My neighbourhood

I've lived in this neighbourhood all my life, all 18 years of it, and yet I still do not know what I think of it. It is convenient: 5 mins walk from bus interchange and MRT station, neighbourhood schools all around, 2 wet markets nearby, coffee shops, provision shops, fruit stalls, pet shop, foot and full-body massage shop, physician, clinics, bubble tea shop, a tailor, hairdressers, and a mini-market downstairs. Sounds pretty good? Yes… except for one thing.

My neighbourhood is kind of noisy. But exciting all the same. Many things happen around here, be it thefts, suicides, drunken fights,

I was having lunch when I heard a commotion coming from next door. Not surprising, really. Once every few days they fight. But it’s been kind of frequent; their last fight was only last night. Next door lives a married couple and their 4 year old kid. There is a big age gap between the couple, I think maybe 15 years, even more than me and my baby. She’s from China. He couldn’t get himself a wife so he flew there for one. And you know China women are… Some are okay, like the China housewife living an apartment away, but some are… you wouldn’t want to pick a fight with them. She’s younger than my baby, around 2 to 3 years younger, and her husband’s 40 plus, going on 50. He’s around the same age as her step-mother, you know (There was once the China step-mother came over to be with her grandson, the China woman was actually worried about her husband hitting on her. >.<). I believe they don’t have much in common, except that they share a child and a flat and are legally bond to each other.

Anyway, so the fight started with some very loud yelling. The woman being the loudest. She’s always the loudest. She’s loud. The man started shouting back. Then things were being thrown around. And some banging of furniture. Then a kid crying and, “Mummy… Daddy…” My ma went to the door to listen properly to what they were fighting about. Came and told me it was about the husband reaching home earlier and not boiling the water and washing the dishes and stuff. Things about his Laziness (Last night’s was about the wife talking to the husband and the husband not answering her, he was busy watching telly. The funny part was when the wife said to the husband, “你siaow啊!”, the kid went “Siaow啊!”).

The kid was always the innocent party of the fights. When the mother got tired of yelling at her husband she yelled at the kid instead. The mother treats the kid well of course, but there are bad times, too. She scolds and hits him quite a lot. But the endearing part of it all are the moments when he says to his mother, “Mummy, 我爱你.” (Yes, he says them loud enough, even I can hear from next door.) There are times when the mother is busy, she wouldn’t answer him. And the kid would repeat his declaration again, and receive a “Yes, Darling, I love you, too.”

I can write a book on the family next door. I bet I can write a whole series of books about this neighbourhood.