Planning my trip

I was a little disappointed this morning to find out that the weather in Canberra is so cold at this time of year. It's meant to be summer there but I saw that the temperature's 11 degrees centigrade. And it's raining. :( Too bad the capital's not Sydney. Sydney's nice and sunny.

I'll be flying off on the 30th this weekend. And I've had to buy all sorts of stuff for my parents. It's like one whole bag is devoted to them. And I can only pack so much. We've got to change planes too, so I'm trying my very best to travel light, but how the hell do I do that when they keep calling me asking me to bring stuff? They're nuts, that's what.

Plus I am bringing the maid over there. My parents' maid just got her Australian visa. There was meant to be two maids going, but the other one didn't get a visa, and so I had to send her back. I bought her an Air Asia ticket for MYR 453, which is really cheap, and then she landed excess baggage charges of MYR 112 at the airport for being only 7 kg over the limit. Poor thing, of course I paid. I saw other ppl going back to Indonesia who had 5 - 7 bags with them, and in the end could only bring one! My maid only had 2 bags. This girl that was lining up in front of us had 5 bags I think, and then in the end she gave her employer 3 bags to take back while she checked in 2. I pity them cos they bought a whole load of stuff in Malaysia cos it's cheaper than buying it at home, and then finding that they can't afford to pay the excess baggage charges so they can't bring those things home with them anyway. What was the point of buying all those things? It's not like they can afford to DHL it all the way back to Medan or Jakarta. And I bet you their employer won't do it for them.

So I paid the MYR 112. Even though I gave her a bonus before she left. She spent a lot buying cute clothes for her children. I asked her what will she do back in Surabaya? Because her husband isn't allowing her to stay in KL and work as a nanny for my cousin. She said that she won't be able to get a job and so she'll just stay home and do nothing. It's kinda sad to hear all that because I know life is difficult for them there. Whereas in KL lower-income workers are working hard to save enough to feed their family for a month, in Indonesia, the lower-income group work hard just for one rice bowl. That's if you live in the city I guess, cos I would imagine in the villages you'd have your own little plot of land to plant vegetables. That's what I imagine, but I don't know if that's true. There are a lot of vegetables that my maids had never seen before coming to Malaysia. And they don't get to eat a lot of fish either.

Well I hope she does okay over there with her family.