babies and radiation

at noon today, i got an email from one of my staff that she's pregnant.
ok so the timing is a little sudden (i went to her wedding 1.5 month back!) but thats not even what shocks me.

apparently everyone else already know of her pregnancy because she was decked out in this little anti-radiation frock here that all mum-to-bes have to wear when they work around computers. its so powerful that a mobile phone under the frock would not work! i did a quick poll around the expat community in the office. no one have heard of this outside of China. did china invent this to protect their precious one child per family? hmm, if this is indeed necessary, i wonder how babies turn out in other countries.

mum was right after all.
some comfort are indeed worth paying for, especially when it's not much at all.
and so for the first time since i arrived here, i actually had someone mopping and ironing while i watch tv.

thanks to strong recommendations from kat and muimui, xiaohong turned up today (half hour late) in her funky short hair and swanky american accent. she kills me with her constant "yeah, yeah"s and "see you"s but i can see she really does take a lot of pride in her work when she rattles off her list of expat clients to me, and how she has her own pair of house slippers and her own mug in their homes. i duly christened the glass she was drinking from hers.

i passed on the keys to my apartment to her. with that, i gave up sole access to my sacred haven. maybe they are right. i need to learn to trust more.

as she gladly accepts my token of trust, she must have sensed my anxiety, of which she totally misread. "dont worry, just let me know when your boyfriend is staying over, i can not show up if you don't want me to (*wink wink*) OR i can just be very quiet - you two won't even know i'm here".

oh god. what have i got myself into?

the force has came and gone...