Neighbours

Did I ever tell you about our neighbours?

Well, I should give you just the briefest insight as it is all rather interesting what the pond life gets up to.

First, there is the mistress opposite who had an affair with the next door neighbour's husband. The wife left and the house remains empty. The husband stays occasionally with the mistress. She also has some Malaysian oldie who gives her money and stays now and then. She is nothing to look at, has a tattoo on her shoulder and has ignored us from day one, even though our gates face each other. There are a couple of kids in the house too, including a tiny girl named Ching Ching who Oi likes.

Opposite her is the Cat Lady. An old woman who is soon to relocate to Bangkok. Her daughter dumped her handicapped daughter on her. That's her own grand daughter. The poor girl never sees the light of day. You can hear her screaming and crying normally once a day. Grandma also has 20 - 30 cats which shit all over the road and in everyone else's gardens. So, she ain't so popular. Of course, Thai people don't know about spading animals, or won't pay, so two cats quickly escalated into a couple of dozen. When word got out she was moving to Bangers, folks were wondering what would happen to our feline friends. Well, Oi just told me, which in turn prompted me to fill you guys in on the juice. A few days ago, she took the cats to the forest up the road and turned them loose. Poor, little mites. I hope they survive. Though Gran will soon be gone, she has now earned the infamous title of Cat Murderer.

Next to her, and opposite us (we are on a corner) was originally vacant, but some country bumpkins moved in about a month after us. These folks are okay, but they brought their Thai country ways with them. They knocked half the house down and built a car workshop on the side of it. Then they installed a hydraulic car lift. At any time of day there are about three or four cars parked in the street. They used to park up our cul-de-sac looking into our back garden. I didn't like this so went out with the baby and stared at him until he moved the offending vehicle. Engines and crap Thai music blare out until ten each night. Very luckily, our garden, bedroom and rest area are all at the rear so we don't hear anything. I know Gran was furious and Oi heard her openly slagging them off to another neighbour. Also, one of the first things the country bumpkins did to alleviate the cat shit problem was to by a dog. A real sweetie named Pookie. Sort of Border Collie cross German Shepard. Of course, Pookie is treated like shit but is friendly nonetheless.

Next to them on the other side is a one time friend of the bumpkins. A nurse and her husband. He is a git. Pristine polo shirts and crap haircut. He thinks he is the bees knees with his two cars; a white, never dirty 4x4 and some Japanese company car. They are always working and can only usually be seen at about nine at night. They are normally on some weekend away break every Saturday and Sunday. They have a little girl and baby boy.Every time I see him he is reversing one of the cars out off of his forecourt. One time his lot invaded our garden too poke around and see what we had been up to. I could hear Mr. Perfect and his merry crew joking and laughing and wandering about the place. Oi said later they came to have a look. She said they didn't appear to be very sincere.

Next to us on the other side is the one I like most. An old woman and her litter of a family. She is a nuts and bolts girl and seems as sound as a pound. Their weakness if that they have four dogs locked into their garden. It used to be five dogs but one night I heard this loud digging noise. I quizzed Oi. A couple of days later she told me that one dog had been chained up and the other four hounds and attacked it and killed it. Late at night, when the sons had come back from work, they buries it.

The last house is the doctor's. I only see them from afar. They live in the Forbidden City. You can see it in some photos. Stinking rich. I asked Oi if she thought it right that these folks should get so rich off of people being sick.

Someone commented on ThaiVisa that Thai people were incredibly tolerant of each other, but also incredibly inconsiderate of each other. I find this to be true.