Ayi, from Chinese, domestic help, cleaner, housekeeper.

Seeming not an important person, but that's not true.

A bit of an introduction, for three years in Harbin I lived, because I had no choice, in a room with an attached bathroom, in a building full of foreigners. It wasn't all bad, but sometimes annoying, when, for instance, a crazy halfwit of a colleague was doing his laundry at two in the morning, or when people were coming back from 'clubbing' at four a.m. and had trouble finding their rooms, or when there were fights.
And most of all, it was annoying, because all the 'functionaries' had access to my private space whenever they wanted - the doorman, the cleaners, the maintenance people.
Just one example, once I was ill, after almost recovering, when I was already back to work, I came back from class in my room I found, sitting on my bed or in the armchair: the cleaner, the school nurse, and our translator/helper. When I asked what is going on he said that the nurse is in a hurry to go home, and they wanted to deal with it (giving me the last round of medicine) as fast as possible.

Because of all that when I moved to Shanghai I absolutely refused even considering the idea of sharing, renting a big, nicely furnished apartment with colleagues, and also getting an ayi.

But now, when in the new job I am way busier than before, and I have to go to work all dressed up, and I hate ironing, I decided I can suffer having some help.

So I have an ayi, a quite nice Mrs. Chen. She comes once a week, at the beginning we had an argument relating to her salary, because she claimed that I don't pay enough, i.e. the amount of money we agreed on, for two hours a week, is not enough, but when I pointed out that this is more /hour than the regular amount, and that once I happened to leave at half nine and come back at half eleven, and in these two hours she managed to come and go and apparently two hours were enough, since then there are no more hassles.
Also, sometimes I leave her a little extra, and also during the Chinese New Year she got a nice gift, since then I have no problems.

Not this kind of problems, but there are other.

Mrs. Chen, like all other ayis (I know, after consulting with friends) has her own ideas as to what should be where in an apartment, and what her duties exactly are.
Instructions, verbal or written, don't really help, I can put everything back to where I want it, it's 100 percent guaranteed that the following Monday everything will be where she wants it.
Shoes, the alarm clock, books, the trash-bin, tea mugs in the kitchen, everything levitates back to their 'proper' places.

Once I had the idea of sellotaping the trash-bin to the floor, to show where I want it, but I gave it up.

A friend of mine fought with his ayi for half a year to have his books where he wanted, and arranged the way he wanted. Another one admitted once, that he's not wearing any underwear because he couldn't find any (clean and ironed) because his ayi had her own idea of where to put it.
I had a problem once, when I could not find my cellphone, because Mrs. Chen stored it somewhere secret.

At the beginning I had another problem with Mrs. Chen, because she insisted to do a few jobs, that were on the 'no-no' list - making my bed and washing my dirty socks (kinda creepy for her to deal that deep in my 'personal' stuff) - she should stay away from these two jobs.
I managed to dissuade her from washing my clothes quite fast, but with the bed, finally, after thee months, I had to write her a job description letter, which listed what I wanted, and did not want, her to do, only after that she stopped.
(I don't make my bed, I don't see the point)

What exactly she does on these Monday mornings, it's hard to say. Perhaps she cooks for herself, perhaps takes naps in my bed (as happened to someone I used to know), perhaps does her own laundry, perhaps showers.

But an ayi has to be trusted, she has the keys to the apartment, so it's better to be at peaceful terms. This is perhaps not related, I'm not throwing wilds accusations here, but a few years ago some guy I used to know got whacked on the head by a thief, in his own bedroom, the police said the thief walked in the front door, the lock wasn't tampered with, so he had to have a key.

As for the terror, much as I am happy with Mrs. Chen, and I am actually amazed I resisted having an ayi for five years, I still have to 'sanitise' my apartment every Monday morning, before she comes.
Hide 'delicate' documents, like my payslips, my passport, cash, the credit card (can't really say anything bad, as I do leave cash lying around, and she never even touches it, but it's better to be vigilant).
Make the bed (if I don't do it, she will), straighten up shoes, or she will do it (it would feel a bit silly if she did, but see the comment about the bed)
(I live alone, I have more important things to think about than an anally clean and organised apartment)
My friends report having to take food scraps to the bin outside the building, if a colleague leaves, for instance, a half-eaten burger in the trash, this burger will materialise in the fridge again.
Same happens with old socks, another friend's ayi insisted on mending - rather than throwing away - some old socks.
The answering machine is plugged off every time a friend comes back home, because it's wasteful to keep it on - that the friend is a journalist and depends on being reachable at any time, apparently is not important.
The windows in the apartment of my friend are always open, regardless of the weather or the season, because fresh (haha, in Shanghai, fresh...) air is needed...

Terror: Intense, overpowering fear.
1.One that instils intense fear
2.The ability to instil intense fear
3.Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.
4.Informal. An annoying or intolerable pest

03.2008