The Fence ...

I think when it comes to neighbours I've been cursed by some neighbourhood gods or something. I've posted my irritation before about the neighbour on my immediate left and now I'm gonna let you know of my irritation (well, it's the wife's irritation really, but what irritates her, irritates me!) about the neighbour on my immediate right. I seriously think I'm cursed when it come to me and neighbours. Before you even begin to think that maybe it's not the neighbours but maybe it's just my plain unfriendly attitude at home that's causing all my neighbours to rebel against me, just hear me out, k?

My wife gets up much earlier than me in the mornings to prepare the elder boys breakfast before he goes to school. Sometimes she'll also do the laundry at the same time (while I'm still happily snoozing away). So, one morning, she stomps up into the room and grunts in this extremely irritated sound,

"Arggghhhhhhh ......"

I'm jolted from my sleep and the first thing that runs through my mind was,

"oh, oh, what did I do now?"

I mean, I couldn't have done anything, I was still sleeping right, but you can never be too careful ... LOL! So I groggily ask her what's with the grunting and she says,

"I hate that woman, that stupid old woman!"

I give her this blur look (I was soundly asleep before this remember) and say,

"what old woman?"

She replies (in a single sentence with no full stops and comma's, she's still in this very irritated mood, you don't wanna be anywhere near her when she's like that ... hehehe)

"that woman next door the moment I open the gate to hang out the laundry she rushes out and hangs stuff on the fence depriving me of space and she does that everytime she hears me open the grill gate! I hate her, one of these days I'm gonna take all those things she hangs from the fence and throw them away!!!"

Ok, let me explain in more detail about the wife's rage. From that conversation it might look like a small thing but it really is not. I live in a double story terrace house and have neighbours on my right and left sides. This particular neighbour consists of the mother (the culprit in this story) and her 3 daughters. She has a son but he doesn't live with them. We have a fence on either side separating each house from the other (typical house formats here in Malaysia). And due to lack of proper place to dry the laundry (I'm not rich enough to own a dryer, k, besides, I need to save up for my DSLR camera fund!) we hang our laundry on this common fence to dry.

What happens is, my wife tells me that every morning, when she go out to hang the laundry, this woman, the moment she hears my wife opening the gate, she hurries out and starts to hang old dirty rags on the fence, thus depriving us valuable drying space. At first I though my wife was just exaggerating it a little. So one morning, I just experimented a little and I went out to pretend to dry clothes and true enough, the moment I turned the key in our grill gate, she came rushing out like the flash or something and started grabbing whatever old rags, towels and stuff and started quickly hanging them on the fence. I stood there in total shock with my mouth totally wide open like a hippo (I'm sure you can imagine a hippo's mouth when it's open right, no, no Adrian I wasn't insulting you ... LOL!) When she saw that it was me, she just quickly walked back into the house (she knows what kind of crazy lunatic I can be at times, I'll tell you all about that story one fine day ... hehehe)

That was seriously totally selfish of her! My wife told me that it happens everytime she does the laundry. I didn't know that fence belonged exclusively to her. Last time I checked it was a common fence! I mean, I can understand if she needs to dry her laundry too which she does, but what's with the dirty old rags? And it only happens when my wife is out there alone wanting to dry the clothes. It doesn't happen when I'm there with her. (maybe she's jealous of you honey cos all her daughters are not as gorgeous and beautiful as you are and still unmarried some more ... hehehe). Ok, ok, that was cruel :)

I'm seriously at a loss here as to what to do here. It's not like we love washing clothes and hanging it on the fence and depriving anyone of space but somethings just have to be done, like the laundry for instance. Why am I cursed with crazy neighbours? The one on the left has this thing about my mango tree leaves falling into his compound when it rains or when the wind blows (duh, I can't control the weather dude!) and the one on the right has this thing about fences. Siggghhhhh .....

Maybe it's just old age. Both these neighbours are well into their sixties and maybe as you grow older you become a little bit more loony, I sure hope not cos I'd hate to turn into one of those monsters when I grow older. My other neighbours are such nice people, the one directly opposite my house is a nice fellow who always waves at me, the one two doors is also a decent guy whom I always bump into when I go on my runs and always sends cookies and goodies my way during the Hari Raya celebrations (hope he sends some this year too ... hehehe). Do people really become a little weirder when they get older? I don't know, I seriously don't know. Or is it just the way they were brought up? Or maybe it's just these two neighbours. I know a lot of other people who are so nice and considerate that it boggles my mind how some people can be the exact opposite.

You guys have this kind of problems too? Tell me about it cos then at least I won't feel like the odd one out here ... hehehe ... Until I lose my temper and throw all those rags away honey, you're just going to have to be so much quicker than her when you need that fence ... LOL!