neighbours – Eris Goes To

Ever since I can remember, my family and I have been dogged by neighbour problems. It doesn’t matter where we move to, there will always be one (either on the left or the right, since most Malaysian homes are terrace houses) that drives us up the wall. Since we live for tea, here are my tales of nightmare neighbours: there’s actually so much to tell I’m splitting this up into several parts lol.

Enjoy!

HOUSE A (1994- 1997, 2000 – 2003)

My neighbours on the right were hawkers.

Nothing against hawkers, but these were just nasty, uncivilised people. They sold noodles at a food court in SS2, and would come back late at night with huge pots of soup and leftovers in their car. To clean up, they used newspapers – but guess where they threw their rubbish? Yes, instead of throwing it into their own bin, they’d chuck it over to our side. And they didn’t even bother throwing it inside the bin; we’d just wake up to a pile of greasy, oily newspapers on our patch of grass.

Course, if it was once or twice, we wouldn’t have made a fuss, but they did this REPEATEDLY. My parents caught them in the act once and confronted them, and they were unremorseful and defiant. I guess you really can’t argue with stupid: they’ll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

We had no problems with our other neighbour, until they moved out and a new family came in.

These new neighbours had huge parties at least twice a year; erecting canopies outside their home that spilled over to adjacent houses, blocking off the entire road, and playing loud disco music that could be heard from the opposite end of the street – imagine living right next to them. And they’d often blast away past midnight! (I think this one is relatable to many Malaysians – there seems to be at least one such hooligan in every neighbourhood).

The nuisance extended beyond festivals and celebrations: there were a couple of kids in the family and they’d throw stuff onto our roof for the heck of it. One time, they played with glass bottles and broke them, scattering glass shards all over the common area outside our homes. They also had a dog, and since their house was dirty af, the dog had lots of fleas and ticks, which would crawl over to our house. They were everywhere: once we found a whole bunch clustered on the wall outside. I’ve had trypophobia ever since.

So there we were sandwiched between two unpleasant neighbours. But if we were hoping for a reprieve, there was none : even the neighbour behind our house was problematic! They often threw garbage into the five-foot alleyway and would burn the pile in the evening. When confronted, the reply was a loud, “You scared I burn down your house ah?”

By 2003, my parents saved up enough to buy a new house in another neighbourhood. We were overjoyed to finally be rid of these crazy neighbours.

Or so we thought…

Stay tuned for Vol.2 !

PS: What are your nightmare neighbour tales? Share them with me in the comments!

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7. A Neighbour

I’ve had terrible luck with neighbours, but my current ones are by far the worst. They’ve moved in for half a year now, and in that span of time have:

Constantly thrown garbage into the drain, causing blockage
Parked their vehicles in front of our home, blocking our driveway. Also did so with other neighbours, and when requested to remove their vehicles, retorted with “tak boleh kah?” (what, so I can’t?) in a rude manner
have threatened to hit my mother with a brick after she told them to remove the bricks which they left in front of our house after a massive wedding party (their tents were expanded to the front of our house, and two adjoining houses, blocking the entire road for 3 nights.) Following the incident, we lodged a police report for safety.
have blasted music from their ugly, souped up cars such that the entire neighbourhood hears it, late at night.

Last night after midnight, they were setting off fireworks to celebrate some one’s birthday. Now fireworks are banned in Malaysia, but people usually turn a blind eye when it comes to festivals like Deepavali, Chinese New Year or Hari Raya.

Deepavali is long over, and it disturbs the neighbourhood peace, especially since these aren’t small crackers but the large, booming ones. Of course they don’t care if there are babies or the elderly sleeping, because if they don’t sleep, no one else can apparently. You will forgive me for wishing that one explodes in their hand while they’re setting them off.

Since the threatening-to-hit-my-mom incident, we’ve installed CCTVs. The bad behaviour is not limited to when people are around, but also amongst themselves. The adult men of the household pee on the front porch (why they do this I have no idea, do they not have toilets in the house?) and the children, following this stellar example, pee at the grass separating the front of our homes.

There’s only one word for these people: a public menace.

Do they own the house? No. They’re renting it, and from the neighbourhood gossip, have been owing the owners several months in rental. (But the owner is probably too scared to kick them out, since they seem to be gangsters). They also recently bought a large screen LCD TV.

What’s your neighbour from hell story?

Tag: neighbours

Nightmare Neighbours Vol.1

30-Day Writing Challenge : Day 7 – A Neighbour