Ayi and jia shi yuan

Ayi is equivalent to a housekeeper and jia shi yuan is like a personal driver. I am very thankful for having both of them. My ayi, Ah Ling and my jia shi yuan, Zhou xian sheng have helped me to survive here.

I have never have a maid all my life. The only help I had when back home was my faithful part-time helper who came in once a week to help me with the ironing and some house chores. Here, the ayis work full day and some, even stay with the family. But I do not want to return home one day and not know what cleaning the house is all about. So, I stated my requirement, that is to have a part-time ayi who will come in twice a week to lighten my load so that I can have more time coaching Kai and Ann. Thank God, I found Ah Ling. She is a God-sent. Very hardworking lady, so much so, sometimes, I have to chase her out of my house to stop her from working more. I always believe that kindness begets kindness. There is no need to be picky and fuss over every small minute details. As long as the work gets done and even if it is done in a short period of time, it is time to let her go home. Ah Ling appreciates that, by the second week, she was already boiling soup for me. (Her job does not include cooking).

That's the reason why, till today, I cannot understand why some companies equates working long hours to being hardworking ??? Isn't getting the job done in the shortest time the best way to go.

The only time we own a car was when we were in US of A. Over there, a car is a need. We are not car owners in our country and we thoroughly enjoy the freedom of no car debt, no road tax, no ERP, no carpark fees etc... We don't have a car, let alone, a personal driver. So, when the company provided us with one, it felt really strange initially. But having been on the road for the past months, we truly appreciate Mr Zhou. Like my earlier posting, only dare-devils can drive on the roads here. I tell you, if you can survive the roads here, you can survive any roads on planet earth. Mr Zhou is a very skillful driver and he is very helpful. Each time when we need to go to a place, he always does his homework before driving us there. And one thing about him, he is never punctual, only EARLY!!! Without him, we will be imprisoned by our own home.