vendredi, février 08, 2008

Woes of Having Help in the House

For 2 weeks now I have help with the cleaning in the house and it's a great relief. Her name's Ir, in her 40s, she's a Russian from Ukraine and she's living with an Italian guy who works for Enel (electricity company).

Ir's very friendly and cheerful and works fast. Pretty talkative too. Unfortunately, she's not as attentive as I would like her to be when it comes to the spider webs and she has this big thing for reorganising and redecorating the house - meaning that you cannot find anything once she has finished cleaning the house. Things have thus far moved from the kitchen to the dining room and from one bathroom to another. And S, a mom from school who used to hire her, told me just moments ago that Ir used to move her things from bedroom to salon, from kitchen to garage etc etc. Well, there are people who like to arrange things and people who don't (like me).

I've had cleaning ladies in France and in Germany and none has this gutso that she has when it comes to opening drawers and looking through wardrobes and cupboards. There isn't one drawer that she hasn't opened. She has even managed to find hangers that I had hidden in the Babies' wardrobe for a rainy day, taken them out and used them to hang the Hub's shirts - all without even a by-your-leave. But on the positive side, she's proactive and doesn't need to be told what to do.

The Hub adores her because he goes for the house-is-tidy thing. It doesn't matter that nobody can find anything anymore. He even wanted to know if she's cute.

As I've mentioned earlier, I was talking to S and she told me that Ir has worked for quite a number of expatriate families in Modena and almost all of them has been burglared. She was pretty sure that Ir never stole while she was cleaning the house, but it was nonetheless curious that the houses that were burglared during her absence all had clean jobs to them.

One family gave her a key and the burglar(s) apparently did their job leaving no sign of a break-in, for example.

S' house was broken into when she was away playing tennis one morning. The burglars drilled through her kitchen door and walked straight to her safe. Even the Police was amazed that they came with tools to drill out her safe (apparently not a common thing even here in burglary-rife Italy). They didn't touch anything else. They just knew where her safe was and where her little bits of everyday jewellery (in a drawer in another room) were. They really didn't touch anything else - curious, no?

K was pretty sure that "she is the link to many robberies of expat houses in the neighborhood. My advice would be to keep away from her".

But I'm so desperate for a cleaning lady. C (who introduced her to me) said the same thing and has apparently refused to tell her hubby about S' house being broken into out of fear of having to fire Ir!

In any case, I believe in being fair. There are suspicions about her being linked to burglaries but no one has ever caught her red-handed. Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise. And I like her, she's cheerful, kind and not cynical even though she's had a hard life before.

Besides, there's nothing to steal in my house. I've only got Ikea furniture and lots and lots of food, clothes and shoes. My jewellery I'm going to bring them everywhere with me in my panty.

11 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

You've been warned! Get rid of Irina and try to find someone else to help you around the house babe. Seriously!
E

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

E, You know what they say about one being innocent until proven otherwise, so I can't fire her just because one suspects her of being linked to burglaries in the houses she works in...

Edith a dit…

Xin Nian Kuai Le. You have been tagged. Check it out. http://preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/2008/02/tagged.html

SIG a dit…

That is truly scary. Please be careful. Maybe by moving things around the house, she is trying to get you confused as well. Don't tell her too much, especially about going away etc.

East Meets West Kitchen a dit…

Be careful with this cleaning lady...
On a lighter note, I was wondering how big your panty must be to hold all your jewellery. LOL!

Pris a dit…

Hey S. Wah, tricky situation leh. Are there no other cleaning ladies in Modena? I find it suspicious too that there are so many burglaries linked to the houses where she worked in. One thing though, is it possible to forbid her from opening drawers / cupboards etc? Plus all this reshuffling thing, sounds more like she´s trying to "reshuffle" things in the bid to get to know all the "possible hiding places" in the house. Well, I´m sure you´d know best about what to do for your house....just be careful k?

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

Thanks for your concern, I was having a few sleepless nights over it but well, I tell myself now that with or without her, burglaries happen all the time here in Italy so it's not new and I should try not to put all the blame on her before it even happens.

As for my panty, you'd be surprised, Hub complains that I like the granny ones which is true as I like to be comfortable whenever I can :-).

Meanwhile, on a happier note, I visited the owners' house this afternoon and discovered in the guardian's quarters that his window has a very good view of our house. Isn't that reassuring?

Anonyme a dit…

Happy CNY to u!
I don't like pple fiddling with my things and cud have imagined how u felt. My in-laws' house have been burglared a few times but the worst part was tt the police was in cahoots with the robbers. I left my jewellery in sg. Just be careful and take care. BTW, I was sad to know that Ah Meng passed away recently.

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

I'm sad too to know that she has passed away (48 years old!), I mean she was a part of our childhood!

Irina was here yesterday and she has reorganised the bookshelves and playroom, went through my recent purchases to remove their paper bags etc and I guess my problem is that I have no heart to tell her off. You must say that she's very proactive.

We talked a little about burglaries and she told me that the previous tenants were burglared at night when asleep. And the ones before - twice. She also said that herself, they had been burglared twice. It's common in Italy to be burglared.

Rachel a dit…

My cleaning lady is only supposed to clean the floors, toilets and windows, and do the ironing. She does not go anywhere near my cupboards, drawers or shelves. Guess it's me too, not liking strangers to go through our things. Perhaps you could tell her so?

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

I don't like her or anybody for that matter touching my things either. But problem is I dunno how to tell her that...