hv to make one and yet able to taste it few weeks back, a friend made and gave some to me :)
Nowaday, the maids are generally quite terrible. It is hard to find one good one where you can put your trust in. Sigh…
Hi! I've been searching for these square cupcake liners that are just too pretty! I'm also from singapore and am wondering if you bought them from here. Would appreciate if you could share this information as I haven't seen them in baking shops here. Thanks!Claire
Hi… Could you share as to where we can get these square cupcake liners? Been looking all over for them too!
Hihi Claire, I bought these cupcakes liners from Phoon Huat.
Hi JoyceThanks so much. I've never seen them at phoon huat before. Will go check them out. My friend just bought a huge supply for me from House of Ingredients in KL! :) Love your blog! Claire