An Empty Feeling

..cats and dogs yesterday night from 6.30pm till 8.30pm. I was on my way back home from KLIA and was driving along the Dengkil-Putrajaya stretch of road and noticed that the sky very dark. The rain started to pour almost immediately and I could hardly see the car in front of me!!! I had a hard time concentrating with the lighting flash once every 5 minutes. Further to that for some odd reason I was feeling sleepy and I had to slap my face a couple of times just to stay awake.

Heavy downpour along the Putrajaya - Bangi/Kajang stretch

When I reached Kajang there was rain water everywhere. There’s a stretch of road whereby it was notorious for retaining rain water and that was flooded quite badly and so I had to use a short-cut to my Mother-in-laws house. As I stopped at the traffic light to turn right, my small car – a Proton Savvy to be precise – was bombarded with rain water from on coming cars , buses and lorries from the opposite side of the road !!! So much so that the car started to make funny squealing noise which I suspect it from the air cond and fan belt. I wanted the traffic light to quickly turn green so to make that right turn as I don’t to face the possibility that my car could stall and thus have to push it to one side under the pouring rain. Luckily luck was on my side and the light turn green and I put the pedal to the metal. But as approach this short-cut road, I notice cars coming from opposite direction high-beamed at me constantly. At first I never took notice of it but when I approached this short-cut, man I was in for a surprise. It was flooded as well but not entire the stretch as only the beginning and the middle part of it was flooded. Furthermore it wasn’t actually flooded – more like half a feet deep only. So I took a deep breath, made sure there wasn’t any oncoming car, switched off my car’s air-cond and gunned the accelerator hoping that my small car could make it through safely. Boy oh boy oh boy half way through crossing the ‘Red Sea’, the short cut was immered in rain water deeper than I thought but I had no choice as I couldn’t stop and if I’d did that will spell the end of my car and besides it would be embrassing and my confidence as a season driver would take a severe beating on my ego. I maintain a slow speed at around 15km/h and only staying in 1st gear but suddenly the car was about to stall!!! I said “OH NO!!!!! NOT NOW LAH WEI…C’MON BABY YOU CAN MAKE IT…DON’T GIVE UP ON ME NOW!!!” . So I stepped the accelerator harder to keep up the revs and voila!!! we made it through!!!. Phew my heart almost sank and I was sweating all over. I was so happy I made it that I banged the steering wheel in sheer delight and relief. My car then started to my funny noises but after for a while those funny noises stopped. I had to park my car quite a distance from my Mother-in-laws house because her house in fact all of the houses in that street was flooded as well – almost of knee deep in rain water. Her living room was flooded but luckily the kitchen and the dining area was spared because it is a two level floor house – meaning the living room area is lower than the kitchen and dinning area. Once the water subsided I and my brother in law helped clean the living room area and the front porch.

Living room flooded

Car porch flooded.

The water took quite a awful long time to subside due to ongoing road and irrigation works just up the road and I think the Sungai Langat overflowed as well. I think during the fasting month, the basement carparkand ground floor of Plaza Metro Kajang was flooded due to overflowing water from Sungai Langat and this was partly due to very heavy rain for about 3 hours.

I just hope the relevant government agencies and especially the local municipality take a look into this flood issue seriously and come up with a practical and cost effective flooded mitigation plan. If not, I shudder to think what could happen to Kajang town in 10 years time…

..this is the PART II of my maid episode and you can read Part I.

So where were we ? ..Oh ya…so after our chat with the cute and young lady doctor and paid the deposit, we went back home to prepare to go to work – it was about 7.00am by then. In the afternoon my wife got a call from Hospital Kajang saying that the doctor (this time not the cute and young lady doctor) reported that the main cause of her stomach pain was a severe bout of GASTRIC. As for the bout of fits part, the doctor wants to carry out a CT scan procedure on my maid to ascertain whether she her brain is okay or not. The procedure cost an additional RM500. My wife upon hearing the price almost fainted and lamented to me that this maid is quite expensive to maintain woh….

We came to a decision that the CT scan should be postponed because the FOMENA medical check-up report of my maid stated that there was no case of bout of fits. So we told the good doctor to decline the procedure.

