To my girl pals in Manila! You ladies are so lucky! It’s not a question of if you have one…it’s a question of how many do you have? Or is it just the way it is?
PET ALERT: Our cat leaves paw prints on my hardwood floor and I am forever contemplating calling 9-whateverhousekeeper- line in the yellow book to address the paw evidence. Until I found out that it cost $20/hour - WHAT? That’s the price of one Clinique face powder!
MEMORY LANE:
One of the luxuries of living in Asia that I miss so much is having my own personal maid. Back then, I was enjoying the life of a make believe , Paris - wanna-be Hilton world where my clothes were forever color coded, shoes and bags arranged by occasion, cosmetics aligned immaculately like you were HHWW (holding hands while walking) at Macy’s, weekly hand and foot massage, PLUS having a personal operator that screens the house phone 24/7. All these benefits for the price of $150/ month! Yes..What a life…
DIFFERENT ADOBO WORLD:
Growing up , the only chore expected of me was to study. Once I started working, my work becomes my chore. So you can imagine how I struggled once I relocated in the US as I had no idea then on how to operate any household item like a standard washing machine or even how to turn on a dish washer.
Sad to say, I am embarrass to admit that I was useless during the first couple of months. I was so helpless I have to call hubby every time I need something. I think I burned the countertop in our oven too ..not sure (Really, it’s not cute at all)
JUST FOR KICKS:
Let's use my tiny excel formatted brain and compute the cost difference :
At 30 days X 15 hrs/ day = 450 hrs/ month x $20/hr = $900/mo. versus $150/mo. NO WAY! What do you do if you choose to keep your money in wallet in exchange for a moment of convenience? No questions ask! Tiger Woods will love this -JUST DO IT!
DIFFERENT ADOBO GIRL:
I missed the life…so you my friends , do enjoy those small luxuries as scrubbing bathroom walls, vacuuming the carpet and doing laundry is not even under the category “ household chore” in my radar but more like a “ therapeutic outlet” for me nowadays. Imagine the calories you will lose for scrubbing tiles? Don’t get me wrong…I am not always a happy camper but I find it very easy! In fact, I can’t imagine the thought of a stranger rummaging through my personal belongings and telling me how filthy I am - Yikes! The good news - Technology helps ! (now it makes me wonder why do we own an industrial professional steamer)- All good!
MY SIMPLE LIFE nowadays is not simple at all. I call it “The simple real world”. .. and I love it… We wake up, we work, we clean our dishes, wash our laundry, throw our trash, clean the toilets - -and I am happy to say ...ITS JUST THE WAY IT IS!









