This morning Mom messaged me, telling me that today is my birthday according to Lunar/Chinese Calender. I didn’t ask how old I am, but my guess is I must be around 30 or 31. She tells me that because I was born few days before Chinese New Year, I am a dragon tail, so the way they count my age is very complicated, but I reckon it’s always +2 (she has been saying that I’m almost thirty since I reached my 25th). At least I’m not dragon butt, unlike those who were born in September – January are all butts! :)
(Updated: Hey, Mom just answered me that I only reached full 29. Tumben! Hehehhehe, I think she knows that 30 is a scary number and there’s a slight possibility that I might become murderous. Huhahahhaha… :)
Yesterday there was a continuous fire alarm ringing on (?) my block, it had started since the time I went home and lasted for one-two hours more, while there was no fire in sight. Somebody must had activated it, accidentally or not. The sound made me wanted to rip my hair off. Argggghhhhh…
A while back, the elevators were being weird; they made GRRRRIIIIIIIIIINGG sound every five minutes. Five minutes!
It annoys me the same way if I happen to pass by kaki lima selling alarm clocks. Why the heck they need to make the alarm clocks ring? Don’t we get the idea of what they are selling? We don’t see anything in lingerie or condom stall…
Anyway, even when I already closed all windows, I still could hear the fire alarm clearly. That’s one of the thousands consequences living in a housing block.
Just yesterday, my colleagues were complaining about their neighbors.
One neighbor (from upper floor!) parked their bicycles in front of my colleague’s front door; one said a neighbor’s car blocked their access to their house. A while back my friend said his neighbor below him complained about the noise his family made when they were walking, the neighbor even got even by knocking their broom to the ceiling (anyone familiar with similar Friend’s episode?).
Everyone has bad neighbor story, lucky for me, my neighbor are peaceful, only that there is an unit I have to walk pass everyday and they obstruct the common corridor with bicycles, wheelchair, laundry, at least three dozens of shoes and Power Ride! An exercise machine, unbelievable. But out of that, they are nice although (or because) we keep minimum contact. My immediate neighbor is nice too, only that their middle aged son always looks curiously into my unit every time he passes, while his wife and father are the most polite people.
Living in high building doesn’t mean we are safe from thieves. There was a granny being caught because she used a bamboo pole and sticky tape to reach wallets or valuables from window, there are always some Spiderman willing to climb high, and in many cases, while police raids a place known to host illegal immigrants, those immigrants climb out from window and enter the units below or above them to hide. It’s that easy.
And we are not safe from birds also, birds have wings and they can fly. Unfortunately in Singapore, they don’t have migrating birds, the birds here are quite bad in navigation, sometimes they fly through the window. Lucky, it’s not often.
Another thing, dropping and dripping. When I look at the block in front of mine, I can see many things. Towel, skirt, bra, shoes that fell helplessly, landed on the ledge and became difficult to retrieve. It happens to us too, we had to say goodbye to Hubby’s pants clinging on the protruding floor slab and hunted Mom’s skirt that fell to the ground.
Then, laundry’s dripping from units above. The dropping things can also lead to accident, injuries and death. People put ridiculous and dangerous things on their windows or ledges; flower and plants with their pots, brooms, mops, birdcages (!), shopping trolley (!), and even falling windows. When the government built the housings, they saved money by using aluminum pivots. After years, the corrosion took over and windows started to fall. Because of that, they required every household to change their window pivots into stainless steel. We have 180 pivots in our unit alone, and a set of casement window, which they advised to change to sliding. The costs, of course we are the one who pay. Kupret.
Other than things that fall, humans also fall. That’s the favorite way to do suicide here, and maybe because everywhere we glance, there are high-rise buildings. Not a far case, my next door colleague jumped from his block three years ago, something that left us sadden and wondered, until now. Then, falling maids. The number of maids fell down when they wanted to clean the window or hang laundry was so surprising until Indonesian government put out a law which prohibit Indonesia maid from working too close to the window with high risk of falling.
