The aftermath of being robbed

The act of crime was done within seconds.

I was sitting in my locked car waiting for the gate of my student's house to be open. As it was opening, there was an explosion of glass on the passenger glass. I screamed. Turned my head to the left and saw a hand lifting my handbag out of the car. The person went out of my vision and immediately ran off with his accomplice on their motorbike (which I didn't see but the maid did). I drove into the house. The gate was closed, and I went in to borrow a phone to call Sam.


The ordeal started after that.

First, I had to cancel my handphone, bank card and credit card.

The police report took 3 hours and we had to go to 3 police stations. We went to the one nearest our house first and had to sit through the excruciating slowness of the police officer typing the report into the computer with 2 fingers. We actually did our own report and printed it for the Police, but they needed to type it into their system. When he pressed enter, the whole report disappeared. He retyped it 3 times, and it disappeared 3 times!

So we went to another police station. The 4th entry also disappeared! Luckily the 5th time was successful. Then we had to wait for them to get a reply from whoever it was. We were then told to go to another police station to see an inspector. Luckily, that was the end of the reporting line.

I wasn't sure what I could tell them that wasn't already in the report. Basically, I didn't see the perpetrator. So I knew that it was futile since I couldn't give any descriptions. But it took 3 hours anyway.

Next, I had to replace my hand phone, new bank card and get new SIM card, which didn't activate, and therefore I had to go to Maxis again. It's a good thing, the people at Maxis are efficient. But Sam wanted to register with Maxis for land line and internet. So this week we’ve been to Maxis 4 times!

I still haven't had the time to report to the Embassy about the loss of my I/C and driving license. The car can't be used too because we need to order a new window. Unfortunately, our car being an old Opel, spare parts are hard to find.

Of course, with no license, I am practically legless. I'm going to have to get a Malaysian driving license since I won't be able to replace my Indonesian one any time soon. And that's going to be another ordeal. *Sigh*

Sam told me I have to sit through a 5 hour instructional video. Something about the danger of driving. I'm not looking forward to that. And then of course, go through driving lessons, which I don't think I really need, but have to do anyway.

I'm also going to have to replace a library book that was in my bag. I'm not looking forward to report it to Maria, the librarian. She can be quite sharp. *Shrudder* Especially since the book is an old edition. I wonder if it's still being sold in the bookshop. It's the first book of a series. So it's quite important to get it replaced. And I'm rather upset that I didn't get to finish reading it too!

If sitting in a locked car while entering a house compound is no longer safe, I wonder if any single woman driver is safe from these criminals. This definitely hasn't been a good week.

Maid-less in KL

The maid had to leave suddenly because her mum was very ill. We got her a plane ticket on Wed evening but she was too late. Her mum died on Wed morning.

I haven't been happy with the maid. She talks back to me, and since she's not my maid, she doesn't listen to what I say. I feel bad that this had to happen to her though.

Anyway, we're maid-less for the next 2 months. And it so happened that the first day we had no maid was my busiest day of the week and it was one of those days when you just didn't get enough sleep. I think I barely had 4 hours of sleep.

So the first day went like this:

Morning: Woke up, washed clothes, cleaned rabbit's cage, fed him, watered the plants, put the dry dishes back, washed dishes in the sink, hung clothes, made sure that Sam got Sean to bathe and brush his teeth, fed Sean breakfast, rushed to playgroup at 9:30am.

We were a bit late but that's ok. Returned and borrowed books, did a craft with Sean, cleaned up playgroup with the other mums at the end. We skipped story telling and rushed home. Heated up food for lunch. Got Sean to eat lunch (Feeding Sean is one of the most tasking tasks!), got him to bathe again because it was such a hot day.

Afternoon: Sam sent him to school that day while I took down the laundry and ironed. Then at 1.30pm, rushed out to teach 3 students. Came back at 6pm, had dinner that Sam cooked, washed dishes, ironed more clothes. After that, I was too tuckered out and had enough for the day. There's always tomorrow, right?

I was feeling rather kindly towards the maid. I thought: Oh, she must be so grumpy because she was worried about her mum, blah, blah, blah. Until......

I actually did the housework while still having to work (part time) and send Sean to school and playgroup, do grocery shopping, etc.

She really doesn't do her work very well.

After I mopped the floor, the floor felt so much cleaner than it has ever before. We resorted to walking with slippers at home because we couldn't stand the dust. We thought that the new place is extra dusty because of the proximity of the road to the living room, but I realized that it's just because she doesn't mop the floor.

She doesn't vacuum that well either because when Sam vacuumed the carpet, they were very dusty.