So on Friday night, I had to mop the downstairs floor and wash the clothes and went to sleep feeling so exhausted. On Saturday morning, we went to Hospital Kajang to see if our maid could be discharged. The doctor told us that she can be discharge but if she has another bout of the fits after leaving the hospital premises, the hospital is not liable for anything. We had no choice, took the risk that she won’t go bonkers on us and this decision almost proved fatal.

Once we got back to our house, we told her go to her room upstairs to take a hot shower and take a rest until she feels better – we told her to take it easy. After taking the shower and putting on new clothes, our maid sat on the floor looking a bit dazed. She didn’t want sleep or perhaps she didn’t felt sleepy. My mother-in-law who by the way was at our house looking after our two munchkins came upstairs and sort of gave her a lecture on eating on time as GASTRIC isn’t good for the body system.

Now my mother-in-law has somewhat of a dislike for those who do not follow her instructions and those who talk back at her and this maid of ours has done both on several occasions. Our maid had been taking food from neighbors behind my mother-in-laws back. So much so that the rumor has spread throughout the neighborhood that our maid is starving to death and that my mother-in-law doesn’t give her food to eat. In fact whilst we (me, me wife, two munchkins and mother-in-law) in Avillion Beach Resort in Port Dickson, our maid left my mother-in-laws house for quite a long while and asked for food from neighbours. How we knew, our family friend was around at the time. This go my mother-in-law mad as hell as anything could happen to her. We always ensure there’s food on my maid’s plate. We always told her that if she wants to take food from the dinner table or snacks from the kitchen cupboard, tell us beforehand. In addition my mother-in-law always tell my maid to eat on time but my maid either refuses to listen or is just being over-confident that her stomach is okay. I guess this GASTRIC episode of her’s proved right that one must eat on time.

So as my mother-in-law was giving the maid an earful, my maid suddenly fainted.!!! Again!!! I said to myself…“OH NO NOT AGAIN!!!” , “AIYAH!!…WE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE DOCTOR’S ADVICE”. I then carried my maid over to her bed, opened the windows and switched on the stand fan to circulate much needed air. Few seconds later, the body shivering, head movement, arms tensed, moaning episode started again!!!! I couldn’t believe it but at least I was calm and not about freak out as before. She was then murmuring something about someone. I told her to calm down and repeat what she said. She then told me that …“sir….tolong…tolong..saya…dirusuk..oleh Ah Mah (Mother-in-law)”..(sir please help me, I am being posssed by Ah Ma (mother-in-law)). I then told her to remain calm and there’s nothing to be worried about. She then said…“Ah Ma….ada di sini!!!…saya takuuuut sir..saya takuuut sir” (Ah Ma is still hear…I am scared sir). I then held her hands firmly and told her that Ah Ma is not around and went back home – which isn’t true lah as Ah Ma was playing with the kids just in the next room. I told my mother-in-law to bring the kids downstairs as I try to settle this drama once and for all.

My maid kept on shivering and moaning loudly until the point that she grasp my right palm with so much force that I almost cried in pain. Suddenly she let go of palm and went to a deep sleep. I thought she was dead!!!…but then I notice she was still breathing and felt relieved. About ten minutes later, my maid woke up, shaken but awake and started to talk to me again. She told me that she has been traumatized by my mother-in-law. That my mother-in-law is a bad and evil person which is utterly untrue

This is interesting part. She confess to me that a month ago she almost ran away from my mother-in-laws house whilst my mother-in-law was away at the time. She aborted her attempted ‘escape’ because she didn’t know where to go. She confessed to me that she didn’t want to work here because she isn’t used to working as a maid.

I wasn’t surprised upon hearing her confession because I knew from the beginning that she isn’t used to the demands of working as a maid. I was angry that she had to revert to acting as if she has some kind of fits or seizures just to not work for us anymore. I wish she should have just told us instead of making us go through this dramatic episode over the past weekend.

This is all an act. Just an act. But she did have a severe case of gastric that I can confirm. However the bout of fits and seizure is just plain acting. Pure bullshit to me. Utterly disgusting in my opinion that she had to resort to this.

I had enough of this and instructed my wife to call the doctor to come our house can look at my maid’s gastric problem. But in truth I told my wife to call the maid agent to take this maid away from our house because we had enough of her. And so about 3 hours later the maid agent came and you know what ? Our maid suddenly was well again i.e no more seizures or bouts of fits. As the maid went along with the agent, she thank my wife and I for being understanding and apologized for all the wrong things she had done to us and we being a good Samaritan accepted her apology.