One day, I went home from work, and saw few polices and reporters at my block. I thought they were having movie shoot, but I was scared there was something more. I looked around afraid of what I would see and lucky I didn’t see anything. The next day, in newspaper, a girl was caught for disposing her newborn baby in plastic bag and throwing it down the block. She stayed in the unit right below me.
Back then, every time our friend came to our house, he always insisted on walking under roof or stayed near to the wall. He said who knows what might fall from above. I found it’s funny, but now, I do the same.
Other than bad things, living in the block makes you near to your neighbors. I can see them scratching their butts or picking their noses (for the uncle who stays in front of my kitchen window), hearing them singing karaoke badly (somewhere but the sound echoes every where) or nicely from a tenor wannabe (the voice comes from bathroom two stories below), but I’m not as lucky (or unlucky) as my friend who saw erotic shows not suitable for children. I know when my upper neighbor flush their toilet, because their 6 inches pipes with the duck neck etc are displayed in my toilet, where mine is displayed below. This type of setting encourages neighbor relationships. My other colleagues had to fork out 50% of the repair cost when her upper neighbor’s bathroom floor was leaked out of innocence.
Living high also make life more costly. I was once eyeing a thing but because it couldn’t fit into the lift, I was told that I need to pay 300 bucks more for the deliveryman to carry it up my block, which costs more that the thing itself. Lucky I asked first, and cancelled it without a doubt. When we moved house, we need to pay more because our previous block was not located in the same floor with the lift landing.
And technical fault can cause pain in the ass for elderly, when the lifts were broken etc, they would have to climb 12 storeys, and for extreme, 25 storeys like my friend’s block.
Whew… and we don’t have yard. When my nephew was here, we bought him a water gun. Then my brother, out of idea, gave him a small bucket and asked him to spray to the bucket. So he sat there in the front door spraying water gun into the small bucket. It was hilarious and pathetic. There is no place to keep dogs, plants, and sometimes people only provide living room for their maid to sleep. No privacy and as long as the employer is up, the maid would not be able to rest. When our hamsters and rabbit died, we had to sneak out to the common park (actually some patches of green) to bury them; we dug the hole with spoon. Yeah yeah, it was sad rainy days. One time, we put the hamster in the box and put in between a very dense shrub of flowers. On the news, we heard rubbish bin man said they often found dead dogs and cats in the rubbish shaft.
Since last month, there is a new announcement pasted in the lift lobby, together of a picture of man taking a piss inside the lift. The picture angle is from the top behind, in case you ask. Why the hell a person wants to pee in the lift? Pervert. Back then, I don’t believe this fact until one day when I visited an old housing block and saw words written above the lift’s door. It’s prohibited by law to pee in the lift. This lift is equipped with urine detector. Ah? But that’s a fact and now we have one of those bastards in my block! But lucky, I haven’t seen or smelt things related to that, all that I’ve seen in the lift are rubbishes.
Talking about rubbish, you can find tons of them under the mail box. We always have mails everyday. Property agents and advertisement contribute 99% of my mail box, everyday. We need to dig through a pile of those crap to find.. our bills. Letter with funky envelopes from friends, those are history. Not enough by scamming the mailbox, they put their brochure in the front door. Everyday there are at least two or three paper sticking out from door’s cracks.
Hey, why is it sounds more and more terrible living here? Back then, I promised my friend (Hope you had forgotten) that I would contribute an article about housing here to a tabloid she was running. But I didn’t fulfill my promise because I was afraid that instead of showing the architecture side, it would sound more like a telenovela. I can make this even longer, but I find myself getting more and more desperate writing this. Boo hoo.
By the way, of course it’s not that bad, the ones above was just the sum of all feels. :)
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The first and greatest commandment is,
Don't let them scare you.
-- Elmer Davis
Hey, reckless mind, don't throw away your playful beginnings.
-- Dave Matthews Band
If both of us thought alike, one of us would not be necessary.
-– Unknown
Sometimes I wake up grumpy. Other times I let her sleep.
-- Unknown
I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer...
-- Homer Simpson
