Lovely as in the rule "love thy neighbor" lol.
I moved into my own little cave in 2008 (buying it the previous year). I had been renting for roughly 8 years before finally finding a place I thought would be suitable and affordable. Its small, but I can walk to banks, supermarket , Watsons and a nifty 24hour KFC (that ones a bonus ;) ) Its a few minutes away from my school and the hospital where hubby used to work. On emergencies, my daughter will be able to walk home from school.
The neighborhood is a typical Sandakan neighborhood, a bit dirty as we are so near the supermarket and all these PATIs prefer throwing sampah in the drain rather than in a garbage bin. One neighbor on our right used to bring his trampy girlfriend home after school when his folks were out working and became a bit defensive when I tegur him. Luckily the entire family moved out before I managed to invite his mum over for tea for some chit chat (the son of a bitch threw garbage, puntung rokok and chewing gum into my house to show his semangat kejiranan). What sort of irks me is the fact that the family was ... gosh...Muslim Malays. I sure as hell hope they are Muslim. It would be ashame to wear such pretty hijabs and jubah but not be practicing...kan?
The left neighbor is a darling. Mary,Sino-Kadazan housewife and her husband who owns a small business. They have 4 wonderful kids, and this time I'm not being sarcastic !! The kids help around the house, especially on weekends and are super respectful to neighbors. So soft spoken and they study hard in school, even the son... Surprisingly, during Raya, they are the ones that will come over. The Malay neighbors are way to busy for that sort of thing, and apparently... I am not of their class for them to bother about me.
Another colourful personality on my street is this quiet lady who lives with 3 dogs in a house all cemented up. She takes her dogs out every evening at around 5 pm ao that they can relieve themselves...on a spot of grass next to my driveway which I had planned to plant some stuff. Sneaky lil' ol lady used to see if no one is watching, but if I am out gardening she stays away pulak. Well, my husband had that poor patch of grass cemented soon enough after that, and I never had to go on 5pm sentry duty after that.
The most stand out characters come from a family that resides about 4 houses away from ours. We call them orang kampung. Why.... because I believe an entire kampung lives in that small 3 room house. They just moved in less than 2 years ago. There are rows and rows of laundry on the front porch everyday and their kids play in the middle of the street even after 9pm. There are a couple of motorcyles that love to tarik minyak infront of my house around the same time my kids are about to sleep, and the village dangdut queen lives there too. Have you ever heard a dangdut song? The singer usually buat suara as manja as possible, but its tolerable when her voice is OK. So, thats the problem with the dangdut queen. Her voice is KO but she sings it on high volume AS IF we find her singing very entertaining.
I havent spoken to them before...they are the most seclusive family on the block, except for the many kids that live there. (OMG... do u think theres any adults?) Mary lost 2 handphones a couple of weeks ago. She was in the kitchen and had left the gate and door open (FYI, thats a normal thing here). Me, being from KL and having a fair share of nasty experinces with crooks in Puchong (also, thanks to my tad bit over-cautious hubby) always lock our grills at least. The only thing Ive noticed gone missing from our house is a couple of new flipflops we put outside the door. The thief didint take our old sandals or shoes luckily, but I started putting my HushPuppy pumps and the kids school shoes inside lately, just incase.
Mary mentioned that the other neighbors had been experiencing similar problems. Things go missing, and it happens in dogless houses. One neighbor had made accusations towards a little boy that lives in the "orang kampung' house. The kid is only 12 and is rumoured to have theft problems in his school. As annoyed as I was with that family, my heart sort of stopped a bit because Nadia is 12 too.
Rather than start a confrontation, I told them it wasn't a good idea to jump at conclusions due to a hunch. We need proof, preferbably a witness. So, the ladies have agreed to start locking their grills (I told them about the crazy KL thugs that selamba masuk rumah org time tgok tv, and they got the messege). Our safety and our property safety should be our own responsibility. Bukan belasah budak darjah 6, yg tak tentu lagi betul dia buat ke tidak....
Overall, this is still an OK place. I do have good friendly neighbors, and very greatful for it too.
