And I thought I was past the 'smells make me sick' phase...

I was so happy with the passing of the first trimester, as I could welcome food back into my life (without throwing up at the smell).

Well...how wrong was I??

We came home this afternoon and were greeted by the smell of something seriously rotten throughout our home. Seriously, P noticed it first, and was disgusted by it. He immediately (and correctly) blamed Malou, and then it fell to me (as the 'ma'am') to 'speak to her' about it.

So here's the conversation:

Me: Malou, do you smell something?
Malou: Smell? You smell something ma'am?
Me: Yes, there is a very strong smell here. Did you cook something while we were out?
Malou: No. You smell something bad ma'am?
Me: Yes. Very bad. You didn't have any food while we were out?
Malou: Yes ma'am. You can smell it?
Me: Yes Malou. It's very strong. The whole house smells like it.
Malou: Oh. I just eat dried fish. The smell is very strong...?
Me: Yes Malou. Next time please turn on the fan and close the kitchen door. That's what we do whenever we cook food that smells strong.

Apparently, this extremely malodorous food was dried fish (apologies to any of my friends who enjoy this food...no offence intended but I'm sure you will agree...it isn't the most pleasant smelling food on the face of the earth). If you've ever smelled Chinese fish sauce and find the smell repugnant, multiply the smell by 12 and that's what our house smelled like. Otherwise, substitute in something you find extremely off-putting scent-wise, multiply it, and there you go.

This was sent to her from her mom in the Philippines, carried over in her friend's luggage (where I'm sure the environment was temperature controlled!) and then hand-delivered here, where it has likely been stored in her closet (in a room where often, the temperature often soars high above the 30's--my direct orders to keep the a/c to 27 are often ignored). So, I also had a word with her about how little interest I have in repeating the 'food poisoning incident' of last week (although, seriously, I cannot imagine that even listeria would want to live on that fish!!).

After much a/c, kitchen fan on high and then a spritz of odour neutralizer spray (which I hate to use...just more chemicals in the house) the house was just getting back to good.

That's when P decided it was time to heat up his goat/lamb curry...