Kings’ friends and business partners have actually stayed here quite happily before, but this is my first time stepping into the lobby… on erm, a stealth mission <cue music>
We’re considering changing helpers, because our current one can’t seem to stop feeding the family expired/ bad food among other things and has to be very heavily supervised at all times…
(We didn’t fire her because that we know of she doesn’t steal – though she still cost me a medical bill for food poisoning before we realized she had been lying about being able to read expiry dates, all the many months and several times we had taught her to do the grocery shopping and she had said she understood…)
Christmas decorations are in…
We’re not sure, and risk current helper ‘tude, hence the need for discretion while we have a think… I wouldn’t mind just a day help to come in and clean or cook actually, but Kings wants someone else in the house when he does his travelling for work, because his only child might be stuck alone in an apartment with a wife who is incapacitated with say, food poisoning or something (touch wood)…
Umm, maybe there might be some concern in there for his only wife too…
Regal Hotel in the Causeway Bay area has a nice lobby/ cafe near the maid agency, so Rockstar could hang out after church last Sunday with Wantan noodles while we interviewed at the next table…
A common sight on Sunday, this one thru the hotel windows, as helpers have picnics under or on overhead bridges…
And by the roads…
The main HSBC in Central (closed on a Sunday) would be way more crowded, and as far as I know, there aren’t maid agencies near there…
The agency won’t allow us to meet helpers outside their offices without supervision, so the very few (since it’s a hotel cafe and we’re obviously interviewing we try to keep it at a minimum) helpers we meet must be chaperoned.
Views from the random car park we swing into on our stealth mission
We find Hong Kong, touch wood, pretty safe – otherwise we would be quite worried about our helper unsupervised in our home. But we did notify building security…
Where we live has close circuit camera surveillance so tight, a friend’s son whose red “ferrari” pedal car disappeared at one of the indoor playgrounds was retrieved, despite the playground being frequented by residents of maybe thousands of units in our development.
When they found the pedal car missing, my friend sat for several hours watching the surveillance tapes. The 6-ish year old Aussie boy who had walked in by himself and left with the car was tracked to the exact (of the maybe thousands of) unit(s) and the guard knocked on the door to ask for the car back.
Bully for cameras, because the boy who took the car was convincing. His parents, who were at work, were really sorry.
Unrelated to any of the above, one of my ex-colleague’s helpers didn’t come home one Sunday after packing her bags and taking about HKD 8,000 in jewelry, for which my ex-colleague made a police report. The helper was caught and jailed several months, by her employer’s water cooler account…
I guess some do get away with it, but it’s nice to hear stories where they get caught.
