bakedbean

Yes I think you're right. I looked at the MM2H gov website yesterday and they're closed 3 days. I think Pos Office will have to wait but.... Tesco boleh lah

Off topicking a bit but does your maid take all the public holidays? Our Indonesian gal worked one of the public holidays the other week. Cannot remember which one it was, I think it might've been just a Penang State Holiday. But she was adamant she couldn't do any days this week (celebrating Eid). I even dug deep for some Malay words but she wasn't having any of it Don't blame her though.

Scrasey2

Well this maid has only been working for me for a few weeks so there haven't been any public holidays until now - she only works for a few hours on a Thursday.

She is due at 2pm today so I will let you know if she turns up!

I won't pay her if she doesn't turn up though as she is through an agency and will give me a receipt for her time.

My previous maid however was not through an agency and was a completely different story.................................... hence why I have a new maid through an agency!!

bakedbean

Ha ha. Love to hear the story. I think I'm going to split out the last 2 postings with a Maid thread. Yes I know, it's all my fault for going off topic

bakedbean

Our girl is not through an agency but we kind of hijacked her. We were having renovation done (and still are) in our new home and the Interior Decorator sent along her maid to clean up the mess a couple of times and we were quite impressed with her. She was being very careful and methodical with her work and a nice helpful manner, and cheerful with it. Liked that. I should say we've not had maid/cleaner in Malaysia before, but we have had in the UK (very expensive) and in Thailand too.

We asked our ID if she knew of a cleaner and she said would we like to have a weekly clean with her maid.

Like you, it's only been a few weeks, so we'll see how it works out.

In the UK we had some real gems of cleaners . We were working from home at the time and we saw it all. Quite a few of them used to whizz around and ding the furniture and then charge a king's ransom. What a difference it is here.

Scrasey2

Well the maid turned up today!

Such a difference between the two maids we've had. It's the first time I've ever had a cleaner as at home I was it along with my full time job and everything else - since being here I do very little and yet the days seem to fly by and I wonder how on earth I managed to fit everything in!

Our first maid was recommended to us by a friend who also used her. She was Indian and middle-aged. She started out ok although would arrive at 8am along with her breakfast and sit and eat that and have a coffee then she'd get started.

She was quite slow and refused to use the vacuum (good one too being a Dyson) but instead would use some flimsy broom all round the house. After speaking to other expats, their maids too would refuse to use the vacuum - they seem scared of it for some reason.

Anyway, as each week went by her work got slower and went downhill. One afternoon just after she'd gone, I was in the laundry room looking round (I always do a spot check when she's gone to make sure she hasn't left iron on) and realised the iron was still full of water how I'd filled it up that morning and was stone cold and yet all the ironing was hanging up ready to put away. It dawned on me that she'd just smoothed the clothes and hung them up!!! From then on, I kind of screwed the clothes up a bit so she couldn't get away with that again!

She also finished earlier and earlier, one day she'd finished over an hour before she was due to go so I told her no, too early and she cleaned the windows but was not happy.

The following week was holiday Monday and on the Sunday I received a text from her saying she won't be coming tomorrow as holiday but she still wants her pay! I text her back saying, sorry no holiday pay but see you next week.

The following week turned out to be her last day. She took several phone calls on her mobile and when she left she never ever came back! She didn't reply to my texts or phone calls.

I called my friend and said she didn't go to hers either and then the following week she just turned back up at my friends house as if nothing happened but I never saw back here. She did more than one day at my friends so I suppose she just found more work on my day.

I then looked everywhere on internet for an agency and they sent me a maid the following week and what a difference! The first day I showed her around our apartment and as we got upstairs (I live in a duplex), she seemed completely disinterested but I carried on away. We got to the laundry room and I showed her all the cleaning materials etc then as I turned to walk her to the master bedroom she was already halfway down the stairs with a bucket in one hand and mop in another! Couldn't wait to get started it seems.

She works very hard and does a good job. The only downside is she doesn't speak very much English like our first maid (she is a young local Malay) but we get by on the few bits I know and hand signals! We did have quite a laugh the first couple of weeks.

She also would not use the vacuum but for some reason, 2 weeks ago she suddenly decided she wanted to use it so I showed her and she uses it all the time now.

So in summary, my top tip for anyone wanting a maid - go with an agency!!!!

bakedbean

Good opportunity to learn a bit of Malay then heh heh

joamelie

can you recommend an agency?

Strider24

I have been bighting my toungue on this subject...but I have no maid as I fail to see why I should emply someone to do jobs I have always done, not do the jobs as well as I do them and reduce my privacy...sorry

bakedbean

My take is that it depends on a number of factors. For us personally, we did the cleaning ourselves at our previous rental flat. Our new place is a lot bigger and we thought we'd give someone the work rather than knacker ourselves. Much the same, I'd never service my own car. I also cook well according to mr bakedbean but nevertheless will spend 50 percent of my evenings having some other bugger cook for me in an eatery :-) at end of day it's a personal choice. One thing for sure tho', always have respect for anyone who does a decent job for us.

Scrasey2

I agree Bakedbean, we have a much bigger place than we did back home and it's way too hot to be cleaning the whole place.

My Husband's company pay for our maid service and all the expats in his company have maids so why not - nice to have a few years off doing the chores while I'm here!

However, I do agree with the privacy side of it which is why I could never have a live-in maid but some people we know do and it suits them but it's definitely not for me. Once a week is all we need.

Atilla

Have to agree. If you need one and can get a good one it's great, esp if they end up getting treated well. You hear, and I know of, some horror stories going way beyond just privacy reduction too.

ex reg

Tempted to post our maid experiences here, which have been positive for two out of three maids.

But having politicised another thread on this forum which akcherllee hasn't deteriorated to a slanging match I'm not going to do the same here.

This is a great helpful forum and I don't want it to go the way of most others.

So I'm keeping stumb.

bakedbean

Yup, agree with all that too. It's a compromise on the privacy issue. Our lady does 4 hours of cleaning only a week and she's smart enough to work out what needs doing. Very minimal supervision, and she works at her own pace. I like that. And if she doesn't finish it all in 4 hours, we don't worry, and neither does she. And it's also given me a kick up the bum to get back to practicing my beginners Malay.

The Live-In Maid thing is something we think about for the future. It's not something we'd like to do, to be honest, but there's the reality that we're retired and we shall get decrepid at some point probably, and this is an easy way to get more help... and affordable in Malaysia. Cannot imagine what that would cost in the UK. Doesn't bear thinking about.

Atilla