I WANT SOME WATER

Says my 8 year old cousin, eyes rolling up to the ceiling and with the most arrogant expression on his face that an eight-year-old can come up with. Is he talking to the maid, I wonder. I think his parents overheard him and now I'll have to watch him get killed.

Yes, his parents heard. They just sat there. The maid got him some water.

Later I asked his mother - how often does your maid get a day off? She doesn't, she replied. For the first six months you didn't give her a day off? No, there is no day off. Her contract does not provide for one. Anyway, even if I gave her a day off, where would she go?

I looked at this young woman, working her butt off on a Sunday looking after 3 extremely unruly kids (they're great, but there's no denying it) and I realised she must be the loneliest person on the planet. Maybe her contract will actually last the full 2 years (a personal record for my aunt) but she'll have no contact with her family or any friends during that time, unless she manages to strike up a conversation through the kitchen window with someone who cares.

I don't think I can fully understand how she feels, but I wonder how she can put up with so much shit. Watching her try to feed 3 running, playing, fighting children last night, all of whom treat her like a servant. I thought, wow she must really need that cash.

Well, at least she's not their pet lobster.

After several attempts at keeping goldfish, fighting fish and other small pets with sky high mortality rates, my auntie got it into her head to get them a small pet lobster. And they have to help her look after it, like change the water and feed it and stuff. Anyway, when I last saw that lobster, it was missing an eye, one pincer and maybe 2 spindley little legs. I think they took their duties too seriously and tried to bathe it.