a dash of nutmag!

A young Indonesian lady, 23 years of age, working in Singapore.

A typical day for her starts at 8 am in the morning, and ends at 5am in the wee hours of the morning. She is not allowed kaya/jam spreads other than butter in her breakfast sandwich, not allowed noodles/rice other than Maggi Mee for lunch, not allowed any combination other than the same (literally) bland chicken cube vegetable soup with rice for dinner, while her employer feasts on other delicacies. Not allowed to cook herself an egg, even. She lements to me that she’d rather not eat, explaining to her employer that she is a light eater, and she has apparently attempted to return to the agency 3 times, to no avail.

She cooks dinner for her female employer and her son at night, then at 4 am, made to cook for the annoyingly fussy male one, whom she says ‘tekans’ her. She is made to sew and unsew the buttons of baskets of his shirts daily (even those not worn) though they’re perfectly fine. Carry heavy stacks books out from the storeroom just for him to ‘check/browse’, only to have her carry them back without him having even touched them. His clothes have to be soaked for at least 2 days before they are dried. Scrub the ceiling and the floor daily, forced to eat the same food daily, sleep 3 hours a day, made to do ridiculous stuff that obviously has no intended purpose. What kind of a dog’s life is this?

How is it different from owning a dog, feeding it the same disgusting canned food everyday? Forcing it to stay up with you just because you sleep late, making sure that it is up before you to greet you when you get out of bed, and while it is awake, flinging over the dogbone a gazillion times, asking it to fetch it back to you each time, on top of that, making it run to the tree to touch it a thousand times daily (how pointless)?? I mean how much cleaner is the ceiling gonna be or perfect your buttons gonna be by doing and redoing them daily?

I’m sorry, I believe dogs in Singapore enjoy better lives than the human (mind you) domestic helpers. I reckon Christian employers (at least) aren’t so hideous right? Oh wait, he is Christian.

To those of you who have noticed, there is one such lady in my house right now. The employers are out of town for a month and so she’s here for the month (technically a good thing for my mom and I ",). Before you tell me ‘hey! that’s illegal!’, I think I’m doing the law more of a favour than a disfavour. I was just thinking as she was talking to me, my goodness! She must be enjoying herself in our house! It must have been a relief for her to be here, rather than at the other place where she probably be locked in the house for the month! Wah Lau eh!

No wonder initially when she’s here, she’s so scared to fry an egg for lunch, insisted on Maggi Mee when we offered her proper food!(?) But after getting used to it, she sleeps at 10, and the kaya/jam bottle finishes mighty quickly, so does the egg and the cakes! Good lah! She should just take as much before she goes back to that place in two days time…

Sigh… Worse than dogs…  

So.. I was there by 9am, boy, was I excited! Haha.. Ordered my Kopi C Kosong, which was good! Then I asked for their Scones, which was recommended. Then I was disappointed to hear that they only start making them at 11am.. But nevermind, I ordered Orange Ciabatta Kaya Toast which sounded pretty funky! But hey, it was good! It had caramelised orange peel bits in it! And the Kaya is nice and homemade! 

Oh my favourite part was, the owner asked me if I specially came to try the scones, and whether I heard about it from the Doctor’s blog.. I said YEA! Then he immediately offered to make a batch of scones for me right away if I would wait!! Haha so nice right?? Of course I waited, but then I was disgustingly full after everything! Haha! Scones were good too!

Definitely going back there, with my grandparents and my mom for high tea perhaps! Hha! Told my mother about it, then she was like WHoa.. how come you go all the way there???? you better bring me there! Hha. Next time, I’m gonna try the ciabatta with preserves! ",  

All thanks to Carol, I have discovered a rare gem on the internet… check this out man..

ieat,ishoot,ipost

Haha! Got loads of good food recommendations in Singapore! According to Carol, he’s a Singaporean doctor (!?!)  who’s a Christian as well! The good thing about it is, he’s not atas or anything, so there’s loads of unhealthy hawker food reviews! I think it’s really really funny how he has this conservation of calories theory. Just imagine that God had created us with a limited number of calories we can consume in our lifetime. So we shldn’t waste them on yucky, unremarkable food. Agree. Instead we should save up calories for that unhealthy but superdelicious plate of recommended Char Kway Teow. Makes sense? Hah! What a thing a doctor actually says! ",

Oh man, I love the way he describes the food! Really really really really sounds like Joel Koh! Hah! ", Oh but then he’s a doctor, so he adds in really cool scientific stuff like.. how beating the meat straightens the protein strands.. yada.. then more springy texture… Then he takes really good pictures, making the $3 wanton mee look like it’s off the menu of the Ritz Carlton Chinese restaurant! (Hah! Carollers, you know what I’m referring to! haha!)

"… That gravy contains enough bovine essence to make you want to Moo…. and that’s no Bull. I have never tasted a better gravy. It so savoury, so beefy, so tasty, so Shiokadoodle Doo! (Better than a Scooby snack, no, TWO Scooby snacks!) The meat really soft and tender and they don’t overcook it so it is still pink when it is served…"

- On Beef Noodles from Golden Mile FC

Haha.. love reading it! Makes you wanna be right there, tasting it! haha! Then I’m reminded, all the fat belongs to the Lord! Hhaa! Having said that, no, I do not live to eat, that’s wrong! Mhm!