Back to square one...

Remember Sabarudin Tukang Bawak Kereta which I wrote about here?

Well, it's Sabarudin no more.

To cut a long story short -

He worked for us for 20 days during which we observed the following -

(1) His driving was okay. Well, if you consider him nearly hitting a car coming out of the junction near our house as okay, and also if you consider him making a dent on Ayah's car by knocking on my MIL's automatic gate as okay, then he must be okay lah kan? You got my drift?

Apart from those two incidents, he would either be driving too slowly, or too fast at times. I find myself pressing on the invisible accelerator and brake pads every now and then, and that was stressing me out a bit, I tell you.

And he rarely used the indicator lights when he was changing lanes or when he was making turns despite being reminded by us many, many times. And that was also stressing me out

(2) He has to be reminded EVERY TIME to wash and clean the cars. We specifically told him during the interview that we expect him to take care of the cars and he should wash them as and when necessary (read "dirty") and we expected him to clean both inside AND out.

But, what happened was, everytime any of the the cars needed washing, WE had to ask him to wash them (bukannya suruh wash all 3 cars serentak pun!) He could have washed them ikut turn every other day, etc. And sometimes if he washed the outside of the cars, he would forget to clean the inside. You got my drift?

Berat tulanglah sikit. No initiatives at all. Padahal while waiting for the times to ferry Ayah and the kids tu, punya lah banyak masa terluang and he would just sit and read his newspapers (tak tau lah khatam berapa kali sehari!) or he would just doze off on the chair.

(3) He had problems answering our calls and replying our SMSs. One time, he was supposed to fetch Hasya and Hilman from school at 1:00p.m. but, by 1:30p.m he was still not there. Hasya called us to ask where the driver was, and neither Ayah nor I knew his whereabouts then. It was on the Saturday when the kids had replacement school and there were not many kids around at the waiting area that time. I must have tried calling him more than 20 times, while Ayah tried calling him more than that. I was at One Utama and didn't have my car then (as Din had dropped me there at 12:30p.m before going to the school to fetch the kids). If not, I would have just gone and fetched them myself.

By 1:45p.m when Hasya called and said the driver was still not there, Ayah who was still at the hospital then, decided to go and fetch the kids himself. Just then Din called saying that he was stuck in a jam earlier and that he only arrived at the school at 1:45p.m! He didn't answer our calls because he didn't realize we were calling him as his phone was on silent mode (?!). So, Ayah gave him a piece of his mind - why couldn't he just SMS or call us to say that he was going to be late fetching the kids? What if the kids were the only two pupils waiting at the school, and what if anything happened to them?! Nauzubillah... He could have at least informed us his whereabouts, especially when he was 45 minutes late fetching the kids, right? What's the point of giving him his monthly telephone allowance if we can't contact him, and vise versa?

(4) He was just not a responsible employee. And that was the last straw for us. It was Thursday last week, and Ayah decided that I should use the driver instead as Ayah would be at his TMC clinic and he was not going anywhere that day. As I was to have a class a 10:00a.m. that morning, I SMSd Din at 6:45a.m. asking him to come at 9:00a.m. instead of his usual 11:00a.m. clock-in time. And he did not reply my SMS.

I waited until 7:30a.m and tried calling him just to confirm if he had received my earlier SMS, and he didn't answer the phone. I tried calling again a few times after that. Still no answer. So, when he didn't turn up at 9:00a.m. I decided that I should just drive to work myself. Ayah then asked me to just wait until 9:30a.m. And waited I did. But, I couldn't wait any longer as I had a class to go to at 10:00a.m.

I left the house at 9:35a.m and reached the Tutorial Room just before 10:00a.m. (Thank God!) And at 11:00a.m, in between classes I checked my phone to see if Din had replied. Still nothing from him. No SMSes or missed calls from him. Nada. Zilch.

It was only when I checked my phone again after class at 12:00p.m that I got an SMS from him, sent at 11:35a.m, stating that he couldn't SMS or call earlier as he had to send his 2 kids to the hospital that morning as they had food poisoning, and he was taking emergency leave.

I say, come on lah... From 6:45a.m until 11:35a.m - that's nearly FIVE hours, don't tell me he couldn't just call either Ayah or myself to inform that he couldn't come to work, right? It wouldn't have taken more than 2 minutes for him to dial the phone and speak to us.

Ayah was really mad and called Din and gave him a piece of his mind (or make it - A FEW PIECES of his mind kot...because after that Din just stopped coming to work...)

And that was it. He didn't even SMS or call to say that he was quitting.

Even when I SMSd him that night to ask about his kids - whether they were okay or not, he didn't reply my SMS.

So, back to square one for us.

No Bibik. No Driver.

And my typical routine for the day now would be -

5:45a.m : Wake up and prepare breakfast for Ayah and the kids.

6:40a.m : Ayah and the kids would leave the house and go to school/work, and I would dump the laundry into the washing machine. Solat.

7:00a.m : Tidy up the kitchen, sweep the floor, and if larat, I would mop the floor, too.

8:00a.m : Get ready for work.

8:30a.m : Leave the house for office, and on the way, I would drop the washed laundry at my MIL's place to be dried.

9:00a.m or 9:30a.m : I'll be at the office already.

1:00p.m : If I don't have any classes, I would fetch Hasya and Hilman and send them to my MIL's place. If I have tutorials or lectures, then my MIL's driver would have to fetch them instead,

Between 1:00p.m to 6:30p.m, as the kids' schedules are different everyday, I would either fetch Hanna from school, send her back to my MIL's, or to the tuition centre, or send the kids to piano, or something along that line.

I would then collect the dried clean and crisp laundry from my MIL's place, after which I would drive everybody back to Sri Damansara, reaching home the earliest at 7:00p.m, latest at 8:30p.m. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Hasya and Hilman have mengaji class at my MIL's place, we would go back to SD after 9:30p.m. But, if Ayah can fetch them and bring them home, I would go back to SD with Hanna first and normally the two of us would just have dinner outside on the way home.

If I feel like cooking dinner, I would cook.

If I don't feel like it, we would just eat out or order takeaway.

Ayah would normally finish work after 9:30p.m, and he would join us for dinner (at home or outside), or he would just grab something at the hospital.

After dinner, of course - I'd be doing the dishes and also clearing and tidying up the kitchen. If I yell at the kids, then they would be helping me out with this. If not, then I would be slogging in the kitchen alone.

After that (normally dah nearly 11:00p.m.), kalau rajin, I would do the ironing. Kalau tak rajin, then I would do some Facebook-ing :)

I only iron baju rumah and casuals now. All school uniforms and Ayah's work shirts are sent to the Laundrette on Friday evening to be washed and ironed, and collected on Sunday afternoon. That alone easily takes away nearly 3 hours of ironing time off my workload :) Of course this would mean that we would have to spend a bit more on the laundry bills. But, as it is, that would be part of the money which we were supposed to pay gaji Bibik, right? So, we're cool with that.

And THAT, my friends, are the reasons why this blog has been pretty quiet nowadays.

Many times I had opened my Blogspot account with plans to update this blog of mine, and many times I would just fall asleep in front of the lappie...until the alarm went off again at 5:45a.m the next morning for me to wake up and get breakfast ready. And the cycle continues everyday.

That's just how my life is at the moment. Back to square one, but, I'm more settled and organized now, syukur alhamdulillah.

Tired and spent - yes. But still hanging in there :)