I wash, dry and ironed the clothes within the day, while clothes would take days to come back when she does it.

We wash the dishes right after we use and regularly put the dry ones into the cupboard, while with a maid around, the dirty dishes seem to pile on the table or the sink.

I do realize though that all these housework that the maid used to do is taking time away from Sean. Sean has had to entertain himself more and more. And sometimes the result is disastrous, like him spilling a bottle of sand-like basil seeds all over the carpet and making a huge mess of his toy area, smearing playdough all over the table or playing with bottles of paint when I'm not looking.

But he's been behaving well otherwise. And I think this experience with no maid is a great time for him to learn to do things for himself.

As for myself, I'm hoping the housework will give me a good work out. After not exercising for 4 years has made my body rather soft, and my belly big. People keep thinking I'm pregnant when I'm not! So hopefully I get to lose some belly fat during the next 2 months. =D

Bed sheets are important

I never realized how important bed sheets are until Sean slept in his own bed. The maid washed his bed sheet are replaced it with a plain one. He went back to sleeping with us.

I thought, Oh, maybe it was only the novelty of moving into a new place that caused him to move toward independence on his own. He hardly slept on his bed for the whole of last week. Sometimes Hubby or I would sleep there because it gets crowded with the 3 of us on a Queen size bed.

Then I had a thought. I changed back his bed sheet into the Mickey Mouse bed sheet. Just an experiment to see if he would behave differently. And YES! He went back to sleep on his own. =P

He still creeps into our bed in the morning, but that's ok. We kinda miss him sleeping with us. So this is a good arrangement. More space for me at night (and I don't get kicked when I sleep too!) and we get to be cozy in the morning. =D

On a side note, this morning I said to him, "Wan An" I mean " Zhou An" (good morning). He asked what was "Wan An" because he usually calls out to his teacher "U An" (good afternoon) when he goes to school. When I told him that " Wan An" "Zhou An" means "Good Morning" in Mandarin.

He said with this incredulous face, "You know how to speak mandarin too!!!!???"

LOL..... That really cracked me up, because I only know a few phrases, and my son was so surprised. Ha ha ha....

Sean @ 42 months

Sleeping in his own bed.
A few days before we moved house, Sean said, " I don't want to sleep on a baby bed.", referring to his bed. And yeah, he'd never liked his bed. He's always crawling into our bed and proceed to kick us around the whole night, going round and round while sleeping.

So in the new house, we gave him John's old single mattress, covered with brand new Mickey Mouse's bedspread,on the floor next to our bed and he had no problem sleeping in his own bed. Getting him to sleep early is still a problem, but once it's late enough and he's tired, he'll go to his bed and I'll cover him with his blanket, and he goes ZZZZZZZ.......

Another change is bathing.
It used to be really difficult to get him to bathe. But somehow over here, it's much easier. He picked his own bath soap in the Supermarket," I want to buy this soap ", a Mickey Mouse Strawberry soap. And bathes himself in the shower. I help him to wash his hair and back, but when hubby bathes him, he let's Sean bathe on his own.

This is Sean's Corner. It's usually rather messy because he's into cutting papers now. He's also been doing a lot of drawings. His latest craze is drawing masks. He tries cutting them himself, but they end up in the bin. So I have the task of cutting his masks neatly for him.

And you can see in his photos, he's becoming more and more a cheeky monkey, quite like Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes", who makes faces in photos!

Biting his classmate

Sean bit his classmate yesterday and today. He also bit another classmate once last month. When asked why, he answered that he was hungry or just plain, "I don't know", which is his typical answer.

We're a bit surprised actually because he doesn't bite at home. But his teacher said it could be because he was frustrated and couldn't say what he wanted to say that caused him to bite his classmate.

We're a bit at a loss in this area. We've told him not to bite, and hubby even scolded him for it. I've also made him say that he won't bite another person again. But I don't know if all these are even effective.

Moving House

We finally made the move.

Gosh, even though I packed part of the items and moved them in advanced, on the few days we moved the big furniture, there were still a lot to move, throw out or give away. We aren't done yet because the old house still has leftover items that have been stored in the store rooms for years.

I know the in-laws have tons of things because they haven't done spring cleaning for years, but I didn't realized how much Sean and I have accumulated through the last few years. I think you'll only realize this when you actually have to pack your things and move them from one house to the next.

I carried so many boxes up and down stairs, I think I finally managed to reduce some of the belly fat that has been bothering me. Or it could just be the trick mirror in this new house. The mirror makes everything look slimmer and taller!

I think everyone should have at least one of these mirrors. They make you feel good about yourself. =P