Any Other Matters | Dr Donna Chow

The Three Muttsketeers Animated Show

15/03/2017 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

Sitting (L-R): Heidi, Shirley, Donna. Standing (L-R): Weijia, Elssa

When I first talked about producing a short animation show for The Three Muttsketeers to a friend, she thought I was joking. I thought I should do something to create publicity for my book, and Youtube is one good platform to create awareness as young kids are attracted to moving visuals more than anything else. "Who still read books nowadays?" Came one reply from the same well meaning lady friend. "Look at all these bookstores out there! They are not doing well. In fact, many (with the exception of bookstores which major in textbooks and assessment books) are closing down." Without a Click to read more

10 common mistakes made by first time maid employers

16/01/2017 by Dr Donna Chow 3 Comments

A broken ornament caused by a careless helper

Not too long ago, I shared my "10 commandments on hiring a maid" on facebook and it generated quite a lot of feedback from both supporters and naysayers. Majority - I would say, supported my views; while a minority claimed that the list was too harsh. After gathering feedback on these 10 commandments, I decided to rewrite these rules in more palatable terms and renamed it as "10 common mistakes made by first time maid employers". This time I am posting it on my blog so that it is much easier to share and used for future reference. I have gained much experience from hiring three domestic Click to read more

Christmas Giveaway – NTUC vouchers and Children’s Book

30/11/2016 by Dr Donna Chow 3 Comments

After many months of preparation and hard work, my first children's book titled "The Three Muttsketeers" is ready for the shelves! It is not without trepidation as I venture into this book project with a lot of naysayers telling me that self publishing is not an easy task. I have forwarded my manuscripts to countless illustrators and publishers, with many of them turning their heads away. It has been a difficult journey for a first-time children's book author like me. This is a tale which revolves around the friendship of three dogs - the protagonist being my pet dog "Ah Bee". In an Click to read more

Happy without a maid

08/10/2016 by Dr Donna Chow 6 Comments

Not too long ago, I wrote a post on surviving 25 days without a domestic helper. Little would I have known that barely 2 months after the arrival of my third domestic helper, I would be without a maid again. Perhaps I have exceedingly high expectations of the roles and duties of a domestic helper. I am not able to tolerate helpers who do not have basic common sense, have attitude issues and talked back at their employer. Unfortunately, my third helper has all of these attributes. The final straw came when I discovered her using a rusty brush to scrub the toilet bowls - not one of them, Click to read more

Household items you should store away from fresh domestic helpers

04/09/2016 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

A hot iron can do wonders, it can also do much damage

The house is a place with many items, if not used correctly, may cause much damage. With young children and domestic helpers around, they may get hold of these items and destroy your stuff unintentionally or pose a hazard to you and others. It is commonly understood that you should keep washing detergent, sharp tools and the medicine cabinet out of reach of young children. So what are some common household items you should store away from domestic helpers - especially fresh ones with no working experience? I have round up a few on my list which you may like to keep away from the prying hands Click to read more

A dreadful mistake

23/08/2016 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

A few nights ago, I made a dreadful mistake. I was capturing a photo for my carousell ad and after uploaded the photo, I decided to delete it to "save space" on my handphone. Little did I know that when I click the button "delete", I deleted the entire camera album. It all happened in a matter of seconds and before I knew it, it was gone. All gone! I turned frantic. How could I have make such a silly mistake? I had daily backups with Google photos - but there was a cap on 10-15 Gb, I didn't backup in full resolution. I recalled a program called Recuva on my desktop - this works very well to Click to read more

Surviving 25 maid free days

13/06/2016 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

Recently, I sent my Indonesian helper back to her home country. So we are left with all the household chores to ourselves for 25 days until the next one arrives. The fear of not being able to cope with everything is very real - especially when we have a lived-in domestic helper for the past 1 year since the arrival of our baby. Read this recent ST Article on Indonesia plans to stop sending live in maids abroad. Hubby asked, "Why not hire a part time cleaner to do the work for the next 3 weeks?" Yes, this consideration did occur to me but there were a few issues for this option. One of the Click to read more

Why I ditch blogger for wordpress

03/06/2016 by Dr Donna Chow Leave a Comment

I have shifted home this month! It is not a physical house, but to redirect my domain name from blogger to wordpress. And it takes a lot of work to do it on my own. First, I need to purchase my hosting service, second to download wordpress and third to work on the template from scratch. You may not see a lot of physical changes from the old blogger website that I used to have but to me now, everything works like a charm. This is money well spent! Here are the reasons why I think moving on to wordpress makes more sense. 1 - Blogger gives me headache Literally. Yes. Everytime I log onto Click to read more