deviousways

If you give in each time, you're perceived as a "soft touch". If you don't, you're a hard-nosed bitch. That's the thing about money and maids. But what do you do when the new domestic help asks for a loan? And then quickly terms it an "advance" on her next salary? That's what my cook did today. She's been with us for less than five weeks now. In which time, she has been erratic and turns up at various times. She has also not been totally honest--when she started, she had promised to be home by 11.30 am. So that my little boy can have his lunch by 1 pm. (Before we hired her, I was doing the housework and cooking and running to pick him up from school/ferrying him to fitness classes. Basically, I barely had time for my freelance assignments or even, to sit down and catch my breath). But our cook actually turns up now between 1 p.m and 1.30 pm. Because she never told me she had a prior commitment. When she's fell ill this month, I insi...

Make your bed, every day. It'll keep you happier, healthier. That's what self-help books and articles tell me. Actually that is true--making my bed, leaves my mind clutter-free. Something about straightening out crinkles, smoothing out rumpled sheets and seeing the final product, is extremely soothing. And doing housework, occasionally, makes me healthier (all that bending, squatting, dusting, sweeping, swabbing!). Something to do with proactive action and it's positive after-effects, I suspect. On an everyday basis, I hate housework. It's boring, repetitive and takes up so much of my time and energy. I'd rather pay someone else to do it. Though for a long time, I felt like a lazy person because I had a cook and a maid. Because I know of many women, including my own sister, who do both. Then author Alexander McCall Smith, creator of one of my favourite heroines, Precious Ramotswe, came to my rescue. In one of his Botswana-based books (featuring Ramotswe), his he...