I never understood why she had to do what she did – making us fearing for her life. I really thought she was going to die having those bouts of fits and seizures whilst she was grasping and clinging onto my hand. The fear of someone dying right in front of your eyes is something which no one should go through. How I wish she could have told us in a less dramatic fashion.

Right now, my back, legs and arms are aching from all that sweeping, mopping, washing, ironing. It’s not easy being a maid – that I must admit.

…was a real drama for me and my wife.

It all started on early Friday morning around 5.30am when my wife got a called from her mother stating that the maid fainted after complaints of stomach pains. Both of us got dress and rushed back to mother-in-laws house which is only 10 minutes away.

Once we got there, I saw my maid slumped against the kitchen cabinet sink. We checked her pulse and breath a sigh of relief that she was still breathing. It was as if she was in a deep sleep. Fearing the worst, my wife called for an ambulance from Hospital Kajang. I and mother-in-law then carried the maid over to the living room sofa and that’s when the freaking episode happened. My maid suddenly shivered profusely – her arms tensed up, her head was moving from left to right continuously and there was a slight moaning. I almost peed in my pants!!!! I thought she was possessed or something and I didn’t know what to do.

I then tried to ‘wake her up’ by slapping her face but didn’t find any demons exiting her body. Then all of a sudden, she stopped shivering. I wasn’t sure whether the my slapping of her face did the trick but as least the body shivering stopped. So as I thought when suddenly the whole body shivering, head moving, moaning episode started all over again !!!! “OMG what’s going on here ??!!!” I said to myself. My wife and mother-in-law was stunned and scared stiffed and so was I!!! We all didn’t know what else to do. Then the ambulance came and not a minute too soon. The ambulance staff came and asked us what happened and we relayed the scary episode to him and judging from his face he didn’t looked to surprised. Our maid was then hoisted up the mobile bed and brought into the ambulance. My wife and I followed the ambulance in my wife’s car and about 10 minutes we reached Hospital Kajang. My maid was admitted to the emergency ward and immediately the nurses and a lady doctor (young and cute I must say) there put her on the ‘Drip’. Later when things calm down, the young and cute lady doctor asked us what had happened and again we relayed the story. I specifically told the doctor that she may be having the ‘fits’ but the doctor said that it’s difficult for her to ascertain my opinion as she has yet to see if my maid got into bout of ‘fits’. Then all of a sudden…my maid started the body shivering, head moving, moaning episode again. I then told the cute and young lady doctor..”See, she is going into a fit lah”. The cute and young lady doctor looking a bit suspicious and told me…”Hmmm…I don’t think that’s a bout of fits…there’s something else…”

The cute and young lady doctor then told us that my maid needs to stay overnight for further observation. We then proceed to check her in and paid a whopping RM400 (as a deposit – minus prescriptions if any) for the overnight stay. The doctor then told us to come over tomorrow during visiting hours to get the full details after the precautionary checks.

More to continue in Part II

..3 months since I last smoked a cigarette. Yes, I am trying my best to kick the habit. I am not a chain smoker – smoking a pack a day, I am more of a casual smoker and a pack of 20 sticks can last me about 4 days. The reason why I kicked the habit is because getting expensive to smoke – a pack of Dunhill cost RM9.00 and besides, cigarette smoking is detrimental to one’s lungs.

To kick this habit is kinda hard. I mean the temptation to smoke a fag is still there but I manage to suppress this deadly urge. How ? you may ask. Simple. I substitute this urge to smoke by drinking coffee. I love coffee – no not that 3-in-1instant coffee in a sachet but the one which you have to mix is with sugar and creamer. I normally pour about two tablespoons of ground coffee powder into my cup and 1 teaspoon of sugar and creamer respectively. I just love the coffee powder. The smell can make one feel perky. Yes, now I am addicted to caffeine -  another deadly addicted and I notice that I can drink up to 6 cups of coffee a day. I need to drink coffee after every meal. Even before I go to sleep at night, I need my cuppa. My wife notices my coffee addiction and has been reminding me to cut down on my caffeine intake. I told her at least it beats polluting my lungs but she reluctantly agrees as always.

Funny how one bad habit can be easily subsituted by another equally bad habit….hmmmmmm…